Is that a Prusa Air made of glass in the background there? Very cool stuff you've got going on.by Pointedstick - General
Sounds like your Y axis motor is skipping steps. Either the motor isn't getting enough current to move it at the speed you've specified (exacerbated by friction), or they're getting too much current and the driver chips are temporarily shutting down to avoid cooking themselves. If you point a fan at your electronics, you can crank up the current a bit and not have to worry about this issue.by Pointedstick - General
rhmorrison Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Not really a good name for a printer in > Germany... Oops! They should definitely rename it to "gift"by Pointedstick - General
Here are two I did a few months back, with the help of the the OSnap! iPhone app. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soe5pg5IvGI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVmws3aFalwby Pointedstick - General
I feel your pain, and I used to think the same way. But there really are advantages: 1. Free for commercial as well as non-commercial use 2. Small, lightweight, and fast 3. Cross-platform compatible Inventor and most other CAD packages are Windows-only. FreeCad works on all platforms, but is still very immature and lacks features. OpenSCAD can feel kind of ugly, but it gets the job done. If youby Pointedstick - General
The exact same thing happened to me a month ago, seemingly spontaneously. I ended up having to replace the heatcore entirely to salvage the hot end. Never did figure out what caused it.by Pointedstick - General
I believe FreeCad can do that.by Pointedstick - General
You need to get your model into the STL file format, at which point other software can be used to take that and generate a toolpath in the form of gcode files, which are sent to the printer.by Pointedstick - General
The tape is a big variable too. What you basically need is for the print to stick well to what you're printing it on. If that's some form of tape, you additionally need the tape to stick well to the surface you've stuck it to. A heated glass bed is nice because there's only one surface and the temperature lets you control the degree of stickiness, going from very sticky to the parts popping rightby Pointedstick - Printing
Try printing at a lower layer height. 0.05mm layer height results in the layers becoming almost imperceptible. For example: Of course, reducing your layer height won't really help if your layer edges aren't perfectly aligned. For that, you need real leadscrews, filament with a highly consistent diameter, and a machine that doesn't wobble at the speed you print at.by Pointedstick - General
bobc Wrote: > I bought a cheapish leadscrew, but I am still > looking for truly inexpensive leadscrews. I also > haven't worked out how to replace M8 threaded rod, > since the leadscrew won't take an M8 nut. The nuts > and accessories for leadscrews are expensive too. Hope nobody minds the threadjacking, but I sell pretty cheap leadscrew sets that include nuts that are the same siby Pointedstick - General
bobasp1 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Ohh wow this is a nice price for the vitamins 81$ > for the set or most of it. > > ct=21 I used that vitamins kit for my Prusa and again, you get what you pay for. It pretty much works, but here are the issues I had: 1. The smooth rods are 5/16" and zinc-plated, so they're actually not very smooth and you needby Pointedstick - General
Keep shipping costs in mind, too. When you buy a kit, you're paying for shipping once. When you buy your parts from 5 different places, you're paying all their shipping costs. I self-sourced my first Prusa and easily spent $75 on shipping. I got great deals on the parts, but I managed to wipe out much of the savings by purchasing nearly every component from a different merchant. And as with everby Pointedstick - General
There are may reasons why it might have started happening suddenly. For example, if your Z threaded rod nuts have, for whatever reason, started to wobble in your X-ends' nut traps, then each rotation of the Z rods will not raise the X gantry by a consistent amount. And if your threaded rods have a periodic issue with the threads, it's possible that they were rotating in tune with one another befby Pointedstick - General
That definitely looks like a problem with your Z threaded rods, which is why I'm not a big fan of using them for motion. I'd suggest picking up some inexpensive leadscrews. Banding like that can also be caused by loose belts, but the regularity I see there really points to Z threaded rod problems.by Pointedstick - General
kevinkline4124 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thank you Pointedstick, that was exactly the type > of stuff I was concerned about. We no longer think > it is the friction in the lines causing the > problems. > > Currently we have 4 printers running in a display > case with fulfillment on spools right beside them. > In order to keep everythby Pointedstick - General
I don't think that will be a very good idea, since the oil is going to gum up your drive wheel/hobbed bolt where you don't want slipperyness. In addition, that oil is following the filament into a nozzle that reaches very high temperatures. Aside from the obvious fire risk, you'd be extruding filament with oil impregnated in it, which I can't imagine would do wonders for its adhesion.by Pointedstick - General
Looks like a simple typo. Open an issue at or submit a fix yourself if you've got a Slic3r repo of your own.by Pointedstick - Slic3r
NelsonRap Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Are you plugging in any other powered devices to > the wall socket near the printer as power spikes > from power tools can do this That's a good point. I've had a printer stop dead in its tracks when I ran a paper shredder plugged into the same outlet.by Pointedstick - General
ahbtsang Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thanks for your quick reply and info. > > About the stopping: > the printing process stopped suddenly and there > weren't any messages displayed in the ponterface > console. Thermister being disconnected could be a > cause, but I doubt it because after it stopped, I > couldn't disconnect and connectby Pointedstick - General
Mkouri Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > In the US, try McMaster-Carr, > p/n > 2900A381. Misumi also is a good source, but I have > a harder time searching their site from an iPad... Misumi's prices are a bit high IMHO, and McMaster Carr doesn't offer the kind of hardened chromed shafts you really need. Zapp Automation is good if you're in the UK, butby Pointedstick - General
If you're using Marlin, it's probably stopping because your electronics stop detecting the thermistor, so it shuts down the extruder. Does it output warnings about temperature protection? In any event, check your connections. Shifted layers are caused by skipped steps on the motor that controls the axis along which the print shifts. If the affected axis has too much friction, reduce it somehow (sby Pointedstick - General
jonasl Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thanks for all the great info! > > I read the post about scaling the MendelMax. So if > I understand everything correctly, I should be > able to make every extrusion let say 60-80mm > longer and it should work. > And now I know where to get the printed parts for > 10mm rods. :-) > > I think I wby Pointedstick - General
Sublime Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have tried printing on blue tape on acrylic and > everywhere the head sat it warped the acrylic. Are > you having any issues? The hot nozzle will easily melt a hole in the acrylic if you let it sit there forever, so what I did was drill a hole in the plate where the nozzle homes to. This also lets me extrude a bby Pointedstick - Printing
You can easily increase the build size by making the X axis longer. I did just that on my MendelMax and I have a build area of 270x260. That's with a length increase of 40 mm. You could easily get your 280mm dimension by going a little larger than that. There's a whole page on this at mendelmax.com. Thankfully, none of the printed parts change if you scale up the frame. If this is your first prinby Pointedstick - General
The parts are a bit more difficult to remove than it is from tape, and a metal spatula or paint scraper is often needed. Once you have a bit of leverage under a corner, the whole part will often pop off just like with tape though. And IMHO the rewards are evident: That's with no heated bed and no consumable tape. Here's a shot of a MendelMax starting a plate of other MendelMax parts on an aby Pointedstick - Printing
Better yet, the sticky should lead you to a wiki page with all that info.by Pointedstick - General
Has anyone tried printing PLA directly on an acrylic surface? I've been doing so for the past few weeks and I gotta say, I'm hooked. The parts can be a bit harder to get off compared to blue tape, but the surface finish and lack of any warp rival what a heated platform can get you. No pictures now, but I can post some later today.by Pointedstick - Printing
Entropy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I'm using ABS, which happens to be glow in the > dark. I will try and print with a lower infill. > Could it be a layer adhesion problem? It seems > like they are extrememly brittle. That's quite possible, too. Do you happen to have a picture of any of your printed parts?by Pointedstick - General
Entropy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > So I've printed everything except the x axis ends > with no problem. I am having a ton of difficulty > printng the bar clamps. They end up beng really > brittle and breaking. Any idea why this is? I've > printing them with 100% infill and still breakage. The bar clamps are designed to bend pretty substanby Pointedstick - General