Carbon rods, Traxxas 5347 Ball Joints and a jig

Some of the critical components for linear delta 3D printer are the diagonal rods and the joints used for them.
As of January 2015 there are two "mainstream" solutions that are recognized as "working reasonably well":

1. Carbon fiber rods with Traxxas 5347 ball joints and possibly some kind of grub screw to join these, as well as epoxy glue to hold everything together.
2. Carbon fiber rods and steel balls with magnetic joints. Again, epoxy glue seems to be the preferred method to hold everything together.

I have already discarded wood, steel, aluminum and printed rods. Carbon fiber rods are easy to find worldwide, are relatively affordable even here in Barcelona and of course the weight to strength ratio is unmatched. The only caveat is that special precautions must be taken if one is cutting carbon fiber rods oneself. Dust from carbon fiber is extremely dangerous to the skin, eyes and lungs. I have found online relatively affordable pre-cut carbon fiber rods for the Delta Steel to avoid these issues altogether.

I have also decided to first experiment with Traxxas 5347 ball joints as these are easily available by mail order worldwide.

Finally, I have taken note of the need to assemble diagonal rods with exactly matching lengths, and the easiest way to achieve this is through the use of a simple jig. More on jigs later.

From the P3Steel to the Delta Steel

For the last six months (since July 2014 to be precise) I have been working on the P3Steel 3D printer design by Irobri. The P3Steel is a Prusa i3 variant that uses laser-cut 3mm steel parts for its chassis (i.e. structure or frame). Imho it is by far the best Prusa i3 variant to date, for various reasons which mostly stem from the choice of steel as a structural material.

Since the Prusa i3 was already (again, imho) the best cartesian-type 3D printer with an approximately 8l print envelope (20cm x 20cm x 20cm), that makes the P3Steel by far the best cartesian-type 3D printer of its size at the moment.

However, there is an altogether different class of 3D printers that have come under the spotlight lately: linear delta printers.

This is mainly due to the pioneering work of Johann C. Rocholl and his Rostock and Kossel lines of printer designs, that have generated numerous derivatives.

As one of my resolutions for 2015 I have decided to work on the design of an ultra-simple, affordable, scalable linear delta printer which I decided to call the Delta Steel.

I will be detailing the design and build process of the Delta Steel in this blog and also on the RepRap.org wiki.