My Makerfarm Prusa i3v 8" build

[printbus]

Great! I'll bet the connectors were installed off a pin. It's really easy to do.

[eghm]

Started test printing (3 mm) with hollow cube, things were hard and slow going until I put a load on the 5v (with a fan) of my Antec VP-450 450 Watt Power Supply. I've included some pictures of the 40% hollow cube, I'ld appreciate any advice on what to tune to improve the quality of my print. Thanks!

DSC05622.jpgDSC05623.jpgDSC05625.jpg
EDIT: Surprised at how smooth the front and back are. The sides need work. I'm guessing I need to tighten things up to get rid of play.

[gmay3]

Glad to hear that the debugging worked and you solved the problem!

Hmm, seems like something is either structurally wrong with the axes or there was an issue with the gcode since it didn't come out square. I think your extruder looks like it is probably set up ok!

A couple things to try:

Just start up pronterface and move the x and y 10 mm. Verify that they are moving in that ballpark. If not then you know its something structural. Tighten up your belts/delrin idlers and make sure that all your axes are rock solid and there is no play in them when you try to move them in any other direction then they are supposed to go.

What slicer are you using?

[eghm]

Thanks gmay3, I used pronterface as you described and sure enough there was a problem with my x-axis not moving as much as it should, the reason is it didn't have the set screws in it! Ran another hollow cube test at 50% scale and it looks much better. Though the wavy lines makes me think I need to lower my z.

DSC05631.jpg

[TopJimmyCooks]

Yes, looks normal except your nozzle is too high on the first layer. I would recalibrate the height of your z endstop switch so that until a sheet of paper just catches between the nozzle and bed for a start point.

[gmay3]

Fantastic! That looks much better, good detective work!

Yes I agree with you, a little lower and you'll be golden. As an example, your z endstop should be set so that it trips/clicks when the end of your nozzle is about 70% of your desired layer height above the glass. You might find that you need to get the nozzle even closer to get a good stick but think of the nozzle as smoothing that first layer of plastic down over your glass bed.

Here's my bed leveling procedure in case it's any help. I'm sure you already have one!

1. Connect to pronterface and home your axes where your nozzle is all the way in the corner (probably the back right one).
2. Make sure your nozzle is about 5mm away from touching the glass.
3. Adjust the z axis and get the nozzle about 1mm away. Then start lowering it at a 0.1mm increments in proterface and slip a business card or feeler gauge under the nozzle.
4. Feel under the nozzle as your lower it and stop when there just a little resistance between the glass, business card, and nozzle when you try to pull the business card away.
5. Loosen and adjust your z endstop upwards so that it clicks against the axis then tighten it back down.
6. Move your z axis up a few mm until the z endstop unclicks and lower it slowly to see if it stops at your desired height, fine tune if necessary.
7. Once your happy with that corner, lower the z axis until it stops, then move your x axis towards the middle and watch the space underneath the nozzle. If it's getting less and less, adjust the bed at the corner you're heading towards until your sure the nozzle can make it all the way there without scraping along the glass. You may find that if you're not able to adjust that corner or it's bending your heatbed too much. If this is the case, try to make sure the x axis is level across the top. You can adjust this by turning the z rods on either side to tilt the x axis.
8. Once this corner is done and you can feel a little resistance on your business card in this corner and you are happy with height under the nozzle in both back corners repeat this procedure with the front two.

You might find that the heat during a print slightly changes the height under the nozzle but this should get you started in the right place.

In the future, definitely try out clough42's improved z endstop design found here. Adjusting the stock makerfarm endstops can be pretty tricky. This will help you easily fine tune even more and it's fantastic! http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:336665

[jtice]

I found that preheating my bed for at least 8 to 10 minutes makes a huge difference.
If I set the Z stop when the bed is cold, the nozzle will be way too low when I goto actually print.

Noticed my stock head fan shroud is melting last night,
so I cant wait to get the entire Clough42 setup installed, including auto bed leveling!

But the the Z stop bracket that gmay3 linked is a MUST at the very least, it really helps.

[gmay3]

Good point jtice! I'll have to try that next time!

Yeah my stock fan shroud was melting too. I trimmed some melted plastic away (just enough so it's not touching the heater block) and wedged and glued in a small flat piece of a scrap print between the bottom edge of my hexagon cooler fan and the fan shroud. This lifted the bottom of the fan shroud off the top of the heater block.

I've got all the stuff printed for Clough42 built in cooler but I'm still waiting to receive the small fan from China! This fix should hold until the new fan comes in.

[jtice]

Yea I need to order the fan and servo for that project soon.
I think the fan he links to is on DigiKey? So that should show up fast, the servo is pretty common, can snag it off ebay I figure.

Probably going to see if I can crank out some prints I want to do, then do a rebuild with Clough42s setup, and make some changes to the firmware,
like making it autohome a bit faster, little stuff like that.

[gmay3]

Yes I think the one he recommended was from digikey. I've never ordered from digikey and I have amazon prime so I found this one which may or may not be a good fit. I still haven't received it to verify it's quality and ability to cool the hot end, but I'll update this post with my findings.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

**UPDATE

I received this fan and it fits clough42's part perfectly. I haven't installed everything to verify that it has enough power to keep the hotend cool but I will update this post with that info soon.