I got me 3D printer, awesome!

Cheers, I may well do. As equally awesome and kind as Al's offer of the same is, might work out a bit cheaper to send it from Ipswich rather than 20,000 km away in Perth. :D

Definitely looking forward to an in-depth NFire 1 review too, still eying one of those for a 2nd printer purchase down the line.
 
Nice video James. :) Any prints you can show off?

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Got the Tevo back in operation last weekend, moved it into the garage on it's own bench and I've added a glass print bed. Why did I wait so long to get one?! What a difference. First layer goes down much nicer, no messing with tape or any of that nonsense. Few pics mid process, tape is now removed.

IMG_4965_zpsp8y6mm3y.jpg


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I've now added the following:

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6 x corner support prints to improve frame rigidity on top corners and base X+Y joins.
Adjustable Z axis stop bracket.
Improved Z nut bracket.

Also rebuilt and resquared the printer on top of everything else and I'm getting some really nice results now over what I had originally. Dimensions are correct, no squashed initial layers etc.

Next up is to print a blower fan shroud to get some active cooling sorted, then tidy up wiring finally.
 
Looking good randal,

I like the filament colour, did that come with the printer?

I'll get some pictures of prints up soon, I'll actually do another video on the NFire 1 at some point once I've put some hours through it, got a few upgrades to add first and then decide what 3D printed project to start next.

Got a spool of Carbon fibre filament on the way + got to use the ColorFabb filaments I got sent.

J.
 
Looks good, driving me nuts at the moment though. :D

Had levelling problems last night which were all over the place, one print was perfect the next terrible. Adjusting the stop was giving me all sorts of weirdness, sometimes the head would move down as expected then on the next increment it would be 5mm off.

So I rage quit on the Z stop last night, in a moment of madness I ripped the lot out and in doing so realised the Z stop switch had basically fallen apart and the extra travel was making contact which is why the results were all over the place.

Took the opportunity to install the auto bed levelling sensor and flash the Marlin firmware. Seems the "configured" build on the Tevo FB group is complete cack and needed/needs some tweaking still.

Y axis was reversed, no SD card support and the homing is all messed up. Managed to get Y and SD support sorted but the homing is driving me crazy. It just wants to print in the closest corner on the left despite having full motion when it homes. Bed levelling works nicely though, even if I have had to lose my glass print bed for now.

I'm assuming it's offsets somewhere that are screwing things up, but I don't have the patience at the moment to resolve it so I've walked away for now lest the thing end up in the bin. :D


Yep, that green and red stuff came with. It's not bad for bargain basement filament, and has been ideal for doing test/calibration stuff and knocking out upgrades for the Tevo. Don't feel like I'm wasting good filament with my trial and error that way!

Look forward to seeing some outputs from the NFire, and those filaments sound interesting especially the CF stuff. Presumably that's going to require some special printing setup?
 
Also, just ordered a capacitive sensor to replace the inductive jobber Tevo supply. Miss my glass bed too much.

I've got the homing problem sorted now, now I think I'm having extrusion issues. Need to take a look at the E-Steps in the Marlin FW and see what's going on there. That or it's retraction. Either way I'm not getting enough filament and the stepper is backing up like mad.

Progress either way.
 
Where did you order the sensor from? You sure it's the non metal detecting kind.

I've not been well over the weekend so not done any printing.

To answer your question about carbon filament, it's suggested to use a steel nozzle but that's the only change needed from a machinal point of view.

J.
 
Amazon, capacitive job. £4 delivered. Seems to be well regarded in the RepRap community, and at that price gotta be worth a punt.

Sorry to hear you've not been well, all good now?

Gotcha, presumably that's for the higher temps needed?
 
Ah I see.

Just broke it again. Currently jury rigged and printing another Z carriage. Seems the supplied auto level sensor is a bit hit and miss lol.

edit - Fixed, and probably one of the best large prints I've managed. Typical. I spend hours calibrating to get an "ok" print, throw something together and adjust the bed on the fly and it's spot on.
 
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Already pillaged the group, FB group and your handy repo. :D Cheers!

I was looking at those supports, look pretty good. I've just used 4x of these in the intersection beneath the bed and they're working well. I'm generally happy with the frame rigidity now. Motion and sensing seems to be my current areas of beef.

Printed off a stronger Z motor mount tonight, and the Z bracket (right side) tonight. Figured I might as well make hay whilst the sun is shining. Going to repair the bracket and calibrate everything as best I can ahead of the capacitive sensor turning up.

The only thing I'm really struggling to find at the moment is a sensor mount that'll allow me to use a radial blower at the same time. Might make do with this for the time being.

Getting close to the end of my free PLA now, which has been great for testing and printing upgrades. Only got the good stuff to use now, so need to find some cool prints. My son has a flotilla of Benchies already! :D
 
I went through the 2 rolls of freebie pla ages ago, 2/3rds of the way through a 1kg roll of blue PLA and 1/2 way through a roll of bright green PLA.

you need to print more! I am waiting on my sensor being delivered then I will be in the same boat finding a mount that will work correctly.

I have replaced my Z mount a few times, not for anything other than seeing a new one :)

This is the one I am using now, very strong ...

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1540173
 
Definitely need to print more then. :D That Z mount looks absolutely solid, I'm pleased with the one I printed the other day as pictured, but I might have to give that one a go now too.

Fitted the new brackets then had another overhaul tonight after seeing some ideas on the Thingiverse Owners group. Moved the extruder up to the top left and rotated it 90 degrees anti-clockwise to get it out of the cable run path. It'll also be easier to arrange for filament feed from the top now. The bracket also doubles as a corner support.

Bit of a cable tidy up too. Swapped the Z stepper cable with extruder, and used the supplied cable tidy stuff that pushes into the 2020 extrusion. Bundled up the remaining cables.

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Something during the reshuffle has fixed my bed measurement/nozzle position issues I was having too. Previously 200mm travel made the stepper complain as the X carriage hit the right side, now I'm bang on edge to edge X wise. Odd. Not complaining! I left everything calibrated and working spot on, going to call it a night and kick some prints off tomorrow to see how the new mods fair.
 
Like the idea about the extruder, but am thinking it may be even better to rotate it another 90deg so the filament comes in at the top and exits out the bottom, less resistance on all the points then
 
xxalxx said:
Like the idea about the extruder, but am thinking it may be even better to rotate it another 90deg so the filament comes in at the top and exits out the bottom, less resistance on all the points then
Click to expand...

Or 90 degrees clockwise from it's original position, I'll try it out and see what works best once I've got a decent spool holder printed.

Bradley1928 said:
Proper jealous, always wanted a 3D printer. How much can you pick up a small home one these days?
Click to expand...

The Tevo Tarantula can be had for about £220 imported from China. It's not been totally straightforward though, however I've viewed that as a bit of a blessing in the form of a welcome learning curve.

The instructions supplied are terrible, some of the brackets don't fit all that well and getting the bed level can be a real time hog. However, it forces you to learn and consider all the variables that go into printing, and I've really enjoyed printing out upgrades and improvement parts to make the printer better.

Cost on top of the original purchase is about £50, that's for filament, fans, T-nuts and M4/M3 bolts to fit the upgraded parts.

Knowing what I know now I'd probably go for an NFire1 or a Wanhao Duplicator i3, but as said above I wouldn't know what I know now if it wasn't for the Tevo experience. :)
 
Ugh, damn Firefox post editing bug...

In addition, Arcad3D has put together some amazing build videos that negate the poor supplied instructions.
 
Al - think I have a design idea/solution for the cap sensor and the stock hot end. Currently teaching myself how to use Blender. :D

The remix of the radial fan duct/bracket on the owners group got printed today (pics to follow). My plan is to use that with a modified stock X carriage. Took some measurements today and it should work. Of course once we've got that working I'll probably want to upgrade to an E3D V6. :D

edit -

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