Goodbye Orion

[Holy1]

Goodbye Orion,

I know I may get a raised eyebrow from a few people on this forum. I bought my Orion a year ago as my first venture into the world of 3d printing. It worked well for about a week then had to be recalibrated , the first of many, many times. Other things failed along the way, hotend resistors, thermistor, fans, sticking ujoints, etc. Through it all I enjoyed fixing it and learning the machine. Put about 36 days (860 hrs) on it. I bought a Rostock Max in August and enjoyed building it. I was looking for a larger build volume. I found with the longer towers the calibration need tweaking often. I do move it when I have a long print so it's not so noisy. I have installed dampeners but it is still noisy.

With noise and calibration issues of the delta printers I decided to build a Cartesian style machine of my own design. I wanted a reliable printer that i could just slip in the sd card and hit print. So, after a week at the computer in the design stage and a month of building, I have achieved that.
I used all of the parts ( electronics, motors belts, hotend, fan and switches) off my beloved Orion in the Printer. I feel bad that its chassis is discarded in the corner of the basement but it lives on in PrintMe (that's what I named it).
PrintMe has a 300 mm X 300 mm X 400 mm or 2016 square inch build volume so almost twice the volume of the Max. It is only 18" wide so it fits on my desk with room to spare.
It uses 4 motors instead of 5 and is entirely belt driven.
It has complete auto leveling so there is no need to set a z height or fool around with calibration.
It uses v-slot rails and V wheels so the gantries move super smooth and accurate. I used a maximum amount of printed parts using the Rostock MAX. It is very rigid and DEAD quiet. You can hear the Max downstairs over this one when you are sitting beside it. We can watch TV at regular volume with it in the same room.
I wanted to share this because I have enjoyed the forum over the last year and learned so much and it gave me the confidence to build this printer. I still love the delta design and will continue to use the Max but am really enjoying the auto calibration and simplicity of this machine.

Some pictures. You may recognize some parts from the Orion.

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[Eaglezsoar]

Congrats on the design and build!

[rehabmax]

Is the Rostaock Max v2. working for you still? Does it require continuous recalibration? I am thinking of getting the kit and would like your opinion on how it has performed for you.
Thank you.

[geneb]

The Rostock MAX, nor the Orion require "continuous" calibration. The only time I've EVER had to recalibrate one of my machines is if I change the geometry of it - like adding TL arms. Otherwise it's simply Z height resets when I change hot ends.

g.

[Generic Default]

That's too bad the Orion didn't work out in the long run for you, although I'm glad to see it was good enough to print parts for another printer that turned out successful.

I like how you routed the belt from the stepper motor to both sides of the Z axis, that kind of stuff makes a huge difference in print quality since the beam won't twist every time Z changes. And you even finished it off with a top of the line Noctua fan and some really nice wire management!

Have you considered doing multi-extrusion with that thing?

[Eaglezsoar]

You should consider selling it in kit form, I bet you could sell a lot of them if the price was right.
I could be your first customer if you decide to do it.

[mvansomeren]

The Rostock MAX, nor the Orion require "continuous" calibration. The only time I've EVER had to recalibrate one of my machines is if I change the geometry of it - like adding TL arms. Otherwise it's simply Z height resets when I change hot ends.

g.

I fully agree with you, Gene. I've been printing every day ( about 25 hrs of printing time so far) now since I finished my build and did the initial calibration. This thread gave me cause for concern so I checked the calibration and it was spot on.

That said, It's great that the OP was able to create a printer suited to his liking and continues to further the expansion of the 3D printing community.

[Holy1]

Is the Rostaock Max v2. working for you still? Does it require continuous recalibration? I am thinking of getting the kit and would like your opinion on how it has performed for you.
Thank you.

Yes, I use it all the time. Especially for ABS. It does not need "continuous recalibration" however it does not like to be moved. It delivers good prints. Buying the kit was the best for me to learn how things work. I'm just a fussy fart!

[Holy1]

Congrats on the design and build!

Thanks,

That's too bad the Orion didn't work out in the long run for you, although I'm glad to see it was good enough to print parts for another printer that turned out successful.

I like how you routed the belt from the stepper motor to both sides of the Z axis, that kind of stuff makes a huge difference in print quality since the beam won't twist every time Z changes. And you even finished it off with a top of the line Noctua fan and some really nice wire management!

Have you considered doing multi-extrusion with that thing?

Thanks Generic! Multi extrusion is in the planning stage. Looking at the Cyclops. It seems it may work but I am waiting on some feedback.

You should consider selling it in kit form, I bet you could sell a lot of them if the price was right.
I could be your first customer if you decide to do it.

Working on a kit price. I'll hold you to that!

The Rostock MAX, nor the Orion require "continuous" calibration. The only time I've EVER had to recalibrate one of my machines is if I change the geometry of it - like adding TL arms. Otherwise it's simply Z height resets when I change hot ends.

g.

I figured you would have something to say.

[bot]

Nice work, but I'm with Gene here. Constant tweaking? WTF. My experience is exactly the opposite of that.

And also, to claim that you have achieved a perfect printer after a week of design and a month of building is kind of laughable. Talk to us in 800 hours.

[Holy1]

Nice work, but I'm with Gene here. Constant tweaking? WTF. My experience is exactly the opposite of that.

And also, to claim that you have achieved a perfect printer after a week of design and a month of building is kind of laughable. Talk to us in 800 hours.

I believe I used the word reliable. Nothing is perfect. I have about 150 hours on it now. Thanks for laughing at me.

[bot]

You come in here making some bold claims, and claiming to have solved the problem with one week of design work.

That's trash talk if you ask me. You're trash talking the years of design and engineering put into the machines you thought required so much tweaking.

Have you had to calibrate your printer yet?

[Holy1]

You come in here making some bold claims, and claiming to have solved the problem with one week of design work.

That's trash talk if you ask me. You're trash talking the years of design and engineering put into the machines you thought required so much tweaking.

Have you had to calibrate your printer yet?

I don't claim to have solved any problem. I love the Max and the Orion. I very much appreciate the work and thought that has gone into them. It inspired me to try building one.
Are you going to continue berating me? It is not very pleasant. I can remove the post if it is offending you.

[bot]

I'm not berating you. This is like pulling into a muscle car meet with a riced out Acura and claiming to have fixed all the problems of the muscle cars... no offense to Acura owners or rice enthusiasts.

[Nylocke]

I think he was referring to the post title and your general attitude towards calibration. We all understand how lengthy calibration can be, and some of us (*cough* gene *cough*) take slight offense to hearing complaints about calibration. That being said, your printer is well designed and impressive. You should feel proud of yourself for building it, it looks pretty slick.

[geneb]

*looks up, whistles innocently*

[Eaglezsoar]

*looks up, whistles innocently*

[Eaglezsoar]

Holy1 says: Working on a kit price. I'll hold you to that!

I am serious, if you can work up a kit price, I will purchase it. I need a decent cartesian printer. Most of the ones I see are pure junk or too much money.
Do not necessarily need a manual if you can provide some pictures of belt routing, endstops etc. The config file for the firmware also.
PM me if you come up with the kit.

[bot]

I hate to beat a dead horse, but...

Today I switched from a .35mm nozzle to a .8mm for a different print. I forgot to check my z-height calibration. As you can expect...

It worked perfectly. Didn't have to re-calibrate a thing, even though I switched the nozzle AND material...

[rehabmax]

All the positive posts about Rostock Max v2, not requiring much or any recalibration is very reassuring. I would think that moving the machine around from place to place could get it out of alignment. Any precision instrument is sensitive to moving.

[bot]

I meant .7mm nozzle in my last post, btw. (I set it to .8mm though, oops.)

In my experience, if you don't knock the thing around too much, it requires zero adjustment after a move. I took it from my apt, to another apartment 5 floors down, and nothing required adjusting.

[foshon]

I assume the lack of response from the OP means trouble in paradise.

[bot]

No no no, give him some credit. It does look like a decent Cartesian design.

[bot]

But I mean, I did this first try without calibrating after changing nozzle and material... SeeMeCNC is doing something right. (This is still all stock, haven't added my e3d yet)

[Holy1]

But I mean, I did this first try without calibrating after changing nozzle and material... SeeMeCNC is doing something right. (This is still all stock, haven't added my e3d yet)

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That's a great cone. Could you provide a .stl? Or a link? My wife would love that.