First 3D printer build - GlassRod85 - Rostock Max V2

[glassrod85]

Greetings! I am super excited to start my 3D printer kit build. I considered purchasing the Makerbot Replicator 2 last year but the high cost caused me to pause.

Seeing 3D printer sales on Black Friday(Amazon)lead me to research printers again. Reddit, https://www.3dhubs.com/best-3d-printer-guide, and finally the seemecnc forums helped me decide on the Rostock Max V2. A little disappointed since I missed the Holiday discount window (purchased Dec. 6th) which cost me at least $100.

Anyway, a little background on me. Chemist by degree. Not much experience with electronics or engineering. I dabble in woodworking, lampworking, gardening, and tons of books and computer games. I manage to build every IKEA style construction project backwards the first go-around, so this should be an interesting challenge.

Will be doing a completely stock build to get my feet wet and hopefully learn some 3D printing basics.

So far the instructions are phenomenal. My only suggestions/complaints up to this point have been the Onyx Heated Bed Assembly Section.
[list]
1.) The instructions ask for 14" 18ga wires to power the heated bed, but don't specify where to get them. Up to this point every wire had been cut to length, and parts not with the kit had instructions on where to find them, so I spent 15 minutes or so concerned I was missing a part until I finally decided it must be taken from the 8' wire bundle in the unlabeled baggie. Hopefully that was the correct assumption but if not I figured I could always locate a few more feet of wire and moved on. (I just noticed another build thread discussion had the same confusion)

2.) I was all worried about needing to get the PTFE wrapped thermistor leads flush with the back of the Onyx after seeing the 2nd install photo. The 90 bend copied from the first photo though was too far back to allow it easily. I probably manipulated a fragile part more than needed trying to improve this. It wasn't until I started adding bulky wires and so forth in later steps that I realized flush fit didn't matter much on the back. Might help to indicate that.[/list]

This build will be a little slow as I need to finish up a few other Christmas gift projects at the same time. Example below
[img]http://i.imgur.com/d4VuYx7h.jpg[/img]
hexagon shelves I'm building after someone wishlisted something similar on etsy.

Without further ado - here are the first of my build pictures. Build started at 19:00 on December 12th, 2015.

The Build Area
plenty of temporary table space
[img]http://i.imgur.com/je0SvOKh.jpg[/img]

Hot-End Assembly
A bit of cleanup needed. Hopefully will upgrade this portion in a few months after reading so many lackluster reviews. Definitely was a bit of a messy intro.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/scbYlJch.jpg[/img]

Power supply
Question on this part - I have a few spare modular computer PSU in the closet. Is there any significant reason to use one of those instead as I've seen a few builds try?
[img]http://i.imgur.com/dQ9V9Vyh.jpg[/img]

Onyx Heated Bed Assembly
[img]http://i.imgur.com/r9ORHYsh.jpg[/img]

Wish me Luck!

[Eaglezsoar]

I will wish you luck but from what you have said I don't believe you need luck with your background.
Follow the manual explicitly and ask on this forum if you have a question, we will be glad to help.
HAPPY BUILDING!

[Xenocrates]

There are a very few reasons to use a modular power supply.

A) You have one with a higher efficiency and 12V wattage

B) You have something that wants/needs 5 or 3.3V.

C) You got the old ATX power-supply that was a bit flakey.

Also, The SeemeCNC hotend is very good for PLA and normal ABS. Other hotends such as the E3D V6 (not the lite), have issues with PLA. So long as it's working, there's not a huge reason to change it if you plan on printing PLA much. If you plan on working with Nylon, PET, or PC, you'll have to get an all metal hotend. If you want faster heatup times, or get frustrated with the thermistor, you can change those individually, by adding a heater cartridge or a screw in thermistor. SeemeCNC's hotend is plenty fine, especially as something included with the kit. When compared to a hotend that is fully 10% of the cost of the printer though, it will not be so nice. (E3D V6 with a set of nozzles, or worse yet, the powerpack). It's certainly better than dud's like the OPAM hotend, or the original Budaschnoozles (I originally typed dudaschoozle, which seems almost apt), which had issues like heatsoak, or terrible heat-up times, even if it's not as nice as an E3D, which is made by a hotend focused company.

[glassrod85]

Thanks Eagle.

Really appreciate the feedback Xeno - particularly from someone with experience with those same mods judging from your signature line. I thought maybe i needed to upgrade PSU/wire gauge since a few threads mentioned improved bed heating but sounds like this will be fine. I have no plans for additional power draining attachments currently.

I'll have you know i spent the last hour off on a tangent watching/reading OPAM reviews since I didn't get the reference. (weird nozzle design) I definitely will be doing mainly PLA/ABS for the first long while so its good to hear that the stock unit should work well there.

Any thoughts about the PEI bed mod? So far I have glue stick and aquaspray on order. Not high on my list of priorities since it will probably take me months to understand print setting impacts well enough to worry about bed lift anyway. I predict I''ll be the type to print 500 of the same part with minor setting tweaks to ensure I understand them.

On with the assembly!

[Xenocrates]

PEI is wonderful, and is pretty much problem free, if you either print with a raft, or get your PEI on without bubbles. The power supply has changed since those threads, and it is not really possible to increase the bed's wire size without exceeding the rated size of wire for the connector, which can cause the connector to fail in delightful ways, as well as causing Geneb to yell at you.

But good bed adhesion is really important to understand the effects of other things, as bad bed adhesion can cause results which are atypical for various settings. A good first layer is the foundation on which a part is laid, and so it can cause problems that effect the rest of the part.

[626Pilot]

Why are you using size=85? Do you hate people over 40?