Overhang Tip

So last night I finally finished reassembling my printer.  Im not satisfied with some changes, and they will be changed again but that is for another post.

So for my printers first of many first prints I decided to print the Colassal Bust of Ramesses.  The new cooling setup has reduced curling completely.  But when the print was nearing his "beard" I didnt want the printer to print in mid air.

So here is what I did: I folded a piece of painters tape in half, I then stuck it to the part where the support was needed with the seem at the current printing location.  Pictures below.

As you can see for this small simple overhang a piece of masking tape added all of the support needed.

The print is not finished, as it was getting late, so I paused the print, and shut the printer off.  Im hoping that when I restart the printer and resume the print it will resume correctly.  I will update on the results.

Link Sharing

Past couple of weeks i've seen a couple of links that others may like to know about, or may already know about.

MIDI to Gcode web app:  http://en.homeconstructor.de/converter-convert-music-in-g-code.html
This link takes you to a web app that converts your MIDI files into gcode, and in my opinion is a lot easier to use than the python program that does the same (mainly because i cant get the python one to work.)

Monoprice.com sells 3d printer filament! http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=107&cp_id=10724
3 colors in 3mm and 1.75mm.  They do not mention the tolerances of the filament though.  Has anyone tried this?

These two links may be old news to some, but some may find them new and useful.

Reassembly

New extruder carriage with Lulzbot Budaschnozzle.

Old parts, cast extruder carriage, and wooden X and Y carriages.

Disassembly.

Reassembly, no belts installed at this point.  Also the X and Y carriages are just slightly to long, Im hoping a quick trip to the belt sander will fix that issue.

At this time I have the belts installed. I still have to sand a little from the rear carriage, tighten up the set screws on the pulleys.

After a little more time I will run some gcode without the extruder hooked up just to break in the bearings.

XY Changes Incoming

Recently I have been experimenting with higher speed prints, currently I can print reliably around 50-65 mm/s and travel at 125 mm/s.  I want to double that for quick prints, maybe more than double it.  Currently I am running linear ball bearings on the extruder carriage, and brass bushings on the X and Y carriages.

I have designed and printed all new parts for all moving parts, I have also moved to 12mm aluminum linear rod for the moving rods.  The X and Y carriages will be using freon lined linear bearings (I had them) and the  extruder carriage will be using Igus J-glide plastic bearings.  All ball bearings are out of the question due to weight.  Eventually I will upgrade the X and Y carriages to Igus J-Glide as well.

The current carriage with extruder weighs in excess of a pound, counting all other moving parts on the XY cartesian system is probably close to 4 pounds, its heavy.

The new printed carriages and aluminum linear rods should bring me to around a pound.

The only part keeping me from assembly is the tubing connector to attach my Bowden extruder up to it.  Assembly should happen within the next week.

Now for some 3d shots taken from Inventor, and a picture of the printed components.

The X and Y carriages in this pic have stainless 1/4-20 SHCS, when I make my next McMaster order they will be replaced with Nylon set screws.  Also the PLA itself was carefully tapped for the threads, I believe I used 4 perimeters on these.

My printer is almost to where I would like it to be, I have some potential firmware issues that I hope to get rid of by upgrading to new hardware that is actively being supported.

Most recently I designed a phone case for my Motorola Razr because I was getting bored with my current case.

The fit is perfect, and the build quality is ok.  I have shared this file on Thingiverse as well: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1071440

I'm currently revising the cartesian system to lose weight from all the moving parts.  Currently i'm printing at 80-100 mm/s with travel moves at 135 mm/s Id like to push 150/200 mm/s respectively.

Ill try to update again soon, Thanks for visiting.

-Jeff

Problem, Prints lean to one side, Fixed

So there is this problem that effected my first printer the Boxed Reprap I called it, the problem was that prints would lean in one direction, always the same direction.  This printer was very large and used the gen 3 electronics from makerbot.  Solution is at bottom.

With help from every one that would volunteer help in the opensource 3D printer world I checked many many different possibilities:
Stepper drivers: I swapped them around, still leaning
Steppers: swapped them around, still leaning
Checked for binding, axes would move very smoothly in any direction
Z axis was vertical

I could not get this printer in the end to print perfectly vertical it was missing or skipping steps, I eventually assumed it was from the print bed being so heavy, since it started when I went to a moving bed setup, and it was such a large bed.

So came Artifex, my current printer Designed in cad to keep friction and weight down made the printer significantly smaller, kept the same build area, and reused almost all of the mechanics except for the ball screws.  This printer is built with the Ultimaker as inspiration.

Prints still leaned, the printer had all new electronics, different bearings different mechanics I didnt understand, even the steppers where different and new.  So I had to continue to troubleshoot.

After doing all of the same troubleshooting again I came upon the cause by accident, it was the computer.  The more cpu intensive work I was doing on the computer while printing, the more the part would lean, stop doing pc work and it would lean less.

Solution: So I printed from SD card, prints leaned less, then I printed from SD card and unplugged from the computer, leaning was gone!

There was so many more things that I tried, but I was so mad at myself for not figuring it out sooner, but without mistakes we will never learn.

Artifex

Not many updates recently, but I will post a picture of Artifex, the printer I built last year.Artifex works remarkably well, it is based of of the Ultimaker design. It uses linear sliding bearings in the guide blocks closest to the frame and linear bearings on the extruder carriage.

The problem that I had with Artifex was getting the holes in the extruder carriage perfect for sliding bearings before I decided to go with linear bearings.

specs:
 .9 degree nema 23 steppers around 2 thou per step at 8X micro-stepping
gen 4 electronics without the extruder controller
heated bed
 PID control for extruder and bead
acme screw z axis
MK7 Hotend

In the coming days I will post about my projects from last year. I hope to start working on my printer again soon.

Future Posts include: Pictures of a few prints, an interesting problem that caused prints to print crooked with no obvious pattern, making an extruder carriage out of urethane resin, maybe a clip of my printer doing the imperial march, and I may even include some pictures of my non printer project the "Skate-Cart" a gocart skateboard combination death trap of a device. I was even working on a Semi easy 1.75mm to 3mm swap for the MK7, only because I have some 3mm plastic left.

Well thanks for reading and enjoy!