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Vinculum
Agreed. I understand the ambition and can only say wow! But I think that you will create more problems than solve any. Delta's are great for speed and high acceleration. By going all metal you loose all those qualities. And chains instead of belts? Shivers down my spine. Chains are way more clunky, heavy and are very bad for tight corners which you need (2 180 degree turns above and below). Ambitious? Yes. Cool? Most definitely! Practical and useful? I doubt it.
I Honestly don't think the metal parts im going to be building are going to weigh much more than the plastic parts, I will verify the weight of individual assemblies when I get to that bridge in the road. There are some optimizations to be made on the design sure. As for chains, I am unsure at this moment in time. I like the timing belts, however I do not know how they will react to heat, as a last resort I may switch to chains. I think the main issue with any delta printer is the fact that the frame is not under tension.
As it stands now this is the plan.
1 - Assemble a working rostock printer with very minor changes with the biggest change to the printer being the rods under stretch instead of compress.
2 - Redesign and build the parts in mild steel.
3 - Replace the MDF with cast iron or plate steel, preferring cast iron as its easier to machine by hand.
4 - design a heater build chamber and build it.
5 - accumulate all the gained knowledge and share with the forum.
End result in theory will be a very heavy printer that has a high torsional stability with minimal wear and tear parts with a mid-range investment in materials and a high investment of time. Time will tell, however I can say that if successful it should be fairly stout. One of the biggest problems with high print speed as of now especially with abs is thermal stability of the parts leading to high failure rates. In the future I also have some ideas to migrate this kind of platform to print metal parts.