Heaven help me - I've just bought a delta kit :-)

[Davo]

Very nice.

[curious aardvark]

Hit first bump last night.
one of the stepper motors has stopped working in one direction.
Hoping it's just a dodgy plug or wire. Going to dismantle and check today.
Does explain a couple things. The first print was amazing, but they've been going downhill since then.
This looks like why, obviously been gradually starting to fail since that first print.
More later.

[S550Stang]

hey thats a clothespin spring.....

[curious aardvark]

It sort of is. But smaller and easier to fit.
These are specifically designed fior the 6mm gt2 timing belts.
But, yep basically the same design :-)

So after checking cables, swapping cables and testing, I'm 100% certain I have a dead stepper motor, well terminally ill anyway. It tries to turn but there's just no oomph there. It will bring the carriage down, but not up. And I'm pretty sure it started to die immediately after my first print.
Changing over connections on the board makes no difference (well it confuses the hell out of it as the wrong endstops are being hit) so it's not the stepper controller or the cable.
Sigh. Given that they are the most awkward part to fit, it bloody would be wouldn't it.
What do these things cost ?

***

Well that was interesting. https://www.amazon.co.uk/XCSOURCE-4-...=stepper+motor
1 stepper motor was £9.99 with amazon prime next day delivery (which i have)
Promotion, buy 2 get 1 free. So I bought 2.
Get to checkout and total cost is £5.99 - makes no sense, but I am not arguing :-)
So that's £5.99 for TWO stepper motors and I should get them tomorrow.

stepperbuy.JPG

I am so looking forward to fitting it - NOT !
:-)

It's also the motor on the x axis and all my prints have been mirror reversed on the x-axis.
Wondering if the thing could somehow have been causing that as well.

Guess I will find out.

Hmm, wonder if I should get another couple - at that price it seems almost daft not to.
I'll wait to see if they fit and work first I think.

[ralphzoontjens]

Those belt tensioners are brilliant, hacked straight out of the mainstream production line

[curious aardvark]

So if you think your stepper motor has died, there is a check list.
Check the cables, check the motherboard.
Oh and be very very sure that you check the grub screws on the hobbed bolt have not worked loose faint.gif

Because the last thing you want is to dismantle the printer and have that lightbulb moment when you've spent the best part of an hour removing the mounting bolts and the motor tilts and the hobbed bolt just slides off by itself.
I didn't actually swear, but I did call myself a pillock, among other things :-)

Have you ever tried to straighten an alan key with nothing but a small hammer and gator grip pliers (go back to that hour thing above) ?
It's pretty much the only way you can get at the motor bolts without a total frame dismantle.
So hey at least i now have a specialist tool to remove the motors.

the other thing to bear in mind is that stepper motors pretty much NEVER fail. So if you have a dodgy motor, make bloody sure before you start taking things apart :-)

On the other hand I have three machines, with 14 motors between them - couple of really cheap spares can't hurt, so given what they cost - I'm not bothered about that.
And the learning curve for this build extends that little bit more.
Yes I have made sure the bolts on the other two motors are bloody tight.
I guess the belt tensioners were the last straw . I think I didn't have it seated 100% on the flat part of the motor shaft, so it gradually slid down. It was obviously slipping when that carriage was low and the belt was under extra tension. Which explains the results I was getting

So now I've made damn sure that's what the issue was (all three now working perfectly) I'm going to take the belt back off and try and get the other two holding bolts back in.

After all this the bloody thing better start printing like the original print again !
Still got that hammer handy ;-)

Spent the last few years telling people to double check the mechanicals and simple stuff before assuming it's something more complicated. Just goes to prove I know what I'm talking about - just need to listen every once in a while :-)

[curious aardvark]

Right, finally got everything back together and we're printing again.

Decided to do the same part at the same settings that I did the first print.
Fingers crossed it comes out the same.

If it does - I can go back a week and start again seeing just how fast she will print :-)
Also see how she works with different slicers and if she will print with polyflex. That will be slow, but might work. Also start costing up a vertical extension.
Also need to try more than one thing at a time, get full plate calibration sorted, sort a print area cooling fan, etc etc :-)

Oh yeah. As the little motor mounting bolts were such a bastard to fit. I ended up using a couple of longish cdrom mounting screws. Fit perfectly and sooo much easier to fit with a long thin crosshead screwdriver.

Right that's looking pretty good.
I need food !

[curious aardvark]

Simplify3d has caused me a couple issues, that I've now either fixed or found a work around.

So, things I've noticed:

Bowden setup doesn't seem to make any difference, works really well, I got zero stringing when printing multiple parts - s3d just won't do sequential printing, which is annoying, but as there's no stringing. Not a big issue.
One thing that has surprised me is how well she prints without a print area cooling fan.
I'm getting cleaner prints than the flashforge. I think the fact that there's more natural airflow and a consistent air gap round the part being printed is having almost as much of a cooling effect as the fan on the flashforge.

I'm printing twice as fast with cleaner results.

Prints require a lot less stick to stay stuck.
What i mean is that as the delta has almost no vibration and the head can't catch on anything, prints that would have worked free over time on the makerbot clones, just work. So not only can she print a lot faster and make larger prints, but I've so far had zero adhesion issues and I'm using a lot less 'smush' on the first later. I think the polyflex feet might have also added a little vibration damping.
Which means I can print more intricate items without worrying about the first layer fusing.

I know the printbite is expensive. But it genuinely takes all the hassle out of 3d printing as far as prints staying stuck goes.
Running it at 50c for pla and 60c for pet-g. As it requires a lot less stick than the flashforge, I can use lower temperatures without any issues.
Also had no warp. And on the parts I'm printing I have had a little on the makerbot clones, when I didn't use smush and a brim. On the delta I can print the same parts without a brim and with almost no smush.

Just love this machine :-)

Decided I'm going to design and print a bolt on base plate to replace the cardboard and sellotape.
That'll be a real test as it'll need to print thin edge down to get the full size in one print. Also going to see about putting perforations in for some extra airflow.

That'll be a fairly impressive print. pics when i've done it :-)

[S550Stang]

For whst its worth, and you may already know this company, check out misumi.com lots of mechanical components... good prices

[curious aardvark]

I will have a look.
But these days I generally buy most things from amazon. Good choice and decent prices and I have amazon prime - so next day delivery as standard, even at weekends.

Just having a go at the base plate.
160mm wide at the base by 4mm deep, 224mm high and tapering to 50mm at the top.
No raft or brim :-)
There's no way I'd ever try and print something like this on the makerbot clones. certainly not without a serious brim. It would definitely try and warp. Plus only 150 mm build height.
I have no clue if it will work.
But I have faith in her :-)

The lack of vibration, or any of the general rattle and hum you get with the makerbot, makes all sorts of things possible I'd never dream of trying on the makerbot clones.

Looking good. It'll bolt into the extrusion slot at the wide end and I'll make a bracket to hold it in at the narrow end.

Ah - I forgot the ventilation holes !
Bugger - have to start again :-)

Crude but effective - looks like mutant swiss cheese:

baseplate.JPG