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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.

cambo3d wrote: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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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!)

mhackney wrote: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

cambo3d wrote: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.

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

foshon wrote:

cambo3d wrote: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

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

Egads foshon, that avatar scared the he!! out of me!

Mine also creaks. And sounds like a can full of rocks on retracts. My other printer has a direct drive extruder (bowden also) and is much, much quieter. I want to figure out how to get one on here and try it out.

I tried to post a youtube video but its scrambling the video for some reason.. grrr.

Mine has the same squeak. I haven't gotten a chance to try 3in1 Oil on the gears yet.

g.

I took the extruder apart and checked it nothing seems to be out of the ordinary, but at the same time while it was off, i sanded a bevel into the smaller gears near the filament roller, it seemed like it was rubbing against the bottom of the bowden adapter nut. I Put it all back together and the creaking noises went away. I can't be positive that's what caused it but might have been a combination of that and retorquing the assembly bolts. at least the noise is gone for now.

gabrielk had that issue too and he posted about shaving a bit of plastic to allow the knurled nut to thread a little higher up to avoid the gear

http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1168

ApacheXMD wrote:gabrielk had that issue too and he posted about shaving a bit of plastic to allow the knurled nut to thread a little higher up to avoid the gear

http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1168

I saw that but i didn't want to sand that area down, i think its that length for a reason to help the filament from binding. I think beveling the gear is a better idea

I got a little ambitious last night. Since my calibration prints were coming out ok, I'd try something more useful. The spool holder, not perfect but still gonna be put to use. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:60750

what infill pattern would you have used for the base of the spool holder and how do i get rid of the blobs.

The print looks pretty good.
On the base it just looks like you are extruding too much plastic.

Polygonhell wrote:The print looks pretty good.
On the base it just looks like you are extruding too much plastic.

do i just adjust flow rate, while its printing to reduce plastic? then change it back when the infill is done?