FoldaRap Build Manual

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FoldaRap Documentation

Main page | FoldaRap Buyer's Guide | FoldaRap Build Manual | FoldaRap User Manual | FoldaRap improvements

Tools required

1,5 mm Allen wrench (for the pulleys grub screw)
2 mm Allen wrench (for M3 counterksunk bolts and pneumatic fittings "MA-12-03-M5")
2,5 mm Allen wrench (for normal M3 cap-head bolts and the rounded M4 bolts used for the frame)
little flat screwdriver (1,5mm) (for the board's screw terminals)
Philips (PH2) or flat screwdriver (3mm) (for the psu's screw terminals)

You may need also :

a small pliers and a large one (to tighten the hotend)
something to cut wires, and something to strip them (knife, automatic striper, etc.)
iron (for wires, ferules and board terminals)
a lighter for the heat-shrink sleeves
small files (round, flat) to eventually ream the printed parts
a glue gun (gluing the endstop on the printed part is easier/quicker than using bolts)

Overview In case of doubt, don't hesitate to have a look at the 3d model in Sketchup (before/during the build) ! It will show you the folded/unfolded state of the machine and you can play around with it :)

Basically we have a main frame and several sub-assemblies, some can be done in parallel : gather your friends and establish a record of minimum building time !

I tried to make a Gantt diagram for that :

General tips :

Work on a cutting mat if you have one, it will protect your table plus they often show a millimetre grid that will be useful to check the bolts length (but with some experience you will recognize them just by looking or holding one).
Place you mouse over a picture in a list if you wonder what part it is
How to insert a T-nut : Tightening torque : 2.5 Nm (+/- 5%)

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Ok let's start
It should take between 4 and 20 hours to put everything together, depending of your experience and some sub-assembly that may have been already prepared.

Know the parts

Firstly, have a look at all the part and learn what everything is.

foot-front left
foot-front right
foot-rear left
foot-rear right
hinge-outer left
hinge-outer right
hinge-inner left
hinge-Inner right
z-motor-bracket left
z-motor-bracket right
y-idler
y-carriage and belt-clamp
alternative y-carriage
+ alternative belt-clamp
y-motor
bed insulation and leveling plate
x-end motor
x-carriage
x-end idler
extruder-idler
underplate
board mount
z-top left
z-top right
reprap.org plate

Z-axis

Caution : on the aluminium extrusion some corners are better than others, take care to choose one that slide well for the X-motor and X-idler, keep it in mind then when assembling the Z-right and Z-left.

hinge detail

movement

Right

x1 x1 x1

x1 x2 x2

x1 (17cm wires for the z-right) x3 x1 x1

vinyl coupling (pushed half-lenght on the motor shaft)

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Left

the lever is oriented toward the left (exterior)

people usually twist the wires of the endstop and motors, to reduce interferences and make them more tidy

x1 x1 x1

x1 x2 x2

x1 (25cm wires for the z-left) x3 x1 x1

x1 (with 25cm blue wires for z-endstop, fix with an m3x8 or simply use a glue gun)

vinyl coupling (pushed half-lenght on the motor shaft)

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Rear Base

exploded view

assembled

x1 x1 x2 x4

x8 x8

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tips : use the other extrusion when adding the two first nuts

Front Base

exploded view

assembled

x1 x1 x2

x8 x8 x1 (with 32cm green wires for y-endstop, fix with an m3x12 and m3 nut or glue gun)

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y-idler

x2 x2

x1 x2 x2 (603zz)

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Bed-plate

x1 x1 x4 x4

(m3x10 is fine, but the m3x12 allow you to eventually add a sheet of insulation above the wood plate)

alu plate
thermistor (26awg blue 30-35cm, ferules, kapton)
kapton

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Tip : use the wood plate to center the position of the peltier

Plug the peltier in an adequate power supply (e.g : 12v) to check which side is heating. Don't worry if you put it wrong, you can always switch the cold/hot side by inverting the +/- wires on the board at any moment

Y-carriage

lasercut version

x1 or +

600mm belt (pay attention to its length, it's the shortest of the two, as the one for the X axis is 700mm)

x2 x3 x3 x8 x6

x3 (or LM6UU)

bed springs x3
zip-tie x3

+Bed

Tips : if the bearing mount are too loose, you can add a little drop of glue or a very small amount of blue tack in the bearing grooves.

Clamp the belt in the middle of it's length

X-motor

x1 x3 x3 x1 (50cm wires) x1

x1 (with 50cm red wires for x-endstop, fix with an m3x8 or glue gun)

The holes for mounting the motor are wide in order to be able to use them for adding tension on the X belt. Thus mount the motor ass close as posible to the extrusion side in order to be able to push the motor the other way arrond at the tensionning step.

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Extruder

Don't forget to make a flat on the shaft if there isn't one, using a file

with a rubber roller

with a bearing and a bolt

x1 extruder motor (50cm) or

x2 x3 x1 x1

x1 x3 200px x1

x1 x1 (some early versions are using a rubber roller instead)

If your motor came with an aluminium gear, here is how I remove them (M4 bolt+hammer+vice) :

Hotend and thermistor

resistor 60cm 22awg wire
thermistor 60cm 26awg (or leftover from the motors)
fan prolongated to match 60cm

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This video is the first I made of these series, and is far from perfect (bowden tube goes before the heatsink!). I'll remake it later but for the moment it's better than nothing (and there is always a good doc on the RepRapPro_Huxley_hot_end_assembly)

To prepare the heatsink you will need to remove some fins, drill a few holes and file a flat face (can be hand-made with a file, or a dremel or even a cnc)
remove the fins by twisting them with a plier (found it easier and less dangerous than using a flush side cutter)
then use a template to drill the holes (for 3mm bolts)
make the bottom of the heatsink flat (until no more black is apparent, like on the picture below) to make a good contact with the aluminium block that will be cooled
don't forget to put the ptfe tube in the pneumatic fitting, before adding the heatsink (the tube will fit snuggly between the fins)
add heatsink grease
press firmly
engage both bolts
finish to tighten them (dont require much force as the taped hole is in the aluminium block)

Power Supply

x1 x6 x6

200px x1 x4 x4

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Bolt the PSU on the plate, with a washer between the psu and the plate

120W PSU

Which have a slightly different mounting.

mine wasn't labelled, but the order is usually Live/Neutral/Ground

Board

x1 x3 x1

Refer to Azteeg_X1

board
stepper drivers

It is maybe a good time to check if the stepper drivers are correctly set (see Pololu_stepper_driver_board and SureStep82 user guide) (Vref = 0.4 for the nema14, 0.32 for the PG35L)

You don't need to plug the power supply for that, if you have set the jumper to "usb" instead of "int", the USB connection is enough for this checking phase.

board to power supply : 8cm red/black wires

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Y-motor

don't forget to insulate the ferules

x1 x3 x3

x1 (15cm wires) x1

x1 x7 x5 x2

big blue switch
heatshrink sleeve

Power supply to male plug : 1 green wire 18WG of 15cm (35cm for the TXH240), one end with ferule, the other end just stripped
Switch to power supply : 1 red and 1 black wire 18AWG of 15cm (35cm for the TXH240), one end with ferule, the other end just stripped
Switch to male plug : 1 red wire of 6cm, 1 black of 9cm 18AWG, both ends with ferule

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Great ! You are almost done !

Have a pause, you need to be relaxed for the next step, or you can also just head to the end :)

Wiring

At this stage you should have all of these sub-assembly :

the frame
y-carriage and bed
x-motor and endstop
the extruder and it's idler
the hotend, assembled but nozzle not yet tightened
the underplate and a beginning of the wiring phase

Now lets plug everything to the board !

18 AWG : power
22 AWG : heat
26 AWG : sensors (you may use the leftover from the motors)

Nema 14 sequence : red, blue, green, black
For the geared stepper PG35L, after trying the three sequence (as suggested by StepperMotor#Shortcut_for_finding_the_proper_wiring_sequence), I found the order : Black (1B), Green (1A), Orange (2A), Yellow (2B)

Y-motor (15cm, under the board)
X-motor (50cm)
Z-motors (17cm and 25cm)
Extruder-motor + fan
Y-endstop (green 32cm)
Z-endstop (blue 25cm)
X-endstop (red 50cm)
Hotend-thermistor (blue 60cm)
Hotend-resistor (red 60cm)
Hotend-fan (red/black 60cm)
Bed-thermistor (blue 30-35cm)
Bed-peltier

Finish by the bed wires (peltier and thermistor), as they will move they need to be above all the other wires.

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The following wiring diagram of the Azteeg X1 board might help if you can't read the inscription on the board.

Y-axis (105mm between smooth rods)

principle of the y-axis, linear bearing or bushing version

File:Foldarap y-axis sliders principle.jpg

principle of the printed sliders version (in progress)

x2

.jpg

Slide the smooth rods through the Y-idler or Y-motor part
.jpg

put the Y-carriage (aka frog) on the smooth-rods
.jpg

and then finish to slide them through the other part
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To align the Y-motor and Y-idler check that the carriage run smoothly. Since the Y-motor is already in the middle thanks to the 6mm bump on the rear-foot-left, use the carriage to set the Y-idler's distance from each front-foot (expected to be ~12mm from each inner side), once satisfied you can lock the Y-idler in place with its respective round M4x8.
.jpg

Make a loop at each end of the belt with zip-ties (the orientation showed is the best I found)
Tighten the belt by closing the loops with zip-ties
.jpg

trim everything but keep a short length on the tensioning zip-tie to be able to pull on it with a plier

X-axis (30mm between smooth rods)

X-ends

X-motor extruder-idler

if the bolt don't screw in the plastic, add a nut, but this one can be tricky to put in place.

detail of the bearing idler

x1 x2 x3

x4-6 x2 x1

x1 x1

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After wiring, put the two x-ends in place (impregnate the printed parts with oil for better sliding) and add the smooth-rod without forgetting the three linear bearings.

X-carriage

x1 x2 x3 (LM6UU or igus RJMP-01-06)

don't forget to add the linear bearing/bushing on the smooth-rods

Top Frame

x1 x1 x1 x1

x8 x8

Setting the Z-sliders (242mm between threaded rods)

x4 x2

turn the rods in the x-ends to push them in the vinyl coupling

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X-axis 2/2

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Now you can add some tension to the x-belt

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hotend x4 x4

700mm belt
zip-tie x2

Tidying

spiral wrapping band : for the wires that came out of the base (30cm left / 57cm right).

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Leveling the bed and zeroing

The Z-zero is made when leveling the bed.

Start by roughly leveling it
then move the nozzle to the lowest point
and adjust the 3 screws to level it regarding that height (by turning them until the homing move stop lowering the springs)
repeat on each corners so the zero is exactly when the nozzle stop touching the bed (true for the four corners+center)
1. I like to start with the X direction (from the middle of the two left-screws to the right screw)
2. then only working on the left side, trying alternatively from the front to the end corner
3. after that it's supposed to be leveled but may need few more tweaking for the right corners

Skeinforge : you will only have to add a little offset (altitude), to have the desired height for the first layer, usually the same as your layer height.
Slic3r : leave z-offset at 0, it will add one layer height automatically (you still may have to adjust it slightly to fine tune the Z-zero).

Another advantage of that : by moving to the center of the bed from the zero height, the nozzle is also wiped by the side of the bed from any purged plastic

Go go go first print !!!