Folger Tech Kossel Delta 2020 Full 3D Printer Kit w/Auto-Level

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Captain_Tim
Do you have any pictures of what it looks like? It sounds amazing. I was thinking of getting one of these, cutting it to fit the bottom and top, hooking it up to a switch and 3 potentiometers (to control the colour).
12V RGB LED Strip - 5M

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fattmann
As a related question, what springs are you using for bed leveling? I've seen some on a couple websites, but figured it would be something I could pick up locally if I knew the preferred spring rates/lengths and what not.

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fattmann
As a related question, what springs are you using for bed leveling? I've seen some on a couple websites, but figured it would be something I could pick up locally if I knew the preferred spring rates/lengths and what not.

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Vlerherg
That could be pretty cool! I like the thought of having color control. Creating your own manual controller with pots would eliminate the need to purchase the remote separately. I am at work and do not have any pics of that printer on my phone. I have the entire Folger Kossel build, tons of prints and awesome projects, but none of my Frankenstein printer. I bought my first printer as a QUBD 2UP kit, learned what a printer should not be, then tore it apart. Kept the electronics, rods, screw, bearings and motors. Tossed the rest in the trash and proceeded to completely design and build my own printer from scratch. It is a cartesian H-bot style like the QUBD but much bigger and solid as a tank with 1" 8020 extrusions and 1/4" aluminum heated bed, etc. Ugly as hell, but makes absolutely beautiful prints. That's one reason I went for a delta for my 3rd - I wanted something faster and a lot more elegant looking.

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Captain_Tim
I currently have a Two Up... My goodness is this thing a pain in my lower region! I'm getting this Kossel to add a Delta, this will be my second printer and I think delta's look awesome! This Kossel will be used to print parts to fix/upgrade my Two Up, then in the summer, I think I'll turn my Two Up into a 3up, as designed by "ddegonge888" here: 3up. He can also be found on Youtube as "3DPrintedLife" and he just released a new printer called the Eclips3d. So yeah, hopefully mid summer, this two up will be no more. At least I know how these printers work mechanically.

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Vlerherg
I used to be active in the QUBD forums when I had the Two Up. I didn't have as many problems with it as a lot of folks did, which I attribute to meticulous assembly, which is about the only way to make that bag of MDF work well. Before I tore it up, it was heavily modded (pulley mod, replaced entire X gantry, upgraded z-screw flange and flex coupler (did not even come with one that early on), extruder, hot-end, heated bed, etc....). I knew about the 3uP "mod" (really a whole new printer just re-using the metal from the two-up) but wanted the experience of starting from scratch. I kept the moving bed in the Y-axis, but in retrospect I should have built it with the bed on the Z-axis. I used the beast to re-print all of the plastic for the kossel and have used the kossel to fix broken parts on the beast. It is a symbiotic relationship.

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paul_delta
Heck, it's so easy for Folgertech - I'm sure there are a lot of people on this forum who will with pleasure make step by step assembly/calibration video - just send them free sample/kit.

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fattmann
Lucky. Took my brother and I a week working 6hrs a day to get it together. Instructions were awful in some parts, and we had to hand file/drill all the 3D pieces rather significantly to make things fit.

I want to get the aluminum corners, but have also heard horror stories of people having to ratchet strap it together they were so poorly formed.

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Legrand
I recently printed out a calibration sample and the text was inverted. Is this an easy fix in the firmware? I tried inverting the x-axis, but after seeing the results, and thinking about it for a couple of seconds, I'm guessing that only works for Cartesian machines.

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paul_delta
[github.com]

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Captain_Tim
Anyone who cut their diagonal rods to be around 250mm, what was your build size? I'm almost at the part where I need to cut them, and I'm deciding if I should go with the recommended 230mm or go for a 250mm

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SlowFoot

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Captain_Tim
Anyone who cut their diagonal rods to be around 250mm, what was your build size? I'm almost at the part where I need to cut them, and I'm deciding if I should go with the recommended 230mm or go for a 250mm

I made mine 250 mm total length but my build is not finished yet.
My goal is to get a higher lowest angel on the arms to reduce the impact of build errors and also a bit larger build area. 50/50 between the two is the plan at the moment. I got a rev A kit so I will not lose much in build hight but, if I get it right, I will lose resolution when the effector is moving towards a tower.

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Captain_Tim

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SlowFoot

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Captain_Tim
Anyone who cut their diagonal rods to be around 250mm, what was your build size? I'm almost at the part where I need to cut them, and I'm deciding if I should go with the recommended 230mm or go for a 250mm

I made mine 250 mm total length but my build is not finished yet.
My goal is to get a higher lowest angel on the arms to reduce the impact of build errors and also a bit larger build area. 50/50 between the two is the plan at the moment. I got a rev A kit so I will not lose much in build hight but, if I get it right, I will lose resolution when the effector is moving towards a tower.

What is your planned build area? I'd like a 210mm diameter from mine. I'm willing to sacrifice some height for that

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paul_delta
I don't think that you will be able to print 210mm circle with 250mm rods. Mine are 230mm and my max printable diameter is 158mm. I'd expect around 195mm with 250mm rods.

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Captain_Tim

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paul_delta
I don't think that you will be able to print 210mm circle with 250mm rods. Mine are 230mm and my max printable diameter is 158mm. I'd expect around 195mm with 250mm rods.

Well that's close enough for me. It's larger then my Two Up and that's what I wanted for it. That's an estimate for a 250mm total arm length, correct?

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SlowFoot

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Captain_Tim
Anyone who cut their diagonal rods to be around 250mm, what was your build size? I'm almost at the part where I need to cut them, and I'm deciding if I should go with the recommended 230mm or go for a 250mm

I made mine 250 mm total length but my build is not finished yet.
My goal is to get a higher lowest angel on the arms to reduce the impact of build errors and also a bit larger build area. 50/50 between the two is the plan at the moment. I got a rev A kit so I will not lose much in build hight but, if I get it right, I will lose resolution when the effector is moving towards a tower.

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Koenig

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jroever
Had my Rev A for a while and everything calibrated nicely ... but always noticed these weird jolts on my extruder - thought in the beginning these were actually retracts but checked the code - no retract commands ...
Finally came across somebody with a Rostock Max mentioning something similar - linked to #define AXIS_RELATIVE_MODES {false, false, false, false} in Configuration_adv.h
Experimentally changed mine to #define AXIS_RELATIVE_MODES {false, false, false, true} and oh what a difference! While my prints were very precise I apparently did not get consistent feed rates which was definitely noticeable
on my translucent PLA prints. My red translucent prints now look like top grade ahi sashimi, while before they looked like, well, cheap plastic

It makes sense to me that extruder mode should be relative feeds instead of absolute - so if for some reason feed gets back logged the error is dropped and it is not constantly fighting to catch up (my interpretation)...
Any comments or observations welcome. And if you are running with folgertech firmware defaults you might want to try the new settings. Really surprised I did not find more hits when googling the topic.

Just as information for those who intend to try this: You must also set something like "Relative extrusion distances" (S3D, what it is called in other slicers I don't know) in your slicer for it to work properly.

Relative extrusion is preferable as you get rid of some rounding errors.