Ormerod Printing Issues

I'm having several issues with my Ormerod which to be honest was not what I was expecting. But through shear perseverance I have it up and running but struggling with the actual printing. It has now been 4 weeks since the printer was built and I am yet to print an item. The closest I have came was today, however there appears to be quite a big issue and that is that the print appears to be stepped. I have attached 2 images which show the significant stepping occurring when trying to print the orthaxis test piece. For not this stepping appears to occur in the axis. Has anyone had this situation occur and have resolved it. Or does anyone have any suggestions?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as, as you can imagine after 5 weeks i'm pretty much ready for throwing it in the bin

Many Thanks

I had a similar problem on the test piece. It seemed to go when i sent the following commands.

M561

M556 S100 X0 Y0 Z0

i then re zero'd the Z axis manually by driving it to within a gnats whisker of the bed and sending a G92 command. I then ran setbed.g (You may want to manually do the bed calibration to be sure). After these steps i got my first successful print of the Ormaxis. Stick with it because i was getting close to givving up and now i am very impressed with the quality of the prints.

Your post doesn't say which axis the stepping occurs on. If it's in the y-direction, this is commonly caused by the y-belt slipping in the groove. The simple fix is to put a cable tie around the two pieces of belt immediately to the left of the groove to stop it slipping one way, then pull the spare piece taut through the top groove to stop it slipping the other way. When you get it printing, you may wish to print these [forums.reprap.org].

btw this issue is item 3a under Printing in [forums.reprap.org].

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

If its in Y diresction, One reason for steps like that is that the belt is slipping where it fastened to the bed.

See this video on youtube for the problem.

See this thread for various solutions.

regards
Andy

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Ormerod #318
www.zoomworks.org - Free and Open Source Stuff

Hi

Thanks for the responses. I have attempted all of the above. I manually set the z axis using the M561 AND M556 commands and calibrate the bed manually each time as there seems to be an issue with the IR sensing and also running setbed does need necessarily guarantee that it will compensate. Also the step occurs in the x axis. I have managed to get the y axis pretty rigid using bulldog clips, i'll take a look at the x belt now incase that is the case. I did read the troubleshooting PDF but it only refers to the y axis

If it is the X belt, you can tighten it by slackening the two screws holding the X motor on, then pull the motor back and re-tighten the screws (shame the Y motor isn't mounted with slotted holes too). If it's already pulled as far back as it goes, then slip it forwards, reengage the belt so it's fairly tight then adjust final tightness using the screws,

Ray

I think you would be better off at this stage to abandon the IR sensing.
Set the bed up mechanically.
Follow the installation instructions about setting the bed compensation manually in the 4 corners.
I use for P0 X60 Y5, P1 X60 Y170, P2 X200 Y170 and P3 X200 Y5.
Zero Z when at P0, by lowering onto a slip of normal printer paper until moving the paper just catches the print head.
Then issue a G92 Z0
raise Z a bit and move to P1, then P2 and then P3, each time lowering the head onto the slip of paper. Make note of each Z reading and put that in a setbed.g file.
These are my entries
G30 P0 X60 Y5 Z0.0
G30 P1 X60 Y170 Z0.0
G30 P2 X200 Y170 Z0.2
G30 P3 X200 Y5 Z -0.2

Replace my Z readings with yours.

Restart Ormerod and bring the bed up to temperature.
Home Y and X
Run setbed.g
Go to the centre of the bed by issuing G1 X100 Y100
Lower Z onto the paper as before and when at the correct height issue G92 Z0
Then you can do your first print.

Good luck, hope that helps and is clear enough.

appjaws1 thanks for the response. TBH, that is exactly what I do and have done to the letter. Since ignoring the IR set up it is the closest I have been to getting a print.

The following question is thrown out to anyone who reads this post? How far below the fan duct should the nozzle sit? It would appear that the corner of the fan duct is actually hitting the printed PLA? Could this be the issue as to why it's stepping out on the prints?

I'll be honest, the whole Ormerod 3D printing is becoming an ache as we purchased this to supplement our designs at work and it's becoming a time and money drain to commission this. Don't get me wrong I appreciate and understant the Opensource nature of the product with the ability to modify, alter and tweak the printer but the whole thing presumes at least a mild knowledge and/or awareness of electronics and interest in this type of thing which is not necessarily explained well enough on the RS website.

I had the same problem.
You can put 2,3 or 4 washers on top of the hot end insulator, beneath the nozzle mount, this will raise the fan assemble.
The other thing to check is that the whole hot end assembly is vertical. This is controlled by the bearing on the x carriage, most people have printed a replacement part called big slot, this item allows the bearing to be adjusted closer to the support. As a temp I have heard some have put a strip of tape along the back edge of the X arm.

Try the washers, you might fine that they give you enough clearance.

I had a lot of commissioning problems and I am still tinkering.

It is worth it in the long run.

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appjaws - Core XYUV Duet Ethernet Duex5
firmware 3.1.1 Web Interface 3.1.1
Ormerod 1-converted to laser engraver, Duet wifi
OpenSCAD version 2020.07
slic3r-1.3.0, Simplify3D 4.1.2, Cura-4.4.1

Do you have the 'S' at the end of the last line of the bed level commands?
The printer is waiting for that signal before it applies the bed compensation...

Quote

G30 P0 X60 Y30 Z0.0
G30 P1 X60 Y180 Z0.1
G30 P2 X180 Y180 Z0.1
G30 P3 X180 Y30 Z0.3 S

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RS-Online Ormerod #263, Kossel mini with Minitronics, Prusa i3 MK2

daz18983, if the fan duct is hitting the print, then your print head is probably sagging (i.e. not level). See items 4a and 4b at [forums.reprap.org].

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Yes, sorry a typo.

All

Thanks very much for you help with all this. I have managed to at least get something printed however it appears that I am having issues with Z height now. I run bed compensation mechanically using the g30 px commands and have created a setbed.g file that I ran before the print. However it appears that it still wants to continue further past the z0 when I come to print the file. This has happened with both the axis test and now the coathook piece. I have even trialled just setting the z0 without the setbed.g using the following commands

M561
G1 X100 Y100
lowered head using the paper technique
G92 Z0

When I use the G1 Z0 command it returns to the correct place, however when I immediately run the coathook piece it seems to forget this and wants to drive the head considerably past the point I have just set? Is there something in the file that overwrites what I have set?

This seems to be one of the last pieces of the puzzle, nearly cracked it

yes I have had this. I do not issue a G1 Z0 after I have set Z0 at X100 Y100. I just raise the nozzle a bit and then select the print job from SD and go. It works perfectly.
I don't know why the G1 Z0 command sets Z0 incorrectly or indeed where to look to correct it but I am sure somebody on this forum does.

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appjaws - Core XYUV Duet Ethernet Duex5
firmware 3.1.1 Web Interface 3.1.1
Ormerod 1-converted to laser engraver, Duet wifi
OpenSCAD version 2020.07
slic3r-1.3.0, Simplify3D 4.1.2, Cura-4.4.1

If you look in the coathook.g file with a text editor such as notepad, you will see the G-code G28 (about line 24).

This homes all the axes and therefore undoes your manual Z setting. If you place a semicolon in front of this line it will be ignored or you could just delete the line.


Kev.

KP

Thanks very much. That has done the trick. Coathook is not looking too shappy. Things there's a little issue with some of the distribution of plastic but I'm actually happy so far. Think I'm going to test a model I've created and see what the outcome is.

Thanks for everyone's help so far. Frustration has waned a little now I've started to see some results