Homemade flatbed printer

[mhegz77]

Sir is that for sale? how much is the cost? im really interested in FLATBED PRINTER. Please contact me if its available 09495691488 (Alma). Thanks!

[littlestworkshop]

@mhegz77 no it is not for sale, it is no longer even in one piece.

[MrGabystrike]

how did you cheat on the detector of paper?

[littlestworkshop]

@MrGabystrike If you pause at 0:06 and look at the furthest edge of the wooden board that the printer is built on you can see two pieces of cardboard standing upright. The paper detect sensor (which is an optical sensor interrupted by a plastic part when there is no paper) is mounted to the gantry and as the gantry moves the pieces of card go through its slot.

[idiotAREstupid]

buy laser printer...

[littlestworkshop]

@idiotAREstupid it is better to remain silent and let others assume you are stupid than to speak and remove all doubt. Read the description, I was not making a printer to print on paper, this is just a test.

[idiotAREstupid]

@littlestworkshop I didn't read the description D: My bad

[Kdog1735]

this is like the apple 1 of printers. nice job!

[rollingstone100]

great work, I wish I could do this myself. Is the Printer ink water-based or permanent?

[littlestworkshop]

@rollingstone100 It is a pigment ink so fairly permanent.

[rollingstone100]

@littlestworkshop ok thats great thankyou, Would know if you were to print on a T-shirt, would it be likely it would come off in the wash?

[littlestworkshop]

@rollingstone100 Never tried it, search for DTG on google and youtube and I am sure you will find out.

[rollingstone100]

@littlestworkshop will do, thankyou & take care

[larry70785]

@littlestworkshop

Really nice work. Would you be willing to sell the homemade printer or build another one and sell it?

[littlestworkshop]

@larry70785 No, sorry. If I charged for my time you could buy cheaper from china.

[tool2342]

Does it push itself back of is there a mechanism to do it?

[littlestworkshop]

@tool2342 If you check out part two you can see that it does return by itself. As the microcontroller is in charge of the stepper motor I can make it move any way I want.

[tool2342]

@littlestworkshop Your work is very impressive! Just bought an epson off ebay, gonna have a bash at my own flatbed this weekend!

[littlestworkshop]

@tool2342 My biggest tip: "make sure you understand how the printer works before dismantling fully". For example on one Epson I played with as soon as I removed the print head cleaner it stopped working, it has no sensors to detect it but the system could tell because of the lack of resistance. Other printers have paper detectors in the print heads, it is so much easier to work things out before you take it to bits. I have gone through two printers each time I have converted.

[tool2342]

@littlestworkshop Hey thanks. I've downloaded all the manuals I can find for it. Mine is the Stylus Photo 830. It's pretty old. I hope I don't fu*k it up tbh.

[tool2342]

@tool2342 Also got my hands on the service manual with full disassembly instructions and just about everything else you need to know about the machine!

[littlestworkshop]

@tool2342 Still do as much as you can with the printer still able to function as it originally did, that way you can still get signals etc.

[dasraiser]

top notch, nice

[Wesley77Small]

Basic. You really did almost nothing here exept some basic mechanical changes.

[littlestworkshop]

@Wesley77Small The paper feed motor does a lot of crazy stuff (cleaning heads, picking up the paper) and if I did not separate it from the system, read its encoder signals, interpret them and decide when and when not to synchronize my stepper motor with them then it would not work. It is not rocket science but it is not basic and not just mechanical.

[tool2342]

@Wesley77Small How can you say that? I wish I could make one of these, really, I'm looking into spending a hell of a lot on a proper flatbed printer. If it is easy please tell me how...

[namchaicpd]

What kind of ink do you use?



[yugiboy123123]

dude friggin teach me!

[webweb04]

Hello, Would you like to help me on the control interface to the inkjet printhead ?

I am looking for the doc of controlling interface to common used inkjet printhead like HP 802S,

If you know how to find these doc, please send me email webweb04_AT gmall com

[littlestworkshop]

@webweb04 I don't know anything about the control interface. The whole point of my approach is that the printer electronics are not changed. I change the mechanics and add extra electronics so that when the printer turns the paper feed motor I move the gantry with a stepper motor.

[2botmarketing]

This is awesome!

[izedawidka]

what is this good for?

[deborahjeancrain]

is this available on the market? it would be perfect to print on fabric.where can I get one of these? fantastic job.thanks.

[woodentoolcompany]

Very Cool!

[living4game]

Hi, nice job. Did you made extra electronic that attached to the system? is it just printer orginal electronics?

[speewave]

This is awesome.... how is this done? idk if i would do it anytime soon, but pretty curious

[planetrewind]

OOOHHHHH FLAT BED!!! I thought it said FLAT BREAD. silly me

[littlestworkshop]

@planetrewind Not a bad idea actually!

[speewave]

@littlestworkshop ... A Bread Printer... Brilliant!

[siraulo0808]

@littlestworkshop  can u sell the plans for this?

[MyHeners1]

spose u could do that or go to the shop and just buy one.

[littlestworkshop]

@MyHeners1 Which shop sells flat bed printers exactly? 

[MyHeners1]

@littlestworkshop ebay

[littlestworkshop]

@MyHeners1 Not that work like this. This is to become part of a 3D printer, it is not for t-shirts. It also cost next to nothing. But then we could all buy everything in shops and not make anything or have hobbies or make videos etc.

[marioeletrotec]

VC tem o equema pra compartilhar?

[littlestworkshop]

@marioeletrotec ?

[kidri0t]

dam man your a beast lol.

[kedwa30]

Brilliant!!! And I appreciate the leads to DTG as well.

It's far better to hack existing printers which can be obtained for as little as $5 at a thrift shop or free from curbside. It keeps them out of the landfill, recycles, reduces global energy usage, etc. For people like MrHopewen, it may be easier to print to a sheet of rubber and then stamp the image to the textile. (Use software to print image in reverse)

[MrScriptster]

Great idea! People in art reproduction business would kill for a printer like that 'cause some types of paper that could have been used don't because they can't move through regular rollers.

My guess is that the next improvement would be to mount a felt strip along the lines formed by those smudges of ink on the board next to the closest rail so the printer can wipe its head which it regularly tries to.

Once again, great job!

[197022007]

" it makes me hard to understand it quickly"- MrHopewen

[MrHopewen]

can this printer used for printing t shirts?

[nish4speed]

coolllllllllllllllllllllllllll­lllllllllllllllllllllllllll

[kesmes]

wow

[rmourita]

Very nice man..! have you been working on this project lately? I've been checking your site but no updates :(

(ok, i'm also *TRYING* to make one) from scratch... my electronics sucks, and i'm using a CNC controller to do this, i wanted to use lasers, but this is the simplest method... apart from the binding agent of course.. wich will be a trouble..!

Regards!

[ongchorcool]

nicee!!!

[MYcareLEVELis1]

at 0:50 i found that its a ww chopper



[malaka135]

I THOUGHT IT WAS A PLANE CAUSE OF THE TAIL>>>>>UT I WAS WRONG

[ThaManYeah]

a hellicopter

[Thepiratejoe]

Howdy there, how's it going? I just wanted to ask; how much do you figure it would cost for someone to actually build their OWN standard printer. I mean, from scratch; circuit board and all; could it be done? I have an idea for an invention, which will soon go into patent pending; and one part of my machine requires its own print head. This device is able to create any sort of electronic equipment off a user's computer. Let me know.

TPJ

[littlestworkshop]

@Thepiratejoe How long is a piece of string? It depends on the specs required etc. You can get OEM print modules that can be integrated into equipment but they are more expensive than consumer printers. But compared to what you claim you invention can do it is childs play.

[kedwa30]

@Thepiratejoe I got the following from another youtube post:

If your interested in using a stepper motor for CNC & robotics stuff, here is a premade "driver board" you can run/program from your computers parallel port, for only $25

stepgenie com There is a nice explanation of how it works there also. Please visit cerebralmeltdown com for alot of tech type stuff about things like this.

[saulabello]

Hi man, i like this modification, in fact i 'm trying to do the same thing, because i want to be able to print cd, and glossy paper; my question is how did you do to synchronize the two stepper motors?

[littlestworkshop]

@saulabello I keep the motor that originally moved the paper but now all it does is turn the encoder attached to it. I take the encoder signals and use them to drive the stepper motor. For my pulley and stepper motor it is something like 12 encoder pulses for every step of the stepper motor. The key is to make the printer think nothing has changed.

[MrHopewen]

@littlestworkshop can this be use for printing t shirts? if it does can u send me the complete components and all the stuff i can make 1 of this, i am a non mekanik person and it makes me hard to understand it quickly, thanks for your answer before , if u read this. i really need this informations

[littlestworkshop]

@MrHopewen In theory it could print on to t-shirts but there are better configurations for that. I am not able to provide a kit or plans at this time. Search DTG (direct to garment) on youtube and google and you may find what you are looking for.

[skrulonair]

good job can you make one for me ??

[danielkachal]

WOW

[dodgedart74]

i smell counterfeit money

[rajithaify]

wow that's awesome. i'm planning to build one myself for PCB printing.

[kc7fys]

You've done a great job. I envy your skills, man.

[JohneyBlue]

good job :)

[littlestworkshop]

thanks

[molinobeer]

@littlestworkshop

Can you say what you think about parallax propeller microcontroller? easy to program? powerfull? expensive/cheap?

[littlestworkshop]

Now there are the educational labs you can learn to program it pretty easily but it is a little strange to begin with. Once you understand how it works however it is very powerful and I have found it extremely quick to write code on and there is a lot of code to download and no interrupts to mess with! The assembly code is also really nice when you need speed. It is not massively cheap but for what it does I am very happy.

[molinobeer]

Thank very much, i think i will try to get one. My only problem is that i cannot imagine yet how to work with various cores on the same chip...

[littlestworkshop]

Think of the cores as workers stood around a white-board, one generally acts as a sort of leader (running a main loop) giving each a task (such as monitor an encoder), they can communicated via the white-board (the hub ram) when needed or they can even do totally unrelated tasks.

[molinobeer]

@littlestworkshop

nice.. well, maybe it isn't as hard as i though.. xD

thanks :)

[fountainterrace]

I work for a company that sells machines like that. A 2 meter wide version sells for $300k!

[littlestworkshop]

I can imagine! I'm rather limited to the sizes of desktop printers available, I don't fancy trying to drive print heads directly.

[fridicima]

Hi !do you sell them and how much are they ?

[littlestworkshop]

No sorry and as a one off it would be hugely expensive assuming I did not work for peanuts. I would love to publish some plans some day but funds and time are tight at the moment.

[givaldo111406]

voce encina como faz isso com uma epson 1410

[TylerSmythe]

wow, simply amazing

[mm167]

Hi, do u make and sell such DIY flatbed printer?

I need some flatbed printers (10 and more in the future) but I don't have a workshop and skills to make them by myself.

Pls reply if u are interested.

regards, Marcus

[cutterschoicenotmine]

thats really impressive

[31337157]

Very cool!

[yalabood]

very cool, nice work bro!

[mrbrent62]

Now add a Cricut cutter and you've got a printing cutter

[08agent08]

yea good job dont forget to clean that table its full of ink lol

[asihuay]

Hi.

I am looking for it for long time ago.

what printer do you modify epson canon other?

do you sell plans to make the modifications by my self?

[littlestworkshop]

As the description states it is an HP printer. I don't sell plans for the modifications, sorry.

[bob3219]

very cool

[tmarpe]

HURRA!

[mclaudtt]

Great! I love all this stuff)

[RPHELPS922]

Think,if you could modify it to print on a vertical surface,you could make a bare frame like [ ] so there is no platform for the paper,then you could use a laptop and go mobile and print images "murals" on walls.

[littlestworkshop]

It is possible if you let the gantry go horizontal and use a powerful motor to lift the gantry up.  But I think printing on paper (or similar) and sticking to the wall is possibly better :)

[coondogtheman1234]

Nice printer, id use this to print pictures i create myself onto T shirts and possibly sell them.

[klauzes]

Super ! I've been working on something similar for 2 years now. (hobby) I have a question ... Will it print if you lay it on a wall for instance ? To be more specific ...does the cartridge spay or the ink drops due to gravity? It would be awesome if you could use it to print paintings onto walls , what do you say ?

[littlestworkshop]

The cartridge can certainly fire ink horizontally (it used thermal ink jet technology to propel the ink) but the ink may not feed to the nozzles properly. The mechanics as they stand would need to be upgraded to lift the gantry vertically however.

[sangriel1004]

Great Great Congratulations!!

[diyguy32]

Are your plans available? I would love to build one.

Thanks!

[littlestworkshop]

Sorry I have not written it up

[BeforeNero]

Are there any plans to write it up for distribution. I interested in being able to print onto glass sheets.

[littlestworkshop]

No plans at the moment, I've moved house and am still setting up my workshop again

[macbookpro57]

neat

[franklindavid]

Talk about innovation,give me some tips.

[planetdarwin]

Have you tried printing on canvas?

[littlestworkshop]

I haven't however it is something I intend to try and I see no reason why it would not work, the pigment inks seem to do well on most surfaces. I am building (it works but needs finishing touches) another printer with a moving platen rather than a gantry based on an Epson and I found some small canvases to try.

[rogertangodotcom]

Pretty cool! Gave me a few ideas-

[sungobusiness]

what kind of ink you are using please?

[littlestworkshop]

the pigment ink that came with the printer

[kingpav]

Great work, I cant believe the prices of some of the 3D printing machines, not to mention their limited bed sizes. Im a keen home built CNC machinist and this is going to be my next project. Keep going.

[kadsjr]

cool

[belgvr]

ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!

congratulations

[yougeo]

glad to see someone else is interested in making a homemade 3d inkjet based printer.

for material you can use talc or starch powder and start mixing some glue type binder for the inkjets with food coloring.

Then just sink the talc box and smooth some more powder on top for each layer.

[littlestworkshop]

please see the modified description for a link to some of the further work on powder spreading etc

[damianpoirier]

Very impressive LWShop. Very cool! How is this progressing?

[littlestworkshop]

the 3D printer is on hold while I work on some other stuff, including a simple to build moving bed printer based on an Epson

[tubosolinas]

Interesting video!!!

I want to convert a cheap inkjet printer to be able to print on PCB's not for etching but for printing the part positions, etc. on the top of the PCB.What is the clearance of the head from the material?

[littlestworkshop]

Several mm.

[littlestworkshop]

No, what you can do with the newer pigment inks is print directly on to well cleaned copper, then bake the board to harden the ink and use it as an etch resist. You etch the copper away and afterwards clean off the ink. Google direct print pcb and you should find info on a converted epson.

[JoelRSimpson]

This could be great as is for printing resist directly to copper clad boards for making your own printed circuit boards!

[littlestworkshop]

As per zcorp machines (search zcorp on google)

You print a binder into corn starch or plaster and then dig the part out when you have finished. The unused powder acts as a support material.

[th3pr0ject]

Cool, how are you planning on doing the 3rd dimension? carving a big block of something or "gluing" layer by layer?