Some time ago I bought a Geeetech Acrylic Reprap Prusa I3 Pro B printer kit to be used as a starter and to learn something about 3D printing and printers. My original plans were to convert my CNC so that it could be used both as a printer and as a CNC but I gave that idea and decided to buy this cheapo plastic fantastic printer kit, knowing that the performance will be far from what I wanted, but also knowing that I could improve it and use it to start out with. My plans were that if I like 3D printing I will build one of my own design later on. So, after some market survey I went for this printer kit. It took a few hours to assemble it and to get started. As a matter of fact, I was surprised by the quality and that it actually was fully usable out of the box with some really tiny improvements.

I haven't bothered to install the original heat bed (warped PCB), went immediately for an aluminum one and changed the PSU from the 12V to an industry quality 24V PSU, but after these two small changes the printer was actually working nicely. Still, I wanted to improve it more, so I made some other changes as well. The major changes I made are documented in this video:



I have completely rebuild the Z, which was the biggest change. It took a few hours of work but was worth every minute of it. The printer is now a really speedy printer, rapid moves went up from 400mm/min (maximum) to 15000mm/min (yes, that's 15m/min) on X and Y and on the Z from 50mm/min to the amazing 7000mm/min. Of course, this is not printing speed but also of course, the printing speed now is as high as that is possible for each print, so the only limit is the flow of the melted plastic.

Anyway, watch the video and if anyone is interested in more details I will answer all questions when asked.

BTW, my own design is ongoing, frame is ready, built using 30x30 and 30x60 as well as 15x120 extruded profiles, 2x 1204 ball screws for Z, dual linear guides on each axis (MGN12 on Z and Y and MGN9 on X) so it will be a very nice printer when ready.

Similar Threads: