Last post I went over the basic design for my printer, this post I want to start to go over some of the parts I have ordered thus far. I will also be providing links to where I ordered them from as well as their total price cost for me, to keep track of how much I am spending.
Since there are just as many tedious parts as bigger integral parts, I figured I should order them all in a couple big purchases. This not only saves on shipping, but also to forces myself to actually buy the parts and stop checking for the 27th time if they are the right size screw or not. The bigger, more important parts I decided to order separately to focus more on their quality, ensuring they will work in my scenario so I don’t waste my money. My anxiety and impatience to get started ended up biting me in the ass a little bit, but we will get to that.
I ordered the majority of my parts from Banggood, a China based company dedicated to “China’s high-quality goods, efficient supply chain and top class customer service to the world”. I’ve gotta say, its a lot of fun scrolling through their 3d printer catalog, they have EVERYTHING you would ever need. From full printers, to kits, to upgrades, to individual parts, you can practically find anything you need in a single place. It’s crazy how easy it is to find what I want and how cheap some of the stuff is. But as they say, you get what you pay for, so how does Banggood hold up?
I decided to order a lot of the basic mechanical parts from Banggood in this order. They are simple and cheap and for the most part are very simple to make, so they can’t mess it up that much, right? I also ended up ordering the motherboard as it was in a bundle with some other electronics, so it made it easier and cheaper to get for the same quality as somewhere else.
So this was the package that came in the mail for me all the way from China. Not great, especially considering this order included the rails for the X gantry, 2 carbon fiber tubes. If you notice in the picture above, there is a single carbon fiber tube sticking out of the package. Not exactly inspiring, unfortunately. It ended up being that one of these tubes were lost in shipping at some point along their journey. Fortunately, everything else was brought along for the ride and ended up safely in the package. There were some other problems but I will touch on those for each item.
From Banggood:
Carbon Fiber Tube 8mm x 10mm x 500mm
$3.28 x 2 ($6.56) (well I guess only 1)
Basic carbon fiber tubes, lightweight and strong. Bought in 500mm lengths, I think that was the easiest way to order/cheapest.
Machifit GT2 6mm Closed Loop Timing Belt – 200mm
$1.42 x 1
This is going to be used to drive the Z axis depending on which method works better (as detailed in my design). This is for flexibility, it may not be necessary but the belt is $1.42…..soooo…..
20T sized GT2 Aluminum Timing Pulley Without Tooth
$1.78 x 9 ($16.02)
Idler pulleys for guiding the belts around.
GT2 5M Belt + Timing Pulley
$7.53 x 1
Lots of belt to be cut to length. It’s going to be annoying to splice this together for the Z axis drive and I’m not terribly sure its possible/feasible, but I’ll be damned if I won’t try to force it to work.
4Pcs Heated Bed Leveling Hand Adjustment Fixing Nut Part Kit w/ M3 Screw
$3.40 x 1
Making it easy to mount the heated bed….when I get one….
Machifit LML10UU Solid Plastic Polymer Linear Bearing Long Type
$4.34 x 2 ($8.68)
Machifit LML8UU Solid Plastic Polymer Linear Bearing Long Type
$4.34 x 2 ($8.68)
I ended up jumping the gun a bit on these. I wanted polymer bushings because they are so quiet and less maintenance, but didn’t realize until after the fact that these should realistically be pressed into a housing for proper tolerances. These are just cheap bushings from China, so I ended up deciding to get better, more reliable bushings that I will talk about below.
PC4-01 Pneumatic Connector For 1.75mm PTFE Tube Quick Coupler Feed Inlet
$1.36 x 1
I bought this guy because I figured if I needed one at some point, it would be really nice to have on hand. It’s 1.36 and I would be sad to have to order one later and wait for shipping.
1M Long Distance PTFE Teflon Feed Tube for 1.75mm Filament 3D Printer – Red
$1.99 x 1
Teflon tubing used for feeding the filament. Red, gotta color coordinate.
Suleve M3SS1 M3 Stainless Button Head Screws Allen bolt Nut Assortment Kit 340pcs
$4.92 x 1
Pretty useful little kit to have when I need to mount stuff. It’s nice to not have to buy all the pieces separately and have everything in a single organized case. Now it would be great to have this all organized as it should be, but this came in the package partially open, so they were relatively jumbled inside with some loose pieces in the bag. So more than likely they will never be organized perfectly, but they are relatively organized, which is fine I guess.
Suleve M5SH6 50Pcs M5 Stainless Steel Button Head Screw – 8mm
$3.99 x 1
These are the screws I will be using to mount to the aluminum extrusion frame when used with the T-slot sliding nuts. Foolishly I didn’t really think of how many I would need, 50 is enough, right? No, it’s not. So I have ordered more from amazon (shown below) and I figured I would get them black so I could have that all black frame ¯\
LUSTREON 10M Tinned Copper 22AWG 2 Pin Red Black
$4.11 x 1
This is good wire for general purpose wiring of different components. I might end up getting more colors to help differentiate.
DANIU 2M AWG Soft Silicone Flexible Wire Cable 12 AWG
$3.58 x 1
This is wire to be used for main power to the power supply.
3Pcs Geekcreit RAMPS 1.4 Endstop Switch
$3.05 x 1
Common little endstop switches. I can use them all for all axes, but might want to get a different switch for the Z axis for more accurate bed leveling and such.
DC 12V 2 Pin 0.13A 50mm Brushless Turbine Blower Cooling Fan
$1.99 x 1
Straightforward little fan guy.
BIGTREETECH SKR V1.3 32Bit Controller Board + 5Pcs TMC2130 Stepper Drivers + TFT24 Touch Screen Kit
$69.99 x 1
This great little package contains all the brains for this operation. The SKR board is an awesome control board, 32 bit, room for upgrades, I will probably make a post about it in the future to cover it in a little more detail since I need to get a better understanding at some point anyway. We also get 5 TMC2130 stepper motor drivers which are awesome little drivers with high microstepping possibility and other built in modes to make them more quiet. Little touch screen kit is a great addition to display parameters and manually interact with the printer.
The following is the second package from Banggood. After receiving the first one, I was extremely concerned this one would be messed up. This would have been extremely bad since there are 5 rods in this package that need to be very straight. But to my luck the package was completely fine and rods seem to be in good working order.
8mm T8x2 400mm Lead Screw with Brass Nut
$4.63 x 3
These guys look great which I am very happy about. The brass nuts spin smoothly up and down the lead screws under their own weight with no additional lubricant. Excited to get these assembled.
Machifit Outer Diameter 8mm x 380mm Cylinder Linear Rail
$4.64 x 2
These will be used for the Y axis movement. They will be mounted to the frame so their weight won’t have to be hauled around.
Drillpro 50pcs M5 T Sliding Nut for 2020 Aluminum Profile
$5.99 x 1
Sliding nuts that fit into the aluminum extrusion I bought. You have to be careful about this because not all 2020 aluminum extrusion has the same dimensions, specifically I found 2020 aluminum extrusion by 8020, an aluminum extrusion supplier, has specific dimensions for their extrusion so you have to use their hardware to interface with it. This can be super annoying because you will always have to buy from them to get their specific dimensions, so watch out for that.
Machifit 8mm Bore Diameter Pillow Block Flange Linear Bearing
$1.69 x 6
These will be used to mount the lead screws to the frame. They are an 8mm bore and the holes are suited for M5 screws. This is nice to mount the lead screws in-between the frame and not floating off, allowing to take advantage of as much of the frame dimension as possible for the CoreXY system. The OTHER thing about these tricky little bearing blocks are that they came in extremely poor condition. The bearings were not properly seated in the aluminum block, so they were completely unusable in their initial condition. Luckily for me, I have access to a hydraulic press and was able to finish the job, but some of them still might not be as good as I want and if I didn’t have access to that press they would be completely unusable to me. I will be detailing fixing them in another post.
That was my big order from Banggood, I bought a couple parts from separate retailers, either for quality purposes or for quicker shipping so I could start getting a feel for them.
These are from amazon:
Usongshine Nema 17 Stepper Motor
3 Pack bought for $26.99
1 Pack bought for $9.99
Classic little stepper motors you will find for any 3d printer. Standard NEMA 17, 42 N/cm of torque, 200 steps per revolution (1.8 degrees/step). These are the exact same in any 3d printer.
KINGPRINT MK8 Extruder Aluminum Block Bowden Extruder 1.75MM
$8.99 x 1
A solid little extrusion system that mounts directly onto one of the stepper motors. I will be testing this guy a bit since it is pretty simple and cheap, but I’m sure its fine… right?
Aysimple Nema17 Stepper Motor Steel and Rubber Vibration Dampers
$8.99 x 1
I have heard conflicting advice about these dampers. They can possibly introduce error but can also help with noise. I don’t want it to be loud, so hopefully the error is manageable, so I will definitely be doing some tests.
MakerHawk 4pcs TL-Smoother V1.0
$7.99 x 1
These are a simple addition with possible mild improvements. There is a little controversy over if these actually work or not, I have seen some examples that do and some that don’t, so what better way to test than to just buy some and test myself. They are cheap enough, so why not.
Houkr 6PCS Aluminum 20Teeth GT2 Timing Belt Pulley
$9.99 x 1
I accidentally ordered these with a 5 mm bore so I have reordered them with an 8 mm bore. These will be to mount to the lead screws to drive them. Just slide on and mount.
TOUHIA 2028 Slot 6mm Black Aluminum Corner Bracket for 2020 Aluminum Extrusion Profile(20Pcs)
$10.99 x 2
These brackets are to help keep everything supported and square in the frame. Mounted with an 8 mm M5 screw and a sliding T-nut.
DYWISHKEY 180 Pieces 2020 Series T Nuts M3/ M4/ M5 T Slot Nut Hammer Head Fastener Nut Assortment Kit for Aluminum Profile
$9.99 x 1
These hammer head nuts are great because you can just drop them in to the aluminum extrusion rather than having to disassemble it, slide on the nut, then reassemble. You just drop it in and when you screw it on it twists and takes hold inside the extrusion. Very convenient.
iExcell 100 Pcs M5 x 8 mm 10.9 Grade Alloy Steel Hex Socket Button Head Cap Screws
$5.99 x 1
A nice black finish to these, color coordination is very important. Also I didn’t order enough screws initially….
Two (2) 8mm x 406mm (.315″ x 16″) Case Hardened Chrome Linear Motion Rods/Shafts/Guides – Metric G6 Tolerance
$12.50 x 2
These are the linear guide rails for the Z axis. Very straight, hardened to withstand the linear bearings, 2 rods for each lead screw (they come in packs of 2).
Akozon Linear Motion Bearing 6pcs LM8LUU Long Linear Motion Ball Bearings for 8mm Rod 3D Printer CNC Parts
$11.59 x 1
These are the linear bearings for the linear guide rails above. Only the Z axis uses these, the rest of the printer uses polymer bushings since they are much more quiet. These are much cheaper than polymer bushings, so I use them for the Z axis since it has the least amount of movement.
Genuine E3D V6 Full – 24V- Hotend
$55.69 x 1
This hotend is commonly used in the community, well spoken for, and pretty reliable. I have enough unknowns and custom bits in this printer so far, I’m going with something spoken for here.
Genuine E3D Brass V6 Nozzle – 1.75mm x 0.25mm (V6-NOZZLE-175-250)
$11.99 x 1
I grabbed another nozzle so I can print some really detailed pieces…..when I get to it……
I sourced these parts from Ebay:
IGUS CARRIER RJUM-01-10 BUSHING
$67.17 for 6
These are the polymer bushings I will be using for the majority of the printer. The main reasons I went for these over other bearings/bushings are because they are self lubricating (less maintenance) and significantly more quiet than the noisy LM8UU linear bearings. They are definitely more pricey, but I think they will be worth it.
These bearings are preset in an aluminum housing. This is important because these polymer bushings are made to be pressed into a housing like this so when you use them outside of the housing they are actually oversized. These have proven pretty tough to find, so I’m hoping these bushings work as well as I hope they will.
6061 Aluminum Round Tubing 400 mm – 10 mm diameter – 2 mm thickness
$30.81 for 2
I bought some aluminum tubing in place of the carbon fiber tubing that I had planned to use originally. The carbon fiber tube seemed to bend just a little and I didn’t want any bend in the tube but I also wanted to test how the bushings work with the 2 different materials. It seemed the bushings work significantly differently between material types, so I have some options. I will probably end up using the aluminum, but I would like to use the carbon fiber at some point since its so much lighter.
And finally, the aluminum extrusion from ZYLtech
ZYLtech Black 2020 Aluminum Extrusion
1200mm piece $8.95 x 4
900mm piece $7.95 x 1
$20.80 shipping (I paid a little extra to get it home for the holidays so I could cut it)
Like said above, you have to double check the dimensions on the extrusion to ensure the sliding nuts ordered will fit in. This extrusion was some of the cheapest for being of decent quality. I have received it and the aluminum was of very nice quality. I love the black color, it was totally worth the extra. It was easy to cut and I even took the time to tap the ends for an M6 screw. Awesome stuff.
Final Thoughts
I am pretty unhappy with the quality of some of the parts from Banggood, but I guess that’s a risk you run with cheap Chinese parts. The price is pretty unbeatable, and for basic mechanic parts, it works fine. Ordering a few extra for different parts would be a good idea to help guarantee getting enough quality parts. The other thing I am really unhappy about is that packaging! Like what the heck was that! I explicitly didn’t receive one of the parts I ordered! Not only this, but the customer support has been terrible, I have put in complaints and tickets for refunds and what not, which was probably upwards of a month or more ago and haven’t heard anything from them. So this is what I get, I guess, but that kind of support is pretty unacceptable. It’s fine though because the parts are cheap and easy enough to reorder, so I think I will just have to take the loss on this one.
So far I have spend around 550 dollars on the printer and still have to pay for the power supply, bed, and the 3d printed parts I need. Tough, but it’s worth it for the flexibility to experiment and test stuff, as well as ordering better quality parts and pieces, specifically the genuine E3dV6 (there are plenty of clones out there that are less than half the price) and the polymer bushings that will be significantly more quiet an easier to work with.
With the frame and mechanics in order, the rest of the parts will fall into place within it. Next posts will have some research, part designs, and start to detail some of the build process. Finally starting to get the frame put together!
