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. 

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?!

Print Bed Leveling Idea 1.. New iteration please!

So I wanted to re-level my print bed. Easier said then done. When I went to do it I realized the acrylic was extremely warped and causing a major issue trying to get it level again. The leveling was way worse then it was if I would have left it alone. So I took to the forums. I liked something I saw, so I decided to take a similar approach and see what happens.

Step 1: Use something else to space the 2 layers of acrylic instead of the typical spring system. I used these nice little scavenged ceramic parts from work. There is just enough clearance for the belt clips. 

Step 2: Use 2 strips of 3/8" x 1.5" wood and drill holes for this style "nut" to secure in. 

Step 3: After all 4 are in place, use a bolt to compress the spring and spring load the wood the platform

Step 3 alternate view: With a careful eye you should be able to see the warpage on both sides showing. It's really bad in the middle. 

Step 4: Put the larger acrylic over the smaller as before, but now the springs are on top supporting the wood, not under it separating the two acrylics. Using the heated bed spacers, suspend the headed bed above the wood. And if you have a precision ground high grade ceramic plate like I do, put on top of that. 

Whoa Whoa WHOA!!! Look at how tall that is and all the wasted space! Design change time :) It will be in the next post. More details on why I want to level the bed like this in that post. Remember, this is not the option I choose! See the next post.  

New extruder... not exactly what I wanted

So here I go.. I start putting the extruder together and it says to use some 1.75mm filament to align the gear. I realize that all I have is 3mm filament. My mistake for not reading everything! I will deal with it later, maybe another printer at some point or just changing mine a little. For the 49 bucks I may as well keep it.

New Extruder!

So I know it has been for ever since I have updated. Good news, now that it is getting colder out, and now that I have a new purchase, I should be up and running again soon. Things on my list to do

1. Buy new color spools  :complete
2. Update Slic3r
3. New extrude head intalled :almost there!
4. Additional power supply to power the fans and control board since heat bed is pulling a lot right now

A while back I funded this kickstarter by QU-BD. I did a $49 pledge to get a single extruder just to try it out. It arrived yesterday. It is amazing how many backers they have had! Good for them, I am really excited and hope things work out well. This weekend I will hopefully bash out some of the upgrades and get printing!  It will be in a new color too now that I have another nozzle. If things go well I might modify my machine to make it the dual extrusion further down the road.

Here is a pic of what was included, should be everything I need to get it up and running.

No updates

I need to apologize to all of you who have looked at my blog lately. With how busy summer is I just havent had time. Also being on a third floor apartment that has sun directly on it from morning to evening makes it really hot and the last thing i usually want to do is sit by a wicked hot printer. I have been printing things here and there, but just the garden supports as my plants are bigger and taller.

Farming meets Engineering

So I finally have a update! It involves my background in farming and my education in Engineering. I have been working hard at developing some much needed supports for our container garden. We live on the third floor of a building on top of a big hill, this means tons of wind. We wanted to grow some veggies this summer and the best option we had was some container gardening. The only problem, the wind out on the deck. I decided that I wanted to make some kind of support for the plants.

The second problem was, if I tied them directly to the pole it would limit the plants movement in the wind so much it could make it brittle (first zip tied plants directly to pole but eventually the plants broke). By allowing it a little freedom to move around they seem to be doing much better.


These little things are what I came up with.

These legs slide down onto a wooden rod stuck into the pots. They are fully configurable, 1 leg (not shown), 2 legs (not shown), 3 legs, 4 legs, 1 slot deep (not shown), 2 deep, and they all accept extension arms. There are holes that allow for zip ties to go through to attach the extensions, attach a clamp (shown above 4 arm) and to attack the plant in the large semi circles without crimping the stem of the plant.

This shows a 4 leg (development version not finals seen in previous) holding up the stems of some young cucumber plants. There is a small hole in the side of the part with a screw to tighten it against the pole at the height desired.

In this picture it shows 3 young tomato plant. You can also see an extension arm added to reach out to the one plant a little too far away. 

This picture is a little dark because I still have to keep this plant inside. These are some beans that grow very rapidly and damage easily in the high winds out on the deck. I have two of the 3 short legged arms and one normal 3 leg with extensions to spread the leaves out better for more sunlight in the window. 

Overall I couldn't be much happier with the way these turned out. Very easy to print parts, longest one taking 1 hour, and highly configurable. 

When printing I use a "Brim" to prevent the long skinny legs from curling up. The "Brim" technique takes the normal purge loops and puts them up tight to the part. This additional surface area helps the part stay stuck to the beg the entire print. 

Lions and Tigers and.... Whale Tails?

So the wife has been asking me to model the Whale Tails for a while since we always drive by them and they are visible from her office. After a lot of modeling and a few failed prints I finally got them to print well!

Now these are definitely very hairy when they print. That's because the printer prints the perimeter on the left one, the perimeter on the right, then back to the left for infill, then back to the right for infill, then back to the left for the next layer. In between each of the move stages a little bit of plastic oozes out of the nozzle and drags across the gap. 

I little post production cleaning and they are good to go! Also I printed some lion heads :) No real reason I guess, but why not?! PS maybe I lied a little... no tigers..

Calibrating again

So I decided recently that although I was happy with my prints, it was time to yet again try to improve them. I picked this object because I was previously having problems with overhangs, the nozzle being to hot, and extruding too much filament.

After printing a bunch of simple test perimeters (1 extrusion width cube walls 20 layers thick) at all different layer thicknesses, I decided to drop my layer height from .32mm to .28mm. I also adjusted my hot end temperature. I was running 250 degrees C but now lowered it to 220 degrees C. In slicing objects I set my retraction to .9mm. Finally, because of the lowered layer thickness there was just too much filament being extruded. I set the extrusion multiplier to .8 and now its just right. 

This is how a hollow cube printed with those settings. Wayyyy better than anything before with skinny features and bridging. With my previous settings the legs would have just melted and the print would have never completed. I used to have huge strings between features too. Now the strings are minimal and easy to clean up.  There are also no massive drag marks in the solid surface from the nozzle. 

Garden Spout

Printing a water spout to fit a 2 liter bottle for the wife and watering the garden 

Works like a charm! Threads on, a little loose but after taping the threads on the bottle its nice and snug

It was a pretty fast print since its mostly perimeters

Gen6 Board Enclosure

Ok so nothing really that new here for many RepRappers, but I made my own gen6 board enclosure. It was a really long print and took a lot of material (relatively to my other prints). I can now enclose my electronics to help protect them. A vent on top was placed for future hook up of a fan. 

In my older posts you will see that the board is mounted on the acrylic on the face of the machine. This limited my z-height to 43mm. I mounted the acrylic on top of the unit and spent hours rerunning the wires and getting them to look neat and out of the way. Now I have a max Z of 82mm (could go a little higher but being safe)

Soppha

Another complex print handled beautifully. Soppha's head is an excellently detailed miniature statue. when holding at a distance the print is truly beautiful. Unfortunately due to the position of my circuit board I am limited to 42mm of print height. I will soon be changing that! Then I can make her even bigger. 

My recommendation to fellow reprappers who try to print her this size, set the purge perimeter in slic3r to 5x around 3 layers thick 0mm from the part. It will make the base of the print for her a little bit bigger and easier to stick to the bed. The first print came off the bed when I got to her neck.

3d Knot!

So I decided with the new upgrade I should try something a little more complex. I downloaded the STL files for a knot. Which is one continuous loop printed on a little platform. The loop never touches it self and passes through the various openings. This is something that would be impossible to machine so it definitely shows the capabilities of 3d printing. 

Time lapse of print. 1400mm of filament, 70min 15sec of print time

Finished, looks a little hairy in some sections but it will clean up nice

Just another view before cleanup

Post cleanup Top

Post Cleanup Side