New CTC Owner

[EagleSeven]

But how do I do that? Cant find any videos on youtube of anyone showing it.

??? What are you asking about ?
If the Y-stepper-motor, then it mounts to case with 4 screws, thru standoffs.
Those mounting screws adjust belt-tension and can come loose, allowing motor position to rotate.
(The short belt at Y-stepper-motor does not have a tension-spring on it)

And it did come with one tentioner on each y belt. tried to adjust and now cant get spring back on.
Any tip of putting them on without getting stabbed?

One spring on each belt should be enough.
Don't want to Over-Stretch the belts !
Yes, getting them on is Not real easy.

[bigo93]

Aha! I think I might have figured out whats wrong. Or part of what's wrong.

The front Y axel may be moving slightly as it isnt fixed.
The back one seems fixed.

So question now is how do I tighten this up?

This is axel pushed to the right
20151229_193824.jpg

And then axel pushed to the left
20151229_193837.jpg

As you can see a gap appears. between the spacer and gear.


edit: nevermind, I printed washers with the axel pushed left and right, prints came out pretty much identical, still oval

OK so read a thread which say it could be the firmware needing reflashing, so updated to 7.5, will update to sailfish later and then do a test print again

[EagleSeven]

I don't see a problem with the shafts or pulleys,
as long as the bearings, that fit in holes in case, are tight .
It's okay for shafts to flex a little at center of shafts ,
as long as ends of shafts and bearings do Not move (loose) in case.

(pulleys should not spin on shafts though,
shaft assemblies should turn in bearings at ends of shafts)

[EagleSeven]

OK so read a thread which say it could be the firmware needing reflashing, so updated to 7.5, will update to sailfish later and then do a test print again

Okay, I've been wondering if I should upgrade firmware in our printer,
so I'll be very interested to hear how that works for you ??

I don't think the firmware is causing the problem with loose prints, but I hope that fixes it !
(since we still have the old CTC Version-1, in our printer, and it does not have that problem)

[bigo93]

Are the gears and pulleys in your printer metal or plastic?

Mine all seem to be plastic....


Could this be the cause? Belt not being straight:

Extruder pushed to far right
20151230_153515.jpg

Extruder pushed to far left
20151230_153523.jpg

[EagleSeven]

Are the gears and pulleys in your printer metal or plastic?

Mine all seem to be plastic....

Could this be the cause? Belt not being straight:

All the pulleys are metal in ours but I don't think them being plastic could cause the problem,
unless they are broken.
Slight sideways movement of pulleys would Not effect print quality that much,
only slack or movement in Belt-travel directions will effect it like that.

[EagleSeven]

If you have not found the problem yet, I would next check voltage levels going to stepper-motors from motherboard.
I remember someone had a similar problem and they found that the voltage form MB was lower than needed at motors.
Some motor designs require higher voltage than others, and the builder company was using different types in their printers.
Some motherboards have voltage adjustments on them but some do not.
There are videos on internet showing how to adjust voltage, I think.

Note: you could have a bad motor, motherboard or Power-supply also

[bigo93]

Ok so install sailfish 7.6, washers still coming out oval :/

Another issue is if I use RepG now to print, the extruder stops in the middle of the plate, and then when it starts to print, it prints off the plate, near the extruder's home position.
All setting are the same as when I was on original firmware.

Gonna try this bit next, http://reprage.com/post/46062359808/...our-3d-printer

See if calibrating the printer using this method helps.

edit: It was slightly off on Y axis, instead of 70mm it moved an average of 66.44.
I can change the settings in makerware, but not sure if it is using them, as if I restart printer it goes to the old value again.

Also when printing precision pieces, should acceleration be turned off?

And also printed the first few layers of a calibration cube.
Along the Y axis it's not too bad,
But along the X axis it's 2mm short.

How do I fix this? Could be the printer not using the new stepper value as well even though makerware is set to it.

[TiredJuan]

I had the print location problem with repg after the Sailfish update and the fix was adjusting the extruder offset (you can measure it, or look it up. Mine was 34mm IIRC) in the onboard settings.

[bigo93]

Figured out what was causing most of the issue with the circle printing.

I was looking at the wrong Y belts.
I was checking the tension of the horizontal Y belts.

But then after looking at a couple video on youtube, I realised I hadnt checked the vertical little belt on the Y stepper motor. (even though EagleSeven pointed that out last week :P )
And sure enough it was also slack.

Loosened it and pulled the motor down and tightened it back on.

And here's a test print after doing this. Had to print with a raft this time, probably need to clean the plate and clean the nozzle.
So a lot more circular than before, but still just slight off.
But at least much better off than before.

20160103_223810.jpg


And as expected, from one problem to another. Seems I cannot make ABS juice with the filament I have. the stuff doesnt dissolve and just sticks together to form a blob.
Reading other forums and it could be because it isnt ABS, but instead PVC, which is worse.