maximum "height" limit for the prusa 3d printer

[kasemodz]

Lately I have been very interested in buying the prusa or mosaic 3d
printer kit. One big question that I still have and I have tried to
research this question, but I could not come with a specific answer;
hopefully, someone can help.

What is the build area for prusa 3d printer? In the specs and almost
everywhere I read, the build area is 8in x 8in (200mm x 200mm), but I
cannot seem to find the maximum limit for the z-axis. In the mosaic
description, the limits are clearly stated 5in x 5 in x 5in. Thus, I
know I can design anything that can fit inside a 5in cube, but I
cannot find the maximum volume for the prusa? Can anyone please help?
Thanks.

[Triffid Hunter]

They vary depending on extruder and X carriage (motor can foul on
frame rods etc) but mine is almost exactly 100mm.

[kwixson]

@Triffid_Hunter: You don't have a MakerGear kit, do you? MakerGear kits should be pretty standardized. I don't know what the dimensions are, exactly, but they should be pretty much the same for each machine. Rick will have to give an answer here. But typically, counting on a 100mm build height wouldn't be out of line.

[John Ridley]

I have a MG kit. I printed something exactly 100mm high last week.
It did finish printing but it was very tight. The last 10mm or so,
the X drive belt was being
pushed on by the threaded rod of the outer triangles.

I'm building a 2nd printer now, using the new Prusa "felt" branch
parts. Josef has flipped the X axis motor around to move the belt
closer to the center. This should keep it from rubbing at the top, at
least a little. Felt branch is not mainstream yet but Josef intends
to make it so.

[Dale Dunn]

I just ran my MG Prusa up to about 99mm when the X axis belt started rubbing on the frame. I could have assembled the frame with a few mow mm. One item on my back burner list is to design some new frame vertices to get another 20-30 mm of Z. Some other creative reconfiguration of the bottom end of the frame could yield more.

[John Ridley]

On Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 9:50 PM, Dale Dunn <dale...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Some other creative reconfiguration of the bottom end of the
> frame could yield more.

Take a look here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:12299

I had to abandon this idea for now because I'm using a glass print bed
and lowering it that much makes it hit the triangle vertex pieces
(jigged to 250mm). I'm planning to go to this configuration later
though, after I finish building the printer and get some more time,
I'll cut longer bits of threaded rod and move the printer to perhaps
265mm wide so the bed will clear.

Later on I might design completely new triangle vertexes to make the
sides isosceles rather than equilateral triangles, and see if the
design can reliably support 150 or even 200mm of build height.

But then again, I might just move to a welded steel frame made from
square steel stock; this may actually be easier and will certainly be
solid. The problem is that when the built items start to get really
tall, with the platform moving in Y the feed rate might have to be
reduced to keep the accuracy at the top. Moving the extruder in X and
Y ala Ultimaker would solve that but it's a significantly more complex
and expensive arrangement.

[Dean Piper]

Depending on the Prusa setup and how wide your object is, it might be possible to get up to 200mm high. If I were to make an object that was only ~80mm wide in the X axis then I could possibly get all the way up there. Like they said above though, you'll want to go slow, very slow at that height.Otherwise 100mm is about the limit before you start knocking into the frame bits, I have a makergear extruder on gregs lm8uu carriage slightly skewed for extra x travel. Adjusting the skew might give me a few more vertical mm's but not much. I have made parts well over 100mm before and as long as it's centered most things will print fine.

-Dean