Folger Prusa i3 Kit from ebay

Quote
enzo1027
Just got my set of these in today Poly Linear Bearings, and can't wait to try them out. They are linear bearings that have a frelon (some sort of delrin derivative) lining in them. They are self lubricating and have no moving parts. I'm hoping these should all but eliminate the noise! I'll let you guys know tomorrow how they work!

"Note: Not for use with bare aluminum, chrome-plated steel, or 300 series stainless steel shafts."

Wonder why they can't be used on chrome plated rods?

Quote
krwynn

Quote
Vanbot
The one instant improvement I'd like to make it to the extruder. It's a pain to thread in new filament. Does anyone know of a design that works with the existing hot end to allow easier filament changes?

This one is great. Have had zero problems since installing it. Love it actually.
Extruder for FolgerTech Prusa i3 (v-groove bearing and flat feeder)

I just printed and installed this extruder. Working really nicely. The current print is looking great and not a skip!

About to install this X Endstop: Prusa i3 X Endstop

And this Z Endstop: prusa mendel i3 adjustable Z endstop by philsson

Placed an order for my Folger Prusa i3 on Monday, along with the full graphics LCD. The 10+ day wait is going to be painful! This will be my first 3D printer, looking forward to the build

I've already skimmed through the entire thread, and am now reading it more thoroughly for a second time, up to page 20...

I think the only other things I need are glass and filament. What is better to start out with, ABS or PLA?

Quote
hockey9999
Placed an order for my Folger Prusa i3 on Monday, along with the full graphics LCD. The 10+ day wait is going to be painful! This will be my first 3D printer, looking forward to the build

I've already skimmed through the entire thread, and am now reading it more thoroughly for a second time, up to page 20...

I think the only other things I need are glass and filament. What is better to start out with, ABS or PLA?

Unfortunately you're going to need more than just glass and filament.

You'll a decent set of small metric and SAE allen keys, a soldering iron, a multimeter, acetone for when you get the seemingly inevitable extruder click, sandpaper, a butane lighter potentially (I had to heat up several small nuts to make them fit the acrylic frame), and A LOT of patience.

If you have all these tools, need not worry. But I recently moved 4500km and didn't have all the tools I used to have and when their product page claims you'll only need the glass and filament, it's a bit misconstrued..

As a warning, be prepared for significantly longer than 10+ days in shipping if you live outside the US. I waited 31 days and in the end paid as much shipping costs as 2/3 the cost of the printer. I also had some fitment issues with certain holes not being drilled, some in wrong places, and some not large enough. I've also has A LOT of issues with the extruder and you can find my thread about that.

I have yet to print anything within a reasonable print time that had at least a marginal quality.

Quote
hockey9999
Placed an order for my Folger Prusa i3 on Monday, along with the full graphics LCD. The 10+ day wait is going to be painful! This will be my first 3D printer, looking forward to the build

I've already skimmed through the entire thread, and am now reading it more thoroughly for a second time, up to page 20...

I think the only other things I need are glass and filament. What is better to start out with, ABS or PLA?

IMHO, start with the ABS; it is the hardest to work with, as it wants to lift from the bed. Start now with the hard stuff, get good at it. The easy stuff will always be easy. I enjoy ABS because of its higher melting point. I've made multiple things for my kitchen, and then coated them with food grade polyurethane. I can throw it all right in the dishwasher! ABS is also easy to work with and machine. It is slightly flexible, which is good for making moving parts; where PLA tends to crack under constant load or when snapping pieces together. Good luck with your kit, and welcome to the madness!

I need some assistance from anyone who feels like offering. I am experiencing some issues mid-print where it will just stop completely. Twice in the past week I've left Johnny5 printing, and come back to the extruder in some random spot in the print just sitting there. My LCD is back at its main screen, and the bed and extruder stay on. Has anyone else had any experience with this? I print from my SD card with my USB plugged into a 120 to 5V cell charger. Maybe power issues?

Today I also noticed that in the middle of the print, the machine slowed to a super crawl. I'd seen it once before, but just dismissed it the same. I happened to be sitting right next to it when it slowed down exponentially. The printer was still at 100% speed, but I was able to crank it up to 400% and it seemed to take me back to normal.

Well, any help would be great. Thanks everyone!


-Dave

P.S. Anybody located in Ohio?

It would be cool to know where we all live. I am in a suburb of Montreal, Canada.

I am in north east Tennessee ... and travel to Montreal a couple times a year.. Wonderful city.. In the summer

Quote
Ecky
It would be cool to know where we all live. I am in a suburb of Montreal, Canada.

Vancouver. And I love Montreal too. :-)

Pheonix, Arizona...
Love the winters, but Hate the summers

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2015 12:16AM by 55rebel.

Quote
hockey9999
Placed an order for my Folger Prusa i3 on Monday, along with the full graphics LCD. The 10+ day wait is going to be painful! This will be my first 3D printer, looking forward to the build

I've already skimmed through the entire thread, and am now reading it more thoroughly for a second time, up to page 20...

I think the only other things I need are glass and filament. What is better to start out with, ABS or PLA?

I definitely second what others have said here. Folger isn't being honest when they say there's a 10 day shipping delay. Mine didn't ship for something like 23 days and it took over a month to get it.

Since I've received it I've had a lot of problems due to the Folger manual containing quite a few errors, everything from being told to use wrong screw lengths to attach motors, to errors in how to set up settings in Repetier and incorrect placement of end stop plugs. If you already have a pretty solid understanding of how these printers and the software work then the misinformation isn't too serious. If you're a rookie like me, being given incorrect information by the manufacturer's manual gets you very lost, very quickly. If I didn't have an excellent resource in the great guys like SteveRoy at my local hackspace who have built a few of these, I'd have been really frustrated and upset because progress would have been even slower than it was. As things stand now, even with their help I am getting limited utility out of my printer because of a variety of issues.

Then there are the problems due to the quality of the hardware in their kit. I have had to ask them to send me a new Full Graphics LCD board because the one that came with my kit has a faulty SD card reader. To his credit, Dan at Folger agreed to send a replacement, no questions asked although it remains to be seen how long it takes to get here. Also, to get the plugs on one of my Z axis motors to squeeze in next to the motor driver stick on the RAMPS board I had to shave down the plug itself and bend the pins over a fair bit because the pins were placed too close to the pins for for sticks.

I don't know, some folks here seem perfectly content with the value of these things. I appreciate that these are kits and that there can be a learning curve when it comes to getting them together and then actually getting them to work properly but a lot of it just seems shoddy. Personally, if I'd known about the many problems that have arisen because of the shoddiness I would have spent more to get a better quality kit. Some manufacturers also provide some really excellent guides and instructions for their customers. Some even have troubleshooting guides which would be really welcome at times.

Anyway, you can see there is a lot of useful info on this forum. I do think it would be useful though to create some stickies on some topics. Right now a LOT of different topics and problems are all crammed into this one thread and it can be difficult to sort through it all. For example, having a stickie on the Folger end stop position with a clear explanation of where the plugs go for that configuration (and other configurations for that matter) and what the firmware needs to say and which direction the motors should run etc would be useful. Another one with some definitive information on setting up the different LCD boards would be really helpful too.

Quote
Vanbot

Quote
Ecky
It would be cool to know where we all live. I am in a suburb of Montreal, Canada.

Vancouver. And I love Montreal too. :-)

Cool, I'm in New West.
Moved from Ontario a few months ago.

Quote
Vanbot

Quote
hockey9999
Placed an order for my Folger Prusa i3 on Monday, along with the full graphics LCD. The 10+ day wait is going to be painful! This will be my first 3D printer, looking forward to the build

I've already skimmed through the entire thread, and am now reading it more thoroughly for a second time, up to page 20...

I think the only other things I need are glass and filament. What is better to start out with, ABS or PLA?

I definitely second what others have said here. Folger isn't being honest when they say there's a 10 day shipping delay. Mine didn't ship for something like 23 days and it took over a month to get it.

Since I've received it I've had a lot of problems due to the Folger manual containing quite a few errors, everything from being told to use wrong screw lengths to attach motors, to errors in how to set up settings in Repetier and incorrect placement of end stop plugs. If you already have a pretty solid understanding of how these printers and the software work then the misinformation isn't too serious. If you're a rookie like me, being given incorrect information by the manufacturer's manual gets you very lost, very quickly. If I didn't have an excellent resource in the great guys like SteveRoy at my local hackspace who have built a few of these, I'd have been really frustrated and upset because progress would have been even slower than it was. As things stand now, even with their help I am getting limited utility out of my printer because of a variety of issues.

Then there are the problems due to the quality of the hardware in their kit. I have had to ask them to send me a new Full Graphics LCD board because the one that came with my kit has a faulty SD card reader. To his credit, Dan at Folger agreed to send a replacement, no questions asked although it remains to be seen how long it takes to get here. Also, to get the plugs on one of my Z axis motors to squeeze in next to the motor driver stick on the RAMPS board I had to shave down the plug itself and bend the pins over a fair bit because the pins were placed too close to the pins for for sticks.

I don't know, some folks here seem perfectly content with the value of these things. I appreciate that these are kits and that there can be a learning curve when it comes to getting them together and then actually getting them to work properly but a lot of it just seems shoddy. Personally, if I'd known about the many problems that have arisen because of the shoddiness I would have spent more to get a better quality kit. Some manufacturers also provide some really excellent guides and instructions for their customers. Some even have troubleshooting guides which would be really welcome at times.

Anyway, you can see there is a lot of useful info on this forum. I do think it would be useful though to create some stickies on some topics. Right now a LOT of different topics and problems are all crammed into this one thread and it can be difficult to sort through it all. For example, having a stickie on the Folger end stop position with a clear explanation of where the plugs go for that configuration (and other configurations for that matter) and what the firmware needs to say and which direction the motors should run etc would be useful. Another one with some definitive information on setting up the different LCD boards would be really helpful too.

I agree with this completely.

I was expected a certain amount of messing around to get things working.... But I wasn't expecting a 9-5 job.

The folks at Folger Tech seem to be of a lot more help to you than they were to myself.

I asked for help and they basically sent me here.

Quote
Hephaestus0000

Cool, I'm in New West.
Moved from Ontario a few months ago.

I'm also in New Westminster. You should come to the Vancouver Hackspace 3D printer meetup on Saturdays or the open house on Tuesdays.
I won't be at this Saturdays meetup, but almost always make the Tuesday open house.
Vanbot is also a member of the hackspace.

Steve

Quote
SteveRoy

Quote
Hephaestus0000

Cool, I'm in New West.
Moved from Ontario a few months ago.

I'm also in New Westminster. You should come to the Vancouver Hackspace 3D printer meetup on Saturdays or the open house on Tuesdays.
I won't be at this Saturdays meetup, but almost always make the Tuesday open house.
Vanbot is also a member of the hackspace.

Steve

I wish I had the slightest clue what you were referring to.
I can barely make my way to the end of my street without getting lost haha.

Folger should host a thread like this for their machines at their website to centralize knowledge with them. But that would drive the cost of doing business up and that would impact the cost of the printers.

One thing we shouldn't lose sight of is that these printers are, for the lack of a better word, "toys" and though they can do some neat things they are not really tools for production. It is only because of inexpensive parts from China that they are anywhere near affordable. Source the parts from western suppliers and I think we would hit the floor when they rolled out the price. Anyway, I am happy with the hardware I got and though the instructions are lacking at times I was able to build it without any big hassles. This forum and You Tube have been very helpful, dare I say necessary, to this effort.

Have a great day.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2015 06:45AM by Ecky.

Quote
enzo1027
I need some assistance from anyone who feels like offering. I am experiencing some issues mid-print where it will just stop completely. Twice in the past week I've left Johnny5 printing, and come back to the extruder in some random spot in the print just sitting there. My LCD is back at its main screen, and the bed and extruder stay on. Has anyone else had any experience with this? I print from my SD card with my USB plugged into a 120 to 5V cell charger. Maybe power issues?

Today I also noticed that in the middle of the print, the machine slowed to a super crawl. I'd seen it once before, but just dismissed it the same. I happened to be sitting right next to it when it slowed down exponentially. The printer was still at 100% speed, but I was able to crank it up to 400% and it seemed to take me back to normal.

Well, any help would be great. Thanks everyone!


-Dave

P.S. Anybody located in Ohio?

Off the top of my head, below are a few things I would look at first.

Have you tried running it from a PC?
What does your wiring look like?
Could something be getting snagged at a certain z height?
How hot are your stepper motors getting?
Do you have any cooling on your ramps board?
Have you tried just wiggling wires around during a print to see if cuts out? (looking for a lose connection)

Quote
Hephaestus0000


I wish I had the slightest clue what you were referring to.
I can barely make my way to the end of my street without getting lost haha.

I get pretty lost in New West too.

Steve's talking about the Vancouver Hackspace. [hackspace.ca]

You pay $30/month and during times that it's open you can come and use any of the tools (lathe, laser cutter, Tinkerine 3d printer, sewing machines, electronic test gear, etc) they have there and meet people who know lots of stuff and do lots of things, for lack of a more articulate explanation. Check out the link and the forum and you'll get the idea.

Quote
Ecky
Folger should host a thread like this for their machines at their website to centralize knowledge with them. But that would drive the cost of doing business up and that would impact the cost of the printers.

One thing we shouldn't lose sight of is that these printers are, for the lack of a better word, "toys" and though they can do some neat things they are not really tools for production. It is only because of inexpensive parts from China that they are anywhere near affordable. Source the parts from western suppliers and I think we would hit the floor when they rolled out the price. Anyway, I am happy with the hardware I got and though the instructions are lacking at times I was able to build it without any big hassles. This forum and You Tube have been very helpful, dare I say necessary, to this effort.

Have a great day.

Point taken about Chinese parts.

Even if Folger doesn't want to host a forum (or even provide their customers with up to date, accurate build manuals) they could at least participate in this forum and address the many issues their customers are having with their kits. They are selling a boatload of these things and then pretty much telling their customers to go figure it out for themselves. So on the one hand, the low price they sell them for helps to get more people interested but on the other hand, the frustrations so many are experiencing is likely turning a lot of people off. E.g., my girlfriend has been really patient about the thing sitting on the kitchen counter for 2 weeks but now that it's not functional I'm getting pressure to put it away in a closet. :-)

EDIT: It looks like Folger just updated the Configuration Manual on their Google Docs page so there is no longer an error with the Printer Shape settings. Still wish they'd use version numbers on their manuals.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2015 12:16PM by Vanbot.

I was going to make a post about the tools you need and such, but essentially the Prusa I3 Kit can and does work with what they provide. I had an issue with several bad stepper motor drivers in the kit and found several errors that others like Vanbot included. Tools you should include would be a set of small files for expanding the acrylic frame to work in any too-small spaces for the nuts. A good hex set and a good deal of knowledge from "other" sources. If you cannot get 8x8 glass - cut it yourself with a glass cutter, its cheap and easy.

As for the build manual - the mechanical build is almost spot on with a few caveats - use the 16mm m3s in place of every 18mm m3 suggestion. Watch some youtube vids if you can or read up on the build BEFORE you do it. Make the effort if you can. Knowledge and familiarity with the machine and its construction make assembly very easy.

Note - If you use PLA: the configuration settings are VERY VERY VERY wrong for printing. Those are ABS settings it sets up in the configuration manual and even those appear off. Unless you are experienced - you won't know that some of the suggestions are pretty much wrong. The first layer they want set to 90% speed. It should be 50% or so. If you run the fan at 100% all the time, you are probably overdoing it. I run at 40% and that's still causing some issues for me at sub-.5 mm walls.

The key issue with the Prusa I3 build is the lack of a troubleshooting guide. Mechanical assembly is great, and the electronic set up is suitable - but the lack of a "How do I fix this?" results in hours of confusion. This is as much a problem of the community as it is about Folger Tech's customer service. Simply put - look it up yourself or ask someone is the rule of thumb. People with great skills exist, but the multitude of machines, problems and symptoms (as well as the individual ability to diagnosis and communicate these) are all weigh heavily on the collective Reprap users. Experimentation and resolving problems is more of an individual journey at this point - and you might re-invent the wheel (so to speak) - when the solution to a particular problem is already known.

For example - I print in PLA. My settings are 180C and I use a glass bed. The cheap painter's tape I had does not stick. The glass itself was used for a bit, but that's junk. I tried the glue and water mixture - also didn't work because I assume I had it wrong. I am using some cardstock paper (do not use with ABS or 200+ C) and it works wonders - but I just figured this out some hours ago. I am getting amazing... absolutely amazing adhesion and its not messing up even on the underside of 3D benchy. Will I stick with cardstock? Probably not. Though I need to dial in the settings more on my machine still...

And note to all Folger Tech i3 users - print the Folger Tech plastic parts for back ups - a stock, undialed in machine can still make effective and even better parts than what were provided in your kit. Spares are cheap and easy to make - do it.

Vanbot - I got my kit after you - and its working. If you have specific problems, document them and let's get your machine running. One of my key issues was a very unstable/lopsided table that it was on - a trip to Home Depot for some 3/4" thick plywood and $2 in furniture leveling hardware and some decent leveling = awesomeness. If Folger Tech is having issues - let's make a section on the wiki or do what we can to help others.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2015 12:35PM by Chris Rap.

North-West Iowa here

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to comment to Vanbot. I try to pop in here when I can but we have been so overwhelmed that I haven't had as much of an opportunity lately and for that I apologize.

We are working on a FAQ page on the website, an updated build guide, and possibly forums of our own!

These first 2 kits were definitely a learning experience for us and we definitely learned from the mistakes.

Our next kits and our upcoming fully assembled printer will be streamlined much better! We appreciate your business though and I think what people don't realize is there are only officially 3 of us here with the addition of our 2 new employees putting our kits together in the warehouse. We are working on hiring someone on for just support. I am glad there is a community like that that we can lean on in times when we can't handle the influx of emails. Although I do respond to everyone personally, sometimes it is not as fast as myself or they would like.

But again we are working on it! It's a slow process but we are getting there!

Quote
Dan_FolgerTech
Although I do respond to everyone personally

I can vouch for that. You have been extremely timely and helpful with all of my issues, and there have only been a couple, from day 1 and it's greatly appreciated.

-Kevin Wynn

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2015 02:01PM by krwynn.

As I said before Dan has been helpful to me as well.

Quote
Dan_FolgerTech
Hey Guys,

I just wanted to comment to Vanbot. I try to pop in here when I can but we have been so overwhelmed that I haven't had as much of an opportunity lately and for that I apologize.

We are working on a FAQ page on the website, an updated build guide, and possibly forums of our own!

These first 2 kits were definitely a learning experience for us and we definitely learned from the mistakes.

Our next kits and our upcoming fully assembled printer will be streamlined much better! We appreciate your business though and I think what people don't realize is there are only officially 3 of us here with the addition of our 2 new employees putting our kits together in the warehouse. We are working on hiring someone on for just support. I am glad there is a community like that that we can lean on in times when we can't handle the influx of emails. Although I do respond to everyone personally, sometimes it is not as fast as myself or they would like.

But again we are working on it! It's a slow process but we are getting there!

Well don't be so secretive! What types of kits are you working on?! I'm ready to pull the trigger on your Kossel, but now I may wait!

I had a question about the squareness of my prints that I was hoping someone had some familiarity with. Over all my prints have been really nice and I've been printing stuff like mad...

I just noticed yesterday on a large flat rectangular print that the sides of the print are off. Looking at the piece on the bed from the front going towards the back of the printer the sides of the object lean right about 3mm over 3-4 inches. So if you stand that printed piece up on its front face the print leans to the right. Any thoughts here? I am thinking that the bed may not be square with the X Carriage?

#Update# Looks like the y-axis is not square with the x-axis. Awhile back I moved my y-axis Endstop to the very front of the bed. I had to slide the threaded rod forward to give the Endstop a place to attach. I am pretty sure I forgot to square the frame afterwards. Lesson learned!

Thanks!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2015 05:22PM by DriftyDave.

Quote
enzo1027

Well don't be so secretive! What types of kits are you working on?! I'm ready to pull the trigger on your Kossel, but now I may wait!

Agreed! My i3 kit hasnt shipped yet and now I hear they are releasing new stuff. Hope I didn't make a mistake and the new kits aren't way nicer...

Hello,

I just got my kit and have it mostly built. My only hang up now is the power cable for the power supply. After cutting the end off I was left with two brown wires and a black which I think is weird. How do I determine which wire goes where?

PS By the way for anyone who has recently purchased a kit or thinking about it, mine was complete and no broken parts and shipped earlier than the 10 days they say it takes.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2015 12:25PM by bmfcamaro.

I hope I can get mine to work. It just spazzes out in the front of the bed spitting filament but not moving. In like 2 minutes the Repetier Host says the print is all done when it should have taken well over an hour.

Quote
benjarick
I hope I can get mine to work. It just spazzes out in the front of the bed spitting filament but not moving. In like 2 minutes the Repetier Host says the print is all done when it should have taken well over an hour.

Any chance you have Bed front and Bed left set to 200? Check in Printer settings -> Printer Shape. These should both be 0.

Quote
bmfcamaro
Hello,

I just got my kit and have it mostly built. My only hang up now is the power cable for the power supply. After cutting the end off I was left with two brown wires and a black which I think is weird. How do I determine which wire goes where?

PS By the way for anyone who has recently purchased a kit or thinking about it, mine was complete and no broken parts.

I had the same cable in my kit. I grabbed another I had laying around and that cable had wires of different colors. I was able to look the colors up and find out what was ground, hot, etc...

Good luck!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2015 11:37AM by DriftyDave.

I played with that frame for ages and cannot get the X & Y axis square. Kinda driving me nuts at this point.

For lots of prints it doesn't matter but when printing cases for things like the Pi and the SmartController a few milimeters off means the case doesn't line up by enough to make it useless.

Any ideas? I need a procedure to follow or something. Maybe a steel frame...