Qidi Tech 1 - Replicator 1 clone

[cncartist]

Mine is at 39 hours 10 min with 165.93 filament Trip

Much appreciated, I'm at 200 hours currently and feel I'm on par with Syd_Khaos' usage of 700 hours in 2 months.

The creaking started at around my 100 hour mark I believe and I've had multiple prints that have lasted 20+ hours. After an extremely long print I check the rods for dirt/grime and re-grease with Super Lube as appropriate. The X-Axis carriage is the one I grease most often with the Z-Axis being the least greased.

My favorite thing to do so far is to load the whole build plate up with different objects, start the print, make sure the first layers are bonded well and then walk away to come back to a full platter of 3D objects.

[jfkansas]

Gotta be strategic when placing the clips. lol Back left corner and front right toward the middle.

Yep, I was hoping someone would ask that about paying for itself.

I don't have this printer but for mine I used bulldog clips and hated them. I crashed my nozzle into them so many times then I went to Silicone pads that were 0.5mm thick (called Gino pads made for CPU/GPU heat transfer to a heatsink) and with 4 of them my plate never moved again and no more clips. I plan on doing that with all future printers too.

[jfkansas]

Definitely not WD40, and silicon isn't a very good bearing lube. Bearings like grease. I use some Mystic Lubes light grease thinned out with some 3n1 oil. It takes a bit to get worked into the sealed bearings but once it does the machine goes near mechanically silent, besides the stepper noise...

WD40 is not a good lube for this application.

Get some 3-in-1 High-temp Silicone lube, sole at any place like Lowe's or Home Depot. It will last longer, is cheaper than WD40, and much more suited for this type of application.

@ svt04cobra:
Most are using removable buildplates of some type, not removing the stock plate.
MagHold is a removable and flexable plate that many say works very well, though yet to try it myself.
My prefered method is to print onto a glass plate (that sits on the stock aluminium plate). Glass is easy-peasy...little bit of hairspray and print sticks like superglue, soon as glass cools to about 40c prints pop right off...sometime without even touching them.


This is a great printer! Have had mine for about 2 months now, its paid for itself near 3 times over. Will pass 700 print hours by end of this week. And even though I'm new to 3d printing, and this is my first machine, have still had an 85%+ success rate on prints....pretty damn good considering I am just guessing what I'm doing at least half the time lol.

[DarkAlchemist]

Gotta be strategic when placing the clips. lol Back left corner and front right toward the middle.

I tried all sorts of ways and when I would hit them is either by hand (mostly) or when I am aligning things and the worst was when I used ABL for the first time or two as I was setting it up. No thanks to clips in any form or fashion for me.

Now, how did it pay for itself as you mentioned?

[Grifftech]

I am on the fence with trying the Avatar iV. I am running 4 FlashForge Creator Pros for my business right now, I run a ton of TPU. And I am needing to add a few more printers and am wondering if the Qidi is worth the savings over the FFCP?

[KludgeGuru]

Hey Guys,

Looks like I shot myself in the foot again. The Glass from McMaster doesn't fit the Maghold platform. The glass is way too small. Any way I can remedy this or do I need to get a new glass plate?
Attachment 9229

Thanks.

Get an extra spring steel sheet and use 3M transfer adhesive to attach the glass plate to the spring steel. Then you don't need any side clips.
http://www.amazon.com/TapeCase-squar...ilpage_o03_s00

[bluemeane]

Ahhhh, see when I print ABS I stick it to 110c and leave it at 110c else it comes off. I wish I had a way to lower the temp gradually but not even S3D does that easily (you would think I wouldn't have to have a lot of profiles for such an easy task in S3D) as I always wanted a way to tell these slicers to lower the temp from layer 1 to say layer 5 or 7 gradually not all of a sudden at Z layer. I only lower the temp on PLA as I start at 60c and lower to 50c.

On the bed is that Kapton I see on it? I will McMaster a 6x9 glass (or 8x10 using the mod though if I did that I would attach a thin layer of Aluminum as a heat spreader so edge to edge gets warm).

While I am thinking about all of this I sure wish these slicers allowed us to get the bed to X temp and wait X amount of time before continuing that way the temps are more uniform when the print actually starts.

The way I manage lowering temp is with the temperature tab. I select the starting layer i want it to start cooling off then lower it a couple degrees and add it, then do the next layer, etc etc etc. It is however a set it and forget it kind of thing for the layers. It would be nice to set a % rather than a layer, as sometime the print is low in layers to the point where it is basically done when the temp change starts lol. And I am too lazy to change it for every print (I guess I could have a 'material' setting saved for each 'layer height', but it would be a best guess as I don't know how many layers a print will end up at lol.


As for the kapton tape, there is only tape on the bottom of the spring steel plate, the bed is pure milled aluminum.


For the last part, there is the option for 'Stabilize temperature' on that tab that you can set for the bed and extruders. I am not sure what it means but I have noticed with it set the bed will heat up, and then it will wait about 30 seconds before it makes music and starts to heat the extruder, however it would be nice if it did them all at the same time lol.

[Syd_Khaos]

Can you explain how you have your glass setup? How do you have it fastened to the original build plate? I like the idea of just spraying the glass with hair spray and having the model pop off when the glass cools. Also you mention you paid for your machine 3 times over...... Did you design something yourself that you are selling or printing something already made and selling? I am new to 3D printing / Design but want to make a go at making money with it.

I use simple pinch-clamps to hold my plate down.

I sell all manner of printed things. RC parts, stuff for the home...and I will print pretty much anything someone wants to pay me for, long as machine can do it.
About 1/3 of my income from this printer is making accessories for my buddy's glass shop. I do a little design and he orders 30 or so a month.
Working on getting a website up and going too.

[DarkAlchemist]

The way I manage lowering temp is with the temperature tab. I select the starting layer i want it to start cooling off then lower it a couple degrees and add it, then do the next layer, etc etc etc. It is however a set it and forget it kind of thing for the layers. It would be nice to set a % rather than a layer, as sometime the print is low in layers to the point where it is basically done when the temp change starts lol. And I am too lazy to change it for every print (I guess I could have a 'material' setting saved for each 'layer height', but it would be a best guess as I don't know how many layers a print will end up at lol.


As for the kapton tape, there is only tape on the bottom of the spring steel plate, the bed is pure milled aluminum.


For the last part, there is the option for 'Stabilize temperature' on that tab that you can set for the bed and extruders. I am not sure what it means but I have noticed with it set the bed will heat up, and then it will wait about 30 seconds before it makes music and starts to heat the extruder, however it would be nice if it did them all at the same time lol.

See, 30 secs isn't really long enough as I am thinking about 2 mins extra. Makes me think about putting a thermistor on an edge and not in the middle.

[cncartist]

The creaking started at around my 100 hour mark I believe and I've had multiple prints that have lasted 20+ hours. After an extremely long print I check the rods for dirt/grime and re-grease with Super Lube as appropriate. The X-Axis carriage is the one I grease most often with the Z-Axis being the least greased.

I spent a good deal of time after work today to diagnose and finally correct the creaking myself. It's fully resolved in 45 minutes with no creaking/squeaking anymore and the instructions for the fix are as follows:

Items required:
1. 45 minutes of time
2. 1-2mm or smaller tipped syringe, I used a flat syringe tip as to not scratch the bearing (The only reason a small tipped syringe is needed is because we are not dropping/loosening the rear right carriage assembly and it is a very tight squeeze in that corner)
3. Sewing machine oil or similar thin machine bearing oil, I found that Super Lube was too thick to get into the bearing properly and that is why my squeaking persisted even after greasing
4. Some sort of rag, I used paper towels to catch the over-spill and clean after oiling
5. Possibly a flashlight if you are in a low light situation

Steps:
1. Fill syringe and get rags ready, sewing machine oil is thin/runny
2. Remove right acrylic window
3. Remove right sheet metal frame piece (piece that right window bolts onto)
4. Move the extruder to the center/center position to have good access to rear right and front right carriage assemblies
5. Position rag for catching over-spill
6. Put a drop or two of lubricating oil into the inner circle of the bearing - aim carefully, this will ensure when you move the Y-Axis again it will evenly distribute throughout the whole bearing
7. Repeat step 5 + 6 for each bearing as seen in the photos - there are 4 bearings total, two for the front right and two for the back right. With some assistance, I have taken photos and illustrated where to place the drops of oil.

I wrote this up since I was extremely perplexed as to why I couldn't find the proper steps to perform this fix and was loosening carriage assemblies and moving my extruder back and forth quickly which didn't produce any positive results. What I have described above is a repeatable maintenance procedure that I will perform if the creaking comes back and it can be done in 45 minutes or less. The major thing is to make sure not to get oil onto the belts/belt drives/electrical components. This can easily be accomplished by placing a rag under the work area and then bringing the rag up the wall to clean all the way to the bearing while not spreading the oil to belts or other components. I will still use Super Lube for the Axis rods, but Super Lube is way too thick to reach the proper areas of the bearings.

If this write-up should be its own thread, let me know and I'll post it separately. Otherwise, hopefully this helps the users who have been having the same issue I had and now I am printing in peace and quiet!

FYI, the photos were taken after the maintenance and the extruder was in the rear-center position at that time. Center-center is the position the extruder was in when the oiling was performed.