Quotethe_digital_dentist how are you supposed to accurately move the end of an axis 0.4 mm? It's not so hard to move the axis a little, it's hard to know you're moved it the right amount. This has been solved by engineers centuries ago... A fine pitch screw (e.g. M6x0.75) attaching the axis to a rigid mount at one or both ends (like an adjustable heated bed mount).So 0.4mm movement = 192 degreeby frankvdh - General
The obvious answer is.... the part with the greatest markup, which is probably the most expensive. Why do you ask?by frankvdh - Reprappers
Quotelkcl i'd also really like to have dual 2560 and Due compatibility, as there will be some people who significantly want to save cost. Don't bother.... People who care about the $6 difference in cost between a Due and a 2560 won't buy your board anyway... they'll buy a Mega and a RAMPS 1.4.by frankvdh - RAMPS Electronics
Hi Ed, No, units do not automatically get translated. STLs are unit-less. You need to scale your object up by 2540%. Or export in mm from Fusion. Frankby frankvdh - Slic3r
I have a Zonestar D810 delta with steppers and controller at the top. I don't think it's any simpler to wire.... wires from the power supply, USB, and heated bed still have to be run up to the top of the printer. When I do my Big Rebuild, I plan to move the motors and controller to the bottom, with the controller mounted vertically, attached to the 2040 bottom rail.by frankvdh - Delta Machines
Quotefma QuoteUsing a PTFE liner reduces this friction and insulates the filament from the heat that does pass through the heatbreak So, the heatsinkbreak tends to heat up the filament, not to cool it down! That's exactly what I said before. So, removing the heatsinkbreak, and have fresh air on the PTFE can only improve things. Ok, I launched the test without fan on the heatsink: so far (almostby frankvdh - General
@lkcl I take it you're in some way associated with implicitcad? When I saw your post here, I thought I'd give it a try at However, nothing much seems to work. The message "Please hold. Our best server imps are now rendering your file." seems to be onscreen all the time. Editing the source code in the LH pane doesn't seem to affect the image in the RH pane. Clicking the "Render" button doesn'by frankvdh - 3D Design tools
I haven't had the issue described with Slic3r, but I have had "shift" (Shift/Ctrl/Alt/Windows) keys get "stuck", maybe as part of swapping from one application window to another or some other GUI thing... it's as if one of the "shift" keys is being held down, which changes the function of the key you *are* pressing, sometimes to not doing anything at all. The answer for me was to press and releasby frankvdh - Slic3r
Quotefma So, it is also directly heated by the nozzle, because of the direct contact with it! Plus, PTFE is a good thermal insulator; so how can the heatsink cool down the filament? Don't forget that I'm talking about the Lite6 version, where there is no heatbreak inside the heatsink... and this Diamond version works fine. The Lite6 *does* have a heat break The heat break is made of stainless sby frankvdh - General
Middle may be difficult, depending on how your carriages attach to your pillars. So choose high or low to minimise the Bowden tube length whilst still keeping it reasonably straight. Maybe go low with a short tube most of the time. On the few (I assume) occasions when you want to print something tall, change the tube to a long one>by frankvdh - Delta Machines
The point of the heatsink is to cool the part part of the heat break outside the heater block, so that filament temperature changes abruptly at that point from solid to molten. The heatsink functions better than air because it conducts heat *much* better than air, so that the heat can be dissipated to air over a very large surface area. The heatsink in your image won't cool filament at all, andby frankvdh - General
Far too hot. Try 190C for PLA. Search the Printing forum for "heat creep".by frankvdh - Developers
35C room temp? I guess you're not in Alaska then! In that case, a mintemp means (in descending order of probability): A thermistor wire is broken, or maybe disconnected from the board. Maybe power supply is too weak, which can cause intermittent issues.The Or the firmware is screwed?The controller board itself is broken? Hell has frozen overby frankvdh - General
I don't know if this applies to an NK8 hot-end, but this is the general "right way" to assemble a hot-end: Heat the heater up to normal filament temperature Tighten the nozzle finger-tight into the heater block Back it out 1/4 turn or so Tighten the heat break into the heater, finger-tight Tighten the nozzle against the heater block with a wrench This will tighten the nozzle against the end ofby frankvdh - General
Check the wires to the thermistor... if they flex, the conductor inside can break, even though the insulation is intact. Then, when the hot-end is at a certain X,Y,Z position, the wires will be stretched enough for the conductors to separate at the break. At this point, the control board suddenly sees a zero temperature and aborts the print. I would get the hot-end up to temperature and then moveby frankvdh - General
Quoteclearlynotstefan THe thing is, with a flying extruder, you're already adding that weight to the carrier anyway. and worse, you're suspending it from elastic which is going to bounce it around and exacerbate the effect it has, How much weight can you be adding by adding arms so it gets pushed where it needs to be instead of dangling in the air? The trick is to make the elastic less elastic;by frankvdh - Delta Machines
I don't think it matters whether the extruder is physically connected to the effector or not. If it is physically connected to the carriages or extruder by inelastic links, then it's mass is part of the moving mass being driven by the steppers, and the momentum of the system will be the same. You're on the right track with your balloons; what's needed is an *elastic* connection to the extruder aby frankvdh - Delta Machines
I could maybe help with pickup if you had somewhere to store it in Manawatu area until you collected it... my garage is full.by frankvdh - New Zealand RepRap User Group
I thought about bidding on this as a basis for a large-scale printer or laser-cutter or whatever, but decided I have enough projects, and no room anyway. Hopefully it's of some use to someone else on here? Search TradeMe for "HP Designjet 2500CP Colour Inkjet Printer"... $1 reserve, closes Wed 6 Sep 11:58am.by frankvdh - New Zealand RepRap User Group
Ummm... how do you stop the masking tape tube from collapsing and sticking together into a ribbon? Do you do two layers, with the sticky sides facing each other? Since you're concerned about weight, I assume that one end will connect to (I guess) the hot-end, and move around. I'd be worried that the tube would crease, fatigue, and eventually tear. No big deal to repair, but you maybe lose a prinby frankvdh - Mechanics
Hmmm... the duct-taped roller sounds dubious. Inconsistent feed rate due to inconsistent pressure due (I assume) to changes in alignment could cause your problem, especially in combination with other factors. Could you perhaps print something in less than 20 minutes to make a more consistent fix?. Stepper motors generally last forever... I wouldn't think about replacing one unless there was someby frankvdh - Printing
Typically if something starts to fail after time, it's due to heating/cooling issues... you might have been living on the edge of this problem without realising it. You could try slowing down your print speed... that might improve things, or help you diagnose? Also check the driver chips to make sure they're not getting too hot. And check your temperature graph for changes approaching the 20 minby frankvdh - Printing
$199 for a super-fast, super-accurate, scalable-to-any-size printer, but very light on details. Seems too good to be true? An interesting mass-damper idea though.by frankvdh - Crowdfunding Projects Announcements
Wondering about this as a real-time stepper-pulse generator for the RPi.by frankvdh - Crowdfunding Projects Announcements
Quoteetfrench The further apart the arms, the more rigid the machine but the print area decreases. I'm struggling to see how increasing arm width reduces print area... is that just due to the fact that wide arms requires a large effector, which in turn means the nozzle itself can't go near to the base of each tower? Or is there more to it than that? Also, if you increase the arm length, you wilby frankvdh - Delta Machines
You could try -- this is configurable regarding distance apart of the rods. It is designed for mechanical rod-ends as per your "Kossel Alt" design, and includes fan mounts (although the author says they work but he's not happy with them. It also apparently includes a mount for a bltouch probe.by frankvdh - Delta Machines
PTFE goes UP. The end with the shorter thread goes into the heater block, the longer thread goes into the heatsink. The heatsink should have a small (2mm for 1.75mm filament) hole in the top, so that the PTFE liner can't come out. If it doesn't, I guess you have a hot-end designed for a Bowden connector, which would prevent the PTFE from being pulled out.by frankvdh - Reprappers
Ummmm... why are you setting your extrusion rate to such large values? I typically have mine at 100% or close to it. Have you calibrated your extruder? Depending on what type of extruder/hotend you have, 5mm may be too much retraction, and may cause hot-end jams. 5mm is probably about right on a Delta or other printer with a Bowden tube between extruder and hot-end. If you have a direct drive exby frankvdh - Printing
Quotejinx you mind if I ever quote those four steps you explained it so much better than me. Be my guest! I summarised them from someone else's post somewhere, which helped me hugely at the time. I must have written them dozens of times, and I'm happy for someone else to take over this mission!by frankvdh - Reprappers
Why? If you have your RPi remote from the host, and use Octoprint (I don't know about Repetier server, but guess it's the same), the connection from host to the RPi can be encrypted with https If the RPi itself is secure, then it doesn't matter that the Gcode is stored on it. I have my RPi right alongside the printer. Ultimately, if someone has physical access to the printer (or the connectionby frankvdh - General