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Production update: anyone got ideas?

This is what Shapeways currently offers me for printed parts.

This is what Ponoko offers.

I’ve now spent just over two weeks trying to assemble and debug this 3D printer and I’m no closer to printing than I was on day 3.

Yesterday I replaced the extruder bobbin because it came loose (again) from the motor shaft. This bobbin has a set screw and shouldn’t be going anywhere. Note that you have to be really careful when putting in the set screw because it’s very easy to overtighten by accident and crack the bobbin like a walnut.

Then, because the z-axis leadscrew on one side SLIPPED OFF last night I had to fix that and re-level the x-axis gantry to the bed.

I managed to burn myself for the first time. Remember kids: 230c is no joke.

This morning I fired up the printer again and printed a 0.5mm thin wall test to remind myself what the current state of the machine is. Lo and behold, the blobbing on +Z is gone. I didn’t change any settings! The only thing more frustrating than a mystery is a mystery that gets deeper. Especially when it’s a mystery that could unravel into a whole set of frustrations.

Anyways! Gift horse dentistry, right? I’m going to try to print another motor mount and we’ll see how it goes. In the meantime I can catch up on bill paying, customer follow up, fixing the windows build, and buying plane tickets. Did I mention I’ll be at FabLearn 2012, october 17 & 18 this year at Stanford? Really looking forward to seeing you there, listening to your feedback and going out for sake later. I imagine most of the demos there will be for full sized 3D printers, which will put me in a unique position to be teaching ABOUT the technologies behind 3D printers… which is kind of the point, right? If you have ideas about how I could improve on this:

Then please comment below. I’m thinking of a series of notes attached to the board that explain what each piece does – all without getting in the way of the Drawbot doing it’s thing. Ideas welcome!

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Production Update: infill tests, frustration.

Last night at the VHS I resoldered the melted mosfet connectors and then fixed some extrusion problems by lowering the nozzle temp.

I also made sure to label everything before I disconnected it. Maybe this will help you assemble your own machine?

I won’t say my prints were looking great but they were looking like the thing I expect to print.

based on these results I tried to print a motor mount v2 today.

Here they are again, turned so you can see how tall they should be.

Right now I’m feeling very emotional. I’ve worked on this machine every day for two solid weeks. I’ve let pretty much everything else in my life slide to one side and topple over. I’ve got good customers that have already paid me their hard-earned money and I can’t sleep. Worse, I’ve got a growing list of people now who say “Please tell me when you are in stock, I want to order.” Well @#$*(! and (%^*@, I would love nothing better than to trade dollars for kits. It sounds great to say “Demand > Production!” as long as know one asks “so… how big is production?”

I’ve re-levelled this bed about 20 times now. I really really hope I don’t have to solder anything any more. By the way: whoever designed this heated bed? Thank you for putting all the leads on the bottom where they’re hard to reach. Same goes for whoever thought it was a good idea to make some calibration screws accessible only when the machine is partially disassembled. How does that make any sense?

There’s got to be a way to reduce the number of variables to make calibration easier. Even after I’ve retested that the bed is level (relative to the nozzle) and the XYZ&E steppers move at the correct speed there’s still what, 20 parameters that control layer height, flow rate, infill, and more? It’s crazy. There’s got to be a systematic way to calibrate this thing that’s better than this list I’ve been following. Most of my issues aren’t even in this document.

I have to go write to a customer now and tell him that I’m late and I’m sorry and I’m doing everything I can to fix it. I hope you never have to experience that with your customers. I hope these blog posts are useful to you, out there in internet land. If they are, please do me a favor and tell your friends about my indiegogo campaign. As of now it has 8 days to go and I would really love the help.

I apologize if I seem a little tense. I’m going to make some tea and watch North By North West and try again tomorrow morning.

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Calibrating a RepRap Prusa, part 1

I’ve already assembled my prusa.
I’ve already calibrated XYZ & E.
Now it’s time to perfect my prints so I can start producing parts.

Get the required models from Thingiverse.

Print the 0.5mm thin wall.

…so the bed came unsoldered, which required relevelling, and then I was able to finally get to 110 by closing the windows and doors and turning on a space heater. Ugh! Here’s the first print.

…and here it is again after I reduced the XY acceleration in the firmware from 9000/7000 to 2000/2000.

…and again. I had a partial meltdown on the RAMPS board and have now re-secured the wire for the bed. It was shorting and trying to disolve the screw terminals for D8.

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Production update: printing a motor mount attempt #3

I reduced the filament size and increased the multiplier. I’m pretty sure that the two changes cancelled each other out. I also tightened the Y axis belt and double checked the rest of the machine. It seems the nuts love to come loose all over this damn thing. Boo design! BOOO!

I think this is my last attempt for the night. I’m so close, but I’ve got both eyes in the same socket. I need some non-screen time to recharge my batteries.

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Production update: printing a motor mount attempt #2

I think the “first layer height” is off. Over the next several prints I’m going to be improving quality in leaps and bounds. After this print I added a piece of cardboard under the heated bed to improve overall performance. So far it’s been maxing out at 85c and I want 110c.