Another Sintratec kit built

[Mike Francies]

Replacement driver and switch arrived today so I was pretty keen to get them fitted. Had to earn some brownie points first though before I could play. I first checked the driver was working by rigging it up without mounting it to the chassis. Yay, it was working and the Y axis galvo was doing its thing However, there was a bit of a problem with the new driver - the mounting holes were threaded 4mm not drilled as clearance as the original ones were but as the bolts are captive, between the two layers of aluminium and insulation, there was no way of getting the driver attached. It was clear they had to be drilled out 4mm. This I did, being very careful not to get any swarf into the electronics. That done, the driver and switch were positioned and fitted.

Next the printer was fired up and I could finally do the calibration. The galvos needed a lot of adjustment to get the pattern right but I got there in the end. Probably have to wait till tomorrow to get some powder in and a test print done.

It's not clear from the instructions but I am assuming just a small ammount of powder can be used without having to fill the powder chamber? Can anyone confirm?

[RomanG]

Replacement driver and switch arrived today so I was pretty keen to get them fitted. Had to earn some brownie points first though before I could play. I first checked the driver was working by rigging it up without mounting it to the chassis. Yay, it was working and the Y axis galvo was doing its thing However, there was a bit of a problem with the new driver - the mounting holes were threaded 4mm not drilled as clearance as the original ones were but as the bolts are captive, between the two layers of aluminium and insulation, there was no way of getting the driver attached. It was clear they had to be drilled out 4mm. This I did, being very careful not to get any swarf into the electronics. That done, the driver and switch were positioned and fitted.

Next the printer was fired up and I could finally do the calibration. The galvos needed a lot of adjustment to get the pattern right but I got there in the end. Probably have to wait till tomorrow to get some powder in and a test print done.

It's not clear from the instructions but I am assuming just a small ammount of powder can be used without having to fill the powder chamber? Can anyone confirm?

Hi Mike its nice to hear that you are finally up and running!

You can calculate the powder like this:

You need 1 cm for every 100 layers (0.1mm layer high is standard) Also you will need additional 2 cm. 1 cm is for bed preparation and 1 cm is for cool-down. Also i suggest you put 5 mm to 1 cm more just to be sure.
So for the calibration print (5 mm) you will end up with about 3 cm space you need in the build chamber

For the feeding chamber this is a different story. you have to keep in mind that the density of the powder chances when sintering. From about 0.5 kg per liter to about 0.9 to 1 kg per liter (depending on the sintering strength). This means that you actually have to apply more powder to compensate. This means the feeding chamber will move about +25% the distance of the building chamber.

If you apply that knowledge to the calibration part you end up with 37.5 mm.

have fun printing if there are any more questions feel free to ask.