Hello,

I just finished putting together the Mendel90 kit I bought from Nophead. I did all the calibration to the best of my extent and started my first print of the android robot. The product was far from perfect.



I then tried another model, this time I printed the Maker Faire Robot. I sliced with the newest Slic3r software at 0.3 mm and got this:



All the prints are sticking to the heated bed fine, just bad prints. I would appreciated it if someone would help me out. Thanks in advance!

-Razer0901

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2014 04:28PM by Razer0901.

Hi,

how tight are your belts? The manual says your supposed to hear a note when you pull them. Youncamn check your pulleys as well, mine became a bit loose in the beginning.

I would first of all check the tightness of every single part of the machine. Then calibrate it using a dial gauge. Calibration seems vital for good prints.
Nophead recomends steinforge so I would stick to using his settings with that as a starting point.
That Maker Faire Robot is intended to be difficult. I'll give it a go a bit later and see how it comes out for me. Their prints look as if they were done at much higher than 0.3mm resolution.

I tried it at 0.3 and it came out a mess. 0.2 worked fine:


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2014 02:21AM by Ralph.Hilton.

Sorry for the late reply! Since my first post I have played with my printer and I am happy to say that the advice you guys have given advanced my prints to a whole other level! But I still have problems.

When taking laubraupe's and Ralph.Hilton's advice of tightening everything, I noticed that my Y axis was loose, very loose. Since the Y idler was already at the end of the slot I had to take apart the bed and move the belt a few teeth more than the "4" teeth the instructions said to leave out. I don't know if that will affect calculations. But this alone improved my prints a lot. I went from rectangle calibration squares to square ones. The calibration square was basically perfect! I then went to print the Make Robot again and the Ultimaker robot. I sliced them at 0.2mm with cura 13.03. (13.03 because the new versions don't have relative extrusion.) They came out much better but now that I don't have a blob I can see more detailed imperfections like Y axis layer offsets. I might have to go back to check the screws and belts, but after I fix my stripped filament.







-Razer0901

It looks like your Y belt is slipping. The Y belt needs to be positioned in the centre of the idler. Also check how the belt sits on the motor pulley - if it is at the edge then it can slip. I made a Y tensioner for easier adjustment:
[www.thingiverse.com]. Additionally I would check the movement of the Y carriage and ensure that it runs smoothly throughout its range.

Both belts should make a low bass sound when plucked...

Thanks guys. Been getting perfect prints from my mendel90 now thanks to the advice you guys gave me! Now I have an awesome printer that prints well! For people that read this later on, I solved my problem by tightening the belts more and making sure my pulleys were secure on the motor shafts. I underestimated the problems just these 2 little variables can create.

-Razer0901