Few questions as related to how and where.

Ok so I think I got the printer working, I have printed a test cube and it was pretty good. The overall dimensions were good but shape was not perfect, I assume during some of the latter work that I upset the leveling and will be releveling the unit.
Thats my first question. I have heard of autoleveling, is this available for the reprap, where can I get it, and how hard is it to attach.
Next question, I have 4 small fans that are to cool motors, they are attachable to the motors at the screw holes but I don't know how to wire them up. can anybody suggest what is needed
Next I have an LCD that is supposed to attach but am not sure how to do that either. any help?
Finally the cube I have printed is nice and I am about to (after a relevel) something a little more complex, but the cube is very "textured" will there be a way to print more cleanly? is it just what I am working with or the size. I am intending to design very small fantasy and scifi miniatures if I can. so at that scale the stepping will be too heavy, can it be fixed.
thanks for taking the time reading my neophyte questions.
DC

What kind of printer? Im assuming a Prusa variant.

A. Ditch the motor fans. Dont need them. If you have the current potentiameter set correctly your motors wont overheat.
B. Auto bed levelling. It depends. If you have a typical pcb bed with nothing else aka no glass or aluminum plate youre in for some headaches. The pcb heater will bow and bend as it heats. Put an 8x10 glass from a cheap picture frame for starters then start thinking about how much it is worth to you to have reliable accurate precise prints. Then you will need to look for aluminum tooling plate or as a mid size step up and get an anondized aluminum plate above and below the pcb heater.
C. There are a ton of tweaks to do.

The texture is part of what makes 3d printed items unique. Lower the layer height to .1 and it gets very smooth at the price of very long prints. Small parts work better at lower speed and .2 or .1mm layer height.

sorry the model is a reprap i3 2020.
the motor fans were a solution since I just had one of the lock up so I thought perhaps it was a good idea.
I have a piece of glass on the heated bed. I was just hoping that I could find a way to make sure that it remained level, well automatically.
My needs for printing will be mainly in the realm of figures, some lare, some small and some mechanical/maintenence pieces pieces. So I will look into the tooling plate.
if there is a guide or anything that may be helpful on the tweaking, I would appreciate a link or otherwise. I will be searching for myself, but if you ( or someone else) knows a good data repository I would apprectiate that as well.

Finally a new question, My prints are coming off the glass bed during printing. This is PLA and my bed is set to 80 degrees (85 at start). do I need something else or to do something else?
thanks again.

Blue painters tape. 80c seems to high. I use 60c.

You can read through the wiki article on PLA at [reprap.org]

80-85 is way too hot for PLA. Glass transition is typically 60-65, and you don't want to go much over that or it gets too soft. I use 45 for small parts and 55 for large ones. My build surface is Kapton tape over glass. I see lots of liquid adhesion promoters used, but due to clean-up and reduced potential of outgassing prefer the tapes.

Try this: [www.instructables.com]

Some PLA filaments will adhere well to a glass bed during printing, especially if you prime it with vinegar or dilute sugar solution. This is how I prefer to print PLA. But you need a lower bed temperature, such as 65C indicated - it will be lower than that on top of the glass. Other PLA filaments won't adhere to glass and you need to use e.g. Kapton tape, hairspray or glue stick.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2015 10:14AM by dc42.

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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].

Quote
darkechibi
Finally a new question, My prints are coming off the glass bed during printing. This is PLA and my bed is set to 80 degrees (85 at start). do I need something else or to do something else?
thanks again.

Another newbie here mine were sticking good but after a half dozen prints they started coming off until I cleaned the glass with alcohol then they started sticking again. I have been setting the bed to 60c too. I have noticed though that the lower layers are flared out I am thinking it's maybe from the bed melting it?

I have heard some good info from the 3dprintingtoday podcast if you haven't been listening to that you should check it out. [threedprintingtoday.libsyn.com]