Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

Hello all,
New member from Texas here. I have a background in Electrical Engineering and now database programming. I have been interested in 3D printing for several years and finally ordered a Rostock Max V3 kit 2 days ago. I have a number of hobbies and I look forward to printing things I can use while woodworking, jigs and pieces for jigs, or in astronomy etc.... I have not received my printer kit yet, but I have been reading on the forums and since this is my first kit I want to keep the kit as "stock" as possible. With that said I did order the Raspberry Pi with the kit as well as a second glass plate. I want to try printing with PEI so I ordered some 1 mm thick stock off amazon. I figure that way I would have one clean plate and one I could use with PEI.

My first real question is I assume the Trick Laser "Heat Spreader for Onyx 310 Bed" aluminum plate is a pretty simple upgrade. Looks like it is just a matter of adjusting the print height which I will have to do to print with PEI anyway. Is this assumption correct?

My other question is a little more basic. Where should I start reading? There is a wealth of documentation and of course the forums. I guess I am looking for a "START HERE FIRST" tag like you get with IKEA furniture.

For the PEI application I intended to follow the "PEI Print Surface How To - recap" thread in the forums. I am also going to try doing a build thread of my build. If I do have comments about the instructions to whom do I post them? This is my first time and while I am technically inclined I am a novice at building a 3D printer.

What I ordered:
Rostock Max V3
Raspberry PI
Extra glass plate
1 kg each of ABS, PLA, and PETG to start with.

From amazon
Gizmo Dorks PEI Sheet 12" x 12" 1 mm 3D Printer Build Surface with 3M 468MP Adhesive Tape
Various allen wrench sets, bit sets and T-handle

I already had the other items needed for the build as listed on the website, soldering iron, needle nose pliers etc..

Is there anything not on the website list that I should have(see below)?

"Here's what you'll need to assemble your own Rostock MAX v3:

Apx. 10hrs. assembly time (HALF of our previous v2 assembly time)
Standard Allen wrench set
Metric Allen Wrench Set
Needle nose and/or small pliers
Wire crimping tool
Solder and soldering iron
Standard and Phillips Screwdrivers"

That is all I can think of for now, thanks in advanced for all the help with these questions and the ones that I am sure will come up during the build and my first prints.

Hi Fellow Traveler (although I am not much of a traveler!)

I think the best point of start would be the build manual on the Seeme pages:
https://seemecnc.dozuki.com/c/Rev_1
I never read them, but that's just because I have a V2 I believe these docs are pretty complete and self-explanatory.

Considering the PEI upgrade, that is great! But it would be a good idea to get yourself familiarized with the printer before doing any upgrades. Especially the accelerometer probe can be a bit finicky with PEI I heard. I think most of the PEI users stuck their PEI to the glass. I am never gonna do that again. Instead of a thin alu heatspreader, I found some 5mm alu discs that I use now. Standard alu construction sheets seem to be more than stable and flat enough, and have most likely smaller thickness tolerance than the 3M glue and PEI combined, so I see no real problem there. The 5mm thick plate gives an excellent thermal buffer and it is much cheaper than the glass (I ordered mine custom waterjetted for €12,- a piece). I would not even clean up I failed glue experiment for just 12 bucks anymore Don't forget to order some wide roll of Kapton tape too. I've put a kapton cover on the back of the alu plate to prevent damaging the onyx and a possible short when it does damage.

Success with your build!

If you get stuck, don't hesitate to throw us a support ticket (https://seemecnc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?). Happy Building!

I agree with deltacon, the guide is really the best literature out there. I've read and skimmed a lot of books available out there, but they're all pretty simplistic, nothing to recommend. This forum has been the best I've seen when it comes to advice, and it's interactive!

There are lots of upgrades to do, just go about them 1 at a time as your experience grows. Check out http://www.repables.com and http://www.thingiverse.com for free stl files and upgrades other members envisioned and shared. Happy printing!

I'll third the "start with the guide", it really is comprehensively written. And then if you run into specific issues, we'll be able to lend you a hand from there

To all who replied thank you for your answers. I used the guides as suggested. I also held back on adding in any of the upgrades I want to do(Trick Laser Aluminum plate, PEI sheet, and Rasberry PI3). Rather than do a build thread I just commented in a few spots in the guides. I finished the build last night. I was able to load the software this evening. I ran it through all the calibration exercises. Mechanical calibration was flawless. I did have an issue when calibrating the bed. I calibrated the hot end to 280C with no problems. Initially I tried to calibrate the bed to 100C. I got a time out error. I then tried 80C with the bed still warm and it worked fine. First print was the calibration cube. I have a digital micrometer and the dimensions of the cube read 20.04 X 20.07 X 10.04. My second print maybe a little ambitious, I am printing the robot from maker magazine 2015 off thingiverse, it is running as I type type this.
The only problem I have encountered is that the RED LED light on the bed doesn't seem to be working. I know I checked the polarity three times before I soldered it, not sure what happened there. I program databases for a living and I have an instinctive mistrust for things that work perfectly the first time, it usually means there is an error buried in there somewhere. So I find the LED not working oddly reassuring LOL.

I got to say this has been a great process. I have never owned a 3D printer before and it has been 20 years since I exercised my electronics skills to this extent. I am sure I will have many questions going forward and hopefully I can provide answers to some questions as well in the future.

From one new member to another, I may know your problem with the LED. I also just received a Rostock Max V3.2. I did all of the build except the soldering, which I delegated to my son-in-law and his cousin, who could actually see the thermistor and have built several 3D printers. They reported back that at first they couldn't get the LED to work. They went back through the new guide and found the step were they soldered the main power leads. There was a note to jumper the red wire to an adjacent small pad, but not to the larger pad past it. Once they added the jumper the LED worked.

My two "helpers" went beyond the soldering and finished the build, did the calibration, and then started printing stuff before telling me that they were done and really loved the machine. After three days and most of three nights, I agree with them.

Gene B at SeeMeCNC is a huge help if you get stuck.