Folger Tech 2020 i3 Printer Kit (Official Thread)

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markts
I'm so glad you said that! What forum did you see that in?? Mine are also crunchy, but when I installed then into the holder they get very difficult to move.

Unfortunately, I don't remember where I saw it. I must have looked through a hundred forum pages over the last few days, while I was waiting for the kit to arrive. I'll let you know how it goes when I get the Al bed installed. (Also, I'm planning to put some notes on the construction on my blog, [moosteria.blogspot.com], though so far I've only written up the prehistory.

Hey guys,

I'm planning on getting this while I'm in the US, but I will need to disassemble it again and take it on an international flight with me. Will I run into any issues?

What is the weight and dimensions of a packed kit?

Thanks

N

The shipping box for mine was 24 in x 12 in x 3 in. There was no weight given on the package as it was shipped to me by USPS, and they only care about size for this kind of shipping. There wasn't much spare space in the box in case you want to add extra packing. Most of the parts are in small sealed bags. You might want to consider whether the security scanning at the airport might be an issue. I have no reason to suppose it would be, it's just a thought. Probably it would be OK in checked baggage, and you could do something like putting a printout of the web page and a receipt for the order with it.

Mine didn't slide too well either at first. After use it's got much better.

I have one question...is the board already flashed or do I need to flash it before I can use the printer?
The documentation is not clear on this at all.
If I do need to flash it...where can I get a Folgertech Marlin ZIP file?
Or do all the changes need to be made by hand? (entered one at a time)
I would be grateful for any help with this.
Thanks

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madkow007
I have one question...is the board already flashed or do I need to flash it before I can use the printer?
The documentation is not clear on this at all.
If I do need to flash it...where can I get a Folgertech Marlin ZIP file?
Or do all the changes need to be made by hand? (entered one at a time)
I would be grateful for any help with this.
Thanks

I honestly did not try before I got it. I just flashed it following the acrlyic i3 guide.

How's everyone's prints doing? I am rather pleased with mine, this is better than I was ever able to get a printrbot plus dialed in...

LG G Watch Stand


So the stringy parts seem to be when it's making a far distance travel. I read retraction was one way to remove it but I clearly haven't got that aspect dialed in. I can deal with that though.

Markts: now I have the bed in place. It feels a little rough when I move it, but not too bad. I compared the sound it makes to a video of a different design, and they sound similar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syId1BPUN8o around the 12:50 mark). One thing that helped was not to overtighten the nuts on the bearing mounts. I had them very tight at first, and when I slacked them off just a tiny amount the bed seemed to move better. Also you can slightly adjust the position of the SK8s.

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animoose
Markts: now I have the bed in place. It feels a little rough when I move it, but not too bad. I compared the sound it makes to a video of a different design, and they sound similar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syId1BPUN8o around the 12:50 mark). One thing that helped was not to overtighten the nuts on the bearing mounts. I had them very tight at first, and when I slacked them off just a tiny amount the bed seemed to move better. Also you can slightly adjust the position of the SK8s.

Excellent. I was also able to get the bed mounted so it moves relatively freely.

I hope others on here don't mind my chronicles on putting this together.

I'm on page 14, step 3, mounting the 2.6 motor. It calls for using 20mm bolts but I'm finding all three bottom out a millimeter or two too early. The printed piece is still slightly loose. I'm considering drilling it slightly or going to to pick up shorter bolts. Thoughts?

I do have to say, the manual is extremely well written. Kudos to Folger Tech for that. I'm not getting stuck trying to understand what to do, it's just doing it that sometimes is a challenge

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2015 11:58PM by markts.

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Tenny
sent the Z to home and as it got close to home I suddenly heard a pop and my computer shut down

Tenny, this is usually caused by an Endstop being plugged in backwards, once the switch gets activated it shorts out the board. I am not saying that is what happened, just giving you something else to look at.

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go_gn
What is the weight and dimensions of a packed kit?

It ships in a Large flat Rate Box, so 24x12x3" is accurate, it weighs about 15lbs.

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markts
I do have to say, the manual is extremely well written. Kudos to Folger Tech for that. I'm not getting stuck trying to understand what to do, it's just doing it that sometimes is a challenge

Thank you, this was my first official printer build. I handle most of the back end stuff here and customer service. I built it with only the prototype to look at, and I took pictures and made notes each step. I built the guide literally from a "noob" perspective. We then had our warehouse girl build a kit using the guide and making notes on stuff she had a hard time with. I am happy with how it came out but I would love feedback via email if you see any changes or modifications that would benefit it.

I am working on a new configuration guide now but in the meantime the config guide from our previous i3 kit will work.

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2015 12:07PM by Dan_FolgerTech.

Hey guys,

I ordered a Folger Tech 2020 i3 Prusa from ebay last Thursday, along with 2 spools of filament. The seller is asidewinderinc, I was just wondering if this is Folger tech's ebay store? or if they are affiliated in some way?

The reason I ask is I'm getting a little anxious/impatient... According to ebay, I'm supposed to get the spools tomorrow, and the printer on Thursday. The printer has a shipping lable, but thats it. And the spools have no tracking info!

I don't doubt I'll get the stuff, but I wanted it yesterday if you know what i mean

I've ordered a ton of parts from SidewinderInc... so far I haven't been let down and I suspect that will be your case also. I'm willing to bed the filament is in the box with the printer hence why one tracking number.

Folger Tech,

As this is the "official forum thread" according to the build manual, should we expect technical support here? Would it be better if I called? I sent Dan a PM with a question with no response.

I would think this forum would be a better medium for support as you can answer questions when you're able to, as opposed to dropping what you're doing to answer the phone.

If not, I'm happy to call and bug you.

Thanks that's what I ended up doing to

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markts

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animoose
Markts: now I have the bed in place. It feels a little rough when I move it, but not too bad. I compared the sound it makes to a video of a different design, and they sound similar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syId1BPUN8o around the 12:50 mark). One thing that helped was not to overtighten the nuts on the bearing mounts. I had them very tight at first, and when I slacked them off just a tiny amount the bed seemed to move better. Also you can slightly adjust the position of the SK8s.

Excellent. I was also able to get the bed mounted so it moves relatively freely.

I hope others on here don't mind my chronicles on putting this together.

I'm on page 14, step 3, mounting the 2.6 motor. It calls for using 20mm bolts but I'm finding all three bottom out a millimeter or two too early. The printed piece is still slightly loose. I'm considering drilling it slightly or going to to pick up shorter bolts. Thoughts?

I do have to say, the manual is extremely well written. Kudos to Folger Tech for that. I'm not getting stuck trying to understand what to do, it's just doing it that sometimes is a challenge

I printed off a new part and still did not fit.
I ended up using a couple washers there and I think 35mm bolts in another place that called for 40 mm bolts that would not fit. Starting to look like you get what you pay for and don't even get me started on the extruder design

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madkow007
I printed off a new part and still did not fit.
I ended up using a couple washers there and I think 35mm bolts in another place that called for 40 mm bolts that would not fit. Starting to look like you get what you pay for and don't even get me started on the extruder design

I also used a couple washers, but now the head of the bolt is sitting above the printed part. Without knowing how the rest of this goes together, I don't know if that will be a problem. If it is, I'll go buy new shorter bolts.

I don't understand why some are having issues putting a kit together, it is a 'newly' designed kit, but the manual was fairly well put together in my opinion. I did notice a few of the screw lengths weren't correct, not sure of which ones, but I got mine together and have been printing for over a week.

The extruder is a MK7, which has a few flaws within it's self. Check this thread out. Extruder Issues I printed the extruder mentioned in that thread and have had zero issues with my extruder since. I helped with my stepper getting extremely hot also, it still gets warm, but I can leave my finger touching it while it is warm. Which reminds me I need to pickup an infrared thermometer this week.

If you have any questions about the assembly, feel free to PM me, I'll try to help you out.

When building my kit, I also noticed that the X axis plug was upside down compared to the others. Is this correct?

Yes and No. I noticed it too and had issues with non-concentric parts being mirrored. I moved my limit switch to the left side and flipped the motor connector to match the rest. It takes a little bit more wiring flexibility, but my prints are correct now.

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JoeH
Hey guys,

I ordered a Folger Tech 2020 i3 Prusa from ebay last Thursday, along with 2 spools of filament. The seller is asidewinderinc, I was just wondering if this is Folger tech's ebay store? or if they are affiliated in some way?

This is our eBay store. Sorry for the delay I didn't realize John had listed the kit on eBay and I am trying to get them all caught up now! Don't worry it's coming!

>D

My construction continues. I am on step 10 (the Z carriage). This is physically the hardest step so far, in getting the bearings into the printed parts and in getting the Z carriage to the suggested size of 300mm. I found it hard to get one of the bearings in the extruder carriage to lie flat. I know I knocked some balls out of the LM8UU bearing when I fitted it, though it still seems to move quite smoothly. Maybe I'll fix this up later.

When I get to adding this step to my construction diary in my blog, I'll have a few suggestions on both the process and instructions. One immediate thing that would help is knowing what the tolerance on the 300mm distance between the left and right ends should be. Getting the last few millimeters was very hard and I think it ended up more like 302mm. I also think a better measure would be the center to center distance of the vertical bearings, which I think should be 360mm, by measuring it from the motors.

@markts: I didn't have any problems with the 20mm bolts for the 2.6 motor. There is a tiny amount of play after attaching it to the left end printed part.

---

See my blog at [moosteria.blogspot.com].

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animoose
My construction continues. I am on step 10 (the Z carriage). This is physically the hardest step so far, in getting the bearings into the printed parts and in getting the Z carriage to the suggested size of 300mm. I found it hard to get one of the bearings in the extruder carriage to lie flat. I know I knocked some balls out of the LM8UU bearing when I fitted it, though it still seems to move quite smoothly. Maybe I'll fix this up later.

When I get to adding this step to my construction diary in my blog, I'll have a few suggestions on both the process and instructions. One immediate thing that would help is knowing what the tolerance on the 300mm distance between the left and right ends should be. Getting the last few millimeters was very hard and I think it ended up more like 302mm. I also think a better measure would be the center to center distance of the vertical bearings, which I think should be 360mm, by measuring it from the motors.

@markts: I didn't have any problems with the 20mm bolts for the 2.6 motor. There is a tiny amount of play after attaching it to the left end printed part.

That play was what I was worried about. I didn't think having the motor move around like that was going to be a good thing. Again, since it's my first build, I have no idea what is critical and what isn't.

I'm concerned my carriage doesn't slide as smoothly as it should. It would seem to me that having it jerk along is going to cause issues printing when the motors are trying to move some exact, tiny distance. This is also probably due to one of the bearings not being exactly flat, though I got it as close as I could by eyeballing them.

I had the same issue getting the 300mm measurement. I think I got it by putting one end down on the floor and pushing quite hard on the other. Good news is, the steps that follow are easier. I really don't want to have to start tearing things apart later trying to debug bad prints ("Is the problem those #$%#$% bearings that aren't smooth?")

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2015 10:02AM by markts.

Completed the i3 2020 build the other day! Everything went well, excellent assembly instructions. So far the only adjustments that I have done was setting the proper voltage on the motor drivers! I have already printed some parts and I am very pleased with the results with the stock setup!

Great looking first prints!

Hello Guys,

I just finished the build of my 2020 Prusa i3. Where do I find the configuration manual? Do I use the one from Acrylic version?

Thank you.

NVM. I saw the other post. Thanks

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animoose
My construction continues. I am on step 10 (the Z carriage). This is physically the hardest step so far, in getting the bearings into the printed parts and in getting the Z carriage to the suggested size of 300mm. I found it hard to get one of the bearings in the extruder carriage to lie flat. I know I knocked some balls out of the LM8UU bearing when I fitted it, though it still seems to move quite smoothly. Maybe I'll fix this up later.

A tip for this, which I didn't put in the guide, but is something I do now. Put the bearings on the rod first, and then press them into the printed part. That way if there is any uneven spots on the printed part, you won't be trying to push the rod through the bearings where one might be a little bit higher.

***********
UPDATE
***********

I have put the configuration guide up on the Google Drive. It still needs some work, but I am hoping it will get you guys the basic info you need to get going. I am also going to be doing a guide for tuning the stepper drivers that is a little easier to follow with pictures to help.

Keep the feedback coming I have really enjoyed following this thread and seeing progress pictures. Great job guys!

So, I'm getting my kit today and I've read both the guides. But the guide for the older kit includes something about stepper motor driver tuning. Is that not needed with the new kit, or what?

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The7ank
So, I'm getting my kit today and I've read both the guides. But the guide for the older kit includes something about stepper motor driver tuning. Is that not needed with the new kit, or what?

See Dan's post above yours. Yes, it is needed to optimize your steppers. It's not terribly difficult to do, but it needs done.

Step 6 took me a lot of time and multiple do-overs.
1. Make sure your zip ties are in right, with the serrated edge on the inside, or they will not grip and you will have to remove the guide and reverse them.
2. The LM8UU bearings were very hard to "Pop" into place. I could not properly seat all of them, which caused the bed to bind and stick.
3. Like animoose, I had to back off the tightness of the mounting bolts. Once they got loose enough, the bed moved freely. I suspect that a little play is needed to get the LM8UU's aligned with the chrome rods.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2015 11:19PM by retiredcompguy.