Easymaker, combo printer/mill

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Easymaker, combo printer/mill

Postby mxk » Thu May 03, 2012 4:11 am

I just found this fellows blog where he documents the build of a beast he calls Easymaker that will be a combo mill and 3d printer. It has both fixed and moving gantry modes, and uses Makerslide. Pretty interesting.

http://ipeerbhai.wordpress.com/
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Re: Easymaker, combo printer/mill

Postby crispyfry » Thu May 03, 2012 12:10 pm

Belt driven axes on a mill? Hmmm...

There's a reason combo mills/printers aren't common. A printer needs to be fast, and the frame doesn't have to be very strong. A mill doesn't need to be fast, but needs to be very strong. Designing a machine to do both usually ends up making something that is worse at both activities than a dedicated machine would be.
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Re: Easymaker, combo printer/mill

Postby mxk » Fri May 04, 2012 12:03 am

crispyfry wrote:There's a reason combo mills/printers aren't common. A printer needs to be fast, and the frame doesn't have to be very strong. A mill doesn't need to be fast, but needs to be very strong. Designing a machine to do both usually ends up making something that is worse at both activities than a dedicated machine would be.


Thats the conventional wisdom, true, but he seems pretty pleased with the behavior so far. It'll be interesting to follow and see how it turns out. There is also a project mentioned on the reprap forum from QU-BD who are also planning to commercialize a combo machine, but from their description it will be a real beast, I think they said over 50 pounds. They will be showing it at the Bay Area Makerfaire later this month, I will look for them and try to get some pictures.
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Re: Easymaker, combo printer/mill

Postby zkaplan » Fri May 04, 2012 12:41 am

This looks pretty cool. I can't wait to see it at Maker Faire.
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Re: Easymaker, combo printer/mill

Postby mxk » Fri May 04, 2012 12:55 am

I'm sorry Zach, I guess I wasn't clear. This fellow, the Easymaker,is apparently up in Seattle. It's the QU-BD folks who will be at the Bay Area Maker Faire. They describe and post some pictures on the conversation at http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,126064
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