Rostock Max V3 - requests, suggestions, etc.

[teoman]

About the tools and the metric issue. It is not a problem that cannot be overcome. But I bought this printer while building another 3d printer. Only because there was so much running around for tools and bits and bobs.

What i would like is a full complete kit. With permanent marker, all allen keys, kapton tape (maybe even an ultra cheapo soldering iron and some solder).

For us living in unfortunate countries with high fuel prices, going out to get some of those things ends up costing several times the price of the actual items (which i am more than happy to leave to seemecnc as I save on time).

[Captain Starfish]

1. This does tend to come up a bit, but worth reiterating: include everything in the kit, or provide a "one stop shop extras" kit including ALL the connectors, tools, kapton tape, permatex (or whatever), a layer fan, a short roll of Kapton for the bed, extra cable, screws to mount the LCD panel, a knob to put on the panel quadrature encoder and so on. The dumb crap to turn a kit into a finished project. Oh, and some spares, too!

2. A hot end that works with all the filament types sold by SeeMe. I got caught with the stock hot end and rolls of PET and Nylon that I bought with the printer which I cannot use. PEEK be damned.

What surprises me is how little extra a kit this complex needs to finish it - just a little more to get it over the line. The SeeMe guys are doing a pretty good job.

[teoman]

A bit more clearance for the wires on the toers would be nice.

[teoman]

Or include in the manual how many cm or inches they should be out while installing. I would hate to find out that I had to disassemble the tower to push it up to be able to get more wire down below.

[RegB]

I am VERY IMPRESSED with SeeMeCNC's way of packaging into little sub kits.
It probably takes time and has taken attention to detail to set up, but it would seem that a couple of optional sub kits could solve the small tools and supplies difficulties.

[enggmaug]

I am in France, and I could only agree with using metric vs imperial. However, I did not try to find an imperial allen when I needed one. I took a metric allen that was just a bit too big, and reduced its size with a dremel tool.
It is not perfect, but hey, it worked.

For the rest, I have only V1, and I don't know how better is V2, so I don't know what to ask for v3.

[teoman]

7/64 is definitely not available locally.

I used 2 adjustable wrenches to do the cheapskates.

A torx head fit the 7/64 rather nicely so I used that.

My kit did not have 2 crimps for the hotend resistors

I will go hunting

[RegB]

Sorry to keep on about the idea of putting the LCD control panel in the top section, but...
If longer ribbon cables are a problem, then I guess the Rambo would have to move upstairs too.
That would involve sending all the wires up to it - or not sending them DOWN to it as we do now that it is in the base.
The X, Y and Z stepping motor wires would need to be LONG and there are probably too many of them to extend through the towers. Heated bed power and thermistor too, hmmm.

Maybe just build the whole thing upside down and invert various polarities, accept that it would be top heavy (-:

[teoman]

A couple of connectors would add a lot to the professionalism to the machine.

For example the hot end, the fans, the rambo board fan etc... I doubt that alltogether they would cost more than 5 usd.

[Hunin]

I would like to see other color options than black and white. Maybe some of the more "common" colors on the melamine sheets like red, yellow, blue and green.

I would also like to see the crimp on connectors for the hotend, JST connectors and polarized latch connectors included with the kit.

[geneb]

The connectors for the hot end are OPTIONAL and were presented on my own as a method for folks to be able to do quick changes on their hot end if they so choose.

Krylon is your friend.

g.

[Eaglezsoar]

If SeeMeCNC were to add all the niceties that I have read about to the kit the price of the kit would have to increase and the goal is to keep the costs under $1000.
If you all want the niceties such as connnectors, special hot ends, etc then buy them when you order the kit. The price point and the value it represents is what
helps to keep a Company in business.

[teoman]

I fully agree. For this price it is very good. And i am extremely happy with my purchase. What i was proposing was the little added bits as an extra kit.

I just finished assembling my printer about 2 hours ago.

What i would also recommend would be ( in the guide ) to hack the power supply and desolder the unnecessary cables and even solder in a proper cable with the proper gauge.


Also, some of the wires are really stiff. I was just starting the build, i would change some of them with noodle wire which is very very flexible.

[teoman]

Cut some generic slots on the top late to add additional extruders etc...

When the melamine is drilled it will look bad.

[bob64]

If SeeMeCNC were to add all the niceties that I have read about to the kit the price of the kit would have to increase and the goal is to keep the costs under $1000.
If you all want the niceties such as connnectors, special hot ends, etc then buy them when you order the kit. The price point and the value it represents is what
helps to keep a Company in business.

Yeah, but there's so much room in the box to hold any "optional stuff" add-on. I'd rather pay shipping once, rather then shipping separately for all these odd-and-end pieces like the connector, connector pins, crimp tool, rtv gasket, kapton tape, and hot-end resistor crimp connectors...

[teoman]

Indeed. Especially if you live somewhere where getting those parts will be a major shipping / customs cost/mayhem.

[Captain Starfish]

Yep. @Eaglezsoar - I don't think anyone suggested adding them to the base product because we're all aware of the effort the guys have gone to to keep it at that <1k price point. But an optional kit to save me the stuffaround of finding connectors etc - particularly in a country with no McMasters Carr - would have been a no-brainer purchase and I wouldn't have begrudged SeeMeCNC a 20-25% layer of fat on the price for the time and effort it would have saved me.

[Eaglezsoar]

Yep. @Eaglezsoar - I don't think anyone suggested adding them to the base product because we're all aware of the effort the guys have gone to to keep it at that <1k price point. But an optional kit to save me the stuffaround of finding connectors etc - particularly in a country with no McMasters Carr - would have been a no-brainer purchase and I wouldn't have begrudged SeeMeCNC a 20-25% layer of fat on the price for the time and effort it would have saved me.

That actually makes a great deal of sense. If SeeMeCNC did not want to add a kit of connectors and the other needed or desired options, I could see someone offering such a kit independently.

[teoman]

Yes, some one could do that. But you would end up paying extra for the shipping. And why would Seemecnc not want to sell the extra kit and make people say, glad i got the kit, the printer is perfect now, insted of thinking, good printer, but they half-assed a couple of small details and some one else had to fix it up. In the end it is all about convenience.

[geneb]

I wrote up the use of the connectors because it works well on my machine and others may like the ability to quick-change hot ends. SeeMeCNC has no obligation whatsoever to supply those extra parts.

g.

[teoman]

And you are a wise man. I do think that it really is a must have.

Anyhow, i am not sure i like the direction this thread is heading. I am a complete spaz when it comes to communicating, and i feel that some people are getting defensive (I could be completely wrong).

All i am saying is, if an additional tool package was offered, i would buy it.
If rtv was offered i would buy it.
If the connectors were offered as a package i would buy it, but as they do not cost much I would have been happy to see them in the kit.
A couple of meters of that wire wrapping mesh, and a few centimeters of shrinkwrap (that i used) would have been nice at almost no extra cost.
A metric version would have been nice but that might be a bit too much to ask.

All being said and done, i am extremely happy with my purchase. Even though it is not fully working yet. Someone asked what I would like to see in a RostockMax V3 and these are the items. As you can see I think that the printer is very good as it is because I cannot think of anything major, just a coupe of little bits and bobs.


Teoman

[Captain Starfish]

Of course they're not under any obligation, Gene.

This thread isn't about what SeeMeCNC must do in their next iteration, though, it's about what things could they do to make an awesome product (and now initial purchase too, it seems) even more awesomer.

As an aside, your manual is so tightly linked to the Rostock Max purchase and assembly process that it (and your ideas) gets closely linked with the Max. I know when I bought mine, I was disappointed and annoyed that "their" manual told me to install all this stuff which wasn't in the supplied kit and it left me scratching my head why not. Yours was the way, the one true way and the light and it took a while on this forum before I realised that your manual and build process was a mix of guanu's, john's, and gene's own good ideas added into a mix.

Nothing for anyone to get butthurt or defensive over, but just be aware that your manual and assembly process is what nearly every newb will follow as the "official" sequence and they will all be looking for those extra parts. It's an opportunity for SeeMe to align the physical product with the de facto manual, especially important when they don't actually seem to have an official assembly manual of their own for the bare bones build sans geneb's awesome extras.

[DavidF]

I think it would be cool if they offered designer colors of the melamine and anodized extrusions.

[teoman]

I was "officially" referred to your manual.

[jmpreuss]

I think having an add on package of all the extra stuff would be a decent idea. It could be sold under the guise of "It's not in the standard kit because many people already have this stuff but if you don't we will make it easier for you to get".

As for other items I think the board has to move off of an 8 bit base, to a smoothie board or something like it since the deltas clearly benefit from the higher cpu. At this point a smoothie is no more expensive than a Rambo so this may be a no brainer once firmware is nailed down.

Another thing is to improve the hot end. In a perfect world they could just put in an e3d V6 but that isn't open source so a no go. I would suggest at a minimum a ceramic heater cartridge and a screw in thermistor and be done with rtv forever. One of the days an rtv installed thermistor is going to become partially undone during a print and catch a printer on fire (this nearly happened to me, fortunately I was there when the runaway heat happened. Ordered a e3d v6 that night for both my machines).