Centering the drill is key. But getting a drill, center drill, or spot drill on center by .002" on a hand lathe is not easy. I have a whole shop full of CNC machinery but i would be willing to bet that drilling with a drill that small is easier by hand, ive never tried a drill that small on a CNC. The CNC has no sense of feel. It either drills a hole perfectly or snaps it off and keeps on going.by GITRDUN - General
Ive made my own J-heads many times but i cant tell you how many times ive spent a half hour machining a nozzle on a manual lathe only to have to throw it away because i broke a .35mm drill off in it or drilled it off center a hair. I think the best way to drill the orifice would be to drill it from the inside since there is alrady a drill point to guide the drill to center. However i have not yetby GITRDUN - General
Never mind. I am using marlin firmware and i just noticed that the Z steps are set to 10000.0/1.25 . Why it has /1.25 in it i dont know. but obviously thats it.by GITRDUN - General
My Z calibrates at 10,000 steps per 1mm. When i calculate the numbers it should be 8,000. I have .9* step motors at 16 micro steps, m5 x .8 Z screws. Am i figuring wrong or am i possibly missing steps on my Z axis? Prints look good, very little banding but there is a little. 360* / .9* = 400 steps per rotation. one rotation = .8 mm 1mm = .8 x 1.25 400 x 1.25 x 16 = 8,000 steps per mm Is thatby GITRDUN - General
Problem solved again. I switched my servo out with a higher quality one and the problem went away. I was using a cheap Towerpro 9gram servo, i switched it out with a Spektrum servo. So i guess the lesson to be learned is dont skimp on the servo for use on a reprap. Spend an extra $15 and get a good quality one.by GITRDUN - General
Ok im back with the same problem. I set up a servo on my 2nd printer for auto bed leveling and it has the exact same problem. Every time i position the servo using the M codes it freezes. It will rotate the servo but thats it. If i run a G28 it will home X, home Y, then rotate the servo arm down and begin to home Z. But as soon as the servo arm rotates down it loses communication, it will finishby GITRDUN - General
I switched to another Ramps and Mega board and all is well. Must be something wrong on the 5v leg of the other boards.by GITRDUN - General
I set up auto bed leveling using a servo and end stop. Everything works like a charm except everytime i probe the bed when im done the next command i give throws up a "Can't write to printer (disconnected?)" error. I have to disconnect pronterface, disconnect the USB cord and reconnect the cord and reconnect pronterface. Then everything works again until i probe the bed. Anyone experienced this pby GITRDUN - General
I just got mine up and running using this style . Its a great idea but the springy bed causes to many accuracy problems for this to work properly IMO. I plan to switch to a sevo mounted sensor style. I am using Marlin, Slic3r and Pronterface with a Ramps 1.4. Anyway i have a couple of questions that i cant seem to track down the answers to. 1. Does Marlin simply take all the probe positionsby GITRDUN - General
Im a machinist and have been running and programming CNC machinery for almost 25 years now. Ive been machining since i was a kid and have alot of experience with maintaining and troubleshooting CNC machines. I also have thought of using an older unused mill to convert to a 3d printer. The biggest hold up IMO is the software side of things. One trick would be to get the Fanuc control to run the exby GITRDUN - General
You wont find any bars in that length that are truly straight. Once you chop it into sections the individual sections will be pretty straight. And if their off a hair just bend as see fit.by GITRDUN - General
I was measuring the voltage at the wires where they are soldered to the PCB heated plate. And i was mistaking about it being a mark II, it is a mark I heated PCB plate. I tried switching to another 500W power supply and got exactly the same results. I connected the heated plate to the ramps using 10gauge wire just to rule that out and same result. None of the wires are getting hot, nor the wirby GITRDUN - General
I was mistaking, my power supply is a 500W Inland rated at 28amps on the +12v. I can get a thinner piece of galss easily, ill start with that and putting some muffler tape or something under the heated plate.by GITRDUN - General
Ive been printing and building repraps about 2 years now. Only used PLA up til now due its simplicity with not requiring a heated bed. So wanting to switch to ABS i finally installed my mkII heated bed, wired it all up and it cant get over 75*C, and takes forever to even get that hot. My power supply is rated at 24amps on the +12V , the power wires from the supply are not even warm, the +12V measby GITRDUN - General
Use mine at work quite often. Prusa I3. I manage a machining company and sometimes help customers design their products so having a low cost prototype machine is very usefull. Not to mention all the odd parts i make for our own use. Make a quick 3d model slice and click print, done.by GITRDUN - General
You need to lower your Z home. Your first layer is printing way to high and just simply dropping onto the bed and not being compressed. Print a single layer then measure the thickness of the print. If its thicker than its suposed to be for a single layer than you are printing to high.by GITRDUN - Printing
Ive thought the same thing. Seems to be more artsy type stuff.by GITRDUN - General
I had same issues for about a year until i finally solved it. - print on blue painters tape - no heated bed (i dont use heated bed) - first layer at 205C and 195C after (will vary from one printer to the next or different brands of PLA) - firt layer height at .15mm - first layer extrusion width at 1.5 times nozzle diameter - use a fan blowing continuously - speed for first layer is set to 10mm /by GITRDUN - General
This is a bit off subject but i thought id share it. My dad who was a lifelong machininst told me a story one time about the competitiveness between the Germans and Swiss in regards to manufacturing long ago. Suposedly a German company created what they thought was the worlds smallest drill bit and mailed it to one of their swiss competitors to show off what they could do. The swiss drilled a sby GITRDUN - General
Besides obvious quality differences the only real difference between these cheap micro switches and the micro switches we use on the CNC machines is the lever, CNC's usually have a dog that contacts the switches small bearing that pushes the trigger arm straight down into the switch, these cheap ones just have a thin metal lever. Removing the metal lever IMO would decrease the accuracy of the sysby GITRDUN - General
I think you are making mountains of mole hills. The precision of a micro snap switch is more than precise enough for what we are using them for. Heck i have a shop full of CNC machines that use micro switches to home the axes, if its precise enough for a $120,000 CNC its precise enough for a $500 reprap. If you are having problems with homing precise evey time you probably need to slow down the hby GITRDUN - General
I have Igus self aligning bushings ground and polished rods etc etc, and had the same results as any other bushing. You can feel the static friction with bushings. With no belts attached put a finger on the Y axis or X and push just a tiny bit, if it initially has any resistance at all there is to much friction. Im not saying bushings cant be used im just saying the difference between any bushingby GITRDUN - General
Ive experimented alot with printed bushings and bronze bushings. After using ball bearings there really is no comparison IMO. The main problem i had with printed or bronze bushings was the small amount of static friction. When using bushings my circles always came out a tad bit oval shaped, no matter how hard i tried to aleviate it i couldnt. When using bearings the circles imediately came out peby GITRDUN - General
Tolerances on bolts and nuts are pretty lax, i bought a bunch of 8mm bolts that actually measure 7.75mm on the straight shaft. I suppose if you were to buy some certified bolts you could get more consistent diameters.by GITRDUN - General
I have my pots set to give .4 volts on X and Y. I did adjust the acceleration in the firmware and it helped quite a bit. I think if i add a fan i can get by with it.by GITRDUN - General
IM using Ramps 1.4 with Pololu drivers. They will overheat the drivers just sitting idle after a movement.by GITRDUN - General
I bought these motors for my I3 build and i am having issues right away. If i turn up the pot on my Pololu drivers enough to get the motors to move at all the drivers will get so hot they overheat. If i turn it down even a tiny tiny bit theres not enough power to move the motors. The motors dont get hot at all but the drivers just cant handle it. Did i buy a misfit motor again? Ive read througby GITRDUN - General
If it were beneficial i can easily make bolts with an acurate OD. I manage a machining company and own a few machines myself. In fact i machined my own hobbed bolts but i have just used a bolt and cut the grooves into it. It wouldnt take much to machine a thread on both ends of a shaft and then weld a nut onto one end to drive the bolt from the gear, same way that is currently done. Im just not sby GITRDUN - General
Why are we using m8x22 ball bearings for the extruders and then putting a 8mm "hobbed bolt" through it that is smaller than 8mm? If you could buy bolts that actualy measure 8mm on the OD this would work fine but most if not all bolts are purposefully made about .25mm smaller on the OD. This leaves a bunch of slop between the bearing and the bolt. Maybe this is not enough slop to cause problems, iby GITRDUN - General