I've got the support structure built for my spool but when I went to assemble it the filament wasn't tied together and everything expanded too much when I was trying to push the center rod through and one of the side pieces broke apart. These pieces really didn't fit well with the plastic tube I got from home depot anyway so I'm going to engineer a new larger part in Inventor to hold the bearingby jkelso - Reprappers
I'm down to the last of my parts that I'll need to complete the filament spool, the Y bar clamps. I went to thingiverse and searched the reprap tags. The clamp on the left is a simplified design that replaces the type of Y bar clamp you see on the right. Instead of 2 parts and a bunch of nuts and bolts, this flexible clamp slides over the rod and tightens down with 5/16" bolts on each side. Tby jkelso - Reprappers
Yes, I agree with that advice and anytime I press extrude I reset everything. I've been browsing through stuff with "reprap" tags on thingiverse and I found this heated bed element that I'm going to buy: I didn't know they were so affordable, should be around $60 US for the PCB and then I'll have to get a power supply and redesign the bed using wood or metal to work with the heating element.by jkelso - Reprappers
Your electronics board (or the extruder board if you have gen 3) should have a set of 6 screw terminals that wires can go into, 2 for each MOSFET chip. When you ramp up the nozzle heat you will see the LED by the MOSFET assigned in the firmware start to slowly glow and come to life, it takes a minute. It's possible to run the heated bed from these terminals but I burned out one MOSFET chip on mby jkelso - General
You're going to need the 17's I just found out the hard way building my Isaac. Haven't tried 23's but 14's won't work.by jkelso - Reprappers
mind if I ask what your global x and y mm/min settings are for pla and also what setting are you talking about exactly 1500?by jkelso - Reprappers
Finally I'm back to cranking out good parts again. This one didn't warp at all but the first 2 layers cracked off when I carelessly pried the part up with a screwdriver. These pieces need to be finessed off the tray or you'll get a rough looking face like the one I just got. It's still a strong usable part though and I can trim off excess plastic.by jkelso - Reprappers
Yes I'm using belts I have an Isaac Mendel I think you're referring to the Prusja design Mendel?by jkelso - General
I ordered a NEMA 14 size stepper motor from Polulu by mistake because they didn't specify what it was. It didn't fit my parts so I just put it aside and ordered the 17s because it wasn't worth the shipping to return it.by jkelso - General
Tonight I've been struggling with trying to get the 2nd tray of 3 side arms printed. It seems like every time it's a different problem ranging from the bed height too low on one side to the extruder reversing direction to opto endstops misalignment and the list goes on. I've been dealing with getting this tray going for 4 hours and I've had to throw away at least 5 bad prints now. It seemed alby jkelso - Reprappers
Well the safe idea is a few months away, I'm still trying to get the heated bed going first. On my 1st tray of side arm supports for the filament spool the X carriage got caught up because the filament roll sitting on the chair had tightened up and would not allow the carriage to move. I didn't catch it in time but the parts had already completed 19 of 22 layers so I took them off and decided tby jkelso - Reprappers
If I do it I would certainly drill a hole in the safe to duct the air to the outside with a fan. I've been printing out more parts for my filament spool and the bearings are fitting very snug so I know I'm getting good results with the steps per MM setting. I have my X and Y values set to 7.869 for both and it seems to be right for my machine. I've been running the space heater on the long arby jkelso - Reprappers
Sound like you're starting to get a picture of what's out there. I'm pretty sure you could avoid ebay if you really want to, but just remember that any purchases you make with your debit card through paypal are protected if they send bad parts or nothing at all. I've already worked with paypal on settling disputes and it's pretty painless. After a certain period of time after you've initiatedby jkelso - Reprappers
When I first started printing the numbers in my firmware were way off. I think they may be metric values. Here's what I'm using currently and it works perfect with my 5/16" threaded rods: X and Y 7.869 steps per MM and Z at 320 steps per MM.by jkelso - General
There's no reason a simple color video camera or two and a light couldn't be set up inside the gun case to watch the build. It would be great for holding valuables too. I agree that staring at the machine working is fascinating but also a huge time killer.by jkelso - Reprappers
I'm happy to announce that the space heater solved my warping problems 100 percent. All edges are perfectly flat to the bed. Last night was the first snowfall of the season and I'm running a space heater in the room anyway so this works out great. I'm going to look for one of the smaller desktop heaters that will fit on the stand next to the machine. These can be purchased for under $25. I'mby jkelso - Reprappers
Well yes there are a few imperfections (little extra bits here and there that can be removed with your fingers) but when I look at the gear as compared to the one I bought with my extruder parts on ebay it doesn't look any different. The gear is not misshaped in any way, and I've test fitted it onto a stepper motor. I've been cranking out parts for this filament spool and so far so good. The fby jkelso - Reprappers
It was either that or the hannah montana pink one, but right now I'm glad I skimped on the camera and focused my money towards the printer. Man, that was embarrassing to buy.by jkelso - Reprappers
sorry bout that I must have been up too lateby jkelso - Reprappers
unless they are nema 17 motors I doubt they will work with reprap partsby jkelso - General
I've had extensive problems with this, going through many solutions during my build. I finally just went with a simple thermistor and it's working out great for me.by jkelso - Reprappers
Techzone electronics have been known to have some issues but I think that they are serious about correcting any problems and they sent me out a replacement extruder board to me without a hassle. They are priced pretty good and they are modular, which can have both positive and negative impacts. If one board goes bad it's easier to replace, however wiring it all together can create reliability pby jkelso - Reprappers
I would recommend getting a nice Isaac kit from Fleming CNC. The parts are all nicely machined and they will send out replacements if something goes wrong and help you along with advice too. You can buy them right off the website with a debit card. I've never ordered plastics off ebay but there are plenty of choices out there. You don't need a lengthy ebay record to order simple items like plby jkelso - Reprappers
Yep, I'd agree. If you already have a printer go with building a Prusa, it's simpler with less parts to print. If it's your first printer Isaac parts are great, nicely machined. I'd recommend the Isaac kit.by jkelso - Reprappers
is it showing 000 with a white color or 0 with a blue color?by jkelso - Reprappers
Make sure you have the right serial port checked, the right type of board (sanguino for motherboard, dicemilia for extruder at least that's what my boards are) and after you have fixed the configuration h. prefs compile the code, when it says done compiling upload to board. After you hit upload wait for it to say binary sketch size and immediately press the reset button on your motherboard justby jkelso - Reprappers
I've just produced another part for the filament spool assembly, one of the 4 lower vertex pieces that hold the spool on top of the machine. This one came out in around 2 hours, which is fine I guess. I'm not sure how long a part like this is typically supposed to take but the machine seemed to be moving fast enough. I want to make nice dense parts that are strong so I'm satisfied with the curby jkelso - Reprappers
The 2nd spool vertex took 5 hours, this time I left the infill gap at .5 again and upped the X and Y and extruder speed to 3000 mm/minute. I really like what I'm seeing and I'm reluctant to degrade the quality of the parts by setting a larger infill gap. I'm going to keep trying and see what happens with the next settings experiment. I'm laying a 2nd strip of blue tape down and this way everytby jkelso - Reprappers
Now that I've got things working I'm realizing that these printers make a fair amount of noise and there's a slight odor of heated plastic in the room. I'm going to be shopping around for a gun safe in the future that could hold a reprap with filament spool attached. I found this one online with the perfect specs 2 ft X 2ft X 5ft. I'd like to have a fan and light inside there and a video camerby jkelso - Reprappers