Mini 3D Printer built from 3 CD-Rom drives and a few other parts.

Printable area is around 40 x 40 x 40 mm.

Printer in action: https://youtu.be/u6P5-a8fF3A

What you will need in addition to the 3 CD-Rom drives

• E3D V6 Hotend (or a clone)
• some bowden tube (around 30-40cm)
• a normal stepper motor for the extruder
• any kind of 3D printer mainboard (i used an Anet A8 – you need to modify the stepper current though! I will add instructions for this soon.).
• endstops (I used the switches i found in the CD-Rom drives as endstops. However, normal endstops should work just fine)
• a 70x70x3mm aluminium plate or something comparable for the print-bed. (keep in mind that you will need to drill 3 3mm holes into it)
• 3 springs for print-bed (found those in CD-Rom drives)
• lots of 3mm screws or various lengths and nuts
• some cables for the stepper motors of the CD-Rom drives (i used old IDE cables, but i would not recommend it since they are very stiff)
• power supply (i used a old ATX power supply) – anything with 12V and around 5A should be fine

Tools you will need

• soldering iron (for attaching wires to the CD-Rom drive steppers)
• saw and drill (for the print-bed)
• crimp tool

How to build it

First disassemble the CD-Rom drives and check the steppers and linear rods.

The steppers should have around 5cm of lead-screw.

The linear rods need to be at least 7,5cm or they wont fit into the axis-base.

Try to get as many screws from the CD-Rom drives as you can.

Also get the springs and the switches if you want to use those.

All axes use the same model (axis-base, axis-carraige, lead-screw-nut).

In the pictures there are some differences, because i changed the design, but didn’t want to reprint all parts.

Basically you can start by printing and assembling the 3 axes first.

The linear rods are kept in place by some small 2mm screws on one side and 3mm screws on the other side to prevent them from sliding around and allow for different lengths.

Make sure to not tighten the 3mm screws (too) much or the printed axis-base will bend.

The small 2mm screws can be found in the CD-Rom drives.

For the y-axis just attach the print-bed-mount and your print-bed.

For the x-axis just mount the z-axis to it.

For the z-axis just attach the hotend-mount.

Dont forget to add the 3mm screws for the endstops at the side of the axis-carriages.

After this print and assemble the frame.

Check the pictures and / or the attached FreeCAD file to see which parts you need and where they go.

Firmware adjustments

I use Marlin as firmware with the following settings:

x,y,z DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT: 110

x,y,z DEFAULT_MAX_FEEDRATE: 20

x,y,z DEFAULT_MAX_ACCELERATION: 100

DEFAULT_XJERK: 3.0

DEFAULT_YJERK: 3.0

Some other adjustments I made are specific to the mainboard and display i use.

I created a branch for the adjustments: https://github.com/b3n3d1k7/Marlin/tree/1.1.x_Anet_A8_CDROM_Printer

If something does not work please let me know.

I will try to improve these instructions once i have some time.

If you have specific questions I will try to answer them as soon as possible.