Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

Hey guys,

Great forum, slick design, much better than the old yahoo forum!

First of all, I have been into 3d printing for over two years. I have had several things commercially 3d printed, and I have always wanted to do stuff with the reprap machines. My 2 issues: Quality, and price.

So when I first saw the H1 a few months ago, I got interested and almost splurged on one. The machine seemed to have great quality, and a lower price than competitive models. But I got busy and lost interest to an extent. Then I saw some testing, and the development of the H1.1

So I THINK (knock on wood) that my student-budget will finally allow me to get one of these machines. So, if I could get answers to a few specific questions, that would be fantastic! (I will post them below, to keep them separate from this intro post)

Thanks,
Adam

Here are my questions, which can hopefully be answered by some experienced seemecncers.

For best quality, should I get some GT2 pulleys and belts for the x and y axis?

For best quality, what nozzle should I go with? For some reason the .0145 seems more realistic than the .0110

Should I get an extra hot-end in case mine melts? What can I do to keep my hot-end from jamming and-or melting down? Are there any forum threads that detail some procedures? Where is a good guide for hot end assembly?

With PLA, what sort of fan setups have you found that works best? I have heard that a fan directly on the hot-end assembly that blows to the nozzle is a worthwhile investment?

I keep seeing "hose clamp belt tensioners", but could someone please link me to a thread on how in make one of these? I get the idea behind it, but I cannot find a picture of one.

Does anyone have a good guide for just general tuning? All I can really find is text that says stuff like "adjust bearings on carraiges to reduce slack" but I cannot find any sort of good thread or video for tuning?

What is the best source for quality, cheap PLA?





Thanks a lot for the help, I hope to document my progress on a printer.

Thanks,
Adam

I'm on a tight budget too, so I maybe I can answer some of your questions.

For best quality, should I get some GT2 pulleys and belts for the x and y axis?

I don't have them. I'm sure it would help, but if your on a budget than I would just upgrade later. You can definently get good print quality without them.

For best quality, what nozzle should I go with? For some reason the .0145 seems more realistic than the .0110

I've been printing with a 0.0145" (.368mm) nozzle. Using Slic3r, this nozzle gives me a resolution of .020". I just ordered the smaller nozzle so I'll see how it works.

Should I get an extra hot-end in case mine melts? What can I do to keep my hot-end from jamming and-or melting down? Are there any forum threads that detail some procedures? Where is a good guide for hot end assembly?

I don't think you need to get an entire extra hot end. All that I have melted/jammed is the teflon tubing. An extra foot will be more than enough: http://shop.seemecnc.com/2mm-ID-Teflon-Tube-58708.htm

Edit: here's a link to a tutorial: http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=836

With PLA, you need a fan to keep the plastic from melting prematurely in the teflon tube and consequently jamming. I've been using a small (6") desk fan that blows accross the entire table, but I think I'll be printing my own fan bracket soon. All it takes is a little bit of air flow.

I keep seeing "hose clamp belt tensioners", but could someone please link me to a thread on how in make one of these? I get the idea behind it, but I cannot find a picture of one.

I'll take a picture of mine when I get home. I think there are some pictures on the old Yahoo groups.

Does anyone have a good guide for just general tuning? All I can really find is text that says stuff like "adjust bearings on carraiges to reduce slack" but I cannot find any sort of good thread or video for tuning?

If you take your time an build it square, then you won't have to do much mechanical tuning other than snuggin the belts and bearings. Then you will need to set your steps per mm for each axis. Finally, calibrate the extruder with lots of trial and error.

What is the best source for quality, cheap PLA?

I've only used Ultimachine so far. There stuff is good, consistent quality and made in the USA. Its only a couple dollars more than Chinese plastic.

Hope this helps. Good luck! 3-D printing is a lot of fun.

Thanks very much, that is the exact type of info I was looking for! I hope this doesn't feel like spoon-feeding, but I really just want to get all my stuff right the first time!

So, I will stick without the GT2 for now, and normal steppers. I think that I will pick up one of the teeney tiny nozzles just for testing, unless I hear otherwise. They're not too expensive.

So if I hear you correctly, I can mount a 20mm fan that blows onto the teflon tubing to cool it down, and that will work? What do I need to do when I stop a print and cool down the extruder, do I need to clean out the tubing every time, or will it just heat back up after I start it back up?

Once I get the actual printer, I will have more specific questions. Hopefully I can get this build underway without any hitches.


I will keep this thread updated with my build progress, and any questions I have on assembly or calibration.

Thanks again!
Adam

These are the exact same type questions I had when I started.

A 20mm fan just blowing on the teflon tube casing will work great. All it takes is a little bit of air flow. The fan is to prevent premature melting/softening of the PLA. Unlike ABS, PLA gets soft before it melts and swells inside the teflon tube. That is when a jam happens and you will most likely need to replace the teflon tube.

If you have no jamming (because you're using a fan), then there will be no problems when you cool down or heat up. I havn't taken my extruder apart in months.

Good luck!

hello: i am fairly new in this about 4 months but my son and i have been rocking along we have had issues you can search them and answers we have gotten from everyone in group and they have always been spot on.
we have had awesome luck with ABS we have never tried PLA. we have bought rolls on the internet and have had problems but supplier replaced roll,but in the mean time while waiting for replacement I ran across this company (http://3dprinterstuff.com/page/4) in my back yard and they rock on service and price. keep on trucking it has been alot of fun.

Well, I finally pulled the trigger. I bought the printer.

I picked up about 4.5 pounds of PLA from ultimachine, and now I just need to source the few other parts I will need (copper gasket, various fans, wires, LEDs, etc.)

I went with black plastic, to match the extruder parts. I haven't seen a black H1 yet, so hopefully it's pretty sexy with the LED lighting system I'm dreaming up. One step at a time though.

Any other tips or parts/tools to buy for a newbie printer-builder? Thanks a ton for the great help so far everyone.

Adam

Some of my stuff came in, got about 4 pounds of PLA from ultimachine (they sent extra free samples of other colors too ) and my small bits and parts came in. Now I just need the printer, hopefully shipping tomorrow.

My main concern is quality, not of the hardware, but of the software. I will be running this thing off of a little laptop, 1.8 ghz processor and 1.5g ram. I installed a processor boost program (removes background processes, meant for hardcore PC gamers) but I am still worried this will lag and be poor quality with mach 3, or that the 4-axis board will skip steps and just suck overall. Can anyone assuage me on this, any advice or tips? I want to get really good prints from this thing, SPEED IS NOT a factor at all. I will print at 10mm/s if I have to.

My other concern is hot-end jamming. If I just rig up a little 50mm fan to blow directly onto the plastic bit of the hot-end, will that be enough to counteract PLA jams?

Thanks a ton for the help, and I hope to get my results up here within a couple of weeks to hopefully serve as a guide for other newbies. The mach3 design seems like the best choice, what with the cheaper electronics, but if it cannot compare to the quality of firmwares like Marlin then I will have to swap out my electronics. Someone please tell me this wont be the case.

Adam

Although it it not necessarily recommended to run Mach3 on laptops I do successfully run it on an old 1.5Ghz Mobile Pentium with 1GB of memory. I did disable ACPI as recommended to get a consistent frequency for the servo loop in Mach3.

http://www.machsupport.com/downloads/XP ... zation.txt

Soo... my printer came in!

I'm having the biggest pain getting mach3 to work.... It's really strangely laggy and the steppers refuse to move no matter what I try to do.

Video uploading, hopefully someone will recognize an easy issue.

Adam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SChY8a ... ata_player

could really use some help here!

I got one of the vellman kits together while mach3 wasnt working, and it looks great.

I still really need some help with this mach3 setup.

And does anyone have an assembly guide for the H1.1 other than http://seemecnc.org/download/H1-1/SeeMe ... s%20Lists/ because it is incomplete

I have a 3 axis board with a sparkfun driver for the extruder so my setup isn't quite like your's. However if
you send me your email address I'll forward you my mach3 config file. Should get you going at least in XYZ.
I THINK A should work but not sure about that. One thing I did notice is that your step LEDs on your driver
board were glowing. Mine only flicker when there's an axis moving.

Drew

Hi drew,

Thanks for the post! I really need some help here!

I already have the mach3 cnc config for the 4-axis board, I got it off of this forum. I also checked and double checked all the ports and pins numbers, they seem to match what everyone else is using.

And my parallel port works, I hooked up an old 2d printer to it and it printed fine.

As for the LEDs, there are 6 total on my board. 2 off, 2 flashing, and 2 on. It seems very strange.

Right when I got the board hooked up and was bypassing the optos, I remember one of the LEDs flashed because I accidentally touched one of the chips to the side of the opto. Could this have broken the board?

I will try to uninstall and reinstall mach3, and then reinstall my config. The printer itself is almost done!!!

3 quick other questions:

-Will the plastic bed warp with the Heated bed on top of it? Is there anything I need to use for insulation? I plan on using some spacers to make about 1/8" clearence between the two, so do I print directly to the HBP with blue tape, or do I need glass?
-Where do the screws for the y belt attach to steves extruder? I cannot seem to find any holes or anything, so do I just drill some holes in them?
-Would it be a good idea to reinforce all of the rod clamps and everything with a thin smear of epoxy around where the rods attach so that they never slip? It seems like that would firm up the printer a little bit.

Thanks alot for helping with my mindless ramblings,
Adam

Ok I'm probably going to botch this reply but here goes. I tried to attach my mach3 config but it was rejected as a "possible attack vector." Who knows? Again mail me your email address and I'll send it to you directory.

Any way my three axis board has two leds that seem to indicate power, next to the 5 volt regulator, and three leds that indicate activity on an axis. In your video there were 4 leds on, two near the 5 volt regulator and two two the right of those. The two to the right were what concerned me. On my board those are normally off when there's no activity.

As for shorting the board anything is possible. I had to replace one of the driver chips on my board. I have heard that they're pretty sensitive to static electricity, etc. I don't think the area around the opto's contains anything sensitivy but who knows.

Yes, the plastic bed will warp if it gets how. From the top down I'm running a glass plate with kapton tape for abs or a 1/4" piece of acrylic with blue painters tape for PLA. No heat on the bed for PLA, about 100C for abs.
Below that is the heated bed, about 1/4" of insulation, 1/16" aluminum plate., about 3/8" of air space and then the original H1 bed. Probably overkill. Your mileage may vary.

I the general scheme of thing, Y runs to an away from you when facing the machine, X runs left and right and
yes you'll need to drill hole or come up with some other mechanism for attaching the X belt to the carriage. I drilled holes in the bearing mounts and used pieces of a hose clamp to tension the belt.

I didn't use epoxy on the rod clamps and things seem to hold find. The threaded rods bite into the clamps a little and the smooth rods seem to be held tight enough. I sure wouldn't recommend epoxy until you get everything aligned. I think you'll need to go through that after you start printing. To me the best thing that could be done to firm up the printer would be to place some kind of a brace between the tops of the vertical smooth rods although I have to admit that I haven't done that to mine yet.

Anyway, my email address is [email protected] if you want to send my your email address. I think that's the only way I'm going to get my config file to you.

Drew

Hi drew,

Thanks again for the advice!

A tip: If you zip a file with a program like 7zip, then you can upload it without the forum freaking out.

Is there any way to know if my board is messed up? All I did was touch some optos, but the LEDs did change when I touched them, maybe this is the issue.

If I disconnect the parallel port cord the 2 "axis activity lights" turn off, and then they turn back on when I put the plug back in. I will try resetting mach3 and let you know if that helps.

What "insulation" are you using for the hot bed? I have a steel plate and a glass plate that I will stack with the HBP and some screws and washers, hopefully this will prevent the bottom plate from warping.

Thanks for correcting me on the XY thing. I guess that makes sense, if you looked at it like an XY graph from above. I will attach my hose clamp pieces with screws and drilled holes.

I will definitely wait until I get printing to even consider an epoxy. I tightened all of the screws, but a few of the plastic pieces got stripped and I am not confident 100% that they will not slip. Just a bit of JB weld might prevent failure. I will think about it.

I do plan to run a vertical bar along the top, and several reinforcing diagonal struts as well. I am going for max precision, I want great looking models in the end.

Thanks,

Adam

It's hard to tell if you zapped your board or not. The fact that the 2 "axis activity lights" turn off when you unplug the cable makes me believe that the pin assignments on Mach are somehow wrong. Either in pin number or "state" (active high vs. active low.)

To start from basics I notice that you're running a laptop. This isn't recommended but I guess some people have made it work. Also
what version of Windows are your running? I think that anything later than XP is problematic when it comes to Mach. Finally, do you
have your machine configured to run a printer on the parallel port? This could cause some conflict with Mach trying to share the
port. If you do have a printer configured, you might try a clean install of XP and forget the printer. I'm not an expert on Windows and
I don't know if there's a way to "uninstall" a printer.

I'm using this stuff:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/118/3522/=hxoyc0

for insulation. A user named Leeway was selling it by the square foot. Look on the bottom of this page:

http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php ... =110#p2311

For the mechanical details, you could look at my build log thread to see what I did and what problems I had to work around and how. I just added some pictures.

(I used the RAMBo board, so no specific advice there.)

I've basically got the printer together.... few small issues.

-Pulleys are warped and concave near the middle, shaped like an hourglass. So the spacing is all off on every axis, making the belts rub on everything. I might have to get some new pulleys

-I switched computers, but mach3 is still being a pain. Now the LEDs only light up for when an axis is supposed to move, but I only get twitching from the steppers and the mach3 control is all over the place, I cannot figure out how to get it to run properly.

Would anyone on here be willing to do an IM or skype hour to help me out here? It would be much appreciated.

Well DAMN... Hot-end melted down. I thought that PLA smelled better.... then I noticed the smoke..... then I noticed the hot-end hanging by the melted peek tube......LOL

sooooooooooo time to make a little order at seemecnc

Looks like you got your power supply voltage up

Yeah, I ripped another PSU out of an old PC.

I just made an order on seemecnc for another PSU and a new hot-end. yay.

OK guys, I'm on the home stretch to get printing here. After that, it will become many months of printing callibration and upgrades.

Here is the list of stuff I have left to do:

-rebuild new hotend and attach
-test vellmen controllers and callibrate temp
-get vellmen for heated bed working properly
-mount PLA fan
-mount switches for power, fans, etc.
-insulate/extend/tie down all wires
-construct plywood filament/electronics/printer holder
-construct spool filament bearing holder
-construct mounts for hose clamps (as of now I am using zip-ties with great success)
-tighten all bolts/screws completely
-remove all pulley-belt noise
-construct horizontal top bar/other reinforcing braces
-contrust stepper power switches
-callibrate/tune/oil everything
-insulate everything
-JB weld reinforce everything wobbly
-make it look pretty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oO-FU2 ... ature=plcp

IT LIVES!

Big thanks to everyone here, it will get better and better as I work on it!