G'day

[Captain Starfish]

G'day SeeMeCNC gurus.

Got my big old box of awesome in the mail a few weeks ago and have spent the time between working my way through the build until my first test print last night.

A background in engineering, electronics, embedded design and some product design and a workshop containing mill, lathe etc have all been kinda steering me towards this moment for a while.

Test cube looks ok for a bunch of defaults, now it's time to start tuning for the different filaments and getting things all tidy.

I have the 2nd extruder head for my Rostock Max but have decided to leave it in the shrinkwrap for the time being: I have more than enough to keep me busy with one head for now. Eventually I'll be keen on seeing dual colour or HIPS style supports.

Ye gods, words cannot describe just how badly I want to not be stuck at work right now instead of being home and squirting plastic!

[Lochemage]

AAA HAHA First reply, I win!

Oh, and hey there! We want pictures (of your printer and first print, not your nudies...)

[johnoly99]

Lochemage, you beat me to it! We were thinking the same thing, say hi before Eagle did i bet!


And to Captain Starfish, welcome aboard! And hopefully someday we'll get to take a trip to Oz and meet some of our customers that's toilets we hear swirl in opposite directions.

[Eaglezsoar]

Welcome to the Forum Captain Starfish. I bet you are frothing at the mouth to get started on printing stuff.
We are here to help you out if you have problems so send us a message if you get stuck somewhere.
Happy Printing.

[CJGerard]

Howdy Captain Starfish, Welcome to the Forums!!!

[dpmacri]

That's funny about the second extruder. I have my 2nd extruder mounted, but the wires aren't connected, yet -- I'm too busy printing stuff and worried I'll mess something up if I try to go with two extruders right now

Welcome to the forums!

[Captain Starfish]

What a warm response, thanks folks.

Y'all know what a Rostock Max looks like when it's done

Second extruder - I've learned the hard way over the years that the KISS principle and slowly building up with one small success after another is infinitely more rewarding and less frustrating than going big-bang and its usual outcome of a massive failure and the intense, gut wrenching feeling of frustration and confusion over where to even begin to troubleshoot. So I have most of the wiring running up but no head. Yet.

Mid-build:
[img]http://www.simonlockwood.net/linky/rostockbuild.jpg[/img]

First print with some fairly defaulty looking settings:
[img]http://www.simonlockwood.net/linky/rost ... tprint.jpg[/img]
I was pretty happy with this despite the clunky skipping coming out of the Ezstruder every now and then on the initial settings. If I had to guess the fix it would be slow down the feed rate and maybe even bump up the nozzle temp, but suggestions from an exspurt are always appreciated!

In general I must say I was impressed by the pre-sales support, speed of order prep and delivery, the quality of parts and kit and the nice PDF of the instructions from Gene. My only criticisms to date are minor:
- I ended up with a bunch of connectors in the zip bag which I hadn't used, because I didn't know what they were for.
- I would have ever so happily parted with another $50 or $100 for an "everything (really) you need but tools" version of the kit which included PTFE tube for the resistors, Permatex, more cable for extending the top mount extruder stepper wiring, cable for the hot bed, XT60 and JR connectors for the hot end power and thermistor and the bed power, a knob for the control panel and a matching set of screws for the hot end, a skinny and fat roll of Kapton tape and those few other bits and pieces that would stop me in my tracks for a week whilst I waited for eBay orders to arrive from China.
- I probably would have paid another $50 on top of that for a wiring loom that required no cutting/soldering - just plug it all in.
- Some of the assembly sequencing could be improved. For example, the stub wiring for the RAMBO hot bed feed onto the board, then the board onto the mounting plate, the PSU onto its mounting plate etc would have all been a hell of a lot easier before the cover went on.

Like I said, minor stuff that would just make it quicker and easier to get it from the delivery box to a working unit.

I'll be downloading some test boxes and sorting out calibrations etc for the PLA, ABS, Nylon and PET I ordered with the unit. Then it'll be time to belt out the PEEK fan shroud and clips for the wire.

Then, finally, it will be time to start on the massive backlog of projects that have been piling up waiting for this mighty beast to be operational.

[dpmacri]

That first print looks pretty good -- nice work! Is it PLA or ABS?

[Captain Starfish]

Natural PLA.

A lot of credit to Gene for his instructions and initial configuration setting suggestions.

[geneb]

You're quite welcome! I do wish that Ultimachine would put the older style terminal connectors on the boards that SeeMeCNC gets - it's a damn sight easier to wire when you can attach the wire to the terminal block and then plug the sucker into the board.

Note that you can use a JST connector on the hot end as well if you like. XT60 is admittedly, overkill.

g.

[Captain Starfish]

You reckon? I look at the wire gauge and look at those piddly little JT pins and it feels dirty putting them together.

I ended up going for the automotive bullet crimps on the resistor wire twists, just cutting the plastic shroud off first.

[geneb]

The JST connectors are rated to about 5A. My LulzBot TAZ uses a four pin connector to connect the hot end and thermistor to the wiring harness and the pins are of a similar size. There's been no heating issues with that, so I suspect it's ok.

g.