Building a Prusa i3

[ZorAxe]

Ok wow I didnt know any of that. Thanks for the heads up. Do you think I've messed up the frame by doing what I've done?

[lakester]

Heh..., I'm sorry, didn't mean to alarm ya!

1. If it hasn't warped, it won't. The warping generally occurs owing to differential heating in the material during bead blasting.
2. Wrt the corrosion..., it could only be a problem if you plan to strip the paint off it, and operate the printer in the rain, for, I dunno, a few years.
3. Finally, keep in mind, people build these dang things out of wood. Sure..., that's a bit flip and there's more to it than that..., but with the tolerances of Prusa style FDM and the various calibration strategies..., I wouldn't worry too much.

So, you're doing a fantastic job, far more detailed and in-depth than anything I would attempt.

Keep it going!

P.S.: Oh..., OK..., one more thing about bead blasting: NEVER use it on a porous material that will interface in any way with moving parts. E.g., a crank or engine case. Beads will be trapped in the porosity, slowly released into the surrounding lubricant, be transported to the nice and expensive moving stuff..., which you'll get to buy again, very quickly.

Ok wow I didnt know any of that. Thanks for the heads up. Do you think I've messed up the frame by doing what I've done?

[ZorAxe]

Ok great. Thanks for the tips. I was a bit worried for a second there. I'll hopefully get some more parts soon and do some more building!

[ZorAxe]

Finally got to do some more work on my printer. The Y axis is complete. Just need to finish up the belts on the X axis and the threaded rod and mounts for the Z axis. Will hopefully get all the electronics next week, and then test all the movement of the different axis.

The left hand z axis rod is not straight because I hadn't mounted the top mounts down yet.

[3DPBuser]

I went manual for levelling...
http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...eatec-in-Spain

[ZorAxe]

Here is a quick video of my Y-axis moving. I haven't got RAMP 1.4 yet so I connected the NEMA 17 to my CNC engraver which runs from an Arduino UNO and CNC Shield. Just a some Gcode file I wrote to move the axis back and forward.
https://youtu.be/VI5nJ8D23xM

[LuckyImperial]

Here is a quick video of my Y-axis moving. I haven't got RAMP 1.4 yet so I connected the NEMA 17 to my CNC engraver which runs from an Arduino UNO and CNC Shield. Just a some Gcode file I wrote to move the axis back and forward.
https://youtu.be/VI5nJ8D23xM

Very cool, the first movements are always fun to watch.

It's really coming together! What do you have left?

[ZorAxe]

Thanks man! The next step is to get all the electronics sorted. Then extruder, hot end and heated bed. Once I have all that I can start calibrating.

Only problem is I live in South Africa and most of the stuff is imported, and with our currency being very weak, it makes everything expensive, so that's why I'm building piece by piece.

[ZorAxe]

OK, so I havent had internet for the longest time due to lightning storm. In that time I've spent alot more time on the printer. Got all the parts and its up and running. See the pics below. I've added a RepRapDiscount Full Graphical LCD, and an Auto Bed Leveling Inductive Proximity Sensor which really does help with the print layers. Overall I'm getting so good prints (well I think so) The printer is printing within .05mm accurate which I'm happy with.

I'm still learning all the slicer settings. I switch between Cura and Slic3r. Both are great. I find Slic3r has alot more advanced settings which can allow for more, but also over complicate things. Cura is great simple and works straight out the box with great prints. It's generally my go to slicer. One big downside to Slic3r I have found is it makes seams, and if your object you are printing is round, the seam doesn't look so great. Maybe someone can give me advice to get rid of that.

I had a few problems with prints curling and lifting, but 99% of those are gone thanks to an AMAZING hairspray my wife uses :P Also played around with different temperatures and have go some decent settings now.

[LuckyImperial]

That looks great! I love the red.

You can correct the seams in slic3r under the print tab.

Scroll down and see "Seam Positioning" here:
http://manual.slic3r.org/expert-mode/fighting-ooze