Still Running Strong

I am still running strong and have started printing Mendel parts again.  I have been using RepSnapper from the beginning and have been very happy with it.  Although there are a few cases where it will crash while slicing (usually because of strange geometry, but I have not determined exactly why.)

I have not decided what I will do with my set of Mendel parts once they are printed but I am about 75% complete on a full set of parts.

Printing with PLA again!!!

Clear PLA illuminated with a red laser

More progress was made today when I managed to find settings to print again in PLA.  I had to turn the temperature up to 220°C (which I thought I tried before to no avail...).

 After getting the temperature tuned in I adjusted the feed speed, material width, & layer thickness.

And I am back to results close to what I had before the heater failure...

Printing Again!!!

Now that my brothers wedding is over and I have caught up on things that fell to the side, I have had some time to start printing again.  Since I was having some trouble with PLA before and some luck with ABS I thought I would work with the ABS for a while and see how things were working before trying to figure the PLA out.  The part I tested on was something I have been thinking about since I got my new Droid X.  The speaker is on the back and it does not carry the sound to the front very well, also I thought it would be nice to have a stand for it.  So I designed a dual purpose stand/sound director. (my first useful, non-reprap related, design.)

Here you can see the inlet hole for the sound (lower left)

A test print to check the fit on the phone (you can see the sound path)

24min 40sec to print

My first test print (slot for phone was too small and I had a de-lamination toward the bottom)

As you can see I am currently printing very well with ABS.  I could tune it in a little better but I am pleased with the results (especially with no heated bed...)

I think I may print a few more parts with ABS then go back to PLA and see if I can work out the bugs.

Happy Printer!!! :-)

I received two more tips after my last post, the first was to try turning up the heat and the second was to turn down the extruder current.

I am not sure about the temperature as I WAS printing fine around 180°C before and I had tried turning it up some (to around 190°C).  But I thought why not try.

The current on the extruder however I had been messing with just before I started having problems a while back.  I did not think that having the current to high would cause problems with extruding, but just might make my stepper run too hot.

So I turned up the heat to 210°C and turned the current back down to as low as I could and still have the stepper turn.

And it prints!!! (here are a few pictures of one of my favorite test parts, the "y_bar_clamp_10off")

 
Maybe not quite as well as before my problems, but I have also messed with all my speeds and feeds in my efforts to fix things so I probably need to tune them back in for the new nozzle.

Thank you for your helpful suggestions Buzz & Tony.

IT'S ALIVE!!!

I have fallen a little behind in posting the build.  So I am skipping the final assembly posts for now to let you all know that it is alive and printing.


It was officially alive Friday night (May 28, 2010) here is a picture of it's first extrusion.

It had a minor issue with jammed extrusion nozzle so after some minor surgery it was working again.

Not a perfect part, but still a part.


I then took it down to Metrix Create: Space on Saturday night for "MakerBot Night."   The very helpful people who were there were able to help me fix my firmware and adjust some other settings to get better results.

More adjustments and tweaks are needed but it is printing...

The thing on top is an experimental spool holder.  I will post the files for it on thingiverse soon.

And it has a name now, Willow.  If you are curious why do a web search for "blue and white willow."

I will get the final assembly posts up soon.