Show all posts by user

Spools for 3mm filament - 8 years ago

For the last two years, I've been using loose 3mm filament that I just set on the table, beside my printer. I thread it over a piece of pipe and back down into the machine. It just uncoils from the table. ... so I picked up some spools with the thought of neatening things up. I found the largest spools I can find but the thread breaks when I try to wrap it tightly around the hub. It appears

by Tom Brown - General

Will the UConduit scale to 18" ^3 build volume? - 10 years ago

I need to make some parts that are roughly 18" x 18" x 1/2". CoreXY seems to be the way to go for this size build volume. Is it reasonable to think I can scale up the UConduit to 18" x 18"? Perhaps leaving the Z axis the same or perhaps scaling it up, as well?

by Tom Brown - CoreXY Machines

Re: FreeGLUT fix? - 10 years ago

Yes, that is the issue I am facing. It is identical. I found that thread, read it, and deleted my config files but that didn't fix it for me.

by Tom Brown - Slic3r

Re: FreeGLUT fix? - 10 years ago

It does not function correctly for me on Linux Mint 16 - 64 bit. All I get in the layout window are weird lines, regardless the source file. Also, most of my source files failed to load with various errors. Compiling from source, it seems to function correctly with the correct preview. All of my source files show some errors but it still loads them and functions properly. I've had terrible t

by Tom Brown - Slic3r

FreeGLUT fix? - 10 years ago

The fix for the missing FreeGLUT close function must be in an FAQ somewhere, but I can't find it. Can someone point me to a description of the fix? I'd like to have a working 3d view in Slic3r.

by Tom Brown - Slic3r

Re: cheap-o end stop? - 10 years ago

Quote3D-ME Assuming you are using mechanical endstops, you might want to make sure that the paddles on your endstops depress before your X-end reaches the end stop mount. I had the X-end push my end stop mount down a little every time until the X-end hit the end stop mount instead of the end stop paddle, causing the nozzle to crash into the bed. I just modified the end stop mount, and tightened i

by Tom Brown - General

Re: cheap-o end stop? - 10 years ago

Quotepokey9000 When you say "cheap-o" do you mean the digital Hall sensor, or crappy mechanical endstops? Digital hall-effect sensor from RRD.

by Tom Brown - General

Re: cheap-o end stop? - 10 years ago

QuoteElectroWomble Do you know how they were destroyed in each case? Ie were they destroyed by to much mechanical force or too much electrical current (You should be running them from a low current point on your electronics so this should not happen). Micro switches are remarkably reliable in many industrial/domestic machines. You don't need to spend more money to solve this problem. (apart from

by Tom Brown - General

cheap-o end stop? - 10 years ago

I've burned through two cheap-o end stop sensors. They seem to be unreliable. Both printed about a half dozen prints and then failed to sense the bottom of the z-axis, causing the sensor to destroy itself and the hot end to smash through the glass on homing. Is this why people seem to favour optical z-axis sensing, now? Any hints on what to replace the cheap-o sensors with?

by Tom Brown - General

Re: can I print bondo? - 10 years ago

I'm not sure why you'd want to print Bondo. It would not be a particularly good material choice for much of anything, IMO. It shrinks, cracks, and becomes brittle over time. If I was going to explore that idea, I would use a paste extruder to extrude UV cured epoxy resin. Make sure the extruder is opaque and mount a powerful UV lamp in an opaque cabinet with the printer. With a sufficiently

by Tom Brown - General

Re: Are end stops necessary? - 10 years ago

I ran my machine without endstops for about a year. In fact, I just got around to installing them up a few days ago. I installed them because a I wanted to run an LCD interface and free the computer for other uses. The LCD, as far as I know, requires end stops. Even if the LCD did not require end stops, I would not want to be without them. It's great. I can stuff in an SD card, select "prin

by Tom Brown - General

Re: Trouble with RAMBO/GLCD - 10 years ago

That was it! Thanks, vreihn!

by Tom Brown - General

Re: Trouble with RAMBO/GLCD - 10 years ago

Update for anyone searching for the same issue: The issue turned out to be incorrectly installed cables between the adapter board on the RAMBO and the GLCD. I was able to correct the issue with documentation found on the UltiMachine web site. There are also some good YouTube videos on the correct wiring. Now, the axis only move in the positive direction so I have to sort out the Marlin config

by Tom Brown - General

Trouble with RAMBO/GLCD - 10 years ago

I have a RAMBO v1.1b with GLCD and I cannot get the screen to display anything other than the blue backlight. Firmware is Marlin, obtained from the MTW page. I'm also using the RAMBO adapter for the GLCD. Any help on where to start debugging this thing? I have a spare Mega I could try it on. Maybe load Marlin on that with GLCD support and see what happens?

by Tom Brown - General

Re: Opinion on situation with Lulzbot - 11 years ago

AVRkire Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I would love to hear your definition of a good > customer. My definition of a good customer is someone who reads the information given to them by eCommerce web site they are using.

by Tom Brown - General

Re: PLA juice not working... beads and does not evenly cover glass - 11 years ago

I will mention that, a week ago, when I made my first 3d print, the PLA juice worked great but parts didn't pop off when the bed cooled. They were hard to get off with that too but easier to get under with a razor blade. I've been printing with the heated bed at 60C.

by Tom Brown - General

Re: PLA juice not working... beads and does not evenly cover glass - 11 years ago

woo Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > im using wood glue+water, sticks awensome! > > > > this glue and water, 1:10. only one coat on bed > heated to 55 degrees celsius, and it can take a > lot of prints. > > before applying i have cleaned bed with acetone to > remove dirt or grease.... Thanks for the acetone tip! I'll try that.

by Tom Brown - General

Re: PLA juice not working... beads and does not evenly cover glass - 11 years ago

JohnSL Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I know what ABS juice is, but what's PLA juice? Do > you have a heated bed? > > I've been printing PLA directly onto glass with > the bed heated to 70C. This works very well most > of the time. I've recently started to use PVA glue > (white glue) diluted 1 part glue to 4 parts water, > and that helps

by Tom Brown - General

Re: PLA juice not working... beads and does not evenly cover glass - 11 years ago

If I'm honest, I'm not enjoying the tape experience. Blue tape. Sticks to the glass. It seems to make a chemical bond with PLA forming into some sort of network solid. lol! The only way to remove the objects is to remove the tape. I can't even get under the parts with a razor blade.

by Tom Brown - General

Re: Opinion on situation with Lulzbot - 11 years ago

I live in Canada. We get hit hard on shipping domestically and you wouldn't believe what it costs us for shipping from the US. Lots of companies ship UPS only. I only deal with these companies as a last resort. $100 of filament could easily cost me $75 in shipping. The ratio only gets a little better as the order goes up because a substantial amount of UPS charges are based on the value of t

by Tom Brown - General

PLA juice not working... beads and does not evenly cover glass - 11 years ago

When I first got the glass, I washed it with soap and water. From there, a good rinse, some PLA juice, and it was great. After a few prints, it ended up getting some PLA stuck to the glass so I washed it with soap and water, scraped off the pla bits, and rinsed it real good. Now I'm trying to cover it with pla juice and it is too blotchy to use. It looks like I'm going to have to switch to ta

by Tom Brown - General

Re: Dual extruders on a larger Mendel90? - 11 years ago

I've been searching the forums for a 300x300 printer. Is this a reasonable size or is it too large for the a Mendel90? I'd like to print some gears at 300mm diameter so it would be nice to have something like maybe 300x300x200.

by Tom Brown - Mendel90

Re: Has anyone scaled up a Mendel90 to 300x300? - 11 years ago

I apologize. This topic was mis-posted. It should be in the general forum.

by Tom Brown - Printing

Has anyone scaled up a Mendel90 to 300x300? - 11 years ago

I'd like to build a 300mm x 300mm printer. Maybe 200mm of Z. Anyone scaled up a Mendel90? It looks like a great design. It looks like the MendelMax 1.5 can do that size fairly easily. Is it a better choice? I know smaller is better but I'd like to print some extremely large gears. Is this size something reasonable or is it going to be impossible to keep such a large bed level?

by Tom Brown - Printing

Re: Bre Pettis does Mazda ads. - 11 years ago

vegasloki Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think you make a fair point Tom. There are some > pros in the community here. Most don't wade into > these threads and some never post. There are > several small business that do have good customer > satisfaction. No doubt. Not only that, some of the vendors who have lower customer satisfaction levels

by Tom Brown - General

Re: Bre Pettis does Mazda ads. - 11 years ago

As best I can tell, the RepRap community is a pretty distributed and mostly un-professional group of people. Fantastic as these individuals are, an argument could be made suggesting that bringing a professional and somewhat corporate approach to 3d printing is the best thing that could happen to the community. How many people ordered a printer kit from a web site or kick starter and got their ma

by Tom Brown - General

Re: Bre Pettis does Mazda ads. - 11 years ago

You should smoke less weed, Dark Alchemist.

by Tom Brown - General

Re: Bre Pettis does Mazda ads. - 11 years ago

Dark Alchemist Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > One day Bre will fall and the masses will rise. Are you kidding? Bre is fantastic. He's been a driving force behind the industry we are all benefiting from. I don't see the tie in with Mazda either but they make some great cars so it's cool with me.

by Tom Brown - General

Re: Ultimachine filament - 11 years ago

I picked up two spools of ABS and a spool of polycarbonate from them about a week ago. I have no comment on the product, as I have not used any of it yet, but it certainly looks good and all reports are good. They have UPS only shipping so I was hit with an additional $73.87 in brokerage when the package got to my door in Canada. That precludes me from using them again but if they would provid

by Tom Brown - General

Re: A difficult question - 11 years ago

For me, it's not important to share everything. I don't have a 3d printer yet but I have a cnc router and she thinks it's cool but will never use it. If you want to develop a really strong relationship, find things to do that allow you to explore yourselves on your own but in a way that don't threaten the relationship by building too many external relationships. You know.... like 3d printing.

by Tom Brown - General