PLA works great for the Prusa... I personally feel more comfortable having the extruder block in ABS because of past issues, and you MUST print the bushings in PLA. There are several people at the hackerspace who only print ABS and want to build a Prusa Mendel so I had to print the PLA bushings for them. So far I prefer it for most things, as long as they don;t need to resist any heat. A lot ofby Anthong Redbeard - General
by my estimate it take 1lb to print a full set of prusa mendel parts, including a couple extras and some restarts.by Anthong Redbeard - General
increased pressure is a real issue. Everything has a lower margin for error the smaller you go. Personally, I'm willing to wait for more layers for the results that come from a well working .35 extruder.by Anthong Redbeard - General
you can also make sure that comments are being stripped from the gcode. I know my prints would pause to go through those.by Anthong Redbeard - General
I am having other issues at the moment, but see the pic... the nozzle drug through some of my poor 1/4 inch kapton strips so I ripped them upo and printed anyways. You can see how where the kapton wasnt at it definitely made a difference in how well is stuck, I have repeated this experiment many times over during the same prints to have as good of a comparison as possible... might be good to do wby Anthong Redbeard - General
mechanical build is definitely the easy part. I suggest the opto holders from the prusa mendel and flag holder I designed for the opto stops. lining them up can be a pain... I'd send you a set for the cost of shipping.by Anthong Redbeard - General
did you try running your y board with the other motors? and the other boards with the y motor and cables? did you try adjusting the potentiometers?by Anthong Redbeard - General
I've had this problem a few times! I don't think it's your electronics... but to make sure you can swap things around. Try isolating a suspect motor with a working driver and vice verse till you have narrowed it down to specific parts... but here's the important part, you have to count the connects/wiring as suspect components. I think you have a short between your 2 coils on the stepper. This caby Anthong Redbeard - General
LOL, oh... then use skeinforgeby Anthong Redbeard - General
look in your alterations/start.gcode and make sure it's not in there, if it is you can remove it, and re-skeinforge. otherwise look at the raft settings and bottom settings.by Anthong Redbeard - General
sorry to hear it, be assured that the rest of the community is not as poor as some of the vendors.by Anthong Redbeard - General
it should take very little effort to move x and y, z should get turned off inbetween movements, the extruder might need a lot of effort. I recommend turning your pots all the way down, and adjusting them up until they move the pieces reliably. Adjust the pots with the power off, it can be a pain but worth it to not chance blowing anything.by Anthong Redbeard - General
what electronics are you controlling with? I suggest something simpler to make sure some of the basics are in working order... like the stepper app that plays the star wars song. If you are running with reprap type firmware on it: check that your steps per unit are set properly in the firmware. also check your opto endstops are installed. another thing to check is the trim pots and connectorsby Anthong Redbeard - General
I know the plumbers tape can fix the leak... hope everything else hold the pressure well after the leak is fixed. My experiences in this area are that you simply don't ever want to rely on ptfe or peek threads for structural integrity. If you can keep that in mind you should be able to avoid the many issues me and friends had.by Anthong Redbeard - General
I guess I posted too soon... upped the first layer to 200c and it sticks really well.by Anthong Redbeard - General
I know this has been mentioned many times before, but looking for new advice. If I get past my first layer things are aweseom, but getting past the first layer can be really challenging, especially on certain parts. If I do infill 1st, the problem is worse because the frequent back and forth balls up easier than a straight line. Painters Tape works for me sometimes, scoring it with a razor or sby Anthong Redbeard - General
I also had this problem with repsnapper + ramps and keep oozebane unchecked.by Anthong Redbeard - General
thanks a lot RJ... I'll give it a try... you have any hints on where to get the little air compressors?by Anthong Redbeard - General
yeah, I saw the video... and these pages: I thought the RJ one looked promising, but I haven't found a parts list od model files anywhere to start from. of course I can start from the concept and makerbot solution, just not sure if that was the furtherst I could get before experimenting.by Anthong Redbeard - General
now that I'm printing great, I don;t want the project to end... I want to make a syringe extruder where I can extrude just about anything that will squirt from a syringe. I know BFB can do it and Makerbot sells a kit, but the couple of pages I found in the reprap wiki were incomplete. Does anyone know a good starting point for materials and models to build a syringe extruder to mount on my PRusaby Anthong Redbeard - General
I like this topic. You should see the video promoting the fablab, talking about what happened when they set one up in a developing country, I think it's on TED. personally I would recommend something like the UP! 3d printer before a reprap one for the type of purpose you mention, or maybe even the Fab@Home with paste extruder. One of the criteria should be a diversity of materials it can use, whby Anthong Redbeard - General
For problem 1 I agree with brnrd. For problem 2 it sounds like a wiring issue. If you are using gen 3 electronics, there needs to be a couple of connections between the extruder controller and mainboard besides the power. I have a feeling that's your issue, because the place you need to connect to is un-intuitive. This can vary based on firmware... the firmware I used with my techzone elctronicsby Anthong Redbeard - General
thanks much... I have many things to try from your response, but the primary one is the print order, thanks a lot.by Anthong Redbeard - General
I'm getting some really good quality prints today... feeling great about it. I'm wondering how to get rid of a common artifact that I've seen in printed parts... I have a track of little beads running up the side of my print in one spot where it paused to move to the next layer. The next layer movement doesn;t take that long but that combines with the pause leave a bit fo a deposit where the nozzby Anthong Redbeard - General
Just as a quick follow up... I got someone elses skeinforge settings and it helped a lot. I was missing some settings in mine that controlled the extruder speed. The other significant thing was my Y belt needed to be tightened. I have a few other things I found I can tighten and keep from jiggling during a print but that was the main stuff.by Anthong Redbeard - General
I figured out a significant variable I was missing in tuning... e_steps_per_unit in the firmware. Adjusting this makes a big difference in what I can work with.. I slowed it down and it seems like I can match extrusion with feed speed now.by Anthong Redbeard - General
thanks, I'll try all options mentioned so far. I haven't tried layer height less than .25 because it looked like it was sloshing it around too much, like it was spitting out a lot more than it was accounting for. I'll also try higher and lower temps than previous runs.by Anthong Redbeard - General
thanks, I'm using pla from ultimachine and it seems to extrude very nicely in air, no hissing or pops. clear smooth and consistent.by Anthong Redbeard - General
Hi all, I'm happy to be printing on my new printer, it can be fast, it's quiet, has no leaks, and extrudes all day long. However, I'm having ome real print quality issues. I'd appreciate any suggestions on skeinforge settings etc to try... I've been through several iterations but as the picture shows I'm still a long way off. I'm printing PLA on a Prusa Mendel, with Ramps, Repsnapper, Arcol V3 hby Anthong Redbeard - General
I suggest getting a hold of the Adrians v4 hot end. The best way to connect that hot end will be to an adrians extruder block, but that part isn't AS important. The Makergear stuff is good quality on a design that has been around for a while and people consider mature. I'm sure Rick from Makergear would be happy to work with you. I personally think the Adrians v4 hot end has several improvemenby Anthong Redbeard - General