Gina

OK - new list of things still to do :- Support to keep umbilical out of the works. In progress. Filament feed Teflon tube with brackets to hold it. Make some proper feet or wheels. Fan and air duct for part cooling. Cover for Duet control board. Cooling fan for control board. Front panel for box to stiffen the top. Connectors for hotend heater and thermistor to facilitate hotend swapping.

Yes, it certainly does. Forgot that when I made my list of things to do. I guess I could print some from PLA... Or wheels to make it easier to move.

Following getting my 3D printers confused in Firefox and changing settings on my Mini printer, which was printing the bed clamps of Concorde, instead of the Concorde web site and messing up both print and Mini printer, I decided I'd print the parts on Concorde. So now I'm printing the second bed clamp on Concorde itself. Hence I now declare Concorde as a working printer even if it isn't finished!

Thought I'd have a bit of fun and try printing even though it's not really ready. Used PLA and tried printing a Benchy. Well, for a start the glass plate slides on the aluminium sheet so the bed clamps will not only have to hold the bed parts together vertically but also stop horizontal movement on the frame. The XY drive is fairly noisy when moving fast though quiet when moving slowly. Meanwhile I'm printing bed clamps on my Mini printer.

Removed the glass plate and set up the "mesh grid" to give suitable points for the "mesh grid compensation" which is the very fine control for bed levelling. Marked the probe points on the aluminium sheet, put the glass plate back and stuck pieces of copper foil at the probe points. "Mesh grid compensation" is now working with the glass plate. The aluminium sheet is not perfectly flat and needs the glass plate clamped down to hold the aluminium sheet between glass plate and the bed frame. I shall 3D print the clamps. Still to do :- Filament feed tube from filament reel in the bottom to extruder. Support for the umbilical to hold it up clear of the workings. Front panel to complete the box and stiffen the top - cut from a length of solid timber.

Thank you ? I guess it isn't too bad considering...

Y endstop wired up and ribbon cable stuck to box. X, Y and Z homing all now working fine.

I've considered using "Stall detection and sensorless homing" in the stepper motor instead of using endstops but it seems complicated and also not very reliable so I think I'll stick with microswitches.

With hotend thermistor working, hotend heated up and when hot, extruder motor ran. X homing works. Y endstop needs connecting...

Attached connectors the the umbilical wires and connected to the Duet board. Applied power but no WiFi connection so something wrong. Unplugged connectors and tried again - WiFi OK. Added hotend thermistor - WiFi still OK but thermistor wiring is faulty - intermittent connection. I'll now work through the connections in turn. All motors connected - OK X endstop - problem Z probe - OK X endstop problem solved - connections wrong. Think the hotend thermistor was connection onto board which I think is fixed by removing and replacing connector (maybe dirt on pin or socket). Can now run more tests.

Rats don't like steel wool but unfortunately not suitable for outdoors as it rusts. Kept the beggars out of my kitchen successfully though - at least so far. Reinforced concrete is no barrier I found!!

Connected thermistor in bed heater and now have bed heating working. Aluminium plate heats up rapidly but the 4mm glass plate will take longer as was to be expected. One more small step...

Applied mains power with kettle lead and been testing. Duet board receiving power and Z drive working fine - other things need wires connecting up. Bed travel at 100mm in 20s - adequate.

WOW!! That's quite some barn you have there! ?

Yes, that's the way I work these days - accomplish a little bit each day! My days of completing a project in a few days are well gone!!

Top view.

Rear umbilical clamps. Now, apart from connecting everything up, I need to sort out a way of holding the umbilical up so that it doesn't catch on the print or get jammed under the nozzle.

Sorted out holding the umbilical onto the X carriage and now printing clamps to hold it onto the back of the box to connect to the control board.

Aw - poor James... ?

Attached the silicone heater pad to the aluminium sheet for my heated bed, removed the plastic coating and added the glass plate on top. All the bed needs now is clamps to hold all the parts together and keep the aluminium flat. The heater wires are already connected to mains neutral and the SSR - just needs the thermistor plugged into the Duet board.

Mains wiring finished and covered up.

Wiring on back of mains connector.

Slight adjustments needed to the design of the mains wiring cover.

Mains wiring cover design - CAD screenshots.

That is just what I thought - thank you. ?