Why aren't there any reasonable 3d printers that have a 2ft x 2ft printing bay area (let's say a 1 ft height, just for shits and giggles).
> 3d printers are just for prototyping
Don't mean to sound like a liberal cuck, but spending a few hundred bucks on a machine for a prototype that is actual size is more up my alley then going for a 6 inch size of the model.
Anyone have experience with increasing their 3d printer bay size?
love bump
>>916552
>reasonable
If by "reasonable" you mean cheap, there are none that don't have shit accuracy and other problems. If by "reasonable" you mean decent quality then they are probably out of your price range. As you haven't told us your price range that makes is zero. Come back with more info, especially material and features you are looking for and maybe we can help you.
>>916650
I'm looking for shit tier quality with a large bay size. I see machines that are "meant to be upgraded!" but will then charge nearly a hundred dollars for a larger threaded rod.
I don't mind spending money for a 3d printer, but would prefer to spend at / under 1k for a shit quality large bay size machine.
Are the websites that print the .stl files compatible with prints of such large sizes? Anyone have experience with doing that?
blerp.
>>916768
not going to happen
materials needed for a printer to stay rigid and dimensionally accurate at those sizes are expensive.
>>916552
There are some large printers in development I think, but 2x2x1 is pretty fucking big.
look at all these fucking naysayers
check out designs for cnc routers for wood.
loads of them for sale and plans if you feel like building your own.
just stick an extruder on it
>>916871
Uhh, what about all the times it already happened?
Are you seriously suggesting that you can't make some shitty little stepper motors turn for a few more seconds to cross a bigger space because 'materials are expensive'?
OP, look up designs built of extruded aluminum. All the rigidity you'd need in a very easy to build on assembly.
>>916552
You sound like a moron and a dipshit
>liberal cuck
>whiner
>bumping thread at 3 hours
Fuck off asshole.
Now that this is out of the way, here's the answer to your question.
No.
The reason is that 3D printers require good precision over large distances, and highly accurate components become very expensive very quickly. More than that- they have to be accurate. A normal 3D printer nozzle is under half a millimeter wide- in order for the machine to just hit the bead it laid down previously, the positional accuracy needs to be high- normally about 0.01mm or better. The largest nozzles people have modded is about 1mm, which still needs 0.025mm accuracy to do right.
This calls for a rigid bay and heavy components- so they flex very little under load and warp very little over time. To get this kind of accuracy over large distances (feet) people usually turn to machined linear guide rails, precision ground stages, small angle stepper motors, etc.
Some quick math:
8 feet of linear guide @ $40/ft = $320
5 linear bearings @ $25 = $125
5 feet of ball screw @ $55/ft = $275
3 screw bearings @ $100 = $300
That right there and you're already over $1000 and you still need a very flat stage, three accurate motors, and the sensors and electronics to run those motors.
And we haven't even started talking about the actual 3D printer parts.
So that's why small 3D printers can be cheap, while large 3D printers are fucking expensive.
For reference, a 3D printer is pretty close to a CNC mill (mechanically). This is why a small "desktop mill" CNC can be as cheap as $5,000, while entry level CNC starts at around $35,000. It's cheap to be accurate in under a foot or so. It's incredibly expensive to be accurate over a foot.
