tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8506118256853506662024-02-07T20:02:49.640+11:00Billy D's Rostock and Prusa I3 3D PrintersThis blog covers my exploit into 3D printer. The Rostock 3D was my first printer build from scratch. The build and progress is documented in detail here.
I am also building a Prusa I3. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-81778049040491612472013-11-24T09:40:00.002+11:002013-11-24T20:58:43.894+11:00Oversized Prusa I3 finished and then someIt has been so long since my last post. I have been very busy with work and play that I never got around to updating the blog. I have made it the home page on my browser to remind me. So here is my oversized I3 story in one brief summary.<br />
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My I3 has been finished for months and has been well used. As a matter of fact its my preferred printer now. It has an oversized print base. Currently configured with a 300x300 build plate. It can actually accommodate a 400x300 build plate if necessary. However to make this oversize version needed some modifications to the original build.<br />
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When I first built it I used the standard (at the time) 8mm steel smooth rods. It was quickly discovered that with the extra lengths in my build, this allowed to much flexure, which affected print quality. The quality was poor. So... back to the drawing board.<br />
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I managed to source very high quality (strong) 12mm smooth rods and bearings from a local CNC parts shop. So I reprinted the parts to handle those. These rods are very rigid, very sturdy and very heavy hehe, the two rods on the X carriage weigh over 1Kg.<br />
Anyway this rebuild with all of the upgraded steel rods and threaded rods work a treat. It is extremely ridged.<br />
This thing is big, it is hard to tell from the photo, but I had a friend's standard I3 here for a while and it is only slightly wider than the carriage and can almost fit through the gap :-) It looked so cute!.<br />
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In the original build I also discovered two other issues which I resolved when I rebuilt it:<br />
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<li>Moving the much heavier build plate around (at speed). There is always some print job that has fast back and forth fills that just find the right frequency to want to shake the printer apart or at least make it skip a step in the Y direction ruining the print. I adjusted the Acceleration and XY Jerk settings in the firmware to reduce the intensity of the direction changes to help resolve this. This increased the print times a little but the top speed is still very fast so on big objects t flies. Another option would be to upgrade the Y stepper to a nema 23 but I have not got around to that. </li>
<li>In the original build, looking at the original prints under a microscope (as you do), it appeared that I was getting some slight movement of the x carriage that matched the thread of the z threaded rods. Basically as the rods turn, the thread can put pressure on the X carriage and case a very slight shift affecting the print quality up the Z. I was not sure if this would carry across to the new build but to make sure I redesigned the mounting of the x carriage to decouple it from the threaded rod.<br />This was done by adding a separate lifter that holds the bolts that ride up and down the Z threaded rod. The X carriage just sits on top of these and rides up and down. Any lateral movement of lifters does not translate to the X carriage as they are not hard coupled in any way to the carriage. If there is any minor X and Y movement caused by the threads, it does not get translated by pushing or pulling the X carriage.<br />This also has the advantage of limiting the damage that can be done in the dreaded event of the Z end stop being missed. If that happened, the hot end can be pulled into the Print Bed with some substantial torque causing major damage if you are not quick enough to stop it. However with this design, the X carriage is simply resting on the Z lifters so in this case they can ride further down the threaded rod and the X carriage will simply rest on the print bed and not be pulled down onto it. This also means in an emergency, I can simply lift the X carriage by hand if necessary as it just rids the smooth rods. </li>
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The image below shows the Z lifter on the threaded rod. The carriage simply sits on the lifter and is not attached at all. I have also included a couple of prints at .2mm layer height. They have not been cleaned up.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-60250053199726750542013-05-12T19:00:00.003+10:002013-05-12T19:00:28.447+10:00Prusa I3 Starting to come togetherAfter some woodwork on Saturday and some assembly on Sunday, the basic shape is there.<br />
Got some help from Stuart (Auzze) who dropped in with some bits and helped with assembly.<br />
This is wider than the average I3 able to print 300mm wide instead of 200mm<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-5573591538273886902013-05-08T19:03:00.000+10:002013-05-08T19:03:00.083+10:00I3 Printer Build BeginsHere the Rostock is busy printing parts for my new I3 printer. Parts are being printed in PLA at .2mm layer height and 50% circular fill. <br />
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This will be a slightly modified I3 as it will handle a larger 300 x 300 XY build area and 200mm in height.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-73230538763974473842013-04-07T17:20:00.002+10:002013-04-07T17:20:45.794+10:00Yet another statue This is another model from Thingiverse. The model took about 9 hours to print and was printed at 0.12mm layer height and the model is over 1100 layers in height. Once again really happy with the rostock both in reliability and quality.<br />
Hmmm I am beginning to detect feelings of insecurity as I appear to be surrounding myself with worrior women :-)<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-78385626959809989192013-03-17T21:13:00.000+11:002013-03-17T21:13:03.614+11:00Redid that model Full sizeWell I liked that particular object so much I did it again this time its full size about 180mm across and 130mm high. Printed at .15mm layer height it took 11 hours to print.<br />
This is as it finished so it has not been clean up yet (The supports are still attached to the sword handle)<br />
I am pretty chuffed.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-66441330580451995882013-03-16T21:50:00.005+11:002013-03-16T21:52:38.284+11:00Rostock 0.15mm layer height Had a go at a model using .15mm layer height. This is a 50% scale of the original model. The original model would have taken about 8 hours to print so I scaled it down quite a bit. This took just over 2 hours. I would like to try the full size one as there would be alot more detail.<br />
Pretty happy with the quality.. might have to give .1mm a go next<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-39290928194061291172013-02-24T11:29:00.000+11:002013-02-24T11:37:27.937+11:00Minor mods to RostockHi All,<br />
Just thought I would post some minor updates that I made to my original Rostock.<br />
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<strong>Pulley Case Covers: </strong>I found that anytime I put anything down on the desk it would seem to be attracted to the moving pulleys and belts at the base of the rostock while I was in the middle of a print job hehe. So I made up some simple covers for the motor mount at the bottom of each axis.<br />
The stl can be found on thingiverse: <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:53556">http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:53556</a><br />
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<strong>Kossel Effector:</strong> I decided to replace the original rostock effector with the newer simpler design from the Kossel. This image shows the original design sitting on the print bed with the new, more simple one from the Kossel already fitted floating just above. <br />
The new effector design is lighter, allows a more unobstructed view print job in progress and allows the effector rods to be attached in a more simple and secure fashion. <br />
If you do use this part for the standard rostock you must make sure that the spacing between the effector rods at this effector end is exactly the same as it is where they on the X,Y and Z axis. The scad file from the kossel will allow you to adjust that dimension if necessary. I just used the standard spacing as the spacers from my Heim joints allows it to fit perfectly.<br />
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<strong>Herringbone Gears: </strong>Finally, just because I was board, I replaced the standard gears on my extruder with herringbone gears. These have less play and seem to be a bit quieter.<br />
I just used the standard parametric herringbone gear openscad file that you can find on thingiverse adjusting the gear ratios for the ones I use on my wades on this Rostock.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-88276713348762027262013-02-11T08:42:00.003+11:002013-02-11T08:42:55.891+11:00Rostock printing real things :-)Today I actually designed and printed something other than a trinket or a part for a printer. I wanted a better way to adjust the vertical angle of my home theatre projector. The commercial mount has the projector mounting bracket hanging and pivoting from the one point. Unfortunately this poses a problem as the strange mount on my projector means it is slightly back heavy. To add to this I have it mounted on an articulated arm so I can fold it back to the wall when not in use and then swing it out to optimal position when i use.<br />
To make alignment to the screen easier, I used the free creo elements cad package to design an adjustable bracket and then printed out the parts. The images below show the results. It works a treat.<br />
It adds stability to the projector as it is not mounted from two points on the bar and can quickly be adjusted if necessary by turning a thumb wheel to raise or lower it.<br />
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This is the design in the Creo Elements cad package.<br />
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This is the end result looking from the back of the projector. The bottom nut is a nylock nut that holds the threaded rod and in the top clamp section there is a standard nut in the thumb wheel adjuster with some washers top and bottom.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-82608068891846835732013-02-02T23:26:00.001+11:002013-02-02T23:26:09.877+11:00Rostock more fine tuning 0.15mm layer heightAnother big day today.<br />
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<li> I added the LCD controller to my Ramps board - as well as being able to monitor or control the printer, I particularly like how this can be used to slow down or speed up the print job as required.</li>
<li>Added mmall LED posts to the front axis to light up the print area - These are attached to the lower part of the Front two smoothrods. The carriages never come down that low and they generate nice highlights so you can keep an eye on the print job. </li>
<li>Switched to KisSlicer for slicing the stl files - This seems to make much nicer prints, it is much better at handling shallow curves and seems to generate much more logical pathing. its also allows you to print the outer most perimeter slowly and then all the other very fast.<br /> </li>
<li>Started printing at 0.15mm layer height - and this really starts to allow details to show in the models. Really happy with these results. The .4mm layer height I used to print at seems so far removed from what I am getting now. It is still not perfect as I am still learning how to tweak KisSlicer.</li>
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The image on the left shows the new LCD controller and the print area lighting. The other shows the owl from the other day (printed at 0.2mm) and now the the ape and the funny looking gargoyle at 0.15mm.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-47775852251915469812013-01-29T13:33:00.001+11:002013-01-29T13:33:08.150+11:00Fine Tuning the Rostock ...Success!!I spent this long weekend resolving some issues on the Rostock.<br />
Two issues that were causing intermittent problems were: <br />
<ol>
<li>The Teflon tube on the bowden occassionally working its way loose during a print. <br />This was a pain. If I tightened the clamp up too tight it would crimp the tube and restrict the path of the plastic filament. I tried a few things like filing the outside of the tube to provide more grip, adding some tape, etc.<br />Finally I had a eureka moment when I suddenly woke up at 3am Saturday moning. I Then couldnt sleep, so I got up to try and implement the idea. I added a threaded nut onto the Teflon tube and redid the connection so the night is locked inside and cannot pull out. Success<br /> </li>
<li>The extruder sometimes skipped when feeding filament during parts of the print that involved laying alot of plastic quickly. Basically did not have enough torque. I redesigned the gears shrinking the drive gear a little and increasing the size of the secondary gear to increase torque. </li>
</ol>
Basically this resulted in the quality of my prints going from this:<br />
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This last print was at .2mm layer height abd too about 4 hours. I had to vary the speed at certain points to allow the filament to dry on the smaller diameter parts</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-29831735656728899082013-01-06T17:47:00.001+11:002013-01-06T18:01:41.626+11:00Rostock 3D Printing VasesWell I printed one of my longest jobs on the rostock. A couple of vases. All up they took about 5 hours or so.<br />
I have printed them in plain white as they are translucent and I intend to put some of those LED flickering tealights in them. <br />
The one on the right is after doing more tweaks to the unit. I added sides and crossbeams to increase the rigidity of the unit which has decreased vibration during printing substantially.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-52563173016523348942013-01-02T22:39:00.001+11:002013-01-02T22:39:24.929+11:00Rostock Finally working Accurately- YAY!Well I have been slack of late and never got around to debugging the Rostock printer.<br />
I have had a long outstanding issue where prints were not perfect dimensions in X and Y <br />
If for example I printed a large square 200mm x 200mm it would not be perfectly square. It would be out by a couple of mm in 1 corner.<br />
I tried all sorts of measurements but could not work out the issue.<br />
As I had a few days off over new years weekend, I decided to bite the bullet and fully rebuild it.<br />
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I totally dismantled it and cut new base and top boards. Assembled and squared everything up making sure everything was square and all rods are exactly the same length from the print centre, both Top and Bottom.<br />
As mentioned in a previous post, I also replaced the printed rods and joints with manufactured Heim joints.<br />
This time it all works very accurately.<br />
Things that helped that I did not have as an early adopter for the first build:<br />
<ul>
<li>A good set of precise dimensions for the base and top boards. Previously its was all angles and distance from centre etc. Very difficult to get perfectly accurate. This set of dimensions lets you locate all the key points just by measuring from the top left of a rectangle board. <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34359">http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34359</a> . I still calculated the build centre point which is 175 In from the left and 175 in from the back. Lines going out from the centre point at 120 degree angles intersect the midpoints between each of the whole pairs.<br />An important note about the diagram is that the holes on that are marked as 8mm. This is wrong they are only 3 or 4mm and are used to secure the plastic parts that hold the rods. The rods do not go through the board they are on the outside edges of the board.</li>
<li>A good calibration guide: <a href="http://minow.blogspot.com.au/">http://minow.blogspot.com.au/</a> This is an excellent source of information that clears up so much of the black magic. Thanks minow :-)</li>
<li>A second try :-) My experience from the first build made the rebuild easy. Basically it was done in a day. </li>
</ul>
This time around I did not add the threaded rods for support. I am going to add some sides on the left and right sides that extend a couple of inches beyond the the back of the unit. I will then add a threaded rod X across the back for stability.<br />
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I will post an image once I have completed the build.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-15338831202265936652012-12-29T13:31:00.000+11:002012-12-29T13:31:18.973+11:00Replace Universal Joints and RodsWell it was time to make another mod to the Rostock 3D Printer.<br />
I purchased some preassembled effector rods with Heim joints to replace the rods and joints I printed originally.<br />
These rods are steel M3 rods with Heim joints (a kind of ball joint) fitted to the ends.<br />
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Heim joints are a loop at the end that rotate around a ball.<br />
I have included a video <br />
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I still seem to have the printing issue though which basically slightly distorts the object as you move towards the front right corner in x/y. Its only slight and you dont notice it on most smaller objects, but it is really annoying me. If I print a 150mm square. It is not truly square. It is slightly smaller in the front right corner by about 1.5mm. Its like that corner is pushed in towards the centre slightly.<br />
It must be caused by the position of the 3 axis as replacing all of the rods did not change the problem. Next step I will make a new base and top to ensure that all 3 axis are perfectly positioned and square.<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-73501630324956827282012-09-09T18:00:00.001+10:002012-09-09T18:01:43.941+10:00Rostock 3D with improved extruderI made yet another change the the Rostock. I have been using a wades extruder but the high ratio between the gears had been causing some issues. Although it had a lot of torque, it is a bit slow to respond to the big retracts needed for retractions through the bowden tube. Because it need such long retractions and such a hi ratio, retractions would take over 1 second causing pauses as the head waited for the retract.<br />
So I created a new set of gears that have a much closer ratio (almost 1:1).<br />
The response is much much fast now and it has improved print quality too.<br />
here is a little video. Nothing too special but its printing a complicated print and the extrudes start and stop exactly where required even the little drops:<br />
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The camera really seems to be sensitive to the noises from the printer. this video makes it sound like its making a racket but its actually nowhere near as harsh as it sounds here.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-23827759402494167402012-09-06T13:21:00.000+10:002012-09-06T13:21:52.622+10:00New Rostock Firmware installed and workingNo new images today but I just wanted to report that the Rostock is working well with the new firmware. <br />
I did initially have a teething problem where my extruder was not working after the upgrade.. but I found the magic setting I needed to adjust. Interestingly the parameter was set the same in both versions of the firmware :Default Retract Acceleration. Its possible that it may not have been properly implemented in the first version of the firmware. I am not sure why the value had to be different but it is working again.<br />
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One of the biggest changes in the firmware (amongst many) is the removal of the bottom end stops. These are no longer required for leveling the effector or finding the home position. Although this means the Rostock no longer does its little dance when you home all axis, it simplifies the how process and is more straight forward. This also means you may be able to use other controller boards that do not support both min and max end stops (like the Gen6 for example). Although I have not tried any of these. <br />
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I am still working on getting the best out of the bowden extruder. It still occassionally fails to deposit small amounts after a retract, but it is getting better with each tuning.<br />
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Also I manages to print several complex objects using Pronterface.exe. The issues where this used to cause pauses during prints seems to no longer occur. I printed from pronterface for about 3 hours straight without a hitch.<br />
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The print quality of the layers is really good to my eye, except for the occassional miss with the extruder. If I can nail these issues, it will be almost flawless.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-70496560572426625292012-09-02T15:46:00.003+10:002012-09-03T13:12:38.256+10:00Another Improve in Rostock print qualityI think i have solved the lumpiness issue now. I was correct in that I think it was being caused by a big difference in speed between standard perimeters and Small perimeters. This would result in little blobs as it slow down and the extra flow of the bowden would deposit a bit too much plastic. I changed the slice settings so they both print at the same speed (90mm/s) and this seems to have eliminated the "warts" I was getting on the outside of the objects (See Yoda below).<br />
I had to post process this picture to remove some of the colour. The camera was having a hard time with transparent red again. This is Spoctopuss a .2mm layer height.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-10262365911211630632012-09-01T13:19:00.001+10:002012-09-01T13:20:55.552+10:00A Yoda I have printed hmmm?Well After many failed attempts to complete the print job of Yoda. I finally succeeded.<br />
With previous attempts one axis would miss a step somewhere along the way throwing the whole print out. On rostock it is hard to tell which one was the culprit so I went back to basics and checked the reference voltages on the stepsticks and found one was lower than the other two. I set them all the same and managed to complete the whole print at .2mm layer height with a .5mm hot end.<br />
Its a long way from perfect but at least it printed.<br />
The image on the left shows him with the support structures still in place.<br />
The main issue that will affect all prints are the small blobs... it is extruding inconsistently. Its possible that with the bowden extruder it is having trouble if I have too much of a speed differential between the speed of the small perimeters and large perimeters. Flow control could be an issue there. I will try to make the speeds more consistent and see if that helps.<br />
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The holes in the ears I think are cause by them simply being too thin in the model so I am not too worried about that.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlsWUQiN5B6aLQ1HhTpU7FsOLqr972RVk9deRtaxvwB6s5mlYbDdf8sl5GelgYO2M0IXH8aRIACreeQp9hwhr5um5ZsSwaTGZ5VZvqTaTzaNIav6Q2daQCvm0eOvZro2USscpXpiEpaQMI/s1600/IMG_0584.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlsWUQiN5B6aLQ1HhTpU7FsOLqr972RVk9deRtaxvwB6s5mlYbDdf8sl5GelgYO2M0IXH8aRIACreeQp9hwhr5um5ZsSwaTGZ5VZvqTaTzaNIav6Q2daQCvm0eOvZro2USscpXpiEpaQMI/s200/IMG_0584.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpKXyEzK-QkX0ic9gcmEiAAu0lJ1AW6cZZI-a4IihyphenhyphenlV1WmEGZAVogJSV5ceVRale6o7o1B8lm2ypzgmxrlTLRoefD7d3H8OAaShQXYwo0dO7eUyPPWZ2MloO6y2AkzevxXVk9NLFkqiFq/s1600/IMG_0579.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpKXyEzK-QkX0ic9gcmEiAAu0lJ1AW6cZZI-a4IihyphenhyphenlV1WmEGZAVogJSV5ceVRale6o7o1B8lm2ypzgmxrlTLRoefD7d3H8OAaShQXYwo0dO7eUyPPWZ2MloO6y2AkzevxXVk9NLFkqiFq/s200/IMG_0579.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-86909552904709770862012-08-22T21:54:00.005+10:002012-08-22T21:54:40.027+10:00Rostock 3D issue resolved that was causing long print jobs to failI finally resolved the most annoying issue I have had. Print Jobs Failing because of the head getting caught on excess plastic deposit at some point through the print job.<br />
I am using a J-head Hot end, they are wonderfully made but one feature on it seems to be a problem on the rostock. Where the filament is extruded there is a small lip or ridge. This can get caught on any over extruded plastic which is catastrophic for the rostock floating head. So I filed it back to a smooth curved tip instead. It seems to have worked. I also added springs under the headed bed so that in a crunch it could move down out of the way if it really needs to.<br />
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Here is a 1.5 hour print job completed. Previously 3 attempts at this failed at one point or another<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-46403776363994321452012-08-20T21:48:00.001+10:002012-08-22T21:56:59.532+10:00Print quality is actually exceeding my Sells Mendel at the momentIts actually hard to tell here as this red transparent PLA I am using is impossible to photograph, It comes out looking like crap but I am really happy with the results I managed to get tonight. <br />
After many many failures at trying to print Admiral Akbar on the rostock, I finally found the settings that worked best.<br />
The first picture on the left shows the fine support structures that I was able to print even with a bowden extruder which amazed me. Even on my Mendel, some of these finer structures would not print or would collapse. The second picture shows the final model which looks so much better in real life than it does here. These models are a tranparent red plastic. They look really terrible here but the actual model look quite good.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKLF5DDlC2mH8mYj5cmFziDDGzXOzSfJN1X7lAsNqwxyawP8OTVD5IxcthgS_FW4fMoR0nzMLLAyjQA_fvnutgcuGXOB_5F56a7i9eIoZeNaFf6v6NtHFTIoz_9jOBO-sriXA_wrETrVSe/s1600/IMG_0559.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKLF5DDlC2mH8mYj5cmFziDDGzXOzSfJN1X7lAsNqwxyawP8OTVD5IxcthgS_FW4fMoR0nzMLLAyjQA_fvnutgcuGXOB_5F56a7i9eIoZeNaFf6v6NtHFTIoz_9jOBO-sriXA_wrETrVSe/s200/IMG_0559.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoC1IXihIpyyFMMXPGNv0KqZdgQdRkSCAZ3_9-2OOmtztClSQu0M3xA8rVyf68yzjq4dtVLHYt201IZ3h_HMFDRSR9vZfLeEvr-rFLCOVnkFAS232RaxxwsRPV1dWggCf9nVc8woifgk2o/s1600/IMG_0547.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoC1IXihIpyyFMMXPGNv0KqZdgQdRkSCAZ3_9-2OOmtztClSQu0M3xA8rVyf68yzjq4dtVLHYt201IZ3h_HMFDRSR9vZfLeEvr-rFLCOVnkFAS232RaxxwsRPV1dWggCf9nVc8woifgk2o/s200/IMG_0547.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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Basically the mods I made to the extruder tonight really seem to have paid off. <br />
* Replacing the standard hobbed bolt with a precision Arcol Hyena <br />
* Mounting the Extruder in a bridge and shortening the PTFE tube <br />
* Much tweaking and playing around with the settings in Slic3r (I think the most important changes in slicer were experementing with the retract settings and adding a 1mm lift.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-16014289924627015452012-08-18T19:56:00.002+10:002012-08-19T10:12:08.814+10:00Rostock Fiinally printed something reasonable<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Finally got it working reliably enough to print something. I had to slow it down and loosen the tension on the belts a little. But it ran solidly for 1.5 hours. See just have to say nasty things sometimes :-) Its a mobile phone holder. 8cm high .3mm layer height.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-13724790177281449652012-08-18T16:47:00.003+10:002012-08-18T17:00:52.559+10:00Rostock 3D with my own unique placement of the ExtruderOK this is my final iteration for this design for now. <br />
These are all of the mods from the original design:<br />
<ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN9PQnLDnHLtACxYPXd1jWARItDOWkCfiSmbPM4au-8RjPRASLquPiK1vjkDy6itzMo2VRytHImlggkxNkFSZ9WAPL1z72stsEoWQQ-mka2_vfH7bbYoYLqPXGky5p_j4JLRqqd4_mjcE3/s1600/IMG_0542.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN9PQnLDnHLtACxYPXd1jWARItDOWkCfiSmbPM4au-8RjPRASLquPiK1vjkDy6itzMo2VRytHImlggkxNkFSZ9WAPL1z72stsEoWQQ-mka2_vfH7bbYoYLqPXGky5p_j4JLRqqd4_mjcE3/s320/IMG_0542.JPG" width="213" /></a>
<li>Mounting the extruder on a bridge suspended under the top of the rostock. This sits just above the home position and being in the middle right above the centre of the plate also gives me the shortest possible bowden tube which I am hoping will improve response on the extruder retracts.</li>
<li>Addition of 2 x 20mm fans on the hot end</li>
<li>The threaded rods in the back corners and near the front smoothrods to make it easy to tighten the belts</li>
<li>Another minor mod is using Einstein's heavy duty bowden ends. The original designs were weak points and could not clamp onto the PTFE tubing well enough, but with these I can use hose clamps to hang on to that tricky little sucker.</li>
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Now having completed it, I have to say this thing is fickle at the moment. One minute things work OK then all of a sudden it will start homing incorrectly or jump a spot while printing if it hits a small plastic deposit Left by the bowden.<br />
Now all of a sudden during the home sequence it will "jump up" slightly after making contact with the last Micro-switch in the home sequence. <br />
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I am glad I built one for the experience, however I would not say this is my favourite at the moment. I am yet to get a completed decent quality print. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-51159660896880048912012-08-12T18:16:00.002+10:002012-08-25T11:59:00.070+10:00Another mod to the rostock - Threaded Rods<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkxV5_r7sm8JYcq0JZEQhdxMlBZAQjaGBIpIOP9OIzMWwRg4-siDBuC8ECW1DaRUqqg1MRuPz3a96F29Bygr-9OoACWzKOedamJif88HaQZ6yvKW3yptLXEG-8QYTNH5EQ9-KFsm62C5xb/s1600/IMG_0541.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkxV5_r7sm8JYcq0JZEQhdxMlBZAQjaGBIpIOP9OIzMWwRg4-siDBuC8ECW1DaRUqqg1MRuPz3a96F29Bygr-9OoACWzKOedamJif88HaQZ6yvKW3yptLXEG-8QYTNH5EQ9-KFsm62C5xb/s320/IMG_0541.JPG" width="213" /></a>I found that just relying on the clamps on the top pulley mounts to keep my belts tight was not all that great. For starers you need four hands to apply tension and tighten the nuts and bolts and its hard to fine tune. Also these are smooth rods so overtime the top could slip down.<br />
Since 3/8" threaded rods are real cheap, I added two at the back corners and one on each side towards the front. Now I can just turn a nut and get the belts as tight as I want.<br />
As this was not in my initial design I had to as small metal plates that I just had lying around to get the rods at the front clear of the movement. If I was doing this from scratch I would change the shape of the top and bottom pieces so the angled out a little towards the front to cater for the rods. <br />
These rods could also be used to attach angled brackets if I want to add more rigidity to the frame.<br />
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My next mod will be the relocation of the Extruder. I worked out by suspending it below the top plate about 19cm below the top. It will sit right above the head just clear of the home position and shorten the Bowden tube by almost 50%. Is an easy mod I will try it during the week. I am hoping that shortening the Bowden will improve its response after a retract.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-32445250051902510262012-08-11T21:23:00.001+10:002012-08-11T21:28:29.273+10:00Rostock isTemporarilly out of actionWell the heat resistor in my hot end blew today and I dont have a spare. So she's out of action until the reinforcments arrive. They are so cheap I ordered 5 + some additional thermal paste to make sure I can keep feeding it :-)<br />
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Just before it went, I made another mod to the Rosock. I put a twist in the belt so that the back of the belt runs over the bearings at the top rather than the teeth. I there was a noticible improvement in the smoothness of the movements. Cant really test it until I get it all back together.<br />
I will have a little break until they arrive.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-68533410857462702982012-08-09T23:25:00.001+10:002012-08-10T11:57:08.431+10:00Rostock Completed and printing fairly wellWell its pretty much done but requires some tweaking though.<br />
The main issue I have now is that I think the hotend cant keep up with the print speed. I am not sure yet. I can extrude full speed all the way through the bowden tube without a problem, but while trying to print at that speed on the longer runs it the Extruder stales every now and then. You can hear it making a loud noise in video.<br />
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All in all I am relatively happy with the print quality, I just need to sort out a couple of minor issues.<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzFcKNoxxOk&feature=youtu.be">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzFcKNoxxOk&feature=youtu.be</a><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262817346424710840noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-850611825685350666.post-48415392261694216062012-08-07T22:36:00.001+10:002012-08-08T13:25:52.429+10:00Rostock 3D - Tuning the extruderWell I spent some time fine tuning the settings and I am getting there.<br />
In the image below you can see the first print (ahem!) on the left and then after much tweaking and getting the retracts working better with the bowden extruder. There is still a long way to go but its not too bad.<br />
For some reason, its not filling right to the edges. I think that means I am not pushing enough plastic or there is too much slack in the system (its more likely the latter).<br />
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