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Friday 22 May 2015

Project backburner

Im putting the ultimaker build on the backburner as I have a shapeoko 2 needs finishing. So I have changed to printing parts for the shapeoko 2 no which one is the cable chain.
Theres loads of models out there which I have tried to print before but they never seemed to be big enough for the cables im going to route through. I found a shapeoko hd drag chain model and printed four chains out. It was fun trying to rub pritt stick on bed after noticing that part of the outer  brim was laying down. When I got too the overhang I went to myself dam these need support so I stopped the print.
They not perfect I extruded at 200c and .3mm layer height as looks not important but functionality is. The finish to them show me im extruding too much plastic, so next batch of four I will adjust my e steps slightly and will not forget about support.  I will use these as a test and calibration because they will still function as they should aslong as they come out like they should meaning no mis print error. Heres some pictures of the four I printed

Tuesday 19 May 2015

New users to 3d printing

Well what can i say the increase of 3d printing and reprap has gone through the roof the past 3 yrs i've own my i3, now the issue with all the cheap chinese i3s and different companies jumping on the band wagon it seems they miss out the vital information to the user, Calibration.
Reprap machines are not plug and play I have had mine 3yrs, swap few things around and still i don't think it's calibrated enough.

Starting my I3 when Prusa mendal I2 was basically fully developed, was difficult because there was only few out there and not many variations, and its annoying to see on forums how many people struggle with these cheap kits or others, their down fall is they try to give you instructions how its built and where things go from their instruction as if its their design and  their product.

MY ADVICE

1. if instructions on paper throw in bin

2. Goto Prusa i3 wiki Follow the build instructions

3. Calibration Triffid Hunter's Calibration Guide


I have been having issues with 1st layer my bed at 60 degrees and printing pla, I had 1st layer set at 0.3 and i was squashing it down to 0.1mm because of my z offset to prob was properly configured.
When i set it correctly it would not stick to the bed, now i have found the cure and that's pritt stick,

That goes to show that there's always something that's not calibrated proper and myself never spent time calibrating the auto leveling bed aspect when i put it in place a year ago. and squishing the 1st layer worked apart from im 0.2mm different on the z height on parts, which isnt good because i want parts with correct dimensions.

Anyone reading this and its a reference

Home position is front left corner on a i3 so have your endstops that it homes that way x on left y on the back obviously z min position

Good luck

Monday 11 May 2015

Prusa i3 upgrade to Ultimaker


UPGRADE

WHY??

I thought I would start a fresh page to tell you what I am trying to achieve, I have got to a stage where I need to think about how I can print more parts at once as I want to try print quantities of reprap parts and print freelance work. I need to make this become another source of income to fund future developments.
Down to having a good learning machine which was built from ground up by sourcing parts and learning cad and calibrating it to do decent prints. Along the way its been a journey, things breaking things need fixing, upgrading various bits and doing test prints all the time.

I chose the Ultimaker because I think for the frame will be cheap for me to build by using hopefully Fablab Devon laser and sourcing the 6mm birch plywood, there are bits which I cut cost down on the frame as I am only using the frame parts, the rest will be 3d printed parts with a aluminium bed plate for heatbed. The is another reason because the printed parts to me look like the best upgrades.

Links to upgrades

1. Reptar xy! - Version Two by nhfoley
2, Motor corner (direct drive) by nhfoley
3. Flex3drive By Mutley3d


ULTIMAKER PARTS PRINTED SO FAR

Reptar xy

I found that these was hard to position only got 2 sets at the moment as the third set started with layer skip on the y due to a failing part on my printer so i abandoned it, (I willl print a replacement part and finish them off)

These was printed in Cura

Layer Height: 0.3
Infill: 25%
Speed: 30 mm/s








The quality is not too bad after taking the support material probably best useful parts I have done

I will keep you updated and will be editing this post regularly to add more pictures and adding to the list of upgrades


13/5/15 Update


Hi just a little update finished the set of reptars they took 25 minutes each, the quality improved but comes to my conclusion about 1st layer issues, I had done few first layer calibration as 1st layer is squashed in bed so I was adjusting the z offset to get my desired 0.3 1st layer height, when I actually got in do partial of the 1st layer at 0.3 it didn't bond to the bed good, I may possibly maybe try bed at 70 next time, but definitely will using p1000 sandpaper and sand nozzle and run a 0.5mm drill bit through it if i can find one in my tool box, just because 80% that's  probably  more the issue why then the bed not being hot enough, for now I will just squish the 1st layer down I lose about 0.5mm in height but that's a tolerance i can live with until I clean nozzles but the quality of over layers have vastly improved with faster speeds I have previously done last year before I had the break.