Well said, Rich. I admit I used the S word partly to provoke a large response, to bring out the reprappers who care about the future of the project. I'd guess the s word is putting people's hairs on end and clouding the issue at hand, which is a newbie build, refreshed regularly. The best alternative I've seen is maybe "Latest Stable Build". The only reason for such a compilation would be forby Buback - Developers
they list one price on the misumi site, but if you request a quote, they give a lower price. weird.by Buback - General Mendel Topics
I'm working on a Sketchup tips page on the wiki. If you want to use sketchup to design for your printer check it out to help get you started modeling correctly. If you already are a pro with sketchup for 3d printing, head on over there and help me flesh out the page with tips and tricks, pictures, or anything else you've learned and found useful. Sketchup Modeling for 3d Printingby Buback - 3D Design tools
How about alternatives to the jhead that are easier to construct by hand? edit: although, the bulk of the instructions for a hot end, in terms of assembling the printer, is how to properly wire up the resistor and thermistor to the heater block, and how to mount the hot end to the cold end. Should it matter if it is easy to make or not?by Buback - Developers
> rcboosted Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > Yes, Z closed, the others opened. You can use a > regular Mendel belt set. 800 mm will be a bit > short for the Z. I suppose it depends on how you want to run the belts. there are some so-called double-precision axes designs that need longer belts. However, the standard Sells mendel lenghts are: x - 1300mm,by Buback - General Mendel Topics
Yeah i added a mirored y belt idler as well. just having one worked well enough to start printing, but once i got up and running i wanted to add a second so that the part doesn't flex over time. it also holds the idler straighter. @brnrd- I think the slight movement of the threaded rod up and down is slightly changing the x travel distance. the effect ends up being little ridges on the exteriorby Buback - General Mendel Topics
I have a bit of a z wobble issue because of the eccentricity of the printed z pulleys. I also know that the m8 rods don't fit precisely in the 608 bearings, so are probably a little off center there as well. when the pulley spins around to the longer-radius side, the tension on the z belt goes up and squeezes the two z rods together, bending up the z leadscrew support blocks. As the pulley spiby Buback - General Mendel Topics
So there's these little holes in the cooling fin supports, and i though, "i wonder if i have some copper wire that'd fit that hole" I did, and here's what i've come up with: I don't have a thermal camera, so have no idea how effective it is at cooling the top of the hot end. However, this, or something similar, might remove the need for the fan. (though i don't use a fan, so need, is perhaps tby Buback - Plastic Extruder Working Group
This is because the frame triangles aren't in the way of the extruder. the x carriage has no restriction along the full travel of the z axis. The horizontal extrusion at the top of the frame triangle can get in the way a bit, but it is at the vertex of the triangles, so it's higher than on the truncated triangles of the mendel (which aren't wide enough to fit an extruder through, anyway). What gby Buback - General Mendel Topics
this is an old old topic, but you're better off looking into a mendel90by Buback - General Mendel Topics
The print bed is pretty open as is, at least much more so than the mendel/prusa. Vertical clearance is also greater than mendel/prusa. Of course, you can easily adapt the design if you need to go even higher, but the limiting point will always be when the x axis rods hit the frame triangle, if it's a horizontal x axis. A vertical x axis will top out at the end of the z axis.by Buback - General Mendel Topics
se5a Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > So what are the points of failure in this design > and why? the ptfe fails at the top of the threads. might be mechanical stress from an improperly tensioned support block, or thermal stress, or a filament plug causing too much pressure and weaking it from the inside. thermal and support block issues seem to be the mainby Buback - General
Traumflug Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The later is important to newbies: "Take an > electronics complying with RepRap electronics > standard 1.0 and be sure it'll work for your > mechanics." That's the message we should get > across. I'm no electronics guru so the nuts and bolts discussion is beyond me, but just the bare capabilities are only oby Buback - Developers
droftarts Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Ramps, because it's the only one that has PTC > fuses to protect from overcurrent faults, ie short > circuits, in the heated bed and hot end. Which is > why I consider Sanguinololu, Gen6 and Gen7 to be a > bit dangerous. ok I'm all for not burning down peoples houses.by Buback - Developers
Sublime Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Ramps because it is the most upgrade friendly (fan > and/or dual extruder and/or heated bed, etc) and > it allows for mistakes to be made that only cost > the price of a Pololu driver not an entire board. Great point. Since electronics are usually the most expensive component, you're likely to use the same electby Buback - Developers
I'll explain some of my choices: Slic3r over skeinforge because of the ease of getting good settings quickly. Skeinforge allows more precise slicing, but for most new users this won't matter. Printrun is widely accepted and cross platform, with lots of active development wade's for the wiki page. maybe if we get a greg's page up by the end of April we can use that instead. j-head because it'sby Buback - Developers
I don't think there's anything wrong with standard as the definition of what we're doing. Reprap.org is the community that develops reprap printers, so any standard would be a community recommended standard. However, It's just a word, and we've spent a lot of time worrying about the connotations of the word instead of working towards the goal. Once we pick the parts, we can worry about what it'by Buback - Developers
Andrew Diehl Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What would make this perfect is if once we agree > on a 'basic" model we can include a complete set > of files for it in a single place. All the stl's, > marlin (configured for the specific ramps, hotend, > etc) pronterface and all it's required python > dependencies, etc. I think we can start doingby Buback - Developers
the jhead prints ok without the fan, but i think the issue is that the peek isn't as good an insulator as the ptfe. this causes increased ooze and a higher extrude force. But it still prints, if you don't want to bother with the fan right now. I've also added some copper wire to mine, sort of like a heat sink. i'll post pictures later tonight.by Buback - General Mendel Topics
If you want to shape a standard for 2012, go here:by Buback - General
Ok well I'm tired of arguing so I decided to go ahead a make a page in the wiki. If you have an opinion about the direction of the standard, please post it here and we'll have a reasoned and objective discussion (hopefully). What's on the wiki pages is just placeholders for now, but i expect it to be final by the end of April. That should give us enough time to decide, generally. I'd like to hby Buback - Developers
Beekeeper Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > We should all settle on the exact same model of > printer, just the same way we all drive the exact > same car, use the exact same cell phone (or rotary > dial land line), and have the exact same computer > setup. There is no room for individual > preferences, we must conform to a single pattern. This isby Buback - General
If you haven't printed successfully yet, stick with .5mm. You need to get printing before you can start worrying about refining your print quality. ps same failure mode for me, btw.by Buback - General
and your other questions: rcboosted Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 3. Do I use the smooth rod from a Mendel kit for > the X axis? Smooth rods only need to be ~400mm for x and y axis, and ~330mm for the z. the standard mendel x are to long, but the z and y are ok. longer x aren't an issue except for the fact that they stick out of the "box" that is the priby Buback - General Mendel Topics
rGlory Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > 5. 5 NEMA17 stepper motors > You only need 4 btw Yep, only 4 motors, but you will need a continuous t5 belt (the same as for a mendel: T5 (5mm wide, 5mm pitch) 960-1010mm long. Shorter is probably better. > > Another dumb question, am I supposed to drill > into the extruded aluminum? > No, that theby Buback - General Mendel Topics
Polycarbonate needs around 300 C to print, which i think would shorten the life of most resistors significantly, if they could reach those temps at all. Otherwise, i don't see any advantage of nicrome over resistors.by Buback - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Sketchup has no problem with making manifold models, as long as the modeler is careful and learns the proper way. Proper modeling for a 3d printer in sketchup is more complex than the average sketchup user understands. the biggest issues i've seen with sketchup models on thingiverse is reversed faces (the grey/blue side of a face is on the exterior). another issue is the model position relativeby Buback - General
the y motor bracket and idler are asymmetrical, so it can be flipped over to give you an extra 5mm (though this might cause some interference with the z belt). I did this so that i could eventually do a double precision belt mod. yeah i think we'll need a dedicated prism y carriage, or at least something like the squashed frog from the original mendel. please post some designs on thingiverse! i'by Buback - General Mendel Topics
it sounds like it might be similar to an issue i had with relative/absolute coordinates after one firmware update. Check that the slicer and firmware match, i.e. absolute to absolute, relative to relative. marlin, if i recall, has an absolute option for each axis.by Buback - General Mendel Topics
you have to be very careful with sketchup when modeling. all the faces should be white exterior faces, and not the grey/blue of the rear face. the right click menu has two options to fix these issues: reverse face and orient faces. if you've used colored faces in your model and can't tell the back from the front, there is an option under the 'view' menu to use a monochrome face style, as if you hby Buback - General