MakerFarm Prusa i3v 10" - And So It Begins!

[tfast500]

First Thoughts:

Wow, this thing is off to a great start receiving it two days earlier than I had originally expected! Opening the box was exciting as always and the first thing I noticed and had not expected was a very organized placement of parts. The hardware, motors and electronics were all in separate containers, was accounted for, and labeled! The wood parts are solid and precisely cut. The wood is of way better quality then I had expected it to be. No cheap stuff here! So far this thing has me truly impressed. Unfortunately due to prior plans I was not able to work on it till later this evening.

So Far:

I have been off to a good start - I have completed the first 42 pages of the build guide (I opted out of painting the pieces and honestly I am digging the wood look anyhow). I have not gotten hung up so far because everything has been going perfectly per the instructions.

Here are some pics

IMG_20150926_122905839.jpg IMG_20150926_123852223.jpg IMG_20150926_223446164.jpg

[adamfilip]

Take your time - calibrate, calibrate calibrate

[tfast500]

Yesterday:

I did not post my progress but I did make some I was able to work about 5 hours on the kit. I finished the frame, installed the heat bed, assembled the extruder and hot end (e3d v6 hopefully did it correctly), mounted the end stops, and spool holder. I also uploaded the firmware to the rumba board.

Feel like it is all coming together nicely. I am not happy with the glass though. I attempted to cut glass for my first time. You guys would laugh if you saw how horrendous it is.... I better just go to the glass shop when done. However it will have to do for now. I used tape to make it look half way decent for now.

Today:

Since I work a full time and have kids + a needy wife :P it is hard to find time to work on my projects during the week. I did get quite a bit of the wiring done this evening though. I can see the end of this build nearing and it makes me very eager to finish up. I need to purchase some spacers for my electronics and the proper size screws for my power supply tomorrow. I think within the next day or two I should have this build completed. And as adamfilip stated calibrate, calibrate, calibrate.

Issues:

-The belt on the Y idler bracket is rubbing not sure how to keep the belt centered. I am not sure if it matters?

- Cant figure out the best way to run the X end stop wires?

- I am not sure where the Y end stop needs to be placed along the Y Aluminum extrusion? Right now I have it so it will go the full distance of the aluminum extrusion right to where it will hit the bolt under the bed.

- The Glass is jagged and choppy on the edge I "attempted" to cut and all 4 corners

- I have a fan that I am not sure where or how it mounts. Possibly for a different hot end? The instructions do not say what its for and where to mount it. I will double check though.

- Although I haven't finished installing the electronics, it seems like I have a lot of wires and extra screws with the kit. (This never seems to be a good thing) :/

Here are updated pics:

IMG_20150928_195037980.jpg IMG_20150928_195103370.jpg IMG_20150928_195136159.jpg IMG_20150928_200440357.jpg

[adamfilip]

-The belt on the Y idler bracket is rubbing not sure how to keep the belt centered. I am not sure if it matters?,
try and offset the gear on the stepper so it changes the angle of the belt slightly, hopefullly you can do it enough so it doesnt rub, rubbing is bad

- Cant figure out the best way to run the X end stop wires?
i ended up running mine on the left side by the stepper as i already had the stepper wires running, just had to reverse the direction on marlin firmware so it homes left instead of right

- I am not sure where the Y end stop needs to be placed along the Y Aluminum extrusion? Right now I have it so it will go the full distance of the aluminum extrusion right to where it will hit the bolt under the bed.
let the bed go as far as you can , until right before the wheels hit. plus leave a small gap.

- The Glass is jagged and choppy on the edge I "attempted" to cut and all 4 corners
I used a Dremel with Diamond Cut off saw blade. with some water and it worked great if you cut slowly

- I have a fan that I am not sure where or how it mounts. Possibly for a different hot end? The instructions do not say what its for and where to mount it. I will double check though.
E3D V6 has a fan with Blue clip that goes over the alum fins of the hotend.. look up the hotend it should be obvious. I would also recommend having a fan blowing on the board. as the stepper drivers can get warm and cause missed steps

- Although I haven't finished installing the electronics, it seems like I have a lot of wires and extra screws with the kit. (This never seems to be a good thing) :/
I had alot of spare motor wires in my set

[tfast500]

try and offset the gear on the stepper so it changes the angle of the belt slightly, hopefullly you can do it enough so it doesnt rub, rubbing is bad

i ended up running mine on the left side by the stepper as i already had the stepper wires running, just had to reverse the direction on marlin firmware so it homes left instead of right

let the bed go as far as you can , until right before the wheels hit. plus leave a small gap.

I used a Dremel with Diamond Cut off saw blade. with some water and it worked great if you cut slowly

E3D V6 has a fan with Blue clip that goes over the alum fins of the hotend.. look up the hotend it should be obvious. I would also recommend having a fan blowing on the board. as the stepper drivers can get warm and cause missed steps

I had alot of spare motor wires in my set

Thanks for the wicked fast reply. This helps alot thanks!

[printbus]

The belt on the Y idler bracket is rubbing not sure how to keep the belt centered. I am not sure if it matters?

Like adamfilip pointed out, try to line everything up by sliding the bed forward to the idler and positioning the belts on the y-bed mount so the belts line up with the idler. Then slide the bed all the way to the motor and adjust the motor pulley so it lines up with the belt coming from the y-bed mount. If that doesn't fix it, the bolt holding the idler pulley might be a bit out of alignment. Experiment with loosening one of the idler bracket mounting screws and tightening the other. That'll make a small adjustment in how perpendicular the pulley bolt is with respect to the belt. At least a few have added a shim like a guitar pick under one side of the idler mounting bracket in order to adjust the bolt enough to keep the belt from rubbing against the wood side. Once you're printing, there are some idler pulley guides on Thingiverse that you can print and add to the pulleys to solve the problem.

I am not sure where the Y end stop needs to be placed along the Y Aluminum extrusion? Right now I have it so it will go the full distance of the aluminum extrusion right to where it will hit the bolt under the bed.

Remember that you're setting the y-axis home position with this switch. The 8-inch beds have a square silkscreened on them to "suggest" a printable area. You sort of have to guess on the larger beds.

The Glass is jagged and choppy on the edge I "attempted" to cut and all 4 corners

If it makes you feel better, I've never been able to do good at cutting glass either. For those that have the right tool, the right procedure, and the right touch, it's apparently easy. I had my local Ace cut pieces to the square shape I wanted, and then used my tile wet saw with a diamond blade to angle the corners.

I have a fan that I am not sure where or how it mounts. Possibly for a different hot end? The instructions do not say what its for and where to mount it. I will double check though.

Speaking from over a year ago, I know the kits used to include an extra fan. And yeah, the kits used to also include a lot of extra wiring.

[nexttoone45]

Your X motor, will be moving up and down. You will need to leave some slack in the wiring.

[tfast500]

Thanks guys I will give these tips and suggestions a go and report back.

Tonight I was able to mount the power supply and electronics. I routed my power wires around the back since I did not have enough room to go up through the channel in the bottom. Looks pretty good to me. I am happy with the cable management so far.

Tomorrow I should have everything hooked up and hopefully be able to test and calibrate the printer I am pretty excited to see this all come together and hopefully work!

I must admit this is taking way longer than I expected to put together. Partially do to taking my time with everything. Also breaking up the build into stages.

Pictures:

IMG_20150929_220827264_HDR.jpg IMG_20150929_220854045.jpg

[printbus]

I encourage any lurkers to jump in with their thoughts as well. There's almost always more than one "correct" answer to everything...

Temperatures can vary from machine to machine - the readings aren't very good in an absolute sense. You need to figure out what works well in your combination of variables. For what it is worth, I personally prefer the better surface shine and layer adhesion I get with PLA in the 205 to 215 range. Can't remember when I've printed below that. I have one roll the manufacture recommends printing at 235 I believe. There are blogs, reprap wiki posts and likely threads here that guide you through determining your best temperature for a given filament roll by getting a feel for how the filament manually extrudes as you rotate the extruder gear with motors disabled.

There likely may have been other things to try instead of attacking the hot end with a drill. For example, you could try letting the extruder soak at temperature for some time before trying to extrude. Or, I know I've had a few cases where I get the hot end off the extruder, and warm components up with a hot air gun to help picking material out of the tube with fresh filament, or pushing through the tube with a piece of wire. It'll take less heat to soften up the filament than you think. FWIW, when the filament feels "stuck" in the hot end, I have found I can rarely if ever move the filament by hand. As long as I haven't chewed a notch into the filament, what often works for me is commanding the extruder to move 1mm, maybe another 1mm, maybe 1 more mm. At some point in there it often breaks free.

When I saw the blue tape, I figured you'd be printing on a cold bed. I get phenomenal stick with a cold bed and 3M blue tape swabbed clean with 91% rubbing alcohol. Cleaning it with alcohol seems critical for removing any kind of production wax or finger oils from the tape. After that it should just be a matter of the gap you have between the nozzle and the bed. Most people end up adjusting for the same as the thickness of a piece of paper. You sort of have to develop a feel for how the paper drags when pulling it between the nozzle and the glass. "Some resistance" would be how I usually set mine. Look for the bed leveling wizard built into Simplify3D if you haven't seen it. It takes care of moving the nozzle around your bed for measuring the gap in each corner. Sort of speeds up the process. You'll likely soon be looking for better ways to do the corner height adjustments, or be looking into automatic bed compensation/leveling.

There are a few different threads where people have shared or discussed Simplify3D settings, at least for version 2. I cannot say the settings are the perfect answer to anything, but I do walk through all the version 2 settings I found work well for me as part of this post in my build thread - just scroll down to the section on Simplify3d. I no longer run Marlin, but the Simplfy 3D settings have remained pretty much the same with my new electronics setup. RUNNING SUMMARY OF CONFIGURATION SETTINGS

[tfast500]

Awesome thanks for the config settings I will give this a go!