I was fortunate enough to be on the beta team for the printer, it really is a fantastic machine that is very well thought out
Random 3D printing chatter
- Thread starter Cenedd
- Start date
Don
I'm not sure why RatRig are making such a big thing of the 3-point bed levelling. It's not new. I've had that on my BLV Cube for about 2 years and it works very well indeed.
I think it's down to being the first "buy a kit" printer to feature it. Designs like the VORON, BLV Cube, Jubilee and HevORT are all cases where you source your own parts from their BOM / instructions.
Don
Toolchanger is getting there.
Wiring it has been.....interesting.
10 axes (X, Y, Z0, Z1, Z2, U, E0, E1, E2, E3), 5 endstops, 10 fans, 4 hotends, etc. etc.
Wiring it has been.....interesting.
10 axes (X, Y, Z0, Z1, Z2, U, E0, E1, E2, E3), 5 endstops, 10 fans, 4 hotends, etc. etc.
Soldato
That's seriously impressive. I love it. Real nice work
Nice work, that's looking really good.
Don
Nearly finished:
Well, after literally years of umming and arring, I've finally bit the bullet. Ordered a Prusa Mini+ in kit form. Fulfilment times are under 1 week according to the website so maybe sometime next week I'll have a box of bits and a new way to dispose of income.
After so long, and so much on and off interest and research I'm going to need to go back to the basics as I start to get into the hobby. So what are the best beginners start here resources I should get stuck into while I wait for the delivery?
After so long, and so much on and off interest and research I'm going to need to go back to the basics as I start to get into the hobby. So what are the best beginners start here resources I should get stuck into while I wait for the delivery?
Don
There are a ton of resources on the Prusa website along with pre-sliced models to print.
I'd download PrusaSlicer and have a play around with it.
I'd download PrusaSlicer and have a play around with it.
Cheers, I'll have a look at that.
Definitely feeling a bit like there's too much information out there.
Don
You're lucky that with a Prusa machine, there are profiles and models that will print perfectly, first time.
Thought I'd share this in case it helps anyone out in future.....although, I'm sure I'll find that everyone else already knew! 
Printed a rather large box (32 hour print) in PETG the other day. The edges had lifted a bit but it was fine. Needed to print the lid for it so I wiped down with acetone first. After that, the PETG wouldn't stick at all - I mean nothing: the corners just pulled off as soon as the head changed direction, hopeless. Tried wiping down with acetone again, no help, IPA, no help, print a layer and then see if it would stick after that had been removed, nope. Eventually found an article saying that alcohols don't remove some of the contaminants you can get on the bed and that you should remove the bed, take it to the sink and wash it with dish soap. Yeah, well part one of that failed miserably as the glass has welded itself to the magnetic base on the bed and even bringing it up to 85°C didn't loosen it at all. So I wiped it down (hot) with some kitchen towel with a bit of Fairy liquid squirted on it and then wetted. Then wiped down with clean water. Re-levelled (as I'd removed the now redundant glass clips and been levering at the glass) and now it's sticking nicely. So yeah, alcohol's not always the cure.....although it was what I turned to last night!
Printed a rather large box (32 hour print) in PETG the other day. The edges had lifted a bit but it was fine. Needed to print the lid for it so I wiped down with acetone first. After that, the PETG wouldn't stick at all - I mean nothing: the corners just pulled off as soon as the head changed direction, hopeless. Tried wiping down with acetone again, no help, IPA, no help, print a layer and then see if it would stick after that had been removed, nope. Eventually found an article saying that alcohols don't remove some of the contaminants you can get on the bed and that you should remove the bed, take it to the sink and wash it with dish soap. Yeah, well part one of that failed miserably as the glass has welded itself to the magnetic base on the bed and even bringing it up to 85°C didn't loosen it at all. So I wiped it down (hot) with some kitchen towel with a bit of Fairy liquid squirted on it and then wetted. Then wiped down with clean water. Re-levelled (as I'd removed the now redundant glass clips and been levering at the glass) and now it's sticking nicely. So yeah, alcohol's not always the cure.....although it was what I turned to last night!
Thought I'd share this in case it helps anyone out in future.....although, I'm sure I'll find that everyone else already knew!
Printed a rather large box (32 hour print) in PETG the other day. The edges had lifted a bit but it was fine. Needed to print the lid for it so I wiped down with acetone first. After that, the PETG wouldn't stick at all - I mean nothing: the corners just pulled off as soon as the head changed direction, hopeless. Tried wiping down with acetone again, no help, IPA, no help, print a layer and then see if it would stick after that had been removed, nope. Eventually found an article saying that alcohols don't remove some of the contaminants you can get on the bed and that you should remove the bed, take it to the sink and wash it with dish soap. Yeah, well part one of that failed miserably as the glass has welded itself to the magnetic base on the bed and even bringing it up to 85°C didn't loosen it at all. So I wiped it down (hot) with some kitchen towel with a bit of Fairy liquid squirted on it and then wetted. Then wiped down with clean water. Re-levelled (as I'd removed the now redundant glass clips and been levering at the glass) and now it's sticking nicely. So yeah, alcohol's not always the cure.....although it was what I turned to last night!
I use a trigger action spray bottle filled with water and car screenwash to clean the glass beds on my 2 filament printers, never had any issues at all with cleaning.
Cheers all
Soldato
Jesus Christ, @Rilot ! One can only admire such dedication to the cause
Agreed. Can you talk us through any of it @Rilot ? Tool changer is self-evident from the video but the rest is also interesting. Linear rails all round, three for the Z axis with two steppers I can see and one I'm presuming is present. Two steppers handling both X and Y but I'm not sure how that works - some sort of differential effect? Two lights (thought they were webcams at first). Single PSU - all 24V? Carriage has connections for layer fan and lock/unlock stepper and each tool has connections for heater and fan? What boards are you powering it with?Jesus Christ, @Rilot ! One can only admire such dedication to the cause
Don
Righto. Here's the full rundown.
We have a Duet 2 Wifi and a Duex 5 powering it to give me enough stepper channels and heater outputs.
4 x 50W heaters for the hotends
1 x 250W heater for the bed
750W 24V PSU to power it all.
The 10 steppers are made up of:
X and Y (this is a CoreXY so there's no specific X or Y as they work in tandem)
3 x Z for 3-point auto levelling
1 x toolchanger
4 x extruders
The toolchanger part is a small nema14 with a 10:1 planetary gearbox attached to give enough torque. Toolchanger actuaction is cable driven.
Each tool has the following:
1 x E3D V6 (genuine)
1 x BMG (clone)
1 x 5010 radial blower
1 x 3010 hotend cooler
1 x thermistor
Z height sensor for bed levelling is a simple microswitch that is attached to the X carriage. It levells without a tool attached so a microswitch will never be lower than the tool. Once Z=0 has been found then it applies Z- offsets for each individual tool.
Each tool has 12 wires going to it to manage the above.
Motion control is all HiWin linear MGN12 rails. 12Hs on the Y and Z rails, 12C on the X.
Belts are all genuine Gates GT2 and idlers are Gates, full ball-bearing idlers (some smooth and some toothed depending on what side of the belt they act upon)
A lot of the frame components I have machined from aluminium. The XY motor mounts, Z motor mounts, X beam, XY idler mounts, and the toolplates are all aluminium.
The frame is 2020 aluminium extrusion from Misumi with blind joints.
Surround is laser-cut plexiglass.
This is a fork of the Jubilee project (http://www.jubilee3d.com) that I have shrunk to a smaller size. The original Jubilee is 320x320x360 build volume but I already have a 320x320x400 printer and didn't want to take up too much space. I went with the bare minimum size to fit four tools on the frame. Final build volume came out at 250x210x250 and a footprint not too dissimilar to the bed-slinger that it's replacing.
Nice. Will have to drag you down to do mine! 
Not a lack of ability (well, there is currently but I can learn), more a lack of motivation and time....plus a definite lack of spare sanity at the moment!
What's your take on the electronics enclosure? I notice you've built yours open on a vertical side. One of the things holding me up (mentally) is that I'd really need to make a larger enclosure for the bottom of my Ender 5 to take the new board to drive the new extruder/hotend combo. I'd got about as far as thinking sheet metal, cut, bend, solder/weld.....and rather lost enthusiasm to be honest. There's an obvious accessibility benefit to it being open but are you finding any downsides?
Not a lack of ability (well, there is currently but I can learn), more a lack of motivation and time....plus a definite lack of spare sanity at the moment!What's your take on the electronics enclosure? I notice you've built yours open on a vertical side. One of the things holding me up (mentally) is that I'd really need to make a larger enclosure for the bottom of my Ender 5 to take the new board to drive the new extruder/hotend combo. I'd got about as far as thinking sheet metal, cut, bend, solder/weld.....and rather lost enthusiasm to be honest. There's an obvious accessibility benefit to it being open but are you finding any downsides?
Don
None really. My large CoreXY also has similar rear. I used to be concerned with dust etc but after having serviced it a few weeks back, there was nothing really in there to worry about and that's after 2 years of use.
There is a panel that goes over the back by the way, so it's only really the sides of the electronics area that are completely open.
There is a panel that goes over the back by the way, so it's only really the sides of the electronics area that are completely open.
Well my Prusa Mini kit arrived. Put it together over the last 2 days, took it really slow, read all the instructions online and all the customer comments on each step. Probably a slightly excessive 16 hours from opening the box to power on, but I wanted to really understand what I was doing.
Test and calibration took maybe 30 minutes and then first couple of prints. I'm shocked by how good this is. I used to work with a bloke, maybe 12 years ago who was into 3d printing and he'd bring in these lumps of plastic and we'd all try to guess what they were meant to be.
The benchy is about half way through and looks pretty good so far. Suppose I better install Blender and start learning a bit more.
Test and calibration took maybe 30 minutes and then first couple of prints. I'm shocked by how good this is. I used to work with a bloke, maybe 12 years ago who was into 3d printing and he'd bring in these lumps of plastic and we'd all try to guess what they were meant to be.
The benchy is about half way through and looks pretty good so far. Suppose I better install Blender and start learning a bit more.