My Prusa i3v 10" Build === Photos, Comments & Questions

[jtice]

After looking into 3D Printers for over a year now, I finally took the plunge and bought one.
I went with the Prusa i3V 10" due to its large build volume, large following, and pricing.
The instructions and videos that Makerfarm have for the printer are excellent, they make it quite easy, just follow along and take your time.
I lost track of the time it took to build it, I worked on it all afternoon after work, and on the third afternoon I was printer. But I would guess a solid 12 hours.

Comments
For the most part the printer is very well designed and goes together well. I had to do very little adjustment to the wooden parts at all.
The plastic printed parts for the extruder did require some clean up, filing and sanding here and there, but weren't horrible.

As others have mentioned, the extruder motor can be tough to get bolted on, the gears are VERY tight.
I highly suggest once you have the extruder assembly built, before you mount it on the printer, rotate the gears back and forth by hand for a while.
I had the extruder motor jam on me twice on my first print, I then worked the gears by hand back and forth for a while and tried again, its been fine once the gears wore in a bit.

I would highly recommend that you have someone print you out the bracket to move the Z end stop !!!!!
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:437330
I know that a big part of this is being able to print things for yourself, like printer mods, and it did feel great that I could print my own.
But you will save ALOT of headache if you have one when you goto build your printer. The stock design is just horrible.

I am using the stock firmware that came on the RAMPS, but did notice its NOT for a 10". Its for the 8"
As far as I have heard, its exactly the same, its just the max travel distances are different.
You can change them manually, or install the 10" firmware.
Download Link for 10" Firmware

Build Photos
You can see photos of the build here.
http://jtice.smugmug.com/3D-Printing...g-Prusa-i3v-10

Timelapse of the build.
http://youtu.be/hfYOq0PZ1qQ

My First Prints
You can see photos of my prints here.
http://jtice.smugmug.com/3D-Printing/Misc-3D-Prints/
The first prints I did were 1cm cubes. I was pretty amazed that they actually worked.
I expected my first few prints to be completely messed up and useless, but thats not been the case.
Next was the Z end stop bracket, thumb knobs for bed level adjustment bolts, and a control knob for the RAMPS.
I have only done ABS so far, with a glass bed and hair spray.
I have had no lifting, parts are stock to the glass really well, almost hard to pop off at times.

I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions you have on my prints, and how to make them better.
I know that I need to still get the nozzle to start closer to the glass on the first layer.
Seems the middle of the glass is sliiiiiiiiiightly lower than the edges. I need to level and adjust the Z stop to suit the middle of the glass better.

Questions
1. What is the proper procedure for changing filament? (without a connected PC)
I could not find anything on the RAMPS menu like I have seen in vids of the Makerbots, where you can tell it you want to change filament, and it walks you through it.
What I did was, used the Preheat for ABS feature in the RAMPS menu. Once hot, I pulled out the black filament, and inserted the blue filament.
I then rotated the large extruder gear by hand until blue filament was coming out of the nozzle.

2. I notice that when my printer starts a print, it goes to home like I see other printers do, it raises up a bit, then moves to the center of the bed to start the print.
It does not extrude any filament during that operation, the extruder gears do not turn.
It then prints what I think is called the rim? around the part first, when it starts this process the extruder gears are turning.
But. it does not start extruding filament till its at least half way done making the rim.
Once it starts the print it seems ok, but shouldnt this start sooner? Sometimes it barely starts extruding before it starts the actual printing of the part.

3. What do you think caused the open parts on my blue control knob?
I think it might have been printing a bit too hot at the top layer? Or maybe I need a fan blowing on the part as it prints? (though I thought that wasnt needed for ABS)

4. Is there a way (without a connected PC) to raise the extruder?
There have been a few times where it would have been nice to have a way to tell the printer to raise up on the Z axis so that I can access the print bed better.

5. When I add a second fan to blow on the part as its printed, I know where to hook it to the RAMPS, but how do you actually control it?
I use Cura as my slicer, hope to stick with it, it seems nice and I find it easy to use. Is there a way in Cura to tell it how to operate that second fan?
Such as not running the fan while the first layer or two prints, or leaving it off completely when printing ABS?