01 / Salvage
Stepper motors, a controller, and a power supply from the printer became the starting point.
Sandy / Bench project
A second life for a dead printer.
I'm turning a salvaged Ender 3 into a desktop robot arm. It's a way to learn the mechanics by making them move.
Work in progress · first joint prototypedFrom parts to motion
02 / Make it move
The motors run on the printer's board with a custom Marlin build. Printed parts and a belt drive turned into a working reduction prototype.
03 / Keep learning
The first joint is a prototype, not a finished arm. Fit, friction, and transferring torque are part of the work.
The process is part of it.
CAD, print, test, adjust. Some parts didn't fit. Some needed another version. Getting a mechanism to turn on the bench made the next problem concrete.
The goal is a four-axis arm with a gripper. The full arm isn't assembled yet.
Build updates on Instagram ↗