All set up and printing thanks to this forum!

Hello!

Greetings from Minnesota,

I bought the R1+ on the end-of-the-year sale and it's been running for about three days now, I just want to thank this forum for all the archived information - without it I would have been lost!

I am a hobbyist 3D modeler, I have been using Blender on and off for at least 5 years. I've been working on designing my own Star Wars cosplay armor for a while now, but only planned on using the models as a reference. I looked into 3D printers a few years ago, but everything that I wanted in a printer would have cost way too much. I found the R1 again, having first seen it's original Kickstarter, and the price was now within my range and had the features I wanted (pre-built, auto bed-leveling, heated bed). Without an account here I looked at maybe 50 different posts on troubleshooting, setup and mods. I also maybe watched 5 hours of reviews/setup/troubleshooting/modding videos as well.

I might have psyched myself out since I watched and read about so many issues, I thought that it might be a bear of a time getting the printer going. I did have a z-offset issue, but that was about it. I stuck with MatterControl, made some changes the the gcode, preheated and filled the filament (again following info from here). From out of the box to printing it was about an hour and a half - due to my over cautious nature.

I grabbed a part of my armor model (a small emblem) and hit print. I expected to see a few issues, or at least settings I'll need to dial in. It turned out better than I would have ever expected! Perfect first layer, straight and even walls and layers. The only additional change I've made is to have 3 top and bottom layers for a smoother top surface and I printed the top loading filament feeder.

Half of my success is the solid printer, but the other half is everything documented in this forum. I'm about midway done with the included 300g PLA roll that came with the printer. I've have made the aforementioned emblem, a state shape with a sports team's logo as a gift, a mini CRT, a custom hook and my own 2cmx2cm calibration cube (to get my Blender world settings right). The only model I've printed that I didn't make myself was the spool holder.

It's a real experience designing something and printing it in the real world. Thanks so much for all the help, even before my first post. I hope to have the armor, the project I bought this tool for, totally finished around October.

 

Be careful, successful printing is addictive. ha