Quotethejollygrimreaper Quotebelts have quite big teeth that may leave some traces on the surfaces of the prints have you got any evidence of this occurring ? I think I do. I have seen vertical stripes on many printed objects with glossy surface from different printers and I cannot find any other reason for their existence. I cannot quantify the stripes in terms of microns, though. For sure theby cristian - General
I wonder why in most printers GT2 belts are used for X and Y axes, which give a quite "low" resolution, while so much care is taken for Z axis. A typical GT2 pulley has a diameter of 12 mm, which gives about 40mm for a full turn. If we ignore microstepping, this corresponds (again: usually) to 200 steps / 40mm = 5 steps per millimeter for X and Y axes. If for Z a threaded rod with 6mm diameter isby cristian - General
If one can turn the object, that is also a good solution, yes. However I think in general this is a sort of missing feature in slic3r, it would be nice to have some sort of smart automatic gap fill.by cristian - General
Quoteggherbaz Play with outer perimeters 2 instead of 3 or change the infill angles if your slicer allows you to. With 0.5mm layer width, any wall thinner than 2mm will have not more than 3 lines in it, so one should use just 1 perimeter but this may be not optimal for the rest of the object. Changing infill angles will work only in particular cases. Quoteggherbaz Simplify3d slicer have a funcby cristian - General
I often print small objects with thin surfaces (for example 1 or 2 mm) and I noticed that in the places where the surface thickness is not a multiple of the layer width there are gaps between lines in the horizontal plane, in particular where there is no room for infill. This is of course normal when the slicer considers a fixed layer width. Sometimes I overcome the problem with a smaller nozzlby cristian - General
Definitely more than one person tried, I have also seen them in action and they work well. But how long?by cristian - Smart_Rap
I have never tried, but others did: http://reprap.org/wiki/PLA_bushings and more on google. I wonder how long they last, though...by cristian - Smart_Rap
Here we go. Find the following code in Marlin_main.cpp, which should be around line 800: plan_bed_level_matrix = matrix_3x3::create_look_at(planeNormal); Actually, there should be two such lines, one in the function set_bed_level_equation_lsq() that you use for bed autotramming with the grid of points, the other one in the function set_bed_level_equation_3pts() that you use for the procedby cristian - Smart_Rap
Finally I took some time to look into the issue, and found a minimal change (2 lines of code) to Marlin firmware to apply small skewness (more precisely: shear) corrections for XZ or YZ, to be applied on top of bed auto-tramming/leveling. It is not a proper fix, it is just an approximated workaround but works well enough if your axes are not totally screwed up. If somebody with the old smartrap iby cristian - Smart_Rap
Quoteggherbaz but print slow for better results Some wood filaments (laywoo and colorfabb woodfill for example) degrade quickly in the hotend so maybe better not "too slow".by cristian - General
Quotedc42 has plug-in drivers - which means you lose the digital control of stepper motor currents that other 32-bit boards provide do you mean that instead of playing with potentiometers, one can set it from software?by cristian - General
QuoteZlob Thanks a lot for the enclosure links. The oil will remain an enigma ... I never ssee something like that in italy ... I must investigate for it ! Thanks again !!! Eccolo, although not the same brand: http://www.conrad.it/ce/it/product/812615/Olio-multifunzione-WD-40-WD40-Company-SMART-STRAW-41037-450-ml?queryFromSuggest=trueby cristian - Smart_Rap
I found the answer: http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Electronics. One never ends learning here...by cristian - General
QuoteFloyd Personally ive used auto bed level with and without and I found I had more issues and grief with it on the printer. I manually leveled the bed using a machinest indicator and have not had to worry about a unleveled bed since. Auto bed level in my opinion has its places but its no replacement for a properly setup printer. Sorry for the OT question: what (kind and model of) tool did yby cristian - General
Quotedc42 You might also want to consider whether you really want to get the cheapest electronics available (i.e. Arduino/RAMPS), or get more modern electronics with easier configuration, higher performance, and more features. That choice depends on your budget, what type of printer you intend to build, and how you expect to use it. May you elaborate more? Sorry if I sneak in the topic, I am aby cristian - General
Then I'll pose a naive question, since I am interested in dual extrusion but I have 0 experience in this respect: why a dual extruder instead of two (good) single extruders?by cristian - General
QuoteFloyd He meant make sure your layer height is evenly divisable by the steps and pitch of your Zaxis threaded rod. If he is using a 5mm threaded rod with a .8mm pitch then at a layer height of .25mm he will have an error of -.8mm over 10cm M5 threaded rod likes layers that are even. Instead of .25mm (that would give rounding issues) .24mm or .26mm would be fine. So almost nobody uses bed aby cristian - General
I have tried Inkscape gcode generator, I was not totally satisfied: it works well for contours, but for area filling I have not been able to get rid of some annoying artifacts. So I prefer: SVG (or any other format supported) --> Inkscape --> DXF --> openscad --> STL --> slic3r with proper settings --> GCODE, which is much more flexible.by cristian - Smart_Rap
Quoteo_lampe Would it be better to try it on a cold bed? I don't think so...by cristian - General
On cold bed or heated? I would be interested if it works on cold bed (I don't have a heated one). A friend of mine uses water+sugar on heated bed, he says it is the easiest and more durable method to make PLA stick.by cristian - General
Ciao, non credo che molti ti risponderanno se scrivi in italiano qui. Dovresti piuttosto scrivere in questo forum: http://forums.reprap.org/index.php?349by cristian - General
Thank you all again, the read has been very instructive. Actually I don't need a printer so precise that it can print Kim Kardashian: not sure suitable filaments have been invented for that yet, but I am confident that people smarter than me will manage sooner or later. For sure, the most valuable thing I want from all this is to learn new stuff, as I have been constantly doing since I bought myby cristian - General
I would like to thank you all for your replies, I read your experiences, advices and comments (and encouragements ) with great interest. You answered many of my unwritten questions and gave me a lot to think about, so that new questions arise. As I think many other newbies, I am torn between having a good printer, saving money and having fun in creating and building something "new". The dilemmaby cristian - General
I would like to design yet another printer model with standard printing dimensions (200x200 mm), but without using steel rods nor linear ball bearings. There are really many designs out there, and most of them use steel rods to drive the moving parts, while very few exploit aluminium profiles for the job (not talking about the structure of the printer, of course). It is obvious that stainless steby cristian - General
That's the point: I also had so many faults (power supply, RAMPS, printed parts, cables...) that I have spares of literally everything.by cristian - Smart_Rap
Order more than one, trust me...by cristian - Smart_Rap
Quite sure there is a fault in the wiring of the thermistor, maybe a loose plug or soldering in one or both the wires.by cristian - Smart_Rap
Quoteldanut After some testing I can say the probe is working flawlessly. Have you done some repeatability tests on the probe system? It would be very interesting.by cristian - Smart_Rap
After several months and some weeks of testing, I can finally confirm that it is possible to print with soft filaments on a Smartrap (that is on any printer with a Bowden tube of about 40cm) at reasonable speeds. I designed another extruder from scratch, whose basic idea is to hold a PTFE liner that is finely cut around the point of contact of the hobbed and the bearing, so that the filament hasby cristian - Smart_Rap