Yes the shape of the hole will be just fine to put a threaded rod through and once the washers and bolts are tightened in the shape of the hole won't matter at all. This is going to be a no more tears day.by jkelso - Reprappers
Glad to hear that you're doing things the stress free way by sorting out the electronics hurdle before you've invested tons of time and money into a machine that hinges mainly on the electronics hardware and software working above all else. I'm planning on building another mendel soon and I'm thinking that the Prusa design is the new way to go. I'm still without a heated bed and that will be thby jkelso - Reprappers
This morning I woke up to find this great looking part all done. I'd like to do some in hot rod red. I'm going to try and get a quicker build time on the next one but this spool vertex looks perfect. I can see that the holes made in the side actually form a teardrop shape at the top. I thought that the reprap teardrop logo was symbolic of the people who have tried and failed to complete a repby jkelso - Reprappers
I was told by Fleming bros. at Fleming CNC where I got my Isaac Mendel parts that 5/16 would be just fine. I've been getting great parts out of it so I can verify that it works just the same.by jkelso - General
I used 5/16 threaded rod from Home Depot for my Mendel.by jkelso - General
I saw this on someone's ebay page and thought I would take the time to debunk this myth. I just printed a small Wade's gear with a .5 mm extruder nozzle and there are no gaps or holes in any of the teeth or anywhere else that gaps and holes aren't supposed to be. I'm not saying a .4 nozzle might not get a slightly smoother print but this information I'm seeing here is incorrect, I've got the prby jkelso - Reprappers
After fixing the part with the netfabb software I sent the gcode with the prefs at 2500mm/min X and Y and changed the extruder max speed to 2500 accordingly. The part will probably take over 4 hours at this speed with virtually no infill gap. I'm thinking that the long build times are more due the infill gap, I've got mine set at .3 and the number of shells at 3. This part is coming out absoluby jkelso - Reprappers
I just tried the netfabb software and it fixed the file, thanks RhMorrisonby jkelso - Reprappers
I almost purchased sticky one sided laminate sheets from the office supply store and I was going to tape them down with double sided scotch tape. I may want to stick to smaller parts until I get the heated bed running, I'm going to try another large piece and keep a good eye on it to see what's happening. Thanks for the tip tbfleming.by jkelso - Reprappers
I found a great spool that mounts on the top of a Mendel but the .stl files didn't load into the reprap host software. I'm going to try running that solution to fix the .stl files with netfabb software. Since I've got one good extruder part already I decided to go ahead and print another piece for the Wade's extruder, the smaller gear. This came out excellent and I'm still amazed that it can pby jkelso - Reprappers
I'm right now testing different settings and trying to find the best quality preferences with a decent build time. So far I've had pretty good results, my first 10 parts were terrible. Where I've been adjusting the speed is under the global preferences tab, playing with the X and Y max feedrates. Also, I've been considering bumping the extruder steps per MM in the firmware. I'm getting qualitby jkelso - General
After leaving the part unattended for some time I returned to find that one of the arms of the piece had begun to curl up from the bed during printing and the part was destroyed at the end of that arm. I suppose a heated bed will solve this problem. In the meantime I think I'll pick up some double sided tape and see if that helps keep the part down. I wasn't sure this was the exact part I wantby jkelso - Reprappers
Since I've been using my stool as a filament holder I've decided that the first upgrade I want to make is a spool to hold the filament. I saw one that was mounted on top of the reprap and that's what I want to build. I got this model on thingiverse for a spool piece but I'm not sure it's the one that will mount on top. I'm going to go back to the website again and view the different filament sby jkelso - Reprappers
Thank you and cheers I wouldn't disagree that the task is very complex, however now that the first one is up and running I feel like the next one will be a breeze. I am going to try and help out as many newcomers as I can the way so many people on the forum have taken an interest in my build and offered advice to help me out. As soon as I figure out how to print on SD cards I want to show theby jkelso - Reprappers
After resending the gcodes to a file from the .stl file, this time with the infill tightened up and the X and Y slowed down to 500mm/minute I am now getting a beautiful high quality part with nice smooth lines all around. This looks like it will take a few more hours to finish and then I'll try finding the sweet spot of best quality with a quicker build time. I'm now very excited about the machby jkelso - Reprappers
no I'm not whoops. I was thinking about that...wondering if I needed to. Each morning now I wake up and see the printer in the room and a real sense of satisfaction hits me. Knowing I could just turn it on now and print something. Not having it working and not knowing what to do feels like a constant bother in the mind. A symbol of failure. Now I can relax and enjoy it. Everyone I know hasby jkelso - Reprappers
I went back to preferences and slowed the X and Y max feed rate to 500 mm/minute. I didn't notice the printer going noticably slower than before. I did another extruder block and this one came out very strong. I'm comparing the lines along the sides to the one I purchased off ebay and mine looks much rougher. The one I bought has perfect unbroken lines going all the way around the sides of thby jkelso - Reprappers
At last, I finally have my first usable part. It's the right size, doesn't feel spongy at all. Still, it doesn't have that totally smooth finish I would need to sell the part but I'm hoping that I can fine tune the settings now and get it just a little bit nicer. When I tried to pry the piece off the bed in a hurry I tore one of the corner layers off the bottom. I think a heated bed will helpby jkelso - Reprappers
I found the problem. The part that I was trying to print was coming out too large. This shift in scale wasn't laying down the proper amount of plastic for the area it was trying to cover. Somehow I stumbled upon this little tidbit of information in JKeegan's blog: My factory settings were different than these. As soon as I changed the values in the configuration h. tab of my fiveDgcodeinterpby jkelso - Reprappers
I'm wondering if it's a heated bed that's needed here to solve this problem.by jkelso - Reprappers
good idea. I've been adjusting the extruder profile settings, looking through the wiki, but so far haven't hit on the solution to getting a good solid print. I don't see the movements slowing down. I'm thinking it's still moving too fast. I'm trying again.by jkelso - Reprappers
After adjusting all of the extruder speed profiles to 1500 mm/minute and trying it again I didn't notice it going much slower. Not sure if I'm making the right adjustments. The 3rd print of this came out slightly better than the other 2 but still not where it needs to be. How do you up the infill?by jkelso - Reprappers
Now that the part is finished I can see that it doesn't look much different than the first part. This time the bed was more level so the foundation went on there better but I wouldn't say this is a usable part. There's still flexiblilty and the extrusions along the sides are broken. I'm not sure if I'm adjusting the proper settings or what I need to adjust them to. I guess I'll just keep tryby jkelso - Reprappers
I adjusted the extrusion infill width on all 3 extruder profiles to .3, one was 2.5, one was 1.5 and one was .7. I also adjusted the speeds at the bottom where the value is between 0 and 255. I changed the values from 255 to 150. Also I spent time readjusting the bed height to make sure it was even all around. It seems like now the print is coming out more solid. I'm not sure if it's perfectby jkelso - Reprappers
Thanks for the advice guys I'm going to give all that a try. I never thought to check the teeth being clogged but it does seem to leave gaps in certain areas where it's traveling in a straight line while going around curves it seems to do just fine. The areas around the corners and around the holes all have solid plastic around them. I got the desk at walmart for under $90. I've been having aby jkelso - Reprappers
After not having much success with the test cube I decided to try another .stl file. I got an extruder cap file and finally this time I got something to print, although it didn't come out exactly right. The extrusions seem to break up in spots, leaving the object with holes on the inside. It all sticks together but the object is spongy and brittle, I could easily break it in half. This looksby jkelso - Reprappers
The first layer of my spool part didn't go down evenly so I abandoned the print and went back to testing the cube. The tape started tearing and I think I may need to continue tweaking the bed height. As I'm writing this I'm watching the printer trying to print the cube yet again but it doesn't seem to be laying down the plastic. I'm adjusting the bearing cap tightness and getting some resultsby jkelso - Reprappers
Thanks for the fix rhmorrison I'm going to try what you said. Inchgreen, I bought one of those boards but didn't have success getting it working. I ended up going back to the cheapie simpler way and it works fine with just a thermistor. If you go back through my blog you can see that I had problems with the board too and where to connect it. Still unresolved. Tonight I started printing a tesby jkelso - Reprappers
Cool, I'm glad you could find my blog. I've written it with the idea that someone coming along behind me could actually follow along and figure out the major problems and obstacles without having to struggle as much as I have at times. Sometimes it feels almost like I'm engineering the reprap myself. I believe that somebody could publish a book on building the reprap from start to finish andby jkelso - Reprappers