I suppose you can try to place your circles with the right angular orientation to put the vertices where you're going to need them so you can accurately connect to them, but why go to that sort of trouble when so many proper (and free) CAD progams use actual curves and let you do exactly what you want and produce STL files that don't require repair without any effort? Why would anyone want to spby the_digital_dentist - Printing
I have polycarbonate side panels on my printer that have been held in place using screw-in clips that just lock into the slots in the 8020. Access is pretty easy by removing a couple clips. I just started replacing the clips with magnetic tape- one piece on the frame and the other on the plastic panel. Most of the time the screw in clips are fine, except for the side of the machine where I accby the_digital_dentist - General
Sketchup creates bad STL files because curves are actually polygons. When you think you've connected two objects together, unless you connect the vertices of the polygons the objects that look like they are together are either missing or overlapping- both conditions that will create errors in STL files. Try any of the Autodesk freebies, DesignSpark Mechanical, OnShape, Solidworks, Rhino, etc. aby the_digital_dentist - Printing
There are two main problems with ABS printing. The first, prints lifting off the print bed, can affect any size part, and is particularly problematic at sharp corners of prints. The second, which usually only affects parts that are a few cm or more in height, is delamination of the layers. The first problem is solved by 1) having a flat bed, 2) heated to the right temperature- around 100-105C,by the_digital_dentist - Printing
Very nice! Now you'll be able to print ABS with impunity! Have you measured the temperature inside the enclosure after the machine has heated up?by the_digital_dentist - General
Your printer is plugged into the power outlet. You want kill the power if the smoke detector sees smoke (which it might do all the time under normal printing conditions, and depending on the filament material and temperature). Have you considered a "crowbar" circuit that shorts the AC power input- that will trip the circuit breaker in the house wiring. That can be as simple as a relay connecteby the_digital_dentist - General
Bang-bang bed temperature control has been demonstrated to cause print quality problems. Maybe in your printer it doesn't, or maybe you don't recognize the problem because it is hidden by other print quality problems that you may or may not recognize (it looks a lot like Z wobble, commonly caused by another "good-enough" solution, threaded rods to lift the Z axis instead of lead screws), but PIDby the_digital_dentist - General
Good luck! I have a feeling you're going to need it...by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
It's happening along both the X and Y axes in every layer, so it is either an extruder problem, an X and Y motion problem, or a slicer problem. Can you see the same pattern in the infill? Try a different slicer. If it does the same thing, then you know the problem is in the machine. Check belt tensions in X and Y. Check that the pulleys are centered on the motor shafts. Take the belts off aby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
It sounds like you have a bad SSR. If it's powering the bed heater with no control input it's not working properly. The input to the SSR is usually an opto isolator, and the control voltage input simply turns on an LED. If the LED has no current, it will produce no light and the SSR should remain off.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
This is a regular pattern with equal spacing in each layer. That means something slow and periodic is happening. Try cleaning filament dust off the filament drive gear in the extruder- if it has dust from having chewed the filament, the dusty areas won't bite as hard and the filament won't extrude properly until the gear turns to a cleaner area of its teeth. Watch the drive gear rotate and seeby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
What are the pins on the controller board? Test it without the controller board- connect the control input pins to the power supply and see if it behaves as expected.by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
Usually you have to make either the motor or pulley (or the other pulley) mount so it fits into slotted holes so you can adjust belt tension. If there's no way to do that because the mounts have to be fixed, you need to add a belt tensioner in the form of a bearing/wheel mounted on a slot that lets it push against the belt.by the_digital_dentist - General
Here's the enclosure I made for my monstrosity of a printer: I chose PIR foam because it's fire resistant, so safer to use than polystyrene- the pink or blue stuff. When I kept the door closed it would get over 50C inside the enclosure just from the bed heater, so I usually propped the door open a little to keep the temperature inside the enclosure at about 45C which I have found is adequateby the_digital_dentist - General
Consider using a single motor driving all three screws with a belt so that all screws always stay in sync. It makes it much faster and easier to work on the machine because when you want to raise or lower the bed you can just pull on the belt and turn all three screws at the same time. Every time I have to do anything like level or zero the bed or work on the extruder on the Taz at the makerspaby the_digital_dentist - Stepper Motors, Servo Motors, DC Motors
Error! The photos above are NOT the bed plate- they show the old and new undercarriage plate.by the_digital_dentist - Mechanics
The firmware and controller boards for 3D printers are easily configurable for almost anything you want to do. That said, if you want to do something relatively exotic, such as run 4 extruders, you should look for a controller board that's designed to handle that many extruders plus the motion control motors. The most popular firmware that runs on the cheapest controller board (Arduino/RAMPS) hby the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
The biggest problems I can see with it are moving mass and the fact that everything is cantilevered. The massive top of the gantry is cantilevered off its base, and the Z axis is cantilevered off the top of the gantry. Every time the gantry reverses direction, it will flex, as will the Z-axis with the extruder hanging down from it, and the extruder will swing like a pendulum. If you make it maby the_digital_dentist - Mechanics
Um, why not just slice them at a speed that works properly?by the_digital_dentist - Reprappers
I like the smoothieboard in my printer (see link in my sig, below). I haven't tried the web interface- I print exclusively from SD cards. I use volumetric extrusion when I slice so the same gcode file can be used for different filament diameters. The LCD/encoder allows entry of the exact filament diameter at print time. I have printed from the on-board uSD card and from the LCD module's SD caby the_digital_dentist - Controllers
You are right, there are better ways, and they can be cheaper if you are willing to put in some effort to find deals. Look into used linear guides via ebay. There is almost nothing more precise. Used linear guides are usually about the same cost as a V slot extrusion, a bunch of wheels and the hardware to hold it all together, and they are much more compact. Here's the X axis in my printer:by the_digital_dentist - Extruded Aluminum Frames
I have printed exclusively ABS, so you may have different experience printing other materials, but my BullDogXL extruder and E3D v6 hot-end have been 100% reliable since December of last year when I put them on the machine. I print almost daily and in that time I have not had to clear a single jam or fix any other extruder/hot-end related problems. The BullDog XL can push either 1.75 mm or 3 mmby the_digital_dentist - General
I know the manufacturer's packaging says the filament is 1.75mm diameter, but did you measure it? Measure the diameter with a caliper that reads down to 0.01 mm at at least 20 places, varying the orientation of the caliper on the filament as you do, and calculate the average filament diameter. Mark that diameter on the spool's label and use that value when you slice or print. If the filament iby the_digital_dentist - Printing
I did a bunch of stuff to it today. I pulled the undercarriage and bed plate off the printer, chopped about 660 gms of excess aluminum out of the undercarriage plate, and checked the hole spacing for the bed support screws. They were indeed too close together, putting force on the bed plate that increased with temperature because of the expansion of the bed plate. I decided to try a simple appby the_digital_dentist - Mechanics
Someone suggested that the variation in surface flatness I'm seeing may be due to lateral forces on the bed support screws, especially when the bed heats up. I calculate it should expand about 0.7 mm in X and Y. If the screws are tight against the bed the lateral forces could cause the surface to deflect. The deflection isn't severe, but is larger than expected. I am able to print almost edgeby the_digital_dentist - Mechanics
VDX- a perfect illustration! I would not call what was in the picture "printing" unless you consider getting sort of the general shape of the object to be acceptable. I can't think of many situations where it would be.by the_digital_dentist - Printing
Generally, for layer to layer adhesion to be best, you can print in layers that are no more than about 80% of the nozzle diameter. In your case it means 0.32 mm, though you would probably get a stronger part if you printed at 0.30 mm. If you want to print 1mm layers you need a nozzle that's about 1.2 mm dia. You can't print in layers that are thicker than the nozzle diameter. Try it and see wby the_digital_dentist - Printing
Oh my! I like the improvement when you switched to the fishing line. I see a lot of the quadrap machines are doing that. Hmmmm....by the_digital_dentist - Printing
It appears to be under extruding. Did you calibrate the extruder? When you calibrated it, did you do it at 100 um layer thickness? Did you do the fine calibration outlined here: ? Did you measure the filament diameter before printing? If the filament is smaller in diameter than the slicer thinks, you'll have under extrusion. Don't trust the manufacturer's nominal diameter value!by the_digital_dentist - Printing