Folger Tech 2020 i3 Printer Kit (Official Thread)

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animoose
Does the filament come out? Earlier in this forum, I described some problems I had because the extruder was assembled differently to how it is shown in the manual.

What do you mean by a binding noise?

No, the filament only goes through if I force it down. The gear doesn't seem to want to grab the filament or push it into the gap between the aluminum block and the gear box. The noise is the extruder gear attempting and failing to grab and pull the filament down. I thought I was putting enough power into the stepper at 0.317v. I'll post a video later if it helps.

Try increasing the voltage for the extruder motor a bit. I don't recall what mine was set to but I don't think it was much more than this. Too much and it will make a different kind of chunk-chunk-chunk noise. Another possibility is to take the extruder assembly apart and make sure that the grooved wheel is on the correct side. Mine was assembled in a different way to the one that the construction guide implies.

Yea, I took the assembly apart last night to see if maybe something was stuck in there. But, looking at it from the front, the left side is empty, the center has the gear, and the right side has the grooved bearing.

So, I had a question about the print bed area. I got a sheet of 8"x8"x1/8" borosilicate glass, and using binder clips (like I've seen in pictures of other printers) I can't get a full 200mm x 200mm print area, Is there some secret I don't know, or is the real print area ~200mm x ~200mm?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2015 04:19PM by The7ank.

That little Benchy boat is EVIL! It starts out well and ends fairly well, but the upward slope of the bow looks like complete POO!

Any suggestions?

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Devil Inc
That little Benchy boat is EVIL! It starts out well and ends fairly well, but the upward slope of the bow looks like complete POO!

Any suggestions?

LOL. Mine had problems on the front window. You using PLA? Maybe a picture would help?

Yes, I'm currently using PLA. I tried slowing it down, speeding it up, neither of which made any real progression towards cleaning up the print. I tried with the print fan on and off, again I didn't notice any change. Pretty much all of the overhangs have artifacts.

I tried 4 prints in Repetier and 1 in Cura, all turned out more or less the same. While watching it, it looked as if the tip of the bow was too hot and building up. I've double-checked my extrusion numbers, movements of the axis, all are right where they need to be. I guess I could tighten them up by adding more decimal places.

Here is the 1st print, that I let complete 100%.

Benchy Boat

Oh yeah, I'm running a .3 nozzle now. The appropriate settings have been changed to reflect that as well.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2015 10:05PM by Devil Inc.

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but what are you using for a print fan? I'd like to incorporate one of those.

It might be worth looking at the reprap wiki calibration guide - they talk about how to fix overhangs. (sorry I'm not more help!)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2015 10:07PM by markts.

This is the one I have currently, not really liking it, but that might be because I still have the stock fan on there. It doesn't really have enough CFM for the dual outlets, IMO.

[www.thingiverse.com]

I did have this one on it, I might throw it back on and see if it helps.

[www.thingiverse.com]

I do have a beefier fan to install, but I need to pickup some M3 allthread. I don't have any screws that fit properly.

I think I might have fried my RAMPS board, While I was adjusting the z axis end stop, I accidentally shorted out the end stop pins with an alen wrench. The board does turn on, but while connected to the mega, the computer doesn't recognize it.

Is that a perminant damage and should i get a replacement? or is it fixable?

Try unplugging & plugging the USB back in and/or a different port. See it the firmware software can communicate with it. Not 100% on either info tip, but worth a shot.

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Devil Inc
This is the one I have currently, not really liking it, but that might be because I still have the stock fan on there. It doesn't really have enough CFM for the dual outlets, IMO.

[www.thingiverse.com]

I did have this one on it, I might throw it back on and see if it helps.

[www.thingiverse.com]

I do have a beefier fan to install, but I need to pickup some M3 allthread. I don't have any screws that fit properly.

I tried the first one you've posted, and took it out after couple of days, didn't see any change in the print. I am planning to upgrade the hotend to a e3d v6, and will print a custom fan shroud for it.

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mottihoresh

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Devil Inc
This is the one I have currently, not really liking it, but that might be because I still have the stock fan on there. It doesn't really have enough CFM for the dual outlets, IMO.

[www.thingiverse.com]

I did have this one on it, I might throw it back on and see if it helps.

[www.thingiverse.com]

I do have a beefier fan to install, but I need to pickup some M3 allthread. I don't have any screws that fit properly.

I tried the first one you've posted, and took it out after couple of days, didn't see any change in the print. I am planning to upgrade the hotend to a e3d v6, and will print a custom fan shroud for it.

That's the path I'm going to take on the expansion of this machine or when I build a larger machine.

Yea.. try that. I am pretty sure something is fried there.. just not sure where to start digging.

after i shorted it out, i heard a low bang, and it smelled for a second.. I unplugged everything, and tried reconnecting it again. The mega is being recognized when disconnected from the RAMPS, but when re-connecting it again, the computer doesn't recognize it anymore.

Quote
mottihoresh
I think I might have fried my RAMPS board, While I was adjusting the z axis end stop, I accidentally shorted out the end stop pins with an alen wrench. The board does turn on, but while connected to the mega, the computer doesn't recognize it.

Is that a perminant damage and should i get a replacement? or is it fixable?

It may be the RAMPS or it may be the Arduino. I didn't do exactly this, but I did short something out and it was the Arduino which blew. It would show up as a COM port but I couldn't send any commands to it after that.

i was looking at adding a second fan, one that's speed could be controlled independently of the extruder fan. I thought that one should be on all the time?

Yea Im going to to the same, going to connect the fan on the extruder to run 100% and the second fan would run on D8 or D9 can't remember exactly. I found a nice holder on thingiverse that hook up between the fan and the heat sink, and you can attach a 40mm fan to it form the side.

I ran out of the sample filament today and so started using a spool of PLA bought from Amazon: [www.amazon.com]. One problem I had is that I could not get it to feed, but this turned out to be because of a small burnt lump of the old filament, which fell out when I took the extruder apart.

I had another go at the 1cm solid cubes I've been doing the last few days and the results are looking pretty nice now: [goo.gl]. There is a slight discontinuity on one of these because the nut fell off one of the bed levelling screws half way through :-)

I also printed this gear for a Wade's extruder: [goo.gl]

Well, I have gotten some progress with setting up my printer. I am still having problems with the extruder motor, it's making a clunk-clunk noise (vref ~0.550v). I think my extruder nozzle may be clogged, and these are my first 2 prints of a 10mm cube. I switched from the folgertech sample to some white hatchbox PLA. I am using modified FTech presets for the print (dropped the temp to 195c and dropped the bed temp to 70c). These look like they are stringy... and I have no idea how to fix this.
First prints

There has been mention of Folgertech material setting files on the google drive. I wasn't able to locate the files. Can someone help me out with a link to the material setting files for PLA and ABS?

Thanks,

Isaiah

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routb3d
There has been mention of Folgertech material setting files on the google drive. I wasn't able to locate the files. Can someone help me out with a link to the material setting files for PLA and ABS?

Thanks,

Isaiah

[drive.google.com]

Sort by list, it's easier to see what's in there.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2015 01:50PM by Devil Inc.

The file in that Google Drive folder is called FTECH-2020-i3-Repetier-Slicer-PLA&ABS.zip I strongly recommend dropping the temps for PLA. The presets are too high, they should be ~200c, but actual temp depends on the actual filament quality.

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The7ank
The file in that Google Drive folder is called FTECH-2020-i3-Repetier-Slicer-PLA&ABS.zip I strongly recommend dropping the temps for PLA. The presets are too high, they should be ~200c, but actual temp depends on the actual filament quality.

That still seems hot. I've gotten best results from the Folger Tech PLA at 180-185.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2015 03:17PM by markts.

I found 195C was about the limit for the sample filament, and 185 has given me good results with their PLA and PLA from another source. Bed temperature at 70 for both of these, which I am beginning to think is fractionally too high.

On another thread, I was also given some recommendations about changing the infill percentage (http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?262,522465,523213#msg-523213). I've not tried this. And yet elsewhere, I read that the mm per layer should be no more than 85% of the nozzle size, while the Folger settings have it as the same as the nozzle size, i.e. 0.4mm. I've also not tried this yet.

I've been running my Folger Tech PLA @ 185-188 with good results. I've been running the bed temp @ 70, but turned it down to 55 last night. We'll see how the lower temp goes with larger prints. I have some Hatchbox PLA ready to go on soon, so we'll see how it fairs.

I've been reading the recommended layer height is 80% of the nozzle diameter. I'm shooting to calibrate mine for .1mm or less per layer with a .5mm extrusion width.

I was toying around with lower temps for PLA last night. I had a somewhat complex part to print as a "how fine can I get" test, and I was having issues printing it. It had lots small details and needed lots of supports that were not supporting! I started with 0.05mm layer thickness, and went up to 0.1 with the same results. I was finally able to print a decent one after dropping the temp to 195. But, in order to get it to extrude without skipping, I had to increase vref to 0.265V. I started at 180 degrees, but vref was too high to be able to extrude. So I went to 195 and I kept increasing vref slowly and extruding 10mm until I was able to extrude without skipping. I then added 0.010V for just in case. But now the motor runs warm to warm/hot.
I wonder if I had a filament fan, I would not have had as many issues, or if I could print at higher temps to keep the extruder motor cool.

Another issue I kept having is the printer would just stop printing or responding to commands from Repitier. I would have to close Repitier and turn the printer off before I'm able to reconnect and print again. I'm not sure if its the Arduino board, the RAMPS board, or Repitier!
Anyone else have this issue?

One thing I don't like about the design is the use of metal bolts to attach the electronics. I wonder how many failed boards are the result of the bolts shorting something out. I currently have my boards held on using cable ties. Then I had a great idea: print plastic bolts! Unfortunately my printer is not quite up to it: [goo.gl]. Not so much a bolt, more a case of what Doctor Who might call a wibbly-wobbly bolty-wolty thing.

Now I have a more serious question (and maybe it deserves a new topic). Part of the reprap philosophy is taking a "Ship of Theseus" approach, that is getting your printer working, then iteratively changing things to improve it, ideally things you can print yourself. Now that some of us have working machines, what are your top things for improving it. The extruder and/or hot end is one. Another is replacing the threaded rods with lead screws. What else?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2015 12:08AM by animoose.

DIY plastic washer by using milk bottle should solve your issue with metal screw on electronic board!,

Quick question my heated bed will turn on but will gain temp continuously passing any target that I set. Otherwise the printer is working fine.

Any ideas?

Also if I turn off the bed it will still power on and gain temptemp.

Ordered my E3D V6 hot end last night. Not to decide what style of extruder do I want to build it into. Bowden/Wades? I kind of like the Airtripper drives as they are direct drive so they are compatible with most of the parts in my MK7 extruder. I'm open to options and opinions.

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Devil Inc
Ordered my E3D V6 hot end last night. Not to decide what style of extruder do I want to build it into. Bowden/Wades? I kind of like the Airtripper drives as they are direct drive so they are compatible with most of the parts in my MK7 extruder. I'm open to options and opinions.

I printed this one for my acrylic Folgertech and it has been awesome, haven't had a single issue with it. Reuses all of the original extruder parts, you just need a spring, one extra bearing and some random M4 screws/nuts. There is a BOM in one of the recent comments on Thingiverse that shows what extra parts are needed.

Here is my make of it, shows a few extras that I printed - dual fan mount and cable clamps