Whats left of the original HE3D kit

A month or so ago I made the questionable descision to buy a HE3D -600 delta, since then whilst Ive got it working OK ish, ive note really been very happy with the print quality or overall performance, and have just kepttweaking it and replacing most of the kits parts with better alternatives....... the parts in the origina kit can more or less be approximated as follow

2020 frame
arms
heatbed
MDF buildplate
axis rollers
belt
drivegears
printed corner blocks
printed effector
printed carraiges
printed carraige mount blocks
printed control enclosure
printed heatbed mounts
printed limit switch mounts
extruder
hot end
bed level
bowden tube
controller
screen
PSU
axis motors
extruder motor
hot end fan
limit switches
bed levelling switch
wiring


now lets look at that list again, Ive colour coded the list as follows

Original
Replaced
being replaced
replacement being considered

2020 frame
arms think carbon arms would be stiffer, may replace
heatbed not very good, probably should replace with a 24V plate
buildplate replaced MDF plate with 5mm glass
axis rollers too much wobble in the rollers, replaced with linear rails
belt
drivegears
printed corner blocks replaces with metal corners
printed effector replaced with metal effector
printed carraiges linear rails replaced these
printed carraige mount blocks metal mount blocks
printed control enclosure never used the RAMPS enclosure
printed heatbed mounts
printed limit switch mounts
extruder just purchased a E3D replacement
hot end just purchased a E3D replacement
bowden tube may replace with shortened tube if the E3D lightweight extruder works out
controller replaced with Duet
screen replaced with panel due
PSU considering replacing with 24V
axis motors
extruder motor just purchased a E3D replacement
hot end fan
limit switches dont like them want to find something less clunky and more repeatable
bed levelling switch replaced with DC42 probe
wiring meh, not exactly replaced but it has all been modified

At what point do I consider the box of left over parts worthwhile building into another printer?

---

RepRapPro Mendel 3 Tricolour
RepRapPro Fisher
-Carbon Arms
-Easy adjust Carriage+effector
-axis stiffness mods
HE3D -600 delta
-Duet 0.8.5
-PanelDue
-DC42 Height probe
-RobotDigg metal components
Simplyfy3D
RS Design Spark CAD

May I ask where you bought all of your parts? I bought a DLT-600 and still waiting for it in the mail. Is there a part list anywhere where I can order the metal or replacement pieces so they will get here all at the same time. Thanks!

Mostly the parts are from RobotDigg [www.robotdigg.com], at the very minimum you need to get the 2020 corner piece set.

If you want the metal carriages and effector then you will also need to buy these, but no point buying one or the other, get both or neither, but make sure that you have an alternative bed leveling solution before going down this path. the HE3D hot end fits in the RobotDigg effector fine, but you need to print an adapter bracket to hold it in place and hold the fan.

If you want to stay with rollers then get a new set of 9 roller, the HE3D supplied rollers are crap, I actually went with linear rails, which means you loose about 125mm from the total printing height... if you stay with rollers and want to use metal effectors then you also need to print a new carriage.... I can supply you with a modified design.

My bed leveling probe comes from DC42 at [escher3d.com] not sure if this will work with a non duet controller.

The Duet and panel due come from [think3dprint3d.com]

Just found a supplier that can supply 340mm carbon arms, I would make my own but I don't have a way of measuring arms this long accurately enough [www.tridprinting.com]

[e3d-online.com] is the supplier of the new extruder and hot end.

After you have gone through this list there is actually very little of the HE3D kit left, and what is left can easily be sourced from the suppliers listed above anyway, things like bearings, and fasteners may be the most frustrating things to obtain piecemeal

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2016 08:31PM by bgkdavis.

---

RepRapPro Mendel 3 Tricolour
RepRapPro Fisher
-Carbon Arms
-Easy adjust Carriage+effector
-axis stiffness mods
HE3D -600 delta
-Duet 0.8.5
-PanelDue
-DC42 Height probe
-RobotDigg metal components
Simplyfy3D
RS Design Spark CAD

Wow awesome list and thank you so much for the help! I know I will order the corners right now but I do have some questions about some of the other upgrades.

Do you think I can get the great performance sticking with rollers if I ordered better ones? Or do you think linear is the way to go?

Why did you upgrade to the Duet and panel? Was it to use the DC42 probe? How does this combination work for auto leveling the bed? I heard a lot of great things about the DC42.

Why a new extruder and hot end?

From your list, which do you think are 100%, if you don't upgrade this you will never get good prints?

I really appreciate your quick response and list! Excited to hear your feedback!

You will get better performance with rollers that track straight the HE3D rollers don't!, you could see the carriages wobbling as they move up and down the vertical rails and you could also see a very pronounced wobble at the nozzle, it could be that I just had some bad rollers, but I just went with linear rails to absolutely kill the problem.

The Duet was a personal choice, I've got two other printers, one is a delta and both have Duets, also I had heard that the documentation was really bad on the HE3D and people had problems with commissioning the RAMPS controller.... however I'm sure there are plenty of people who can help on that respect.

Also with respect to the Duet I knew that DC42s probe would work with it, contact bed probes are not a great way of doing bed probing because they require pressure and pressure causes deflection, using the HE3D bed probing I was lucky to get a calibration deviation below 0.06, now I'm looking at 0.015-0.02

The new extruder was because the HE3D extruder is skipping when I try and print above 80mm/s, because I wanted to experiment with flexible filaments, the HE3D extruder is incredibly badly designed for flexible filament, and also because I wanted to try a lighter extruder for a flying extruder modification, which I have already tried with the machine, but the HE3D extruder is HEAVY!!!

The hot end is again because I wanted to try and improve the skipping, and also its designed to go with the extruder in a direct drive configuration... direct drive may not be a good thing for a delta, but I can experiment on my other printer.

Actually the HE3D extruder and hot end are not all that bad, which is why they were never at the top of my list for replacement, they are both reasonably well constructed from aluminium, and I've done some reasonable printing with them, just wanted to see if I could do better, the length of the bowden tube makes clean prints very difficult to achieve

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2016 08:26PM by bgkdavis.

---

RepRapPro Mendel 3 Tricolour
RepRapPro Fisher
-Carbon Arms
-Easy adjust Carriage+effector
-axis stiffness mods
HE3D -600 delta
-Duet 0.8.5
-PanelDue
-DC42 Height probe
-RobotDigg metal components
Simplyfy3D
RS Design Spark CAD

you may also want to check this out [forums.reprap.org]

---

RepRapPro Mendel 3 Tricolour
RepRapPro Fisher
-Carbon Arms
-Easy adjust Carriage+effector
-axis stiffness mods
HE3D -600 delta
-Duet 0.8.5
-PanelDue
-DC42 Height probe
-RobotDigg metal components
Simplyfy3D
RS Design Spark CAD

Hey bgkDavis,

First I would like to say thank you very much for responding to my questions and helping out! So I got my printer in the mail and I have had two 5 hour sessions of putting everything together and I feel like I am 75% done. Sadly I was lacking some tools so had to keep running to Microcenter or Home Depot for tools lol. Here are a couple questions I have, not sure if you had the same problems after reading your build review.

- Would you suggest keeping the extruder at the top? I was thinking about moving down the side so I didn't have to splice into the cable, I think they included cables for me to splice but was wondering if it needed to be at the top? The only benefit was maybe less bending of the bowden tube to the hot end if it was at the top.

- The printed effector, I have it all together and the hot end isn't perpendicular to the effector itself, there is a weird 3-6% tilt when it is fully tightened. I did a good amount of cleaning on the effector to see if there were any extra plastic from the print but overall it looks clean. So I could either print myself another one, but sadly I don't have an abs printer, just PLA which isn't good for around the hot end. The other solution is to buy a metal effector, would you suggest one over another? They say they have a J-Type Hot End but I have no problem getting another Hot End to compensate for a better suggested effector! There are a lot of effectors with many different hole patterns.

- In total how much was your Duet/PanelDue and DC42? Like you said in a previous comment that the bed leveling won't work if I go with a new effector? Also is it hard to setup? I am a software engineer but not electrical, still learning on that side.

- I know you went Linear rails, I might just replace the carriages with something like this Kossel Metal Carriage or RobotDig Metal Carriage

- I agree with your review, all of the cables are really really short! Also I think I am missing a couple, I don't have much extra laying around so I will have to pick a couple of those up!

Thanks again and Cheers!
Greg

Also I was thinking about picking up a new build plate here Gecko Build Plate at their either 305mm or 290mm diameter since I got the heated bed with the DLT-600. Need to measure from the screws on the board, so I might order that board bigger and just drill holes in it so it fits perfectly and I don't need to have it held down by clips.

Thoughts? Is the glass better?

Actually I've just relocated my extruder to the side and it works fine, better because I've now replaced the extruder with a E4D titan, it turns out I cut the bowden too short for the extruder to stay at the top! yes I had to Splice the extra cable into the loom to make it long enough.

I think the Duet/screen/probe replacement comes to about GBP200 all in

You want the carraiges for the open belt, but these are only part of the carraige, to use these without linear rails you will need to print new cars, Ive actually got a design for new cars that will take these and work with the rollers

I'm still using the HE3D hot end, I've now got an E3D but need to print an adapter to use it with the DC42 probe, the robotdigg effector works fine with the HE3d hot end once you make an adapter.

Sorry I know nothing about the Gecko plate, I like glass becuase it has good stability and doesnt bend like metal.

also just got my carbon arms.... GET THEM, those ally arms just bend too much and the ball ends are loose

When your building your hot plate look on the underside of the heatbed and you will see a blob of solder that causes the heat bed to not sit flat on the MDF support plate, with a dremmel gouge a hole in the mdf to accommodate this.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2016 07:14PM by bgkdavis.

---

RepRapPro Mendel 3 Tricolour
RepRapPro Fisher
-Carbon Arms
-Easy adjust Carriage+effector
-axis stiffness mods
HE3D -600 delta
-Duet 0.8.5
-PanelDue
-DC42 Height probe
-RobotDigg metal components
Simplyfy3D
RS Design Spark CAD

Updated list, the latest round of replacements haev made a lot of improvement, its surprising how much better the E3D hot end is

Original
Replaced
being replaced
replacement being considered

2020 frame
arms Carbon Fibre are a lot stiffer than the supplied aluminium
heatbed not very good, probably should replace with a 24V plate
buildplate replaced MDF plate with 5mm glass
axis rollers too much wobble in the rollers, replaced with linear rails
belt
drivegears
printed corner blocks replaces with metal corners
printed effector replaced with metal effector
printed carraiges linear rails replaced these
printed carraige mount blocks metal mount blocks
printed control enclosure never used the RAMPS enclosure
printed heatbed mounts
printed limit switch mounts
extruder replaced with E3D Titan
hot end replaced with E3DV6
bowden tube may replace with shortened tube if the E3D lightweight extruder works out
controller replaced with Duet
screen replaced with panel due
PSU considering replacing with 24V
axis motors
extruder motor still using original have a wiring difference between the supplied motor and E3D others
hot end fan
limit switches dont like them want to find something less clunky and more repeatable
bed levelling switch replaced with DC42 probe
wiring meh, not exactly replaced but it has all been modified

---

RepRapPro Mendel 3 Tricolour
RepRapPro Fisher
-Carbon Arms
-Easy adjust Carriage+effector
-axis stiffness mods
HE3D -600 delta
-Duet 0.8.5
-PanelDue
-DC42 Height probe
-RobotDigg metal components
Simplyfy3D
RS Design Spark CAD

So i am going to get the RobotDig Effector, you said you have a design for it? Could I get a link to that? Or maybe we can trade emails?

[www.thingiverse.com]

---

RepRapPro Mendel 3 Tricolour
RepRapPro Fisher
-Carbon Arms
-Easy adjust Carriage+effector
-axis stiffness mods
HE3D -600 delta
-Duet 0.8.5
-PanelDue
-DC42 Height probe
-RobotDigg metal components
Simplyfy3D
RS Design Spark CAD

Did you have to switch the black and green wires also for the extruder? I have all the steppers working except for the Extruder, trying to see if I have the pins wrong for the 1.2v which I am measuring, or the wires need to be switched? I will have to research on how to compile the code and update the firmware, there are no instructions. It is very frustrating at times because if I have good instructions this build would be much easier compared to having to try and figure everything out manually. I never had to touch firmware or update firmware on hardware.

Oh wait you aren't using the RAMPS Controller so I think I need to check up on those forums. But I would like to know about the firmware.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2016 01:57PM by Sythlin.

Actually the cable for my extruder are fine.... BUT, I tried using a couple if different motors and they don't work, I suspect that I need to swap over a pair of wires....... what this may suggest is your motor is correct but the cable is wrong, whilst on mine the the cable is wrong, but because the supplied motor is also wrong the two faults cancel out

---

RepRapPro Mendel 3 Tricolour
RepRapPro Fisher
-Carbon Arms
-Easy adjust Carriage+effector
-axis stiffness mods
HE3D -600 delta
-Duet 0.8.5
-PanelDue
-DC42 Height probe
-RobotDigg metal components
Simplyfy3D
RS Design Spark CAD