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General discussions. For specific printers / electronics / fabrication methods / softwares, please see other sections.
Re: An alternative to buying a bad kit for $300-500 - 9 years ago
Those hotends are coming off as soon as my e3d V6's get here, so I'm not so worried about their nozzle size. What I'm trying to decide now is if I should turn down the e3d heatsink to fit into that extruder, or if i should make an adapter/mount to attach it underneath. I'm leaning towards making an adapter so I can use a different extruder if I need to in the future. Cutting the heatsink downby TheJones - General
Re: An alternative to buying a bad kit for $300-500 - 9 years ago
IT CAME EARLY! That's the good news. The bad news is that hotends and the Mk2 upgrade parts for my other printer aren't here yet to free up the hand-me-down parts, so all i can really do is tear-down. Also, it was factory packed, but my acrylic pieces have several cracks in them. Half the corners on the base plates are cranked, as well as a big one of the main shell (Pictures below). For thatby TheJones - General
Re: An alternative to buying a bad kit for $300-500 - 9 years ago
Nice. Thanks for posting the drawings and STL's. That will come in handy when mine gets here.by TheJones - General
Re: An alternative to buying a bad kit for $300-500 - 9 years ago
I dig the adjustability on that endstop. I probably would have rotated the switch mount 90 degrees and just atached an "L" shaped piece of aluminum to the back Y-carriage plate. Your approach like a lot nicer. Also, I was kind of shocked to see those plastic clips back on your machine in the first place. It's not surprising that they cracked though. Acrylic looks nice, but has horrible mechaby TheJones - General
Re: An alternative to buying a bad kit for $300-500 - 9 years ago
Hmm, that is interesting. It's like they designed this whole machine with no concept that people might have to adjust things. I have already ordered a set of e3d V6 hotends for it. I had hoped to reuse the extruders, but those things look dubious at best. No real tension adjustment, an oversized direct drive wheel, and ONE mounting screw? I might have to buy new ones. Though, that is a super deeby TheJones - General
Re: An alternative to buying a bad kit for $300-500 - 9 years ago
I get what you mean, I was just poking fun at you because of how much crap you talk on the budget ebay kits. This thing looks really solid for the $300 that I paid for it, though I never would have paid it's MSRP. I'm really excited for mine to get here. I'm thinking of turning it into a fully enclosed heated chamber. What are you planning on doing for the bed ? Also are you planning on trying oby TheJones - General
Re: An alternative to buying a bad kit for $300-500 - 9 years ago
So, this happened when I got home... (check the picture) I will be watching this thread with great interest in the near future.by TheJones - General
Re: An alternative to buying a bad kit for $300-500 - 9 years ago
I logged on to reprap for the first time in a while to see what people were saying about the Prusa i3 mk2 and the new quad-color system they announced, I almost fell out of my chair when I saw DD advocating something that didn't cost an arm and a leg. :p After reading this thread I now have a dilemma. I was planning to get a mk2 and pre-order the quad-color system, but now I kind of want to doby TheJones - General
Re: Y Axis Slipping - 10 years ago
What speeds are you printing at? (Including infill and movement speed) I had a similar issue that seemed to pop up out of nowhere. It just started skipping on the Y axis one day. It drove me insane. I tried everything from realigning the rails, to replacing the drivers with drv8825's, and from lowering my exceleration, to replacing the motor itself with a bigger one that has higher torque (allby TheJones - General
Re: Scavanged ATX PSU - 10 years ago
Yes, that will work. Hooking them up in parallel (the way you described) will add their amperage together. I have a 750w server power supply that has 5 separate 12v rails as well, as well as a protection circuit that will shut the PS down if you overdraw a rail. I have one rail going to each of the two RAMPS power inputs, and two rails wired to my bed heater (if I only connect one it goes into pby TheJones - General
Re: Best place to purchase Filament - 10 years ago
I get mine from makergeeks.com. Good prices, free shipping, US company, and they make the filament in-house (I'm sure the material comes from china, like everything else, but they have their own extruders). I've got a bin full of different spools from them, everything from black ABS, to glow-in-the-dark PLA, and I haven't had any problems yet.by TheJones - General
Re: Printing speeds - 10 years ago
Maybe we're on different wavelength here, but I'm talking about kits like these: and, and, and, There isn't a lot to get wrong there, and all of them ship from the US. I dont personally see the point of spending $200 extra for what basically amounts to customer support, and a better return/exchange policy. But thats just my personality, I suppose. Either way, an i3 is a dead simple machineby TheJones - General
Re: Printing speeds - 10 years ago
Quotethe_digital_dentist I wasn't aware that this forum was aimed specifically at low cost 3D printers, though it's easy to understand why you'd think so, with so many of the users here trying to figure out how to get their low cost printers to work properly. But, you're right. If you want your 3D printer to be your hobby, a $300 kit is ideal. It will occupy many, many hours of your time debugby TheJones - General
Re: Printing speeds - 10 years ago
Quotethe_digital_dentist A $300 kit is a nothing but a mistake to be avoided. That's a pretty strong statement. Especially on a low-cost-centric, hobbiest website. The simple truth is, i3 kits are perfectly acceptable for people that want to play around with 3d printing without breaking the bank, and are OK with (or may even enjoy) tinkering with their machine. At the very least, it's a good eby TheJones - General
Re: Printing speeds - 10 years ago
Belts are the norm, mostly because of cost and their user friendly nature. Most of the standard machines I see are belts on the X and Y, and only use screws on the Z, becacause that axis has to vertically stop and hold either the whole X axis or the entire built platform (depending on the design). If you can make your screw system work, it shouldn't cause any problems that i can think of. Howby TheJones - General
Re: Another printer, or a 40W laser cutter? - 10 years ago
I think I've settled on the laser cutter, unless something drastic changes my mind in the next few days. I'll probably order it next week, and do a write-up on it when I get it set up. I'll likely put in the laser cutter working group, but I'll also post a link in this thread, since that board doesn't seem to see as much traffic.by TheJones - General
Re: Another printer, or a 40W laser cutter? - 10 years ago
I have some plans for the CNC, when I get to it. But I think I'm going to build it custom, as a long-term project, or maybe do it as a "Can I do it with what's laying around my garage?" build, like my current printer. I've thought about doing the same with a laser cutter. But for what I think I'd be able to build, it's hard to beat the price of that Chinese machine, as a turn-key package. I meanby TheJones - General
Re: Another printer, or a 40W laser cutter? - 10 years ago
Quotemardy3d Would you have some further information on the laser cutter? For instance a link :-) Regarding your issue: Owning a 3d printer already, a laser cutter sounds very cool. Here is a link to the 40w desktop laser I was looking at: It's pretty much exactly what you'd expect when you hear someone say "40w Chinese laser cutter". For <$400, it seems like it's worth giving a try. Quotby TheJones - General
Another printer, or a 40W laser cutter? - 10 years ago
I'm looking at getting either Folger Tech kossel kit, or one of those 40W ebay laser cutters. I already have a printer (an i3 inspired home build), but I've been wanting to play with a delta for a while, and the Folger Tech kit comes with aluminum corners brackets and an inductive auto-level sensor. Seems like a pretty good deal. On the other hand, I don't currently have a laser cutter. And whiby TheJones - General
Re: Home made Prusa I3 problems - 10 years ago
I hate to sound like a broken record, but I would run the test code. This is exactly the situation it was made for. I'm glad you got the board up and running, but your motors not moving could be caused by almost anything, from your physical endstops, to their software settings, or you motors could be wired wrong, or you stepper drivers could be bad. Successfully running the test code will definby TheJones - General
Re: printing problem
- 10 years ago
it's really odd how smoothly and evenly that is drifting, as well as the fact that is started where the gears teeth are, but not down on the base. Do all of your other prints do that? And have you tried re-slicing that pulley?by TheJones - Printing
Re: moved to point (0,0,max) - 10 years ago
I don't have an answer for #2 and #3, but I can tell you that if you are using Slic3r for your G-code, you can tell it what to do both before, and after the print, using the "Custom G-code" section, under the "Printer Settings" tab. I uploaded a screenshot. I would imagine that Repetier-Host has something similar. I don't use Repetier-Host though, because I have a RAMPS with a display/card readeby TheJones - General
Re: Y-axis slipping in only one dirrection - 10 years ago
I had thought of that. But the problem just started out of nowhere, and it only effects one axis, and only in one direction. I would think that if it were moving too fast, it would have done it from the start, it would be on both axis, and even if it were only effecting the Y (because of the wieght of the bed), it should still be happening in both directoins (which it is not). Who knows, though.by TheJones - General
Re: Home made Prusa I3 problems - 10 years ago
It sounds to me like something might have gone wrong while edited the marlin config. Like maybe it's trying to run, then can't because it's set for the wrong hardware, so it shuts down, then does it all over again. Or it might be that the arduino itself. Those are both just blind guesses. But the upside is that, if it is one of those two things, one of them is free, and the other is cheap. Ifby TheJones - General
Y-axis slipping in only one dirrection - 10 years ago
My printer has developed an issue where the Y-axis keeps missing steps at random, but ALWAYS in the same direction. Here are some facts about my situation: -I've got an i3 inspired build, running a standard RAMPS1.4 setup, with nema-17's. -It ran for weeks withough problems, until this issue popped up. -The bearings (LM10UU's) are not binding, rods are aligned, and the bed scoots freely when I pby TheJones - General
Re: DIY budget heated bed - 10 years ago
I don't know what is so magical about v.1, but it's working. I peeled up the extra aluminum that I didn't need, and got the total resistance to 1ohm, then I encased the rest of the uncovered area in kapton tape. I sandwiched it between the glass and the aluminum spring loaded bed. It's running stable at 100c. Because of the parts I removed to get the resistance lower, the heating element is onby TheJones - Developers
Re: DIY budget heated bed - 10 years ago
I made v.4 when I got home. It is a 3mm strip with 6mm spacing, 1ohm resistance. At first, it was doing the same thing as the others, peaking at around 60-70C. So I went back to v.1.5 and looked at it again. I realized that the part which was hitting the desired temperature was fully enclosed in tape. At this point, I figured that maybe the aluminum was dissipating the heat too quickly for itby TheJones - Developers
Re: DIY budget heated bed - 10 years ago
I don't think that oxidation in the connections is my problem. I'm not dealing with temps that decreased over time. It's not hitting the target temp from the start. Galvanic corrosion could be a problem in the future though. I hadn't though about that.by TheJones - Developers
Re: DIY budget heated bed - 10 years ago
For connection to the wires, I'm using non-conducive clamps to press the suffices together. As far as current limiting power supplies, I'm not trying to control the temp, I'm having a problem getting them to go above 100c. I'm out and about right now. Going to do more fooling around with it when I get home.by TheJones - Developers
Re: DIY budget heated bed - 10 years ago
So, it's been a while, but I have picked this project back up. I now have an IR digital thermometer, so I can take actual readings (instead of my old test method, which consisted of "Ouch, that's hot!") I attached a picture with some data on it, so when I talk about the different versions, you can see what I mean. For testing purposes, I have made 3 versions so far. v.1 was the one pictured iby TheJones - Developers