12" I3V Build

[Dustin B]

Been mostly lurking for a couple weeks. Ordered a 12" I3V (1.75mm E3D V6, Greg's and Rumba with Graphical LCD) on the weekend and am starting this thread for two reasons. To get any feedback I can on what those before me would do differently on their initial build and as a place holder for anything I learn/need help with during the build. Been reading through the two sticky threads and a few others in the forum. So far there are a few things I know I'm going to be changing during the build.

• I've ordered the SS Relay and heatsink already to convert the heat bed to PID (not sure what the implications are of the built in relay Colin now ships it with)
• I'll be buying some extra baltic birch plywood and at a minimum beefing up the Y-axis ends
• Ordered some 5mm-5mm Z couplers that I will also be drilling and tapping to add set screws to on top of the squeeze screws already on them
• Thread locker will be used liberally during the build
• Once up and running the first prints will be replacement end stop mounts and guides/protection brackets for the top of the threaded rods
• Print one of the print cooling ducts and depending on how my steppers end up temp wise adding some heat sinks or active cooling
• Pretty sure I'll add an out of filament detector relatively soon after completion
• Either build a small torsion box or just a 3/4" sheet of mdf to mount it to (if I go to the trouble of a torsion box I'll make sure to do a little extra planning so that could be part of an enclosure for the printer)

Not planning on ABL initially but may change my mind later. Bought this power supply to run my LIPO chargers but have since bought a different supply for that and will be using the linked one for the printer.

[Chadd]

I would also recommend you setup auto bed leveling as it makes life so much easier. You will need to print the servo mount parts and get yourself a servo.

[Mysta]

I would also recommend you setup auto bed leveling as it makes life so much easier. You will need to print the servo mount parts and get yourself a servo.

Does this go for the Pegasus as well?

[Dustin B]

Got the printer on Friday (got the brake job on my car done yesterday and now only 2 more projects before I can start building it). Opened the box to check I got everything and to take some photos of the build in relay on the heat bed.
bottom.jpg
top.jpg

So what would you do to switch to PID control? Just add a jumper wire, remove the relay and add a jumper wire in it's place, remove the relay and move the one 12 guage power wire?

[tsteever]

...and a high quality micro switch for the servo.

[Dustin B]

Two votes for ABL and only Colin and one other guy I've seen in my browsing on this forum against it. Might end up happening sooner than later then :P

Any thoughts on passive heat sinks on the axis steppers? They are pretty cheap online so can't see how they'd hurt.

Might start with that on the extruder too and go active if I notice them getting too hot.

[Chadd]

Are you talking about heat sinks for the motors or stepper drivers? My kit came with small heat sinks for the drivers, my motors have never gotten hot enough that I would consider cooling for them.

Two votes for ABL and only Colin and one other guy I've seen in my browsing on this forum against it. Might end up happening sooner than later then :P

Any thoughts on passive heat sinks on the axis steppers? They are pretty cheap online so can't see how they'd hurt.

Might start with that on the extruder too and go active if I notice them getting too hot.

[printbus]

Thanks for posting a pic of the relay. A few have mentioned the built-in relay, but I believe you're the first to provide a picture of it. This reveals the heat bed is using the same 30-amp G8QN Omron mechanical relay that is used on the standalone relay board.

To go the PID route, you'd first want to remove the two small black wires from the heat bed. You might be able to reuse the wires to control the SSR, but the SSR will require you to keep the polarity straight between the electronics board and the SSR. The mechanical relay didn't care.

After that, removing the relay depends on how comfortable you are in attempting to remove it. The two pins that solder to the wide traces would be a problem for some. I'd probably just jumper across those two pins with some heavy wire, leaving the relay there in case you roll back to using it. There'd be two options to jumpering across the pins. You could move the heavy gauge wire from the wide trace just going to the relay to the relay pin connecting to the other wide trace, but the solder pad there is smaller. The other option would be to scrape away the soldermask on the two wide traces where they are the closest and build a solder bridge to short the two traces together.

[printbus]

I'd argue that something is wrong if tightening the wheel mounting bolt changes how freely the wheel spins. The only way it should make a difference is if the nut is backed off enough that the inner race isn't held tight and it's spinning on the bolt. IMO that's way too loose; I prefer for the bolt to tighten solidly on the inner races. That said, there's a few things to note.

These are greased bearings, which do require some run time to loosen up.

The OD of the inner races are pretty small, and don't clear the rotating part of the bearing by much. Make sure the nut, bolt head, spacer, or anything else mating with the inner race ONLY touches the inner race. You don't want anything rubbing on the rotating part of the bearing beyond the inner race. Add some shims if there's a doubt.

Did your wheels come preassembed? It might be worth taking one apart to make sure there's a proper shim washer installed between the two bearings. The problem here is that the wheels are wider than the two bearings are, and the shim washer is required to make up the difference between the two bearings. If there's no shim washer installed, the bearings aren't fully seated in the wheels, or the shim washer isn't thick enough, tightening the wheel mounting bolt puts axial pressure on the inner and outer parts of the bearing, which will cause binding in the bearings. Note that openBuildsPartsStore has precision washers for this - http://openbuildspartstore.com/precision-shim-10x5x1mm/

[Dustin B]

I was talking about the motors. Just seen the mods for shrouds to do active cooling on the motors and the talk of adjusting the voltage to the stepper motors to the lowest point where they don't miss steps but run cool. Didn't realize the drivers on the Rumba board would be potentially more of an issue. But now that you mention it I've seen designs for shrouds and mounts for the electronics too just not any threads on here about it.