Djinn5150's SmartRap Core Build

Djinn, Let me look through my stuff, I think I have a spare Hotend M6x26 Nozzle with the PTFE tube. If I find it, I'll mail it to you...

Wow, life has thrown me some curve balls the last few days and been very busy, so sorry for the late replies.

As for the Hotend, I plan on following some similar ideas as your linked video RCJoseB, I wish my heatbreak had a liner lol. But I will try some of the polishing techniques to see if that helps if not I plan on modifying the heatsink/heatbreak as follows...
Drill neumatic fitting to allow bowden tube to enter the "cavity" that is filled in that video(actually allready have done this, works well, bowden tube just goes right on down to oriface)
Drill heatsink to allow bowden tube to reach the heat break...
Drill heatbreak to allow bowden to travel almost to machined end of heatbreak(still debating on this step)

If I am not mistaken those steps would esentially mimic the E3D V6, for that matter I could always use an official e3d heatbreak since they both are using M6 threads, but at $17 I might as well just get a V6Lite>

Of course this will all just be a matter of temporary fix's/tinkers. I have decided to bite the bullet and purchase either a Chimera or a Cyclops and be done with it. That being said...madmike8 if you do locate that I would be willing to compensate you, who knows maybee that and opening the heatsink to let the tube go all the way down would just be all it needs.

Also...HEAVY DUTY THREADED Z located on Youmagine I basically took the z-fix mentioned in the comments on the youmagnine smartcore listing, and beefed things up a bit, the arms extend a bit farther, have nut traps so really tighten down the bed. Other then that the published z mounts are pretty much the same, with the exception the wall spacing is a bit different. I still need to clean up the openscad file before I publish it but if you want it I willl share it here, It will allow you to set your z-rod spacing and rod size. Allthough all I have tested is what is published. It is working great so far for me.

Lol, I forgot to look, but I did find it. PM me your address.

That hot end works great so far. As a test, I tried printing a small part at 80ms with a 90ms feed rate for PLA and it came out pretty good. Just some minor defects. I normally print at 20ms, slow but parts come out beautiful.

Nice work on the beefed up Z axis parts. How are you attaching the M8 threaded rod to the motor shaft being that the diameters are different?

I was thinking of duplicating the Z axis assembly and placing one in the front edge of the print bed to fully support it. Both Z motors would then run at the same time, hopefully, off of one stepper on the RAMPS board. That would ruin access from the front but I could cut a door on one of the sides to overcome that.

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rcjoseb
I was thinking of duplicating the Z axis assembly and placing one in the front edge of the print bed to fully support it. Both Z motors would then run at the same time, hopefully, off of one stepper on the RAMPS board. That would ruin access from the front but I could cut a door on one of the sides to overcome that.

Why not just move the Z to the sides if your going to do it that way?

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rcjoseb
That hot end works great so far. As a test, I tried printing a small part at 80ms with a 90ms feed rate for PLA and it came out pretty good. Just some minor defects. I normally print at 20ms, slow but parts come out beautiful.

Nice work on the beefed up Z axis parts. How are you attaching the M8 threaded rod to the motor shaft being that the diameters are different?

I was thinking of duplicating the Z axis assembly and placing one in the front edge of the print bed to fully support it. Both Z motors would then run at the same time, hopefully, off of one stepper on the RAMPS board. That would ruin access from the front but I could cut a door on one of the sides to overcome that.

Thanks for the compliment...like I said its not exactly my design but did do some changes.

As for coupling just using one of the many many 8mm rod couplings on youmagine or thingiverse for the "prusa's" the one I am using now is a simple split block with 4 screw holes, 7.9mm on the top hole and 4.9mm on the bottom, works but there are definately better out there, this I just had already printed and in use on my last machine.

Yes if you want to double it up you most certainly can, and like madmike8 mentioned, run them on the sides vs's front and back, it makes no difference whatsoever, and depending on electronics you should be able to just drop the second z onto the additonal pins on the z of your ramps board, or adapt a Y adapter. FWIW my VREF on all axis with the drv8825's is down to .25V its running pretty quiet and I have not experienced any skipping.

Thanks for the info.

I was thinking of using 2020 extruded aluminum for the box instead of solid sheets of 3/4" MDF. I found a few designs on thingiverse for corner brackets, etc.

1 meter of 2020 extruded aluminum:
[www.ebay.com]

3D printed brackets
[www.thingiverse.com]

HOTEND UPDATE: Ok so like I said I was going to do some mods, had a bit of free time today so I jumped on it, Upon disassemble it became evident that A) my heatbreak was not going to be able to bored out to accept even a partial liner, it was never finished machining, there was a ring where boring from each side was never completed so broke out a # 48 drill bit, fired up the press and cleaned up that, then I grabbed the tube of toothpaste kicked the drill up to 3200rpm and proceeded to polish the heatbreak as best I could.

After that was complete I grabbed a # 24 bit and bored out the pneumatic fitting to allow the bowden to pass through it, then bored open the heatsink to let the bowden through there, so now from extruder to heatbreak is 1 continuous feed of bowden tube, plan on getting it assembled and giving it another go here in a few. If things work well this thing should be able to kick out flexible filament without blinking an eye

I was looking at the individual STL files in GitHub and noticed that the XY motor bracket labeled as the "left" is actually the one that goes on the right side as you face the printer. Is there a mistake in Github or is the printer setup that way where left/right is reversed?

Just generate your STL's using the youmagine jscad script.

Yup, already did that, very cool feature :-) Was just checking out the github for the firmware and noticed the discrepancy in the STL.

Yeah the stl's are pretty much old news on github, I plan on soon updating my fork with all my stl's just havent gotten around to it.

Also TBH I am just using the smartrap firmware with corexy enabled and everthing else adjusted as needed, bed leveling locations, added extruders, my modified pins and configuration_adv files...so well I guess its not soo much stock anymore but still has m555 for probe height which is what I am used to vs what was in the "new" firmware. Really liking this printer more and more, but same time the dual issues I have been dealing with have me so frustrated I don't even want to look at it lol

I modified the configuration.h file for easier reading like I had with the SmartRap. I am sure that I will be making more changes to it as I build my own core.

Well got notification that my Chimera has shipped so while I wait i decided to play around in Fusion some more, I am really really liking this for free software. The toolchain is a bit diferent then what I am used to but I am getting there. Imported the stl for the mount bracket I have installed now and and a model for the chimera and came up with this..

Pretty Cool!

Oh yeah Mike, it does cam to, might work good for the engraver

Wow, that looks great. I wish I could do that :-(

I found this modified extruder for the SmartRapCore in Thingiverse listed under SmartRap. I don't know if it works but looks like it will, especially with the added nut holes.

[www.thingiverse.com]

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rcjoseb
I found this modified extruder for the SmartRapCore in Thingiverse listed under SmartRap. I don't know if it works but looks like it will, especially with the added nut holes.

[www.thingiverse.com]

Not sure about that one but I have printed this one and am enjoying it very much so..., but I am a Wades fan

[www.thingiverse.com]

check out this as well...you might suprise yourself, this time last year I couldn't model anything to save my life...
[www.autodesk.com]

Thanks for the links!

Well got my chimera finally, I got to say so far I am pretty impressed, though it's going to take a bit to get things calibrated, getting retraction right on these long bowden tubes is just kicking my behind. I think I am going to need to up my temp and lower my retraction to avoid back pressure on the bowden, I think i have been retracting to far and running into pla swelling causing jams. Also published my first item to takerverse(did i just say that?) Youmagine is pretty much driving me away with its clunky interface. If you want to check it out feel free, leave me a comment, tell me it sucks, or like it lol
Chimera Mount
MadMike: got your heatbreak in the other day too, I haven't had a chance to check it out but between what I did to the heatsink and that heat break it should just about solve all the issues with that hotend, its still a knock off but its practically a E3D v6 lite now,

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djinn5150
Mike, where did you source your belt? I am guessing here but from what i can find on ebay the closed loops are measured by teeth count? McMaster doesnt have gt2 from what i can tell but I will try to mock something up later today, mine is so wide its gonna take one long belt, thinking skate bearings for "idlers", Might have to go with printed pulley's on the 8mm rods if we can't find 8mm shaft pulley's easily enough. Ok, enough hijacking rc's thread...I will continue this on my build lol

find the belt size here.
Belt Length Calculator

8mm pulleys and closed loop belts are found on ebay. I got 20Tx8mm to match my steppers 20Tx5mm pulley.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2015 03:38PM by madmike8.

Did you guys use the standard firmware for Marlin on [github.com] ?

what did you have to change in the congif files?

EDIT: just realised that its actually this...[github.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2015 06:37AM by willera.

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willera
Did you guys use the standard firmware for Marlin on [github.com] ?

what did you have to change in the congif files?

EDIT: just realised that its actually this...[github.com]

FWIW, I am using the marlin I started with my smartrap, but standard marlin will work, so will repetier firmware. Just enable coreXY kinematics and set your normal stuff like bed size motor steps etc. Right now I am running at maximum feed of 300mms, default 1000 accel with jerk set at 25 on X/Y z I have jerk set to .4 and running at 10mm max with accel at 25 i think, off the top of my head. Thinking of downloading the latest developer branch of marlin and giving it a go with volumetric extrusion, but haven't decided I have some serious ooze issues on dual extrusion with the chimera I am trying to deal with.

Well finally got around to doing a few changes I've been wanting to do not in any paticular order
1. Added a cooling fan to the carriage, just tossed a spare hotend bracket i had from my many trial and error with the dual adjustable mounts on the back of the "head" and bolted up a hinged mount.


2. Installed the Chimera, man this thing is nice, I am having some oozing issues I have to figure out on dual extrusion, and it likes to jam if the bowdens get loose on retract but other then that print quality is beautiful.

3. Here you can see the ooze I was talking about, and hey is that a newly installed aluminum build plate? Why yes it is. Was at the steel supply house with my dad and they had a bunch of 3mm plate reminants, that 8x8 cost about $2, thats cheaper then glass.

Here is the last print all cleaned up as best I could..


My big thing I have to deal with soon though is my wiring, this current set up is just not cutting it, it tends to want to "lay down" durring prints and it also puts just ever so slight amount of tension on the print head when in the front right corner measuring bed height, this pulls the sensor back just ever so slightly( just play in the bearings on the x carriage) and throws off the measurement. Stiffen up wiring too much and it will cause problems, I cant really see a way to create a cable chain that would work giving the motion of the head. Anyone got any brilliant idea's Im not seing?

A question on the heavy duty carriage. Wouldn't the nut work its way out eventually like on the prusa i3? Maybe add a hole for a m3 screw to fix the nut in place permanently

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eviltoy
A question on the heavy duty carriage. Wouldn't the nut work its way out eventually like on the prusa i3? Maybe add a hole for a m3 screw to fix the nut in place permanently

It's possible but I did make the hole a pretty tight fit to, at least on my print, gravity should hold the carriage to the bolt, and I have had 0 issues with it yet, many hours of printing. If it does become a problem or people start reporting it as a problem I would be more then happy to modify the files to include that

Baller! Another question if I may are you using a normal m8 rod? Reason I ask I have seen the rods used by some guys here it doesn't look like the stuff we get here in South Africa.

Actually I am using 5/16' drill rod which is very close to m8 rod, its a hardened steel, not as hard as it should be but its a decent trade off on price vs performance. If you polish them well and go with bushings even aluminum rods could be used.

UPDATE: Ok I have updated to the latest version of marlin, enabled firmware retract and am using volumetric extrusion now, next will be filament diameter sensors. I LOVE This version of marlin its much improved. FWRETRACT should be enabled by default IMO, the ablilty to adjust retract distance and speed on the fly as needed for differennt areas of a print is amazing.