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12-26-2017, 08:21 AM #1
- Join Date
- Dec 2017
- Location
- North Carolina
- Posts
- 9
I make PCB at home sometimes as an eleectrical engineer and make cases for them with my 3d printer. The printer I use I bought from folgertech , the 20/20 model. After a lot of tinkering I have it where I want it, I guess it depends on whether you want a printer to just print something or if you like the tinkering aspect of it. Decide how valuable your time is vs your money.
The printer is a RepRap Prusa/Mendel V2/V3. It has a horizontal carriage assembly. Originally designed for the filament feed motor to be mounted directly on the carriage, however has been modified with a bowden type remote extruder.
Hot end is some no-name off of ebay, held in place by a piece of paint-stirring stick (because the bracket was made for a direct drive not bowden. It's got a genuine arduino mega 2560, and RAMSP 1.4A board. Yes, it says "RAMSP" not "RAMPS" Heated bed, all steppers are "Kysan 1124090". Frame is thick acrylic, plexiglass, or similar. "Geeetech" LCD display with rotary encoder, speaker, and momentary switch.
The one I use is below and has the ability to add a cooling fan for pla if you want, not required to use the mount. It is minimal and doesn't add much weight to the carriage and works with the carriage that the prusa clone models have.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1632847
- Weak gear in servo motor ocassionally causes arm to partially extend for z-axis autolevel switch, causing hot end to ram into and shatter glass bed. (I think some sort of fixed-mount optical sensor would be better.)
They are not overly expensive either, the one I use is :
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075375HBY/
Cost is $30 and is a thick aluminum heated bead with thick glass that is coated with the PEI stuff (I still use glass with it and hair spray), but the bed works good and is ridid. I haven;t leveled my bed in 30+ prints and don't use auto level because the bed doesn't need it.
- Z-axis motors make "jamming" sound, even with threaded rods disconnected from motor. I've tried adjusting the little driver boards on the RAMSP. It works more reliably at extremely slow speeds, although never 100% reliable.
- Intermittent yet frequent random heater error messages (thermal runaway, etc...) causing print job to halt.
- Filiment jams up inside of hot end causing print job to be ruined.
- After completing a layer, the printer does not correctly increment the carriage up "one notch" (z-axis) causes filament to be dispensed too far above the object being printed. By about a quarter inch worth of layers, the item being printed is a mess and ruined.
I would imagine the thing to do is replace the carriage assembly with one made for a bowden filiment feed, and perhaps replace the arduino/ramsp board with something newer. Replacing the carriage could include an optical Z sensor, and proper cooling for the cold end.
So, is this machine worth putting a few $$ into? Do newer machines spin circles around it? Time to toss it?
Thanks!
It sounds like the problems are really ones of calibration and configuration. I would fix the carriage, the ramps boards are fine, update the firmware . Newer machines do have some nicer features but the prints they produce are not going to be any better than a properly tuned and configured printer like you already have.
Please explain to me how to...
05-17-2024, 12:15 PM in 3D Printer Parts, Filament & Materials