Folger Tech 2020 i3 Printer Kit (Official Thread)

Quote
jhitesma

Quote
widespreaddeadhead
@jhitesma

I use that same hotend/extruder mount and it works well for me. I like your remixed idler also.

Thanks. Oh, and just in case I came across too harsh...Overall I like it and would say it's an improvement over stock. My criticisms are just because I'm pretty much never satisfied and always looking to make things better - which means first identifying what can be improved

Quote
flatlander
I have no firsthand knowledge but ran across this stuff doing research for my future setup. For filaments requiring higher temps you need to go with barrels without liners. Those barrels need to be polished and then seasoned, with oil, like a cast iron skillet. Before I start using PETG I'll have a barrel, polished and seasoned, like the following:

Quote
GrouchoDuke
Alright, can somebody give me some jam advice? I pulled apart my hot end to fix a jam/clog. The nozzle itself is clear, but the liner on the hot side of the heat break is sticking out quite a bit. Has anyone seen this before?

I've been printing mostly PETG at 245C for the last couple months. Did that kill the stock hot end?

Thanks for the help!

RWoA7ub.jpg

Quote
tjnamtiw
For 6 months, I've been strictly running PLA. Today a threw a roll of ESUN PET up there...This stuff is pretty nice AT FIRST GLANCE. We shall see.

I've been using eSun PETG and I like it too. At 245C, the prints come out shiny & very strong. I use 75C on my bed with BuildTak and that sticks great.

Quote
stanger2k
Is this the correct part for the sonny tech x-axis?

[www.muve3d.net]

Does anybody have a cheaper/better place to buy the bearing?

Quote
stanger2k
Is this the correct part for the sonny tech x-axis?

[www.muve3d.net]

Does anybody have a cheaper/better place to buy the bearing?

Quote
marc2912

Quote
stanger2k
Is this the correct part for the sonny tech x-axis?

[www.muve3d.net]

Does anybody have a cheaper/better place to buy the bearing?

You didn't put a link to the uprade so I can't tell you if it's the right one but good bearings are expensive, there is no way around that. Cheap bearing will be just that, cheap. This is a part you don't want to be cheap on.

Quote
stanger2k

Quote
marc2912

Quote
stanger2k
Is this the correct part for the sonny tech x-axis?

[www.muve3d.net]

Does anybody have a cheaper/better place to buy the bearing?

You didn't put a link to the uprade so I can't tell you if it's the right one but good bearings are expensive, there is no way around that. Cheap bearing will be just that, cheap. This is a part you don't want to be cheap on.

Can you provide a link to the correct part? The one I was looking at is at the muve3d website which I had included.

Quote
marc2912

Quote
stanger2k

Quote
marc2912

Quote
stanger2k
Is this the correct part for the sonny tech x-axis?

[www.muve3d.net]

Does anybody have a cheaper/better place to buy the bearing?

You didn't put a link to the uprade so I can't tell you if it's the right one but good bearings are expensive, there is no way around that. Cheap bearing will be just that, cheap. This is a part you don't want to be cheap on.

Can you provide a link to the correct part? The one I was looking at is at the muve3d website which I had included.

Once again you didn't put up a link to the upgrade you're performing and I don't have all of sonny's upgrades bookmarked so I can't tell you if this is correct or not.

Quote
stanger2k

Quote
marc2912

Quote
stanger2k

Quote
marc2912

Quote
stanger2k
Is this the correct part for the sonny tech x-axis?

[www.muve3d.net]

Does anybody have a cheaper/better place to buy the bearing?

You didn't put a link to the uprade so I can't tell you if it's the right one but good bearings are expensive, there is no way around that. Cheap bearing will be just that, cheap. This is a part you don't want to be cheap on.

Can you provide a link to the correct part? The one I was looking at is at the muve3d website which I had included.

Once again you didn't put up a link to the upgrade you're performing and I don't have all of sonny's upgrades bookmarked so I can't tell you if this is correct or not.

This is the upgrade that I'm looking at: [www.thingiverse.com]

I'm thinking of using version 8. I guess I just assumed all versions of the x-axis upgrade used the same size of igus bearings.

Quote
Bert3D
The only way I can think of that the tube would go down like that is if the nozzle had been replaced with (or maybe shipped with?)...

To assemble the hot end, screw the nozzle into the heat block almost all the way, leaving about 1 mm of thread exposed. Then screw the throat down tight against it. Put it all together, and heat it up, and then tighten the nozzle on up once it is hot. The throat and nozzle must be tight against each other. Get it tight, but be careful not to use too much force, because the block is just aluminum and will strip out pretty easy. If you get it tight while hot, it will give you a leak proof seal, as well as keeping the tube from moving around in the throat. This should give you a pretty much jam free setup.

Quote
Mopar99

Quote
stanger2k

Quote
marc2912

Quote
stanger2k

Quote
marc2912

Quote
stanger2k
Is this the correct part for the sonny tech x-axis?

[www.muve3d.net]

Does anybody have a cheaper/better place to buy the bearing?

You didn't put a link to the uprade so I can't tell you if it's the right one but good bearings are expensive, there is no way around that. Cheap bearing will be just that, cheap. This is a part you don't want to be cheap on.

Can you provide a link to the correct part? The one I was looking at is at the muve3d website which I had included.

Once again you didn't put up a link to the upgrade you're performing and I don't have all of sonny's upgrades bookmarked so I can't tell you if this is correct or not.

This is the upgrade that I'm looking at: [www.thingiverse.com]

I'm thinking of using version 8. I guess I just assumed all versions of the x-axis upgrade used the same size of igus bearings.

The p/n to the igus bearing you want is RJ4JP-01-08. That is from the igus website.

Quote
MonolithTyriss
Well, cheap chinese bearings or not.. I'm having a bearing issue I need worked out! Putting my 2020 together, I notice I've got nothing for tightening those m3 nylock nuts! So a while later, I finally get some tools at the hardware store for doing just that! So, onto the build right? WRONG! The LM8UU bearings only fit into 2 of the 3 bearing holders for the Y carriage base plate! I was literally putting flex into the 8mm chromed rods and the last LM8 won't pop into the bearing holder. Any ideas? Do I try to scrape out the bearing holder? Is there just a trick I don't know for getting all 3 to seat properly? I'm not putting a ton of pressure because I don't want to permanently put a bend into those chromed rods!

Quote
MonolithTyriss
Well, cheap chinese bearings or not.. I'm having a bearing issue I need worked out! Putting my 2020 together, I notice I've got nothing for tightening those m3 nylock nuts! So a while later, I finally get some tools at the hardware store for doing just that! So, onto the build right? WRONG! The LM8UU bearings only fit into 2 of the 3 bearing holders for the Y carriage base plate! I was literally putting flex into the 8mm chromed rods and the last LM8 won't pop into the bearing holder. Any ideas? Do I try to scrape out the bearing holder? Is there just a trick I don't know for getting all 3 to seat properly? I'm not putting a ton of pressure because I don't want to permanently put a bend into those chromed rods!

Quote
marc2912

Quote
jhitesma
I wrote up some more details about my experiences setting up auto level on my blog: [www.nevermindthesand.com]

I also included links at the end to a number of other sources of information that I relied on when figuring out how to get it working.

Please feel free to point out anything I left out or any glaring errors - I just tossed this post together since it's such a popular topic. I didn't try to rehash the existing detailed setup instructions but instead tried to give my own perspective on the options and why I went with the choices I did. I'll gladly add links to any other auto level resources I overlooked that people have found helpful the ones I included were just those that immediately came to mind as helping me when I did my setup.

Awesome, thanks a lot for the info. I have a LJ18A3-8-Z/BX that I have done nothing with yet, it's a 8mm NPN NO Switch 6-36VDC, I was thinking of just doing a mount for it and giving it a try. Would gluing some HD aluminum sheets to the back side of the glass work? I'm thinking that since the glass surface is what I want level making sure the aluminum sensed is parallel to the glass is crucial.

Would you recommend multiple layers of aluminum?

Thx

Quote
therippa
If you guys are looking to upgrade your bearings your might want to think about Misumi LMU-N8. They are the "real" version of the cheap Chinese LM8UU's, and in my experience (and other folks about 100 pages back on this thread), are better than the igus Drylin bearings. Only a buck or two more expensive.

Quote
jhitesma
Yeah I have one of those metal ones on my machine right now. I do like the higher tension it gives on the idler, that cleaned up a pattern I was seeing in my prints. But my stepper has been running about 10-15 degrees hotter since the change and started skipping. I initially thought it was due to the aluminum extruder letting more hot end heat get into the stepper...but now I think it's the extra tension making the stepper work harder - I turned up the current on my stepper driver a bit (doing the math I'm now over the 0.4a the stepper is rated for...but still under 0.5a so not much over) and even though I'm apparently over the current limit the stepper is running cooler and not skipping steps anymore so I'm going with it...close to 30 hours of printing at that setting so far and still working great.)

I also had some issues with the idler not lining up with the entrance to the heat break and with the tensioner not moving well if I tightened the screw it mounts with enough that I didn't worry about the screw falling out. I solved both problems by putting a 3mm washer between the tensioner and the body of the extruder with a dab of super lube grease on it:

To try and stop heat from the hot end getting into the stepper I added a gasket cut from some high temp gasket material I picked up for a few bucks at tractor supply for another project and had plenty of extra on hand:

The gasket didn't really help much, but the washer got the idler lined up with the heat break much better so it's much easier to load filament now and it has a straight path through the extruder - you can see the gasket and the washer here if you look closely:


But my e3d v6 (full all metal version since I want to try nylon) should be here tomorrow so I've got this printing right now: [www.thingiverse.com] It should be done in about half an hour. Not sure how I'll mount my inductive sensor though...may have to rig something up. I'm a little worried about the stepper hitting the top bar and costing me some Z...but we'll just have to see how that goes. I do like that the stepper is exposed so I can put the stock heat sink on the back of it to help cool it some. I want to do the compact geared extruder: [www.thingiverse.com] but that will take a bit more work to collect the vitamins for since I'll have to make a hobbed bolt so won't tackle that until this weekend at the earliest.

I may just go with animoose's mount and the stock extruder - I'm starting to think the issues I had with the stock extruder may be more related to stepper current than they were tension. I printed his mount and this remix: [www.thingiverse.com] to fit my inductive sensor. So I should have two options to try tomorrow. Doubt I'll get the e3d on and printing tomorrow but at least I'll have a few extruders to experiment with.

Quote
MonolithTyriss
Hey there! Could you point me at some kind of manual for assembling that particular extruder? OR just write up how you did it? I got one with ZERO paperwork or anything of the sort. I can't figure out which bolt goes where! I don't have to worry about heat or anything, in my case the extruder is going to be used with a bowden tube on a seperate project. Thanks!

Quote
flatlander

Quote
MonolithTyriss
Well, cheap chinese bearings or not.. I'm having a bearing issue I need worked out! Putting my 2020 together, I notice I've got nothing for tightening those m3 nylock nuts! So a while later, I finally get some tools at the hardware store for doing just that! So, onto the build right? WRONG! The LM8UU bearings only fit into 2 of the 3 bearing holders for the Y carriage base plate! I was literally putting flex into the 8mm chromed rods and the last LM8 won't pop into the bearing holder. Any ideas? Do I try to scrape out the bearing holder? Is there just a trick I don't know for getting all 3 to seat properly? I'm not putting a ton of pressure because I don't want to permanently put a bend into those chromed rods!

That carriage part for me was a bit undersized too. I just scraped the bearing holder with a Swiss Army Knife. Also the holes leading into the stepper holes were too narrow, so I widened them with a jewelers file. I wouldn't be using the chrome rods for leverage. Just put the bearing carriage, flat side down, on a sturdy table or floor and press the bearings in with your palm. Or maybe use something like a book to protect your palms from bruising.

Quote
b0bl0blaw

I used therippa's marlin firmware, but found I had to set #define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {40,80,4000,90} , setting the x axis to 40 from 80 as the x axis was travelling exactly twice as far as it should in repetier. Is this normal? I don't remember reading anything about that in this thread.

Thank you!

Quote
b0bl0blaw

PLA is printing great at 200-210 so far. I printed 4 of the sk8 holders. - I then tried to print ABS to print an inductive sensor bracket and ran into an issue. I set the temp to 210 and backed out the filament. Seemed to come out fine. I then cut the abs at a diagonal angle and inserted it into the extruder and down into the hot end. I then bumped up the temp to 230 and manually fed and pushed out enough pla to where I thought it was now ABS(same color, arggh!) I fed through some abs with the extruder in repetier and it seemed to work OK. I then tried to start the print and a little filament came out, but then it stopped laying down filament. I manually fed and checked again, and it stalled while I was testing. I backed out the filament and the extruder had ground away at the filament. This happened several times after cutting and re-feeding the filament. I checked the gear on the direct drive, and it seemed clear. I was thinking maybe the temp of the hot end thermistor might be a bit off, but I was scared of bumping the temp up too high in repetier. Any suggestions?

Thank you!

Quote
GrouchoDuke
To assemble the hot end, screw the nozzle into the heat block almost all the way, leaving about 1 mm of thread exposed. Then screw the throat down tight against it. Put it all together, and heat it up, and then tighten the nozzle on up once it is hot. The throat and nozzle must be tight against each other. Get it tight, but be careful not to use too much force, because the block is just aluminum and will strip out pretty easy. If you get it tight while hot, it will give you a leak proof seal, as well as keeping the tube from moving around in the throat. This should give you a pretty much jam free setup.

Quote
LancelotL
Oh and one more thing. Any suggestions for getting the old throat out of the heater block? I think the Hulk inserted mine along with the extruder tip which was darn near impossible to get off too.