questions about consumables other than filament

[Windshadow]

I have been thinking about needed spares for 3 D printing today after helping a neighbor get his generator running in anticipation of ice storms this winter. and the needed runs to the auto parts store for belts and plugs and oil.

i took a look at the documentation of items light the computer and i noticed that used those hard to find tiny fast acting fuses in addition to the big 15 Amp auto tune one and as insurance i ordered 2 spares incase i make som dumb errors that turn up in the smoke test.

looking through the things in the manual i noticed the Boro build plate is 3mm thick. As i age i have become a bit fumble fingered sometimes, due to slowly increasing numbness in my fingers. this can cause days when i drop things the last time it was an expensive spiral flute gun tap which of course shattered when it hit the bed of the bridgeport.

is it a good idea to have a couple of spare build plates in the spares drawer? and are there other items which might be loosely termed consumables of the Max V2? i have picked up some Elmer's purple glue sticks and after reading the manual i can see i will have far more 1/2" Kapton tape than i will need (i have plenty of different sizes of heat shrink tubing on hand is there any reason why most areas where i would tend to use heat shrink to insulate joint or splice the manual calls out the Kapton tape?

[geneb]

It can't hurt to have a spare bed laying around.

The "kapton everywhere" is because it's required in order to insulate the resistor wire splice as well as wrap the heater block. The splice can get hot enough to evaporate solder, so the practical choice for insulating it is kapton.

Since kapton is a great insulator, why require the builder to buy heat shrink as well?

g.

[Mac The Knife]

My spare parts are nozzles, teflon tubing, if you stick with the stock hotend, having a couple of spare heating resistors wouldn't hurt.

[Xenocrates]

I have some interesting spares. A whole spare Onyx assembly, but not two glass plates. Admittedly, my plate is spare now, as I'm printing on PEI adhered directly to a 1/8 AL heatspreader. I have an extra set of arms and their effector. (the U-joints from before I swapped to ball arms) I have spare cheapskates, the original hotend, and a full suite of nozzles (with 3 of the .4 E3D nozzles), as well as hardened steel nozzles in the sizes I use most. I have 8 thermistors, and 14 fuses. I even have spare heater blocks to go with the thermistors, as the blocks I use now are PT100 setups, rather than thermistor. I have a cartridge and PT100 that usually lives in the Volcano block, which I could swap into the regular block easily, and spare lasercut mounts. I even have a sheet of melamine in case parts break (although I wish I could find a source for double sided black).

What I find are most useful are crimp connectors, thermistors (if you use them at all), RTV and Kapton, fuses, and fans. Those, and the old stock power supply seem to be the source of the worst issues. I replaced mine early on, and the new supply is likely better, so YMMV. However, if you have any plans to use composite or filled filament, get extra nozzles.

Other assemblies have other things that want spare parts. I know several people keep spare heatbreaks on hand for E3D hotends, although I haven't had an issue. PEEK for seemeCNC hotends might be useful in case you push temps, or end up with accidental run-away. the PTFE tubing you get is a little overlong to start with, so you have some room to trim, and it's fairly easy to pick up more tubing of that size at a hardware store, and do a join to leave the proper PTFE at the hotend, even if your hardware store doesn't stock the PTFE tubing.

[Windshadow]

Thanks for all the info Guys,

Xeno it sounds like you are getting near the point of being able to build another machine from your spares.
so you bonded your PEI to 1/8 Al plate? how does that work no warping problems?that might be viable backup for dropped glass plates I guess but I think a spare or two of the glass While I learn might be best.I don't yet know enough to parse some of what you say in your paragraph about PEEK and I think the PTFE is the the stuff for the feeder tube right it sounds like something that can be worked around till the ups man brings a replacement.

I have yet to explore the local store options in Maine for 3D printing stuff (I expect nonexistent) I know that the internet will be my local shop. Portland is the nearest City about an hours drive away though day trips to Boston are easy as I can take an amtrak train (the Downeaster) from Brunswick (just a 20 min drive to the station) and With all the universities there I expect that there must be places that support the Technology. In Cambridge at a guess.

I will add a few thermistors to my list as I expect a conversion to thermocouples will be something else in the far future list.

RTV and and Kapton tape are on hand for the build and lots of crimp connectors are in stock on my auto repair bench in the barn
and the funny tiny 5A fuses are on order...I have a box of those 15 amp auto fuses in the barn (somewhere )

I think if the heating resistors give me any trouble (for me the Kit Hot end has been one of my major worries as it looks so messy with al that RTV smeared around then wrapped in the Kapton tape...
it just look, so out of place with the rest of the clean design of the Max V2) all that will do is move up the time frame for getting a E3D V-6 Hot end and the extra nozzle question will be solved if I get one with the selection of nozzles,
experimenting with abrasive filament is also some time in the future till after I figure out ABS and PLA enough to nor be totally embarrassed by my efforts.

just how fragile are the 3mm boro build plates? at $35 each and a thickness similar to a microscope slide it could get expensive with my fumble fingers though I will have carpet around the machine there is the trip to and from the freezer (and the chance of a Fibber Mcgee moment when I open the door of the freezer with the plate and print balanced on top of the leftovers )Depending when and if I break one it could be several days to get a replacement here... its not something I can pop down to Portland Glass for a replacement after all.

It was when I was making up part check off lists for organizing the BOM check off as I unpack that I started worrying about these thin glass plates. That and I broke a dish last night while washing up after supper. ( its due to idiopathic Peripheral neuropathy as I get older not a lot I can do about it)

[Windshadow]

It can't hurt to have a spare bed laying around.

The "kapton everywhere" is because it's required in order to insulate the resistor wire splice as well as wrap the heater block. The splice can get hot enough to evaporate solder, so the practical choice for insulating it is kapton.

Since kapton is a great insulator, why require the builder to buy heat shrink as well?

g.

Once again that makes good budget sense but I do think away for things that will get hot I will go with the heat shrink tubing I do have a drawer full of it is all sizes... more than I will use in a life time if I have used 10 pieces in the last 5 years I will be surprised....

Looks like an order of a pair of spare glass beds will be prudent I doubt I will be ready to calibrate till the end of the week. (in an emergency I can turn a nozzle on the swiss lathe in my shop and in the future I hope to do some experimenting in that area
Windy

[626Pilot]

Stuff I had to replace on the Rostock: Belts (maybe not a problem with the newer pulleys), 5-amp Littelfuses for the RAMBo (I got 10-amp replacements either from Mouser or DigiKey), PTFE tubing (not common to replace unless you damage it).

For paid production, I prefer to have a spare controller in case one of the FETs dies or whatever.

The RAMBo is not my favorite controller, but at least it has proper fuses. The Duet and Smoothie controllers, for some reason, don't have these.

[Windshadow]

Well I have some of the 5 Amp little fuses the Very fast blow typhoon order... and If I have problems with them at 5A its nice to know that the RAMBo design can tolerate a 10 amp but I doubt I will push the design that hard... to me a blown fuse is a red flag that I personally have goofed somewhere.

[Polygonhell]

Well I have some of the 5 Amp little fuses the Very fast blow typhoon order... and If I have problems with them at 5A its nice to know that the RAMBo design can tolerate a 10 amp but I doubt I will push the design that hard... to me a blown fuse is a red flag that I personally have goofed somewhere.

I replaced the one I blew with a 10A one, the one your likely to blow is the main Hotend, I still claim to this day that I did not have a short anywhere in that circuit, when I blew mine. The SeeMeCNC hot end uses two ~6Ohm resistors, which eat significantly more power than what was the most popular hotend available (a jhead which uses a single 5.8Ohm heating resistor) when the RAMBO was designed.
Having said that 5A should be enough in that circuit it's just the fan and Hotend mosfets. If your going to run 2 hotends with 40Watt heater cartridges, it's pretty marginal if both are heating simultaneously.