Gregj888

Sorry, wasn't checking for a bit. The 100mm FL lens from Surplus Shed was apparently a little short if cemented together and/or the adapter I have is a little thick. I put in a 108mm fl lens and it's too long but a short extension fixed that. I am going to try a 60mm FL lens in the mouth of the T-mount adapter to see if I can compress things a bit for the small pixels I have, just playing around. Yes, the photo was compressed, quite a bit in fact. Greg

I'm not as far along as Valerio but did get the first spectra out of my LowSpec last night. I could not get my camera lens to focus on the DSLR at infinity so purchasing a another lens, 108mm and hopefully that will do improve things. This is with just a crude bench focus, pegged the camera lens and focused best I could on a piece of paper with line covering the slit holder slot. Did not attempt to focus on the spectra. Did not try a Relco but a neon and another I am playing with. More later...

Cura 4.1, turn off "supports" and under "Experimental" enable "Tree supports". A little update... All the parts are printed. Didn't have as many of the optical parts as I had hoped so got them on order (surplus shed ) and those should be here soon. Magnets hot here yesterday and other hardware the day before. New to this forum, but those that know me know I can't leave anything alone... Made one tiny change on the grub screws (set screws in the US) and changed them to "Dog point". Having a terrible time with the threads on the grating holder cap and front cover. Part of it is due to the size changes with ASA, plus the simply ASA on ASA which doesn't seem to slide well. Will print the cap with PetG (I don't have any Polycarbonate). I may just make one out of Aluminum and call it good if the PetG doesn't work any better. I did make a container out of PETG and it seems to slide better with the ASA...so there is hope, If I were to suggest a change it would be to a courser thread, 1.5-2mm... or simply a push on with o-ring and groove. Not a complaint, just brain storming. As it is I've used a T2 adapter as a thread chaser, and have it so I can assemble it once anyway. Again, great project!!!

In reading earlier comments "around the web" thought ASA was the preferred material for the LOWSPEC. Would not use it again on this printer anyway. That said, most of the parts seem to fit or be close to a fit. Not like the filament is a big part of the price... Awesome project, thank you... I had a similar experience and have been using glass.

Well the print is done. ASA on an ENDER 3 pro... Turned out OK and with a little more work could probably get it the rest of the way, however... If I reprint I'll use the Carbon reinforced PETG that Paul mentioned. There are a couple of splits in the skin I attempted to patch with Acetone and dissolved ASA. Edge also lifted slightly as can be seen in the central photo. Tigar strips are from the ASA juice. Sanding gives a pretty flat finish. Thinking I might try vapor polishing. Back at it... some assembly now required 🙂

Paul, thank you. I dropped back to 30% infill and made a few other minor changes. Now have a 2 day, 4 hour and 3 minute print...🙄 The print is underway, to be continued... Update 2/25 @ 11:30 Pacific- Well calling it a night, printer can keep working (I hope)- 14 hours in. Paul, 0.4mm nozzle, 40mm/s print which is cut to 20 for a lot of operations and Cubic fill so ~52 hours. Cura doesn't have honeycomb but does have a mix of hex and triangle. For a one time print, 52 is OK if it makes it through. adding to the earlier post to keep it in one place, hope that's OK?

After a delay to figure out how to print ASA on an Ender2 Pro, did some printing over the last few days. Not perfect but not bad. Still playing with the setting. Polymaker Polylite ASA, hot end 142c, Build plate glass at 110. The two big changes were the glass build plate so I could go to 110c and ASA Juice (same as ABS Juice but with ASA scrap). Note I did print the older file face down with Tree support in Cura. Wish me luck. I'm starting the 2.5 day print of the body in the morning.

Louise, thank you and great work on your build.

Though I have visited often over the years, just joined and my first post here in the Lounge. First, Paul. the 7805 acts like a variable resistor to cut the voltage. that means it's a bit of a power hog. Fine if plugged into the mains not so good on batteries. EBAY has a number of small DC to DC high efficiency converters that are cheap. I did a review on one a while back and can find a link if you need it. Forgot to add, if you use a 7805, make sure to put a capacitor on the input and output pins to ground ( 10 to 20 mfd say 25v, Tantalum would be preferred but not required, actual value is that critical) to keep it from oscillating. Posting here because I started a LowSpec print. New to 3D printing and my first ASA print (slider block) took a few tries. Bumped up the top and bottom thicknesses. Finished the bottom then warped and popped off. Printing the turret and lens holders now. Ender 3 Pro in a DIY (PVC pip enclosure. Great thread, thanks all...