The glass was absolutely spotless as I clean it with acetone and it looks like fresh glass. I've tried many temp variations of both hot end and bed, to no avail. Currently I have the hot end at 200 and bed about 60. As mentioned the models stick nicely until they're about 2/3 done then they suddenly come free. I've picked up some cheap 'ultra hold' hairspray today so I'll try that next. If itby Mr Joshua - General Mendel Topics
I presume that the waste plastic isn't too bad in the grand scheme of things (re' the support printing anyway), but it's the scale thing that bugs me. Where I've found these files online, I haven't seen any sort of note with them to say along the lines of "Print this at 15x scale for a prusa" or suchlike. Surely it's not just trial & error as that would be mad in terms of wastage of both tby Mr Joshua - General Mendel Topics
Yes, I'm sure I checked this after it was last adjusted and it's set so I can just slide a sheet of normal paper under the nozzle. I calibrated at 4 corners and the centre. I'll double check tonight though since I must be doing something wrong! Is it possible the PLA I'm using just has bad properties when it comes to sticking? It was pretty cheap stuff...by Mr Joshua - General Mendel Topics
Thanks, glad it's not just me then! I had wondered about just doing something myself like you describe but wanted to check first that I'm not just overlooking something obvious. If I tried to print it (after figuring out the scale ratio somehow) then would it print something underneath it where necessary to support it? I should just try it really but I suppose I'm asking in case I need a certaiby Mr Joshua - General Mendel Topics
Well I tried the PVA juice and I don't think it really helped as I got the same fault after a while, and it broke loose. It had progressed further than previous attempts though, so perhaps I just need to experiment with the mixture. Anyway, I tried adding on a 10mm brim, and it printed out no problem thanks to the extra grip! So I got a half decent print of a cog/gear/wheel thing at last!by Mr Joshua - General Mendel Topics
Thanks for the input - appreciate your suggestions I suppose there's no harm in trying a PVA juice instead of the blue tape. I don't have any kapton to try with as the glass plate came ready covered and I removed it when I could not get PLA to stick at all (ABS stuck nicely but the print quality was not great). I'm tempted to try ABS again but not quite yet - I'll try the pva thing first. Iby Mr Joshua - General Mendel Topics
One of the things I want to print as a priority once I'm getting more successful prints is to create a bracket to hold on my melzi board to the side of the printer frame. I've downloaded this file to use: But there's a couple of things I can't quite figure out. 1) The scale of the model. When I add it in repetier, the file appears as a tiny fraction of the size it needs to be. How on earthby Mr Joshua - General Mendel Topics
As a photographer, I concur completely. But anyway, prints are remarkable quality!! I can only dream of producing stuff like this with my machine. Maybe one day. Keep up the good work.by Mr Joshua - Look what I made!
Hi guys After a lot of hassle first with firmware, then various other things (latest until now was snapping the hot end while unscrewing it to clean it, then waiting weeks for a new one to arrive!), I've just about got to the point where I'm getting usable prints. It's exciting, but I'm not quite there yet due to a couple of things. If I print a 20mm test cube it sticks ok and prints alright eby Mr Joshua - General Mendel Topics
That all makes sense yeah. The honest truth though is that it just snapped because I tried to undo it without heating it first. It was stupid because I could feel it was too tight, and I've snapped a lot of bolts over the years so I shouldn't have tried, but anyway..... New one is en route, so I'm a bit annoyed as I thought it was coming from the UK and would be here in a few days, but it's cby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Thanks guys - haven't fully read those 2 posts as I'm just doing something but will come back to them later on. Here's a pic of the carnage though for nowby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Thanks for the suggestions. I think I mentioned the leak earlier but possibly I just meant to and didn't actually write it. I haven't read back through it and I'm sligjhtly demoralised right now. My friend (that I bought the part built printer from) brought his machine round tonight so I could compare settings, try out my PLA in his machine etc etc. The PLA I've got printed fine in his machinby Mr Joshua - Controllers
By the way, this is how I attached the hot end after finding i couldnt bolt it like it previously was: 6mm ply then i chamfered the edges to squeeze it in place. As you can see in this pic, it sort of looks like plastic somehow is leaking around the hot end. Not sure where from though. I also cut slices into the grooved feed bearing although in hindsight Im not sure there was any point sincby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Ok thanks. I've had the extruder apart many times but not examined down inside the hot end I must admit. I've tried what you suggested and the filament is hard to push through. Strangely it seemed good at first, but then got more difficult. I had it up as hot as 230C (and this is PLA not ABS) and it was still needing a lot of pressure by hand to feed through. I have a suspicion that it's pooby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Thanks for the suggestions - I've got an infrared temperature gun thing and I know the bed heats around 15-20C lower than it states on screen. It's harder to gauge with the extruder. I printed this last night and I'm so pleased to finally get something that worked (I got the blue tape!), but as you can see the infill is really bad. I wasn't sure why but when it finished I could see it was no loby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Thanks - I haven't measured it as 1mm but I'd guess it's around that, maybe a touch less. I've read different things about the height - some saying a piece of paper, others saying thickness of a credit card etc. It is definitely much more than a sheet of paper though so once I reassemble it, I will adjust that accordingly thanks. I picked up a roll of Scotch blue painter tape on the way home tby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Thanks guys Sorry, when I mentioned acetone I meant just using that to wipe the bed clean, not using ABS juice. I should have been more clear. Not sure re the label, it was a gallon I bought when rebuilding my boat but there's no label on it now. I've tried direct on heated glass but that won't stick either. Going to get some hairspray at lunchtine! I nearly got the new extruder assembly woby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Well I've progressed a little now but in some ways not. I managed to damage the extruder assembly by getting it too hot, and it had been printed in PLA instead of ABS so it wasn't too pleased and mutated itself as a result. Oops. I managed to get it working again and swapped to PLA, plus fitted the proper tensioners to the belts etc. The PLA prints to begin with were WAY more neat than the ABS oby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Ahh ok thanks. I have reduced it to 115 now to try. Shame about the fosfet Hopefully it won't happen again. Do you happen to know where the layer height is stored at all? *ignore actually - I found it in slic3r* thanksby Mr Joshua - Controllers
That must be very frustrating! What temp do you have your bed set at? The thermistor for my bed gives the wrong temp readout for some reason, so when the ambient temp is 11 degrees say, the extruder temp will say 11C, but the bed will say 26C. So because the default bed temp was 110, I changed it to 125C so it would really be giving 110 if you follow my rationale? I think it's too hot though anby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Thanks mate It's ABS that I've used. I was going to buy some PLA but my friend gave me a reel of ABS that he had spare so I thought I'd use that even though it's meant to be more difficult to get good results with ABS. Thanks for the link - I'll have a look, and I need to look for the layer height setting and adjust that too potentially. It could be the extruder steps actually. I measured alby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Thanks - I'll look up where the layer thickness is set, cheers. Here are some photos of my printer's first successful (but rather inconsistent quality) printed object. It's meant to be a 20mm block. Here it is on the bed with the squiggly surround bit: Position of the print job on the bed (no idea if this is right?) And close ups of the printed item. The underneath/first layer (it misseby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Update - I found the Z steps/mm was set as 533.33mm/s and should be 2560!! So I changed that and so far so good - it is currently printing a 20mm box in ABS. I can see it's not quite right as it prints but it's doing it anyway so I will let it finish then inspect/analyse. One thing I have noted is that it first prints like a perimeter layer or two that is not the main print, before it starts tby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Thanks for that reply - I appreciate the input Yes it's been frustrating getting to this point with all the problems but only from the perspective that it was meant to be something that would have worked more or less straight away. I do enjoy the learning, and getting a better idea of what's what by virtue of it not working until now. I would be very lazy about taking the time to learn thougby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Well I'm absolutely delighted to report that finally, my printer is alive, and has printed something (sort of). It wasn't 100% successful, but I can't describe how happy it made me to see it printing something after all the hassle trying to make it behave. So the remaining issues are these: 1) Importantly, the Z axis moves mega slow compared to other firmwares, and is not moving the correct disby Mr Joshua - Controllers
Thanks for the reply mate, what exactly is the current issue you have? I think I made progress tonight at last! I found another firmware that is a version of marlin meant for a prusa (I think), and tried it. I now have all axes working including the extruded! Oddly, I have to turn my machine 180 for the axes to move in the correct direction (so the Y motor is now at the rear instead of front).by Mr Joshua - Controllers
Here's a few closer pics, with a bit less clutter and the wires at least looped up with a few cable ties to keep the excess out of the way until I get spiral wrap for it all. You can see hopefully the positions of all the parts like end stops & steppers relative to each other. It's set up the same physically as the ready built ones both my friends bought from the ebay ad I linked to above,by Mr Joshua - General Mendel Topics
Hi guys This might be a silly question but I'm wondering if there is anywhere that I can get a 'ready to go' firmware for a prusa mendel (using a Melzi board specifically, not RAMPS), ie that doesn't need a load of setting up doing in the config file? Failing that, if there's a step my step guide on what settings need changing in a generic sprinter or marlin firmware to suit this build that woulby Mr Joshua - General Mendel Topics
I've compiled a list of things to check tonight anyway...by Mr Joshua - Controllers
Sorry - I thought I'd replied to your post Cefiar but it seems I didn't! I will check what you've suggested tonight all being well. Have had a very busy few days, however I did make some progress last night. I took the printer to my friend's house to sit it beside his one, and compare. It seems my other friend that I bought it from (nearly complete but not quite) had made a few mistakes wheby Mr Joshua - Controllers