Multifunction 3D printer

[franco malgarini]

http://www.instructables.com/id/ROBOTIC-ARM-Arduino-Controlled/?ALLSTEPS







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[Pirate88179]

Perhaps if the goal is to build a 3d printer that can also do milling and drilling...then a bench top milling machine might be converted?
Stepping motors driving the x,y, and z axis and perhaps an adapter to handle the 3d printing nozzle on the z axis shaft?

This way, you already have the strong base and do not have to re-invent stronger axis movement rails.

Just a thought...to me, this seems much easier and cheaper.

Bill

[memoryman]

pirate, it depends on the intended market.
I visualize a travelling column machine, capable of mild steel milling; linear feedback on all axes; selling for $4k-$10k.

[lancaIV]

Fraunhofer-Institute "Lasercav" http://publica.fraunhofer.de/keywords/LASERCAV and let it translated
http://www.deutsches-museum.de/sammlungen/maschinen/werkzeugmaschinen/nc-technik/laser-licht/laser-bearbeitungszentrum/
"open source"-Technology

and here http://www.overunity.de/54/rapid-prototyping-hardware/#.VOHDVyzAuTk
for some pages there is now the need from search by the the archive.org  https://archive.org/    wayback machine

Alternatively to laser https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0wlWQWAnqE

[TinselKoala]

Perhaps if the goal is to build a 3d printer that can also do milling and drilling...then a bench top milling machine might be converted?
Stepping motors driving the x,y, and z axis and perhaps an adapter to handle the 3d printing nozzle on the z axis shaft?

This way, you already have the strong base and do not have to re-invent stronger axis movement rails.

Just a thought...to me, this seems much easier and cheaper.

Bill

Sure! You can already buy Sherline CNC milling machines and rotary tables off the shelf. All that's needed is a printing head module that can bolt on in place of the milling tool. It's a great idea, somebody should make it work, I'll bet the Sherline company would go for the idea.