One of the most fascinating things about the desktop 3D printing space is the openness exuded by the developers of the printers themselves. Desktop 3D printers first got off the ground because of open source movements such as RepRap. While some 3D printer manufacturers have taken their creations and closed off this ‘openness,’ others have remained key contributors to the community. These open source designs have allowed for an extremely quick development and innovation of these machines, and without organizations like RepRap, we certainly wouldn’t have the 3D printers we have today.
For one Polish banker, who happens to have a keen interest in 3D printing, named Slawek Koziol, building his own 3D printer was something he always thought about. So this is what he set out to do with his company, X3D.
“For a long time, I’ve been fascinated by CoreXY kinematics,” Koziol tells 3DPrint.com. “X3D decided to design a cheap, and effective 3D printer that was not cumbersome.”
So he came up with the X3D XS CoreXY 3D printer, which is constructed of many 3D printed parts. It features a fixed build platform, which he tells us is a huge advantage when looking for a machine that can create quality prints. Since the prints are always held steady, he believes this provides for the best scenario in printing distortion-free objects.
“CoreXY is nevertheless little known and poorly used in 3D printers – I do not understand why,” says Koziol. “It has a lot more advantages as well, even in relation to the Cartesian kinematics. On this printer, there are two interesting elements of the belts which seem crossed, but they work in two planes, one above the other. During the movement of the carriage in the X or Y directions, there are two stepper motors, and this results in greater stability of the carriage and greater precision.”
It cost Koziol somewhere between $300-500 to build this printer, which utilizes a Rumba 3D board, features a full graphic LCD screen, and has a heated print bed. The frame of the X3D XS CoreXY is made of 10mm plywood, and the machine has proven to print very effectively. More specifications for this 3D printer include:
- Working area: 190mm (X) x 185mm (Y) x 140mm (Z)
- Box Size: 358mm (X) x 341mm (Y) x 316mm (Z)
- Print speed: < 100 mm/s
- Travel speed: < 200 mm/s
Koziol currently has plans to build yet another printer very similar to this one, but with a larger build volume. The dimensions will be 250mm (X) x 200mm (Y) x 240mm (Z). He’s also working on using some other linear elements such as rails and carriages instead of shafts. As for now, he doesn’t have any plans to sell these machines, but welcomes anyone to download the files and build their own, and perhaps even improve upon the design.
What do you think about this new 3D printer? Discuss in the X3D XS CoreXY 3D printer forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out a video of the printer in action below.
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