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Re: I want to hear about 3D Printer in real applications in daily life. - 9 years ago

You've got a lovely looking dome! What different lengths of struts did you use? Does your open source home project have a webpage? If you don't yet know it, do take a look at a book called 'Tiny Homes, Simple shelter' for some inspiration. Good luck!

by Squags - General

Implications of affordable 3D printing - thesis help - 9 years ago

Hello all, I'm writing a masters thesis (due end. Sept) on budget 3D printing and am hoping for a little help. The basic format of my thesis is below, with most emphasis being on the last chapter, for which I have done several months of experimental work. Chapters 1 and 3 are easy, so I was hoping for a little help with Chapter 2. Chapter 1: Brief history of manufacturing (towards 3D printing

by Squags - General

X and Y calibration issue - 9 years ago

Hi all, I've just put together my 2nd Ormerod, which seems to have come with its own problem: The X and Y calibrations aren't right, meaning circles don't come out right - see picture... Any ideas what I can adjust to try and sort this problem? Cheers, Squags

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Big Blue 360 - 9 years ago

Hi, Sorry for the delayed reply. Here are some photos of my big blue (unfortunately black, so hard to take suitable photos). It seems that it's a couple of mm too close to the x arm to neatly fit beside the z axis assembly; hence why it's hitting rather than going to the home x position. If i've missed anything obvious do let me know, but don't worry if not - i quite like the look of your probele

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Big Blue 360 - 9 years ago

My big blue - or big black in my case is now up and running and the bridging isn't bad - though not as good as what you managed. Just a couple of questions: 1. The big blue is quite high relative to the nozzle, so on mine at least, the air is being directed mostly at the aluminium block, which may well be explaining the phenomenon above. 2. Going to X-axis home position doesn't really work. The e

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Power supply modifications - 9 years ago

Awesome - thanks... there's always someone there before me!

by Squags - Ormerod

Power supply modifications - 9 years ago

Does anyone have any bright ideas about modifying the power supply in the following ways: timer switch, so it'll turn machine off either after a preset time (do-able with cheap socket timer), or when G-code is finished smoke alarm - getting a bit worried after this: Cheers, Squags

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Replacement ALuminium X-Rib And X-Plate... - 9 years ago

Put me down for an x rib and x plate please. When the time comes, please let me know payment details and I'll PM you my address. I would also be grateful for a moderately official looking receipt as I can then claim it back from uni. Thanks, Squags

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Big Blue 360 - 9 years ago

Just a word of warning to anyone doing this modification... Don't be tempted to take the hot end bits apart to give them a clean or reposition them drastically... I made that mistake this evening... I only wanted to turn the hot end 90 deg, but stupidly still had some filament in the pipeline, so it kept flexing back and wouldn't stay where I wanted it. I heated it up, removed the filament and th

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Big Blue 360 - 9 years ago

I'm printing my Big Blue 360 rev 1a now and it's so far looking good... I've just nipped to the shop and bought a 2nd 40mm fan in order to get a bit more air through it. Looking at the reprappro site it says the existing fan is 12V (though as I'm printing, I can't read it or get so somewhere to measure it for sure) - maybe someone could confirm? I assume I should just wire the 2nd 12V fan in in p

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Print not stick any more - 9 years ago

Here's another vote for printing on glass... I've been printing a lot lately making and evolving prototypes and even really detailed bottom layered parts have been sticking perfectly - here's my receipe: 1. Let bed heat up to almost 80C using pronterface. 2. Spray on alcohol (I use record cleaner - not certain quite what it is, but basically smells like thin alcohol spray) 3. Rub around with lint

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Printer on fire... well, almost - 9 years ago

My little local electrical shop had a replacement for the green power terminal connector thingy for all of 55 euro cents. Replaced and printing again already - but on the look out for a spare smoke alarm just in case!

by Squags - Ormerod

Printer on fire... well, almost - 9 years ago

It appears after 3-4kg of printing, one of my power cables must have worked a bit loose... Having recently done a 36 hour print, I feel very lucky I happened to be in the room when the smoke started. Check your cables people! Is there any way of resurrecting this power board? If not, any chance of a replacement?

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Big Blue (Revised) - 9 years ago

Looking great. I've just come back to this forum having been printing away happily for the last couple of months... This looks like a great mod, but I don't fully understand it... What's the plastic enclosure to the right of your photo? Looks like it's housing a PCB of some sort? Is this also required? Any chance of a photo of big blue mounted to the machine for the dumb among us?! Thanks, Squags

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Slipping motor ?? - 9 years ago

Hi, not sure what the answer is yet. Your gcode doesn't seem complete... You can check it with this website to see for any obvious errors: But i imagine it's a mechanical/motor problem. I've occasionally had something similar, but never regularly or twice on the same print

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Replace PLA with solder? - 9 years ago

If you look on youtube you'll see videos of people using solder in a 3d printer. The results seem pretty poor compared to plastic, but fun none the less. I've just persuaded my uni to pay for all the parts needed to design and build a hot end that'll (hopefully) melt aluminium wire. If successful I intend to make a hot end that can be used with reprap printers (along with an enclosure and argon s

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: How to modify Ormerod parts - 9 years ago

The solidworks files are provided (on github, i think). Solidworks is probably pretty expensive, but really useful and readily available for free for most students (and probably illegally for non-students). I would recommend getting a copy and learning it if you're going to be doing modifications and/or engineering based 3d printing.

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: 3D4all... New CNC/printer idea - 3D4all - 9 years ago

Hello, Thanks for your reply. Forgive me if it's been tried before. I must admit to having only been on this forum for a couple of months (and mostly in the Ormerod department) and/so haven't personally seen any similar suggestions; though if there are any machines/threads you could point me to it would be great to learn from their experiences. You're right that for CNC milling the frame would

by Squags - General

3D4all... New CNC/printer idea - 3D4all - 9 years ago

Good morning everyone, Would you like to own the most versatile numerically controlled machine on the planet? Would you also like to help develop it? If so, read on and meet '3D4all' So, here's the vision: A gantry style frame more like a typical laser cutter, moving over a working area about the size of A3 paper. The frame will have to be boxed in, preferably with easy access folding sides fo

by Squags - General

Re: Planning to buy, need some clarification first - 9 years ago

I would advise you to have a look at some 3D printed objects before diving in... While the resolution is very good, I hadn't realised before buying just how much surface finish of a product matters. Look around you - your keyboard, mouse, monitor, desk, lamp etc.... Some of these things wouldn't suffer from having a slightly serrated edge, but others really would. I think glasses are something

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: USB required - 9 years ago

I tend to unplug the printer usb cable once the print is underway. The printer then stops. I then plug it back in and out again, which makes the printer resume and carry on going, even when no longer connected. Hope that helps

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Bed construction - a word of warning! - 9 years ago

Thanks for posting this... I made the same mistake and have printed almost a kilo of things; so have been rather lucky that it's been without incident. Thanks again... Sharing mistakes is never a mistake

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Where do I go from here - 9 years ago

Glad things are getting better. From observing printing, I think most blobs occur during layer change/ when the extruder starts again. I would guess therefore the most important things are the tip temperature (the optimal could well vary with different filaments) and extruder settings. I haven't yet played with the later, though there are several variables in slic3r under printer settings - ext

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Where do I go from here - 9 years ago

Firmware 57a is the latest - though I'm currently only printing from SD card, so not personally sure if this is working with the pronterface USB fix I would try adjusting Sli3er settings: See other posts for details, but here is what's worked for me: Retraction to 4mm, Temps: 1st layer, 195/70 then: 180/65 Fan always on (don't know if this makes a difference, but seeing as the fan is always on, S

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: New and improved x-axis carriage - 9 years ago

First thing to note is that having printed the part in black, the (re-calibrated) IR sensor is now far more accurate at homing the Z axis - Where as before I had a value of 687 at 0.6mm, with 897 at 0.1mm; it is now 698 at 1.7mm and 974 at 0.1mm (with the same lighting conditions as before). It's a complicated part and as such if your printing quality isn't spot on, it's important to fettle and f

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: New and improved x-axis carriage - 9 years ago

Please note, since first posting this morning I have experienced problems with the new carriage and have therefore modified it further - please delete any attachment previously downloaded and download afresh (post and attachment above now corrected)

by Squags - Ormerod

Re: Fan duct too low - 9 years ago

I've just modified the x carriage, which should sort this problem for you. Have a look here: for details

by Squags - Ormerod

New and improved x-axis carriage - 9 years ago

Hello all, I have been working on an improvement of the x axis carriage, hoping to overcome the following issues: X-axis sag: I bought a 10mm bearing, but it was a pain to find and still not as tight fitting as I would have liked. IR sensor placement: My sensor fitted perfectly on the original carriage, but I was unable to connect the cable as the recess wasn't deep enough. This could just be t

by Squags - Ormerod

Sli3er settings for overhangs - 9 years ago

Hello all, I've been trying to print a few parts with moderately significant overhangs and was wondering whether I'm missing a trick as I've not had much joy. This thing: for example has a flange at right angles to the tongs half way through it's thickness. Thanks to recommendations on this forum I've stopped the part from warping (195/70 down to 180/65C for the following layers), but the flang

by Squags - Ormerod

Laser cutter ideas - 9 years ago

Hello all, I'm fairly new to the world of 3D printing, reprap and opensource stuff; so excuse me if this is a daft question... Would it be possible/relatively simple to make a laser cutter attachment to go in place of the hot end assembly on the ormerod? I was thinking along these lines: I guess in addition to the electrical problem of providing the right power to the laser (in exchange for the

by Squags - Ormerod