3D Printer yet?

[xrunner]

The suspense is killing me. 

[mnementh]

Oh gawd... now I'm reminded. If there's one thing I DO appreciate about the Diggro... it's that the control box is integral. I got SO tired of having to set the gantry and the bed "just so" to have enough slack in cables to put the box on the bed... and then either unload or balance the spool on top of that so I could move the damned thing. The Diggro is so much easier; just unplug the IEC cable and stuff the damn thing in the bottom of a closet. DONE.

Of course, it is also about 1/3 the build volume, and yes, I know exactly how much of a PITA it is to service something that big on its side... so yeah, tradeoffs.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

There is just so much bad engineering there... it makes me cringe. Big bearing bore, thin walls, screws that hold the entire weight of the assembly going through it and no metal reinforcements... needs twice that mass in plastic, and even then would still probably break under some people's heavy hand.

The right way to fix it would be a CNC AL plate with a peephole where the filament goes between the pinion/roller. Done and done, plus you can tighten it enough to keep from shaking loose without worrying about grenading the plastic. But then, once you start CNC-ing, you start thinking about the lever, and the base, and... 

mnem
Bah. I'm with Brumby... time to take up knitting.

.. but they didn't break because of being brittle (again, it's not a brittle material) or people being heavy handed, they broke because the bearing lubricant attacked the plastic.

No, they broke because of "just enough to do the job" engineering to save a few pennies a copy in material. THEN the shortfalls in that engineering became quite manifest because there was ZERO wiggle room. THEN they blamed the bearings because they used a polycarbonate material which is known for embrittlement with time, which timeframe was drastically shortened by exposure to that lubricant. They literally did not CARE about the embrittlement issue... just so long as the part lasted long enough to not be their problem.

I remember the arguments over this shit, and I've built enough small, precision machinery like this from scratch... I know better. It's just plain bad engineering on multiple fronts.

That is my OPINION... you can take it under consideration or ignore it.

mnem
*sigh*

[HobGoblyn]

Currently printing out the pig that game on sdcard, zero problems so far

Only thing I had to do, unlike the ender 3 where the z stop has T nuts hence can be adjusted, this has pre drilled/threaded holes, hence it's fixed.  Bed was too far away, the wheels were so loose you could blow on them to move them.  Had to elongate the holes to move zstop down a bit.

So far very very pleased. V Slot felt like they were self aligning rather than my ender where it felt like they were swinging on a pendulum

Hardest bit of assembly was for me to get the wheels on the y adjusted properly.   6 wheels, 2 eccentric one side, 1 the other




Maybe I'm too OCD about this, but I spent ages getting it so you turn any of the 6 wheels and the Y axis moved moved.  Logically (to me) I loosened the 3 eccentric wheels, lightly tightened the two on the left, making sure the middle wheel on the left could still grip, and making sure the outer two wheels the other side did too, then all I had to do was slowly adjust the right middle eccentric nut until it just gripped then all must be OK.  The reality of course was completely different,  very slightly adjusted middle right wheel, then other two right hand wheels were loose etc. Took ages  to get them all just gripping but I finally got there.

No Cura profile for my printer, presume I can use CR10 S as that appears to be the closest printer to mine

Leaving it as is for a while, at some point I will fit BLTouch and touch screen and SKR mini, but for now, I'm just pleased it finally appears to be working

[HobGoblyn]

What a difference.

After assembly and adjusting z stop, simply homed, then disabled steppers and did 4 corner manual levelling.

I tried the pig on the SD card.

Very happy with my first print, underneath centre is where I removed supports and rough bit on one leg is where I removed raft.








Then all I did was calibrate E steps, absolutely nothing else, didn't re-level, and I did a level test.  Couldn't have come close to this on MY  Ender 3.  I used CR10S profile for cura, layer test is not quite centred on bed (over to the left and too far forward) but from Curas default settings I'm very happy with the result and very very pleased I sent my old printer back, here's pics part way through and when it's finished.

[xrunner]

Looks great! Now that it's working you can go ahead and buy aftermarket parts and break it again. 

No, I think this time you are going to be OK.

[mnementh]

You beat me to it... 

mnem
Tricksy little ninja; xrunner... yessss.... tricksy he izzzz... 

[HobGoblyn]

Just did another test, again default cr10s profile, it looks OK to me, sure a bit of stringing, but haven't adjusted any settings yet.

Wont bore you with any more test prints after this









[ Specified attachment is not available ]


I have my new SKR mini v2, TFT v3 and Bltouch begging to be installed, but it's working so well at the moment, I think I'll leave off for a while

Also have a brand new (well used for one day) ender 3 creality glass bed going for free if anyone in the UK wants it, I'll treat you to postage as thanks for all the help I've had here

[HobGoblyn]

There's something odd on this forum when posting pics.  I've cleared my browser cashe, reloaded the page and most the pics are wrong.  I've just spent ages redoing it and as soon as I clear my cashe and reload, they go wrong again  (first noticed this when I accessed forum from a different device.

Post 1179 should show a badly drawn example of how my offset wheels are,  it now shows my pig.
Post 1180 is correct
Post  1183, the last 2 pics ace correct, the first two now show the pigs from post 1180.

All the uploaded pics have completely different names, really weird. 

[Monkeh]

There's something odd on this forum when posting pics.  I've cleared my browser cashe, reloaded the page and most the pics are wrong.  I've just spent ages redoing it and as soon as I clear my cashe and reload, they go wrong again  (first noticed this when I accessed forum from a different device.

Post 1179 should show a badly drawn example of how my offset wheels are,  it now shows my pig.
Post 1180 is correct
Post  1183, the last 2 pics ace correct, the first two now show the pigs from post 1180.

All the uploaded pics have completely different names, really weird.

Yes, things are a bit broken, it's been going on a while.

[HobGoblyn]

I've looked at the LCD on my CR10 v2, and it looked smaller than the Ender 3.

Googling, the Ender 3 spec is:   Screen Size: 8 * 5cm/ 3 * 2in,   Item Size: Approx. 9.3 * 9cm / 3.7 * 3.5in

CR10 V2 is: Display Size: 7x4cm / 2.75" x 1.57", Display Mainboard Size: 9.2x8.5cm / 3.6" x 3.34"

Which is a shame, I suppose I could test it out on the SKR V2 board and see what it looks like, could always make the display window hole bigger.   

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

But if you do that then you can't return it to try a sidewinder x1 next month.

[mnementh]

There's something odd on this forum when posting pics.  I've cleared my browser cashe, reloaded the page and most the pics are wrong.  I've just spent ages redoing it and as soon as I clear my cashe and reload, they go wrong again  (first noticed this when I accessed forum from a different device.

Post 1179 should show a badly drawn example of how my offset wheels are,  it now shows my pig.
Post 1180 is correct
Post  1183, the last 2 pics ace correct, the first two now show the pigs from post 1180.

All the uploaded pics have completely different names, really weird.

Yes, things are a bit broken, it's been going on a while.

Yeah, it's a problem in the Forum software that's been kicking me in the      repeatedly for weeks now; sometimes an attachment gets borked and the thumb (therefore the link to the actual pic as well) thereafter refers to a pic you posted later on in the timeline of a thread. 

I tend to suffer more than most because I'm a heavy abuser of attachments; a byproduct of being the class clown is you use a lot of props.

You can fix it... but the least painful method appears to be to just add the borked pic again to the post if possible and leave the borked thumb alone. Otherwise, if you delete the borked thumb, you'll almost always bork ANOTHER post further back in the timeline when fixing the one in question.

It seems to happen most if somehow the post is interrupted between uploading the pic(s) and pressing the [POST] button; so I usually try to complete the text of my post first, then review so if there's a "new post" warning it doesn't happen at that critical time, then put up my pics just before posting.

Also it seems to help if you resize your pics to less than 300KB and wait like a 10-count between the point where your last pic finishes uploading and the thumb appears, and pressing the [POST] button.

But STILL... even doing all this hocus-pocus... I STILL get hit from time to time. So all that still MAY BE just that... hocus-pocus.

mnem
 

[HobGoblyn]

Printer still behaving it's self

Today I tried printing PETG for my first time, for the small temp tower I took Curas default bed temp of 80c.  Taller tower I had the bed at 60c and it seemed to stick fine while printing and came off super easy when finished.

Tons of stringing, any advice?

[Monkeh]

PETG needs moderately aggressive retraction and fast travel moves, but stringing is still a problem with it. Bowden makes it quite hard to control.

E: Those actually aren't bad for PETG. Don't expect it to be totally clean no matter how hard you try.

[mnementh]

Yeah, i was about to say... "You printed those in PETG...? Well done! Be glad of those results!"

mnem
 

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

Tons of stringing, any advice?

A blowtorch...

[tautech]

Tons of stringing, any advice?

A blowtorch...

Wow yes, a good suggestion I suspect.
I know when I've done work with Lexan a pass with a flame over the worked edges finishes them like glass. 

Who's actually used one for tidying up 3D prints ? 

[Monkeh]

I can't say I've used a blowtorch, but hot air works well against very fine stringing.

[CatalinaWOW]

I've tried a blowtorch to improve the finish of PTA prints.  It was a disaster.  Before the surface could soften enough to allow surface tension to pull it smooth the bulk of the print had softened enough to sag and distort. I'm sure those results could be improved by adjusting fill density, skin thickness and other parameters but it isn't an easy magic solution.

Still seems like it might be a good solution for fine threading.

[mnementh]

Your results are pretty universal, in my experience. Before the surface smooths, the individual layers start to pull inward or away from each other due to internal stress from the FDM process; like a stamped metal pan, there's oodles of potential energy trapped in your prints and I'm not just talking about the hydrocarbons.

mnem
 

[tom66]

I use hot air or a lighter to clean stringiness with no issues.  PETG gets stringier if it gets wet so drying the reels before use can help (70C in household oven works OK)

[HobGoblyn]

Tried an actual print with PETG, 10 mins ago I was watching TV, I glanced at the printer and thought how well it was doing, 5 secs later it came free from the bed 

Don't think I need PETG for what I was printing anyway,  think I'll put it back in the box for now

[mnementh]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YCLJK46/

I got one of these last week to fill out a free shipping minimum and for doing heat-shrink. Make sure you get THIS ONE: It has the LO-OFF-HI switch and it works; there are two distinctly different heat/speed ranges. It also has a Bakelite nozzle ring. Because of reports of "funny smells" if you run it too long, I took mine apart and lined the heater-tube portion with Kapton tape. The body is ABS, and there are a couple of protruding tabs that are in line of sight with the IR radiation of the heating coils which I also wrapped with Kapton. No funny smells after using to fix wiring on a industrial sewing machine I'm fixing up to flip, and the Kapton gave another interesting benefit: it quieted the resonance of the ABS shell, making it feel & sound much smoother/quieter.

Really, hard to beat for 12 bux shipped next day; I spent more than that on bagels & coffee at Tim Horton's yesterday. 

mnem
*poot!*

[HobGoblyn]

I'll try my hot air station, just checked, 100C min temp