Robo on its way; no going back now :)

Just thought I'd say hi, I'm in the UK and completely new to 3D printing.

For a long time I've been on the waiting list for a Solidoodle Press but following delays and a few doubts I pulled the trigger and ordered a Robo instead. Since any printer at this price point is likely to need some intervention to get it printing nicely I decided that at least with an established machine its quirks would be well documented; plus the large print volume is a big bonus.

So with a giddy sense of excitement and trepidation I'm gradually arming myself with knowledge ready for battle

Is there an easy way to tell if my Robo is the latest revision? I'm buying it through ebay and while my seller has assured me it is up to date I'd like to verify that straight away. Was auto bed leveling the last change to be added?

Anyone care to wager the first print coming out decent? I'll give you good odds

 

Well I definitely hope it's the latest version. I really dig the newest set of upgrades.

Here's the most common issues I've been seeing:

1) Loose nozzle: The hexagon can theoretically be tightened up cold, but I've seen too many nozzles coming loose and leaking filament out the threads. I recommend you heat up the hot end, then using the supplied 4.5mm wrench, grip the heat break flats then tighten down the nozzle using an adjustable or 7mm wrench.

2) Bad fan: Robo3d's first batch of 25mm fans were pretty poor. They tend to have a short life span. I would suggest picking up a spare 25mm fan to have on reserve in the even to failure. That way you can keep printing if your fan does die and get a replacement from them.

3) Threaded rods needing lubricant: Generally a good idea to keep some kind of teflon spray or superlube. Something to lubricate the rods and get it quiet again. Stiction can prevent the threaded rod from spinning.

4) Wiring.... Always a chance that a wire broke loose. They don't use leaded solder so that increases the chance of a wire breaking. Latest batch have been real good but it does happen. Knowing how to solder will be super useful, just in case.

Enjoy!

 

Great advice; thanks! I'm not too bad with a soldering iron but I'll need to get a good lubricant. I assume the cover on the bottom was included when the fan for the Arduino/RAMPS was added?

From all that I've read the upgrades seem to address a lot of the common problems, anything that'll sooth the learning curve is good by me. Ultimately I plan to have it controlled by a RPi running octoprint and inside a heated chamber as I want some large ABS pieces. In the first instance I'll be happy once I'm reliably getting decent quality PLA prints.

The package didn't arrive today so it'll probably be Wednesday before I get my grubby mitts on it as I'm not around to receive it tomorrow; this is going to be a long 48hours!

 

The bottom cover is on printers as of the end of august. All printers shipped prior to that had a fan mounted on the arduino board using a MOaBrackets mount.

Octoprint is a great upgrade. Everyone that does it raves about it

There's a custom laser cut enclosure here: http://www.printedsolid.com/shop/3dprinters/r3dhouse/

*cough*

 

That is a damn nice enclosure Mike; if my initial plan doesn't work out I might just invest.

So it arrived and my first print actually came out pretty well; from all I've read I was glad it printed anything recognizable. I had some z wobble, which I think I've now fixed and some burnt areas, sometimes appearing in big globs which I think is the extruder leaking. I'll post a pic of the print when I get home later.

The only issues with the printer on arrival were a faulty USB drive and one of the z-axis rods was not seated in its socket - something I wasn't aware with on the newer Robos is that the smooth z rods go all the way up into the top of the casing where they slot into a hole. I was actually printing some z rod stabilisers when I realised this.

I'm now trying to get it dialed-in, it's great for vertical perimeters but any detailing or even the slightest overhang and it throws a wobbly. I'm printing some M4 bolts which have fine detail and the printer is doing a good job of producing a blobby mass. I'll tighten the extruder and play around with the extrusion rate, temperatures and print speed to see where I get to. The bolts are really good for this, because they're so small but with fine detail I can print, tweak, repeat really quickly.

 

If your nozzle is leaking you'll need to tighten it down right away. Even if it's not it's a good idea to do so as they're just now implementing heated tightening which hexagon original didn't say was necessary. The install videos all show it being done cold, which doesn't work well.

You should have received a 4.5mm wrench with your tool kit, and you'll notice there's some slots cut into the hexagon's heat break:


Then you'll need a 7mm or adjustable wrench to tighten down the nozzle. Do this at a high temp like 260-280. The hotter the better.

I hope you get everything sorted out!

 

Those bolts will end up having a very short time per layer time unless you print a bunch at a time. A short time per layer requires that you enable and play with the autocooling settings. Autocooling will enable the print fan in a scaled manner. If you don't have sufficient cooling and the print nozzle repeatedly goes over the same area the layers will start to curl and eventually make a big blobby mess/mass.

For some filaments there is a tradeoff in that too much cooling can cause layer adhesion problems. PLA generally needs some cooling. ABS can warp with even a little cooling but it generally cools faster and curls less.

 

If you try tightening the heatbreak tube mentioned by Mike be very careful. Others have snapped or bent it at the narrow section.

 

Right, tighten at the nozzle but keep the heat break from moving at all.

 

A large crescent wrench works well to hold the heater block still.

 

Thanks for the advice guys, I really appreciate it.

I'll have a go at tightening the nozzle in a short while, if it breaks it'll be a good excuse to get an E3D

Thought I'd post the photos I mentioned earlier. The robot was actually the second print after I printed a calibration circle. I was really impressed that it did this out-of-the-box!

Also attached some of the wobbly bolts; @SteveC I observed the whole shaft of the bolt would wobble as the extruder moved, after that I started printing two at a time and turned the fan up to max