Andromeda 3D Printer
A 3D printer designed and built from the ground up.
- Timeline
- May 2022 — May 2024
- Status
- Complete
- Domain
- Hardware / Electronics
- Role
- Designer, builder
- Build volume
- 350 mm diameter x 400 mm height
- Stack
- Fusion 360 & Solidworks
- GitHub
- Will upload soon
- Links
- GrabCAD
The Build
Andromeda was my first ground-up hardware project: frame, motion system, hotend mounting, electronics, wiring, and firmware configuration. You might ask why did I do it? Well, my response would be why not. I had been using 3D printers for years, I had built open source kits from Voron Design and I admired their engineering, so I wanted to give it a shot with a particular type of 3D printer I had been fixated on: delta 3D printers. These printers were mesmerizing to watch, and incredibly fast.
What was I going to do differently, you might ask? Make the first delta 3D printer with a moveable bed that could automatically eject prints. It would be the perfect tool for print farms to have, which were the main B2B customers at that time.
I started with some general research and then dove straight into the design. I spent months designing on and off, trying to think of a great arrangement to make having a squared frame easy. Once all of that was done I went into electronics and the motion system, which were relatively easy since I had been building 3D printers for a while, so I just reused what worked well.
Now, before everything was ready, I partnered with a Chinese 3D printer store to create a prototype, to then produce it and distribute it. The prototype worked, but the software was giving constant calibration issues, which ultimately led me to abandon the project and just publish everything openly. The GitHub repo is coming soon; the CAD is on GrabCAD in the meantime. This was the first time I had to move on. Some might call it a pivot, since I pivoted into building Clura, a 3D printer enclosure.
Gallery
What worked
- Be bold: at the start I did not know what I was getting myself into, but I jumped into it and learned to swim on the way. This is probably my best quality: just thinking anything is possible and not being afraid to try.
- Designed and built a complete machine from nothing: frame, motion system, hotend mounting, electronics, wiring, and firmware configuration.
- Got a working prototype built with a Chinese 3D printer store, and when it didn't work out, published the design openly instead of sitting on it.
Mistakes Made
In every project I made mistakes. For each one I wrote: what went wrong, why it arose, and what it taught me.
Left the software to the very end and tried to achieve alone what a team of 10-15 people did
- Why it arose
- Inexperience, and lacking someone to work with: I was keeping everything a secret.
- What I learned
- Don't work alone. Find people who are great at what you aren't. Share your progress and get feedback from people as soon as you can.
Was tied to long iteration times with nothing to do in between
- Why it arose
- Not structuring, from the beginning, everything that had to be done.
- What I learned
- Keep track of what you want to achieve, mark progress, identify mistakes. Never wander for months without going back to the bigger picture of it all.
Over-engineered it, which meant testing too many features at once
- Why it arose
- Being just one more feature away from being done.
- What I learned
- Build something, ship it. Test it and then continue. Never build for a long period of time without testing.
Picked the project on passion alone, with no thought for the financial side
- Why it arose
- It was pure enthusiasm for delta printers. I never asked who would pay for it or why.
- What I learned
- Be disciplined about choosing the projects to work on. Without a monetary incentive it's hard to get people on board to work with you, and making progress will be difficult.