Folger Prusa i3 Kit from ebay

Yes it's a great kit.

did you give the lcd more thought? I only print from the sd card via the lcd...
I'm trying to learn custom gcodes to add to gcode that is generated,
something to set the bed, then the fan on the extruder, then the hot end...
keeps the extruder cooler...

I asked the Folger guys what they had their Vref set to for their printers, and this is what they sent back:

"The larger bed motor I set it to 0.55V, the Z's are .35V, X is 0.33V, Extruder 0.35V
Thanks!
John"

man of few words... but then again most folks are compared to me

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2014 10:09PM by Waltermixx.

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Waltermixx

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sloppyprinter
Hi how do you find the people that you have commented on lol . anyhow I got some pics of mine now .

not sure I understand the above? was this directed at me? if so please explain... I dont get it... I'm guessing it was meant to be funny, which is cool, I'm not offended, just a bit thick and I dont get the reference?

If not directed at me, then that might explain why I'm clueless to it

either way cheers.

im not sure fella could be wrong thread . How long you had your printer Waltermixx ?.

I got the kit around Sept. 10th when I started the thread, and finished building it this past weekend.... the 20th of sept.
Now I'm just fine tuning, calibrating, tramming the build plate, and getting used to printing with ABS.

cheers.

Found this great Unboxing and build video series on the Folgertech Prusa i3...

[www.youtube.com]

enjoy

Quote
Waltermixx
Yes it's a great kit.

did you give the lcd more thought? I only print from the sd card via the lcd...
I'm trying to learn custom gcodes to add to gcode that is generated,
something to set the bed, then the fan on the extruder, then the hot end...
keeps the extruder cooler...

I asked the Folger guys what they had their Vref set to for their printers, and this is what they sent back:

"The larger bed motor I set it to 0.55V, the Z's are .35V, X is 0.33V, Extruder 0.35V
Thanks!
John"

man of few words... but then again most folks are compared to me

I've been pretty busy with school lately so I haven't gotten around to setting up my RaspberryPi yet. If that doesn't end up working out I'll likely get that controller, it looks really cool.

Those vref numbers are almost exactly what I ended up with, so that's a good sign. I was worried that I might be over powering them.

This kit looks very interesting, I am researching my 1st printer, and have been recommended to get a mendel90. this will cost me about £600 with tax.
looking on E bay this kit is less than half that, not sure what tax i might have to pay as I live in England, they have sold 110 now.
what would you guys advise me, are there any cons to getting this printer?
Thanks in advance
Steve

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Steue
This kit looks very interesting, I am researching my 1st printer, and have been recommended to get a mendel90. this will cost me about £600 with tax.
looking on E bay this kit is less than half that, not sure what tax i might have to pay as I live in England, they have sold 110 now.
what would you guys advise me, are there any cons to getting this printer?
Thanks in advance
Steve

I paid about 300 something for mine and it were a compney in England mate, ill find where it were if ya want the service were crap but I got everything needed to build it and I did it in a couple of days just looking at the pic on ebay

Calibration time...

I was wondering what you guys are using for your steps per mm for the extruder.
I left it at the 90 it was set to, and when I do the test here:

[www.youtube.com]

Toms 3d Printing Guide method, the numbers are a little wonky...
i tell it to extrude 100 mm, and it extrudes 90.
so I adjusted the steps per minute up a bit from 90 but the value seems to jump around...
i settled on 93 estps/mm it got me within 2 mm of the 100mm extrusion test...
just wondering what you got Dooms101...

this number is only good for this type of extruder...

here is a link to the extruder on their ebay auctions:

[www.ebay.ca]

I've been using 90 for my steps per unit setting and it's been working well. I didn't realize the nozzle was 0.4mm though, I've been using 0.5mm in my slicer. I'll have to change that and see if there's any improvements. So far, things have been printing very very well.

Tomorrow is my day off, and the plan is to go get some hairspray, and test that on glass.
I have had a really tough time with Just glass and gluestick... and the hairspray my wife had from her mom's visit, did not help at all..
Currently printing another bunny, as I lost my first bunny print...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/2014 12:16AM by Waltermixx.

Garnier Fructics Ultra Strong (5) is very good on a heated glass build plate.
I went from pulling my hair out, to long bouncy shiny stylish hair.... wait a minute, that's not right,
I went from pulling my hair out because I could not get ABS prints to stick, to wow, this printer actually works very well.

a few things you will notice on this print is, it's very smooth and looks great, however there are some "zits" and stringing.
this is a direct result of me thinking it was a good idea to click the check box that says: "use firmware retraction"
best to leave this setting off.... this is found in Printer Settings, General, in Slic3r.

hey guys. I bought this kit and have been trying to set it up. what did you guys use as your axis stepes per mm?
i have been trying to get the parts to move right, and they just wont. what did you guys use as your marlin steup?
even if you link your configuration.h file that would be great.

Have a read through this thread lots of great info provided by Dooms101 and Steve and Doug. dooms posted his configuration.h file along with vref voltages for adjusting the pots on the stepper drivers... Have a read. Lots of good info!

Lots of pictures as well. Looking forward to seeing yours as well!

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Waltermixx
Where did you get it?

Hi Waltermixx this is the guys I got it from on ebay
rptechworks

Question for those with the Folder Prusa i3.

the nuts located between the hot end and the cool end,
how is your configured?

both my nuts are down against the hot end. and I dont see the heat break (narrow part of the threaded heater tube.
is yours the same? Both nuts agains the hot end, or one against cold and one agains hot?

please let me know

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/29/2014 10:26PM by Waltermixx.

i tried doing a search on ebay by the seller, and could not find him?
can you provide a link to the kit? ( if you want...) I am just curious about it.

Cheers.

here you go! THE KIT!

@Btyder, yes I know that one, that is the same one I bought...
I was not refering to the Folger Prusa i3 kit... (I started this thread... )



I was refering to the kit that sloppyprinter purchased on ebay...

I did try and print something other than a rabbit tonight...

I tried to print a Y-axis motor mount for a prusa i3.
and although it did stick to the build plate and not warp,
there were a few portions where the extruder was "air printing" nothing coming out of the extruder...
i could press the fillament into the extruder, and it would continue along... this happened a fe times about 60% into the
print job....

I also noticed that the extruder was pretty hot all over, the cool end was pretty hot,
and I did not bother to touch the hot end, the thermister indicated it was running properly at 230 degrees.

I'm thinking of bringing my vref. down so i can see if I can get it to run cooler...
I'm thinking the temperature is too hot for the wheel to grip the filament and send it down.

There does not appear to be any tension adjustments...

Dooms, are you experiencing any issues? do you have your extruder vref set to: .35 volts?
I'm going to lower mine to 200 and see if that helps....

I wonder if it's the nut placement... Dooms do you think you could take a head on shot of your hot end?
so I can see how your nuts are placed? (no laughing...)

shown here...

I've actually been dealing with the same issue lately and I'm not sure what the issue is. I agree that it seems to be the cold end getting too hot and causing the filament to melt too high up which causes a jam. It could also be the filament getting too warm near the extruder gear which softens it enough to loose grip. I might try lowering my vref, which is around 400 but I have a feeling that won't be enough.

If I get the chance soon I might try building a better cooling system or a bowden system. I like having the direct drive but attaching a hot motor to a hot piece of metal seems like a bad design.

I think the "hot break", (narrowing of the feeder tube) may be under the double nuts...
Did you compare your extruder hot end to mine?

Tonight when I get home from work I will separate the nuts agains the hot end, and see if I can find the hot break.
It's designed to limit the heat from going up the pipe... The folder tech ebay listing for the extruder shows the break...

I'm wondering if a spring loaded extruder like the onr in the replicator 2 would help,
Just not sure if the holes would line up....

Quote
Waltermixx
@Btyder, yes I know that one, that is the same one I bought...
I was not refering to the Folger Prusa i3 kit... (I started this thread... )



I was refering to the kit that sloppyprinter purchased on ebay...

Here ya go fella [www.ebay.co.uk]

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dooms101
I've actually been dealing with the same issue lately and I'm not sure what the issue is. I agree that it seems to be the cold end getting too hot and causing the filament to melt too high up which causes a jam. It could also be the filament getting too warm near the extruder gear which softens it enough to loose grip. I might try lowering my vref, which is around 400 but I have a feeling that won't be enough.

If I get the chance soon I might try building a better cooling system or a bowden system. I like having the direct drive but attaching a hot motor to a hot piece of metal seems like a bad design.

Any chance you can post a picture of your extruder and nut placement? I have not gotten a chance to loosen the two nuts in search of the heat break, but I'm hoping it's there, and if it is,
then I will do one nut above against the cold end, and one nut below against the hot end. see if it helps.

Interesting... My extruder does not have any nuts between the hot end and the "cold end". Assembled the printer this past weekend. Still need to do some wiring clean-up but here are a few pictures.

HotEnd by czmorris, on Flickr

prusa by czmorris, on Flickr

Bed by czmorris, on Flickr

Is that a Yorkie in that one picture on your Flickr feed?
I have a Yorkie as well (her name is Sophie)

another thing in common

Cheers.

how hot does your extruder stepper get?
looks like there is some nice separation
between hot end and cold end on your extruder...
I think that will definitely be an advantage and help prevent jams.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2014 07:56PM by Waltermixx.

Haha! I forgot those photos were there. Yes it is a Yorkie (Allie). My wifes dog.

I haven't noticed the extruder motor getting hot but I also haven't had any issues yet with jams. On my other printer the only time I have had an issue with that is using cheap filament that wasn't very uniform.
My biggest issue with the prusa is a bit of layer separation. At the moment I am running a test using my folding light box as a temporary enclosure to see if it helps at all.

do you have those little rounded triangular shaped things to hold down the Z smooth bars?
not sure I see them... have a look at my pics, and you will see what I mean, they screw into the top part that holds the z smooth bar in place.
you should install them

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2014 11:16PM by Waltermixx.

I have them but did not have them on at the time as I had been messing around with it. The "enclosure" did help but not much. I decided to slide the Z-axis screws higher in the flex coupling. They were spaced before but increasing the space there seems to have solved it. (At least for now)

Well I finally printed my first userful item from my Folger Prusa i3 kit. White Feet for my eiffel chair in my office.
Chair came with black ones, but does not go well with the white noodle rug.... So I printed white ones....

Good news bad news kinda thing...

I had to babysit the print because of the exturder issues i am having. one again extrusion would stop flowing, so i had to push the filament in a bit to get it started again,
the stepper motor was still warm even at 229mv for the VREF. The good news is i got it printed... the other good news is the feet stuck really well to the glass build plate
with Garnier Fructis (5) ... now it's cooling and hopefully the pieces will pop off... i just heard a crack behind me... and one just popped off... heard another crack...yup that one came off too...
this is pretty cool...

here is a picture of them while still on the build plate:

Well I finally printed my first userful item from my Folger Prusa i3 kit. White Feet for my eiffel chair in my office.
Chair came with black ones, but does not go well with the white noodle rug.... So I printed white ones....

Good news bad news kinda thing...

I had to babysit the print because of the exturder issues i am having. one again extrusion would stop flowing, so i had to push the filament in a bit to get it started again,
the stepper motor was still warm even at 229mv for the VREF. The good news is i got it printed... the other good news is the feet stuck really well to the glass build plate
with Garnier Fructis (5) ... now it's cooling and hopefully the pieces will pop off... i just heard a crack behind me... and one just popped off... heard another crack...yup that one came off too...
this is pretty cool...

here is a picture of them while still on the build plate, and in operation.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2014 02:59PM by Waltermixx.