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Yes, and there is even MORE information out there! (think about it)

cheers,
Michael

Ok, I have at least made some progress. It turns out that Repetier on Mac OSX will freeze 100% of the time when the screensaver kicks in. I can either disable screen saver or print directly from SD and all is well. Here is a 3 hour print - 100mm tall that completed successfully:

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v81 ... 0234-3.jpg[/img]

I started printing a big brother at 250mm tall and had to leave the house. I disabled screen saver by moving my mouse cursor to a "hot spot" in the corner. While I was out my son decided to use my computer (which he is not supposed to do!). When I got back I had this nice bowl:

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v2 ... 0184-3.jpg[/img]


I'm printing from SD card now, this vase will be 9.8" tall, natural PLA with 2 perimeter walls.

hey there that looks good!

The quality is looking great. I am getting this printer really dialed in. Positional accuracy and speed are second to none from what I've seen. Bowden extruders take a little finesse and understanding but can also be dialed in with some care. This natural PLA is really spectacular. Translucent and almost glows. I really like it.

I attempted one of these in black ABS. Whoops! ABS is difficult to print large thin walled objects like this due to shrinkage, resulting in delamintation. This is the Lava Vase and was going to be a monster. After an overnight print, I woke up in the morning to find this:

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v56 ... 6710-3.jpg[/img]

The fact that I keep the evening temp in my house much lower didn't help either I suspect. PLA is much more forgiving for these types of objects, less shrinkage and better interlayer bonding. You just need to make sure to have a fan on your cool zone on the hot end to avoid plugging and smaller parts and heavy infills require a separate cooling fan.

Just bump the temperature by 5 degrees or so and the ABS will likely stop delaminating.
Ambient temperature though does make a huge difference, I have prints where I can see the exact layer that a window was opened in my house.

Yeah, I was printing the black vase at about 5°C higher than normal. The bottom 2 cm (100 layers) are perfect. That's when I went to bed. Temp in house lowers to 62°F. Almost immediately see delams.

I am experimenting with a small hot water heater insulation wrap. Drop it over the max to keep heat in and maybe add a small IR heater or heat lamp to kick the temp up a bit. That might work and be easy/cheap to try.

I just finished this 14 hour print. 250mm / 9.8" tall and 178mm / 7" at its girth. .25mm layers printed at 40mm/s in natural PLA. Two perimeters and that's it.

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v22 ... 0534-3.jpg[/img]

Here is a closer photo:

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v6/ ... 0570-3.jpg[/img]

It's a rather stunning piece in person. The PLA almost glows and is translucent. Absolutely no cleanup is required, the layers are all tight and excellent. The positional accuracy of the Rostock MAX over this large of a piece is stunning.


This is the most perfect one of these I've made and MUCH bigger than any other. By way of comparison, here is a 100mm tall version of the same piece next to this monster:

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v54 ... 4620-3.jpg[/img]

I'll take much better photos of it off the machine later.

cheers,
Michael

Holy moly. That is beautiful! Any chance of a macro shot showing close up surface quality?

Really nice man! You must have had that fullfilling feeling there I bet!

I also noticed your "extra" spool holder just hanging out there waiting for the second extruder hardware to be installed.

Fantastic!

Any news about the new extruder part you were working on ?

I think I announced earlier that I've been invited to blog about 3D printing as a guest contributor on the CNCCookbook site. I just post the first of a 4 part series today:

3D Printing 101: Part 1: 3D Printer Basics
3D Printing 101: Part 2: Mechanics
3D Printing 101: Part 3: Electronics
3D Printing 101: Part 4: Software

Thought you might find them interesting.

regards,
Michael

Very nice writing....led me to research some of the innovators of this field. Loved it....but check for grammatical errors (not bad, just one....hehe)....

Please tell me where! I am a stickler for grammar.

"At its root, 3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing. Contrast this with machining methods – milling, drilling, cutting, turning – all subtractive manufacturing technologies.  The basic idea of making a 3 dimension object by building up small particles or  strands of material is really as hold as human history"

Sorry...avid newspaper reader and see it a lot......particles or strands of material is really a "hold" as human history......

Thanks, I'll try to get that fixed!

No problem......just a "perfectionist"..... As you are.....

Wouldn't it be "three dimensional object" rather than "3 dimension object"?

- dan

Yes, there are several problems in that sentence! I usually spell out numbers (quantities) too.

Just wanted to capture this in my build thread:

Literally seconds after the print was finished:

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v81 ... 2548-3.jpg[/img]

You can still see the tiny filament coming from the top where the nozzle headed home at the end of the print. This is in natural PLA and is a little difficult to photograph. I tried to illuminate it to really highlight the issues - which were very minor in person. This is much better than any pyramid I've ever printed on my H-1s and my friend's Prusa.

Here is a closer view off the printer. Again, no touching the part. Just in moving it the little hair (which was ever so fine) "blew" off by movement through the air:

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v87 ... 4618-4.jpg[/img]

I claim victory and am going to move on! But I am getting some RED PLA tomorrow so will likely print another in red (translucent).

At this point I am VERY pleased with the Rostock. It definitely outperforms my H-1 and H-1.1. I will refine things i'm sure and the slicers will improve things too. There is a real balance between the mechanical aspects and the slicing aspects to get great prints. My first attempt at this was with a 180°C nozzle. It was a bit stringy. I increased it to 195° and wa-la, no stringing.

As for parameters:

KISSlicer 1.1 RC2 (released today on Mac)
.5mm skin
2 loops
50% infill
.55mm extrusion width and infill extrusion width
.25mm layer thickness
1.0 / 45° Jitter (new feature as of today, just learning how to use it!)
195°C nozzle
60°C heated bed on blue tape
10mm prime/suck
5mm wipe
20mm/s speed
1.5mm min jump
5mm trigger

On the printer side you can get the accel and extruder speeds on my EEPROM screen shot: stepper digipot 175

Let me know if I missed anything!

Oh yeah, while it was printing I was dancing up and down with a counter clock wise spin!

another nice print

And a little quicker than the 250mm tall vase!

At this point, I pretty much have the Rostock dialed in and its becoming pretty predictable to me. There is always tweaking based on a specific part's geometry, print goals (cosmetic, utilitarian), plastic used, etc. I am making prints much nicer and bigger and smaller than I can on my H-1 and I have it very dialed in.

hey micheal how about i just copy all your settings instead of going through all this calibration .. probably wont work but worth a try.. =p

Actually that is not a bad idea. It might get people in the ball park. A couple of caveats:

stepper motor acceleration, speeds and current can be affected by your mechanical setup (i.e is your build tight, loose or just right!)
temperature measurements are affected by how you install your thermistor
material settings depend on your specific filament

For temperatures, maybe you could post temps measured from your thermocouple rather than target thermistor temps. And then we all could aim for those numbers?

I know hotend temperatures are material dependent as well, but like you said, it would probably get a lot of us close.

All the temps I'm reporting are calibrated and are within .5 deg C of the thermocouple measurement.