MakerFarm 8" i3v Prusa build by Printbus

[printbus]

Oh! She's completed Phase One of her campaign. Phase Two is when she starts asking why you have to keep spending money on that damned printer. "I thought you said it had everything in it that you needed!"

Ha! Yeah, the "didn't it come with what you needed" has already came up. She knows me, though, and all I had to do was say I found a way to improve it and needed to make a run to the local Ace Hardware. To that her response has been "oh, so you're not done Kevinizing it yet". So far, working on the printer has been nothing like the ongoing investment I've had with RC helicopter repairs, but I can see the similarities the future may bring.

No build progress today - too much time spent living life.

[beerdart]

Great build Kevin. In the end you will have a great printer that will improve with every Hey honey are you heading to the hardware store again..

[old man emu]

I don't like taking my missus to the hardware store - she spends more than I do, and then expects me to do things with what she's purchased.

I'm doing some maintenance and upgrades on my i3 at the moment and have been in the workshop for a couple of hours. I think I'm getting close to that 'one step too far' point.

OME

[gmay3]

printbus, good to see that you're taking you time and enjoying the build! I had a great time building mine, but it seems like you're having an ever greater time! haha

I'm intrigued by your led strip lighting on the bottom of your x carriage. I have the same strip lighting on hand and I'm very interested in seeing how yours turns out when the lights are on during a print!

[old man emu]

I'm intrigued by your led strip lighting on the bottom of your x carriage. I have the same strip lighting on hand and I'm very interested in seeing how yours turns out when the lights are on during a print!

I've fitted the same sort of thing to my printer. I'll post some pix tomorrow.

OME

[gmay3]

Awesome! Thanks OME!

[printbus]

...I'm very interested in seeing how yours turns out when the lights are on during a print!

I'm not printing yet, but here's a snapshot showing the illumination from the X carriage LEDs. I wavered between installing three vs six LEDs, but I'm glad I went with six. Three might have been a bit lacking.

[printbus]

POWER SUPPLY AND RAMPS MOUNTING
I ended up not using the holes MakerFarm provides on the left sidewall for a Mean Well type power supply. I moved the power supply rearward a bit to open up the airflow slots on the forward edge of the power supply, and I moved the power supply upward in order to provide more wiring access room at the power supply terminal block. This does mean, however, that the power supply is now only mounted at three points.



I also used #8 x 1/4-inch aluminum spacers on the power supply in order to open up the airflow slots on the mounting side of the power supply. I'd rather the power supply fan run as little as possible, and I'm hoping these changes improve the cooling obtained just by convection.



The RAMPS and heater relay were mounted in the provided holes. I threw spacers on these too, mainly so I could tuck wires under the boards.



FOLLOWUP COMMENT #1: One of my tougher vibrations to track down turned out to be on the RAMPS board. The two large yellow square components (polyfuses) were touching, and at certain print speeds they'd rattle. To fix that, I added a dab of hot glue between them to ensure the two components aren't touching.

FOLLOWUP COMMENT #2: If you're downloading the Marlin firmware at this point in your build, DO NOT follow the instructions in the build guide RAMPS firmware video on where to get it. I learned the hard way that will get you the firmware intended for the i3, not the i3v. There are some subtle differences in the firmware configuration files. Obtain the files from the RAMPS download link provided in the i3v build guide.

[old man emu]

Just a suggestion:
Rotate your RAMPS board 180 degrees. That will give you easier access to the endstop, thermistor and extruder stepper connections. It will also make it easier to access the power and heater (both) connections. It does put the flat cable to the LCD in the way, but that is a small price to pay for better access. I actually attached a plywood plate to the top frame member and have my RAMPS board on top of the printer, to the left of the LCD screen. Really easy access.

Here's how mine looks:

Relocated RAMPS board.jpg

Old Man Emu

[old man emu]

Here are some pix to show how my 3 x LED light strips illuminate the print area.

Here is the print area with the lights off:

Lights Off.jpg

and with the lights on (no flash for photo)

Lights On.JPG

Here's how it looks in photos taken with a flash.

Lights off

Lights Off - flashlit.jpg

Lights on

Lights On - flashlit.jpg

Here's the link to how I did it: http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...the-Print-Area

Old Man Emu