Portable Printing Press

I've always wanted a large etching press since college but I neither have anywhere to put one or the lifetime of practice to use it! 

So, inspired by the Open Press Project, I set out to design one from scratch that could be made within the confines of my 3dPrinter, uses minimal cheap off the shelf other components and is both portable and robust. I may tweak it in the future if anyone has any suggestions with which I agree!

Fundamentally there are parts that could have been combined, but the assembly design was intentional for a variety of reasons. Also designed to be fully symmetrical in parts terms to reduce part if not item numbers. Basically print two of everything except the Top Roller, the Plattens and the Spur Gears. 

The exploded drawing shows how it goes together. Start by making up the mechanisms, assemble them into the Side Structures at the same time as the Thumb Wheels. It does go together neatly if you do it right… Then you will build up the Rollers into one Side Structure before encapsulating by pushing the sides together. Just take it slow and align as you go. The full assemby holds it all together. The Bottom Roller can be added afterwards as it's designed to be removable in the event that the gears need replacing.

The only non printed parts required are 2x M6x70mm Bolts and Nuts. 1x 150x8mm Door Handle Spindle [Minimum 140mm long]. I could have done without the spindle but it adds strength to the area of most force and applies a more even turning force the whole length of the roller.

The shorter of the two provided Plattens also fits neatly into the main frame for stowage and travel, but it obviously has it's usable limitations.

It's designed to fundamentally be push fit, but holes are there to screw to a surface/plank which will both fix it down and keep it together. You could always add a little glue! The choice is yours.

Update - Revised the Crank so that it revolves as rotated. New Retainer Part, Updated Crank & CrankHandle Parts.

Update - Extended Crank offset by 3 or 4mm for better clearance. Updated Runner to reduce nut slot for less play. Old parts will still work however.

Belated apology! - I had a bit of a brain misfire and stupidly decided that the SpurGear was used twice when plainly it's not. It's a symetrically opposite part wherew the gear spiral is also opposite. So now uploaded as SpurGear2.