Building a 3D printer - some tips

Some tips & random thoughts on building a 3D printer - because from reading the forum people seem to run into the same issues over and over again.

1. Take your time. Ask yourself "do I want to build a precision device that does high quality prints, or do I want something that creates ransom blobs of plastic" It took my buddy and I three months working one night a week on our scratch built Prusa i3. It created nice prints when we finished it and the quality got better as we learnt to tune it. We didn't have to cleanup wiring etc when finished because we took the time to do it during the build.

2. Get a digital multi-meter and digital calipers. You cannot build a 3D printer without a multimeter. It is needed for checking RAMPS input volts, figuring out motor wire pairs, configuring mechanical end stop switches & setting vref voltages on stepper drivers. You will need the calipers to measure your filament later when tuning and slicing files.

3. Build it in stages and complete that stage before moving onto the next stage. Take time to make sure your frame and axis are square to each other and things move freely. Also it's no use trying to troubleshoot why an LCD display isn't working if you haven't even got your motors to home correctly.

4. You don't have to know programming, however it helps to learn and understand what the Configuration.h file does in Marlin. You will have to tweak this file as you go. Keep notes in the file as comments so you know what you changed.

5. End-stops. They MUST be configured and working to get the printer axis moving correctly. An axis will only move 1 way if it doesn't know the limits of it's travel. We found them to be the most difficult part of the build of our scratch built Prusa i3. Probably 2 plus nights to get the logics of it all. It takes 3 of the 18 pages of the Instructable I did of our build. Take the time to read up on and understand what all the variables are when it comes to end stops.

6. vref voltages must be set correctly on your stepper drivers. They can be done without a volt meter but from experience setting via a meter is easier.

7. Calibrate your printers X, Y, Z and extruder steps before you test print - unless you want to print random blobs of plastic.

8. Get quality parts and filament. Don't buy a cheap J-Head knock-off from eBay and expect it to work like a genuine J-Head from Makerfarm.

9. If you are using an Arduino and RAMPS - buy a spare set. Chances are you will blow one or the other (or both) at some stage.

10. Join your local hackspace/makerspace - you will get to meet similar minded people and learn from them.

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My updated Instructable on our Prusa i3 Build
[www.instructables.com]

thanks for the tips and just book marked your blog for reading later on keep up the good work and please update the blog on changes you make to your i3 on your printing journey

Quote
SteveRoy
Don't buy a cheap J-Head knock-off from eBay and expect it to work like a genuine J-Head from Makerfarm.

The actual official source for j-heads is hotends.com