Gina

Thank you

Mostly printing fine and up to 75mm but a couple of blobs have appeared.

Now have ABS working on this printer and printing that flared cone thing in ABS. Up to 52mm and just over 30% filament used and alright so far.

Print finished and looks virtually perfect. Printing time 1h 23m. The 300mm steel rule shows the scale. That print is BIG!!

Now printing the biggest circular object the printer is capable of - just under 400mm diameter. It's about 400mm high so nowhere near the maximum height. This object will use about half a 1kg reel of PETG filament.

This shows a more ambitious print with the "stalk" of the trumpet designed with a curve and also a test for how high can be achieved. Up to 700mm was fine but after 740mm the "umbilical" was rubbing on the top acrylic sheet and the filament struggling at a sharp angle. For most prints I think I can say that 700mm would be a practical limit. So final print volume can be specified as 430mm (X) x 400mm (Y) and 700mm (Z). This print took about an hour and a half - I aborted at 750mm high.

About an hour as I recall.

Works alright up to 600mm. Should be alright for 700mm and possibly 800mm.

Proof of the pudding - printing a tall object with automatic umbilical lifting.

I'm calling the bundle of water tubes, cables and wires that go to the X carriage "umbilical" in common with astronauts doing a space walk - in turn coming from the birth of babies and other mammals. Since it's the nozzle that is raised to print the layers, the Z drive lifts a carriage containing the X and Y rails. As the X carriage rises, the umbilical needs lifting up so that it doesn't catch on the moving parts. To do this I am using two bungee cords attached to two separate points on the umbilical. The bungee cord is round and 3mm diameter and is run over ball bearing pulleys with a 3mm round groove. To obtain enough tension to lift the umbilical and yet not pull too much on it when the nozzle is near the bed it needs a sufficiently long length of bungee cord. To accommodate this the cord is zigzagged back and forth on several pulleys. First attempt. Too short and unsuitable pullup point. Improved bungee run which seems to work. The second bungee. View of whole printer showing the orange bungee cord attached to the umbilical.

Print finished. This photo shows the whole printer with its own lighting.

Another print proceeding. This is through the clear acrylic door.

Been designing parts for my garden water feature (fountain). Mouth is 250mm (10") diameter, height 280mm (11") and top 20mm (¾") diameter.

Had to recalibrate the Z drives due to a silly on my part but the result is even better than before. Here are two screenshots of the mesh grid calibration results first col, second hot.

Found the cable and water tubes "umbilical" to/from the X carriage was tending to bend too sharply and kink the water tubes so I've changed the fastening. Removed the water tube support and added a clip (yellow in photo) to hold tubes and wires. The spiral wrap stops the umbilical bending too much. I have also added an LED lighting strip under the top.

Printed a ring with 4 holes to clamp the connection cone to the printer and fitted this and the connection cone. Then printed a connecting piece to join two pieces of 50mm vent pipe and pushed the pipe onto the connection cone. My Titan printer can be seen in the background.

Made 80mm hole in top of cabinet for 80mm PC case fan which I have on order. Designed and printed a connector piece to connect to the 50mm fume pipe I have already installed for my Titan printer. I may change to a larger vent tube later. This part was printed on the Giant printer using Spiral Vase mode.

Cut a strip of acrylic sheet from what was left over from cutting the side panels to length, drilled various holes and fitted it. The cabinet is now completed and practically fume tight except for some small holes for cables and filament feed. There is a clear area in the top panel where I can fit a duct.

That's the door fitted and working. I might put some draught excluder on to keep fumes in, though I doubt much will escape through the tiny gap between the door and the frame. There is still a gap in the top to be filled then I can arrange fume extraction.

A simple but effective catch using the flexibility of PETG. The catch also has a part that holds the acrylic sheet against the extrusion.

Hinges printed successfully and fitted to frame and door. Now to sort out some kind of catch.

Hinge design. Different height pins to aid fitting the door. Third screenshot is the hole part which wraps round the front of the door and holds the acrylic sheet as well as being part of the hinge - two jobs in one

Just assembled the door and attached the acrylic sheet. Next is to design and print the hinges and catch. Here's a photo of the door propped up against the printer.

Finished test print.

Printer all wired up again and running test print.