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General discussions. For specific printers / electronics / fabrication methods / softwares, please see other sections.
Re: Z Axis Why 2 motors vs 1 motor? - 11 years ago
While I think I agree that 1 motor would be better than 2, I agree with brnrd. Two motors is still a viable solution as well... both price-wise and functionally.by iquizzle - General
Re: Best 8mm smooth rod? - 11 years ago
I think VXB's rods are chromed and reasonably priced. They do not have a tolerance spec, but that's only a problem if you're trying to match them with a bearing that needs that spec. For LMXUU it doesn't matter.by iquizzle - General
Re: Micro Center filament for $19.99 - 11 years ago
Interesting. I see the "velleman" and makerbot filament on their website for $40+ per spool but not that stuff. I like that they have green and silver PLA.by iquizzle - General
Re: Help on choosing the right hot end - j-head vs. magma - 11 years ago
I've used the jhead for a few years. I think it's a good hotend, and the price is right. It's not how I would design a PTFE hotend, but it gets the job done and has very rarely created headaches for me. Really the only complaint that I have with it is that it can leak slightly over time at the PEEK/brass connection. I think you can tighten everything up, but I worry about cracking the PEEK. It'sby iquizzle - General
Re: Yes, 3D printers can go on fire. - 11 years ago
One way that I can imagine implementing a software safety check is to make sure that the temperature responds to a probe voltage. For instance, once at temperature, you enter something like a simple phase-locked loop by applying a small oscillation voltage to your heating element and look for the frequency components of the measured temperature which correspond to the oscillation probe voltage.by iquizzle - Safety & Best Practices
Re: most popular reprap? - 11 years ago
Quotegman I can respect that response. It is a hard question, almost impossible. As cliche as this sounds, the best printer for you might not be the same as the best printer for someone else. It depends on what features you need, what build size you want, how much you're willing to spend for quality parts (the list goes on and on). On the other hand, there are a lot of people who have a stakeby iquizzle - General
Re: J-head with ceramic body instead of PEEK - 11 years ago
Quoteaduy PTFE becomes soft at printing temps so it can't be structural. My current hot end is basically a Bowden tube attached to the nozzle. The heater block slips on around the nozzle, the nozzle screws onto a piece of stainless that has a hole for the PTFE to go through. The stainless is held between two pieces of phenolic, which is attached to another piece of phenolic with some standoffs.by iquizzle - General
Re: J-head with ceramic body instead of PEEK - 11 years ago
Quotedave3d I thought about why not just a solid block of ptfe? the same shape as the peek jhead. Must be a reason why not. Even at 5/8" or whatever the diameter of the jhead is, PTFE is still pretty flexy. Not great for making threads either. There's no reason to believe that the hotend supports have to surround the PTFE liner. It's a bad idea and not the best design to do it that way. All ofby iquizzle - General
Re: J-head with ceramic body instead of PEEK - 11 years ago
If I were building my own hotend, I'd connect a PTFE tube straight to a brass heater block + nozzle (like a bowden tube that goes all the way up to the brass part of a j-head, but without any "structural" PEEK that insulates the PTFE from cooling). Outside of that, a few smaller ~M3 sized screws to hold the nozzle in place. They would attach to an aluminum mount/heat spreader at the carriage. Iby iquizzle - General
Re: Dissolving PLA using Lactic Acid - 11 years ago
I have no idea if this would work, but there is the old saying "like dissolves like".by iquizzle - General
Re: Implementing an Auto-Leveling Bed? (link) - 11 years ago
Really appreciate the explanation jamesdanielv. I'm interested in implementing this as well. The first layer is the most important one, and I'd love to have perfect consistency without having to fiddle with the position of my z endstop anymore.by iquizzle - General
Re: Yes, 3D printers can go on fire. - 11 years ago
Wow. I'm so glad that no harm came to you or your family. I've often been very worried about this exact thing happening to me. I definitely think that more attention needs to be given to fireproofing. I know that printed parts can go up in flames, obviously a wood frame like that one is at risk of increasing the fire hazard as well. As someone who enjoys designing 3d printers from a hobby standpby iquizzle - Safety & Best Practices
Re: How is that 200 dollar 3d printer coming along? - 11 years ago
QuoteDark Alchemist dissidence Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > these guys are trying to beat that. and they are > not that far away from my...lol > > http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/117421627/th > e-peachy-printer-the-first-100-3d-printer-and-sc[/ > url] At around 2:14 they say that the soundcard has a resolution of 16 bits but how does 65by iquizzle - General
Re: Cautionary tale for Kickstarter backers: Ultra-Bot folded? - 11 years ago
Quotekrafter Kickstarter makes it fairly clear that you have no guarantee of success. Yes, I think as long as that is your attitude toward KS funding then you are "playing the game" correctly so to speak. The problem is that all too often, especially with 3d printers, no guarantee of success doesn't make sense because the project being pitched is neither new or experimental. Why should someone aby iquizzle - General
Re: Ebay stepper motors ? - 11 years ago
I don't think they'd be in danger of melting. Stepper motors can get pretty hot in some cases, but I think if you're running them above ~80C, then you're probably using more current than spec. PLA should be fine at those temperatures. Lower current steppers can still achieve high torque if the inductance is high. The tradeoff is that you are energizing a coil with many more windings to generateby iquizzle - General
Re: Anyone tried one of the new all metal extruders? - 11 years ago
Quoteandy-net Well I tried the qu-bd extruder and I can't say I was impressed. First time I used it the plastic burned in the nozzle, and it clogged, when I tried to clean the nozzle it disintegrated and the end turned into a 1.7mm hole. I'm not importing a new nozzle as the postage is extortion so I now have an expensive paperweight. I used the right thermistor tables etc so I can't see the tempby iquizzle - General
Re: Building a PC - Best hardware for slicing/3D modeling? - 11 years ago
AFAIK, the fastest slicing is done by the fastest clock speed CPU. I could be wrong, I'm not sure of any slicers that are writted to run on multiple cores... and I don't think opengl is available at this point either. As long as you have ~4gb ram, pretty much any modern computer will be able to slice at fairly comparable speeds. If you computer starts having to pagefile, then you'll be in for a lby iquizzle - General
Re: Cautionary tale for Kickstarter backers: Ultra-Bot folded? - 11 years ago
It's sad that stuff like this happens, but it does. Sooner or later everyone will know someone who was a victim of this kind of KS scam and people's opinion will start to turn against KS and the loose responsibilities of the project owners. Many times, even if the project doesn't fully fold, people don't get what they expect. They wait for over a year for their item only to find out it's an overlby iquizzle - General
Re: Discussion/Proposal: Reprap Community Standards - 11 years ago
The Reprap Standard 2012 link is very far from what I had envisioned. That's highly restrictive and doesn't support the innovation that exists in the community. I had to laugh about the xkcd link... that can definitely become the case -- but the open source 3d printing community is very centralized around Reprap, so there's reason to believe that wouldn't be the case. The vertical x-axis standarby iquizzle - General
Discussion/Proposal: Reprap Community Standards - 11 years ago
For a while now, I thought that it would be nice to have as a community, a set of standards or specifications that would allow the commutability of parts between machines of different designs, etc. Filament diameters have already found a standard (3mm and 1.75mm), which has greatly simplified the ability to choose other parts to make use of the material. As an example, just today there was a posby iquizzle - General
Re: Prusa I3 Rework rod kit any where? - 11 years ago
I'm not sure what part of the world you're trying to buy in, but at least in the US you can buy any linear rod cut-to-size directly from thomson or misumi. http://www.thomsonlinear.com/ http://us.misumi-ec.com/by iquizzle - General
Re: About Bowden extruders - 11 years ago
QuoteOhmarinus Is there a lubricant I can use? I have been using canola oil with good success. As long as you keep the temperature below the point at which the oil burns, it does not seem to have any ill effects on the print. You don't need to use a lot -- I usually soak a little bit on a paper towel and wipe it onto a 8-inch section before a print. Quote Is there a way to use a gearless extruby iquizzle - General
Re: Which 3D printer to build? - 11 years ago
Quoteohioplastics I believe the mendelmax is the best for first time builders because it's easier to assemble. Are we talking about the 1.5 or 2? Cuz there are a ton of printers that are easier to assemble than the 1.5 due to it's angular shape. Alignment is very difficult as well due to the fact that there is limited adjustability for the smooth rods. Of all the 3d printers I've built or helpedby iquizzle - General
Re: Dedicated 3D Printer comp/laptop? - 11 years ago
Unless you're planning to run your printer using LinuxCNC (in which case you need a laptop with a parallel port), running a 3D printer is not very demanding. The slicing software will require the most substantial computational resources -- but my desktop is running a 4-year old i3 processor and is able to generate g-code pretty quickly.by iquizzle - General
Re: Custom Electronics - 11 years ago
Quotejchalo99 My question is what softwere could i use to interface with my Servo motors and encoders. or should i continue on my custom softwere? When working on my custom softwere, what should i include? With some effort, you can probably use LinuxCNC to control everything.by iquizzle - Stepper Motors, Servo Motors, DC Motors
Re: Untidy Finish on Prints - 11 years ago
You can probably fix this by tweaking your retraction or reducing the extrusion temperature. If that is PLA, what temperature are you using?by iquizzle - General
Re: PRINT3R for Android - No PC Required - 11 years ago
Quotetenacious It's one thing to post photos of flawed parts, but to do so after being offered a refund It would seem that the person just has a vendetta if they want to go about openly flaming the seller after a resolution has been offered. IMO that's not valuable feedback.by iquizzle - General
Re: Help with TERRIBLE print quality - 11 years ago
Ah ok. Now I think we're getting somewhere. You should always measure the filament as it is extruded to get that number exactly correct. Here is what you do: 1. Leave that number as-is. 2. Take a permanent marker and make a dot on your filament a couple inches away from the extruder. 3. Measure exactly how far that mark is from the top of the extruder. 4. Open pronterface and extrude 20mm of fiby iquizzle - General
Re: Help with TERRIBLE print quality - 11 years ago
It looks to me like your extruder is not pushing filament at a consistent rate. Unfortunately, this could be due to many things: 1. Make sure that your filament spool is feeding your extruder freely. If it tugs against the extruder, it can cause problems that look like this. 2. Check that you have a good idler tension. 3. Check that you are extruding the proper length. If your hotend is jammingby iquizzle - General
Re: PRINT3R for Android - No PC Required - 11 years ago
Very nice work! I look forward to trying it.by iquizzle - General