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travelphotog wrote:OK my 2 cents worth.

I know what your saying. It's just really frustrating a project goes like this. If it was my own design and things like this were happening, I'd be like "Ok, I got to solve this problem." Instead, I have a purchased kit, so my mindset is the same but usually involves cursing. Hopefully my actions alert SeeMeCNC to look at quality control a bit more for the laser cut panels. They told me that the laser cutter just of been having a bad day that day. Um no, it's the person preforming quality checks that was having a bad day and resulted in me getting bad parts. If it was just missing hardware, I probably would have just ordered some from McMaster, thinking I'll need extra hardware in the future anyway. Waiting on the new laser cuts parts is what really got me.

I was able to get the cheapskates adjusted, belts on, and top section together. It's down to the wiring and RAMBo. I'll post pics later. I would have got all that done this weekend, but we were building a post and beam greenhouse during the sun-lite hours instead.

OK, so I've gotten back the build. Working on cleaning up wires and getting the RAMBo board mounted. I upgraded to the travelphotog suggested and it is a sweet fan. Nice high quality fan that will defiantly keep the RAMBo cool and noise level down. The fan kit comes with lots of extra connectors and one is a two wire reducer with wire leads, so dont cut off the corrector on the fan. Hot end wires accessory wires and bowden tube installed. The instructions said to route the hot end wires down the down the flexible sleeve, and I did and got the heat sink on, only to find out later that the accessory wires for the fan needed to be down the sleeve also. So I routed it with bowden tube. With all the jumping around and waiting for replacement parts, I going to have to rewire this thing later. I feel like I have not been able to flow through the project and follow the instructions as intended. Went to route the 18 gage wires for the hot end coming down the Z axis and found they are to short. I had cut 17 inches off needed for the Hot Bed and I do not have extra slack coming from the hot end that will allow the wires to come out the front of the base to wire the RAMBo. Going to have to go to the store to get some extra wire to solder on and extend them. All other wires have plenty of length.

Picked up the extra length of wire I need to extend the hot end wires to the RAMBo. It only took 40 minutes for the guys at spools to find the spool of wire I needed on rack. Used some clips to hold wires up and out of the way as I prepped other and cleaned up the rats nest inside. Now it just looks like a tidy rats nest. I think the RAMBo could be set back inside a little more to avoid pinching wires when installing the display. Adding some sticky pad wire tie locations would really help tidy up the wiring also. I just need to find mine. Then after adding the display, odds and ends, nut and bolt check, it's looking pretty complete. I'll have to wait til next week to plug it in and turn it one for the first. Have some other projects to back to first. Feeling better about it, as long as the smoke doesn't come out the first I plug it in.

Looking very good! Great job!
I doubt the magic smoke will appear but have your finger on the off button just in case!

Thanks eagle, I going to let it age for a few days before I turn on also. Time to work on other projects.

Powered up the printer for the first time tonight and got it up to temp. Everything looks good so far. The only issue is that I can't auto tune the Ki, Kp, Kd numbers, because there is no G-code box in the latest version of Repetier and it does not match the instructions in the current manual. I can't find the G-code box any where else. If you can help that, please let me know. I would like to have a more stable temps for the hot end and hot bed.

Hey no problem!

Go up to the tool bar and toggle the EASY button from GREEN to RED. I think that the fields you are looking for will then appear under the MANUAL CONTROL tab.

nitewatchman

nitewatchman wrote:Hey no problem!

Go up to the tool bar and toggle the EASY button from GREEN to RED. I think that the fields you are looking for will then appear under the MANUAL CONTROL tab.

nitewatchman

That did the trick, I'll play with it tomorrow and hopefully get a print out of thing.

OK went through all the calibration and everything seems to checking out OK. I had someone print the PEEK fan out of ABS for me and installed. I feel like that is something that should on from the start. During warm up, I noticed that the fan does turn on after 50C. I thought there was a slight delay, but it went up to 200C with out turning on, so I gave the fan a gentle nudge with a small file and started up. I had to do this a couple times while calibrating the printer. Can someone recommend a good replacement fan?

I then was able to manually push filament through the nozzle. While doing that, either software or the machine got hung up and the manual controls in Repetier did nothing. I hit disconnect button for the printer a couple times and that seemed to fix it. Will have to watch for this in the future. I extruded though about 150mm of filament and got ready for my first print.

Now I have PLA filament and I downloaded that material profile PEEK fan STL off the SeeMeCNC site for the first print. Nozzle was 210C and bed was 60C. Everything got up to temp, it beeped, and started printing. The outside path around the part went down fine. Then it started to go wrong. Either the nozzle clogged or extruder gear wheel was slipping on the material. I was able to pull all the filament out of the bowden tube and I stopped there. I'm going to try again this weekend.

Need some advise on printing with PLA with a stock Max v2.

One of the first things to look at is the filament retract. Mine likes about 4mm, any more and a jam develops although it takes longer than you describe.

nitewatchman wrote:One of the first things to look at is the filament retract. Mine likes about 4mm, any more and a jam develops although it takes longer than you describe.

I'll add that to the list of things to check.

I got a thermocouple to make sure that the hot end is at the temp the display says it should be. I also got some ABS from a local maker and will be giving that a try also.

Found out the nozzle was less then finger tight on the hot end. Kinda of hard to tighten also, with the thermistor on one side of the flats, getting a wrench on it is tricky. Leaving pliers as the only option. After tightening, found the calibration has off, so I get to go through that again. How delicate is the hot end to being touched? Do you have to check the calibration every time you touch it?

PEEK fan is not turning on. I think I got a dud, especially since I had to push start it yesterday a couple times. How long can you run PLA/ABS before damaging the PEEK insulator?

Couple of things to check. On the peek fan.. Make sure it printed out right and did not shrink to much.. Try a file around where the fan blades turn. It sounds like to mee that your blades might be stuck a bit.. Try hooking up the layer fan and run a fast test to about 60C on the head. Fan should turn on at 50C or sooner. if the layer fan turns on but the PEEK does not, then you have a dude PEEK fan. IF the layer fan also come on late then it might be worth rechecking your firmware fan settings to double check that.

On the PLA issue.. Only time I had an issue like that with PLA on the stock head was when the Z height was set too low and the nozzle was too low to let out the PLA fast enough. If it does it with your ABS also then that might be it. If it is just PLA issues then I have no sure what the issue is if your PEEK fan was running.

Sorry I've been away.. Tons of shoots and the new CNC mill arrived.. Needless to say I've been a bit busy of late. Glad to see that you have the printer finished and are getting it dialed in. Get ready to be amazed it hoe great it feels to make something in CAD then print it out and use it! I love that feeling!

I'm running the printer now. Calibration is a B-word, but once it's right it's good to go. The bowden tube and wires got between the Y-axis home switch and screw, took me a while to find that.

I have to say, all the trouble I had to go through, has paid off. Although, it could have been simpler if the kit was right from the gitgo. I've heard stories of people with other types of printers that can't even get a 10mm test cube. Put I'm also guessing that most good open source printers are getting good hardware and software from the start. All the big bugs have been worked out and now people can build printers and get stuff to print on the first try. In a few years, it will be even easier.

My first print, a Koch Snowflake.
http://youtu.be/WpaYQ_1IB0U?list=UUVIpI ... CTDkEjACWg

The PEEK fan is still not working, but I'm getting an E3D V6 hot end soon, so I'll just run the stock one into the ground. At the speeds this can travels and the amount of filament that it can extrude, I dont think there is a lot of heat traveling to the PEEK insulator. I'm going to print this hot end platform for the E3D V6.

Had a problem after about 12 hours of printing. The nozzle decided to plunge into the part. I was running off the computer and Repetier froze up or something. I'm now printing off the SD card and everything else to be good. Time will tell thou. The instructions should probably be fixed to have start off with printing off the SD card, since it's seems to such a problem with others also. Bad pic, but look around the nozzle and you'll see the puddle of plastic if formed. This the print for the local printing club I being to. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1438814393032731/
Distance and straightness are the goal.

After having the E3d V6 for a bit now (since I first built my Max V2) I can say that like all All Metal hot ends, it loves to clog on PLA (does depend in the PLA though) Oddly enough I have found that the dipping the end of the filament in some cooking oil DOES work great as does cutting WAY back on retraction... So once you have your E3d V6 installed make sure you cut back on the retraction ( I went from 5.5mm to about 2mm max, of course YMMV) I would keep a small drill bit handy when you first start out in the PLA.. If you hear the extruder skipping, you are clogged up. Just kill the print (that part sucks I know), Home the hot end, Then while the head is still hot use a wrench to hold the heating block and a socket to unscrew the E3d tip. The clog is right above the heater block.. If you take a small drill bit in your hand and carefully slide it up towards the heat sink you will feel a thick glob of PLA. Twist it onto the drill bit and pull it out. I do the same for the tip... Oil the PLA tip a bit and then put the tip back on. BTW oil the PLA above the heat sink. keep it away from the heater block while clearing it our you have one heck of a mess. PLA clogs are not uncommon for all metal hot ends it seems. So far I have found that the oil and less retraction stop it cold for me. Good luck and keep posting. Love seeing another Rostock coming into the world!

I've only been printing in PLA so far and I only have had it clog on me the first time I went to print. I thinking it was not prime well enough at that point. I heat the hot end up manually before each print and manually extrude out material until I get a good stream of material. Cut it off and start the print. I need to play with the retraction also, need to get rid of that little slug trail of material when it rapids over the part.

I'm using Gimzo Dorks PLA and I like it so far, maybe a third the way through the spool. Going to order some more from them soon also. Need to play with some more ABS.

I want to move to the E3D V6 to get rid of the PEEK insulator. I like the idea of an all metal hot end. Plus it will allow me to clean up the wiring when I do that. Going to get some extra nozzles and play with extrusion diameter also. I want to some large prints, but dont want to take for every. Fine detail will not matter.

Had some bed heating issues, follow along here:
http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=6448

Going to upgrade to the E3D v6 hotend. Is there something that I need to do to the firmware or software? I'm not sure. I thought I had seen something on here about that before, tried searching, but I can't pin point it if it is out there.

You should do a new PID auto tune. The thermistors should be the same

Nylocke wrote:You should do a new PID auto tune. The thermistors should be the same

I guess that I need to do this in Repetier? I'm using S3D software now, not sure if an autotune can be done in there. Or can an auto tune be done just on the printer?

Send the M303 S200 C8 command and it should do it. Pretty sure thats the auto tune command. You can change the PID values in the firmware using the LCD interface.

Auto-tune can be performed from any host program - it's a firmware function.

g.

So after running a large print for a cyclone filter over the weekend, I came home to find this. Looks like my PEEK fan failed and the PLA heated up and clogged the hotend and bowden tube. Seems like it's a good time to swap out the hotend and platform to the E3D v6 I've been working on. Not the best timing, as I have a few other projects going on, and I wont get to this till mid-October.

Good time to go over other items on the printer also, like this one. Calibrating my E-steps will be one thing.
Is that McSlappy in the video?
http://makezine.com/2014/09/28/3d-print ... r-e-steps/

That peek fan is really annoying and loud. It's louder than the steppers. I am definitely going to replace it because it is screaming like a jet engine and making me crazy. I have a nice quiet machine with dampers and the fan is making more noise than anything else. I'm afraid of exactly what happened to you, that it will fail and my print will look like a melted sculpture.

I've switched to the E3D v6 hotend. Getting better printing results with it. I should update everything that I have done to the machine here soon. I'm currently working on a Monolithic Platform design of my own also, that is going to have a few extras on it. I printed the basic Monolithic platform that came out first and it works out pretty good. It just hits binder clips because it so low when it gets close to the edge of the bed. You can follow along here: http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=77&t=6081