My response assumes that you are using an acrylic print bed, covered with Kapton tape. I have observed that cold aluminum covered Kapton has trouble sticking because the plastic cools too quickly. Always, ALWAYS clean the surface with isopropyl alcohol. Use the 70% or higher, which has little water content. If you don't you will see spots where moisture and oils from your fingerprints will caby jcabrer - Reprappers
Have a look at my hot end. It uses a1/2 inch diameter, 40mm piece of PTFE drilled 3mm. The PTFE rod is screwed into the end of a brass coupling, where 10mm of the end of the PTFE has been turned or sanded down to 8mm. When I screw this onto the coupling, it actually compresses the 3mm hole a bit. When the filament, ABS or PLA, travels down through the PTFE, it is warmed to about 100-125C, andby jcabrer - Reprappers
This is something you are going to want to address in the firmware. I am not familiar with the GEN6 electronics, but looking at the firmware configuration.h file: Look in the section that begins with the following comment // define the XYZ parameters of Mendel - standard pulleys You will need to increase the multiplier until you have a more precise movement. Before you do anything, makeby jcabrer - RepSnapper
S215 is in fact 215C, unless you have a really messed up temperature table in your firmware.by jcabrer - RepSnapper
I have two fully built RAMPS for sale. Send me a message if you are interested.by jcabrer - General
As a rule, if you need to drill out a hole, start out small, and work your way up to the right size. Unless there are problems with the parts, drilling out holes is not normally required. This usually indicates that the extruder is running too fast given the layer thickness, or the axis calibration is off a little (or a lot). I use the small blade of my Swiss Army Knife to clean up parts. It'by jcabrer - General
Get a copy of the free NETFABB Basic edition, and use the Repair STL functions there. I've had some good results with it.by jcabrer - RepSnapper
I've used Kapton with good and not so good results. On the one hand, I bought some quality ($$$) Kapton from MacMaster, and it worked very well. It did not peel, or tear, and sticking was good. I got a roll of some Kapton from an unknown source. It was a bit thinner, and did not seem to have as strong an adhesive as the other roll. It peels and tears quite often, but it was 1/3 the price, soby jcabrer - General
Bronze bushings need perfect alignment in order to work well. The two smooth rods need to be equally distant along the full length. Take a caliper, and check that this is in fact the case. If you find that this is a little off at one end or the other, you can file the rod clapm holes a bit side to side to give extra wiggle room, and then tighten your screws while the X Carriage is butt up agaiby jcabrer - General
I give my vote to RAMPS as well. It's so small that you can strap it almost anywhere on your machine with a couple of plastic ties. I've put together five of these in less than three hours! Ultimachine is an excellent vendor too, and they offer the options of buying fully built, DIY kits, and single components. Very cost effective if you already have many of the components.by jcabrer - General
You are right, it is kinda crazy Are your parts that rough? In most cases, it's best to print parts individually to prevent trails. My nozzle has a .8mm hole. This is huge by all accounts, but my parts come out very clean and smooth at hires. To get there, I set the layer thickness to .2mm, the infill to .7mm, the extrude multiplier to .6, and I rotate fill by 72 degrees. 90 if it's a smallerby jcabrer - General
The look is certainly achievable with reprap although it would require some dipping in say conformal coating. The technique that guy uses is also adaptable to reprap. I think he uses a projector to cure the liquid, right? With a reprap, you would simply need to dip some kind of curing wand into the bottom of the fluidfilled container and print as you would with filament, only you would not seeby jcabrer - General
I get my vitamins from The Home Depot and Lowes. The trick with the rods is to roll them on the top of the cart one at a time and observe the ends. If the rod is straight, it will show no vibration. When pulling the threaded rod out of the bin, be sure to pull them ALL out together. This will prevent damaging the threads. Zinc plated smooth rod is fine on prusa. If you want to invest in precisioby jcabrer - General
Right! What I meant to say is that the Mega Arduino is not pin compatible with a lot of shields designed for duemillanove and UNO.by jcabrer - RAMPS Electronics
get the caruKlip firmware I know it works great with RepSnapper Windows (not the Beta, no...) and I have done some testing with ReplicatorG v0.245, but maily I use RepSnapper. Open the files up in your Arduino environment, and make any changes in config.h I'll post you a pre-configured download link, if you feel you cannot get there on your own. -Wildseyed-by jcabrer - RAMPS Electronics
I tried DigiKey and Mouser as well. Many of the components are not in stock, or don't return results. Some list as having 27 week lead times. If you are in the USA, get your RAMPS, or the components, from Ultimachine. I've used both their RAMPS DIY Kit, and just the PCB and a few hard to find components, just fine.by jcabrer - RAMPS Electronics
The Mega is not pin compatible with the RAMPS shield. This is the case with lots of shield due to minor differences in pin assigments.by jcabrer - RAMPS Electronics
I need to figure out what happened to my other account.by jcabrer - Administration, Announcements, Policy
Have a look at the Wildseyed Simple Hot End. You can find it in the wiki and on Thingiverse. That tip uses a 0.8mm MIG welder tip. The hole is then made smaller by taping the tip with a hammer. It's very easy to get a small hole in this manner.by jcabrer - General
This can already be done in the render tab.by jcabrer - RepSnapper
Hi Everyone. I am located in Fullerton, California. I build RepRap Mendel Prusa machines in fours, using RAMPS electronics. All my machines use identical steppers on all axis, Wade's extruder, or Accessible Wade's by Greg, and precision ground rods. PLA is currently my preferred material, but I have a heated bed from Ultimachine arriving any day now, so I will be starting to print with red ABby jcabrer - For Sale
With the exception of the extruder, steppers should not get hot, and even the extruder should not get so hot that you can't touch it for more than a few seconds. If your motors are getting so hot that you cannot hold a finger on them for more than five seconds, you need to turn your pots way down. If this is not solving the problem, then you have too much friction on the slides. Some guidelineby jcabrer - General
I'm guessing you might be using RepSnapper. If this is the case, o to the gcode START tab, and change the line that reads M104 S73.0 ;Set Temperature to M104 S200.0 ;Set Temperature This might cure the turning off and on problem. To make the change stick, click the Input File tab, and press the SAVE SETTINGS button.by jcabrer - General
The range in this video is set to 0-300C The scaling is mostly linear, so the hot end is very bright compared to everything else. This is normal. I could equalize, but the image would not look so good. The apparent lack of heat traveling up is a result of the brass having a high emissivity value. Aluminum also has a high emissivity, but it is covered with the Kapton tape, so we are able to sby jcabrer - General
The hot-end is really simple in design, but I have been resisting trying to describe it in detail until I can build a second one from scratch and document everything properly. But since you asked... B.O.M. From Top to Bottom 1 - 1/2" PTFE Rod cut to a length of 40mm (Forgive me for mixing SAE and Metric) 1 - 1/4" Brass Air Hose Coupling with 1/2" threading on the large end. 1 - MIG Welder Tip -by jcabrer - General
I just put up a video of my new(?) hot end design, using a FLIR thermal camera. I don't think I've seen this before. More to come.by jcabrer - General
I've wire up switches on perforated bread board with little trouble. You only need five components: Required parts Part ID Part name Quantity R1 10k Ohm Resistor 1 R2 220 Ohm Resistor 1 R3 1k Ohm Resistor for LED 1 LED1 3mm LED 1 X1 3 pin 5.08mm pitch screw terminal or header pins1 Opto Switch 1by jcabrer - RAMPS Electronics
Had I not left my multimeters all at the office, I would have seen that the resistor was in fact the short here. Nothing wrong with the wire. I have not installed the thermistor yet, and did not realize that RepSnapper does not turn off the heater when you unselect the "Switch Heat On", so I was "regulating the temperature by hand, not realizing that the thing was just getting hotter and hotterby jcabrer - RAMPS Electronics
Well, seems I've answered my own question. It turns out the new PC power supply does have more power. So much so that it melted, and subsequently shorted the cable from the resistor. Guess I should use heavier gauge wire... Can anyone enlighten me on recommended wire when using the resistor type hot ends?by jcabrer - RAMPS Electronics
I think you might be referring to the #6 screws. The bolts are of course 5/16 also. As for the screws, I found that one size is not enough due to the steppers needing one length, the bed needing another, etc. Also, you will need to go to a sports shop where you can pick up skate board ball bearings (608s). There is only one size for skate boards, get the cheapest ones.by jcabrer - Reprappers