Printer Ordered

[N5QM]

Both sides are painted now and have been drying since ~ 3 this afternoon. It has been quite difficult to not start assembling it tonight, but I figure a little extra drying time will be good.

I will start with the assembly tomorrow and plan to get everything functional and tested, including ABL, before I put the wires through the sleeving material I have.

[gmay3]

Looking good N5QM, and sorry I'm late to this party but welcome!

To respond to your question about mods to print, here are some I use and would reccomend. I've bolded ones that you should print and use right off the bat and are easy prints, and other unbolded ones that you can (in my opinion) grow in to

1. clough42 - LCD Spacer, Sorbothane Isolation Feet, Print Cooling Fan, Adjustable Z endstop, Improved Hexagon Cooling
2. zen1 - Pushfit Belt Guide (print one for the x and the y)
3. swiddie - One Tool Belt Adjustment Bracket
4. schlotzz - RAMPS 40mm fan mount
5. benlew - i3v Control Knob
6. neonpolaris - Spool Mount Smoother
7. gmay3 - (shameless plug) Snap on LED Tray, Rear mounted spool holder (upgrade after using the stock makerfarm holder + neonpolaris spool smoother)

[N5QM]

Thank you for the suggestions!

The printer is in one piece now and I have a test print in progress.




Here is the printer as it looks at this point.

[sniffle]

one suggestion if you are printing ABS, flip the fan around so that it pulls air from the hot end and blows it out instead of plowing air in to the hot end and dow toward the part... it'll save you some headaches trying to print other parts.

[N5QM]

Good suggestion, I noticed, while checking everything out, that the fan blows right down onto the part after it passes the hot end and was wondering how that would turn out.

I will flip it around shortly.

[N5QM]

Here is the first print... I have some tuning to do, but not bad considering.. ;-)

[sniffle]

Here is the first print... I have some tuning to do, but not bad considering.. ;-)

Well done sir im working on getting my bridging better and then i think its finally time to do the 2015 shoot out prints nust to see how i have done and how far i have to go

[ex-egll]

Couple of questions. I will be painting my kit as well soon, just sorting out the parts and doing an inventory. I wasn't sure whether to paint the parts while still all attached together, or break them out as you have done. If printed all together, would the parts "stick" together as the paint dried, if painted individually would paint on the side walls affect fit. Any thoughts?

Is there any specific reason you used Krylon paint? Finally are you treating the heat bed support with anything, or just leaving it as is.

[N5QM]

I'll answer in reverse order.. :-)

I actually used Rustoleum Universal Satin Black, I must have had Krylon on the brain when I was writing. I bought three cans, but a single can got the job done with two coats on each side.

I did not paint the heat bed support because of the warping issue that has been discussed and I didn't want it to be a problem if I needed to get a replacement from Colin.

I broke all of the parts out of the "shell" to make sure that the edges were also painted. The tolerances are very tight, so I don't think the paint would do a good job of getting between the sections otherwise. I expect you can paint it after it is all together, but I am not a good painter, so I tried to keep it simple. haha

The part that I didn't share about the picture with the parts laid out is that it was 30F when I was painting, so I did it in my garage and had a space heater blowing on the parts to dry them. After everything was dry to the touch, I brought it inside overnight to help cure the paint. Now of course, it is 60F outside.. :-/

[AbuMaia]

I don't think it's an issue with the i3v, but when I painted my i3, I cleaned out all the holes and separated all the pieces first. This was a mistake, as it made the fit very tight. When I painted my i3v, I didn't clean out the holes, and left all the pieces attached as long as possible. I figured the edges were dark anyway and didn't need paint :-P. So I can't say how the fit is after painting the i3v if you paint every piece separate from the others.