Build Instructions

Collapse

• 1

  Find a 3D Printer to Modify

  [Figure 1: Artillery3D Hornet - The 3D Printer I will be Modifying]

  [Figure 2: CAD Render of Artillery3D Hornet after Conversion is Complete]

  We could build our 3D printer entirely from scratch, but that would be a lot of work and a total PITA. Instead, it is much easy to take an old shitty 3D printer and reincarnate it as a s3xy conveyor belt 3D printer. I am assuming anyone who is interested in building a conveyor belt 3D on Hackaday already has some 3D printer parts lying around 💪

  You can turn almost desktop FDM 3D printer into a conveyor belt 3D printer. In this tutorial, I will be modifying an Artillery3D Hornet 3D Printer. I am modifying this 3D printer because Artillery3D gave me several of them for free. Thanks Arillery3D!

  I repeat, you can use pretty much any hobby FDM 3D printer for this project. However, all of 3D models I designed are specifically meant for the Artillery3D Hornet. The easiest way to following this tutorial is by using that exact 3D printer. However however, I have included the CAD for all of these 3D models as well. So you can modify the parts to match other 3D printers (i.e. TronyXY, Ender3, Prusa, etc). 
  

  If you do modify the CAD, please let me know! I would love to add your models to the repo (with proper credit of course:)) so that more people can build conveyor belt 3D printers.

• 2

  Print out the Parts

  [Figure 3: Parts to be 3D Printed for this Project]

  All custom parts in this project can be 3D printed. ALL CUSTOM PARTS IN THIS PROJECT CAN BE 3D PRINTED!

  A major flaw in my previous conveyor belt 3D printer designs is that some of the parts had to be machined on a lathe, mill, or other expensivew equipment. Obviously, this made the design less accessible to others. Duh!

  I want people to be able to build this 3D printer even if they don't have access to their school's machine shop. I want people to be able to build this machine even if they do have access to their school's machine but their faculty is too crusty to let them use it. Therefore, I ensured that all of the mounts, jigs, etc. used in this project can be 3D printed. Once again, the CAD is available in addition to the STL models. So if you want, your more than welcome to machine high quality components out of metal (and if you do let me know!). But 3D printing works just fine.

  You can access the CAD repo at this link: https://workbench.grabcad.com/workbench/projects/gcrHAT38NfZQu4oat4sHk3-AmwWRcN0bsbNID3e-RBKutN#/space/gcM1a6sAM3-5xPhVuC2xhwSpQXkVfuiPFueX-V44tka35n

  I printed all components at 35% infill and .32 layer height.

  Components to Print

  Below is the parts lists for the all of the essential components to print. I have also included the CAD files for a few extra unnecessary files in the repo.

  [Table 1: Components to Print]

  Component	Quantity
  ANGLE_BLOCK	2
  BELT_FLATTENER	4
  BOTTOM_BRACE	2
  BOTTOM_FOOT	2
  BOTTOM_LEG	2
  BRACE	2
  CORNER_BRACE	2
  CORNER_BRACE_LONG	2
  COUPLER	1
  DRUM	2
  EXTENSION_BOTTOM	2
  EXTENSION_TOP	2
  EXTRUDER_BRACE	1
  FRONT_BEARING_BLOCK	1
  HEATBED_STRUT	2
  MOTOR_BLOCK	1
  REARING_BEARING_BLOCK	2
  SHEAR	1
  STANDOFF_MOUNT	4
  TENSIONING_BLOCK	2

• 3

  Remove Y-Axis

  [Figure: Removing Y-Axis]

  [Figure: Salvaging Stepper Motor]

  Finally, we can start assembling our 3D printer. And by assembling, I mean disassembling.
  

  My tutorial assumes you are starting this project with a functional fully assembled FDM 3D printer which you want to turn into a conveyor belt 3D printer. I am also assuming your 3D printer has a standard cartesian kinematics system and not some other weird shit (i.e. CoreXY).

  The first step we must take is removing the y-axis of the 3D printer. This is the axis that moves the heat bed forwards and backwards. We will be replacing this axis later on with the motion of the conveyor belt.

  Unbolt the extrusion that connects the y-axis to the printer and disconnect all of the electronics (heat bed, stepper motor, limit switch) from the main board. Carefully remove the y-axis components and store them in a safe place. Because we are recyclers, we will be reusing all of these components later on in the project.

View all 16 instructions