Hi, My name is Andrea and I have built a 3DR over the last months. I am about finished, now I have FSR auto bed levelling, fully graphic smart display. I printed the parts myself with my Mendel90, a kit bought from Nophead and built last year. I want to share my experience with the community, hoping it will be of help for users that are starting to build one and hopefully to get some advice from more experienced users on some issues I have.
To start off I had a problem with the pushrods. I build them 150mm but this was enough only to print 130mm, over that the traxxas joint would be at its most angled position and would not go further. my solution was to rebuild them with a longer rod. I fist started with 220mm, but it was too long, I then rebuild another set 200mm. these work fine, the only drawback is the max Z is not reduced to 140mm.
I added the FSR bed levelling, using ZMIN endstop connection. to increase the response I built 3 bed supports with integrated pods to increase the sensitivity of the sensors. (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:439852). to get them to work I modified the FSR version of marlin from Johann (http://github.com/jcrocholl/Marlin/tree/fsr).
I had troubles with the printer stuttering during moves, creating blobs in the print. After googling it seems like the RUMBA board is a little underpowered to drive a fully graphic LCD while doing the math to keep the delta running, I "kinda" solver the issue lowering the DELTA_SEGMENTS_PER_SECOND to 50, but this figure seems a little low.
I initially started the project wanting to use 3mm filament as I have a good stock, but this failed due to the difficulties to force tightly wound filament into the bowden tube. so I switched to 1.75, bought some filament and a J-HEAD for 1.75mm filament. I ended up with another problem, even worse than before... for some reason that I have yet to figure out, the filament is very hard to push out of the nozzle, even at 230°C, so I can only print at incredibly low speeds (<10mm/s), otherwise the extruder slips. I use the geared extruder that was included with the 3DR files, and I do not understand why this happens. I am thinking either a defective J-HEAD or a bad filament. I bought both on RepRapWorld, and the filament I got was 1 spool red and 1 spool gold. even printing very slow is a problem, the pressure on the filament becomes so big that ooze is unacceptable. I tried putting back on the 3mm J-HEAD I bought from NOPHEAD, with some faberdashery filament and it works better, even if the ooze is still present (retraction 3mm)... and this one has a .4mm nozzle, while the RRW one has a .5 nozzle. maybe the nozzle is smaller than what was declared? how do I measure a 0.5 or smaller hole?
So, while I look for some solution for the above problem, I am also looking for a neat fan solution, to cool down PLA while printing and keep the J-HEAD from clogging during long prints. (I am really thinking of getting a E3D V6...)
so this is my story so far, any suggestion or comment is greatly appreciated.
To start off I had a problem with the pushrods. I build them 150mm but this was enough only to print 130mm, over that the traxxas joint would be at its most angled position and would not go further. my solution was to rebuild them with a longer rod. I fist started with 220mm, but it was too long, I then rebuild another set 200mm. these work fine, the only drawback is the max Z is not reduced to 140mm.
I added the FSR bed levelling, using ZMIN endstop connection. to increase the response I built 3 bed supports with integrated pods to increase the sensitivity of the sensors. (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:439852). to get them to work I modified the FSR version of marlin from Johann (http://github.com/jcrocholl/Marlin/tree/fsr).
I had troubles with the printer stuttering during moves, creating blobs in the print. After googling it seems like the RUMBA board is a little underpowered to drive a fully graphic LCD while doing the math to keep the delta running, I "kinda" solver the issue lowering the DELTA_SEGMENTS_PER_SECOND to 50, but this figure seems a little low.
I initially started the project wanting to use 3mm filament as I have a good stock, but this failed due to the difficulties to force tightly wound filament into the bowden tube. so I switched to 1.75, bought some filament and a J-HEAD for 1.75mm filament. I ended up with another problem, even worse than before... for some reason that I have yet to figure out, the filament is very hard to push out of the nozzle, even at 230°C, so I can only print at incredibly low speeds (<10mm/s), otherwise the extruder slips. I use the geared extruder that was included with the 3DR files, and I do not understand why this happens. I am thinking either a defective J-HEAD or a bad filament. I bought both on RepRapWorld, and the filament I got was 1 spool red and 1 spool gold. even printing very slow is a problem, the pressure on the filament becomes so big that ooze is unacceptable. I tried putting back on the 3mm J-HEAD I bought from NOPHEAD, with some faberdashery filament and it works better, even if the ooze is still present (retraction 3mm)... and this one has a .4mm nozzle, while the RRW one has a .5 nozzle. maybe the nozzle is smaller than what was declared? how do I measure a 0.5 or smaller hole?
So, while I look for some solution for the above problem, I am also looking for a neat fan solution, to cool down PLA while printing and keep the J-HEAD from clogging during long prints. (I am really thinking of getting a E3D V6...)
so this is my story so far, any suggestion or comment is greatly appreciated.