This is my experience with brass as a drive wheel. I hobbed this naval grade 485 brass from Mcmaster Carr. The teeth are too soft and collapse, and break off, thus jamming the nozzle. I did have a bit come through the .4mm diameter nozzle, and end up in the print. ( flake image) You can see the wheel has folded over teeth, and the flake of one ready to come loose. I put a circle so you canby davew_tx - General
that OP and his recently closed thread was shameless and I have to say, very un-American. I appreciate the closing of it and the diligence of the moderators. Well done.by davew_tx - General
@ Isos that NEMA 11 motor on a 19:1 reduction, with about a 1/2 inch drive wheel, should only give about 10-15 RPM or 1 full revolution per 4-6 seconds. That is about 1.5 inch of filament in 4-6 seconds. It seems to me that overall printer head speed would be greatly limited by this low filament speed. What have you experienced with that drive system? What are the steps/mm settings in your firby davew_tx - General
As you mention, why include the heatsink on the top surface/block. Glass is a really poor conductor, so what's the purpose of the heatsink on the top? If those 3 bolts holding it together are stainless, then the upper block will be cool to the touch. You're intuition matches mine up there. My $0.02: finishing the glass ends to perpendicular, sealing them, and crushing the assembly for leak freeby davew_tx - General
Read your gcode file, looking at the E0 instructions. It is easy to see the filament values adding up during the print, then retract at things like layer changes. you can at least remove that as a variable. verify the stepper is moving for the actual prime instruction. You mention the suck is happening. (Kisslicer terms)by davew_tx - General
for me, I just look at the holding torque and a reputable company making them. If you relate cost to quality, many big $$ brands out there like Lin Engineering or the new Gecko steppers (USA made).by davew_tx - General
Kysan 1124090 is the one I like best for NEMA 17. It has high torque, and having extra helps when you want move mass with authority. they are on sale at $12.50 now. here they are about $14.50 from Ultimachine. If you want bulk, like 30 or more, Kysan has pricing near $10-ish+shipping.by davew_tx - General
the extruder fan can also cool planetary geared and direct driven stepper motors. The motor heat creeps into the drive wheel and can soften PLA at the pinch bearing. I've had stepper motors reach 90-100C, with the amps turned up trying to get the torque up. I tend to use NEMA14 5:1 ratio motors now, which do take some amps (185 setting in RAMBO) The gearbox section will heat up after aboutby davew_tx - General
I'll look for that. I was thinking that the top was straight. That section and the top few layers of the base were run at 200% in 3DCreator, meaning 200mm/s. It was moving pretty well, and maybe the quickness was helping it not loose steps?? Maybe I'll turn up the Rambo amps to a bit higher also. Maybe check the connectors also. On a large box print, the 45 degree infill was using only theby davew_tx - General
Just got my machine together today, and second print was great. As good as a stratasys. A short, half dollar sized washer. Third part was a tall tower with a base flange, but it shows a diagonal issue. I've got all floating point. The X and Y steps are the same number, at 43.6. I've changed Z to 400.0 and E is 471.3 An M503 reports all the same numbers that I want. The diagonal print goes oby davew_tx - General
Arthur and Mark, With all the recent advances in all metal hi-temp hotends, are there any plans to include thermocouple inputs on board and not as a optional module? Daveby davew_tx - General
for the REPRAP electronics and external stepper drivers (like the 2M420 or M542 black box) there is a simple way to increase the pulse times in the Marlin firmware. Just add a 1 microsecond delay in between the write HIGH and write LOW of the stepper counter section. I have an X3 Azteeg powering NEMA 23 motors using the below method. NOTE: in Repetier, there is a single place in the config.h tby davew_tx - General
In a search for spheres, I found this company has some, and I saw this. Has anyone thought to try a ring magnet with a countersunk hole? magnet This is a 3.5lb holding ring for $0.25 each. Should be able to find steel balls on the cheap to go with it. Glued into a carbon fiber tube? Just thinking out loud.by davew_tx - General
I'm still receiving requests for swapping, about 1 per week, from all over the world. My reply is always something about how there is no swapping that works and that Bolson Materials might be a good source. I'm not aware that they've solved it yet though.by davew_tx - General
i've needed at a minimum, a thermistor installed. no drivers needed for my sanguinololu, Azteeg X3 and a Rambo, but needed to make a motor move obviously. Daveby davew_tx - General
I use the springs to soften the nozzle crashes it occurs often, even being cautious.by davew_tx - General
that fixed the slowdown and the gcode viewer is really helpful. i can see that every layer is near 30 seconds, which is like a governor on the speed. I'm printing very well. there is an issue in the crotch area of the Pink Panther lady, after slicing. I'm doing a zero infill, 3 perimeter vase kind of print. There are 11 layers with zigzag infill, which doesn't go well, because it is in the airby davew_tx - Experimental
OK, I emailed the gcode and the config that I just now made. Run it and see if it slows to a crawl after at the third layer. Daveby davew_tx - Experimental
So, I had a chance to use the MC on my M2. I know it's operator error, but i have an issue with layer 3 and above. With the first two layers, i have good control over speed. MC lets me change them, and the M2 moves as expected. No matter what settings I've tried, from speeds, to infill to? , layer 3 and above slow down to a crawl. Any idea?by davew_tx - Experimental
I'm developing a lifting head dual, all metal hotend. It is driven by a micro motor and cam arrangement. The head also has an automatic retracting z-switch for probing the surface in a few places, so I'm going to apply the matrix algebra corrections. I currently slice and print using Creator or Kisslicer/Printrun. Used Slic3r in the past as well. I have an M2 and a large custom homebuilt I cby davew_tx - Experimental
I like the look and simplicity. Will try and print using my M2 later today. I see the starting guide is a bit different that the actual alpha build. in areas such as the Adjust Printer and Print Settings (show as Printer Controls and Slice Settings in the guide) Which version of Slic3r is embedded? I can't find an area to select another engine either. any future dev work planned for dual eby davew_tx - Experimental
I use the X3 on my big printer, put jumpers on the Pololu sockets, and run the Step/Dir/En signals out to box 2M542 stepper drivers. It works well. This is not an X3 issue, but I have better results using the SD card vs the USB cable, with arc jitters the main issue. Long straight lines are fast and accurate. I'm now outputting the STL files in Solidworks using the coarse setting, which reducby davew_tx - General
much better, changed the multiplier to 1.0, and the width from .35mm to .40mm. nuts fit tight, but go in. no plastic yielding.by davew_tx - General
OK, the first full print looks fair for the nut installation. It's hard to see with black ABS. I used 1.15 as an extrusion multiplier, so the nuts are tight. The M3 and M4 are pressed in using pliers. The M6 was pushed using fingers only. I'm reprinting with 1.0 extrusion multiplier. will report back. Daveby davew_tx - General
Just saw this and will try it on an M2, using the newest Creator1.1.2.by davew_tx - General
reading is fundamental. I should try it.by davew_tx - General
I believe bed leveling is measured from the nozzle tip to the print surface. A bubble level is not going to help with the gap at the nozzle. I use a piece of office paper to set the gap (.1mm or .004"). I do this directly at the leveling screws.by davew_tx - General
I just saw a trinity labs NEMA 11 with a long motor stack. Hard to know if it is a double stack or what? I used some NEMA 8 motors, but to create the torques required amperage levels that smoked the motor. I think it borked at 1.5amps. Trinity also identifies the need for active motor cooling in their product description. These small motors get very hot. I have a NEMA 14 with 5:1 that weighsby davew_tx - General