will1384's Shapeoko 2

[kjetilhansen]

Are you printing with PLA?

[will1384]

Are you printing with PLA?

Yes PLA, the box that the PLA came in said 190c to 220c, I am trying to get the PID Digital Temperature Controller into that temperature window, I did the temperature controller's auto calibration but I think its off, it may be the placement of the thermocouple, lack of hot end insulation, placement of the heater cartridge, or it's just the way it was made.

I used a REX C100, little did I know when I bought it I would have to modify it, I did the mod shown in this video:



It would not work with my DC-DC Relay without the mod.

[kjetilhansen]

Yeah maybe...

I usally print with ABS, but when I tested with PLA the temperature was around 180 celcius...

Your print samples look like there has been to much heat, but if the controller is not showing up then that may be the problem, that the hot end has an temperatur hotter than what you have set it to be..

[samc99us]

Hot end is run at 230° C for PLA in the Makerbot v8 extruder. Pretty sure its the same in all their extruders. Melting point for PLA is close to 190° C but you need to run hotter nozzles to keep up with the feed rates.

Best,
Sam

[will1384]

I had lots of jams with the way I had the extruder / hotend setup, so I redid the extruder / hotend.

This does setup does not jam, but sometimes the filament melts and seems form a gap or air pocket between the filament and melted plastic, it seems like I have to prime it like a pump by pushing some filament threw the hotend just before a print, but once it gets going it has no problem extruding, I added some insulation held on by kapton tape, it has helped keep the hotend temperature stable and seems to heat quicker.



I had to keep messing with the extruder / hotend so I mounted it like this.



I don't like mounted this way because you lose a lot of print space.




I decided to print up some extra extruder parts.



I think I still need to ether adjust some settings or the temperature, from what I can tell 225-230 on the PID Digital Temperature Controller seems to extrude well, but may be a bit to hot.



Any ideas?

Would adding a fan blowing on the printed part help?

I have a heated bed, but have not tried it yet, I guess its only going to help with the parts warping.

[will1384]

Yep the fan worked wonders, I took an old CPU fan and made a paper funnel to blow toward the part being made, the parts stopped getting distorted, the prints are still not perfect but once you drill out the holes and sand a few rough edges the parts are usable.

I also printed this extruder block and lever



http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:153592

using the fan to help, then installed the parts and used it to print a better fan duct.



Adjustable Blower-Fan Mount

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:30721

[will1384]

I did try the heated bed, but without temperature control, and I used hairspray, but I was never able to get things to stick, I ran into the problem of trying to mount the thermocouple to the heated bed, I have read that you could just cut the threaded end off and twist the wires together, but at the time I did not want to potentially destroy the thermocouple.

I also tried a larger PC case fan, but moved further away, it seemed to do just as good as good as the smaller fan up close.

With the Extruder/hot end mounted to the Bosch Colt mount I was getting some up and down bounce, so modified the mount to make it stronger.







Here are my Mach3 settings, however I think they may be a tad to fast, as my Shapeoko 2 was sliding around on my table a small amount, but the table has a smooth surface.

The settings shown here might be a good stating point for someone else.









I printed this Z-Axis coupler

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:19858

and installed on my Shapeoko 2, it seems to work well with 3D Printing on the Shapeoko 2, but I have not tested with the router.



I have decided to get a 3D Printer, I am going to make a Ord Bot Hadron, the Shapeoko 2 will go back to CNC router mode.

[will1384]

A few things that helped me with 3D Printing.

(1) You need a level and flat surface, the clearance between nozzle and bed should be the thickness of one sheet of paper.

(2) A small fan blowing on the parts as as they are being printed works wonders, you only need a gentle breeze.

(3) The MBE Extruder v9 works well if you replace the drive gear, use a PTFE lined Barrel, and use something like the Makerbot Extruder Upgrade or use this extruder block and lever from: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:153592

(4) The extruder needs to be calibrated have a look over at: http://richrap.blogspot.com/2012/01/sli ... s-and.html and use that along with the "Set Steps Per Unit" button on the Settings page of Mach3.

(5) Temperature is important, I set my PID Digital Temperature Controller to 230c, with the fan on, the temperature stayed around 225c, the room temperature was 70-75°F, I was printing with PLA.

(6) If you use blue painters tape to print on, it seems to help to let the part sit for 5 or more minutes before you try and remove it.

(7) You will have a plastic leak around the hotend if you don't tighten the nozzle with the hotend hot, tighten the nozzle when the hotend is cold, then heat up the hotend and finish tightening the nozzle.

(8) If your parts print, but they are reversed, you may need to change "Dir Low Active" in "Motor Outputs" for one of the axises, likely the X-Axis.

I will add more if I can think of anything.

[will1384]

I decided to print a few more parts, like this Makerslide dial indicator holder

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:43621

and wanted the part to be as accurate as possible, so I mounted the extruder like this.







I had no more up and down bouncing, and the part does look better, but its not a huge change.

Here is the part up close.





I had printed two of them but the first one failed, near the end, because the filament snapped on the reel, it got tangled, BTW it took about an hour to print this on the Shapeoko 2, most of the smaller parts take about 30 minutes.

[cvoinescu]

That is a good print, especially considering what your extruder is. The artifacts you see on the flat faces most likely come from the teeth of the drive wheel -- even if your stepper rotates evenly, the wheel, with its relatively large teeth, advances the filament unevenly. You also see some vibration artifacts next to the corners.