Qidi Tech 1 - Replicator 1 clone

[DarkAlchemist]

The size of a piece of paper. lol About .004 is good. It is actually better to use paper since you can feel the paper grain and how much resistance there is when sliiding under nozzle.

The paper I use is .1mm thick and is standard printer paper around #20. I have a complete set of feeler gauges but I don't like them for this purpose and .02 is so fine it is like a Gossamer's wing so .004 you wouldn't even be able to touch it without it tearing.

[jfkansas]

I meant .004" which is about .1mm.

[DarkAlchemist]

I meant .004" which is about .1mm.

Oh, heheheh, I wasn't sure but after I posted I started to think that might have been it.

When I deal with 3d printers I deal in metric and I am trying to force myself to lose the Imperial system. Afterall the USA govt tells us we are officially a metric country, lol. They need only look at most shops, and businesses, road signs, big box hardware stores, etc... to see they have egg on their faces. Here is a little bit of a thought but as they made that proclamation they were removing the last of the metric speed signs (up North I believe). I love it and feel like I am listening to two-face from Batman when the govt says anything.

Anyway for me if it is less than 6 inches I think in metric now and above Imperial though I am trying to start saying meters instead of feet but KM? Nope, I can't think like that.

[kaznad]

The size of a piece of paper. lol About .004 is good. It is actually better to use paper since you can feel the paper grain and how much resistance there is when sliiding under nozzle.

The paper I use is .1mm thick and is standard printer paper around #20. I have a complete set of feeler gauges but I don't like them for this purpose and .02 is so fine it is like a Gossamer's wing so .004 you wouldn't even be able to touch it without it tearing.

You guys are right. It has better feel with paper and the friction. Plus to make things worse, the maghold platform has magnets that causes the feeler gauge to stick to the bed lol.

On another note, I made this http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:571760 for the spool holder. However it does not fit to the stock holder. I made the 30-50 adapter. I think it needs to be scaled up slightly.

[RimBlock]

I received my QiDi on Tuesday. Built it Tuesday nights and finally got to play with it last night.

I bought Simplify3D and installed it but had issues adding objects (could find on the hard drive, select ot open but it never appeared in the objects panel). I installed the supplied Makerbot software and that seemed to work fine. I started with the PLA supplied spool (neon orange) and downloaded the bed leveling nut turners and fan cover objects from Thingyverse (as previously linked in this thread) and printed with the default makerbot settings over USB after leveling the bed using a business card for leveling the bed. I didn't prepare the bed at all and printed the model with a raft. To my surprise it came out pretty good (0.2 mm default resolution). It could still do with a bit of smoothing but no 'coiled wire' texture.

Printed two more without rafts or surface prep and they also came out pretty nicely. The raft on the first one I had to cut away as best as I could.

The fan cover I printed to test with a raft and was surprised when the raft just pealed off after the item was removed from the print bed. I printed another without a raft but noticed when taking it off the platform that the clips at the top were deformed / missing. I put it down to a hiccup and set another print off but this one produced nothing. Seems I have a clogged print head. I believe the feeder tube pushed up and caused a bad angle with the top cover causing too much friction to allow proper feeding.

Looks like I will be taking the print head apart tonight to unclog it and print out one of the spool feed brackets.

Overall I am pretty happy though. Looking to get a maghold or glass plate plate next.

It should probaby also be noted that ambient temps here are around 36DegC with high humidity which may have helped the prints.

[Warren O'neill]

What cad program are you guys using to design your 3d prints

I have no experience at all with cad programs and have no idea how to use them.,

What i am looking for is an ezy to use program that is either free or cheap and maybe a good place to lurn how to use it
I have had a look at tinka cad but i cant really do what i want to do

[rcleav]

I tried several of the free Cad programs available and ended up using Autodesk Fusion 360. It's free to hobbyist but still full featured with trutorials available on Youtube.

[jfkansas]

Yep Fusion is great, and getting better every release. It is so easy to use, and the cloud storage keeps your file/version management to a minimum.

[jfkansas]

QidiBarandextruders.jpg

Anyone need a Qidi bar and extruders? Brand new. With or without Thermocouples.

[cncartist]

QidiBarandextruders.jpg

Anyone need a Qidi bar and extruders? Brand new. With or without Thermocouples.

Definitely wouldn't mind having a backup, is this a sale or a giveaway provided we pay shipping?