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Re: Djinn5150's SmartRap Core Build - 11 years ago

Quotedjinn5150 My estimate is +/- 200 microns Many thanks. Am I wrong or it is +/- 20 microns (instead of 200) ? 200 is bad (about as much as the average layer height), on the other hand 20 microns is definitely more than acceptable.

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Djinn5150's SmartRap Core Build - 11 years ago

Quotedjinn5150 unfortunately I have no dial gauge and I have yet to run any repeated probes to check for variances. When you manage to run the probes, if you post the results I will be very thankful.

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Djinn5150's SmartRap Core Build - 11 years ago

What is the precision of these sensors in microns?

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Unclog PLA from hotend with MEK - 11 years ago

Quoteregpye I run all my PLA at 210C. Some brands of filament need higher, most work well at 200-210C I have found. One brand I had to push the filament trough at 217C (depends on the quality of the manufacturer) I have printed nylon with the Genie hotend (both MK1 and MK2 are identical as far as filaments are concerned, the length of the body is the only difference) The nylon that I used requir

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: New Hotend possible - 11 years ago

After several weeks I have finally managed to complete the report about my tests on the Genie MK1 and Mk2. Maybe surprisingly for somebody, the tests did not involve printing at all. I tried instead to do some "dry" measurements of the temperature in different points of the hot-ends, to support or disprove some conjectures about heat distribution in different situations. To do it, I built a small

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Hotend - 11 years ago

Quotejbutj So is it this one here? Looks like it, yes. I thought it was much cheaper, sorry...

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Bowden Extruber - 11 years ago

Quotesolomondg I hated the extruder (not much force, could never get the filament through the nut), so I just swapped it out with an Airtripper BSP. Never looked back! Have you ever tried it with soft filaments ?

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Hotend - 11 years ago

Reg's genie hotend is a very good choice, in my experience. It costs a little more than 20 pounds because you have also considerable shipping costs if you don't live in Australia, but it is worth. If you live in Europe (UK I guess), shipping costs may be considerably lower if you can wait for three or four weeks (I should receive a small batch, soon). The default hotend of the Smartrap should st

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Genie MK2 Hotend - 11 years ago

Too late for me! I printed the smartrap X end for the MK2 yesterday evening. And tomorrow I will start my tests, finally. I should have the results in a week or two.

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: New Hotend possible - 11 years ago

Quoteloidor Sounds really, really nice Well, I'll at least finish my repstrap first, and I'll get one of those for the Smartrap. It's not just nice: it's a wonderful piece of metal. I caress it from time to time to let it understand how much I appreciate the way it does its job. I will also test its little brother MK2 within some days.

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

QuoteBackEMF why not use GT2 belt? The only Smartrap design I saw so far with belts on the Z axis is one of Reg's designs, so he can better tell the pros and cons of using it. The reasons why I did not use gt2 belts are that I should have changed considerably the design of my printer, in particular I should have used some geared system to increase the step resolution along Z; I should have boug

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

Quoteregpye I drop a 4mm ball bearing in between the motor shaft and the threaded rod. Why??? The rods are now touching, but the transmission noise does not happen because the ball is touching on the centre part of each motor shaft and the threaded rod. The transmission noise happens when square ends are touching and react against each other. The ball stops this happening and also takes up the

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

Quotecristian the cartridge falls when the Z motor has no power, although slowly enough not to be a very serious issue; And here is a solution to the Z fall, which also doubles stepper resolution along Z: a couple of hooks that halve the weight of the carriage, enough to avoid movement in the absence of power and external forces.

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: The secret of the brim (CURA) - 11 years ago

I don't know whether they want it like that or not, either it is a bug or they coded some black magic in Cura interface. However I had the same issue, one more reason why I left Cura for Slic3r.

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

QuoteBackEMF Also, i'm wondering about the hotend PID settings you are using and what type/brand of PLA that you used for the grey cubes. I have never changed the PID settings in the firmware I got from Serge's repository. The PLA is among the cheapest I found: 3DPremium from filimprimante3d. It has some problems sticking to the bed coated with PVA glue, in particular because it warps a little

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

And finally, bye bye wobble! 1cmx1cm cubes, from left to right: 0.1, 0.05 and 0.025 mm layer height. I obtained this by replacing the Z threaded rod with fishing line in a very naive way, thanks to a motor with perfectly round shaft (I bought it without knowing it was like that, but now it turns out useful...): Of course there are several disadvantages: the cartridge falls when the Z moto

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

QuoteBackEMF Another way to reduce wobble might be one of these: the flexible connection might do the trick. If ithe prices aren't too extreme. And what about printing a flexible coupling? I tried to print a flexible coupling and I failed: it is difficult for me to conceive a coupling that preserves rotation and z shift, while being tolerant on x and y shifts... But if you have some good ide

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: What is your average print time over a month? - 11 years ago

I usually print only during the weekend, spending most of the time in the cad modeling. So I would say an average printing time of 30 - 40 hours per month.

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

Here they are: sorry if the code is not very readable...

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

Quoteregpye Smooth Z rods thickest you can use. Threaded Z rod the thinnest you can use. No retaining bearing at the top end so the threaded rod can move as needed and not force any unwanted movement to the axis. Use stainless steel thread for better formed thread. A good bearing system or use bushes that are free and give a good sliding action. Thanks Reg. Have you ever managed to remove comple

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

QuoteBackEMF For now i managed to compensate the coupler wobble by turning the rod so that the two wobbles cancel eachother out a bit (it still wobbles a bit) I went to 2 hardware stores today only to find rods that are uncapable of rolling on a flat surface. :-) Not bend a lot, but bend enough to leave them on the shelf and look further.. At the top, the rod wobbles not more than 2 millimeters

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

Quoteregpye Out of interest sake, which slicing program are you using? To me it looks like you may be using Cura?? If so, can you try using Slic3r and see if that changes anything in the results? At the very beginning, when I first got my Smartrap, I started with Slic3r but results were poor. So I switched to Cura, with much better outcome. However, after some weeks, I started to feel that Cura

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

Quoterunninfarmer With a 0.5mm extruded diameter, if you're extruding rate is the same at 0.1mm vs 0.3mm layer height, how would you not have different layer widths with out decreasing extrusion rate? You'd have more compression at same rates for 0.1mm layer height, unless I'm wrong? As far as I know, the slicer takes care of all this automatically. Moreover, in the particular case of 1-perimete

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

Quoterunninfarmer You must have your extruder finely tuned to compensate for that much compression? What do you mean exactly? There is no more compression than printing at 0.1 or 0.3 (as long as we neglect that layer width was 0.7 and the nozzle only 0.5). Moreover, I am printing with the standard Smartrap filament feeder which has no gears... My only exceptional equipment with respect to the ex

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: How tight should the belts be? - 11 years ago

I would say that you may start with "fairly tight" and see if the print quality is satisfying. Otherwise, you may go to "super super tight". I have switched to "fairly tight" to "super super tight" three days ago, when I started looking for very high quality. And actually "super super tight" may still be not enough... But for most of the things to print, you won't need it, I suppose.

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Generic Genie Hotend Mount - 11 years ago

Yep, much more visible now. I am very curious to know the new assembly procedure...

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

Here is some quite extreme test. In the picture there are 4 cubic vases 10x10x10 mm, printed with only 1 perimeter and no infill: the easiest test. From left to right, they are printed at 0.05, 0.03, 0.02 and 0.01 mm layer height. Layers would be invisible in the picture (and even at naked eye), if it wasn't for the Z wobble (mostly). Z wobble becomes more and more visible by decreasing layer hei

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

Quoteknife-edge So why do you say that you can't use auto leveling with mechanical endstops? Well, I had to remove the joint in the head that allowed the hotend to rise and trigger the endstop when the bed was hit. Now the endstop works only in a corner during the homing phase, thanks to a little cube that I added close to (0,0,0). This is because I don't have any servo here. But even if I had i

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Printing quality: pursuing perfection - 11 years ago

Hi Smartrappers, so here is one more post about the pursue of perfection in printing quality. In short, here are the two problems that I tried to address about the (outdated) design of the Smartrap I have: Z shaking/wobble and X end shaking. I know for sure that both have been addressed in the current Smartrap design, and I am looking forward to reading the first feedbacks. My current results

by cristian - Smart_Rap

Re: New Hotend possible - 11 years ago

Quoteregpye I have added a section on my website showing how to re-assemble a Genie MK2 hotend, just in case someone needs to know how to do it correctly. The link is on the hotend page, part way down the page. Thanks Reg. I have to admit that the link is not that easy to find...

by cristian - Smart_Rap