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LED Lighting System for Aluminum Mendel

robmartin701
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Published on January 15, 2013

Description

This LED light system is perfect for illuminating the printer bed to allow for close and careful examination of your model while it is being printed. There are (6) 3V, 20mA LEDs that are angled to shine down directly on the bed. This addition was carefully designed to confine with the sleek concept of the Aluminum Mendel and still keep all wires and components inside the frame area. Wires are tucked into the grooves of the aluminum extrusions and the on/off switch is located in the back right corner (does not interfere with the y-axis bed travel). Having the LED light system attached to the frame instead of on the extruder keeps from adding excessive wires and weight the the extruder carriage (which can hinder print quality and increase vibrations while printing).

Instructions

Print LED Brackets and Backs. Solder LEDs in the holders with a 150 ohm resistor in series and run wires to back right corner. Then glue the backs together and mount brackets to the upright frame posts. The LED switch plate was printed with two different colors to give it a little spice and to highlight possibilities of multiple colored prints. Given the two circuits of (3) 3V LED's and the resistor, these can be hooked up in parallel to the single-pull double-throw switch. This switch can then be wired directly into the 12V power supply without further changes to the circuit. Plus, having LED lights will use very little power and truly help you see the details of the object that you are printing.
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robmartin701 on January 16, 2013 said:

Use glass on the bed man, preferably a mirror. For sure! It gives your parts a sleek, shiny finish on that one side where the plastic touches the mirror, plus you can watch things under the extruder in the mirror (which is fun).

Kyoxilbuzz on January 16, 2013 said:

Wow. Is it me or you printer seems to be a giant beast! what is the build size of it? Do you have any documentation for it? Now that i understand better how 3D print works using my (over-expensive??) Replicator 2, i would like to build also my own printer, and i had the idea to make a big one.
Is it a mirror you use as a bed, or stainless steel? i am changing my Rep2 bed for glass+heating system, but i wondering if steel won't be better.
Thanks a lot for sharing the stereo design. they look great!

robmartin701 on January 16, 2013 said:

Larger than life. If this helps to put it into perspective, the print bed allows for a full 200x200mm print. If you look, you can find the bill of materials for this printer from the guy that I downloaded it from. The LCD controller and knob came from another person that I can't remember at this time where I got it from. I added some cool things to this printer and the aluminum extrusion frame gives you easy versatility for adding your own improvements. See my 5lb reel holder to get a sense of how big that is compared to the frame (if you know how big 5lb reels are). It's perfectly sized for sitting on my desk.

The bed is actually a mirror that is clipped using aligator clips to an aluminum plate which has the heating pad and sensor underneath. It works great!

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LED Lighting System for Aluminum Mendel by robmartin701 is licensed under the Attribution - Share Alike - Creative Commons license.

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