Ord bot Hadron build - RepRapDiscount kit (Page 3 of 4)

Makes far too much sense, Adrian!

This is a crowd funding thing that I'm running: http://www.gofundme.com/bvi140 It's for pretty selfish reasons

Generally one controls and troubleshoots ones temperature oneself via manual control.
Makerbot software might do it, but open source gear is pretty hands on.

Hey Adrian, I just redid my StepsPerMM after swapping to a new role, ended around 460, what have you got running on yours?
Just to make sure I'm not totally off the mark.

/Scratch that/
Derped my maths...

This is a crowd funding thing that I'm running: http://www.gofundme.com/bvi140 It's for pretty selfish reasons

Not any soon, but I was planning on simply attaching a bunch of acrylic to an Aldi table thingy I've got boxed up somewhere.
I'm printing PLA so enclosing the printer isn't necessary.

This is a crowd funding thing that I'm running: http://www.gofundme.com/bvi140 It's for pretty selfish reasons

Probably best you start your own thread dude.

This is a crowd funding thing that I'm running: http://www.gofundme.com/bvi140 It's for pretty selfish reasons

Just thought I'd report in and prove that the printer works as per my expectations.
I've been running happily at 120mm/s for the last couple of days, plan on cranking up to 150 after I install the wobble fix.

One question though about that: With the delrin rod holders being replaced with metal should one use a plastic washer between the M8 nut and the holder to stop binding?

Testing both flexible filament and some T-glase next week whenever the postie decides to get off his arse
Should be fun.

This is a crowd funding thing that I'm running: http://www.gofundme.com/bvi140 It's for pretty selfish reasons

Serin: Looking good. I personally never bothered with anti-wobble myself *shrug*.. not seen it as any issue and feel its one of those 'over thinking it' upgrades that get tossed around... but as with all things 3D printing related, I guess its YMMV...

IronMan: Its the same as on the RRD site.... The x plate axis used to be delrin but for the past 12mths have been ALU blocks instead. You can see it just on the rear of the x-axis gantry end plates:

BTW...is your aluminum block all one piece with an M8 thread through it, or is there a separate nut/insert within it?

Is there no need for anti-backlash nut with the trapezoidal screw?...and how do they address AB on the standard Alum nut?  Seems like it would wear rather quickly...

I'm working on one of these and was wondering how you assembled the endstops?

I don't know what is about these outfits that they evidently figure everyone was born knowing how to put their stuff together. Geez, would it be so hard to include instructions?! The parts that are leaving me stumped are things that ought to be fairly simple if only a few clues were packed with the parts. Sigh.

From what I've been able to puzzle out so far, it looks like the switches are about the right height that if mounted over a side channel, the nut on the bottom of the rollers will hit the switch and push the button down. There are two sets of switches, with the buttons offset to the right or left. It looks like they line up with the roller nuts in such a way the offset makes a difference on which end of the axis they go on.

Is that how they're supposed to go on?

If so, there aren't enough nuts and bolts to attach the things and I'm going to have to figure out a way to insulate the backs of the switches so they don't short out across the metal frame. Hopefully the local hardware store has some parts the right size to make it work.

I know a lot of folks use printed brackets for their projects, which is great if you have a way to make them, but not so great if the printer you're trying to build has to be functional before it's possible to print the parts needed to build it.

Any tips, hints, tricks or trade secrets would be appreciated. Thanks.

Oh, and while I'm asking dumb questions, what are the tiny studs for? Ten of them were included in the kit I got, and they even included an allen wrench to fit them. I have the fool thing in a condition where it appears to be assembled, but have yet to discover any place where the small studs would serve any useful purpose that is immediately obvious.

What are they for? Were they included as some form of twisted Communist humor, sent to baffle the free world with spare parts that don't go to anything?

Thanks Ian. I just got back from the hardware store and was able to find most of what I figured I needed.

I picked up a small file to knock down the sharp points on the back of the switch, then stuck a piece of black tape to it. It looks like it'll prevent the switch from shorting against the frame. They didn't have any of the slider nut things, but I found some metric screws that fit the ones that came with the kit. 4mm x 8mm seems to work about right. I got one switch mounted to see what it looks like and so far it seems like it'll work, although clearance on everything is pretty tight. It fits, but just barely.

If I can find my camera and figure out how to upload a pic, I'll try to post one later on so it's easier to see what I'm trying to describe.

Like you say, once I get it up and running (which will be awhile as I'm still waiting for parts), there are probably plenty of other ways to go about it. Right now, though, I just need to figure out how to make it work with the parts I can lay hands on.

Thanks Serin. One of the sets of endstops I got were VERY sharp and pointed on the bottom. Maybe I could have gotten away without fooling with them, but I'm kind of out were I don't belong in attempting to build something I don't have a lot of experience with. I'd rather be safe than sorry. Not having any instructions whatsoever is driving me buggy. I haven't found anything so far that is terribly difficult once I figure out what needs to be done, but I've spent hours sweating over stuff that I could have had knocked out in minutes if it came with instructions. Grrr...

Another strangeness I ran across is I was looking at it and noticed it looked like the threaded rod was not parallel to the frame. I got out my calipers, and yeah, the top and bottom were out by a bunch. The two screws that hold on the motor mount can be loosened to adjust it, but geez, that sure seems like something that should be mentioned in instructions. It came from the factory misadjusted enough to cause binding on one side! Mutter. Mutter. Mutter.

The next step will be to try wiring it without any directions. Sigh.

In any case, thanks to everyone for the feedback.

The threaded rods I received appear to be straight enough, or at least not obviously off. Not like the one you had a photo of.

I don't kinow if the way I used to get the rods parallel may have sounded complicated, but it's actually pretty quick and easy. You can pick up calipers for around ten bucks. They don't work for measuring everything, but the things they do work on, you'll get very accurate measurements down to the thousandths of an inch. If you're already familiar with using calipers, you can skip most of this without missing anything. For those who haven't played around with them, here's a quick YouTube video on how to use calipers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28qOM0uG7h0

I did about what you mentioned in screwing down the gantry about half way. Then, using the little prongs at the top of the caliper for taking inside measurements, I measured the gap at the top and bottom. When they weren't the same, I loosened the two screws on the motor mounts enough so it was just possible to move the mount, then tweeked it until the measurement at the top and bottom was the same. I don't know how precise their machine work is, but on mine both sides came out to about 1.465" to get the gap perfect from top to bottom. I was actually a little surprised both sides were so close to being the same, which would suggest at least some of their machine work is fairly precise.

Using pretty much the same method, I also used calipers to make sure the height was the same on both sides. Calipers make that asjustment real quick and easy. Just find the short side, lock in the distance on the caliper, then line up the caliper on the other side and turn down the screw until it touches the prong on the caliper -- about 30 seconds work.

It seems to be one of those tools that if you have one, you'll find it comes in hand for measuring a lot more things than you originally bought it for. There are basically three different styles. The cheapest ones don't have a dial, and I wouldn't recommend those as they're hard to read. Dial calipers have a dial to give you the numbers for the second and third decimal places. There are also digital calipers that have a small screen to display the measurement. Give or take a bit, they run around $10, $20 and $30 respectively for entry level models of each sort. I use the dial type like the one shown in the video and have found it works fine for everything I've needed it for.

Anyhow, hopefully the above is useful information and not too far off topic. I gather everyone kind of works out their own methods for doing some of this stuff, so I'll just toss the above in the pot as one of the possible ways to go about it.

PS. Did you ever get the bent rod problem squared away?

As near as I can tell, they use the cheapest threaded mild steel rod they can find to make those. Most hardware stores have a threaded rod bin with assorted sizes, usually 1-3 feet long. If you can't find a replacement in the right length, you could likely find one that could be cut to size. Some stores might even be able to cut it for you. Home Deopt will cut some things, but I don't know if they'll do those. Alternately, lay the bent one on a piece of flat soft wood (pine 2x4, etc.) and swat it with a rubber hammer to see it you can straighten it yourself. Mild steel bends fairly easily, so the main consideration is to not damage the threads if you get to pounding on it. It takes a bit of fooling around to straighten bent metal that way, but you could likely get it straighter than it is if you can't find a replacement.