method to one's madness

cool board

2012-10-07T13:47:00.003-06:00

i just found this guy on kickstarter and i did support it, but i do wish i was good enough to port a reprap firmware to this, i think a board like this could do a lot of good things with a reprap. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/18182218/freesoc-and-freesoc-mini

its a busy life.

2012-06-16T17:21:00.001-06:00

it seems like its been ages since i have had the time to post or even print much anything.

in what little time i have to print i have managed to find a few issues with my Mendel, but nothing major, it seems to be catching somewhere in the hot end, and causing it to jam up on me from time to time, it is just enough to be really annoying.

i have had to replace my power resistor a few time now here too, i am just not having much luck with them lately, i would like to try to use that that had 2 resistors on it, my thinking there is that it might be less strain on them, but i will just have to try it and see i guess.

i also tried to add that copper end cap to cool the top down a little more, i think it worked a little too well, if i turn on my fan now, it cant keep the temp up, i think i will try to mod this idea a little still, i thought if i cooled down the top a lil bit more it would help with that jamming issue i am having. i think i could say it worked a little too well.

i am also trying to build a 1.75 mm hot end now too, i am not sure if thats the way things will go yet, but it seems like more people are going that rout and there is more stuff in that size now too.

i am still hoping to find some more people who are interested in this project in my town of swift current, but no luck just yet.

lol funny how my techzone huxly kit was and still is working so much better than my mendel that i am trying to get working half has good as michi.

yay star trek

2012-05-14T20:13:00.004-06:00

http://www.buildtheenterprise.org/

power resistor

2012-05-12T10:15:00.001-06:00

i made this little guy up today, though my psu worked without the load on the 5v rail, when i put this buy on i got just a hair more voltage out, enough to notice it any how. but i just did some digging today and found that heatsink.

so i drilled it out and bolted it on, and now it feels allot cooler, it was borderline hot without it. now it is just shy of 40c after 5 min, so i am doing allot better with that.

on a little side not, i got this keypad LCD shield today and i got it working with a one wire temp sensor, though my programming kinda sucks, i want to try to get it to save a hourly average throughout the day so i can then transfer them onto my computer and chart them out. there is allot more i would like to do with this project but every time i try to do more than the most simple things my brain just goes blank, its not very helpful for making progress on things.

slic3r i like it allot

2012-05-05T17:26:00.001-06:00

i have been trying the latest version of slic3r out, and so far i like it allot, but i have found it seems to have a few shortcoming, it is very easy to use, and from what i can tell it works very well on allot of things, but one thing that it seems to miss is if your print has a flat part that is not on the top, it dose not seem to finish it off like it should it only seems to do 1 layer where i would like it to do 2-3 of solid fill.

on this print it worked great

you can see it a little on this print where the layers are not the best.

but for the most part i really like slic3r, it is very fast and very easy to use. i will need to spend a little more time with it to see if there is not an option that i am missing for that only shortcoming i have with it.

i think we may have our old house sold, and we are starting to look for a new one, so i am not looking forward to setting up a new shop again, but i hope i can get off a carpet floor and onto something that is not so bad for static.

devils in the details

2012-04-24T19:29:00.003-06:00

well i have it printing now for the most part, i found this very handy extruder at thingiverse Thing:18619 it allowed me to use a PTFE piece i had for a insulator, and so far it is working pretty good, but i think i might have a few more kinks to work out, but i hope to find them soon.

i also made this guy to give me a little better cooling, or at least so i hope.thing:21994 it is a spacer and a fan mount for a 40mm fan i think it work well for the job,

but i am still working on leveling the bed, but is seems like it is always moving on me, so i need to check some things on it so i know there all snug, and it reminds me just how stubborn it is to lever a bed some times.

i still have some setting to get fine tuned, but it feels great having a printable area of 180mm x180mm i can now print allot of things i wanted to but was not able to on my Huxley.

but at least now with a proper multi meter i have been able to test some things out better, and feeling allot better about the readings. i am just glad my wife tends to over look small tools, i would be in the dog house again i think.

thankfully asking forgiveness is easier than permission.

Tools

2012-04-17T20:25:00.000-06:00

i got this the other day here in town for a good price, 200 plus tax, i thought i twas a good find because i was looking for a multimere that was rms, and could do thermocouples, so far it seems like a nice unit, and accourate, it even came with a thermocouple and i was already able to verify that i was reading within a few degrees of what my printers said they were at, though i will say this much though the settins on room temp on my mendel are a little off, it is not 30c in here but when its was up to temp in my test it was less than 4c off what my ramps board said it was.

hey any one see that pebble watch on kick started, i thought it was interesting and i backed it http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper-watch-for-iphone-and-android

caution user error, replace user

2012-04-15T19:07:00.000-06:00

most of this weekend i have been trying to work on my Mendel, and so far i have pretty much everything done, even got some PLA through the hot end, then that's where the trouble started.....grumble grumble.

what little printing i could do things look relativity square, but i would get about 3-5 layers up then it would stop coming out unless i really pushed on the PLA going into the extruder.

i think its getting a little on the warm side.

this was the main plug

my other main issue is still how hot the the cold end of the hot end is getting, you can see in the top video that it is getting hot enough that it is making the PLA get soft and also starting to pull in some of the nuts too. this issue is going to cause me some more trouble i think seeing how i am not sure the best way to rectify it.

mind you i am happy i am finding this issue now and not half way into a print. i doubt that would end well.

i wish i could get my hands on some small pieces of Dibond again it has worked great for me in the past and it seems to take the heat away too. and it is pretty easy to work with, when ya have your tools.

but i am glad i got it all calibrated so far, but i still need to print things to find out just how well i do have it calibrated, so i hope to have things all wrapped up soon, but until i get this hot end issue worked out it will be hard to tell.

allot of my hot end stuff is from makergear, and there stuff has been great so far, gotta love user error. now if i can only get thing to work i will be happy.

oh those little things.

2012-04-11T13:36:00.001-06:00

well i have made allot of progress and allot of stumbling along the way too, but i am getting there. i did manage to get it to start to print, just barely.

i need to double check the temps on my hot end, i think it is reading high, i was not able to get much to print with the setting at 185c but when i did put it up too 230 it was coming out a little too hot, so i will need to get another way to measure the temp, my ir temp reader dose not like to read in such a tight spot.

i am also running into a little issue with my X axis slipping, yep you can see it in the pics above. i have to finish the belt tensioner on the X carriage still so i will try to finish that part up soon. so maybe that will help.

though at first it felt a little rough on the X axis after some use now it is starting to feel better on the lm8uu bearings, so maybe this issue will get better with time too.

i also fixed allot of my issues with the Z axis too, it turned out that the bolts holing my bearings on that bet were too tight causing allot of extra friction. but not i have to slow it down in the firmware, it is trying to move too fast causing it to miss steps, i will say this much though for the most part my homing speeds are dead on, so i just need to slow town its top speeds.

one of the things i need to do is cool down my X carriage i will show pictures later but i think a part of it got a little warm and softened up hear the extruder body, so i am going to make a spacer/fan mount to blow cool air over the PEEK part of the makergear hot end and keep my PLA cool on the X carriage.

now to order another spool of PLA, man i wish it did not go up in price so much.

its alive

2012-04-08T21:35:00.001-06:00

hey i got it to move today yay i am now getting the endstops back on it and the flags for them too.

Z rebuilt

2012-04-08T02:33:00.002-06:00

the back of the extruder

i am going to have to think of a name soon i think

the back

this one took a few tries

i am getting it back together again, i use modified RepRap pro Mendel files that i made, most of my issues with them were the limited size of my Huxley. but hey i am getting there again.

i am still a little worried about how stiff my Z axis feels but it is allot better now than it was. the threaded rods and smooth rods look much better now, they almost look parallel

If everything works better than last time i will wire it back up.

i did learn what was wrong with my end stops it turns out that I (watashi wa baka, thumbs up to who guesses what that means). turns out i got 2 of my resistors wrong on a few of them. i only found out because i got my multi meter back from my old house. yay

it also turns out that my other stepper motor was bad, i am not sure how though, it feels normal but all i could ever get it to do was jitter around so i might just take it apart to see if i can find the issue, and i also might have a dead pololu, so i used my spare and ordered another one, i hope i should not have ordered 2.

i also saw this today http://richrap.blogspot.ca/2012/04/universal-paste-extruder-ceramic-food.html at first when i saw it, I thought at first there was way too many gears there for an extruder. but i like the design

i look forward to getting this new printer up and running, its a bloody shame that PLA got so pricy now. i was using it because it was allot cheaper, and smelled allot better than abs. but i know my wife will get after me if i go to ABS it will smell allot more.

now this is just cool

2012-03-29T15:42:00.001-06:00

i would so love to be able to make something like this, http://www.tricorderproject.org/tricorder-mark2.html

i wonder what other kind of sensors would give a person usable data, i would like to try a O2 and CO2 sensor.

i think my luck is making up for my first one

2012-03-24T22:31:00.000-06:00

Oh its going to be one of those builds.

i found a temporary PSU any how, it is a better one from a case that i would rather not use for the reprap, though i will say this man is it quiet. i did get a board from sparkfun that helped me out allot, i still want to try to make my own with the power resistors built into it.

with that guy though i had no issues with getting my PSU to turn on, and the voltage seems to be rather stable too, so that was a nice benefit too. it is so quiet too, i may have to change my other one to one like it.

but here is the fun part,the stepper on my x axis seems to not like me or is some how dead all it will do is jitter no matter the driver or way it is plugged in, so i will have to take that stepper off to see if i can't find the issue with it, there all the same steppers and there wired all the same way so i am not sure where the issue is coming from.

this is the culprit. i think i am going to need another stepper again.

also on the x axis both my end stops do not seems to work, so i will have to try to look into that too, i have a few more spares to build and i will try those, i will also have to check to see what the issue is too, i am sure i built them right,

i also think i am going to have to go to the regular mendel x axis, i think the alignment is out too much and the stepper on the Z axis is working way too hard. the threaded rod on that axis is not parallel with the smooth rod, i will try to start printing that tomorrow.

well thats most of what i have been up too any how, i will try to post more on the updates i want to try to get it printing by the end of the week i hope.

and i have notices lately that i have been getting allot of new followers from all over the world i just wanted to say thanks.

a little off topic but worth thinking about.

2012-03-11T22:35:00.000-06:00

i do try to keep this blog on toppic. i found this video today and, i thought i should share it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbIZU8cQWXc&feature=endscreen&NR=1

i see stuff like this and it makes me feel so profoundly frustrated with how bogged down things seem to get. in part this is kinda why i got so interested in reprap, to me it is possible a way that i can help make the world just a little better, even though the chances are slim. in some small way i hope that i can come up with some small improvement that will help it along and become more of what it needs to be.

this project is how i am trying to make the world just that much better not for me but for everyone else and my kids. its only a stepping stone, but i gotta do what i can.

cool build and, handy stuff

2012-03-06T21:50:00.000-06:00

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:14599

i found that tri track on thingiverse so i thought i would try to build it, i am almost done half of it now just need to put 2 more pieces on that tread and print the drive pulley. then i will start on the chassis

http://sugru.com

cool stuff i have used it on a few things around the house already.

i am still doing little things on my mendel here and there but i need to find another power supply here soon, i will have to get some bigger power resistors here soon i think. to make a better atx one i think.

one shame about the sugru is that it is only good to 180C. so really just shy of being useful on the hot end, so close what a shame.

i am looking forward to buying another home this summer, it will be nice to bang around in a basement and not have to worry about the apartment below me.

i dont know why but the idea of trying to print a house seems to be stuck in my head lately, i am trying to fugure out if there would be a way to print one in pieces then assemble it on site. its a idea, but one that would be allot of work. and some how i dont think we would be doing it with a .35 mm tip

im so close i can almost taste it

2012-02-28T23:03:00.001-06:00

getting there

well i am almost there yet again, i have most of my wiring done now just need some more ribon cable and have to get 1 more opto mounted i made this little guy for that task thingiverse.com/thing:18293

i still need to find a power supply for it, i am thinking i will have to find another computer psu nothing else i have found so far is what i need.

but i am liking what i see now more and more. i want to try printing with sd on this one, but i guess i will have to see when i can get the spare money for the reader first.

i am working on a few other modifications for it still i hope to post those when they are ready, some time soon.

i will also start trying to modify sprinter so that it can use the lcd too, i hope i can do allot with that in time. i work better with hardware than software though, so yay.

kickstarter

2012-02-20T22:13:00.000-06:00

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/snab/affordable-filament-for-reprap-community-3d-printe

i just thought i would try to share this with more people and i think it is a worthy project to support so if ya can support them, i did.

i think this is what more companies need to try to do, to keep people working and help out our community too.

Hot end

2012-02-19T22:21:00.001-06:00

I am getting things closer now. Here are Andrew quick pics. I will post more tomorrow I had to make a piece to mount the hot end with. I think it worked well. But I hope it will not get too hot. It is printed with PLA.

doing some work on my prints

2012-02-07T21:38:00.000-06:00

it is uncleaned still

i have been trying to work on the quality of my prints, this was made at .20mm/ layer and i like what i am seeing

i ended up ordering some parts like the thick sheets, i was trying to source something locally but nothing is going to work, thought i did find a glass shop that will do what i need for a hot bed, so i am thinking i may go that route too, i looked at ponoko for some things but for some reason they wanted 80 for shipping

i have a few things i want to try still with this new machine but that will take a little time to try.

i was looking at the Wallace on the main reprap page, and i think i might turn my Huxley into one of them after i get my Mendel made, i like the simplicity of it, so i thought i might try to build one.

ramps 1.4

2012-01-29T15:56:00.000-06:00

well the other day my ramps board got here, i have not been able to fully test it just yet. i need to find a power supply now.

i did not get one of the caps soldered so i had to modify a through hole cap to fit in its place.

but i hope to have my mendel wired up with the rest of the endstops soon, i also need to get my hands on a base plate soon.

but today i will still try to wire up one of my new stepper motors to see and make sure i know what there supposed to be wire like, with any like i will get it right the first time.

i hope by the end of fed i will have another fully working printer, so this should prove to be interesting.

ATX PSU adapter

2012-01-18T19:20:00.000-06:00

i am trying to work on a new idea a ATX PSU power adaper for repraps, just to make things a little simpler to wire up.

thingiverse.com

it is still very much a early idea i think i should add some fusses but i am not sure where they are in eagle just yet. but i would like feedback on them too, i would like to know what other people would like too see on a board like this,

interersting

2012-01-10T18:16:00.004-06:00

this is interesting a plastic that absorbs co2http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/01/new-co2-sucker-could-help-clear-.html?ref=hp

lcd and case

2012-01-10T16:29:00.001-06:00

i got a few more of the parts i was waiting for, and a serial lcd kit from sparkfun. it gave me a few ideas so i wanted to try it out.

i got all the steppers i needed now too. so i am getting closer to getting my Mendel build i hope to order the ramps board next week

it is getting there piece by piece, but it dose feel nice to be able to test some of the parts out now at least.

i like the vertical x axis but i can now see it has a few drawbacks that i was not thinking about. like how much it might limit my print height.

i just need a little help with the software to get it to put the data i need out to a port so that it can be displayed.

handy little part

2012-01-01T21:55:00.002-06:00

i made some spool hubs today for my spools you can find the files here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:15301

i have finally been getting some prints out for the people that want there own printers from me, it feels allot better to get some of there orders done, but mad it feels like slow progress some days, i hope these help too.

any how happy new years

Merry Xmas

2011-12-25T03:03:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas

i got some more things i needed printed today like some gears for the extruder. i went with herringbone gears on this one, the piece that the extruder is mounted to seems to be one of my cursed pieces, it took like 4 times for it not to bodge up on printing, and the big gear was not much better today. i also got some of the bars shortened up too so now it dose not look so odd.

soon i will order my motors that i need and the other stuff, i think i will keep with the ramps setup so far it is stable and for what it is fairly compact.

i will say this much about the x axis with the one i went with it sure will make my printable area allot smaller than i thought. so i might be looking at changing it up again i may end up going with another Bowden type, i am iffy on that, but i think it would give me the biggest printable area, and it has not been that much of a issue with my Huxley Michi, with less mass on it too would have other benefits too.

the first one i started to print was the big guy on the right before i realized it was not the one i wanted, but i thought it was kinda a good way to show the size.

but i am still making progress, i hope to start to sell kits soon, i dont know how much i will get for them just yet, but hey i can start at least getting a little of the money back.