Bring out your Dead - 101 things to do with old 3D Printers and parts

[beanflying]

So some of us if not a lot of us have by now accumulated. inherited or simply scrapped old CNC and 3D Printer bits. Open you trash box and your mind and see what comes out. Or show off what you have already done with the bits.

Eggbot

I have done some work with School Kids and Technology in previous years and hoping to get back to that again now we are back to a bit of 'normal'. Random Youtube video a few weeks ago kicked this one off and I have 15-20 Steppers sitting in a box along with a glut of old and unlikely to be used again Electronics to drive them. So this is a nice simple and fairly safe intro to CNC with a fun result. Design is for up to 100mm Spheres down to small Eggs/25mm balls.

So this one apart from a few nuts and bolts will well over 90% reclaimed or purchased secondhand junk. Plenty of builds out there using 3D printed or Ply parts but as I have a stack of 4mm scrap Acrylic and some salvaged 2020 rail I have gone that way. Electronics will be a disused Ramps/Arduino combo.

Aluminium frame trimming tomorrow and a bit of glue on the Acrylic sliders.

[beanflying]

Life gets in the way and the weather has been a bit trash. Today the Sun is shining and the world is leaving me alone 

Good chance to try out my Tracksaw and a -1 degree blade I got for Acrylic cutting primarily. Seems to work really well on Aluminium so I will make up a proper jig for it for cutting 20mm section instead of this messy and slow hack up as I have a bunch to cut for a Laser build. Minimal cleanup with a wipe of sandpaper and a touch more on the unsupported tag but better than I could do with a handheld saw and mitrebox.

Gluing and screwing it all together next time the Gods align to leave me alone.

[Ranayna]

So, i have a couple of steppers spare at the moment

I don't think they were damaged during the literal crash of my ANET, but the board is busted, so i cant test them.

I see on Amazon a big variety or arduino shields with pluggable stepper drivers available for relativly cheap. Can these boards arbitrarily control the steppers, or are they essentially restricted to 3DP or CNC applications?
What are other good starting points for doing something with these steppers?

[beanflying]

In theory you could likely retask a 3D printer board and load GRBL on it but remapping the pins and modding firmware is more hassles than it is worth.

The cheapest way out is an Arduino UNO or Maga and a Ramps 1.4 Shield to suit and two or three step sticks drivers. Quick check the lot will be $20-30 USD new.

This turned up randomly on my youtube feed this morning and has most of it covered using new versions of GRBL and Inkscape so the software is free. Also links to 3D printable models etc.

[beanflying]

So, i have a couple of steppers spare at the moment

I don't think they were damaged during the literal crash of my ANET, but the board is busted, so i cant test them.

I see on Amazon a big variety or arduino shields with pluggable stepper drivers available for relativly cheap. Can these boards arbitrarily control the steppers, or are they essentially restricted to 3DP or CNC applications?
What are other good starting points for doing something with these steppers?

Loads of things for playing from Robotics of various sorts, camera sliders (came up here recently), opening of doors (I am looking at one for my coffee roaster or maybe an actuator yet)..... So loads of playthings and control can be simple analogue inputs if you like. The Arduino IDE btw has Stepper driver control available as a Library so it is as simple as some very basic programming and tell it number of steps and some acceleration and speed limiters and go

Progress today and starting to look more like the one on the packet above.

[beanflying]

More scrounging and a little CAD time to finalise the Holding Cup assembly.

Couple of skateboard bearings (8x22)

Two ruined couplings from the scrap buy, chop the spring bit out and tidy up the face and you have 5 and or 8mm locking collars for the design or re drill to whatever.

Couple of random compression springs from the collection that look ok for the job of pre loading the Cup.

8mm Rod from the salvage

A few bits of 3 and 6mm Laser Cut Acrylic likely will get them out of scrap offcuts.

The Silicon cups are a buy in and I ordered some about two weeks ago from Ali Express. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32806931399.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.19c04c4dDj26LT

The knob to pull it back  3D printed most likely or I think I might have a suitable one in a junk hardware assortment with a bit more digging in the other shed.

[Ranayna]

Is it feasible to use the headbed of an ANET A8 as a pre-heater for SMD rework?
How hot does such a pre-heater need to get to be useful?

[beanflying]

Is it feasible to use the headbed of an ANET A8 as a pre-heater for SMD rework?
How hot does such a pre-heater need to get to be useful?

Have a look at Dave's recent mailbag opening of the Miniware one. Bolt a small 3-4mm Aluminum plate to one and experiment I guess in theory the stock thermal sensor should be ok too. https://youtu.be/Ns8FWobISNA?t=1936

[Microdoser]

Posting mainly to get notified of new posts in this thread. I have a small but growing box of working parts that I will eventually want to repurpose. Currently, I have everything I need to make a single sided filament extruder/hotend combo.