The DesktopWorkshop is a combined 3D printer and milling machine with a switchable gear ration to change to and from 3D printing and milling modes. I built it as I needed to develop PCBs at home, as well as mill parts in different materials (namely aluminum).
3D printers and milling machines also share the same common components, so it made no sense for me to build another machine that would take up more room in my bedroom.
Aims:
- Be very affordable.
- Use only easy to obtain parts.
- Mill aluminium (and anything softer than it).
- Fast change from milling to printing.
- 3D print.
- Fit on a desktop.
Price: It was very affordable at £115, mainly because I used a different XY mechanism. It used rack and pinion for the XY axis, with the axis being driven on one side by a stepper motor and a pinion on the other end keeping it aligned. This negated the need for it to be driven on both sides and meant I didn’t need to use expensive linear rails.
Parts: The machine used only hardware store and eBay parts, making them easy to obtain for anyone wanting to build it. The rails can also be 3D printed (one of my earlier iterations worked perfectly with them, but I upgraded to metal ones for the Big Bang Competition). The only issue is that I used my CNC router to machine the frame, however, it can just as easily be made using rectangular parts instead of interlocking parts.
Milling: The machine mills anything softer than aluminium perfectly, and can just about do aluminium. I attempted it only once (it had to be locked up in school for moderation for months afterwards) with the worst conditions possible. I used an ALDI ‘Dremel’ with the flex shaft attachment which had a fair bit of runout, an 8 flute bit (when it should’ve been single-flute), all haphazardly attached to the machine with scrap wood and clamps. Despite this, it milled it decently, but I have no doubt that if I had a proper set-up it would mill it perfectly (albeit at a low speed).
Change Speed: It can be changed from milling mode to 3D printing mode in about 20 seconds, however, it doesn’t have an easy method of changing from 3D printing to milling easily, so this takes about a couple minutes extra, making it a failure in this aspect.
Printing: It prints perfectly, but doesn’t have a heated bed so can’t print in any other material aside PLA.
Size: It is roughly 350x350x500mm, so whilst being fairly large it fits on most desktops.
Overall, it was a decent machine. It had accomplished all of the issues I set about to resolve on paper, however, in practice it had a few underlying issues that needed more time to resolve, but with exams coming up I had to abandon the project. After exams I was too excited about the PlyBot to fix these issues, and I don’t expect that I’ll fix them anytime soon.
UPDATE for 2019 university application:
I highly doubt you’ll see this, but on the off chance that you’re interested enough to look, I’ve included a short explanation video below that was initially intended for a science fair. There was a time limit for the video and I kept messing up and going over it so this was probably the 50th attempt at it (with a dry throat and not much enthusiasm!) so I come off as super bored!