Newbie

[Ghosty]

Hi,

Just got a flashforge dual (well a replica of one) see this link : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3D-PRINTER...E:L:OC:GB:3160

having a few issues you guys might be able to help with.

1, the z-axis bar (the up and down one) has a lot of play towards the top, is this common, can a stablizer bracket be fabricated to stop the wobble ????

2, i only seem to be able to get 1 or 2 good prints a time, before it goes to hell,

3, what type of oil do i use to lube the motors, gears etc (directions on what to oil would be helpful)

ok there the biggies, print settings for free ??? pla are as follows

extruder temp at 205
bed temp at 80
leveled the bed then wiped over with acetone before printing.

as of this moment its printing an ipod stand

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:408000

and its coming out pretty clean, only at 11% though so we will see, infill is set to 30% (i know its high but i really want this not to flop over).

should there be anything else i should do ????

Ghosty

[curious aardvark]

well for pla - don't heat the bed - at all.
Just use blue painters tape. I find that pla sticks like glue no matter what temp - but at room temperature I can remove the prints without tearing the tape. If it's heated it sticks too much :-)

grease for the guide rails - I bought spray can of lithium grease from poundworld :-)
Small can of general purpose grease - just check the cans for the ones that mention lithium.

Give the rails a light wipe every week or so. Just spray a bit onto some kitchen roll and wipe the round metal rods.
Don't worry about play in the screw shaft - it's the metal rods that keep the platform level.

Pretty much everything else is comprehensively covered somewhere in this forum :-)

[Ghosty]

hi,

thanks for the reply, i have lithium (white) grease in my garage, use it to lube up the sunroof fittings on my MG ZR, so i know that stuff well.

just finished the print it was doing, looks ok pulled off the bed a little during printing, so have no idea why, besides that it looks perfect even at std print settings in makerware.

looked on ebay for painters tape, and it looks like a rough finish on the none sticky side, also do i remove the kapton tape or stick over the top

[Dargonfly]

Hi Ghosty,
Looks like Curious Aardvark already covered most things, but I'm going to give you some literature regarding calibration and some basic (yet very important) things such as leveling, getting materials to stick, getting good print dimensions, etc.
http://reprap.org/wiki/Calibration#Bed_Leveling
You can start at the 'Bed Leveling' parts since the motherboard / stepper calibration should not apply to you if you've got an assembled Flashforge.

Also, as CA mentioned; lots of stuff is already mentioned on this sub-forum;
Everybody has the same 'problems' with printing when they start - just keep going at it, use your brain, and ask people if you need some advice and you'll be printing whatever you want to print in no time!

[Geoff]

Hi Ghosty, we have the same machine.. and yes that Z thread does wobble, it is not straight and mine was bent from the first day I ever bought it, but it doesnt matter and will not affect the prints. The new flashforges have a small plastic insert that keeps it straight and attaches it to the top of the machine, whereas ours just flops loose and open at the top of the thread, aesthetically crap, but functionally OK.

The two rods either side of the thread are what keeps it straight, and when the Z axis turns anyway during a print, it is only moving 0.1 or 0.2mm per layer, not enough to actually make the thing wobble, it only happens during homing when you see it moving fast, ie don't worry about it.

Some grease helps yes as Curious said, I just use some R/C car grease on it., and I use Tamiya high speed bearing oil, that I use for my car on the printer bearings. I have never needed to replace bearings or rods in 2000+hours.

[curious aardvark]

I'm working on the assumption that the bearings will take up a little of the grease from the rods :-)

Well the blue tape finish is actually smoother than the top of the print which is never shiny.
So you get a better balanced item.

And I'm not printing models regularly or ever likely to print a lot of models - so shiny bottoms (lol) are not important to me.

But the tape doesn't leave a bad finish.
Just stick it on top of the lapton - pla will stick much more to the tape than to the kapton.
Get a multiroll deal from amazon. IT's bloody expensive in b&q, I can tell you that. But a roll can last a fair old while - long as you keep th bed as cold as possible.

MY next project is a 2 part case for a mini-itx motherboard. The rough and ready wooden box I'm currently using could do with an upgrade and working out a two part fix together thing is something I haven't done yet.
Mini-itx boards are 17cm square. So I've got the length - just need to chop it in half widthwise.
Pretty sure I can make it screwless as well.

Got a new board and a nice little quadcore processor. Hoping it'll speed up openscad a bit.

IF like me you don't have room on your printing desk for a full size case or laptop - then a mini-itx system is not only real cheap, but practical. I figure if you make the case and use an old full size psu - you can put together a decent system for under £100.
That's - of course - if you happen to have a workshop full of pc components old and new lol

Hmm, there may actually be a market for a printed itx pc for 3d printing.
have to think about that :-)

[Geoff]

I'm working on the assumption that the bearings will take up a little of the grease from the rods :-)

Well the blue tape finish is actually smoother than the top of the print which is never shiny.
So you get a better balanced item.

And I'm not printing models regularly or ever likely to print a lot of models - so shiny bottoms (lol) are not important to me.

But the tape doesn't leave a bad finish.
Just stick it on top of the lapton - pla will stick much more to the tape than to the kapton.
Get a multiroll deal from amazon. IT's bloody expensive in b&q, I can tell you that. But a roll can last a fair old while - long as you keep th bed as cold as possible.

MY next project is a 2 part case for a mini-itx motherboard. The rough and ready wooden box I'm currently using could do with an upgrade and working out a two part fix together thing is something I haven't done yet.
Mini-itx boards are 17cm square. So I've got the length - just need to chop it in half widthwise.
Pretty sure I can make it screwless as well.

Got a new board and a nice little quadcore processor. Hoping it'll speed up openscad a bit.

the grease is not going to magically jump on the bearings from the threaded rod lol.. at least not that Ive encountered yet..

Depends what you print as opposed to what finish you want.

Example, you print a raspberry pi case. The case is in 2 halves. You print each half face down on a KAPTON bed (not blue tape)

Finish is shitloads better than blue tape. It's so shiny you could eat off it.

[Ghosty]

lol, thanks for the comments and replys, im actually running a hp evny with 32gb ramm, and a 320gb ssd so have no speed or processor worries.

back to the printer, is it possible to install led lighting to it, where do i get teh feed from, is there a spare on the control board (seen on youtube the ctc does, marked extra), would be nice instead of having to use my torch all the time.

[Bobbler]

There are spares on the flashforge motherboard for connecting other parts that are not currently wired up - they appear to lack the circuitry behind them too.

MightyBoard.jpg

The white connector nearest the bottom of that picture - this is the RGB lighting connection. However have looked at a number of pictures and my own - it lacks the connector itself, the 3 parts directly to the right of it too (U16, U17, U18).
Mine is an earlier revision board than that one shown but is very similar (printer purchased less than a month ago)

The other option may the green connector (marked EXTRA) - but again this lacks the plastic connector and the parts downstream from it to drive it. (U19, Q6 - could be O6 can't make it out well) and the resistor array R10 through R15.
Unless your soldering skills are up to it (not doubting you can do it, just seems odd that you wouldn't have taken the lid off if you are that way inclined to investigate ) I wouldn't mess with SMD stuff personally. Even as a amateur electronics "tinkerer" for the sake of lights I would be happier to run a standalone setup driven from a 12V source - something like the Ikea Dioder setup would seem ideal or if feeling more adventurous - a full RGB set driven from a Adruino or the like. I am contemplating the later myself hopefully with some way to drive different colours based on build percentage and just bright white in idle while I setup etc.
Let us know how you get on though.

[curious aardvark]

the motherboard has plenty 5 volt connectors you could attach an led to.
Also has 24 volt connectors for running an extra cooling fan.
Just no 12 volt.

Or you could do what I've done. Run a usb cable off your computer to an led flexible shaft poundland light and bullclip it to the case :-)
http://www.poundland.co.uk/usb-powered-led-light
like that. Mine's a slightly different design.
But it means I can move the light to any position I choose.
Really helps if you're checking to make sure the first layer is sticking.

the grease is not going to magically jump on the bearings from the threaded rod lol.. at least not that Ive encountered yet..

Well no - but it does transfer from the smooth guide rods to the bearings - which is what i said :-)
Not sure I've greased the screw shaft lol

ALso I've never managed to get abs to stick to anything without a raft. So appearance wise that boats sailed.
Haven't tried yet with s3d.

maybe if I get some more time, but given the limited time I've got with the printer at the moment I'm not wasting time on abs when pla does exactly what i want with out any problems whatsoever.
I mean none. No warping, no cracking, bridges better, parts are harder and not that much less flexible.

I've got some pet to try - but again, just bugger all time at the moment.