So it begins...first 3D printer build...Rostock Max

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Just placed the order a few minutes ago...

[barry99705]

Wow, starting from the beginning!!!

[geneb]

Welcome to the zoo!

g.

[Flateric]

You will print Yoda's, and/or pink panther woman.

Bet on it!

LOL

[0110-m-p]

Wow, starting from the beginning!!!

Yeah...I'm pretty excited.

Welcome to the zoo!

g.

Thanks!

You will print Yoda's, and/or pink panther woman.

Bet on it!

LOL

Why do you think I bought green PLA

[cope413]

Hey, welcome to the crew. Glad I was able to convince you of the Max's worthiness to be your first machine.

Don't waste much time on the RepRap forums anymore.

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Hey, welcome to the crew. Glad I was able to convince you of the Max's worthiness to be your first machine.

Don't waste much time on the RepRap forums anymore.

Thanks for that. I actually went back and forth a couple of times...landed here though.

And just to keep things going....my order shipped!

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Package arrived yesterday...

Started unpacking it and found that the glass build plate shattered during shipping (sent SeeMeCNC an email about this already)

Started getting the melamine parts out of the sheet, pealed, and on my new temporary living room build table.

After a few hours of tv and a lot of help from my girlfriend, all the wood parts were pealed and stacked on the table.

Ready to get this thing started this weekend. Plan to at least have the lower platform assembled and the extrusions squared up sometime this weekend.

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So I'm trying to decide right now if I want to go ahead and just skip the injection molded arms that come with the kit and go with a set of carbon arms?

Also, considering picking up the stepper motor dampers from tricklaser, but am worried that extra flex in the mounting of the motors will lead to inaccuracy. Is this a rational fear with these printers?

[cope413]

The dampers are amazing and I'd highly recommend them. I have an extra set if you're interested. PM me. As for the arms, I switched to the trick laser carbon arms. I can't speak to the new arms, but the old arms were awful to get correctly sanded and installed.

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Got quite a bit done last night and this morning. I probably have about 10 hours in the build so far, but I have to admit I've been catching up some tv shows that I DVR'd at the same time.

I also ordered the Trick Laser carbon arms and platform LED's yesterday, as well as a set of motor dampers from cope.

Anyways, I got the base fully assembled, the extrusions installed and squared up, and the top mounted. Then I started to skip around a bit since I am waiting on the dampers and arms before I install the motors or do anything with the carriage/platform assemblies. Got the extruder, extruder mount, and spool holder sub assembled and went ahead and installed the pulley's to the XYZ motors with the extra 6mm spacing required when using dampers.

Here's a few pictures of the work thus far...

[Eaglezsoar]

Thanks for the pictures, great job so far!

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Thanks. I think this is my stopping point until I get the rest of the components in.

[Eaglezsoar]

When you mounted the top plate I hope you lined it up with the base plate and made sure they lined up and installed
it that way. Just checking so you won't have to dis-assemble later.

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When you mounted the top plate I hope you lined it up with the base plate and made sure they lined up and installed
it that way. Just checking so you won't have to dis-assemble later.

Yes I did...everything looked good.

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A little update from last night.

Got my parts in from Trick Laser (carbon arms, LED platform ring, and carbon stand offs). The rest of the parts I need to finish my build are out for delivery today.

Picture of the carbon arms and led platform ring (I really need to stop using my phone to take these pictures because they are coming out like junk).

I then weighed all the Trick Laser components and the stock components to see the different in mass that will be moving around during printing. First are a pair of fully assembled carbon arms and a pair of injection molded arms with 4 universal joints and 2 shafts. Multiplying the weights by 3 shows that the total mass of the stock arm assemblies is 195g, vs. the 111g Trick Laser carbon arms. Honestly quite a bit more than I expected.

One mistake I did make was that I am adding the anti-lash straps to the ends of the carbon arms and I forgot to weigh those.

Lastly is the Trick Laser carbon stand offs vs. the stock aluminum stand offs. 10g difference isn't much in terms of raw mass, but since it these are mounted directly to the platform and because I am adding the extra weight of the LED ring/wiring, I think they are worth the extra $5 on my $100+ order.

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So I finally received all the miscellaneous components to finish my build. I was only planning and messing with the printer for a few minutes last night...but as always a few minutes turned into a few hours really damn quick.

Here are the NEMA 17 motors, the dampers that I picked up from cope413, and the box of 100 6mm long M3-0.5 screws that I got from Amazon for under $5 shipped (6 of which were used to mount the dampers...the other 94 pieces will have to hang out with all my other hardware until I find another use for them).

Motors attached and belts installed.

Here are the Trick Laser carbon arms installed to the carriages and platform. With everything installed like this, the motors should hold the carriages wherever they are placed, correct?

Also went installed the end stops, extruder/mount, and spool holder to the top plate.

As it sits right now...I think at this point I am finished with everything except building the hotend and doing the wiring.

[Eaglezsoar]

With everything installed like this, the motors should hold the carriages wherever they are placed, correct?

Yes, with the belts on the motors should hold the cheapskates. You also should be careful moving the
cheapskates by hand. The motor acts as a generator when moved by hand and induces a voltage into
the Rambo that could possibly destroy the driver circuitry on it. Just don't move them very fast or if
you know that you are going to be manually moving them around turn off the power and unplug the motors
from the Rambo card.

[0110-m-p]

With everything installed like this, the motors should hold the carriages wherever they are placed, correct?

Yes, with the belts on the motors should hold the cheapskates. You also should be careful moving the
cheapskates by hand. The motor acts as a generator when moved by hand and induces a voltage into
the Rambo that could possibly destroy the driver circuitry on it. Just don't move them very fast or if
you know that you are going to be manually moving them around turn off the power and unplug the motors
from the Rambo card.

Thanks for the tip! It makes perfect sense but I definitely didn't think about it.

I was moving them around like crazy (it was too much fun) before installing the belts and motors. After the belts were installed, I didn't move it much. Either way, its a good thing that I haven't installed the Rambo or PSU yet

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Still working on this slowly, but haven't really been taking pictures since I got into the wiring. It will probably be ready for the first print sometime this weekend.

The biggest question I have right now is where in my house is this thing going to reside permanently...namely where:
A) The dogs won't get to it (this is harder than it sounds because one of the 3 dogs is a great dane)
B) Where playing driving sims on the PC won't shake the hell out of it (aka my main computer desk, which is otherwise the most logical choice)
C) Where it running won't annoy me and my gf while watching TV or sleeping
D) Where dust generation isn't ludicrous (generally this is anywhere in my computer/dog's room)
E) Temperature and humidity fluctuations are kept at a minimum (so no garage)
F) It isn't right under an air vent

Based on this, it would seem the best place is the guest room closet which is where I ferment beer, but that isn't much fun.

[barry99705]

Still working on this slowly, but haven't really been taking pictures since I got into the wiring. It will probably be ready for the first print sometime this weekend.

The biggest question I have right now is where in my house is this thing going to reside permanently...namely where:
A) The dogs won't get to it (this is harder than it sounds because one of the 3 dogs is a great dane)
B) Where playing driving sims on the PC won't shake the hell out of it (aka my main computer desk, which is otherwise the most logical choice)
C) Where it running won't annoy me and my gf while watching TV or sleeping
D) Where dust generation isn't ludicrous (generally this is anywhere in my computer/dog's room)
E) Temperature and humidity fluctuations are kept at a minimum (so no garage)
F) It isn't right under an air vent

Based on this, it would seem the best place is the guest room closet which is where I ferment beer, but that isn't much fun.

No joke there! My dane could get stuff off the top of the refrigerator!

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Ok...so long time no true update.

Got the printer powered up and running yesterday. Fully calibrated and printed my first (and second) test cube today. Got some comments and looking for advice on some settings....without further a due here are some pictures.

Also, I promise after the end of this I will post some good pictures from the DSLR instead of my crappy camera phone .

Now for the first calibration cube and the 3/8" rod holders (one of which broke). Everything printed with PLA without a surface fan with the specifications outlined in geneb's instructions. Please...any advice is helpful!

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Caught by the 10 attachment rule...anyway, here is the last one..

Comments wise....

- Looks like to print PLA, I really need a surface fan to cool the material. Would this solve any issues seen in the calibration cube?
- To make better bridges is it better to mess with bridge acceleration or bridge speed?

Any and all other comments welcome!

[geneb]

I'd bump your retract up just a bit. You REALLY need a layer fan. Until you get one, you can dial back the print speed using the slider in Repetier-Host.

g.

[0110-m-p]

Thanks for the tips. I wonder if there is anywhere local where I could pickup a fan today?

I still need to get my non-fan prints good enough to print a fan mount though . What print speed would you recommend for PLA with no layer fan?