How do you improve a fast, capable 3D printer that is sporty with an innovative design and portable enough to fit in a printer spool box? Judging by what goes into the Positron V3 portable printer, it takes a lot of hard work and reluctance to settle for a compromise design. Also a few lucky breaks and some design magic.
When we first reported [Kralyn]With its innovative “Positron” printer, its main selling point was its portability and unique layout. With a fold-down Z-axis and a CoreXY-style drive at the base, as well as an attractive 90 ° hot end and transparent heated build plate, the Positron has been able to hit most of its design targets. But there is always room for improvement, and the Positron V3, shown in the video below, has made some significant leaps over that original concept.
The V3 design retains the basic layout of the original, but greatly improves usability and portability while increasing functionality and build volume. The heated borosilicate build plate is now held in place with many stiff struts on the Z-axis drive and receives its juice through a high-temperature Magsaf connector. The X- and Y-axes are now driven by the pancake stepper, which adds a coaxial idler pulley to the drive pulley to create a CoreXY drive and therefore the base of the printer, much more compact. The printer is still much larger, much faster than most traditional gantry designs, and the quality of the print is equal to anything commercially available. And yes, when folded it still fits in a standard 1-kg filament spool box.
We love this design, and the story of how the V3 came out and what the mid-V2 could not cut is an interesting case study of the design. And as a bonus, [Kralyn] The V3 design is open source, so you can create your own files as soon as they are released.
[Andrew] This is our one off tip. Thanks!