The Official 3d Printing thread

[Sailor]

Printed this and wired up one LED, need one more lower on the frame. It's printing now.

 

[1911ly]

Wow! that lights it up nicely. It's going to be even nicer when you get it to bed level. Where did you find that light?

I am printing the base for the drives. I haven't gotten as much done today as I wanted. The wiring is done. I need to mount the steppers on the base and the base on the printer. Then testing and calibration. I hoped to print something tonight but I am running out of daylight and the base is taking longer then I thought to print. I have to go to bed early. I have to be in Chicago at 6:30 for surgery. I will have to see how I feel after surgery. Might be a few days if I am too sore.

I am eager to get it done but I want to do it right. I know I will have to reprint this base later. And I am working of v2 of the hot end carriage. I have an ideal for print cooler"s". I can use this base for the moment to test the ideal. I am having fun!

 

[Sailor]

Here is a link to the lights, surface mount, I have for a project to add much more light to the back of my Subaru which even with replacement led's in the dome is not well lit at all, wiring power to the rear for 100w ham radio and additional lighting. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SOH7VCQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Finished wiring the 2nd light this am, only to realize that I wired it before running the cable through the mounting plate.

 

[actaeon277]

Well, when I need a part made (out of plastic), now I know the guys to go to.

 

[1911ly]

Well, when I need a part made (out of plastic), now I know the guys to go to.

NP, just yell. We will hook you up! lol

I didn't get much done today. But here is a few pics of where I am at for the moment. Both extuder's are assembled:



Mounted to the bracket and attached to the frame. I will be making a different mounting plate later on when I put the panels on it:



The print head is mounted and assembled. I have extruded plastic threw both nozzles.



I have learned a Bowden extruder can be a PIA to thread media threw. The media had to be totally straight and I had ti cut a point on the end and it was still a PIA to hit the tube that goes to the print head. I had a bright ideal to turn the PTFE connector in to a funnel. A few seconds with a reamer the one on the right can look like the one on the left.



It feeds a 100% easier. I don't know if anyone else has thought of this ideal? You only need to do this to the connector on the output side of the extruder that goes to the head.

I still need to calibrate the E steps the the extruder motors and level the print nozzles. I will need to loose the springs on the corners to make the setup easier. I want to just get both heads printing a test print, then do the rest.

I am really sore tonight and will be for a week or two. But I might get a test print in before the night is threw on atl east one nozzle. I am really eager to see it move some media! But I don't want rush things.

 

[Ericpwp]

Glad you mad it back!



Can't wait to see this setup in action.

 

[1911ly]

Glad you mad it back!



Can't wait to see this setup in action.

Soon my friend! Soon!

 

[Sailor]

Looks great, bowden would be good for dual extrusion removing all that weight off the X axis.

Printed this at 50% little small and thin for bridging more tweaking needed.

Both led's installed need to turn off that monitor to see it lol.

 

[1911ly]

Looks great, bowden would be good for dual extrusion removing all that weight off the X axis.

Printed this at 50% little small and thin for bridging more tweaking needed.

Both led's installed need to turn off that monitor to see it lol.

I am eager to see if I can tell the difference between on board and external extruders.They say it makes a difference in print quality. There are draw backs. Like I can't print with flexible filament. There are going to be some adjustments required too. Retraction rate is now going to be different and a few other thinks to.

I did get a little done today.

[video=youtube;5x4e7gBhnDo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x4e7gBhnDo[/video]

 

[1911ly]

And i love that light setup. I have to get some of those!

 

[BroodXI]

NP, just yell. We will hook you up! lol

I didn't get much done today. But here is a few pics of where I am at for the moment. Both extuder's are assembled:



Mounted to the bracket and attached to the frame. I will be making a different mounting plate later on when I put the panels on it:



The print head is mounted and assembled. I have extruded plastic threw both nozzles.



I have learned a Bowden extruder can be a PIA to thread media threw. The media had to be totally straight and I had ti cut a point on the end and it was still a PIA to hit the tube that goes to the print head. I had a bright ideal to turn the PTFE connector in to a funnel. A few seconds with a reamer the one on the right can look like the one on the left.



It feeds a 100% easier. I don't know if anyone else has thought of this ideal? You only need to do this to the connector on the output side of the extruder that goes to the head.

I still need to calibrate the E steps the the extruder motors and level the print nozzles. I will need to loose the springs on the corners to make the setup easier. I want to just get both heads printing a test print, then do the rest.

I am really sore tonight and will be for a week or two. But I might get a test print in before the night is threw on atl east one nozzle. I am really eager to see it move some media! But I don't want rush things.

i pop the tubes off when i thread new filament, then push them all the way to the hotend. i'll take a picture of my bowden setup tomorrow they look pretty similar, got mine from ebay. also added a segment of tube on the inside behind the drive gear and bearing so i could feed ninjaflex.

 

[1911ly]

i pop the tubes off when i thread new filament, then push them all the way to the hotend. i'll take a picture of my bowden setup tomorrow they look pretty similar, got mine from ebay. also added a segment of tube on the inside behind the drive gear and bearing so i could feed ninjaflex.

I'd love to see pictures of the setup! Thanks. I am moving slow at the moment.

Those drives came off Ebay too. They seem heavy duty enough. I got the hotends and 99% of the parts for this thing from Ebay.

 

[1911ly]

I spend a little time working on the printer and learned a lot. All hot ends are not equal. Even from the same seller :-(

They are different in measurement, and even a bit in appearance. But I did not buy them as a matched set, sooo... Ya get what ya get and ya don't throw a fit. I bought 3 of these, one for a friend. I am going to see if I can get him to let me see if it matches up closer with one of these. I can make these match if I have to. I'd just like to keep it simple if I can.

It is off enough that I can not come even close with the carriage adjustment. Time for plan B.....

 

[BroodXI]

here's the quick dirty extruder hack

 

[RobbyMaQ]

So what's the deal with PSU's?
Should I consider getting one right off the bat? Seems many have issues with stock psu's out of the box.
If so, what should I be looking at?

 

[1911ly]

here's the quick dirty extruder hack

That's the same extruder I have. I put it together slightly different. I did not make the spring tension adjustable. It seemed really really tight when I did. I was going to try it that way and if it slipped I was going to put it together the right way.

I really like the feed tube mod. I will incorporate that in to mine. Thank you very much for sharing that. I can see that making it a lot easier to align with the drive wheel.

The big issue I was having with feeding was on the output side to the hot end. reaming the connector so it acted more like a funnel took care of that issue.

 

[1911ly]

So what's the deal with PSU's?
Should I consider getting one right off the bat? Seems many have issues with stock psu's out of the box.
If so, what should I be looking at?

Get this one Robby:
Zyltech 12V 30A 360W power supply PSU for 3D Printer CNC Arduino Reprap etc. | eBay

It is more then heavy enough for the job and the price is right. It should have the right foot print for any brackets you might get with the printer. I have used these with all the printers and many other projects. I just got 2 more in today.

My velcro came yesterday. But I am to sore to drag out the table saw to deal with it the panels.

 

[BroodXI]

i actually ordered new push locks that allow the ptfe tube to slide all the way through, but the od was of course alot bigger then the orignal one. ended up having to drill out the block with a 4mm bit iirc as that is the od of the tube. just cut a little section of tube and shoved it in on the gear side, butts right up to the push lock.

[URL=http://s1235.photobucket.com/user/broodxi/media/20170309_155920_zpsxrqxw7nm.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[1911ly]

I was able to talk Harry out of his hot end (Thanks Buddy). I measured all three of them. The two I have measure a difference of 1.74. Holy cow! What a difference. Using is I can make a pair that are about .42 With a little effort(file and a lathe I can narrow that a lot. I should be about to get well within adjustment range. I am going to tinker with it later this evening.

I have been dwelling on a different ideal for a hot end setup that would be a whole lot more adjustable and easier to swap hot ends to change nozzle sizes. I am going to work on that design. It will be a good project to test my 3d design skills, which need improving!

And I have decide to for sure built a third printer. This one is just for fun. This one will be for accuracy and intricate printing. It will be a small machine, 6 to 8 inches. I already have a good start on the parts for it. This will be made with as many homebrew parts as I can. no real time frame on when it will be done.

 

[1911ly]

i actually ordered new push locks that allow the ptfe tube to slide all the way through, but the od was of course alot bigger then the orignal one. ended up having to drill out the block with a 4mm bit iirc as that is the od of the tube. just cut a little section of tube and shoved it in on the gear side, butts right up to the push lock.

Pretty cool! You said you were printing flexible media. How well does it seem to do? Lots of guys claim that the media flexes to much in the tube, that it compresses a lot making it extrude uneven. But I think you could over come a lot of that by slowing it down some.