RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Well I finally took the giantleap and ordered a 3d printer
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141913024926? ... EBIDX%3AIT
I chose this model because it was Reprap/Prusa printer with readily available spares and parts, plus it purportedly has an auto-levelling feature which apparently is a major hassle if you have to manually re-level between prints.

I ordered it on Monday and it arrived today, so well pleased with the speed of despatch/delivery. I also ordered 3 rolls of filament so I have material to test/play with.



Unpacked the box


Tool kit

Instruction disk

unpacked all the nuts/bolts

Loaded the instructions

And got started, it took me a while to get the base done because I wanted it 100% solid and square - everything build on this. 1 hour in

Two hours in and the first axis is there

Three hours in and the lining up was a bitch, but if it isn't straight and smooth then it don't work properly

Four hours in and starting on the next axis

Five hours gone and it's moving along nicely

Six hours in and the final axis is taking shape


Six and a half hours and the print head is done! What a fiddly bit of assembly but now I know how all the bits work.



I am very very impressed with the quality of this printer, everything is solid and well designed/manufactured, the build instructions and illustrations are first class and even a dummy like me can follow them. If the rest of the assembly goes as well and it works then it will be a brilliant buy. I can't believe that something of this quality is as cheap as it is.

Anyway that's all for today as I the next stage is the electronics and I want a good nights sleep and a fresh start tomorrow, besides I think a couple of glasses of wine in celebration is deserved!



Alwyn

You took the plunge then. Well done. The self levelling is apparently a big bonus, mine has it, and it recalibrates before every print. Reprap printers are excellent, loads of free help online whenever you need it. I had a bearing support start to split on mine (not the printers fault, in the early days I was unknowingly mistreating it), so I emailed the guys that make it in Romania. They sent me two replacement bearing supports plus another two for the other side, all free of charge and no postage?? They are pretty big parts, so can't be printed in 5 mins.

I've been looking at laser cutters, they do some pretty clever stuff, and if I could get an A3 one for decent money I would seriously consider it. Just load in the line drawings and it will cut them all out perfectly. They can't do styrene but will do ABS.

Looking forward to seeing your first parts, it's great when you can design something and it appears in front of your eyes.

And now to the wiring. The wiring diagrams are pretty self explanatory and I had no trouble connecting things to the right places. So much wire!!!!


The wiring itself only took me about 2 hours, but it took another 2 hours to sort it out and secure it

Anyway after getting it all connected I had to sort out where each wire sat, how much movement it needed, which wires could be safely tied up so they didn't interfere etc.






Now comes the scary bit - actually getting it to work!!

I'll keep you posted.
Alwyn

Far be it for me to suggest that you could have had the whole shooting match up and running in 30 minutes if you had managed to resist stopping every 5 minutes for a swig from the 12 year old "Jameson's" fine malt.
Seriously Al, there are a lot of watchers biting there way through their fingernails hoping all goes well.
Shaun.

He is going to need several bottles of that Malt!

Hmmmm.... I'm having a few problems and I think it is with the setup, so back to the beginning and set up again. One of the problems is that the bolts they supplied for the hotbed aren't countersunk so the height sensor is catching on them - ordered some correct countersunk bolts so they should be here in a day or so. Also I don't think I am preparing the hotbed correctly - using some glue stick but I think I need to get some Pritt and try again. The extrusion mechanism is working and is producing a fine jet of ABS, but I can't get the height right yet. So some things are working BUT so far no end result.

Tomorrow I'm going to go through the setup again and recheck all the parameters, then when the bolts get here I can try again.

At the moment I am frustrated but determined!!!!

Alwyn

Tackling the problems one at a time.
Built a new workbench for the printer so it will be nice and stable and so there's plenty of space to work.

Installed and levelled

Even some Heath Robinson lighting!

Making sure the working surface is 100% level (will help in levelling the printing platform)

Manufactured some flat head bolts by filing down some dome-heads, so no fouling of the level sensor

Now to adjust the extruder height, this is a fiddly job as I have to remove the cooling fan to get to the extruder locking bolt


Adjust the height to a paper thickness


Then I did a test print that almost worked, but the extruded thread didn't stick to the heated bed, so back to trying a few fixes.

Slowly slowly catchee monkey!!!
Alwyn

All it took was a couple of mms adjustment on the extrusion head! Mind you it nearly came unstuck because one of the wingnuts holding the heated bed came loose from the vibration, but I managed to adjust it in flight. Next time I need to check all the wingnuts before pressing the print button!

Print in progress


Completed item



It took 34 minutes, 2.9 metres of filament (9 grams)

I am mightily impressed with this piece of kit if even a numpty like me can assemble, wire up, and get this thing working in 3 days, and the quality of the end product is really good.

Obviously a lot more learning to be done to really get to know the equipment and software so as to make it dance and jump through hoops, but a really successful day. Now for some refreshment!!

Alwyn

Heartiest congratulations Mr Turner
These things shock & awe me, the potential is boundless.

You will be taking orders soon !!

After scratching my head over the extrusion head positioning, I decided to read the documentation. There is a section on the cd covering the auto levelling process.
First you have to set CURA to invoke auto-levelling at print initiation (didn't do that)
Then you have to set the sensor height (which is adjustable) so no need to change the height of the extruder....

Homer Simpson moment....

Anyhow after applying the necessary changes I decided to try to print one of my designs, the Nashorn muzzle brake, and wouldn't you know it - it just printed with no problems.




Now I am totally impressed with this new tool. Watching it print something I had designed was hypnotic and almost magical. I think I am going to be very busy for a while....

Alwyn