Prusa i3 3D printer

[Gina]

Cheers Dave   It's possible that I might beat you to it then depending on how my priority jobs go.  I shall be working on my "Titan" printer as soon as I can and that currently has an older version on it so I might as well load it with the latest version.  I shall need to calibrate the new extruder anyway.  My "Pilot" printer is working very well with RC8 (I think) so I'm not touching it

[Dave_D]

My e3d v6 arrived the other day... might give the new marlin a spin... had a shedload of issues with skynet3d so not bothering with it again. I always end up reflashing the original firmware, which unfortunately is only a .hex file.

[Gina]

On 07/04/2017 at 21:03, Dave_D said:

Going to be switching to a bowden extruder in the next few weeks.

I think I may be doing the reverse with my large printer (Titan).  I'm having a lot of trouble with the Bowden feed   The ESD Titan extruder is very small and light though there is still the stepper motor adding mass of course.  OTOH ESD have a new smaller motor they're offering as an option with their Titan extruder with 400 steps per rev instead of 200.

[Chriske]

I'm a lucky guy owning a lathe and a mill. So I'm busy making my own E3D extruders. The only part I buy is the nozzle itself. As a matter of fact I designed a fast interchangeable system. So I can swap in a matter of seconds between nozzles. Very handy. Planning to testprint with 1.2mm nozzle and even larger.
To be clear I like a print to have a good and smooth look but, but from time to time quality and smoothness does not matter at all,  so...

[Gina]

Being able to swap nozzles quickly would be great   The problem seems to be keeping high pressure molten filament where it belongs!  I've used a 1.2mm nozzle for printing - rough and ready but much faster printing.

[Chriske]

This is the unit I'm referring to :

Just two bolts keep the E3D in place. I've tried swapping just nozzle(like E3D proposes) but it does not work for me, so this is what I came up with.

[tekkydave]

13 hours ago, Gina said:

Being able to swap nozzles quickly would be great   The problem seems to be keeping high pressure molten filament where it belongs!  I've used a 1.2mm nozzle for printing - rough and ready but much faster printing.

I haven't had any issues with leaks. I think the key is to heat the hotend to 20deg hotter than you print with then give the nozzle its final tighten. 

[Gina]

Yes, that's what I do now and no longer get leaks

[Gina]

On 04/05/2017 at 15:43, tekkydave said:

A new release of Marlin is available. Finally, the full release of Marlin 1.1.0

I'm using Marlin 1.1.1 with my Titan printer.  Some rearrangement of sections and code specified a bit differently from RC8 plus several new bits.

[tekkydave]

I haven't upgraded from RC8 yet. I wanted to get the bowden setup working first but I will probably be reverting to direct feed.

[Dave_D]

Finally got my E3D up and running... had to model the whole thing from scratch as:

a/ the thingiverse models are crap

b/ they didn't have all the things i wanted in 1 model

tis working just peachy

[Stub Mandrel]

11 hours ago, Dave_D said:

the thingiverse models are crap

Glad it's not just me!

Lots (but by no means all) of thingiverse stuff is badly thought out, no clearances for assembling parts, bits hanging in mid-air on parts flagged as 'no support required'.

On problem over and again is complex parts tahtcould easily have been designed as 2 or 3 parts that assemble together and give a much better print.

I'm treating myself to the Ultimaker T-Rex skeleton (I haver no idea where I'll put it, I already have a huge ED 209 with no home), and it's well designed with good areas for adhesion, no support needed and clips that work. I found a Space 1999 eagle transporter that went together well too.

[Gina]

I've pretty much given up on thingiverse - mostly rubbish.

[Chriske]

On 6/5/2017 at 13:55, Gina said:

I've pretty much given up on thingiverse - mostly rubbish.

Correct Gina..!

I gave up on Thingiverse also a few weeks ago. And I erased all my(50+) projects from their servers. Mostly astronomical things.

[tekkydave]

I have been working on another 3D printer, The DBot.

I have reused some of the parts from the Prusa for the new printer so sadly it is no more. Today I finally disassembled what was left. A sad day as this was my first 3D printer and gave me a lot of pleasure during its build and also whilst making improvements.

So RIP Prusa, long live the DBot

 

[Dave_D]

Rebuild using 2040 extrusion... now built like a tank... you can grab the top and shake it, the printer doesn't budge but the table does  

[Dave_D]

Thanks to the vastly improved structure of the AM8 upgrade, i've been able to completely get rid of the springs used for bed levelling and replace them with the stand-offs shown in the pic. The bed is level to well within the tolerance needed at the corners, and i only need to set the z height at the centre point of the bed. This works every time and over the past 3 days have had a 100% print success... it just 'works'.