Keep it cool

Hi all

I've not been printing for a while. Here you can see the front of a building which came out pretty good.

I can still notice the bed not being perfectly 'flat' even after leveling it multiple times.

To make the bed perfectly level I will (in the future) install these parts from thingiverse. This is the link http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:63796 

I printed the part at 0.1mm layer height and the parts came out looking very good.

To get my prints looking this good I tweaked the extrusion multiplier in slic3r. This head to be done because I didn't do this after I started using a new roll of filament.

One problem with this printer is that the Y-axis motor gets reasonably hot. It's mostly because of the heated bed constantly hovering above. I'm currently trying to insulate the top of the motor (closest to the heated bed) and cool the underside of the motor (with a heat sink). If my temperature sensor/finger is accurate and the motor does run cooler then before.

Saved the best for the last. I've printed a new enclosure for the electronics and tidied up the wiring.

The force

For a while now I've been using kapton tape on my heated bed and it works great. Parts stick to that stuff like crazy which is great during a print. But when you want to remove a print it is a nightmare. They won't come off easily even when the bed has cooled down. Take Yoda for instance it took me about 15 minutes to get him off the bed.

Small update

Hi readers

all fixed nicely

Small update here!
I fixed the small fan that cools the extruder and I made it possible to disconnect the fans from the power supply. Usually they are connected straight to the 12V input.

both fans connected to one terminal on the GEN6 deluxe board

I also switched back to clamps for holding down the glass plate on my print bed. The tape didn't hold the glass good enough and it started to come loose. The clamps I use now won't bump into the extruder because they don't stick out as much as the previous ones.

Last but not least I update the Marlin firmware after running a PID autotune. The instructions I used can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APzJfYAgFkQ

Ran out of filament

Yesterday I ran out of filament on the end of a big print. Unfortunately the print wasn't finished yet. Here is the time-lapse video of the print: http://youtu.be/hjPn_ucdcfY

Luckily I can start printing again because today I got my new filament

 

Update

For those who read my blog sorry that it has been a while since my last update.

Since my last update some things have changed, the extruder cooling fan stopped working, I re-calibrated the bed, I've put kapton tape on the bed and I printed a clamp to hold the cables of the x-carriage.

The cable clamp was needed because the cables used to be zip-tied to the cooling fan cable. This made the cable a hinge which would bend every time the x-carriage would move. Eventually the copper inside the cable broke and the fan stopped working. I temporally put the big fan on to replace the small fan untill I've got a new one. 

I'm actually planning on to replace both fans (the on for the extruder and the one for the electronics) because the original ones make to much noise.

After some recent failures I decided to re-calibrate the bed, put kapton tape on it and get rid of the clamps.

One off the problems I had where because of unneeded tension in the printers frame. The tension caused the x-axis smooth rods to bend and cause the extruder to hit the bed on the sides while at the middle it was fine.

I've also started using kapton tape on the bed instead of hairspray. The hairspray looked so dirty but it worked ok. I don't know if the kapton tape will do better than the hairspray but we'll see.

The last thing I changed was getting rid of the clamps that used to hold the glass in place. Every time I printed something big the extruder would bump into one of the clamps and mess things up. That's why I've taped the glass in place with kapton tape now.

Haven't heard from me for a while

Hello readers

I'm still here. I haven't been updating a lot because I couldn't print a lot or work on my printer.
So here is something I have printed.

It has been a while

Haven't been printing a lot smaller since my last post.
Here are some things that I have printed.
First picture is a part of a house. The second picture is a magic wand.

Upgrade #5 vibration

Quick update I put some rubber between the stepper motors and the frame to reduce noise caused by the vibration of the motors.

Upgrade #2 upgraded (again)

Because my previous version of the cooling started to melt away I made a new cooling unit.
This version is more compact and of course doesn't melt.
In the picture you can see two versions the one on the right is final version. The top of the cooling unit is covered with a layer of aluminium foil to reflect heat from the print head. 

Upgrade #4 PLA -> ABS

Because of the high bed temperature the PLA parts of the y-carriage started to melt. This meant that I had to replace the PLA parts.

Upgrade #3 insulation

When I switched from PLA to ABS heating up the print bed took forever.
I got sick of waiting so I insulated the underside of the print bed. Now the bed heats up faster (I guess, don't know how long it took before).
As a precocioun I also insulated the y-axis carriage to minimize heat transfer from the bed to the bearings.

Small upgrade

A few days ago I replaced the metal clamps that hold the glass bed in place. I replaced them with smaller printed plastic clamps.

Photos of the little problem

Already working on an ABS replacement/upgrade

Little problem

Ran into a little problem with my cooling. When I switched from PLA to ABS my cooling unit started to melt.
Pictures will probably follow later.
I'll try to print a new cooling unit out of ABS so it doesn't melt as easy as PLA.

Upgrade #2 upgraded

Not long after I installed upgrade#2 I upgraded it.
The fan I previously installed wasn't very effective. I redesigned the cooling unit and replaced the normal fan with a radial fan.