exxos blog - random goings on

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sporniket
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Re: exxos blog - random goings on

Post by sporniket »

It gives me the feeling that you will end up replacing all the part from the original printer, in other words you will have built your very own 3d printer...
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exxos
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Re: exxos blog - random goings on

Post by exxos »

sporniket wrote: Fri Sep 03, 2021 10:06 pm It gives me the feeling that you will end up replacing all the part from the original printer, in other words you will have built your very own 3d printer...
I somehow think this would probably be easier :lol: :roll:
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Re: exxos blog - random goings on

Post by exxos »

Been trying to find the heat throat pipe to fit my new bar. It seems they were custom made by micro swiss to fit the flexion extruder :roll: they are M6 thread with 7.8mm bar, whereas they are normally 7mm :roll:

I must have spent 5 hours looking into it all so far. I did find some bi metalic ones in China which should fit, but reviews are mixed with them breaking and the branded ones are like £40 a pop, madness.

So on the verge of giving up. I'll order a MK10 bar and standard throats to fit. They still have the M6 thread, so they should still fit my heater blocks.

While the flashforge dreamer makes a good starter printer, its pretty bad when you want to do a little more with it :( there's nothing standard with the things, and upgrades for it are even more nonstandard. I probably could have brought a couple of more modern i3 type printers for the money I've spent on this dreamer so far. But the dreamer would end up being binned which I hate to do when the size and case is exactly what I need.

Thing is as well, I'm going for higher than normal print speeds so things are getting modified from standard anyway. I see the dreamer had 40watt heaters. The internet says that's a bit of a overkill. But the block takes ages to heat up, like 1 or 2 degrees a second. So going to 200+ gets into a few minutes each time. I've ordered 60watt to try and speed things up. Not only that, as I will be able to push PLA at almost any speeds, then I'm going to need higher temps to melt faster and keep up.

I have noticed in my hack job extruder that if I stop the print, the PLA melts a lot in the throat to the point I have to prime the head again, to be expected. But I hope when I can get the Teflon tubes of a longer run of the PLA that it will help a bit to prevent that problem. The bi-metalic throats are designed for such problems, but until I can try them myself...
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
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Re: exxos blog - random goings on

Post by exxos »

The i3 Is all assembled back up again.Though the cooler duct does not fit any more..

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Trying to print a 50x40x1mm square with some bizarre is going on. It seems to print the first three layers absolutely fine. Then on the next layer it prints extremely bad. Is like the flow rates suddenly becomes inconsistent and their z-axis is moving up and down like it is oscillating, but it is not moving all that fast to cause those problems..

I have had a fan blowing on the print to see if that helps along with experimenting with temperatures and speeds and well everything else.. So I don't know what is up with the thing. So unless anyone else has any words of wisdom to share, I think this printer is going to go back up in the loft again :roll:

A video of it printing the problem layer..





And just a screen grab..

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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Re: exxos blog - random goings on

Post by Icky »

@exxos - I don’t think it’s oscillating. That pattern looks familiar when the layer is higher than it should be and it creates that ripple effect. I would say your first few layers are good and then the issue layer has got higher.

I have seen this on another printer of mine, not the giant panda, and it turned out it was the belts and a pulley. The belts had wire in them and the wires had broken down at a particular point. I converted the gates belts and pulleys and the issue went away.
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Re: exxos blog - random goings on

Post by exxos »

@Icky it could be a belt problem. I can't get the Y-idler to behave , but I don't think that's the problem, the belts are old and could just be bad now.

I've tried moving layer heights down and moving the bed multiple times. The first layers are actually under extruding as there are tiny gaps. Its possible the z axis is simply wrong. I can't calibrate the i3 as it doesn't respond to the M92 command :roll:

I think its just time to give up (again) with it and concentrate on my dreamer. Hopefully my new bar and fittings be here tomorrow so I can finish it off,
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Re: exxos blog - random goings on

Post by exxos »

My larger stepper motors came earlier..

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Problem number one is the flat on the shaft does not go all the way down to the motor body :roll:

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But thankfully there was a easy fix to just turn the filament gear upside down.

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So the mechanisms are now on both motors.

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Hopefully my bar will come tomorrow so I can mount the motors etc
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
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Re: exxos blog - random goings on

Post by exxos »

My new bar finally came :)

Seems the MK10 stuff is a sloppy fit anyway ?! Standard throat bar size seems to be 7mm for MK10, but the actual bar is hole 8mm :roll: I guess it will aid in preventing heat transfer.

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The first assembly of the motors and I already run into a problem.

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So I thought just flicked the bar around the other way so the holes line with the actual to the PLA. The problem being in that case, it is physically impossible to tighten up the throat bolts because they are then the side of the motor :roll:

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The only way I could do it was space out the motor from the bar.

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In go the tubes..

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And the mostly assembled extruder..

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I now realise because I rotated the bar, the fan which normally on the left-hand side of the bar, the holes are actually on the right hand right now :roll: The fan will have to wait for another time..


Next I am fighting with the i3 still to print out a spacer block for the Y-end-stop. This is because the motors being longer, I need to adjust where the end stop is by about 17mm.

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https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
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Re: exxos blog - random goings on

Post by exxos »

Been looking at the Z steps on the i3, simply measuring with my digital caliper.

86.97 START
-10mm
85.51 END

Actual = 1.46mm

:WTF:


Found the steps in the menu at least..

IMG_6937.JPG
IMG_6937.JPG (81.5 KiB) Viewed 1783 times

10 / 1.46 * 398 = 2726.027397260274

So will try that... :stars:
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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Badwolf
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Re: exxos blog - random goings on

Post by Badwolf »

exxos wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 6:11 pm 10 / 1.46 * 398 = 2726.027397260274

So will try that... :stars:
That looks almost exactly the ratio expected between threaded rods and lead screws.

My old firmware with threaded rods: 2560 steps/mm

My current firmware with lead screws: 400 steps/mm

So my guess is your printer has threaded rods and the firmware expects lead screws?

BTW, reading back through the last week or so since I've been away: I'm not convinced you're not building a T-800 in an attempt to kill Sarah Connor(!)

BW
DFB1 Open source 50MHz 030 and TT-RAM accelerator for the Falcon
DSTB1 Open source 16Mhz 68k and AltRAM accelerator for the ST
Smalliermouse ST-optimised USB mouse adapter based on SmallyMouse2
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