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Discuss any sort of mechanical stuff here: positioning systems, gears, extruding methods, etc.
Re: Extruder stepper not working - 9 years ago
Is the hotend hot? The extruder won't run if the hotend is below a minimum safety temperature unless you send M302 first.by JamesK - General
Re: My coreXY design is progressing to the build stage - 9 years ago
QuoteHoward Precision Metals- $15! You can barely imagine the degree of envy that I am experiencing right nowby JamesK - CoreXY Machines
Re: DIY 3D SLA Printer with First Prints! - 9 years ago
Very cool! Looking forward to more infoby JamesK - Look what I made!
Re: I probably made the tiniest Z-Probe and it doesn't require changes to hardware - 9 years ago
I printed up one of these today and it work's very well indeed. I've had great fun trying out all the bed leveling and distortion correction functions in Repetier with it. Many thanks indeed! My nozzles are a non-standard size, so I knocked up a quick copy of your design. I was having trouble getting the exact fit right, so I added a slit on two sides to allow a bit of margin Even if you're nby JamesK - Look what I made!
Re: Correct nozzle size fo the slicer: the official or the real extruded one? - 9 years ago
Quotetechristian I used a .3 setting once, in the slicer, when I used a .4 nozzle. It didn't seem to make a difference. Dan Nozzle diameter is only used in a few places, depending on if you let the slicer choose extrusion width automatically or set manual values. The most critical effect is on bridging where the slicer will assume that the extrusion in free air matches the nozzle diameter andby JamesK - General
Re: Help on selecting linear bearings - 9 years ago
QuoteJoachim what would you recommend over the DRV8825 if I have no favorite? The TMC2100 with 256 u-step interpolation is supposed to be very quiet. You can get them in standard module form, e.g. The TMC2660 is similar, with higher max power and SPI control, but I think at the moment they only way you can get it is on a duet wifi unless you are willing to hack up something yourself.by JamesK - General
Re: Mechaduino Closed-loop Stepper - 9 years ago
How does homing work with a smart motor setup like this? Presumably you want the motor controller to know when it is at the home position, so do you connect the endstop to the motor controller and let it take care of homing?by JamesK - General
Re: Mechaduino Closed-loop Stepper - 9 years ago
Sweet looking board Trampas! Love the idea of the little display on board Here's a link to a photo form Trampas' website to wet the appetite of anyone who wouldn't otherwise follow a link:by JamesK - General
Re: I probably made the tiniest Z-Probe and it doesn't require changes to hardware - 9 years ago
Quoteo_lampe Did you try using the switch on a 110°C hot bed? I always thought nozzle and bed should be at working temp before bed leveling. That wouldn't work. I'm also concerned about the nozzle has to be perfectly clean without the smallest blob hanging out to get repeatable results. Valid concerns, but the attraction of this approach is the absolute simplicity. I think a few trade-offs are aby JamesK - Look what I made!
Re: I probably made the tiniest Z-Probe and it doesn't require changes to hardware - 9 years ago
Very cool! Welcome to the forumby JamesK - Look what I made!
Re: LCD SLA 3D Printer - 9 years ago
You've got to love the mechanical simplicity of SLA, and the print quality.by JamesK - Look what I made!
Re: Filament-out sensor - 9 years ago
That looks excellent. Seeing that, I don't know why we don't all fit them as standard.by JamesK - Look what I made!
Re: Real world experience with ABS outdoors wanted - 9 years ago
Sorry, no real world experience to report, but I have wondered the same thing and was interested to see ASA being promoted as a UV resistant alternative, for example see or Regards, Jamesby JamesK - General
Re: What is the Go-To website for 3D designs these days? - 9 years ago
I still tend to look on Thingiverse first. I also have a couple of designs on Thingiverse, Pinshape and Youmagine, and seem to get about an order of magnitude more activity on Thingiverse than on the other sites.by JamesK - General
Re: Controlling a RepRap with ESP8266 and no Arduino - 9 years ago
Ah, cut &paste from the reprap wiki. Guess you're right.by JamesK - Developers
Re: Controlling a RepRap with ESP8266 and no Arduino - 9 years ago
QuotePaliap The program then runs round the polygons from quad to quad linking the ends up. When you now have a set of polygons for RepRap to outline and to fill in. But a list of line segments is a very non-robust representation of a polygon for operations like zig-zag infill, and also it's hard to offset. You need to offset the polygons to make smaller ones inside because the stream of polymerby JamesK - Developers
Re: Flexion vs Flexion for E3DRetrofit kit - 9 years ago
Looking great, glad that's working so well. I must admit, I like the idea of the brush to clean out the drive gear - that's pretty smart.by JamesK - General
Re: What's going on with my print please 
- 9 years ago
Not bad at all. My benchys don't look much better, but everyone has different priorities for what they work on. I like functional parts, exploring different filament types and designing hot-ends, so I haven't spent too much time on trying to get the best quality surface finish yet. I guess that time will come. There are others on this forum that produce amazing quality prints that I can't even beby JamesK - Printing
Re: What's going on with my print please - 9 years ago
The chimney looks too hot. A slightly heretical suggestion is to apply a little part cooling, assuming you have a part cooling fan fitted. The usual advice is not to use part cooling with abs, but if a small area is getting too hot then I would argue that cooling is what is needed. As an alternative, some slicers allow you to set an option to move the head away from the part if the layer time isby JamesK - Printing
Re: My coreXY design is progressing to the build stage - 9 years ago
Quote I have mixed feelings about using the M8 screws because they have M6 threads, but I'm going to give them a try and see if they work. If I don't like the way they behave, I'll drill out the holes and use M8 bolts. The shoulder of the bolt should pass through the load bearing material on both sides of the pulley. The threaded section should only be preventing the bolt from withdrawing, notby JamesK - CoreXY Machines
Re: Some help or direction on the display module? - 9 years ago
Sounds like a great project. Divide and conquer sounds like a good approach.by JamesK - General
Re: Some help or direction on the display module? - 9 years ago
Yes, me too. I'm feeling the itch to get back into firmware development, but there are so many interesting things to choose between! The Raspberry Pi eco-system looks very appealing with lots of very cost effective display options and a lot of compute power available.by JamesK - General
Re: Flexion vs Flexion for E3DRetrofit kit - 9 years ago
QuoteThat has to be a misprint. 60 mm/s? The best I can manage with TPE is around 12... 15 if I'm really pushing it. There's a lot of variation in flex filaments. The TPE I have is far softer than any of the others that I have used, it's the only one that produces prints with a soft rubbery feel. I think Ninjaflex is closer to TPU which is much easier to print. That said, I couldn't get to 60mm/by JamesK - General
Re: Whats better then Simplify3D - 9 years ago
I gave ideaMaker another look this evening and made a couple of prints. It's definitely a bit lean on features; as well as the lack of control over the first layer temperature, there's also no obvious way of setting line widths. Both single wall perimeters and infill were done at exactly nozzle width as far as I could tell. Also a complete mystery is the cooling settings which have the expected mby JamesK - General
Re: Some help or direction on the display module? - 9 years ago
Schematics are on the wiki:by JamesK - General
Re: My coreXY design is progressing to the build stage - 9 years ago
It's still 3 point mounting, on a T shaped support. Can't imagine DD moving away from 3 pointby JamesK - CoreXY Machines
Re: My cube test print is actually a really tall tower! 
- 9 years ago
That's great, glad it helped Watch out for filament addiction - so many types and colours to try out, it's easy to get carried away! "My names James and I haven't bought a roll of filament for almost 2 days..."by JamesK - Printing
Re: My coreXY design is progressing to the build stage - 9 years ago
I like the way you've got the centre-line of the bed over the Z axis carrier and guides, that looks like a very smart layout compared to the typical cantilever setup that puts a long arm between the bed CofG and the bearings. Why are the belt idlers above the motor so high? It looks kind of odd with the lower belt pushed up like that, although I can't think of any negatives.by JamesK - CoreXY Machines
Re: Whats better then Simplify3D - 9 years ago
Agreed, Slic3r's modifiers are an excellent feature.by JamesK - General
Re: Whats better then Simplify3D - 9 years ago
Slic3r is undeniably feature rich. It does feel like the developers are over-reaching a little, resulting in things not quite working right (the gap fill problems and subsequent negative extrusion rates were a classic example). That's said, it's still the slicer that I use most often, and because of previous problems I've ended up running with the development branch which exposes me to more instaby JamesK - General