Printer Questions

I have not yet added the Gcode fan, but you can mod your sanguino to add it. So far, i have not seen the need for it, but i deal with large prints that don't need cooling. Small figurine type prints its very useful.

To my knowledge, you can do anything on a pc that a panelolu can (mines arriving next week). However, running without a computer removes a failure point, which can be very useful for large prints.

Dial indicators are much more precise at making sure your bed is level, and its really the only way, short of making many calibration prints, to calibrate your X-Y steps. I just bought a cheap ten dollar off amazon, does the job. But for quick checks, paper rocks.

Word of advice: don't skimp on your calipers. Buy a good pair of digital calipers if your not a metric nut. This goes double if your trying to do dimensionally correct work. Treat them with kid gloves.

Oh wow, yeah I didn't understand then!

So the Panelolu plugs into the sanguino(that's what the Solidoodle comes with to drive it?)

I felt like i had a grasp on this, now I feel like I'm stepping into a rabbit hole!

So no matter what I can't get away with not soldering on my Sanguinololu board, but I guess another question I have, is it possible to purchase an assembled panelolu so that I can just print a case and solder on my board.

I'm not the most comfortable with soldering but I'd be willing to practice to atleast get one thing done.

So step 9 of your guide says to solder pins into the board? Is that not nessecary?

I'm sorry for the ill informed questions, but does that mean without soldering on those pins, I can't use a panelolu, right?

My printer (serial # 1409, shipped last week) does not have the headers in. The good news is that my Panelolu arrived yesterday   Try soldering some old e-waste or a small perf board to sharpen up if your nervous about soldering. I would recommend a mintyboost kit from adafruit , as those require soldering but are great for starting out, and a handy item.

They were filled in. If you don't have a solder sucker, copper wicking braid works pretty good too, though I would recommend desoldering some junk to practice first. I will be doing this  process sometime this week (hopefully).

Dial caliper is great, but it's chicken/egg.

you need to print the holder, but you need to setup the printer before printing.

I've been using feeler gauges,

these can be found for a few beer tokens in pretty much any car shop. they are normally used for checking the gap on spark plugs.

pretty much the same as the paper method, just a little more robust. (not going to tear)

It's like a Swiss Army knife with just different thicknesses of material. Here's some info and a pic:

http://www.reluctantmechanic.com/using- … _gauge.php