Sunday, October 7, 2012

First Print With Blue

Well now that I finally got the print bed level, and the new filament in I was able to print. On my first attempt to print something I had a little issue. The filament got to fat at one point and jammed the print head. The filament holds steady at 3.07-3.09mm but one little section got up to 3.67mm! To those of you who know about 3d printing reading this, you know that is a big issue. Well I had to heat the hot end up to 240 Celsius and pull it out with pliers with all my might. I couldn't believe how bad it was jammed in there. I then had to do some minor adjustments since I lifted up on the z-axis while doing this.

Anyhow, once I got it running again here is a little owl I printed while writing my previous post. The orange is from a few weeks ago but the blue is with the new filament, just scaled down a little.


Print Bed Leveling Screw Position

So I was having a little issue yesterday when completing the leveling and forgot to include it in the last post. I made one more minor change. I flipped 3 of the 4 bed screws so that they look like this. 
Wood, nylon spacer, washer, M3 nut bed, then M3 nut

It had to do with the same issue of restriction. I was finding by tightening the bed to the wood could still cause some warpage. If I pull down one corner to much it will flex across the opposite diagonal. To combat this I only tightened 1 corner with the bolt down (opposite of picture above). The nuts holding the bed on the other three corners were left off. This allowed it to "float" up and down on the bolts while I made adjustments to the leveling springs. I also clamped the bed to my ceramic plate since that is a known flat surface. I was able to adjust the bed to be level and make sure that I wasn't going to pull down on a corner when locking it in place (flex issue on the diagonal as stated). Once I was happy with the leveling I just finger tightened some nuts on the 3 loose corners to hold it in place. This system as allowed me to get way more level then I ever was before. 

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Print Bed Leveling.. Iteration 4

Well after trying a few different things and not getting them to work right, I had to buy a few supplies from McMaster Carr to get this final iteration. I had some 6/32 T-nuts already for the wood but couldn't find 6/32 cap screws anywhere. I had brass machine screws but realized that was going to be a pain to try to get a flat head screwdriver in and position to level the bed. I wanted cap screws so I could use an allen wrench to tighten them like before. I went with 1 1/2" to make sure I could make it through the base acrylic, springs, and into the t-nuts.
View showing acrylic and springs (3 of 4 showing)


Now look at this stack up compared to iteration 1! much more respectable. I haven't even tightened the springs down yet. So now it is acrylic, springs, wood, nylon spacer (to allow for room for the wires and the screws sticking through), heat bed, and my high precision ceramic surface. 

Now if you are asking yourself why did I decide to do it this way? Well remember my 2nd layer of acrylic was extremely warped so I couldn't get the bed level. The four corners were to restricted to each other that it was difficult to adjust. Now the left and the right have independent suspensions. With the less restrictions I should be able to control the leveling easier.

Another major benefit of doing it this way was the tightening it self. Originally (before iteration 1 of new leveling), the spot for a allen wrench was up near the bed it self. I couldn't get the wrench in there, I would have to hold the head with a pair of pliers and turn the nut beneath with a small crescent wrench or another pair of pliers. It was very difficult to make adjustments. To fix this, when I first started re-leveling I just flipped the screws so I could fit my allen wrench underneath and hold the nut with a pair of pliers. It wasn't perfect and still a pain to level. And this is when I noticed how bad the acrylic was. Anyways after all of that and I saw this design idea, I decided to adapt it. No more holding the nut! It is pressed into the wood so all I need to do is adjust the screw with an allen wrench. The ease of leveling is amazing. 

Monday, October 1, 2012

New Leveling..

Ok so if you're wondering where the next post is.. it's not here yet. I am waiting on some screws from McMaster Carr that are a better fit for what I am trying to do. Hopefully they will be here anyday?!