Hello from Toronto, Canada

[guitp]

Just fired up my Orion Delta for the first two times.

I am expecting the FAN.GCO part to come out "solid". (Is that the correct assumption?).

In fact, the top, thin strut is partly hollow and the "wings" have (vertical) layers - if I bend them, I can see the "layers" separate (like an onion).

I assume that I should execute the leveling procedure (pg. 25) over and over until I get a solid part. Correct? It looks like it was bumped hard during shipping.

Or, should I be diving into the repetier software procedures?

I'm new to 3D printing, but old to building electronics, software, etc.

This may have already been covered in this forum, but pointers to specific threads would be helpful in getting me down the learning curve.

thanks
guitp

[Eaglezsoar]

Just fired up my Orion Delta for the first two times.

I am expecting the FAN.GCO part to come out "solid". (Is that the correct assumption?).

In fact, the top, thin strut is partly hollow and the "wings" have (vertical) layers - if I bend them, I can see the "layers" separate (like an onion).

I assume that I should execute the leveling procedure (pg. 25) over and over until I get a solid part. Correct? It looks like it was bumped hard during shipping.

Or, should I be diving into the repetier software procedures?

I'm new to 3D printing, but old to building electronics, software, etc.

This may have already been covered in this forum, but pointers to specific threads would be helpful in getting me down the learning curve.

thanks
guitp

The leveling procedure is only necessary if you discover that your nozzle is not at the same height over a portion of the bed.
If your layers are separating like you describe then it appears you need a hotter temperature when you print the part. I would
start by increasing the hotend temperature by 10c and you can do that from the LCD panel.

[geneb]

If it was bumped, you might want to go through a calibration. Can you post photos of the fan shroud you printed?

g.

[guitp]

This is after one session of XYZ calibrations (roughly 4 passes).

[img]http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a573/guitp/fan1_zps15215e91.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a573/guitp/fan3_zps304f563b.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a573/guitp/fan2_zps477e9da3.jpg[/img]

[Eaglezsoar]

I assume you did not have to increase the temperature?

[guitp]

The photos above were taken using "stock" temperatures. Second run (after a round of re-leveling exercise).

The first run ("out of the box") looks similar.

With the heigh-adjustment screws, I note that after homing, one screw is barely touching the micro-switch lever, while the other two are about 1/4" away from their levers. Does this sound right / don't-care?

Thanks

[Eaglezsoar]

The photos above were taken using "stock" temperatures. Second run (after a round of re-leveling exercise).

The first run ("out of the box") looks similar.

With the heigh-adjustment screws, I note that after homing, one screw is barely touching the micro-switch lever, while the other two are about 1/4" away from their levers. Does this sound right / don't-care?

Thanks

After the calibration is the nozzle the same height at all the locations, that is what is important. The screws on my Orion is similar to yours and it prints fine, no matter where on the bed it is
printing.

[guitp]

I think I might try a higher temp (if that doesn't work, I'll go back to leveling .

It seems to me that the nozzle temperature is controlled by the fan.gco program...

...
M190 S90 ; wait for bed temperature to be reached
M104 S218 ; set temperature
G28 ; home all axes
M109 S218 ; wait for temperature to be reached
...

Can I override the temperature from the front panel or do I need to edit the program?

I've got the stock Orion Delta, is setting the temp to 228C safe? How high can I go?

[Eaglezsoar]

I think I might try a higher temp (if that doesn't work, I'll go back to leveling .

It seems to me that the nozzle temperature is controlled by the fan.gco program...

...
M190 S90 ; wait for bed temperature to be reached
M104 S218 ; set temperature
G28 ; home all axes
M109 S218 ; wait for temperature to be reached
...

Can I override the temperature from the front panel or do I need to edit the program?

I've got the stock Orion Delta, is setting the temp to 228C safe? How high can I go?

The temperatures can be set from the front panel but the temperature of 218 seems fine for ABS.
Are you using ABS filament?
To answer your question, I would not go over 240c and even that is high especially if the reported temperature
is not that accurate. The only way to know is to use a meter that has a thermocouple probe that you can insert
into the hotend to read the actual temperature. It is rare to have to go over 220c - 230c for ABS.

[guitp]

Thanks for your helpful replies - I'm already coming down the learning curve.

I tried to print the FAN at 225C, but, this time I watched more carefully. The thin cross-piece is not meant to be "solid" all the way through, as I had erroneously expected.

It prints the thin arch as little loop-de-loop tongues approaching each other from both, left and right sides. Then, it prints only the two edges of the cross-piece straight across using the tongues/arch as support (I guess).

The tongues sag down a little bit, immediately after being printed (too hot, maybe???). The final piece looks like it has a hole in the thin arch, because of the sagging.

Then, it dawned on me that my package contained a blinky printed at the factory. I printed one of those, it was close, but the gap inside the first C is more pronounced in my version than that in the factory version. (top = factory, bottom = mine).

[img]http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a573/guitp/blinky_zpsde05b18a.jpg[/img]

I guess it's back to the xyz salt-mine.

At least watching ABS cool is more fun than watching paint dry...

[guitp]

It turned out that my first-order problem was that, during shipping, at least one of the cheapskate rollers acquired "play". I adjusted the carriages as per pg. 92 of the Rostock assembly guide. The next print looked much better.

Now, though, I've got "Delta arm blues" (pg. 292), infill not meeting perimeter. To my hands, it seems that all 3 carriages have the same amount of friction, I've done the leveling and none of the axles look damaged.

Any suggestions would be most welcome...

[img]http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a573/guitp/fan4_zpse540d990.jpg[/img]

[Tinyhead]

Other than the cheapskate bearing friction, you'll also want to check the friction of the arms on the u-joints and the u-joints on the axles.

[joecnc2006]

for the gaps try reducing your nozzle width.

[guitp]

Other than the cheapskate bearing friction, you'll also want to check the friction of the arms on the u-joints and the u-joints on the axles.

Is there a way to check this? I bought the pre-assembled unit. I put some drops of TriFlow on every joint I could find, but this hasn't improved the print.

thanks

[guitp]

for the gaps try reducing your nozzle width.

Is this a physical or software adjustment? I'm perusing the Rostock assembly manual (even though I got the pre-assembled Orion) to see what else I can / should tweak. Pointers to specific pages or posts would be appreciated.