Build a Delta 3D Printer - Delta vs Cartesian

As an intro let’s break down the very basics of 3d printing, so, printers consist of the following elements; a hotend that’s capable of melting plastic, an extruder that pushes the plastic filament through that hotend, a series of motors that move the hotend through different XYZ coordinates and a heatbed that keeps the print in it’s place throughout the whole process.
Printers rely on two fundamental mechanics; extrusion and motion. Extrusion being the action of pushing the filament from the extruder to the hotend and motion being the actual positioning of the hotend in the three-dimensional build space. The combination of extrusion and motion results in a process known as additive manufacturing, a succession of layers that create a solid object. Simple, right?
Most 3D printers are either delta or cartesian, the latter being easily recognizable for it’s boxy apperance and delta’s for their tall and slim aspect. If you’ve made your research you’re probably asking yourself: Okay, I kind of know what 3D printing is all about, spare me the details, why choose a delta? Most of the online 3d printing community seem to be using cartesian printers, right? Let’s make a general analysis of both types of printers, cartesian and delta; Cartesians printers use 5 motors, one for the extruder, and four for the X, Y and Z motion, that means one more motor for the Z axis than a Delta which in the long run means not only an added cost but also an extra amount of energy consumption and stress for your electronics. Most cartesian printers have to move the entire heatbed (and print) while printing, resulting in a lower maximum printing speed than a Delta, granted, speed may not always be the answer for 3d printing but it’s definitely an extra point for the Delta. Sooner or later you’ll want to start printing bigger and bigger things and Delta printers just so happen to have the added benefit of larger and taller build surfaces than their cartesian competitors, yes they may take up more vertical space but they also result in taller and bigger prints. Delta’s can offer the option of adding a flying extruder, an effective mod that let’s the extruder hang above the hotend at a fixed distance, a reliable option for printing any type of filament. Conclusion, most people shy away from Delta’s for being too complicated or hard to calibrate and neglect on all these great aspects so we’ll show how simple it can be to get your delta printer up and running from scratch once you understand the fundamental kinematics of the printer.
Comparisons aside, both cartesian and delta are effective and reliable printers if designed correctly. We’re gonna stick to the Delta Kossel base design throughout the whole video but if you’re building a cartesian this video will also be very helpful as we’ll be covering general aspects of 3d printer building, electronic wiring, building an extruder and configuration file editing in Arduino.

[@deltacx1059]

1:52 that extra motor is pretty negligible in terms of power usage compared to the heaters.

[@myriadpro6752]

Granted

[@jimmym2719]

I have 2 cartesians, I am thinking of getting a delta.. yeah why not built one from the parts from another old cartesian that someone gave me. Ya the flying extruder is a great idea, becos I don’t know if delta can swing that extruder weight around. Thanks for making this video.

[@myriadpro6752]

yeah definitely go for it if you want to really learn how they work and how to fix them. flying extruder is also really good for printing with ninjaflex, good luck

[@jimmym2719]

@@myriadpro6752ya I will, actually I have plans for cross gantry, after seeing yr video I am inspired to do delta after a long time waiting..wanna try thing. Thank you bro, you r awesome💕

[@jimmym2719]

@@myriadpro6752 may I know how ramps1.4 get the Gcode to run the print job?

[@myriadpro6752]

@@jimmym2719 ramps 1.4 will only work when combined with an Arduino mega 2560 (ramps 1.4 is the muscle and Arduino mega is the brains which receives the gcode)

[@jimmym2719]

@@myriadpro6752 oh. Thanks, So how to get the Gcode to the mega? My Anet A8 got an SD slot which I normally got the saved cura files to.