I promised myself that the first major thing I would complete with my Anet A8 3D printer was to print another printer.

After calibrating the A8, I found a design online that I liked (the MyCore CoreXY design on Thingiverse (pictured)) and printed out all of the parts needed for both the CoreXY part and for the bed.

I’ve encountered two problems so far:
1. the Y axis rail sliders are designed for LM6UU bearings, but I have LM8UU, so they don’t fit.
2. the MDF I have, which will be used for the walls and floor of the printer, is too thin for the design I printed out

These are easy enough to fix, though.

I can simply adjust the radius of the holes on the Y axis sliders and print them out, fixing the bearing radius issue.

The MDF is slightly harder. I could go out and buy new wood, but I don’t like spending money when there is a free solution in front of me. So, I’m going to thicken up the parts of the MDF box that the plastic parts need to interact with.

If I glue two extra strips of MDF over the existing sheet, that should bring it up to thickness, and should also strengthen the MDF against warping under pressure.

To do this, I needed some G-Clamps for gluing the MDF. I found a wonderful print on Thingiverse which turns out to be very strong when printed at 35% infill. The Anet A8 even did a great job on the knurling detail on the end of the screw (pictured).

I will also need to print out some corner clamps, but there are designs available for that as well.

I love 3D printing! Everything you need, someone has already designed and shared, or you can design for yourself.

After I’ve finished fixing the thickness problems and bearing holes, I need to make a bed for the printer to actually work on. For the first few weeks, it will be an unheated bed, as I haven’t yet ordered a heated bed online. Maybe I could design and build one myself? Or an alternative is to totally enclose the printer and heat the air itself in there to 60 deg – make the thing into a small oven.

Actually, that’s something I’ve been considering anyway – totally enclosing the printer, but having tubes feeding cold air to the fans.