Miltiple issues, printing incorrectly but high quality.

Hey everyone,

My buddy and I just went in together on a prusa mendel from china. When it showed up it had a disk full of instructions, but not only were they unorganized, they showed different parts and hardware. So we abandoned those and worked out other site tutorials and pictures.

Got it assembled, level, square, and started making successful prints, each one getting better and better while tweaking the settings.

Then we went to print out a blue extruder for our makerfarm kit we just got (came with sludge brown). We started with the tiny little gear that guides the filament. When it was done we noticed the teeth were going the opposite direction. So we hopped on the forums and found threads saying it was software issues.

After hours of tweaking we couldn't get it to print in the right direction (without ofcourse changing it in the software before we print). So I started doing more research and noticed people seem to have their prusas set up in many different ways, some people have the bottom stepper motor for the belt in the front, some in the back, some have the extruder belt facing forward, some have it facing back. It seems by looking at random pictures it can be assembled correctly in many different ways and directions?

We've spun the printer around, changed settings, but my buddy is now convinced its because we've been making home to the left and its supposed to be to the right???

Does this picture look correct?

Looks like the switch is on the wrong side. You want the nozzle to be where it is in the picture when homed or the exact opposite. That is either the the nozzle should be at the back right of the bed or the front left when homed.

Note: I suggest back right since it means the part will be out towards you when the print is complete but the general norm is front left.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2014 01:12PM by Sublime.

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You may refer to these build instructions [reprap.org].

Remember, everything is in relation to the movement of the nozzle. Think of a graph of x and y. Where they meet is 0,0 (bottom left corner of plate). Every movement is in the positive directions in relation to the graph. So, moving the bed toward you is actually moving the nozzle away in the positive y direction.

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KingRahl
You may refer to these build instructions [reprap.org].

Remember, everything is in relation to the movement of the nozzle. Think of a graph of x and y. Where they meet is 0,0 (bottom left corner of plate). Every movement is in the positive directions in relation to the graph. So, moving the bed toward you is actually moving the nozzle away in the positive y direction.

So youre saying, as long as I have all the functioning axis' its all in the settings? Now, does the home point matter if its left or right?? or again, all depends on settings. There are clashing opinions on my end, just want experienced answers to settle things.

another problem encountered was the z axis binding on the left side and only raising up the right. Even though it goes up and down perfectly by hand and in small increments through movement testing. When sent home, it binds. We suspected improper assembly, warped rods ect. So it was redone with a perfectly straight piece of TR from ace and there is no longer any wobble, but it still binds. Its functioned perfectly for over 20 prints, literally nothing has changed. Very vexing.

Excellent, thank you

If your axis is binding, make sure the X ends are pushed gently against the vertical smooth rods before clamping the horizontal smooth rods to the X ends.

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Waitaki 3D Printer

In your picture I see 2 wires leading from one motor to the other and the other 2 going down the back and 4 wires leading from the second motor to the electronics. Are those red and blue wires on your left leading to anything? Whether they're wired in series or parallel, all 4 wires must be used.

Sadly it was nothing that simple.

That turned out to be a firmware issue. Everythings been resolved except the printing backwards deal... making it impossible to print out another extruder for my makerfarm in blue with out mirroring the file before the print.. I feel like I definitely shouldn't be doing that

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thisguy87
Sadly it was nothing that simple.

That turned out to be a firmware issue. Everythings been resolved except the printing backwards deal... making it impossible to print out another extruder for my makerfarm in blue with out mirroring the file before the print.. I feel like I definitely shouldn't be doing that

Did you read my earlier reply? You are homing backwards on one of your axis. You need to be homing either to the back right or front left and right now it looks like you are homing to the back left. You will also need to reverse one of your motor connections after moving the endstop.

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FFF Settings Calculator	Gcode post processors	Geometric Object Deposition Tool Blog
Tantillus.org	Mini Printable Lathe	How NOT to install a Pololu driver