I believe the BullDog XL is a 5.13:1 gear ratio. RRDs info on the extruder says use 495 steps/mm, so start with that. You change the E steps/mm on the LCD.by the_digital_dentist - Printing
Moving mass is very high. Printers generally operate at higher speeds than CNC machines (there's no resistance to the motion of the head- we're not cutting anything). High speeds and high masses don't go together- Newton's laws at work.by the_digital_dentist - General
For a large envelope Cartesian machine, a bed that moves in the Z axis is the way to go. The mass of the bed won't matter because you only move the bed when the extruder is not extruding. Engine blocks are generally rectangular shaped objects. A cartesian type printer's bed is usable over almost it's entire surface. To print something 600 x 600mm, you need is a bed that's maybe 620 x 620mm.by the_digital_dentist - General
The analog inputs where the thermistors are connected are subject to noise pickup that can lead to weird readings. The noise can come from running the thermistor wires too close to motor or extruder or bed heater wires, or AC power wires. Try shutting everything else off and pull other connectors off the board so that only the thermistor inputs are connected. Then add other connections back inby the_digital_dentist - Printing
If you're talking about a printer in which the bed moves in the Y axis, your biggest problem is going to be controlling the motion of that large moving mass, unless you don't mind very low print speeds. Fully supported rails or linear guides can easily fix the sag problems, as long as the frame of the machine is sufficiently sturdy.by the_digital_dentist - General
Uneven heating of a print bed is a non-problem. Anything that comes on a roll is going to have to have some mechanical support, so your heat spreader insulator idea is sort of pointless. If you have to have mechanical support, just use a piece of aluminum. The slightly uneven heating of a print bed using less exotic and very cheap materials like aluminum does not affect print quality. Using mby the_digital_dentist - General
I don't get it. I'm nuts for suggesting that scaling up a printer isn't rocket science, but people are talking about 1.5 cm steel plates and pretensioned guide rails? It really isn't that difficult. If you're worried about guide rails flexing, use fully supported rails or linear guides. If you want to make a rigid frame, use stuff that you know will work. I'm not a mechanical engineer. I doby the_digital_dentist - General
Here's 12"x12" x 11.5" printer, at least the way it looked a couple months ago. I'm doing a major rebuild now... Here's part of the rebuild: I have a CAD file of the rebuild if you'd like to look at it.by the_digital_dentist - General
The BullDog XL runs at 600 mA and never gets more than a little warm. I've never had it chew up the filament, but only used it for a month or two. The springs that push the pinch wheel against the filament are very strong and you'll need to keep an allen wrench handy to change filament because it is really hard to compress the springs by hand unless you reduce the tension on the springs by backby the_digital_dentist - Printing
The axes of your printer are not orthogonal. You test for orthogonality by printing a rectangular solid and measuring the diagonals in each plane. When the axes are orthogonal the diagonals will have the same length. I wrote a spreadsheet that can help figure out the error and the mechanical correction to apply. You can DL it here: The title says XY but you apply the same principle to anby the_digital_dentist - Printing
If you get a BullDog XL you'll have to make some minor modifications to the E3D v6 to get them to fit together properly. 1) file a couple small flats in the part of the hot-end that goes into the shoe on the extruder. 2) file a groove in the heatsink fins on one side of the hot-end to allow access to to the smaller screw that holds the foot on the extruder 3) grind down a 1/4" washer to act as aby the_digital_dentist - Printing
I've had good results from my BullDog XL pushing 1.75mm ABS through an E3D V6 hot end.by the_digital_dentist - Printing
I've had good results with my BullDog XL pushing 1.75 mm ABS through an E3D V6 hot end.by the_digital_dentist - Printing
3D printers aren't rocket science- you already know how they work, what sort of parts are needed, what they cost, and where to get them. All you need to do is scale up a smaller design or copy a larger design. The motors, belts, pulleys, extruders, bearings, electronics, etc. are mostly the same. Nothing is hidden. There are no secrets. And of course, there's plenty of help available in foruby the_digital_dentist - General
What's proprietary about it? Look at the photos and build one.by the_digital_dentist - General
MDF is glorified cardboard, and at 3mm thick, it IS cardboard. Try using a frame made of steel or aluminum square tubing. Over the distances mentioned, neither will flex enough to be a problem.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
The SD card socket in the controller can't be shared between the printer controller and your computer that is accessing it via USB. Either pull the USB cable or eject the SD card from your computer. You'll probably need to reboot the printer's controller board too.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
It looks like you need better alignment between filament drive gear exit and the tube inlet. Was the extruder was designed for 3mm filament and you're using it for 1.75mm filament?by the_digital_dentist - Printing
I just received a RRD GLCD for my Smoothieboard and found the contrast very low whether powered by USB or 12V supply. After checking a bunch of threads like this one I took a closer look at the GLCD module and found that there is a tiny pot on the back side of LCD board mounted near the edge near the backlight. Unfortunately the pot is designed to be adjusted from above, but above is where theby the_digital_dentist - Controllers
If your machine runs Marlin firmware on an Arduino, the variables are in the config.h file or configadv.h (I don't have it in front of me and forget which it is). If you're using a board that runs smoothieware all the variables are all in the config.txt file on the uSD card.by the_digital_dentist - Printing
Nice! I used to do a lot of old radio restorations, too. 3D printers are great for replacing things like buttons and knobs that are lost/broken and hard to find. I usually started with refinishing the cabinet, because if that wasn't possible, there wasn't much point in rewiring the chassis. It also provided inspiration/motivation to do the rewiring. I used to replace old electrolytic caps byby the_digital_dentist - Look what I made!
Try adjusting the motor current (usually a tiny pot on the motor driver board) and/or reduce the speed and/or acceleration settings in the firmware.by the_digital_dentist - Printing
Two of the great benefits of those stepper driver modules is that they are cheap and easily replaced. The only reason these are benefits is because they fail frequently. One common failure mode is breaking the tiny, fragile pot used to adjust the motor current. You've also discovered one of the other problems- measuring the motor current (by measuring the reference voltage) is tricky. Where dby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
The noise is typical. Check your speed and acceleration settings in the firmware of the controller. Reduce both until you get the motors to turn reliably, then start turning them back up a little at a time to find where they work best. Likewise the current setting(s) on the driver board(s). If the motor driver and/or the motor is getting hot you've got the current set much too high. At onlyby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
You could always use fully supported guide rails...by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Those are pretty small motors- they only require 0.7A, so the little drivers that plug into the RAMPS board will drive them just fine. What isn't so fine is the fact that they are small and low current- they will provide little torque. They are quite a bit smaller than most of the motors used for 3D printers. With steppers, it is not at all unusual to operate them at 10X their rated voltage, sby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
The main difference that matters, but only if your bed moves in the Y axis, is that kapton heaters are lower mass than the silicone heaters. If it has to move fast, lower mass is better. One slight difference is that the thermistor is usually embedded in the silicone heater (and you often don't know anything about it) which means if one of both wires get broken you'll have a hard time replacingby the_digital_dentist - General
Linear guide has a single rail that has grooves for balls on two sides. The bearing blocks have two loops of recirculating balls on each side. Here's an example: These things are usually precisely machined and ground and there is very little play (as in undetectable without good measurement instruments) in the motion of the bearing block that rides on the rail. I used NSK LS-15 linear guide.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers