12" I3V Build

[Dustin B]

IMG_20160222_212128976.jpgIMG_20160222_212128976.jpg

Wife cut and sewed two layers of 1/8" Meta-Aramid Felt for the insulation on the build plate. I had bought a fire blanket as I'd seen recommended else where, as this felt was bought to make some LIPO charging bags. The fire blanket was useless and a waste of money. Frayed very badly and was impossible to sew into something that would last. This felt on the other hand was awesome. Cut the bottom layer to fit around the end stop bolt and the belt connector parts sticking through. Top layer isn't cut up except for around the wheel mount bolts. Bottom layer just has holes cut out for those. Will insulate very well and I don't have to worry about it starting on fire. The wood will burn before this stuff will.

Discovered last night that I'm missing the e3d v6 plate for mounting to the greg's extruder. Colin will ship one out but I think I'll end up making my own out of some 1/4" ply before it will get here.

I noticed the recess in the extruder is a little deeper than the flange on the v6. Should I sand the extruder down until the flange is flush with the bottom, or will the slight gap between the top of the v6 and the bottom of the recess in the extruder not matter at all?

[Dustin B]

The birch markerfarm supplies seems to be a very snug fit (will have to be pressed in won't slide easily) and the G1S fir plywood I have is 5 thousands thicker then the birch.

That's an interesting thought for a top cover. 5 weeks till kid number 2 so not sure if I'll manage to talk her into doing a bit more work :P

Picked up some M2.5 screws and nuts to modify the end stops with at noon today. I also picked up something similar to fun tack I plan to use to hold the wires in the V grooves for wire management until I print something or buy some channel inserts. Hopefully I'll get a mounting plate and the last of the mechanical assembly done tonight. Then on to wiring and software/calibration. Hopefully I'll have my first benchy printed sometime this weekend.

[printbus]

You can do basic movements from the LCD, yes. It's been a year since I ran Marlin, but I think you can only home all three axis, not each axis selectively. You can also move each axis by fixed increments of distance. Rotating the knob CW should give you "positive" movement, rotating CCW will give you negative movement. Until you do a homing action, "zero" is where ever the nozzle is when the printer is first turned on, which can make it easy to slam against a mechanical stop with large movements from the LCD.

Note that in at least legacy versions of Marlin, Z can only be commanded to move in 0.1mm or 1.0mm steps. For some reason the developer(s) didn't want to allow 10mm steps on Z. In other words, the option to move Z won't show up when you've selected 10mm incremental movements. This is a common area of confusion for those starting out.

This is a more thorough Marlin menu tree than the one that Colin at least used to provide in the build guides - http://mauk.cc/mediawiki/images/LCDmenu.pdf Home all axis is the Auto Home under the prepare menu. Axis movements are under the Move Axis item also on the prepare menu.

EDIT: Extruder motor movement is also possible on the move axis submenu tree. Just note that protections built into Marlin won't let you move the extruder motor if the hot end is not above a low temp threshold. The intent is to keep you from trying to move the motor when the filament is "frozen" in the hot end.

[printbus]

The humidity stays pretty low in the Denver, CO area too. I haven't fretted much over humidity, but I do keep filament rolls in industrial zip seal bags with at one or two of the small dessicant packets that come with filament as a precaution. I've been meaning to purchase some larger, reusable dessicant pouches but available funds always seem to be going elsewhere instead.

Some keep rolls and dessicant in a 5-gal bucket with a good sealing lid, like a paint bucket. Buckets commonly found at big box stores like Home Depot typically don't have a seal in the lid, so they won't seal as well.

[Dustin B]

Mounting plate was pretty trivial to make. 1/2" router bit cuts a slot that nicely fits the e3d v6. Made the slot too deep on first attempt, but using that to make the adjustments I had a perfect fit on the second attempt. Too bad I wasted a bunch of time trying to shim with kapton tape before I decided making the slot shorter would work better. Hopefully I'll have it all wired up by the end of tonight.

[Dustin B]

Question on the wiring.

Rumba4.jpg

The hot bed 12V 11a input. Is that even needed when I'm using a SSR or does the hotbed output from the board not have any power without power to the hot bed input?

Colin's wiring examples show two completely separate wires run from the power supply to logic board stepper input and the hot bed input. Is that necessary or can I just add a y to the wire from the power supply just before the board (I'm using 14 gauge)?

[Dustin B]

And is thermal paste really necessary between the SSR and heatsink. Isn't the SSR pretty big overkill for the DC the heat bed will be running?

SSR
Heatsink

[BLKKROW]

I have an SSR and used TIM (thermal interface material). My heatsink barely gets warm after printing for 18+ hours.

[Dustin B]

I'll try it without and keep an eye on it's temp. Any thoughts on what range would be concerning?

[BLKKROW]

I'll try it without and keep an eye on it's temp. Any thoughts on what range would be concerning?

If I were you I would use TIM. The fact is the heat sink and SSR are not perfectly flat, so they will not have a lot of contact without the TIM. This means you might have thermal runaway that might burn something.