instructables
Printable Prusa I3 Style Mini 3D Printer! by 3Dtje
by fiveseven808
Already have a 3D printer? Want another 3D
printer?! Well all right you greedy person, I'll show
you how you can print your very own mini 3D printer
by 3Dtje!
Why would you want to do this?
Well, lets say, you have your larger more capable
printer printing high temp materials, or large objects
for a project, and you would like to print
small/useless/other objects at the same time.
Or, you believe in the idea behind the RepRap
movement, that a printer should be able to self
replicate!
Or you want to challenge yourself, and your
understanding on how a 3D printer works
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Or your current 3D printer is just sitting and collecting
dust in the corner of your room because you have
nothing else to print because you lack creativeness or
the skill to design real world objects that have actual
uses so you decided to browse the web and find
something that does something in an attempt to prove
that 3D printers have actual usefullness but settled on
self replication because it seems like a worthy
endeavor despite not having a solid goal in terms of
problem solving.
Still with me? Let's continue...
btw the video showcases what the printer is capable
of. You may require quite a bit of tuning to get it to
this level, but if you're good enough, you may not
need to!
 1

1. Early Hot-end mount. (Outdated)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ99_lRRO6o

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Step 1: Preface

Let's be frank here... This is NOT an ultra cheap printer. This is NOT a $60 Cherry 3D printer. This is NOT a way to
save money or time. This is NOT a good first printer.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about what this IS.

The 3Dtje Mini 3D Printer is:

Pretty damn printable

EVERYTHING (all printed parts) can be printed in PLA
Everything fits within a 200x200 print volume
Most parts can be printed in a 100x100 print volume

Most parts print without supports, very little support material is used when needed

A Prusa i3 Clone
This design is nothing new, nothing revolutionary, but it's reliable, prints well and works
with any slicer

Open source
All files to reproduce your own are hosted on Thingiverse and licensed via GPL
Feel free to download them and modify them as much as you'd like
You can even sell these if that's your thing!

Simple and interesting to print

As little as 19 STLs to print a functional thing
Most parts look different and are more interesting (IMHO) than a bunch of printed
connectors for extrusion or rod based printers

Simple to assemble
All parts are connected via M3 screws and nuts.
If you live somewhere where metric hardware is hard to come by (or
expensive) then this massively simplifies things.

Cutting up 2, maybe 4 rods, not even having to be super accurate is about the only
thing you need for post-processing tooling
No lining up and squaring precisely of rods and angles and axises and such
With such few 3D printed parts, assembly is somewhat intuitive from only sets of
pictures.

Really fricken cool!

Small, portable, low mass moving parts! This printer can print FAST! (when tuned
properly)
Something you made yourself!

Now that we're on the same page Let's get started!

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Step 2: Prerequisites

You'll need a 3D printer. Or know someone with a 3D printer. Or you know, just be really good with converting STL
files to physical form using your hands I guess...

Print volume of at least 200x200mm XY, and maybe 200mm Z if you want to print rods as well lol
1kg PLA, or some similarly rigid material. Carbonfiber filled PLA comes to mind, however bog
standard PLA works great
I honestly don't know how much filament this uses... Probably around 500g or so
ABS may be desired for the extruder design if you don't/cant lower your motor current

Tools
Screwdrivers for the screws you will be buying
Pliers, files, etc for cleaning up printed objects
Metric drill bits for opening up / cleaning printed holes

Knowledge of how to build a 3D printer from scratch

This is not a hard requirement but knowing how to solve common printer issues will
reduce the amount of swearing you may find yourself uttering when things don't work
out perfectly the first time

While I'll try to help you as much as I can (or am willing), you should come into this
project having built at least one "from scratch" kit, where the soldering of electronic
components is about the only thing that you didn't have to do to build a printer.
You better be good at troubleshooting and solving your Marlin firmware issues,
because you might run into them. I've included some issues I've run into, however it is
definitely not all encompassing

Meet the requirements? Good! Don't meet the requirements but want to read on anyway? Also good!
Let's see what else we need...

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Step 3: Vitamins (non Printable Parts)
Vitamins will probably run you around $150ish USD.
More if you want your parts from China to arrive
sooner
Full BOM is located here
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uAoZOgzV
sK...
It's a little hard to read, so I'll just say that the items
and prices on the left are what you want to buy, and
prices on the right are what I ended up spending.
1. All parts printed except for screws, threaded rods,
and stepper motors
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If you just want a "functional" model without having
any sort of precision or quality output, you can follow
the "Can be Printed" column and just not buy those
parts to save a little bit of money.
Printer Pictured above:
All parts printed and loosely assembled
Threaded rods, screws, nuts, and motors are the only
non printed pieces in this picture. It can be turned into
a functional printer with a minimal amount of
hardware + electronics
Step 4: Printing the Parts!

Now this is the easy part!

Visit the original thing here https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1023641 and start printing!

Things to note:

I printed the Z axis stepper motors lying on their side instead of the shaft side down. This gave me a
much cleaner

DO NOT print the following items

Extruder housing 2, 3
Neither design seem to have screws that line up with the X carriage
If you don't mind not having an X endstop print this:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2752997

Y axis tensioner
My 0.3mm clearance printer could not print this in a way that would fit in the Y axis
I ended up shrinking this
Print the one in the parts pack (below) instead if you want a "smaller" one that has a
better chance of fitting.

Left X axis
Print this instead https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2760294 The original one will not
slice properly

Now for my role in everything

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2721021

This is my parts pack that contains modifications to use non standard parts like imperial rods, printed bearings,
printed rods, etc.

For the cheapest/worst version of the printer, print everything and use 3/16th" rods lol

For people going for quality, you may just want:

Y axis tensioner
10mm Extruder housing
Marlin 1.1.7 config files

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgxLxMeJtgA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NipR9aGzaJA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpdFvf9X6tU

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Step 5: Assembling Everything

I'm kinda lazy and I think that this is fairly simple, so instead of telling you how to assemble everything step by
step, I'll provide a few pictures to help you puzzle things together.

Here are some helpful hints I wish I had when I was assembling my first one

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19yO4X82FSaqLsr5onDgJTsUaURPY2mOouvlhqyG_A_4/edit
?usp=sharing

I probably should add a lot more to this section than what is here currently, but I am unsure on what to add. Except
maybe take things from the google drive and put them here... Let me know in the comments if you have any ideas
on what to add here!

Step 6: Assemble Frame

Fit things together like the pictures shown LOL. Ignore the rods for now, and ignore the bed for now. The rest of the
parts should be self explanatory.

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Step 7: Assemble Y Axis

If your motors are anything like mine, you'll need to attach the gear/pulley on the stepper motor where the gear
actually extends past the shaft length to get things to line up.

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 1

1. This gear, while flush, is way too deep... You're gonna need to push it
out further unfortunately.

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 1

1. As you can see, you're going to need the gear mounted pretty far out. This
is the correct position

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Step 8: Assemble X Axis

Preface:

Depending on your printer, you may need to do a 3mm drill of the Left X axis piece's belt tensioner hole. This hole
needs to be somewhat loose as to freely put tension on the tensioner.

1. Attach a motor to the end of the X axis with the connector facing downwards
2. Attach the 20T gear
3. Insert the 6mm x 180mm rods into the holes on the motor side. You will need to cut these rods if
you bought the 200mm stock.
4. Assemble X axis tensioner either with your own idler gear, or printed idler bearing. Ensure that the
M3 nut is in the tensioner before you proceed.
5. Run the Gt2 belt through the Left side (motor side), through the gear, through the idler bearing on
the right side and make a loop so that you can sorta measure how long a belt you need
6. At this point you should probably mount the right side of the X axis on the rods so you can attach
the X belt tensioner
7. When you are comfortable with the length (ensure the X axis tensioner is recessed quite a bit) you
can cut the belt. Be sure to leave some extra length just in case your measurements were off.
8. Remove right X carriage piece
9. Attach LM6UU bearings into X carriage
10. Slide your X carriage (without hot end) onto the 2 rods
11. Reassemble
12. With everything assembled, take your belts and attach them to the X carriage
13. Tension the X belt slightly with the tensioner screw, and check motion. Don't need to fine tune
things yet, but you may need to adjust the stepper motor gear's height to ensure that the belts are
not rubbing on anything.

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Step 9: Assemble Bed
You'll need to zip tie 3 LM6UU bearings to the bed
using tiny zipties
Attach the whole thing into the Y axis with the 200mm
x 6mm rods. They should slide into your Y axis fairly
tightly
If the rods are too loose for some reason, print out my
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Y axis rod-cap and install that on the affected end(s)
Follow the same process as the X axis to determine
Y axis belt length. Use a small 5mm or so length of
filament to help space and retain the belts in the
space provided on the bed. This will attach the bed to
the belt.
Step 10: Combine X Onto Z

I don't have any good pictures for this step, but basically, get your threaded rods in, slide them into the couplers,
and then slide the 6mm rods through the holes in the top

Assemble as shown in the picture lol. Post in the comments if you have any idea on how to improve the clarity of
this step!

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Step 11: Download and Upload Marlin

BAM!

Yep, not helping you on this.... This is where your previous 3D printer building experience comes in. I'll try to clarify
things in the comments if you ask questions, however I'm not entirely sure how to make it clear and concise.

Follow the instructions here

http://marlinfw.org/docs/basics/install.html Or watch one of the many youtube videos "Install Marlin on RAMPS"

When they all say to "configure" your stuff, instead what you can do is, so long as you've downloaded Marlin 1.1.8
Go and download this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2721021

Inside the Zip, you should see

Configuration_118.h
Configuration_adv_118.h

Remove the "_118" from both of the file names and copy it into your Marlin folder before you click on the Marlin.ino
file.

Open up the Marlin.ino file

Review or set up your steps per inch (dependent on your steppers, drivers, extruder gears, etc).

Upload to your Arduino, and if you've done it correctly, you should see something popping up on your LCD and
you should be able to control the menu!

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Step 12: Add Electronics
BAM!
And that's all the help you're gonna get :)
No seriously though... This is also where knowledge
on 3D printing will help you. Follow the wiring in the
diagram provided (you wont have an auto level switch
though)
BTW, before you assemble the whole thing, you
might wanna check if it actually works... Take your
board you flashed with Marlin, connect up the LCD
and connect a stepper driver and a motor to one of
the outputs. Power everything up with your power
supply, and go to Prepare -> Move Axis and see if
you can get the motor to run. If you can, great! You
can finish assembling the thing. If you can't hope
nothing blew up or go and troubleshoot. Leave a
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comment if you get stuck at this step.
You're gonna want this link
http://reprap.org/wiki/RAMPS_1.4#Stepper_Driver_B
o... to help you with setting microstep jumper settings.
If you've gone with the A4988s, just fill all 3 jumpers
per board, otherwise it may do strange things. If
you've gone with the DRV8825s then pick whatever
you want.
After you check that things move, you're gonna need
to tune your stepper driver current. If you have
DRV8825s, they're probably tuned for WAY too much
current.y The A4988s aren't as bad from the chinese
factories. You're still gonna wanna tune them. Here's
a link to get you started
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNfKZ7o_7PI
Cable management on this printer is not fun.... You're
on your own since I haven't fully solved it either...
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Step 13: Gcode Start and End Statements

Open up your slicer and load in the G-Code Add the start and stop Gcodes in their appropriate
statements locations in your slicer.

The ones I like are in
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2721021
Named 3Dtje_Gcode_start_stop.txt
BE AWARE, my printer does not have endstops, so I
do not have a G28 line in the Start code. You may
need to add this into your Start code if you want to
take advantage of this

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Step 14: DONE! Preflight Checks...

Set 0x0x0 position by hand (if you don't have/use endstops or are using my X carriage)

Level bed

1. Preheat nozzle to temp

2. Take a piece of normal printer paper
3. Rub the paper between the nozzle and the bed
4. Manually turn the Z axis motors until there is just the right amount of friction on the paper
5. Repeat on both left and right sides of bed until friction is even throughout left and right sides

If you're using Cura, you can import my super fast profile into the printer
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2721021 This is the 3Dtje_superfast.curaprofile file. Import it into your printing
profiles.

Or just go with the default cura profile, that super fast one is more for advanced users that can troubleshoot when
things start underextruding or steps skipping.

If you're really worried, you can print at 20-30mm/s all day long just fine :) might take a little longer, but the printer
is small anyway!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BuuGswqWWE

Step 15: PRINTING!

Load up an STL into Cura or whatever and hit print!

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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qmK9RCalM0

Step 16: Troubleshooting...

Unless you build printers regularly (in which case,
why are you reading this?!) Most likely you will have
encountered some sort of issue during the build
process (becuase I missed something important)
If you were smart or lucky enough to have your
machine printing "something" but your prints have
failed, then it sounds like your printer or print settings
need tuning.
In either case, visit the page here:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1023641/#commen
t... and post a comment! A couple of us check the
comments regularly. If you aren't hearing from me or
anyone else on the comments section in
instructables, I'd suggest going there, that way you
can get feedback from more than one person.
Here's a link to a very messy,unorganized repository
of files and notes pertaining to the 3Dtje. I may have
missed something in this instructable, but it may
possibly be hidden in here...
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12XZU6XSKye
ojHpYLOf4XgEZYhgHXvEla?usp=sharing
Good luck and happy printing!

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