RepPresent Build Complete!
Feb. 9th, 2013 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deaneAfter melting the heater block in December I started avoiding the RepPresent, fearing that I might break something else. I make six figures a year but the thought of frying a $10 component is enough to neuter me. *sigh*
In January I went out to P's place and watched while he built me a replacement heater block out of a piece of aluminium bar. I'd like to say that "we" built it, but in truth all I did was supply the measurements. P did all the crafting. It came out pretty well and I was able to finish assembling the heater barrel. This time when I heated the block I kept it in the cooler, outer portions of the flame and I didn't leave it there very long.
Below is an image of a brand-new heater block, from the vendor, next to P's replacement, mounted on the hotend.
It's a bit blurry but I'd say P did a damned good job.
The instructions for the next part of the build - wiring up the print head - were confusing and accompanied by contradictory pictures. I tried asking for clarification on the official forum, as well as an unofficial one, but as with all such inquiries so far, I got no responses. Nothing further happened with the RepPresent for three weeks.
Then, two weeks ago, a package arrived from the vendor with a replacement for the X motor mount, the original of which had been broken in transit, as well as a new heater block. They didn't charge me for any of it, not even the heater block which was pretty clearly my own damned fault. That was nice of them.
That finally provided the push I needed. While I had no need or desire to replace the heater block that P had built, the broken motor mount was a different kettle of wax. In the image below you can see the new mount on the left and the broken one on the right. The gray splotches on the broken one are from the paramour's attempt to fix the breaks. One of the fixes held but the one for the vertical guide did not.
Without that guide there was a strong possibility of the X carriage twisting and binding as it moved up and down. It was also likely to wobble and thus make for less precise printed parts.
I disassembled enough of the machine to get the broken part out and swap the new one in. I'd been dreading trying to get everything realigned so that the X belt didn't drift, but that went pretty smoothly.
I then fell back into indecision stasis as I tried once more to make sense out of the hotend wiring instructions. Finally I decided to just fuck it. If the instructions didn't make sense to me then I'd just do it the way that did make sense and see what happens. After about three hours of cursing, muttering, and inhaling too much solder fumes the hotend was finally done and installed on the machine. Huzzah!
After that the rest was relatively easy. Putting together the power supply didn't require much effort. Running wires from all the components to the controller board was a bit time consuming but not difficult. I actually found it pleasant in a Zen kind of way, particularly at the end when I got to replace all the great wads of masking tape, which were holding things in place, with neat cable ties.
And then it was done! The machine was built. Here it is, in all its glory:
All that remained was to see if it worked.
There followed a two day interlude while I installed Debian Linux on one of our spare laptops. It was my first time installing Debian so there was a bit more of a learning curve than if I'd gone with Fedora, but I've always wanted to try out Debian and now seemed like as good a time as any.
At last I got to plug the machine into the computer and see it come to life. And it did! The motors all spin (in the correct directions) and the endstop switches all work. The thermistors seem to be giving roughly the right temperatures for the hotend and the heated bed. It was particularly nice to see the X carriage moving smoothly. As I mentioned in an earlier post I was worried that the high tension needed to keep the belt from drifting might be too much for the motor to handle, but it didn't have any problems at all.
I've still got a bit more testing to do before I can attempt my first actual print, but I'm hoping to get to that this weekend.
In January I went out to P's place and watched while he built me a replacement heater block out of a piece of aluminium bar. I'd like to say that "we" built it, but in truth all I did was supply the measurements. P did all the crafting. It came out pretty well and I was able to finish assembling the heater barrel. This time when I heated the block I kept it in the cooler, outer portions of the flame and I didn't leave it there very long.
Below is an image of a brand-new heater block, from the vendor, next to P's replacement, mounted on the hotend.
It's a bit blurry but I'd say P did a damned good job.
The instructions for the next part of the build - wiring up the print head - were confusing and accompanied by contradictory pictures. I tried asking for clarification on the official forum, as well as an unofficial one, but as with all such inquiries so far, I got no responses. Nothing further happened with the RepPresent for three weeks.
Then, two weeks ago, a package arrived from the vendor with a replacement for the X motor mount, the original of which had been broken in transit, as well as a new heater block. They didn't charge me for any of it, not even the heater block which was pretty clearly my own damned fault. That was nice of them.
That finally provided the push I needed. While I had no need or desire to replace the heater block that P had built, the broken motor mount was a different kettle of wax. In the image below you can see the new mount on the left and the broken one on the right. The gray splotches on the broken one are from the paramour's attempt to fix the breaks. One of the fixes held but the one for the vertical guide did not.
Without that guide there was a strong possibility of the X carriage twisting and binding as it moved up and down. It was also likely to wobble and thus make for less precise printed parts.
I disassembled enough of the machine to get the broken part out and swap the new one in. I'd been dreading trying to get everything realigned so that the X belt didn't drift, but that went pretty smoothly.
I then fell back into indecision stasis as I tried once more to make sense out of the hotend wiring instructions. Finally I decided to just fuck it. If the instructions didn't make sense to me then I'd just do it the way that did make sense and see what happens. After about three hours of cursing, muttering, and inhaling too much solder fumes the hotend was finally done and installed on the machine. Huzzah!
After that the rest was relatively easy. Putting together the power supply didn't require much effort. Running wires from all the components to the controller board was a bit time consuming but not difficult. I actually found it pleasant in a Zen kind of way, particularly at the end when I got to replace all the great wads of masking tape, which were holding things in place, with neat cable ties.
And then it was done! The machine was built. Here it is, in all its glory:
All that remained was to see if it worked.
There followed a two day interlude while I installed Debian Linux on one of our spare laptops. It was my first time installing Debian so there was a bit more of a learning curve than if I'd gone with Fedora, but I've always wanted to try out Debian and now seemed like as good a time as any.
At last I got to plug the machine into the computer and see it come to life. And it did! The motors all spin (in the correct directions) and the endstop switches all work. The thermistors seem to be giving roughly the right temperatures for the hotend and the heated bed. It was particularly nice to see the X carriage moving smoothly. As I mentioned in an earlier post I was worried that the high tension needed to keep the belt from drifting might be too much for the motor to handle, but it didn't have any problems at all.
I've still got a bit more testing to do before I can attempt my first actual print, but I'm hoping to get to that this weekend.
