Insights

Once the printer started its printing job, the firmware and the slicer software were modified to suit the Melxlxtreme R1 (Renamed from Meloprinter). During this time the printer was renamed to Melxlxtreme RectoCube because of its large size and rectangular shape with a cubical print bed. The printer ended up being bigger than initial design. As more and more printing was required to obtaining more data, lots of PLA (eco-friendly biodegradable plastic) filaments were in need. Once the print is complete and the information is collected, the print is mostly useless. To overcome this drawback, Mels did some research on the chances of recycling the used PLA and also to make PLA at home as the COVID-19 lockdown caused a shortage in supply of filaments in the market. The research soon provided enough information to design a Filastruder and a recipe to create homemade PLA from corn. As the Corn to PLA conversion takes certain laboratory equipment, Mels decided to shift the PLA project to a future date and focus of recycling PLA. Meanwhile the next 6 months were focused on upgrading the printer with the parts printed by the printer itself. Soon the printer started getting popular among social media and made its way into national news. More people showed interest on 3D printing service and the printer designed by Mels.

The upgrades

As the printer started to become popular, Mels started printing logo designs to his friends and family. Based on their opinions, Mels decided to upgrade the printer motherboard from the 8bit Arduino to a 32bit SKR for better print quality. As a result, the printer performance and print quality were improved measurably.

The personnel preference

During an occasional research, Mels found that generic brass nozzles used for 3d printer contains some extend of lead, which is toxic if ingested. To avoid any possible health and environmental issues Mels decided to upgrade the brass nozzles with an FDA approved stainless steel nozzles for all 3D printing. It took almost 2 weeks of experimentation and research to fine tune the printer to match the new nozzle.

The future plans

Considering the wooden printer as a prototype and collecting data from it to build a second generation 3D printer with metal framework to improve the print speed and to find out a new kinematics, Mels started researching. Soon Mel discovered a new 3D printing kinematics, which never existed before, something with more potential to make 3d printing faster and cheaper. The prototype is currently being designed. The upcoming projects are primarily a Filastruder along with a Melxlxtreme 3D printer with a metal framework, While exploring the new kinematics and its possibilities.