New Atlanta Member!

[nflint]

Hey everyone! I'm getting my new Rostock Max v2 this week and I can't wait to get started building. Been doing research for awhile on 3D printers and I think I'm going to be very happy with the decision I made. Brand new to the world of 3D printing but I love doing things myself and am looking forward to that first print!

The only part of the build I'm concerned about is the soldering of the hot plate as I haven't soldered before. Please let me know if you have any tips/hints or good YouTube videos that may help me out.

Definitely looking forward to joining the community and getting my first print done!

Thanks!

[Eaglezsoar]

Welcome to the Forum and we wish to welcome you!
For the basics of soldering see this link then you can search Google on how to solder electronics http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-f ... #soldering

Have a great and Happy build!

[rehabmax]

I too was really hesitant about soldering, It is not that hard once you get the hang of it. Remember both sides of what you are soldering must be warmed up to accept the solder. I bought a little practice kit off of Amazon before I attempted the heated bed.

[Qdeathstar]

On the soldering, plug in your iron, wait at least 15 minutes, then put the tip of the iron on the heat bed bad, then enough solder to make a bubble of solder on the pad, then press your wire into the solder and roll the tip of the iron onto the wire for a few seconds. Pull the iron away but hold the wire.. Wait about 5 seconds and your done. You need to strip away less wire than you think.

[nflint]

Thanks all! I actually remembered that I had a small marble game that needed some soldering so I used that as practice. Wasn't too difficult once I got the hang of it. Glad I had it as it gave me some confidence before launching into soldering for the Rostock. Good news is that everything is now built!!! And it was working great...was starting on the calibration last night when it shut down on me. Described that issue in another post and seems like I may have blown a fuse. Hopefully I can get that sorted out soon so I can start printing!

Thanks!

[Eaglezsoar]

I do hope that you have this problem resolved with the fuse, this can happen if a wire touches something that it should not, check your connections, especially at the hotend.

[nflint]

Thanks. I ordered some new fuses yesterday and they were shipped today. So I can tackle this again next week after our company leaves. But I think the issue was with the fan wires that I didn't tie down or cover up the ends. The hotend had no issues with the auto tune process - it was only when I started setting the Z height that it went out. So I'm thinking those fan wires moved a bit and either hit each other or something else which caused the problem. So I'm going to make sure to take care of those before turning on again to hopefully avoid a similar issue.

Thanks!

[Xenocrates]

I'm going to suggest you get some form of connector for that. Molex LP, Futaba J, JST, almost anything with between two and four positions (With four, you can have layer and peek fan on the same connector, which is both good and bad), and some form of polarization will do the job. Lighter is better. That way if a fan dies, or isn't in use, you can removing without exposing a potential short.

[nflint]

That's a really good suggestion.

Quick question - and hopefully this isn't a dumb question - but how do I know what I get will work with the wires on my machine? I see in the manual that the fan wires are 26ga and the connector I found on Amazon says it is 22awg. I know little about electronics so I'm not sure what that means or if it will work. They "look" to be about the same type of wire but I'm just not sure. Here is what I was just looking at: https://www.amazon.com/RGBZONE-20Pairs- ... +connector

Thanks,
Nathan

[Xenocrates]

It's not so much a dumb question as it is filling in some basic knowledge. Most people don't know or need more than "Plug it in, and it works, or it blows the breaker, so turn something else off or unplug it"

The connectors you linked have a length of wire already attached. Since you don't have crimping tools in all likelyhood, that's useful to you. They have a lower gauge of wire, which means thicker and higher capacity. Most connectors that don't have a tail will come with a range of sizes that they are designed to work with. so anything between the two numbers quoted will work with those. In this case, you'll have to splice them together. If my memory is correct, Geneb should still have the western union splice in the assembly manual for connecting the extruder stepper to it's proper tail. That would be more than sufficient to connect the tail on that to the fan wires.

[nflint]

Thanks! Yes the western union splice was in the manual which was very helpful to have as I hadn't spliced wires before. So I'll go ahead and do the same thing here with these connections. Would you recommend soldering those connections or just wrap them in tape and leave them alone. Another gap in knowledge! I know in the manual he was very explicit in one point about NOT "tinning"/soldering the connection so I only soldered when the manual said to do so. Really appreciate all the help!

[Xenocrates]

Given that these are the fan connections, and should not experience sufficient heat to bake the solder out (Not that I didn't manage to have a fan die and accidentally cook solder off the contacts in it's housing for ~16 hours). If the solder could cause an issue, it would largely be in strain concentration. If you've routed the fan wiring with the bowden tube as is recommended, that should provide minimal issues, especially as the fans feature soldered internal connections as it stands. You're also not trying to get it into a screw terminal (If I remember correctly, it was power into the board that he didn't want tinned. It's been rather a while, two PSU swaps, and a pair of controller boards since then, so I might be off). Best of luck getting it built. I would also cut some length from the fan wires and the tails on the connectors here, so you don't have comically long fan leads, especially if you end up leaving the layer fan disconnected much.

[nflint]

Good news!!! I'm back up and running - so must have just been those lose wires for the fans that caused the issue. I replaced the two small fuses F2 and F3 and we are back up. So now on to calibration so I can start printing. Thanks everyone for the help!

[nflint]

So one of the reasons I pulled the trigger on the RostockMax was because I heard great things about the community. And you didn't fail me at all! Everything is up and running and I now have successfully printed the PEEK fan shroud!!! Many thanks to all of you. I look forward to continuing to learn, and where I can, contributing to this community. Thanks again!!!

[Xenocrates]

We do our best. I like to think a friendly helpful community is one of the best features a product can have. I mean, look at the choices people make in single board computers. Those with communities and support stand head and shoulders above as far as sales. It's thanks to people like Geneb, Eaglesoar, MHackney, Jim, and Polygonhell leading by example and always being willing to lend a hand that the forums are the wonderful repository of technical knowledge they are.

I have to say, I lurked on these forums for a few months before I decided to buy a printer, and seeing the community really did sell me on the printer just like it did for you. Hopefully the rest of your printing is smooth. If it isn't, you know where to look for help.