Folger Tech 2020 Prusa i3 Build

I ordered the Acrylic model from eBay but got to talking with Dan and decided to go for the aluminum kit. Very exciting times! This should be a worthy replacement for my Makibox A6 HT. Not that the Makibox is awful, but it sure did need a lot of love and tunining to get working right. This is actually a bad week to get this as we're having a family BBQ on the weekend so build pics might be slow coming. I'll get there

Here's the box;


Parts in baggies;




and first issue... They sent a 3mm Black which was supposed to be 1.75mm. Sent an email, will see how that goes. I also received a Yellow in 1.75mm and have extra filament rolls on hand so that won't hold me up at all

Well crap. Looks like I'm going to have to wait a bit longer for parts. My kit is missing;

2 - SK8 Rod Mounts
11 - M3x20mm Bolts
18 – M3 Nylon Nuts <-- Oops, NyLOCK nuts, and they are here.
1 – M3 Flat Washer <-- was stuck in the sticky part of the bag..

To be continued...

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2015 09:55PM by CheopisIV.

I'd moved from the living room floor to the temporary office (dining room) for the actual build;


Organized the hardware which is where I found the missing parts. Ignore the resistors and caps, this is my guitar effects pedal building box and I have a few extras still in there.


And this is how far I got last night;



The Folder Tech folk are sending my parts and filament, but I'm impatient so got busy building suitable temporary parts and some upgrades.

Backlash elimination thingys... need a few more M5 nuts and some springs to install them.


X-axis belt tensioner;



The missing SK8 Blocks;


And in place;


So now I'm on hold until I can find proper nuts for the Y-Axis plate. I live on an acreage near a town with no M3 Machine screws... I went to the local machine shop and the guy's answer when I asked was "M3? You can't even see those!".

Looking good so far, pretty nice that you can print those pieces while you wait.

Looking good, and these are some nice mods. There is another thread on the same printer if you're interested in hearing how others got on: [forums.reprap.org]

Do you have a link to those belt tentioners? They look really useful!

Sure, Here they are on Thingiverse;
[www.thingiverse.com]

I've also printed a new Y-Belt tensioner/Mount and some fan mounts for the RAMPS board. More pics to come soon.

Still awaiting the replacement parts so still printing upgrades. These are a few days old, I've since mouned the endstops and started on the wiring but in no real rush.



Fan Mounts. I've printed a bridge to hold 2 fans and use just the two mounts that clip direct to the board. The bridging piece isn't shown.


Adjustable Y-Axis mount. Very nice piece!




New Extruder with the thumb pads so I won;t have to squeeze the heated block!


And a fan shroud to cool the plastic as it exits the hot end.





I also wasn't too impressed with the X Axis End stop mount, it just felt a bit goofy to have the endstop floating around in the middle of nowhere (although I'm sure it would work fine). It just assaults my aesthetic sense so I'm trying a few different mounts from Thingiverse to line things up.

Wow I must say your setup looks good! I like that y tension idea no more zip ties

I actually had to add zip ties to the Y-Carriage as it was slipping on me when I tightened

Here's the current x-Axis holder. Not sure it's overly reliable with the end stop just pressed in...will have to see.


I always loved the look of the cable chains!! I also moved my PSU and boards to the left side to get better position and clearance on the PSU cover I'm using (pics later)


Fans for the electronics. Need to get some smaller bolts for this.


Temporary cable ties made from extra chain links.


Cable treatment. I tried to mount this backwards so the motor would be on the left side by the electronics and behind the rail, but I couldn't get the X-axis motor not to rub on the frame so had to flip it back to the right and go from there.


Previously mentioned PSU cover. eed to source a proper switch next.


More cable cleanup


I really like the inserts for hiding and tidying things up!


Current state of affairs. I finally received my care package from Folgertech with the SK8s, bolts and filament. (Thanks!)


Next up;
1) New spool mount for the top of the frame. Not a big fan of the side mounted piece.
2) I'm really eyeballing the extruder design and mounting...I don;t like it much as it sticks so far forward. I'll try it out but plan to switch to a dual extruder and likely tighten things up there when I do. I actually thought of flipping the whole thing around so the mass was behind the rails and in the frame but don't want to do that yet until I figure out what I want to change to.

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Sigil Pickups || Stunt Monkey Pedals

Great pictures you took! I enjoyed reading through it and will be keeping tabs on your thread ! Would you mind posting the thingiverse links for the things you printed?

Sure, I'll go back and find them when I get a chance.

Here's current state, full printing and man this is a great machine! Quiet operation, perfect circles, some issues with adhesion on the first layer so I went with the ABS slurry trick to get sticking.


I bought an aluminum print bed from eBay user Leap3D. I also bought 2 E3D V6 type direct drive and one bowden model from him and they're top quality too. I had previously ordered one of the cheap E3D models from China as well as a real one from the company and the ones from Leap3D are identical to the one from the company. The Chinese one is not. It's likely useable but very poor fit and quality.

I changed over to Marlin Firmware and dumped the Folger Tech version. Also added the 12864 LCD screen and got it running after a few user errors. I need to print a mount and box for it soon.


I needed to use this printer to make the proper spool holders so am repurposing my Makibox spool holder stuck into the small extrusion piece for now. It works, but the things the LCD are sitting on are the new ones.


And the fans mounted properly keeping the board cool;


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2015 04:38PM by CheopisIV.

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Sigil Pickups || Stunt Monkey Pedals

Another update with a few changes....

Heated bed was too sluggish so I found a rubber placemat and cut it down to size, then cut two pieces of felt to fit underneath it for some give. This helped push the heating plate to the aluminum bed and heatup is now much faster. I also flipped the heating plate over so the element was against the bed as per some online recommendations.


In this pic you can see the motor standoffs...these are amazing and solved two issues I had with this kit. #1) The motors are mounted up top and the X carriage hangs off them. I didn't notice any slack but I was thinking it's not really ideal given the stretchy couplers supplied in the kit that tie the lead screw to the motor. Now they sit against a bearing and have no room to have any drop. #2) The motors/couplers hang into the printable space and cut the top off. Now I have a vertical printing height of 175mm which gets the X carriage 1mm below the M3 bolts. Bigger is better right?


Thingiverse Link

I broke the Makibox repurpose spool mount which was fine as I had this one ready to go;

Thingiverse Link

And printed a box and mount for the 12864 LCD


Case
Mount (inverted the arm to get it the right direction)

I also had to remove the cable chain mount on the left side as it was sticking way too high even before the Z-Height addition. The wires are currently zip tied to the top of the rail. I'll likely remove the whole thing when I get the dual extruder mount set up. I'm going with This One which looks intrusive but actually is only 7mm taller than the stock unit. The hotend sticks out almost level with the rails which compensates a lot of the motor space above the top rail.

All of my upgrades are in this collection on Thingiverse.

I also plan to eventually move to 8mm lead screws which the upper cages were designed for by the creator. Currently I'm using the stock 5mm screws until I can drum up some money to make an order. He also mode some modified X-Axis parts if anyone else is interested, link here. I personally want to extend the motor side block by 2mm so I can flip the whole thing around and have the X motor behind the rails for better weight and wiring.

Glue Stick!!! Wow is all I can say. I was using the ABS slurry with mixed results; once it glued my print to the bed so hard I had to chip it away with a hammer and pliers... a beautiful print ruined by adhesion! No more ABS and Acetone for me, the Glue Stick is doing it on this new aluminum bed with no issues so far. I have the washable variety, not Purple as some suggest and it works just fine here.

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Sigil Pickups || Stunt Monkey Pedals

So now I'm building a Geeetech Prusa i3 kit to compare to the Folgertech while I wait for the upgrade parts (lead screws, etc) for the big tear down. I'll start a thread for that one on it's own but I have to say I'm very impressed with what I'm seeing in the box and the customer support. More info on that later.

For the FT machine, I've removed the end mount for the cable chain and will likely deep six that whole thing when I go dual extruder. I've also removed the fan shroud from the hot end as it's worthless with ABS and really only cooled the bed down way too much and screwed with my heating. Most reliable ABS settings so far are ~220-240C on the hot end (depending on filament) and 105 on the bed.

This pic shows my 'Rabbit Ears' to deflect the air from the fan away from the bed and print. Things heat up a lot quicker now.


Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2015 03:18AM by CheopisIV.

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Sigil Pickups || Stunt Monkey Pedals

Looking forward to your thoughts on the geeetech prusa. Also, your build looks awesome. Congrats!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2015 01:39PM by widespreaddeadhead.

Well this is annoying. I put in an order with FolgerTech for some upgrade parts and paid on July 23rd. I got a UPS shipping number the next day. I just checked tracking wondering where the parts are (Now Aug 5th) and the tracking indicates the package still hasn't been received by UPS. Message sent to the FT team but so far unimpressed on this order and lack of communication.

On the Geeetech, I was in touch with the company about some issues and they sent replacement parts from China the next day. I got them within a week... from China, overseas, through Customs with tracking.... What's up FolgerTech?

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Sigil Pickups || Stunt Monkey Pedals

Can't even get replies myself they took the money and ran. defective product you get a 50/50 chance of getting it to work.

Paypal is your friend. Their autoresponder says message received and 24-48 hours response time so I'll give them a bit more and wait until Friday to hear back.

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Sigil Pickups || Stunt Monkey Pedals

They do take a while to email back. I had to get a replacement endstop and it took 2 emails but I got a replacement.

I have never had Folger fail to respond . . . or to fail to take care of problems . . . they just aren't as quick as some would like.

They also appear to use tne USPS tracking stuff to manage orders, in that they do create to tag immediately . . . but if an item is delayed or out of stock, it sits until the order is complete . . .

- Tim

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2015 03:17PM by tadawson.

Quote
tadawson
I have never had Folger fail to respond . . . or to fail to take care of problems . . . they just aren't as quick as some would like.

They also appear to use tne USPS tracking stuff to manage orders, in that they do create to tag immediately . . . but if an item is delayed or out of stock, it sits until the order is complete . . .

- Tim

They responded today well within the 24hr timeframe. As you suggested, they were waiting on parts and will be shipping things out today.

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Sigil Pickups || Stunt Monkey Pedals

They need to change their work flow and not print the shipping labels until they actually are going to ship the order.

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Newbie with Folgertech 2020 i3.

Or at least be upfront that they do that . . . . the concept I can understand, but somewhere they need to give actual order status.

- Tim

Makes no sense to me from a business standpoint if you want to build trust. I build Guitar pedals and pickups as a mostly mail-order business and if there's any kind of delay, I let my customers know asap. Keeping people guessing and waiting without communication is just poor practice.

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Sigil Pickups || Stunt Monkey Pedals

I think they started as a Ebay business... That's S.O.P. for most of them. Give them a Tracking Number, and let'em wait.

I have been dealing with them for around 2 weeks with sometimes 2-4 days in between answering back about my Extruder that stopped heating and my bed with runaway heat.. then they started asking the same questions I had already answered.. apparently more than one person answering back,going in circles , very very frustrating .. been without my printer over 2 weeks dealing with a poor customer service.. finally 5 days ago they said they would send a new ramps board,, I haven't yet received a tracking or a new ramps board..as of today...

Finally did up the GEEETech review and build thread. Not a bad machine really, but I still prefer the FT as of right now.

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Sigil Pickups || Stunt Monkey Pedals

How long is it taking to come to 105 with the aluminum build plate?

Quote
therippa
How long is it taking to come to 105 with the aluminum build plate?

It was taking far too long and completely unnecessary. After testing things out, I now print with the bed at 100 and the Hot End 240 first layer, 230 subsequent layers. I had it down to an even 200 for a while but was getting pretty significant delamination so upped it again.

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Sigil Pickups || Stunt Monkey Pedals