MakerBot Industries

10 Comments so far

• Twotimes

  January 24, 2011 at 5:29 pm

   

  For no. 5 here:

  http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4617
  http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3745

   

• hybot

  January 24, 2011 at 7:05 pm

   

  other things in my notes not mentioned already:

  print from the SD card for complex parts.

  keep chamber temp above 70 F. use paper or tin foil if need to cover side openings.

  store filament inside, warm and dry.

  set the heated platform temp to 110 C.

  for small objects, print two or more; allows better cooling between layers.

  after first layer, use a small fan or blow on the print to prevent sagging.

  for shallow slopes, print from inside out.

  when printing raftless, enable outline and disable wipe in SF to avoid initial blobs.

  use green frogtape on top of blue tape for much improved adhesion.

  tie down the printer to a sturdy surface to minimize vibrations.

  keep feed rate under 60mm/s to minimize vibrations and belt skips.

  read everything Dave Durant has written on skeinforge.

   
• 

  MakerBlock

  January 24, 2011 at 7:10 pm

   

  @Hybot: DUDE! Those are awesome! I’m working on a couple of other posts that have more to do with Skeinforge calibration and will definitely incorporate some of these. (I agree – Dave Durant is a must-read)

   

• hybot

  January 24, 2011 at 9:08 pm

   

  a couple more (and sorry about the missing formatting in my first response — ya know, a preview feature here would be welcome

  
keep your software updated. RepG and Skeinforge are in rapid improvement right now, and you want to take advantage of that. the firmware is also getting worked on, although i don't really follow what's happening there.

  if curling is still an issue, consider printing in PLA.

  grease your rods and rails.

  make sure your filament isn't binding -- use a spindle of some sort, or watch it carefully.

  preheat your platform and print head 10 to 15 minutes for long prints, to let the temperature swings settle. (even if you've calibrated your PID settings, which you have, right?). but this may shorten the life of your thermal resistors, given they're already working beyond their specs.

  read the forums and ask questions if needed. odds are someone else has seen your issues, and many are willing to help. post pictures for the best responses.


  there are also many worthy hardware upgrades, but not everyone has the the time, money, skills, or interest in them. however, there are a couple of very easy and inexpensive hardware improvements that you can do that don’t really rise to the level of an “upgrade” but can still make a difference:

  
put a meat thermometer on your Z stage to track chamber temperature.

  install a light so that you can see what is actually happening during the print. point it at the build platform from the inside top front and it won't get in the way of anything. simplest is a stick-up battery powered LED needing no wiring.

  save the 2 big side scrap "cutout" wood panels that came with your ToM; one of them held parts for the HBP, and the Z platform was inside the other. glue tin foil or paper to the inside and put old drawer pulls (or plain wood screws) on the outside for handles. overlap the sides a bit for a compressible seal. tape little nubins if necessary on the inside to keep the panels from pushing in too far. you now have perfectly fitted, rigid removable back and side panels, and you don't have to hassle with taped paper panels.

  use the back cutout panel as a template to cut another one for the front out of clear polycarbonate plastic. tape the left side of this to the front of your ToM with clear packing tape and you have a see-through hinged front door that the ABP can pop open.


   

• hybot

  January 24, 2011 at 9:13 pm

   

  grrrr. a bulleted or enumerated list, a paragraph, or even a simple break HTML element in comments sure would be nice.

   

• Patrik

  January 25, 2011 at 3:17 am

   

  For the Z axis wobble – forget about the wobble arrestors, unless you truly have a bent rod (i.e. if it doesn’t roll smoothly on a flat surface). I think this thread in the forum pretty well identified the problem with the Z axis, and an effective solution: Bent Z-axis rod fix (likely fix).

  The issue seems to be that the nuts clamped on either side of the bearings on the threaded rod tend to clamp the bearings off-center, which makes the rods wobble, even if they’re actually straight. We changed the bearings and nuts to the arrangement suggested in v2kai’s post, and that completely solved our quite serious wobble problem. We also lined up the Z pulleys so all the set screws point in the same direction, and that made the Z motor run far more smoothly and greatly reduced the Z axis noise. Problem solved!

  Mind you, if you really do have a bent rod, by all means replace it. But don’t assume you have a bent rod just because you see a wobble…

   

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• whosawhatsis

  January 26, 2011 at 3:19 pm

   

  @Patrik Awesome tip. I just finished making this change and I see a HUGE improvement, thanks.

   

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