Well, I wasn't expecting that the first reply I received would be aimed at shooting down my suggestion. As I worked as a design engineer for a company that made teflon products for the medical industry for twelve years, I can assure you that under the conditions I have suggested, the PFTE material will absolutely do the job with out any significant degradation. Unless you are melting materials exby rossfree - Mechanics
I've been struggling to share these pictures but it's the only way to properly describe what I did... I've always hated the difficulty attaching the glass bead thermistor to the hot end. It is usually held in by the head of a screw gently squeezing the wires and holding the glass bead in a hole but it sucks at best. What I did was make a small oblong washer of teflon. I punched two holes in it.by rossfree - Mechanics
Hi Tanner, There are several things to consider here. 1) The extruder is slipping because of poor spring (tube) pressure. 2) The extruder gear is slipping on the motor shaft or hobbed bolt. 3) The filament is changing size through your print... if it gets smaller, and the bearing does not maintain force on the filament, it will slip. 4) The motor is loosing steps during a print (current tooby rossfree - Reprappers
Hi DC I haven't heard of reversing the belt. Sounds interesting... I'll give it a try. As for mating the teeth, I've had great success attaching to the carriage by folding the teeth back against themselves and inserting a pin to prevent it from pulling out. Works great and I can still do the same with the belt twisted. Take a look at my posted pics. Thanks again! Rossby rossfree - Delta Machines
I had issues if I used an SD card to print but still had my ramps board connected to my computer via a serial cable. If the computer when to sleep or downloaded an update and did a restart, it would screw up the print. Disconnecting the cable solved that problem. Best of luck, Rossby rossfree - General
Hi all, I realize this is a fairly old topic, but I have a delta printer (that I love) with belts and am contemplating a spectra drive design. Couple of reasons... My Dad lives across the country and I would love to share my printer with him. So I'm thinking about a baby printer. Belts are out for that. But my current design uses a round (not toothed) idler pulley and the teeth create vibratioby rossfree - Delta Machines
GRRRrrrrrr! My printer is printing ABS beautifully... until about an hour in, when it shifts maybe one tooth over and keeps going. It always seems to be an hour in or so. That makes me wonder if it's heat related on one of the motors or weather the timing belts are slipping a tooth. My belts are not loose but I can still tighten them. I have a smooth delrin pulley that is used to tighten the beby rossfree - Delta Machines
Before I pumped water into the effector / hot end, I would exhaust all other measures to remove heat. Consider cooling fins made of copper. Copper has roughly twice the thermal conductivity of aluminum. Also consider, turning your hot end heat up and your cabinet heat down a bit. That should help too.If you want high speed, the last thing I would think you want was added weight and more lines ofby rossfree - Delta Machines
Just to chime in, I'm loving my magnetic ball arms. It takes all of the play out of the system. I have extruded aluminum columns and use bearing carriages on them for very smooth accurate movement. I expoxied chrome steel balls to the carriages and effector and then use archery arrows cut to the same length and inserted magnets in the ends of the rods, set back so they do not contact the balls. Iby rossfree - Delta Machines
Hi all, First print last night! Whoo hoo! But alas... I have a gremlin... When I home, X and Y carriages behave as normal... moving up and hitting the endstops and stopping. My Z carriage does not. Instead, it moves down about 5mm and stops. It does not home. Repeated homing commands do the same, each time homing X and Y while bumping the Z carriage down. Wait, there's more!... Using Prontby rossfree - Delta Machines
Hi Mike, I'm in Somersworth, NH. I got into Reprap about a little over a year ago. Built a machine and had it running but had trouble with my hot-end and between that and software settings, I got burned out and put it away for a while. Well... I saw the new style Rostock and Delta style printers and got fired up again. I've ordered all of the materials to build a Rostock style machine. ALLby rossfree - RepRap Usergroup - Seacoast Region, New Hampshire
Thank you Jeff for hosting a great time, good suggestions and lots of encouragement. Special thanks to you Ross, for your help getting this going on my Mac. I'm portable now! That help was enough to make the whole day worthwhile. But I got so much more out of it. Already looking forward to the next meetup. Thank you all! Rossby rossfree - Massachusetts, Boston RepRap User Group
Wasn't ignoring you Julia. I own a fully built Prusa Mendle 3d printer but I'm still debugging a nice print from it. I'd like to help but I think you want someone further along than myself. Best of luck! Rossby rossfree - Massachusetts, Boston RepRap User Group
That could be a GREAT meetup! Rossby rossfree - Massachusetts, Boston RepRap User Group
Count me in! I'll bring my Prusa Mendle. Can't wait! Ross Freeman Somersworth, NHby rossfree - Massachusetts, Boston RepRap User Group
Great! I'll work on it tonight and let you know how it goes! Thank you! Rossby rossfree - Reprappers
Thank you John! So all I need is Slic3r to create Gcode and Pronterface on my Macbook Pro running Lion (plus whatever eles is in the app version you linked) to run my printer. Is this correct? I do not need Arduino or Teacup software on my Mac? That is only to program the chip on my gen6 board. Is this correct? I know others want this information so I'm trying to be clear. :-) Many thanks!!!by rossfree - Reprappers
Hi all, I have a prusa up and running (sort of) with gen6 electronics connected to a desktop pc. I'd like to move to my macbook pro running Lion. I installed teacup firmware on the gen6 board. My question is this: What exactly do I need on my Mac to run my prusa. I have installed Slic3r on my Mac and it took an STL file and successfully converted it to a gcode file. I would like to use prontby rossfree - Reprappers
Count me in either day. I'll bring my prussa. Rossby rossfree - Massachusetts, Boston RepRap User Group
I can make Sundays work. Rossby rossfree - Massachusetts, Boston RepRap User Group
Hi Tiny, Speaking only for myself, I would prefer a Saturday and earlier in the day (or morning). It sounds like half a dozen of us maybe (could be more) but we would fit nicely in a heated two-car garage. :-) Meeting up at 8pm plus the drive home would be a pretty late night for me. Just sayin. I have a Prusa, still in calibration phase. I can bring it with me. It might also be nice to put tby rossfree - Massachusetts, Boston RepRap User Group
Hi Mr. Black, If you remove the belts, you should be able to push the x axis with your finger back and forth (without moving the printer around on the table). It should slide smoothly with no more force than pushing a coffee cup around on a table top. If that's the case, your trouble isn't friction. The Z axis screws should turn freely with the motors disconnected. Once connected they shouldby rossfree - Reprappers
Thanks Mike, I've put things on hold while kids are home from school... will get back to it next week some time. The "Y" table support works great! Easy to put on and take off. Easy to adjust the bed and room for the sensor. All of that works great. Now I'm piddling with the extruder again. I need to replace with a hinged extruder so I can get to it easier when it strips out. Bother! :-) Rossby rossfree - Reprappers
I just put together my new "Y" style linear bearing table support (cad pics above). It came out AWESOME! Epoxy is setting up right now. Then I'll attach the heated circuit board (MK2). Still have to cut down my glass top to fit. Can't wait to see this puppy in action! So light weight but strong! Ok... I'll stop now. :-) Rossby rossfree - Reprappers
Ah Ha!. Ok... nix the blue tape! Got it. It may not be elegant, but I plan to use silicone seal to attach the circuit board to the heads of the flat-head screws. Silicone remains flexible, takes the heat and is pretty strong in shear which is the only real forces it will see. I have a sheet of glass that I will clip on to the circuit board with the big paper clips as others have done. I made ABSby rossfree - Reprappers
Hi Nigel, Impressive machine! Robust baby! I like it a lot. You have quite a show piece going there. We have a Dimension printer at work. Also a nice machine. Press print and walk away. Never fails. Works beautifully and makes outstanding parts. They did there homework. The Dimension printer is built in a cabinet... fully enclosed, with vibration mounts. When it prints, the whole machine shaby rossfree - Reprappers
Thanks for the help ya'll... I appreciate all I can get. I do understand about gcode files and that I have to re-write them when I make changes to Skeinforge. I didn't understand it earlier and that made much of what I did a waste of time. There really is a need for more simplified basics somewhere for the beginner. Such a barrage of information, and CHOICES right from the gate. Choosing machineby rossfree - Reprappers
Hi from southern New Hampshire! I'm currently calibrating a Prusa and constantly redesigning things... I have access to a Dimension printer and from that made all of the plastic parts for my Prusa. I'm a designer by trade using Inventor 2010 and look forward to printing things at home. Hope to get my son involved soon down in S Carolina. Would love to get together with other enthusiasts! Rosby rossfree - Massachusetts, Boston RepRap User Group
Re-creatd the STL files at work in metric. That did the trick! Thank you! Rossby rossfree - Reprappers