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Ordered My First 3d Printer!

Discussion in 'United States of America' started by Nomad83, Jul 9, 2015.

  1. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Cura and Repetier will need to have the startup Gcode configured to include the auto-leveling and the initial Z offset.
     
  2. Nomad83

    Nomad83 Member

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    Hmm I'll have to look into that some.

    I got the nozzle out and cleared the nozzle I think. Unfortunately the thermistor didn't stay attached and I have nothing to reattach it that I can think of offhand.
     
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    It is only held in place on the Hex with the black rubber boot.
    Most other hotends use a screw and/or kapton tape.
     
  4. Nomad83

    Nomad83 Member

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    Wow I have to stay what a terrible design.

    Every time I reassemble the thermistor works its way loose and and I'm sure throws temperature readings off.

    Guess I will definetly be be looking to upgrade to the stud thermistor. I assume there is no place on the hexagon to intall a studded one? Defintely leaning towards E3D If i have to go that route just to not have to mess with the stupid thing.
     
  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Look and see if there is a threaded hole on the Hex (I don't think so).
    I think there is an unthreaded hole so you would need to tap it first.

    Yea, the small extra cost is worth the better quality hotend if you have to do much work on it.

    The hex is much better than the original J-Head, but not as good quality as the E3D. It would be even better if you could order that as an upgrade option and not have to install it yourself, but the learning process the install pushes on you is worthwhile :)
     
  6. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    The aluminum on the heat portion of the extruder is very soft, you can tap it with almost any M3 screw and a bit of oil. Then the stud thermistor will fit perfectly.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
     
    #26 WheresWaldo, Jul 19, 2015
    Last edited: Jul 20, 2015
  7. Nomad83

    Nomad83 Member

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    After some tweaking I finally got the thermistor carefully placed.

    Not sure if its working better now or the blue PLA that came with the printer is just that bad, but the grey ABS i got so far is printing SO much better then the blue PLA as long as I keep the fan around 50-60%

    Still using Matter Control until I get cura figured out.
     
  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Guess no more, it REALLY is that bad.
     
  9. Nomad83

    Nomad83 Member

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    Ordered a 30mm fan for the hot end and 2 Noctua 40mm fans to upgrade to dual parts fans and 3 more rolls of filament.

    Its been slow going playing with Matter Control and Cura. Probably will order the $100 z lead screw upgrade before too long.

    Biggest issue that's been ticking me off is probably the ABS not sticking to the bed. Even cranking the bed temperature up seemed to have little effect. Seems like it some variable in the size of the print if the that the hairspray will grip or not including entire prints breaking loose mid print. Weirdly a very slightly larger raft works fine on these problematic prints. As such all 3 rolls I ordered are PLA and I'll grab more painters tape the next time I'm at the store.

    Soon as I find my camera I'll try and get some picture up of previous/new prints and any failures as they appear.
     
  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    If hairspray is not you 'magic sauce' try the glue stick solution, blue painters tape or some combination.
     
  11. Nomad83

    Nomad83 Member

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    Been a interesting week or so.

    PLA prints SOOO much better and easier than ABS. Installed the Noctua fans and was really disappointed with the airflow they provide compared to stock and upon adjusting the wires on the 25mm hotend fan because they were rubbing I accident pulled a wire loose. So printed a 40mm hotend duct and using a box fan to cool prints for now.

    Fixed my wacky thermistor issues at least. I forgot I had some aluminum duct tape and that seems to have worked wonders with stabilizing the temperature readings for the hotend. I had a few prints fail due to the thermistor readings dropping like a stone mid-print.

    So i ordered a 25mm and 2 40mm fans off ebay and a fan power cable splitter. I also ordered a camera so i can take some pictures of my prints. Hopefully with a little luck I'm headed down the right track and can get this thing tweaked to get hopefully perfect prints as often as possible.
     

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