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INFILL

B0lta

Made by: @arthur

Repository link: https://github.com/AverseABFun/B0lta

Total hours so far: 6

I have a 3D printer

The B0lta will be a 3D printer designed to have a large print volume(300x300x300mm) and operate at a reasonably fast speed. It will run klipper on a Raspberry Pi Zero W and BTT E3 SKR MINI V3.0. This page serves as documentation and a journal for the project.

The requirements, both self-imposed and external:

  • Cost 300USD or less
  • Have at least a 300x300x300mm print volume
  • Have a heated bed
  • Support at least PLA filament and preferably PETG too
  • Use standard 1.75mm filament
  • Have a decent lifetime(i.e. at least a year or two with maintence when small things go wrong)
  • Be FULLY open source
  • At least 125 hours working on it

So far I’ve worked around 6/125 hours.

Arthur’s Launchpad Journal

02/03/2025: I started a couple of days ago(I think on the first?), and got a decent base going. Onshape is here. Here’s a screenshot of the model so far:

image

I estimate that to get to this point, it took me a solid 2 hours since I’m still not SUPER familar with OnShape.

02/03/2025(2): Thinking about design and goals. I’m thinking that I’m going to do a heated bed, klipper firmware, BTT E3 SKR MINI V3.0 + Rpi Zero W for microcontrollers, maybe 300x300x300mm print volume, and probably CoreXY or a misc Cartesian motion system. Right now I’m mostly using 2020 extrusion to block out the design, and I’ll probably continue to do that. The main gimmick of this printer will honestly probably be the size of the printable area lol. For motion system again, I might use a custom system but no matter what it will be cartesian, polar systems are too weird both mechanically and coordinate-wise. I’ll work more on the 3d model today and have already expanded the size of the base a lot to match up with the print volume.

I estimate I spent around 1 hour working on various stuff, including checking prices of CNC stuff and working on some CAD.

02/03/2025(3): Took a look at CNC prices and talked to some people. Looks like the maximum reasonable size for the print volume is 300x300x300mm. I also worked on some designs in Figma (here is the link) and made some stuff for the front plate of the printer, the bed, and a general icon. ****image

I would estimate I worked for around 3 hours on that stuff as I did do a lot of research plus talking to people.