3D Printer / CNC discussion thread

[SugarJ]

My printer uses a Melzi board. I have zero idea how many steps/mm my printer is.

It usually appears in the onscreen setup somewhere. I haven't played with a Melzi, but the basics are the same for all the boards, controlling the stepper motors that drive the motion and extruder. i had to learn the hard way when my 1st 1.4+ heat bed control fried.

 

[lowfat]

Ordered a Ramps 1.4 + a Mega 2560 clone as well as another hotend + extruder. Guess I'll attempt to setup dual extruders. It definitely would be nice not having to swap filaments all the time. That plus being able to print supports out of another material.

 

[Bloodystumps]

Ordered a Ramps 1.4 + a Mega 2560 clone as well as another hotend + extruder. Guess I'll attempt to setup dual extruders. It definitely would be nice not having to swap filaments all the time. That plus being able to print supports out of another material.

what did it cost u to upgrade and would it have been worth it to maybe buy a printer already setup with dual extruder??? I'm kinda thinking the same thing but may just say F it and get one already set up.

 

[lowfat]

what did it cost u to upgrade and would it have been worth it to maybe buy a printer already setup with dual extruder??? I'm kinda thinking the same thing but may just say F it and get one already set up.

About $110 for the boards, extruder, and hot end. So under $200 total to upgrade from the stock extruder to dual e3d v6 / titan clones. I'll have to design and print a few things to get them to work as I want to have one direct drive extruder + one bowden extruder to minimize moving weight.

 

[lowfat]

So today I notice that my hotend is very loose. So I remove it to see if I can repair it. Find the M4 screw that holds it in place has snapped. Ok I got lots of those. Ok, the thermistor has popped out now. Reseated it. Power up printer to test. Hot end is working perfectly. Notice the bed isn't heating up. Connector for the bed is toast, got fragile for the current that it couldn't handle and eventually broke off.

I'll just order a RAMPS 1.4 + Mega2560 board from Amazon Prime so I can get it up and working. Seems my 5-button LCD isn't compatible w/ RAMPS boards. So I'd need to order a new LCD. So it would cost another $120ish. At what point do I say nope and buy a better printer?

 

[SugarJ]

Check out spool3d.ca out of Calgary. Not the cheapest, but local-er to you. $75 for a 2560, Ramps board, and 2004 LCD screen. Or they have a Melzi board for $79.

I've also got a Ramps 1.4 & Mega2560 board I'm not using I could send you. Let me know.

 

[lowfat]

Check out spool3d.ca out of Calgary. Not the cheapest, but local-er to you. $75 for a 2560, Ramps board, and 2004 LCD screen. Or they have a Melzi board for $79.

I've also got a Ramps 1.4 & Mega2560 board I'm not using I could send you. Let me know.

Aware of spool3d.ca. Just made a massive order w/ them yesterday for filament. The only Melzi board I can find on their site is $129.

I've decided on what I'm going to do. I'm just going to use my current printer w/o a heated bed for now. I ordered a RAMPS 1.4 + Mega2560 a week or so ago from Aliexpress. Will order a LCD from Aliexpress for it now.

I'm also going to start working on building a new printer still. 99% sure I'm going to build a D-Bot CoreXY. Only problem is the v-slot rails are going to cost me huge as I can't find any in Canada.

 

[SugarJ]

Openbuilds V-slot is available in Canada at makerparts.ca fuzztech.ca and snbinc.ca. I've bought from makerparts and fuzztech. Makerparts gets stuff out the door quicker. Dani @ Fuzztech does an amazing packing job, but it'll be a week before it gets shipped out based on my last 2 orders.

Edit: I'm hoping your Aliexpress orders aren't Chinapost registered mail landing in Vancouver. CBSA is 2 months behind processing parcels at Canada Post's processing plant at the airport. I got that LCD adapter Monday that left China 12/18/2016 via Air shipment. I'm waiting for 2 others that left 12/23 via air.

If you get tired of waiting, let me know. I'll lend you my Ramps & Mega2560 I've got sitting in my drawer.

Double Edit: You can wire your heated bed direct to the PSU with an on/off switch. I did that for a bit while waiting for a board. Heated it up to get the first layer to stick then turned it off. DON'T WALK AWAY! The bed will get super freaking hot if you do, maybe even hot enough to cause a fire.

I'm going to hook up my new heated bed to a 24V PSU using 14 ga wire, and control it using a solid state relay. I think these boards can't handle the current.

 

[3.0charlie]

So today I notice that my hotend is very loose. So I remove it to see if I can repair it. Find the M4 screw that holds it in place has snapped. Ok I got lots of those. Ok, the thermistor has popped out now. Reseated it. Power up printer to test. Hot end is working perfectly. Notice the bed isn't heating up. Connector for the bed is toast, got fragile for the current that it couldn't handle and eventually broke off.

I'll just order a RAMPS 1.4 + Mega2560 board from Amazon Prime so I can get it up and working. Seems my 5-button LCD isn't compatible w/ RAMPS boards. So I'd need to order a new LCD. So it would cost another $120ish. At what point do I say nope and buy a better printer?

Now...

 

[lowfat]

Openbuilds V-slot is available in Canada at makerparts.ca fuzztech.ca and snbinc.ca. I've bought from makerparts and fuzztech. Makerparts gets stuff out the door quicker. Dani @ Fuzztech does an amazing packing job, but it'll be a week before it gets shipped out based on my last 2 orders.

If you get tired of waiting, let me know. I'll lend you my Ramps & Mega2560 I've got sitting in my drawer.

Double Edit: You can wire your heated bed direct to the PSU with an on/off switch. I did that for a bit while waiting for a board. Heated it up to get the first layer to stick then turned it off. DON'T WALK AWAY! The bed will get super freaking hot if you do, maybe even hot enough to cause a fire.

I'm going to hook up my new heated bed to a 24V PSU using 14 ga wire, and control it using a solid state relay. I think these boards can't handle the current.

Ya I found those sites after looking some more. Will probably go w/ Fuzztech as it is slightly cheaper than snbinc and makerparts is OOS. Another problem I'm running in to is the fact that I'll need another $150USD worth of nuts, bolts, washers. It doesn't seem like Fastenal allows for online orders. So for just the frame and hardware it will end up costing close to $400 CAD. Maybe I'll just go w/ a Prusa variant.

I was going to also relay my bed. As soon as I noticed the connector on the board melting I ordered a solid state relay as I couldn't find one locally. Unfortunately the board didn't last that long.

Edit: I'm hoping your Aliexpress orders aren't Chinapost registered mail landing in Vancouver. CBSA is 2 months behind processing parcels at Canada Post's processing plant at the airport. I got that LCD adapter Monday that left China 12/18/2016 via Air shipment. I'm waiting for 2 others that left 12/23 via air.

Hmm. I guess that is why it took 4 months for me to receive a set of tools from China. And have had a very large amount of orders that never showed up at all.


EDIT: Decided to build a Prusa. The CoreXY was just going to be too much money for the frame and hardware. Going w/ a lot of Chinese parts. Will still be pretty close to $700 when all told.