Folger Prusa i3 Kit from ebay

Quote
konto89
Hello guys,
I also had an issue with the heatbed, when it reached 95 degrees it would take 5 minutes to increase by one degree!!!
So I used a sheet of the foamy stuff that you wrap fragile things to insulate the bottom of the bed and when I heat the bed for a print I cover the top with a piece of cardboard!!!
I remove it when it reaches temperature just before the print.
It really helps and it does not heats up the rest of the printer!
Hope it helps!

What foamy stuff?

Wouldn't that melt?

I ordered my kit last week and received a confirmation email but I had some questions for folger tech and have not been able to contact them. I've email and phoned with no response, so have anyone had success contacting them and if so, how? Thanks.

Well boys and girls...we've got SOMETHING!

And it's better than nothing! LOL

It's a lump of shit, but it's MY lump of shit. haha!
It was exactly 10mm on one side, but my nuts fell off the belt plastic under the heated bed during printing. Both of them. Gonna put some loctite on those. I have a feeling the
inaccuracies that occurred halfway up the cube are from that.

Though I'm unsure why it ended up being much taller than it was supposed to be.
First layer was 9.44 x 9.51

Last layer was 9.88 x 10.68

Over all was 11.44 tall. It's no where near square, I've got some curling on corners, and it's not smooth at all...
Now to fine tune. Any suggestions guys?

For those following this looking for how I fixed it. I removed the "G1 Z5 F5000 ; lift nozzle" code from my gcode. I'll try and figure that out some other time, but it just would lift off the home spot I wanted it to start extruding, and never go back down. I removed it permanently from my Slic3r beginning code.
I also added :
G1 Z0.1 F3600
G92 E0
G1 E20 F150
G92 E0

to the beginning of the slic3r code as well so that after temps are hit, it extrudes 20mm at the home position to get the hot end primed and ready to lay down.
I also added the skirt like was mentioned a couple posts above using slic3r.
Jacked the bed temp to 110C...and in order to help reach it quicker, I cut a piece of corrugated cardboard I had lying around a bit larger than the heated bed, and put it right on top. Temps went up lightning quick! Just pull it off RIGHT as your temp hits target temp.

Lastly, I cleaned the glass with windex, and laid a layer of Garnier Fructis Extreme Hold ( green bottle aerosol ) allowed it to dry for a minute, and repeated twice more for a total of three layers.

This ABS also was the garbage that came with the kit. I have a spool of Hatchbox 1.75 I ordered from Amazon. I'm hoping that may help??

Quote
Nlh205
I ordered my kit last week and received a confirmation email but I had some questions for folger tech and have not been able to contact them. I've email and phoned with no response, so have anyone had success contacting them and if so, how? Thanks.

Nope. They are one of the worst companies I've ever had the displeasure of working with.
Product was good. Price was great. ( The only reason I recommend them really ) But ALL of our kits came with missing pieces.
Absolutely no quality control, and no customer service.

I called and left a message with them...WELL over a week ago now, and still haven't received a return call.
I absolutely love support local new companies, which was why I went with these guys to begin with, despite hearing all the negative reviews here for that very reason.

There are pretty useless instructional videos they provide, but don't really cover even 50% of the kit, and in those videos, people are talking in the background about some inappropriate stuff etc.
I'd only recommend this kit for someone with reverse engineering skills, etc to save money. If you're not inclined, I'd spend the extra $100-200 on a well supported reprap kit.

I have no problem with taking the time to fine tune and troubleshoot my machine. I bought this kit because it was a good price for a fully sourced kit and didn't want to spend the time to source my own parts. I currently have a 3 axis cnc desktop router that I sourced and built and supplied all my own electronics for. But have anyone had repeatable successful prints with this kit once tuned?

Congrats on the lump of poop! Glad to see you got it going. I'm still building my frame but hope to be done soon and extrude my first lump of poop also.

As for their customer support, I had an issue with a few of the acrylic prices and I emailed them through eBay and directly to the email address on the folgrrtec site. They only replied from eBay. He shipped me some replacement parts out right away a and I got them today. Maybe because I specified exactly what I needed and what the issue was is why they sent the parts so quick. Idk. But they were pretty quick. I'd say contact them through eBay if something is missing. If you just have questions you want answered, I'd say your probably on your own. That's why I started reading this thread

A question to the group, how hot does your X axis stepper get? I've already turned down the vref by half assumming for some reason this driver or stepper didn't like what I believe most everyone else is using but it still gets pretty hot after about an hour. I can hold my fingers on it for a while and don't get burnt but it does sting. I'm still having an issue with bigger prints skipping steps on the x axis late in the print so I'm wondering if the stepper is getting too hot and causing the missed steps.

Thoughts?

I ordered my kit through there website and not through ebay so I guess I'll have to look them up on ebay and try to get them there.

Quote
Gannicus

Quote
konto89
Hello guys,
I also had an issue with the heatbed, when it reached 95 degrees it would take 5 minutes to increase by one degree!!!
So I used a sheet of the foamy stuff that you wrap fragile things to insulate the bottom of the bed and when I heat the bed for a print I cover the top with a piece of cardboard!!!
I remove it when it reaches temperature just before the print.
It really helps and it does not heats up the rest of the printer!
Hope it helps!

What foamy stuff?

Wouldn't that melt?

After using the printer for a week nearly 8 hours a day printing I did have any problem!
That's the stuff I was telling :
WP_20141122_23_44_35_Pro by kgeorge1989, on Flickr
WP_20141122_23_44_48_Pro by kgeorge1989, on Flickr

Quote
konto89

Quote
Gannicus

Quote
konto89
Hello guys,
I also had an issue with the heatbed, when it reached 95 degrees it would take 5 minutes to increase by one degree!!!
So I used a sheet of the foamy stuff that you wrap fragile things to insulate the bottom of the bed and when I heat the bed for a print I cover the top with a piece of cardboard!!!
I remove it when it reaches temperature just before the print.
It really helps and it does not heats up the rest of the printer!
Hope it helps!

What foamy stuff?

Wouldn't that melt?

After using the printer for a week nearly 8 hours a day printing I did have any problem!
That's the stuff I was telling :

flic.kr

WP_20141122_23_44_35_Pro by kgeorge1989, on Flickr

flic.kr

WP_20141122_23_44_48_Pro by kgeorge1989, on Flickr

AWESOME! I'm going to have to try that!

Everyone starts off printing pretty much lumps of poop at some point. Just have to dial in the settings! Wish I took pictures of my failed prints, they were pretty bad, be ready to have a whole bunch of failed prints, lumps of poop, balls of stringy filament etc.
Stay with it, keep fine tuning and eventually you'll get great prints!

Quote
Wpflum
A question to the group, how hot does your X axis stepper get? I've already turned down the vref by half assumming for some reason this driver or stepper didn't like what I believe most everyone else is using but it still gets pretty hot after about an hour. I can hold my fingers on it for a while and don't get burnt but it does sting. I'm still having an issue with bigger prints skipping steps on the x axis late in the print so I'm wondering if the stepper is getting too hot and causing the missed steps.

Thoughts?

Mine gets warm to the touch, but I'm not sure what "too hot" is for one of these motors

So after switching to the good filament, I've noticed a marked improvement already.

I have two quick questions.

1) Why is the bottom of all my prints printing like Ramen Noodles. Instead of smooth 100% glass like surfaces? You can see this example in the first two pics.

2) How can improve the sag in overhangs? In the SAG pic, that is just the 20mm hollow calibration cube from Thingiverse. Trying to span just a small 20mm gap caused horrible sag.

Thanks guys! You're all awesome!

Ok, so I have been having issues all day with the printer so I pulled off the extruder and cleaned it out. Waltermixx, I don't have those nuts on mine, did you add those to improve cooling?

Anyway, it seems that mine starts to click when it starts to airprint and if I apply a little pressure, it seems to pull some more filament, but if I stop it starts clicking again. I took apart my extruder and cleaned a bunch of stuff out, then I totally cleaned out the tip and put everything back together and it was working for a little while and then, click click click and the airprints. I pulled the tip off and fed filament and it fed cleanly through the extruder without clicking, I put the tip back on and it's clicking again. I checked my vref and it's right, but I figure let me raise it just a hair to see if that helps. And it doesn't. So now I'm thinking that this extruder either needs a more powerful motor or a bigger tip (or I need to change the extruder).

If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

I know some of the others here have had alot of issues with their extruders but I've only had one or two air prints from mine and after I wired the extruder fan directly to the power supply instead of letting the ramps board turn it off and on I haven't had any. I also added an always on 40mm fan to point at the ramps mosfets after I started having a problem with the bed not heating up as fast as it did at first. After I added the ramps fan the bed has been heating up to 110c as fast as it did when I first started printing.

I don't know whether or not an always on fan will help you but it's simple to do before you rebuild yours like a few here have.

Quote
Gannicus
Well boys and girls...we've got SOMETHING!

And it's better than nothing! LOL

It's a lump of shit, but it's MY lump of shit. haha!
It was exactly 10mm on one side, but my nuts fell off the belt plastic under the heated bed during printing. Both of them. Gonna put some loctite on those. I have a feeling the
inaccuracies that occurred halfway up the cube are from that.
epeated twice more for a total of three layers.

This ABS also was the garbage that came with the kit. I have a spool of Hatchbox 1.75 I ordered from Amazon. I'm hoping that may help??

Good to hear you got it printing.
I have found ABS quite a lot harder to print with than PLA.
I buy my PLA from filaments.ca [filaments.ca]

Steve

Just ordered my kit today. Been reading though this thread before I decided. So I am not expecting a perfect kit but something with a tinkering will be usable.
I figured it was a good start into printing and price was right. Plus I have this forum to help me getting it work

Quote
Nlh205
I have no problem with taking the time to fine tune and troubleshoot my machine. I bought this kit because it was a good price for a fully sourced kit and didn't want to spend the time to source my own parts. I currently have a 3 axis cnc desktop router that I sourced and built and supplied all my own electronics for. But have anyone had repeatable successful prints with this kit once tuned?

Yes I have, I purchased this kit for the same reason as you. one stop shopping for parts, for a very good price... and a good extruder to boot... Its a great learning experience. I never tried to build one before, and I thought for sure I would screw it up. But after watching many video's on youtube, asking questions here, i have a printer that produces very good prints. Honestly, you get what you put into it. It's just a kit a parts, honestly the rest is up to you... I did make a few changes, I re-arranged my extruder to eliminate airprints, ( I posted what i did ( and what dooms101 did before me)) moved the hot end to the threaded whole, screwed it all the way in, and used only one nut to hold it tight against the cooling block, leaving the narrowed throat (heat break) exposed, I have not had an airprint since...

I have noticed that print quality will depend on a lot of things... make sure the bolts holding the y-axis belt holder to the Bed a tight and have no play... make sure you bearings are secured properly where ever they are being used. Make sure your M5 nut on the z-axis threaded rods is held securely in place on the x-axis plastic parts... make sure all bolts on the main bed are tight, and use M8 lock washers to ensure they stay tight... and screw the whole thing down on a sheet of plywood once everything is properly leveled and setup..

Anyone getting airprints should check out the section where Dooms101 and I are discussing the mods... my mod is based on dooms101's information, but mine is different a bit.

My hot end screws into the threaded cooling block all the way to the top, so it's flush, making filment easier to get into it. (his is further down the threaded hole on the cooling block, but he did not have any issues with feeding the filmament. Dooms101 also flipped his cooling block so it was on the right side of the printer when using the threaded cooling block hole. I also used the threaded hole, but left it on the left side of the printer, and I moved the pully in the injection molded extruder feeder over to the left side as well.

The ramen noodle pattern ( or squiggly lines instead of straigh lines when printing that first layer, looks like you are not quite low enough to the glass build plate. you need to get a bit closer.... I found that doing the initial bed leveling and getting a z=0 position the most tricky part...

we should try and organize a google groups hang out and try and share our experiences a little better... I've posted a ton of pics, lots of the extruder... so you will better understand the mod that I made... and as mentioned since Ive done it, no more airprints..

the top of the hollow cube drooping centre? I'm thinking either the extruder temp is too hot so the plastic is overy liquified?, or the ammount of material being extruded is not quite what it should be? perhaps increase the multiplyer? I know that PLA will bridge much better if there is a print fan in place (not just an extruder cooling fan,)

Quote
Wpflum
I know some of the others here have had alot of issues with their extruders but I've only had one or two air prints from mine and after I wired the extruder fan directly to the power supply instead of letting the ramps board turn it off and on I haven't had any. I also added an always on 40mm fan to point at the ramps mosfets after I started having a problem with the bed not heating up as fast as it did at first. After I added the ramps fan the bed has been heating up to 110c as fast as it did when I first started printing.

I don't know whether or not an always on fan will help you but it's simple to do before you rebuild yours like a few here have.

Yeah I wired my extruder fan directly to power also but that didn't help. I also found an old fan in my electronics pile and have it pointed at the MOSFET also. I agree that it helps. I think I'll swap my x motor with the extruder motor and see how that goes.

i will be moving the extruder fan power to the 12volt power supply as well, because any time i am using the printer i want it on...
i think it makes the best sense that leaves that mosfet available for a print fan, for better PLA prints...

Quote
Waltermixx
i will be moving the extruder fan power to the 12volt power supply as well, because any time i am using the printer i want it on...
i think it makes the best sense that leaves that mosfet available for a print fan, for better PLA prints...

I did notice, when I had the extruder fan plugged into the fan port instead of directly to 12 volt power, that the fan would kick on every time it was going over a bridge. Almost like it's really make for a place cooling fan.

Also I asked earlier but don't see a response, the nut you have on the extruder, was that originally on yours or something you added? Mine has no nuts on it which is why I ask. I think I'll take my extruder apart and put the end in the threaded hole.

Does anyone know where to find the source files for this kit? Not the printed parts, but the laser cut parts? I'd like to make a full model of the kit so I can design add ons easier but I can only find the STLs for the printed parts and nothing for the frame.

Thanks,
Jason

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2014 01:36AM by vonnieda.

Quote
Gannicus
So after switching to the good filament, I've noticed a marked improvement already.

I have two quick questions.

1) Why is the bottom of all my prints printing like Ramen Noodles. Instead of smooth 100% glass like surfaces? You can see this example in the first two pics.

2) How can improve the sag in overhangs? In the SAG pic, that is just the 20mm hollow calibration cube from Thingiverse. Trying to span just a small 20mm gap caused horrible sag.

Thanks guys! You're all awesome!

Looks to me to be a temp issue or possibly layer height tell us

a what filament you are using (ABS or PLA)
b Your temp settings for that filament
c Your layer heights first layer and subsequent layers

This will help to give suggestions of which way to go.

Doug

p.s. not using a folger but a very similar I3 and I have generaly got mine dialled in pretty well.

Quote
Waltermixx
i will be moving the extruder fan power to the 12volt power supply as well, because any time i am using the printer i want it on...
i think it makes the best sense that leaves that mosfet available for a print fan, for better PLA prints...

Walter,

I just soldered it directly to the board. It's on every time I turn the printer on.

Quote
dougal1957

Quote
Gannicus
So after switching to the good filament, I've noticed a marked improvement already.

I have two quick questions.

1) Why is the bottom of all my prints printing like Ramen Noodles. Instead of smooth 100% glass like surfaces? You can see this example in the first two pics.

2) How can improve the sag in overhangs? In the SAG pic, that is just the 20mm hollow calibration cube from Thingiverse. Trying to span just a small 20mm gap caused horrible sag.

Thanks guys! You're all awesome!

Looks to me to be a temp issue or possibly layer height tell us

a what filament you are using (ABS or PLA)
b Your temp settings for that filament
c Your layer heights first layer and subsequent layers

This will help to give suggestions of which way to go.

Doug

p.s. not using a folger but a very similar I3 and I have generaly got mine dialled in pretty well.

Thanks Doug!

a) ABS
b) 235C extruder, 110C bed
c) First layer height 0.3mm, subsequent layer height 0.3mm
d) Speeds are broken down as such:
Perimeters: 30 mm/s
Small Perimeters 30 mm/s
External Perimeters 70%
Infill 60 mm/s
Solid Infill 60 mm/s
Top solid infill 50 mm/s
Bridges 60 mm/s
Gap fill 20 mm/s
First layer speed 30%

Sorry to keep making so many replies guys, but I notice on every Prusa kit BESIDES this one, the idlers have tensioner screws in them. My Y axis belt is tight (though it could stand to be a bit tighter) but my X has a lot of slop in it. I don't like the idea of the metal tension clips, as they must interfere at some point, and would rather have a proper adjustment for it.

Does anyone have a STL of either, preferably the X, but I'd love them both.

Thanks!

Quote
louspinuso

Quote
Waltermixx
i will be moving the extruder fan power to the 12volt power supply as well, because any time i am using the printer i want it on...
i think it makes the best sense that leaves that mosfet available for a print fan, for better PLA prints...

I did notice, when I had the extruder fan plugged into the fan port instead of directly to 12 volt power, that the fan would kick on every time it was going over a bridge. Almost like it's really make for a place cooling fan.

Also I asked earlier but don't see a response, the nut you have on the extruder, was that originally on yours or something you added? Mine has no nuts on it which is why I ask. I think I'll take my extruder apart and put the end in the threaded hole.

My extruder came with two nuts, tightened up against the hot block. I removed one and now I only have one nut now tightened up against the cooling block...

Quote
Waltermixx

Yes I have, I purchased this kit for the same reason as you. one stop shopping for parts, for a very good price... and a good extruder to boot... Its a great learning experience. I never tried to build one before, and I thought for sure I would screw it up. But after watching many video's on youtube, asking questions here, i have a printer that produces very good prints. Honestly, you get what you put into it. It's just a kit a parts, honestly the rest is up to you...

Exactly. I think these 3D printers are actually very complex. While defective or missing parts should be replaced in a timely manner, technical support should not be expected for the price of these kits. They are, as Walt pointed out, a one stop purchase of parts.
I look forward to building, learning and tuning my printer. I realize that it will take weeks if not months to get it working just right, and then I will probably start all over again with a bigger kit or my own design. But I think this kit is a perfect starting point for a tinkerer like me.

Quote
Gannicus
Sorry to keep making so many replies guys, but I notice on every Prusa kit BESIDES this one, the idlers have tensioner screws in them. My Y axis belt is tight (though it could stand to be a bit tighter) but my X has a lot of slop in it. I don't like the idea of the metal tension clips, as they must interfere at some point, and would rather have a proper adjustment for it.

Does anyone have a STL of either, preferably the X, but I'd love them both.

Thanks!

check out Thingiverse plenty of stl files there,
do a search for Prusa i3 you will find plenty, my Y-idler is adjustable, my x-axis idler is not adjustable, but I am using the belt tensioner, right up against the x-carriage and it does not interfear at all with the x movement, and it keeps the belt snug. click the image to get a larger version the right way around... you can see the clip right up against the carriage.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2014 10:02AM by Waltermixx.

Thanks Walter!

Will try that out!