Qidi Tech 1 - Replicator 1 clone

[smythe]

Worth noting that for PLA and other soft, high viscosity material your gonna want to run with the top off (and front door open). You will want the top on for ABS and anything harder, so that height still come into play, just throwing it out there.

Thanks, that will certainly help. I do plan to mostly print PLA I think. Does PETG require a heated chamber?

[rcleav]

Worth noting that for PLA and other soft, high viscosity material your gonna want to run with the top off (and front door open). You will want the top on for ABS and anything harder, so that height still come into play, just throwing it out there.

I'm going to respectively disagree with you on this one. It depends on the ambient surrounding temp. The temps in my basement where I keep my machines is 60 to 70f year round and have to make sure the temperature in the printer is at least 70f before starting a print. Any lower and I run into bed adhesion problems. So I always keep the door closed and the top on. The Qidi can get into the mid 80's the CTC only gets to the upper 70's.

[KludgeGuru]

I'm going to respectively disagree with you on this one. It depends on the ambient surrounding temp. The temps in my basement where I keep my machines is 60 to 70f year round and have to make sure the temperature in the printer is at least 70f before starting a print. Any lower and I run into bed adhesion problems. So I always keep the door closed and the top on. The Qidi can get into the mid 80's the CTC only gets to the upper 70's.

rcleav, Just curious, what are you using to monitor the ambient temperature inside your Qidi? I'm thinking of adding a temperature probe. Eventually I will probably add a Raspberry Pi with a camera on the bed, when I do that I'll hook a temperature probe up to it. Until I get that far I was thinking of going cheap and dirty by just putting one of these in the corner of the chamber.
http://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-00613A...ture+indicator

I also have mine in the basement. My wife has been complaining about the smell, she says it is making the whole basement smell like a skunk. I've switched over to printing ABS on a glass plate with the Aquanet hairspray. (Highly recommend it, plastic sticks great when hot and the parts almost fall off when the glass cools) I'm not sure if the skunk smell is from the ABS or the hairspray. Our ABS printers at work don't smell as bad as this so maybe it is the hairspray... or maybe Stratysis puts a filter on the exhaust port. My solution to the smell is going to be putting it in a closet with a bathroom fan that exhausts to the back of the house. Crazy thing is I already have a closet with a bathroom fan installed, just need to work out the shelving. Used to be where I had a salt water fish tank, used the bathroom fan to get some of the moisture out of the house.

[rcleav]

rcleav, Just curious, what are you using to monitor the ambient temperature inside your Qidi? I'm thinking of adding a temperature probe. Eventually I will probably add a Raspberry Pi with a camera on the bed, when I do that I'll hook a temperature probe up to it. Until I get that far I was thinking of going cheap and dirty by just putting one of these in the corner of the chamber.
http://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-00613A...ture+indicator

That's exactly the one I have. It has a magnet on the back so sits nicely on the back of the printer.
I don't really have a smell problem and don't even notice the hairspray. I do smell a little bit when doing ABS.
My basement is semi finished open 1800sqft space so that may have something to do with not noticing a smell.
I actually have to stick a small space heater in front of the printer to quickly heat it up before starting for the day.
I'm sure the Stratysis has a heated build chamber with a carbon exhaust filter.

[sygyzy]

Any advice on cleaning the buildtak blue pad that comes stock on the machine? I have all sorts of gunk on there from melted glue stick to bits of plastic that didn't come cleanly off. I tried scraping it with a tool and some comes off but not alll. Any advice?

[KludgeGuru]

Any advice on cleaning the buildtak blue pad that comes stock on the machine? I have all sorts of gunk on there from melted glue stick to bits of plastic that didn't come cleanly off. I tried scraping it with a tool and some comes off but not alll. Any advice?

Throw it away and get a glass plate.

[sygyzy]

Fair enough, I got a glass plate. Just need to install it but having all sorts of annoying issues with the Z-Axis shims. There's only one for the QIDI printer I have and I have to remix it to cut off some of the height (it's made for 1/4" glass and mine is 1/8"). The one one works but when it hits the Z-switch for the leveling process, it actually hits with enough force that it tilts it up. Will have to find a better way to secure it. I know, I'll put on some blue tape across it.

Throw it away and get a glass plate.

[JN3D]

Fair enough, I got a glass plate. Just need to install it but having all sorts of annoying issues with the Z-Axis shims. There's only one for the QIDI printer I have and I have to remix it to cut off some of the height (it's made for 1/4" glass and mine is 1/8"). The one one works but when it hits the Z-switch for the leveling process, it actually hits with enough force that it tilts it up. Will have to find a better way to secure it. I know, I'll put on some blue tape across it.

Just scale the height 50% in your slicer.

[Syd_Khaos]

Fair enough, I got a glass plate. Just need to install it but having all sorts of annoying issues with the Z-Axis shims. There's only one for the QIDI printer I have and I have to remix it to cut off some of the height (it's made for 1/4" glass and mine is 1/8"). The one one works but when it hits the Z-switch for the leveling process, it actually hits with enough force that it tilts it up. Will have to find a better way to secure it. I know, I'll put on some blue tape across it.

Just get a little bit of Gorrilla Tape and use little strips to attach the forks on shim to the slide barrels.

[sygyzy]

I thought about this but it doesn't quite work for the model I am using because half of it is used to fit inside a hole and the other part is actually the offset. I tried just cutting like 4mm off the top and that worked except it made the front part of it (closest to the Z-Rod) too thin (see through) so I had to add more material.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1225804

Just scale the height 50% in your slicer.