Another rostock max build

[cambo3d]

Just completed my calibration and pid autotune settings. I think i'm bout ready to print.

other things to mention is that the bed leveling idea was removed, after tweaking the frame to get it more flat that seems to be the best bet.
the onyx has bow in the middle, bed leveling wont help so instead i just calibrated as is, per instructions in genebs manual for calibration.

I'm understanding the rostock will print in the same plane, once you calibrate it to that plane. does this sound right?

on another note: I accidentally crashed my print head into the bed, trying to do calibration because I forgot the set the heights in eeprom for repetier firmware.
Hopefully i didn't hurt the belts doesn't seem like it affected it. I guess I'll see. Need to double check the belts to be sure.

now all i need is my lcd to work..

[Polygonhell]

I'm understanding the rostock will print in the same plane, once you calibrate it to that plane. does this sound right?

Yes that's correct, assuming the surface is flat, it need not be entirely horizontal, once you have calibrated the 3 towers X and Y will be relative to the calibration plane.

[ApacheXMD]

If the print bed is not horizontal, then won't your prints be skewed if the towers arent orthogonal to the print surface? Seems to me that getting the towers equidistant and parallel to each other, and orthogonal to the print surface is pretty important. Am i wrong?

[Bill Havins]

....now all i need is my lcd to work..

Cambo3d,

So you've checked your connectors soldered to the RAMBo to SmartController Adapter and they showed continuity. And you're getting text in the upper leftmost corner of the LCD but "the dreaded white boxes" everywhere else?

You might try removing your adapter from the RAMBo board. Then, look carefully at each connector on the Adapter to ensure that a pin/socket is not bent or deformed. Then, look carefully at the headers on the RAMBo board to ensure a pin is not bent or "pushed" down through the board such that it might not contact its mating socket on the Adapter.

I work with LCDs frequently; I have not looked closely at the ones we have on our Rostock MAXes. But the fact that yours is "trying to work" suggests an incomplete connection/circuit.

You might also look at your solder joints with a magnifier. A "cold" solder joint may demonstrate continuity but might not work in a live circuit. A solder-starved joint can behave similarly. Touch-up each solder joint with a "pencil tip" on your soldering iron just to ensure the solder "flows" into each connection.

Just a couple of thoughts. Good luck!

Bill

[cambo3d]

ive done all of this..

[cambo3d]

just did my first print, the calibration cube following geneb's manual. This is where all the 2 weeks of assembly time start paying off. While the print isn't perfect. I'm excited that it printed something.
for some reason i had to add in a z offset, otherwise it would get to close to the print bed, I put in 1 mm as a guess it seems to print it. probably need to adjust that.


Please critique this print and recommend suggestions on how to get a better print. THIS IS MY FIRST PRINT EVER!!! WOOHOOOOO

[cambo3d]

started to print another cal. cube today but it started off worse than before.

so after spending some time troubleshooting I found that the screws for the heatbed were loosening up. probably due to the heating of the bed.

darn.. now I have to recalibrate the bed height again...wtf. this time i'll throw some lock tight on it.

[cambo3d]

Good news though I GOT another LCD to try out, from a local 3d printer dealer here in florida, before I sent the seemecnc lcd back.

The new lcd works. SO YES I DID HAVE A BAD LCD! http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php ... &start=130 SEEMECNC YOU HAVE A RETURN ON THE WAY.

[Eaglezsoar]

Glad you got it working! Had to be quite frustrating.
Good job!

[Eaglezsoar]

started to print another cal. cube today but it started off worse than before.

so after spending some time troubleshooting I found that the screws for the heatbed were loosening up. probably due to the heating of the bed.

darn.. now I have to recalibrate the bed height again...wtf. this time i'll throw some lock tight on it.

You have those hex threaded spacers to allow you to adjust the bed and then lock the adjustable screw to the spacer with a jam nut.
Which part of these components loosened up? I ask because I wanted to model my bed the same way you did. If you use loktite won't you
lose the adjustability?
Carl

[cambo3d]

carl, I removed the bed leveling. I didnt need it anymore. i tweaked the frame enough to get it flat.

Now i just have have the screw tightening HBP all the way down level to the frame. Using the hex nuts just for spacers.

when i tighten the screws down i left out the locktite so when it heated up everything loosened up.

The bed sits perfectly flat now at room temp, but changes because the onyx warps when heated, puts a bow in the middle. I may try to use some adhesive to help hold the onyx to the star spacer as another forum member suggested.

[Eaglezsoar]

carl, I removed the bed leveling. I didnt need it anymore. i tweaked the frame enough to get it flat.

Now i just have have the screw tightening HBP all the way down level to the frame. Using the hex nuts just for spacers.

when i tighten the screws down i left out the locktite so when it heated up everything loosened up.

The bed sits perfectly flat now at room temp, but changes because the onyx warps when heated, puts a bow in the middle. I may try to use some adhesive to help hold the onyx to the star spacer as another forum member suggested.

I have the acrylic version and ended up with the same bow in the center of the top. I am thing about mounting the hotbed on springs and making it adjustable by passing the screw through the spring and a jam nut at the bottom
to hold whatever position I place it in. I figure that way the bow in the center of the base would not effect the flatness of the heatbed. Do you have any opinions on this? I don't recall McHackney mentioning his plate bowing as
it heated, or did he.
Carl

[mhackney]

Without the aluminum plate my Onyx definitely bows when heated. With the aluminum plate I have not observed this (but as I just wrote in a post a few minutes ago, I realized that I do use the glass plate on top too and that might be hiding any bowing. But, I did make a number of prints directly on the aluminum and did not observe bowing).

cheers,
Michael

[cambo3d]

micheal even with the aluminum plate it does bow when heated. not the fault of your aluminum plate, there's just no where else for the onyx to go, since the aluminum is some what flexible it bows up.

maybe using something more heavy like mic6 aluminum may be better. http://shop.thefutureis3d.com/heated-platforms.html, but then again something has to give, using stronger aluminum might cause other problems.

The loctite that I put on today helped but it didn't take the bow away it still bows up when heated. rather than try to fix what the onyx is doing, i'm looking at other alternatives. I've been trying to locate some 24v kapton heaters and i haven't been able to find one in the size i'm looking for yet.

This machine is just poorly constructed, a redesign for easier assembly and minimal parts, not to mention squareness is really needed. Squareness being the up-most importance, which is what everything else is based on. Sorry for my rant. After building it, this just confirms my original thoughts on the machine. http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1131 however I will still continue to work with the machine till I get some descent prints

[cambo3d]

something I printed for just to see how it would turn out. =P

[Eaglezsoar]

If you locate that kapton or silicon heater that you are looking for please let us know, there is a lot of complaints with the Onyx not being flat.

[mhackney]

I have a silicone heater that I am working to test. The issue with these is they are not flat - there is a bulge where the wires and electronics are embedded. A special plate needs to be constructed to use these. Unfortunately, I sold all my plates so I need to wait for the next batch (should be today or tomorrow).

cambo3D - I just posted on another thread about the Al plate. I tested the deflection in a 40ton hydraulic press and it took A LOT of pressure to cause a measurable deflection of .1mm. There is something very odd going on here. My machine was very well cut and went together without these issues.

[cambo3d]

I took the time to do some current draw testing for the onyx today. Here are the results.
I have not tested the stock 12v supply, because it's not wired for the onyx in my build.
Initial current draw for each temperature is from room temp.

[cambo3d]

with the thin walled calibration print, what exactly am i checking for? height, width,??? http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5573
or just thickness of the wall?

[mhackney]

At this point:

getting good first layer adhesion - check
getting good layer adhesion without gaps or overfill - check with a little work to do on the blobs. Your extruder appears to be reasonably well calibrated and filament pressure correct.
no signs of backlash (i.e. parallel sides, plumb sides, layers stacked properly) - check

Now you can measure wall thickness, width and height and compare to your model and slicer settings - priceless (sorry, had to add that!)

[cambo3d]

At this point:

getting good first layer adhesion - check
getting good layer adhesion without gaps or overfill - check with a little work to do on the blobs. Your extruder appears to be reasonably well calibrated and filament pressure correct.
no signs of backlash (i.e. parallel sides, plumb sides, layers stacked properly) - check

Now you can measure wall thickness, width and height and compare to your model and slicer settings - priceless (sorry, had to add that!)

do i really need to check that last line, or was that just being funny? seriously i dont know...lol

[foshon]

with the thin walled calibration print, what exactly am i checking for? height, width,??? http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5573
or just thickness of the wall?

I have used that to help calibrate x-y steps/mm by comparing the width and length to what it was supposed to be. Most often though the goal with that cube is to tweak single wall thickness. Try to get a good measurement of the wall thickness, one layer is best (be careful not to cut into it with calipers). Now compare that to what the g-code thought the layer thickness was. If they are close, tweak your extruder flow modifier in the slicer. If they are way off apply the change to your e-steps/mm.

http://reprap.org/wiki/Triffid_Hunter%2 ... tion_Guide

Shoot down to "Slic3r/Skeinforge/Sfact settings".

Hope it helps.

[mhackney]

Sorry, I was being serious and funny all at once! It is good to verify dimensions at this point.

[cambo3d]

with the thin walled calibration print, what exactly am i checking for? height, width,??? http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5573
or just thickness of the wall?

I have used that to help calibrate x-y steps/mm by comparing the width and length to what it was supposed to be. Most often though the goal with that cube is to tweak single wall thickness. Try to get a good measurement of the wall thickness, one layer is best (be careful not to cut into it with calipers). Now compare that to what the g-code thought the layer thickness was. If they are close, tweak your extruder flow modifier in the slicer. If they are way off apply the change to your e-steps/mm.

http://reprap.org/wiki/Triffid_Hunter%2 ... tion_Guide

Shoot down to "Slic3r/Skeinforge/Sfact settings".

Hope it helps.

can't get that link to work..edit: finally popped up

[cambo3d]

i'm noticing my extruder is getting loud, sounds like wood creaking ...hmmm