RAPID

Designer Turi Cacciactore Built His Rostock Delta Printer Using an IKEA Furniture Closet Kit

Eplus 3D

Share this Article

Salavatore Cacciatore

Salavatore ‘Turi’ Cacciatore

Salvatore ‘Turi’ Cacciatore is the former head of design research at the Fiat Concept Lab and now a freelance designer, and he’s also become enamored with 3D printers and printing. Not being one to let perfectly good materials go to waste, Cacciatore decided he had to build his own printer, so he took an IKEA cabinet he found in his basement and used the drawers to make a Rostock delta printer.

“The 3D Printing revolution has started,” Cacciatore writes on his blog. “It will change the way we think, design, manufacture, distribute and use products. Thanks to open-source 3D printer projects shared on-line, it finally became affordable for people to build their own and share knowledge and experiences about it. I couldn’t resist on building my own 3D printer. I had to. So last summer I did and it was one of the biggest satisfactions I had in my entire life. I feel proud of having put together a machine, that is capable of building, with quite a high level of precision, other products or even other machines.”

tumblr_inline_mxai0sH5dG1sth0i9The result, a Rostock 3D printer, was the machine of choice as the designer says he “found an inner conceptual beauty in it, the way the three carriages vertical movement is translated into a three dimensional movement for the hot end.”

He began by measuring and cutting the closet parts and joining together with a handful of M4 screws to build the outer structure of his printer. He even used the screws that came with the closet kit in case he wanted to take it all apart down the road.

A couple of cans of matte black paint (for that “dark techno look”) later, and it was time to find the plastic components for his printer. Cacciatore searched eBay until he found a good deal on a complete set of black Rostock plastic parts printed in Spain.

After a series of manual adjustments to the end effector platform – which he says is the most important component of delta 3D printers like the Rostock – he built the diagonal rods for the device using a few carbon fiber arrows he bought at a sporting goods store.

“I didn’t know at the beginning how important was to get the components perfectly assembled, but fortunately I’ve put as much attention and precision as possible in it,” he says. “In the meantime, I had ordered all the other components except for the hot end, the extruder and the heated bed that arrived later on together with the first ABS filament spool. The electronic is a RAMPS 1.4 mounted on a Arduino Mega. I got a complete set of already assembled electronics with end stops and cables. The power supply is a normal computer ATX.”

turicacciatore-3d-printer23He then placed the assembled components and electronics in the IKEA structure and topped it all off with an MDF platform which was painted with heat-proof black paint.

Cacciatore says that while “things didn’t go well right at the beginning,” following a few adjustments and tweaks, he mounted an ink pen instead of the hot end to test the motors and directional settings and do the basic calibration and, voilà!, a working printer for his makerspace.

He says of the project that he found building his own printer required “a lot of commitment and focus,” but he adds that he was compensated with a great feeling of satisfaction at having done the work himself.

What do you think of Turi Cacciactore’s Rostock delta printer he built using an old IKEA cabinet he found in his basement? Let us know in the IKEA 3D Printer forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the video below of his 3D printer in action.

tumblr_inline_mxai5duABQ1sth0i9

 

Share this Article


Recent News

3D Printing Webinar & Event Roundup: March 26, 2023

3D Printing News Briefs, March 25, 2023: Software Launch, Dental Ceramics, & More



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

Rapidia Re-emerges with Sub-$100K Bound Metal 3D Printing

In the lead up to their merger, there was an interesting bout of competition between Desktop Metal (NYSE: DM) and ExOne. In the process, the latter company made a unique...

3D Printing Webinar & Event Roundup: March 12, 2023

It’s a busy week for the 3D printing industry in terms of webinars and events! Satellite 2023 takes place in Washington, DC, while the International Dental Show is coming to...

3D Printing News Briefs, March 11, 2023: AMUG Scholarships, 3D Printable Bacteria Ink, & More

We’re starting with AMUG news today in 3D Printing News Briefs, as the organization has awarded two scholarships. On to medical news, MIT engineers are 3D printing robotic heart replicas...

Global Availability Announced for Desktop Health’s Einstein Pro XL Dental 3D Printer

Last winter, Desktop Health, the medical 3D printing division of Desktop Metal (NYSE: DM), revealed the commercial launch of its high-precision Einstein dental series of 3D printers, as well as Flexcera Smile...