Quoteo_lampe Right after I'd sent the above comment about carbon being abrasive, I thought: Graphite is 100% carbon and is used as dry grease. Maybe I was wrong with my statement and the nylon filament just contains a shot of graphite? I hope you can show us some parts later, I'm curious about the surface finish. I was wondering about the abrasiveness - the CF filaments are supposedly hard on noby JamesK - General
If the problem is specific to having the USB cable plugged in then it's a problem with the power supply or the ground connection between the RAMPS and the power supply. Make sure you are using sufficient gauge cables between the PSU and RAMPS and that they are firmly held by the connector. Ideally you should use crimped ferrules on the wire ends, but failing that, bare twisted wires are ok. Don'tby JamesK - General
If you happen to be in Canada then the filaments.ca house brand filaments are reasonable value, especially when on sale. I've also had good results with the solutech brand, but the supply (at least on Amazon.ca) seems to be dwindling. I'm currently using some MG chemicals petg which seems to be fine, but I haven't tried their pla.by JamesK - General
Quoteepicepee Are you familiar with MarkForged Onyx filament? It is a high-quality, high-cost version of this, and I have had excellent experiences with it. No, I haven't tried that. I tend towards the low cost end of the market, so I have yet to explore any of the premium filaments. It sounds great though Quoteo_lampe What do you expect from such a material combination? Nylon is one of my fby JamesK - General
Ye gods, I just discovered eSun have a nylon based carbon fiber filament. I want some, and how!by JamesK - General
Quotefrankvdh Some of what's posted above is inaccurate, so, FWIW, here's some info (off-topic for the forum, on-topic for the thread) from a pilot and one-time aircraft kit builder, and long time ago model builder and flyer... hope it's of interest: 1. The canards do generate lift.... this makes the canard design a little more efficient that the conventionally designed tailplane, which actual "by JamesK - General
That's very impressive - I couldn't get near 100mm/s (with typical extrusion sizes) without the filament buckling between the drive gear and the throat entrance, even with the throat touching the gear/idler. I guess you designed in some extra filament support in the area between the drive gear and throat? Thanks for the tip on FPE. I recently tried soft PLA (https://filaments.ca/collections/2-85by JamesK - Look what I made!
Yes, the TPE is the softest filament I have - 80A, really feels like rubber, but it's a huge pain to print with. I can normally get 15 mm/s when printing it single extusion, but I was having problems with it separating on the first attempt with this print. I slowed it down, added a lot more cooling fan and changed the core from abs to pla, so I don't know which change made the most difference. I'by JamesK - Look what I made!
That's a good approach, and I love your dual carriage set up. It makes me envious every time I see that in operation Tpu is much nicer to print with than tpe, and is fantastically strong as well, but for grips I like the softness of tpe. I had to print at 10mm/s to get the tpe to print reliably for this, which was tedious. At least the pla was going down at 60mm/s.by JamesK - Look what I made!
If the canards are non-lifting then the CofG will have to be over the center of pressure of the wing (typically around 1/4 to 1/3 of the chord from the leading edge), so we'd have to push all the weight towards the rear half of the fuselage. Ugh, I really must learn to walk before I run, but this just looks so interestingby JamesK - General
Quotetody79 The canard layout with a pusher has some advantages and disadvantages. It will work as good as a conventional layout when build as a model aircraft. A turbine is not beneficial unless you fly fast. At low speed, the prop is more efficient. It would be a nice model aircraft. It sure would be an interesting model, I'd love to see that. I wonder if there are drawings available to workby JamesK - General
Quoteo_lampe Then I'd go for vertical: 1) two vertical rods less 2) less chance of binding between the vertical rods 3) no need to design new X-corners and carrier parts, it's all there. ( except changes for bigger rods ) I suspect 1 and 2 were the reasoning behind that layout in the Prusa i3 - reduced costs and simpler/more forgiving construction. I must admit though that when I saw zastin'sby JamesK - General
It's an interesting question, but I don't think there is a clear cut answer. The basic deflection due to weight and acceleration stuff is going to be the same I think. Which ever orientation the rods are in, the key is to keep the nozzle close in so that whatever rod deflection does happen has a smaller impact on nozzle position. My suspicion is that it might be easier to achieve that with a horiby JamesK - General
The Vref adjustment is on the stepper driver module. Take a look at this link for info:by JamesK - Reprappers
Oh, that's my idea out then Would it be possible to print 4 or 5 solid layers and post some close-up photos showing the top surface? A 20mm square would be plenty big enough to see how the layers are going down.by JamesK - Printing
Beautiful project, I'd love to try something like that one day, along with a quad. Talking of which, the guy flying the quad did a great job with the photography.by JamesK - General
QuoteMade sure the stepper driver was set at 4.5v.retest,fail. Did you mean 4.5V? What stepper driver would require that Vref, and for how much motor current?by JamesK - Printing
Quoteobewan When you say 'solid' infill, is that 100% infill, Have you tried reducing to say, 95%. Yes, sounds like over-extrusion to me, and on the 100% fill layers the only place for the excess to go is out the sides. Alexander, have you done the fine extruder calibration as described on the following page:by JamesK - Printing
Heat creep or other forms of nozzle clogging increase the force required to extrude but don't tell you anything about how the system failed to deliver sufficient filament. Until you figure out which mechanism limits your extrusion force you will always be dancing around the edges of your problem instead of getting to the root of it. Edit: missed your edit Yeah, I can't print petg at 60 either,by JamesK - Printing
Quotekr_ So I added an EEPROM to store a filament database. I modified my Marlin firmware to manage the database and update the filament usage while printing (the database is updated every half meter extruded). I can check how much filament is left on every spool I have before choosing one and launching a print. Very nice solution. It sure would be nice to see that capability become more widelyby JamesK - Developers
It's a simple thing, but I've been meaning to make some new handles for my files for ages. Finally got around to it and put some TPE to good use. These feel great! The red one is PETG, the blue PLA. Printing TPE over PLA is easier than PETG, but the PETG is easier to fit on the file. I put the STLs on thingiverse if anyone is interested:by JamesK - Look what I made!
It's tough to judge extrusion on clear filament - I'd recommend getting some solid colour while you're testing. The big question is what happens to the filament/extruder when the under-extrusion sets in. When you know what's happening you'll be closer to figuring out the solution. We can assume that the slicer commands the same amount of extrusion throughout the print, so there are only a certainby JamesK - Printing
I don't believe in those bearings for a moment. The balls in a traditional (read, well understood, known to actually work) bearing don't rotate in place, they roll along the rod and then re-circulate through a channel away from the rod. Holding the balls in place and then pressing on them with a high friction o-ring is going to be a disaster.by JamesK - General
QuoteDjDemonD Smartrapcore is probably the closest to that, okay its a corexy but it's an open source cuboid 2020 frame printer. True, but I think there is still value in the moving Y axis bed design for first time builders - the simplicity of the motion system makes is it very easy to debug and setup. DigitalDentist has won me over on the argument about trying to scrape the bottom of the barrelby JamesK - General
QuoteMechaBits Maybe use one dual shaft motor, for the Z and run a belt underneath(right through the cat litter) to other side. That's an excellent idea for this sort of layout. I also agree with o_lampe, there is some redundancy in the frame that I don't think is bringing much structural advantage. You could extend the lower Y extrusion of the middle/vertical part of the frame and then completby JamesK - General
I think CNC grade anti-backlash is usually done with ball-screws - the screw analog of a linear guide. That's a different league of thing entirely.by JamesK - Mechanics
Looking good - there's nothing like making you're own design from the ground up. You mentioned feet - I think it's worth having adjustable feet on the printer so that you can compensate for a non-level surface, and if you can make the feet out of a flexible filament they absorb vibration and make a big difference to the noise level. On the Z axis, remember that all of the weight is supported byby JamesK - General
That's very kind of you. The bed on the new build is going to be 650x300, but I'm doing testing on a conventional 200x200 bed so that would be an ideal size to try out. I'll PM you my info.by JamesK - General
QuoteJamesK I'm pretty sure that last time I tried to order from them they declined to ship to Canada, but it sure looks like they can do it. Ah, I remembered right: QuoteDue to the cost and complexity of shipping our products to Canada, we are only able to accept orders from businesses and schools. We’ve canceled your order. Why they can't make that clear on their website is beyond me.by JamesK - General
Yes, it's pretty frustrating. I've been putting off trying to fix it as I have a feeling it could be quite the rabbit hole. My best guess at the moment is that the change in tool path pushes excess plastic in different directions, so you get a bulge in a different place depending on where the extruder came from. If this is the case, then reducing the extrusion (flow rate multiplier) might have aby JamesK - Printing