If you're getting into 3D printing thinking you can just push a button and receive your part you've been drinking too much of the marketing dept kool-aid. You're going to spend a lot of time messing around no matter what. You can spend that time trying to get your machine working each time you try to print, or you can put the time (and a few more $) in up-front to make the machine more reliableby the_digital_dentist - General
The only value I can see in the extra complications is if you are going to print inside an oven and the ambient air temperature will be too high to keep the cold end of hot-end cool. Older Stratasys FDM printers print inside a 70C oven and have flexible hoses attached to the extruder to blow cool air from outside the oven over the extruder.by the_digital_dentist - General
You can use the jog function built into host software, or put jog commands in the form of gcode onto an SD card and use it to move the camera around.by the_digital_dentist - General
I can't see the video on my machine, but common problem. Speed and/or acceleration may be set too high. Try reducing acceleration.by the_digital_dentist - Controllers
Are you printing ABS? Is your printer enclosed? ABS will delaminate once print height gets a few cm above the heated bed if the printer is not enclosed.by the_digital_dentist - General
If it won't get warm enough it definitely won't be able to regulate the temperature at the limit of its range either. It's a good idea to check the actual temperature of the plate with a thermocouple, too. Thermistors that come with heaters don't always report the temperature accurately. Also, before printing, wipe the kapton with acetone. A little finger oil is enough to kill adhesion.by the_digital_dentist - General
I've used a microswitch for a couple years and it has worked fine. What I don't do is use a leaf spring lever to operate the switch. A screw comes down and directly pushes on the little button on the switch. It has been very repeatable. All that said, I will be switching to an opto interruptor because I have had two occasions when the zero switch was ignored and the X axis came down and brokeby the_digital_dentist - General
config.hby the_digital_dentist - General
Quotecdru Short answer is reduced cost (hopefully) and complexity. Using extrusion allows you to reduce your part count. If you can use extrusion that is Good Enoughâ„¢ for both structural support and linear movement, you kill two birds with one stone. No it might not be the greatest and most precise, but for many the trade offs or limitations are acceptable. If you were trying to design a printeby the_digital_dentist - General
fatesalign- check your zero and leveling. The first layer needs to be squished down on the plate. Also, slowing down the first layer is good, too. How fast are you printing? I print ABS on kapton on aluminum. No juice, no hairspray, no glue. Works great. 105C bed, 235C nozzle.by the_digital_dentist - General
I don't see why that wouldn't work. I'm amazed they can do it so cheaply.by the_digital_dentist - General
It doesn't make much difference what the substrate is if you're covering it with kapton tape, as long as it is flat. There are a couple reasons people use glass. It can be removed and replaced easily, so a new print can be started as soon as one has completed. The glass with a print stuck to it can be placed in a freezer to separate the parts easily. Finally, most people's aluminum in the bedby the_digital_dentist - General
A 2 kW transformer will be very heavy- maybe 15-20 kg. Then there's the issue of supplying power to it. Most domestic wiring circuits may not have 2kW without heavier gauge wiring and a bigger breaker in the box. You may have to go to one of the higher current outlets/plugs, too. something like this: You would connect the secondary to add to the line voltage- see Make sure you ground thiby the_digital_dentist - General
Check your acceleration and jerk settings. Setting them properly requires adjustments during a complex structure print, not a simple cube or cylinder. If acceleration/jerk are too high the machine will miss steps. The Y axis is particularly vulnerable because of the typically higher moving mass.by the_digital_dentist - General
Both Oriental Motor web site and Gecko Drives web sites have good explanations of stepper motor basics, including explanations of drive techniques. See here for an explanation of microstepping and resolution: On a different site I read that motor steps are not exactly 1.8 degrees- they vary typically 5%. When the microsteps get smaller than the 5% variation in step position, the resolution cby the_digital_dentist - Stepper Motors, Servo Motors, DC Motors
If anything goes wrong with the temperature control the heater wire will melt/burn the PTFE, possibly producing unhealthy gasses. You want something made of glass fibers like the insulation they put on thermocouple wires. Try something like this instead: It might be a lot less expensive to wrap the nichrome wire on pegs then insulate it between two sheets glass fiber cloth - no danger of anyby the_digital_dentist - General
I'm interested in PEI, too, but only have experience with Kapton tape and ABS. I use 6 strips of 5 mil thick x 2" wide Kapton tape to cover my 12" x 12.5" bed. I replace only damaged strips as needed, and the 5 mil stuff is very tough so it rarely needs replacement. I can't imagine there would be any advantage to glung it down yourself- the tape comes with high temperature adhesive that is unifby the_digital_dentist - General
QuoteAquaticsLive I have a bit of a low tech way to check how much force is needed to move an axis. This in not exact but gets you close enough to get a motor the right size. I use a piece of string and wrap it around the pulley several times and use a luggage scale to see how much pulling force is needed to move it. Like this one LINK The problem I had calculating things out the engineerinby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Speed control is the default for the rotary encoder after whatever you used it for last times out. Just turn the encoder and you'll see the speed indicator on the screen go up or down. It usually takes a few seconds before the machine responds by actually speeding up or slowing down.by the_digital_dentist - General
Keep in mind when you go to higher microstepping ratios torque goes down and your print speed may have to drop because the controller has limited steps per sec. Arduino/RAMPS can only spit out 40k pulses per sec max, combined with 256 ustepping and you find you can't turn the motor very fast. Smoothieboard can go as high as 100k pps which helps a little. Increasing microstepping ratio above 16by the_digital_dentist - Stepper Motors, Servo Motors, DC Motors
Quotesarf2k4 I read about this design probably 1-3 months ago, I heard this was an early design used by early reprap machines (correct me if I'm wrong here). But getting the hollow threaded rod would proven to be hard as if getting hobbed bolt or aluminum profiles As far as I know, it is my original design. Hollow threaded rod is not needed, though it could be used. I just used two nuts, one lby the_digital_dentist - General
And now for something completely different- a work in progress- see: I haven't worked on it for a while- it works great driving filament forward, has problems when retracting (due to speed of retraction compared to forward feed, I think). No gears, but very high downward force because the threads are effectively a gear.by the_digital_dentist - General
1 driver = 1 motor, unless you want to connect the motors in parallel or series. The driver can handle 4.5 A, I think. Are the motors in the Z axis lifting the X axis or the bed? I'd avoid 2 motors- add pulleys and a belt to a single motor. Axis orthogonality and bed level mid-print should not be subject to a screw binding and causing a motor to skip steps, or a wiring problem. It doesn't noby the_digital_dentist - General
Try this: It worked for me.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Yes, you need a bushing. NEMA-17 motors have 5mm shafts. A lot of the pulleys and gears are made to fit NEMA-17 motors. Are you using a smaller motor?by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
CAD software is used to design parts that will be 3D printed. OpernSCAD is one of the popular CAD programs. STL files are one type of file that most CAD software produces, and is the type you need to print. The SCAD file on thingiverse is provided so you can edit the object easily because STL files are not so easy to edit. You will need a slicing program, such as Slic3r or Cura to process theby the_digital_dentist - General
Quotegordonendersby Ive been looking at lead screws recently. Is the fine 1.5mm pitch desireable over the 2mm pitch screws? After using 8mm x 1.25mm stainless threaded rod which has turned out to be pretty good with very regular cut threads. Im wondering how good in comparison 8mm x2mm pitch lead screw would be. 1.5mm doesnt seem as easy to get hold of but loads of 8mm x 2mm pitch. Gordon Calby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
NEMA-17 motors max out at about 100 oz-in torque. NEMA-23s start maybe a little lower than that and go up to about 500 oz--in. NEMA-23s in the 100-150 oz-in range run about 2A (at least the ones I have do), and can be driven by pololu modules (I was doing it for about 2 years with no problems). I have a 425 oz-in motor in my Y axis that uses 2.8A. Before you beef up the motors you might calcuby the_digital_dentist - General
Not sure about RAMPS, but the 1us pulses out of my smoothieboard work fine. It's unlikely that RAMPS uses shorter pulses than that since the A4988 chip data sheet says 1 us typical pulse...by the_digital_dentist - General
If you're driving the screws directly with a 200 step/rev motor and using 1/16 ustepping (both typical), there will be 3200 usteps per rev of the motor. 1 rev will move the Z axis 8 mm. 3200 usteps/1 rev X 1 rev/8 mm= 400 usteps/mm. A 100um layer move will require 40 usteps. Yes, it is OK.by the_digital_dentist - Mechanics