My upgrades (no pics)

[quote=“kuraasu”]
A large sheet will solve this problem, but it’s a challenge to get it fixed without bubbles underneath (which again will be visible in the printed parts). The foil often is very thin, thus it easily deforms when one tries to correct a part that was already stuck to the surface.[/quote]

While Ive not tried with big sheets, applying kapton is fairly easy if you know the trick: apply soapy water on the bed and drench the kapton in it. Then you can slide the kapton in place. Swipe over the kapton with a credit card or similar to remove the water from underneath it. Swipe once applying almost no pressure, and after that you can still adjust the kapton. Swipe once more applying firm pressure and it wont budge anymore. Let it dry, print.

Mind you, even with this method I will still have tiny seems between bands, so Im probably going to source some large sheets like you.

edit: bigdee beat me to it :slight_smile:

[quote=“BigDee”]After applying, let it rest for a day or so. Maybe put some weight on it.
[/quote]

A day? I dont have nearly that much patience. I turn on the heater and within 15 minutes or so of applying, Im usually printing!

I read on several places, including here, that UHU glue stick and hairspray would work. I was skeptical, but decided I had to try as I was getting tired of renewing kapton all the time. I only tried with ABS, with the bed at 100-110C;

the UHU (pritt actually) didn’t cut it. Well, maybe for small prints with little chance of warping. IT is printable, clearly better than directly on glass, but adhesion is not strong enough that I trust it will keep the bottom flat. Maybe I got the wrong stick? But I also found it difficult to apply evenly.

I figured hairspray could only be worse; I mean, what sticks harder, glue or hairspray? I was wrong. It seems to work beautifully! Coated my glass plate with a generous dose of 10 year old hairspray, and it sticks perfectly. Not so good that its really difficult to remove, but good enough that it kept a large, almost full bed size ABS print, perfectly flat. I only tried it once so far, but Im already impressed.

Print in progress:

Look Ma, no tape, no brim and no curling :slight_smile:

This evening i placed a print before the housing fan that turns on the fan at a certain temperature.
I taped the sensor on the z axis controller chip en set switching temperature at 40 degrees.
I set the temperature with the heatbed.
I placed it at the z motor controller because that one runs 2 motors for now.

Now that i am thinking about it, it could be better to measure the temperature from the other controllers because those are working way more.

Also got the components in the mail today to build a print for the extra power supply for the heatbed.

And finally i will try the extra z- rod/motor, and see if it makes any difference.

I am also using Repetier and slic3r again because that seems to give me nicer prints than Cura when printing from the sd.
maybe this has something to do with the firmware upgrade i had to do to get the lcd working.

Only thing is, slic3r is soooo sloowww.

Edit, right now i am printing, and the fan turns on and off so now and then.
so at least it is working and i know the temperature in the housing is really at 40 degrees.
Maybe i can set the fan at 50 degrees but for now this works fine.

I am back to Cura again, it is way more user friendly and gives better results.

I also added extra power to the heat bed together with Edirols print.
Off course i printed a housing for it.
I am also printing brackets for the 2 power supply’s to fit in one bracket.

I also finally added the second Z axis, now the extruder cant hop.
This can be positive but could also be negative if it hits a little bubble or imperfection.

Tomorrow I will print the second power supply holder, than I can compare the two together. It is a 4 hour job.
Personally I don’t think I will get much improvement if not any at all.
But I started the works on the second Z axis so why not try.

Today I printed the second holder for the power supply’s.
I did not notice any difference between the 2 prints other than maybe a little better surface on the flat bottom layers.
It didn’t hurt the print either so i will keep the second z axis for now.

Here are some final pictures of the holders.

Later i will make an enclosure for the printer so it wont catch dust and i can vent the smelly abs from the housing.

I liked your z-axis upgrade and I want to do this modification on my printer. But now your pictures don’t work anymore. Can you upload the files I need to make this mod?

Thanks and nice work

The pictures are back.

Do you mean you want the stl file for the bracket i made?

edit,

Here you can find the bracket if you like.

thingiverse.com/thing:259728

@2stimpy

Very nice work

How did you connect your second Z step motor ? in parallel with the first one

Yes, parallel with the other motor.
I have a temperature driven fan in the housing and it does not switch on longer that before i added the extra motor.

[quote=“2stimpy”]The pictures are back.

Do you mean you want the stl file for the bracket i made?

edit,

Here you can find the bracket if you like.

thingiverse.com/thing:259728[/quote]
Yes, thank you. I still have a few questions:
-You have a 10x2 rod, I assume this is right-threaded and not left on both sides?
-What material are the rods, stainless steel?
-where did you get them? (I’m from belgium)
-what setting did you have to fill in to recalibrate the new rods

Thanks In advance

Edit: Do you have an STL file of the nut holder on the original side of the Z-axis (left)

I am currently installing this mod as well, I raised the Z voltage to .62V so far but even without connecting the rods yet, the motors keep skipping when they have to turn for longer then 2mm. I tried steps of 0,1mm, no problems. When setting more they stop turning making a noise and then continue a small bit. Can I raise the voltage even more or is there another problem?

Edit: Noticed something very strange… I tried these steps with the standalone unit: motors skip all the time. Then I tried it again, connected to the computer, changing the steps in repetier: No skipping at all, even at 0,55V. Anyone that has some thoughts on this?

Second question, I’m currently trying to use the calculator in Reptier to calibrate the printer to the new TR10x2 axles. But in the third dropdown menu, this axle is not listed. For the stepper motors of velleman, are the 2 first options already correct?

You can use the 8x2.0 pitch which gives the same result : 1600 the correct value for a 10x2 trapezoidal rod.

Ok, thanks! I’ll load this value to the EEPROM then :slight_smile:

How did you manage to make the both axis work together perfectly? The moment I fix the second axis, everything jams up. I tried everything to be sure that both nuts are aligned properly, but so far nothing but problems. I don’t see how this could work… I have a feeling that the right(original) motor has to work harder en looks to be turning slower then the new motor. So after 10cm of movement, everything gets crooked and jams one of the motors… How did you manage to get this setup working?

It is verry crusial to have everything aligned perfectly.
That is why i made my mounts out of aluminium. I havent printed anything that high.

But i gues your problem is in the alignment area. If one motor does not have the power to make the step he needs to than after a few missing steps you will have the problem that you z beam is higher on one end and gets stuck.

I haven’t had any problem yet.

ps excuse me for my late responds, i am on a vacation and only now and than check the forum.

After allot of adjusting, sanding down and re-adjusting I made it work. But I had to lower the cupper round nut almost a centimeter to make it work. Even without the top bearring I had problems to make it run Smooth. After lowering the nut, the problems went away.

I’m telling everyone use cheap hair spray to coat glass print bed you will be amazed. PLA will stick to glass until it cools down then it pops right off. I use white rain in pump bottle, just a lite coat before you start print it will dry before it reaches temp ( I run print bed at 57c ) with 1/4 inch glass plate. clean one a week if you want. I rarely clean mine except to scrape off leftover plastic. have fun

I have good adhesion to the glass bed with a UHU gleu stick.
The blue tape also works but hated how often i needed to change it.

Now with the uhu just apply to the printing area, and only now and then clean the glass.

Just finished the GT2-20 belt modification with use of Raby his clamp. thingiverse.com/thing:291668

This works great.
Tomorrow i will see if i get different results.

Still waiting for an extruder gear before i can start building the direct drive extruder with the E3D.