Tinyhead's MAX Build

[Tinyhead]

Figured I'd make my intro and first post all in one!

I'm in Manitoba and I'd been looking at a 3D printer for years. Originally I had been looking at the Reprap when it was first coming out, but the lack of software and constant design changes made it really hard to pinpoint one to try. Something better was literally coming out every few days. Plus I was broke and just out of school, so that didn't help. This year I got a few bucks together and decided to take the plunge. I had almost hit the purchase button on a Printrbot Plus, but I saw the delta design and immediately became hooked. I was pretty skeptical about the whole thing as it was so different from all the cartesian style printers, but I read a few things on these forums and talked to John at SeeMeCNC and POW!

On to the build!

Ordered this thing on January 20th (which worked out really well for the V.2 of geneb's assembly bible) at it arrived on February 3rd. From that moment till Saturday February 15th, my 'office' was a disaster zone.

Just like everyone else.

Got all the tape pealed off. I though the lettering was going to be a nightmare, but I used my thumbnail and it came off easy as pie.

Took a countersink and used it just with my hand to touch up the holes that required countersinking. Did all of the parts before I moved on.

I started to put together all the axis brackets and some of the parts required sanding and a bit of filing. Some of the fits were SUPER tight. Even after it's completed, the 'storage' compartment door is still pretty difficult to open and makes a god-awful racket from the melamine binding. But after a few hundred opening and closings, it's decent.

When it came time to put the tooth gears on the stepper motors, I used a spare piece of melamine (it was the LCD window cutout) as my flat-bar to keep it flush with the end of the shaft. A dab of loctite and Bob's your uncle.

Gears nice and flush. (Not that it's any great accomplishment)

Getting the table top fitted on was a bit of a pain, but it wasn't half as bad as it could have been. Some of the parts were this close to needing sanding, but I figured it'd be better to be more rigid than loose.

Get that table top in place!

Now came the arms. OH the arms. When we're talking 1/10th of a millimeter (or less) when printing, I wanted things to be perfect. I found that there was enough wiggle room in the mounting holes and towers to get a .020" feeler gauge between the top plate and the arms. All three towers worked and I was able (after about a solid 6hrs) to get everything squared up. 0.020" on the bottom and on the top. All 6 ends as perfectly square as I could.

.020" between the melamine and extruded towers on all 6 ends.

Small discrepancies now mean big problems later!

geneb's use of the cut yard stick was excellent. I ended up using an aluminum ruler to do the same trick, but it worked out excellently.

Running the wires for the limit switches was no problem. Bit of wire to fish them down no problems. One thing I should mention (that I'm sure has been mentioned and I just haven't seen it yet) is to attach the wires to the limit switches BEFORE you mount them. I didn't and had to pull them all off to get the connectors on. Just one of those things.

Assembling of the cheapskate assemblies went very well. When I had to put the covers on the bearings, I wasn't exactly sure how they were supposed to ride on the towers, so I was trying my best not to damage the VERY thin plastic of the inner race on the outside facing end of the covers. Turns out that doesn't matter in case anyone was wondering. The first one I tried to put onto the bearing I almost pushed a hole through my desk. CRAZY tight. I guess it was just an oddball because the rest went relatively easy.

Bearing covers. Fun stuff.

Now came the fun part. The axle supports.

The axle supports were so bowed that when I installed the axles, they would bend. My childhood nightmares weren't this bad.

It took me a few days trying to straighten out one particular axle. One of the u-joints was binding and I couldn't get it off the shaft. I ended up having to (delicately) put the u-joint in a vise, attach a drill the the axle and drive it back. Just thinking about it makes me cringe. My precious tolerances. And speaking of tolerances, the axle supports were about .004" loose on every u-joint. I had to go to a machinery shop and get a 'shim sample pack'. It had 8 brass sheets from .001 to .008 thick, about 2" x 5" long. I could make spacers till my hands were raw (which they already were from trying to prying the u-joint off the axle). Eventually I made a bunch of spacers using a dremel for the holes and a pair of regular scissors to cut them out, I got all different sizes and tried them out. A bunch of swapping of shims, sanding of the supports and very careful and even tightening of the axle holding screws to ensure they wouldn't bend I got all the cheapskates assembled and the u-joints spinning freely. (OH! I ended up putting a dab of brake-free to smooth up the u-joints on the shaft. The one that was binding in particular needed it or it just kept happening. It was like if you tightened a stainless nut too tight and tried to get it off and the threads messed up... if anyone wanted a comparison.)

You can see the shims I had to make/use in order to get the u-joints to fit correctly. I talked to SeeMeCNC support and they told me to use the tightening of the supports onto the cheapskates as adjustment of the u-joints. I never got to try this as I had already got everything to work.

[Tinyhead]

I had also put in the end-stop screws. I inserted them in the holes at a hard angle opposite to the way they would naturally want to go in order to get them sort of straight. I had no complaints. I have good contact on all three towers.

So beautiful... Should have sent a poet... Get it... Contact..? I have a sad life.

The carnage! I could barely move. I'm actually amazed I didn't lose any parts.

Next I fired on the belts. This was incredibly easy. Popping it down to the axis steppers, the belt naturally fell in front of the lower bearing and I was simply able to grab the belt by hand. No forceps needed. I don't have very sausage-like fingers either though, so for some people, getting those forceps would still be a good choice. I used Dan Barrans method of getting the belts onto the cheapskates and it worked like a charm. Just cut a strip of brass from one of those sheets I got. Some slid right in while the others stuck to the brass and I was able to simply pull them through.

Insert thin strip...

... and BAM!

Strap those bad boys to the cheapskate mounts, grow a couple more arms and tighten that top bearing to get that belt tight! Seriously though, this could be a bit more one-person friendly.

Next was another fun part! The effector platform! This was another incredibly tedious job, but it didn't involve bent shafts, binding u-joints and shims which essentially made it a walk through the park for me. Albeit a lonnnng walk. The moulding is fairly crude on these pieces so there is a decent amount of overhang that can be removed. What I ended up doing was using a utility razor and (as suggested by others) scraping away the plastic until the u-joints fit. This took some finesse and a lot of time. I assembled the platform pieces together without the shafts or anything and I numbered each u-joint space. Then I would take a u-joint, number it and go to work scraping. Once it fit in the slot just the way I wanted it, I moved to the next. Once all 6 were done, I assembled the whole thing to find where there would still be binding. With a couple assemblies, a bunch of patience, and a touch more of break-free on each shaft... That thing was running smooth. Aerospace bearings don't have that type of tolerance. I also smoothed the entire assembly and not just the areas where the u-joints sit. If I was going to spend over 50hrs assembling this cork soaker, I was going to do it right.

Numbering the u-joints

Now time to get that effector plate attached to the cheapskate using the redesigned Delta arms! No sanding at all my ass! I would have to attach the delta arm, wiggle it onto the u-joint (which would hold onto it like death), remove it with a knife and then take a tiny file and grind down the shiny spots in the holes on the delta arms where it's grabbing the most. Again, this is supposed to have ZERO wiggle room. But it still needs to move smoothly. I think 3 u-joints worked spot on. The other 9 took me a number of hours to complete. It does depend which way you have it attached on the u-joint as well. One pin on the u-joint seems more 'square' and I believe that it's this side that lines up with the 'straight' side of the delta arm. Please correct me if I'm wrong or if I'm crazy and one side isn't actually more square.

As much as I complain, I really don't mind doing some of the filing/sanding/scraping. I love the project FOR the project and I enjoy being able to get the parts how I would like them to be. I just want to let other people know that it's possible that these things aren't just going to pop on coming out of the box.

Picture quality worthy of a digital camera from 1999. But finally got all the moving parts assembled.

I tossed the extruder assembly together and had to shave off a bit of one of the spacers in order to get it to sit flush in the mount. Super simple stuff. Throw some black sharpy on that shaved melamine and it looks burnt as ever.

Shaving a bit off the spacer to get the extruder to sit flush.

Extruder mounted in place. I forgot to put the other support in there. It's fixed now.

Next up was the electrical!

[Tinyhead]

Oh man. I'm an electronics junky at heart and an electrician by trade. If anything throughout this build, I hope I get some style points on my wiring job.

Instead of moving the unused 12V, 5V, 3.3V and GND wires aside, I figured nuts to that and took those things right out. I also left a couple more 12V and GND wires for future accessories. I also removed the green power wire and instead took an old unused wall wart and stole the cable off that. Tied one wire into the existing green hole and the other into GND. Now I had almost 6 feet to do whatever I want and didn't need to put in any splices.

Unused wires?! Get that s**t outta here.

Much better.

At first I was like... "Meh. Not bad." but then a blind rage swept over me "More loom!"

Looks Ok. I guess.

Now THAT looks much cleaner. Added a 5th 12V and GND wire for the bed, just to be sure.

At this point, I decided that every set of wires on this machine was going to need a loom around it. So off to work I went.

I was out of wires so I moved onto the hot end.

I had those heating resistors wrapped so tight it gave new meaning to the word.

Seriously though. I wanted to make sure they got good contact. I took my time getting that on straight, just to have it crumple up going into the hole, but they're in there good which is what counts.

Heating resistors installed.

Hot end assembled. Notice how the tip wasn't screwed in? Well I sure didn't. Did a couple test prints before I did notice. Luckily nothing bad happened, but I did need to reset my Z. But that's later.

I just followed the manual and everything went just fine. There was nothing too concerning regarding the whole hot end assembly (except my own negligence regarding the tip). I used the wire colours I had on hand and did what I could. Somehow I didn't have black... blue was the closest thing. Also... that thermistor is crazy small... I can see how they could be easily broken.

I also went to the local hobby store and got some Deans and JST connectors. I used one set of Deans for the heaters on the hot end and two for the heat bed (one set 12V, one set GND).

Used 2 16awg wires for both 12V and GND on the heated bed. Oriented the plugs so you can't plug them together so somebody doesn't somehow accidentally connect the ones on the Rambo side.

Everything all loomed up and ready to go.

I went to put the bed in place but my wire loom made it a bit too fat!! Luckily that stuff slides pretty easily and I just slid it back down the hole and everything went fine. No pressure on the melamine or head bed. Attaching the wires to the heat bed was a bit of a pain though. I wanted to tin the pads before I attempted to put the wires on but failed to realize that the solder was wicking through the holes and making a great big bump on the top side of the heat bed. I ended up having to file this down later to get it smooth again. I should have put some kapton tape there temporarily so that didn't happen. Oh well.

[Tinyhead]

I installed the extension onto the wires for the extruder and left the other end hanging as I wasn't sure how I was going to route it and therefore how long I was going to need it.

I then moved on to the hot end wiring. I knew after reading a whole whack of posts, blogs and watching videos that I was going to want a parts fan and likely some lights. My little office doesn't have the greatest light at the best of times, so for me lights were something I was really leaning towards. Now that I have the machine assembled... I definitely need lights. I can't see jack on that platform.

So the wire count going to the hot end was 3 pair. One pair for the heaters and one for the PEEK fan from the 4-wire cable, and one pair for the thermistor. I wanted to be able to have some options in the future so I also sent down a nice flexible stranded Cat5e networking cable. This gave me another 4 pairs to work with. Now I was able to take one pair from the 4-wire 16awg cable (the one supplied in the kit) and tuck it aside in case I was ever so bold as to want to do a dual extruder setup. Now with the network cable I had 4 pairs. One for the thermistor, one for the PEEK fan, one for the parts fan, and a last one for lights (or other option such as the thermistor for the second extruder). The 24awg wires can (if I've read correctly) carry up to .5A. The fans only take about .1A, so you could likely bundle a couple together if need be. I put a different colour shrink wrap on each pair and tossed on JST connectors.

4 pairs from the Cat5e cable

Yellow thermistor, blue peek fan... you get the idea. Marked it all down and made labels for the LCD door that state which pair is for which application.

After I got that how I wanted it, I printed out some labels at work so I wouldn't screw anything up.

Labels! Labels everywhere!

Any wires that I hadn't yet hooked up I just capped off with some shrink tubing for future use. I was thinking of putting in some speaker wire jacks (the kind you press the tab and just insert the wire and let go). If I put 12V on one and GND on the other, I could toss 12V to accessories pretty quickly/easily. This is just an idea. Putting switches in the line wouldn't be hard after either.

As geneb mentioned in the manual, the melamine is cut for the LCD circuit board, but not the solder joints on things like the knob or SD card slot. I just took a knife and cut away what I needed so that it would go on flat. I didn't want it to 'not grab' one side or the other. It was very quick and easy. Also using a 7/64 drill bit, I was able to drill the melamine and use the #4-40 screws with plenty of grip and no splitting. Just work the screws in nice and slow.

Cut away a few areas so the solder joints will sit in the groove too.

In the manual it says to reference Section 13 to make the SmartController PCB. I don't know if I had missed something, but I couldn't find that anywhere in section 13. It was easy enough to go by the picture supplied to know how to put it together though.

SmartControler board

Next is when I installed the Rambo. For some reason I had run out of the 1/2" #4-40 Socket cap screws by this point and had to go buy some more. You can see in the picture the two Deans connectors for the heat bed.

Rambo v1.2 installed and begin wiring.

All wires hooked up and wiring somewhat tidy. I'd like to install a cooling fan somewhere so I didn't want to fix it all in place until I found out where I was going to mount it. Any suggestions would be great.

It was now time for some last touches. I tied all the wiring back, the spool holder was installed (a while ago) and black PLA put onto the machine. Not in it yet as I hadn't calibrated.

Made sure the wiring was going to be flexible enough for the effector plate and tied the bowden tube to the harness. Made sure it all reached and folded smoothly with movement.

My blurry, but completed, Rostock MAX!!! This is where I creamed in my pants.

The next day I plugged it in and it fired up just fine. I went page-by-page through the manual and geneb's instructions were excellent (Many thanks to you good sir!). I got the limits set for all axis and set the Z height the same for all of them and checked the centre... and it was out by 0.1mm... so close but so far. Adjusted the printer_radius a few times and got it nailed down even across the glass plate.

After inputting all the settings to get ready for the hollow cube it occurred to me that I was going to be using the blue tape and therefore my Z was going to be tossed out the window anyway. I know it would only be slightly different... but this is my first 3D printer... first time ever SEEING a 3D printer... I'm still just learning. My instincts were (I'm hoping) correct and I adjusted for having the tape in there and printed my cube.

The following is my first print (so cool to see the machine run). The corners were visibly lifting and I could see the extruder squishing the layers under the corners. It was still hot and wet. I then remembered that I should be cooling the part and that's when I just put a regular house fan by it to gently blow air across the piece. This was done just about at half way and you can visibly see exactly when I put the fan on it. This was removed from the blue tape (it came off easily. Later on I realized that what I thought was "stuck" to the bed... was indeed NOT stuck to the bed. I'm surprised it stayed on at all.) There was no cleaning done to the cube.

My very first print!

[Tinyhead]

Here is another view so it's possible to see the inside of the cube.

First print. Inside cube.

I got bold and started printing other more complicated things and pushed the speed up to about 175%.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:43983

I forgot to take a picture of it but some areas were great while others seemed to have almost... shifted out of place. I noticed that this was only on the side that the fan wasn't blowing on.

I printed a stretchlet for my daughter which turned out nice, but there is one area that really bothers me and I don't know enough to know what causes it.

Printed a stretchlet for my daughter. Sorry the picture is so dark.

I was very happy with this:

This area looks good. (I thought any way)

But not so much with this one area. I think this is where the extruder finishes that one layer and jumps up to the next? I didn't have the spiral vase option selected in Slic3r.

What's the deal on the one area?

After I printed that... nothing would stick to the tape. NOTHING. I tried for hours to get something to stick to the tape. I put on new tape, nothing. Changed temp settings of both filament and bed (I know now to not have bed on for PLA on tape). Nothing. Printed directly on glass. Just balled on the end of the extruder like everything else. Then I read that I should wipe down the glass/tape with isopropyl alcohol. I ran out to my snowmobile and grabbed a bottle of gas-line antifreeze (essentially the same thing) and rubbed that on the tape. WHOO!! Now THAT sticks! Prints stay right where they should. When I'm done, get the bed up to temp and the parts peel right off.

A few hours ago I finished printing the brackets for geneb's wire guide. No cleaning done to these either.

Here's where I have questions.

This one has 'bumps' that stick out in places. I have this on almost all the prints I've done. What causes this? It's much more prominent on other jobs. This is quite subtle.

Any help would be appreciated.

I also printed the hollow pyramid. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11846

Hollow Calibration Pyramid. No cleaning.

Got better light this time.

I guess that concludes my building and first few print adventures. It's 12:30am and I should head to bed. Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I think tomorrow I'm going to try and get a fan mounted to cool the rambo and hook up a set of lights so I can see my parts.

Overall I'm extremely satisfied with this whole kit. I think the guys at SeeMeCNC did an awesome job with the whole thing and I would recommend the adventure to anyone. Thanks again to geneb for the awesome manual. It's great to see someone took the time to compile all the info and put it into one place and do a step by step for guys like myself who would have been completely lost on the whole process and thanks to everyone on the forums for all the great info. I've poured through posts for hours on end reading up suggestions and tips and tricks. It's good to see things are so active on here too in case I run into big problems.

Thanks for reading!

[Glacian22]

What a great build log! And compared to mine, your first prints are amazing...it took me a lot longer to get decent prints! As for the gross area on the stretchlet, I'm thinking that's probably where the layer change it happening. Which slicer did you use, slic3r?

[geneb]

Excellent work! BTW folks, if you don't have lacing tape handy, using wire loom sleeves like this is good too!

g.

[Eaglezsoar]

Those sleeves certainly add a look of neatness to the build but can be a real pain in the you know what to get the wires through.

[Tinyhead]

Those sleeves certainly add a look of neatness to the build but can be a real pain in the you know what to get the wires through.

Actually this braided stuff is super easy. As long as you don't have any loose strands, it slides right through.

What a great build log! And compared to mine, your first prints are amazing...it took me a lot longer to get decent prints! As for the gross area on the stretchlet, I'm thinking that's probably where the layer change it happening. Which slicer did you use, slic3r?

Thanks! I haven't taken the leap into Kisslicer yet. Still too new to really translate all the fields from Slic3r to KISSlicer. There are too many options that I find... intimidating... at the moment. I'd like to get this thing running where I'm good and happy before I venture to different software. I've read that it does make a big difference though. I also checked out the Cura RC and that looks pretty promising. Though even if I did slice something with it, I don't think I'd have the experience behind me to know what I'm really looking at quality-wise.

[Tinyhead]

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:43983

I've reprinted this thing and it basically came out exactly the same.

The 'top side' looks pretty good.

But the bottom area looks like a disaster zone. Is it because of the angle that it needs to print at? I haven't been using supports. I might have just answered my own question taking a good look at it right now...

Or perhaps this might not be the best fan duct to go with? I know there are plenty, but maybe someone has used a few and found one that works best. I just liked this one because it seems like it might curve the air around to get all sides, eliminating the need for more fans. I'd really like to get rid of the house fan. It's louder than the printer when it's running.

[bubbasnow]

what temp?

[Tinyhead]

what temp?

182

[bubbasnow]

maybe slow it down a bit?

[geneb]

The fan duct you want is this one: http://repables.com/r/171/ - it uses the small squirrel cage fan that SeeMeCNC sells. It's the best duct I've seen yet - it doesn't affect the nozzle temp at all.

g.

[Tinyhead]

The fan duct you want is this one: http://repables.com/r/171/ - it uses the small squirrel cage fan that SeeMeCNC sells. It's the best duct I've seen yet - it doesn't affect the nozzle temp at all.

g.

Perfect! Thanks!

Courtesy of the light ring I installed last night, I can take decent pictures of objects on the plate!

Fan fit nice and snug. Almost like it was designed that way.

Points right at the tip and moves a lot more air than I expected! Just what I wanted.

A few hours ago I also installed a 40mm fan inside the LCD window cut out. It's a pretty crude install at the moment, but I really wanted something to blow on and cool off the Rambo. I wasn't able to find much where people were cooling off their boards except for an 80mm fan propping the electronics bay door open, so I figured this couldn't hurt. There is plenty of room for air movement from below the LCD and it throws a respectable amount of air at the board.

Attempt at cooling the Rambo.

[Eaglezsoar]

I used a squirrel cage fan and mounted it to the floor inside the compartment with the air blowing on the Rambo.
Here is a link to one similar to what works well. http://www.ebay.com/itm/AVC-12-volt-2-B ... 4ad0931529

[Tinyhead]

That fan duct makes a huge difference.

Tried changing a few settings trying to get my retractions a bit better. Noticed that what I initially thought was the spool 'jumping' was actually the extruder skipping. I pushed my temperature up to 190 (black PLA) and don't have any problems unless I try upping the speed, which makes sense.

Tried modifying a few settings trying to get better retractions so I don't get those little bumps all over my prints. Used the Retract Calibration Object http://repables.com/r/147/ to see what I could do. Ended up tinkering with the Top Infill setting and was blown away how much better it makes the final touches. Going to have to play with some of these settings more.

I've got some stringing going on, but overall I don't think it's too bad at all.

I also left my printer running for the first time last night to see what I would end up with in the morning. Just something simple, but larger than anything I had tried before. The 'Giant Plus Vase' http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:81908. I scaled it down to 50% just in case it did decide to fail.

I was pleasantly surprised in the morning!

To me it looked amazing. The wife even wants me to make a full sized and a medium size to put up for decoration. Now THAT... was a real surprise. She hasn't been too fond of the machine and the time I've spent on it since it's arrived, but now that it's spit out something that isn't just calibration objects and fan ducts, I suppose she sees that she might get some benefit out of it as well.

There is this little lightning bolt on the top and bottom from the layer changes. It would have been nice if the layer change had stuck to one of the seams like it did for most of the print, but oh well. I suppose figuring out how to avoid that stuff will come in time.

Got some Harry Potter-esque lightning going on here.

[Eaglezsoar]

Now that is a vase that I really like and the color is fantastic!
Excellent job! May I ask if that is PLA and what is that great color?

[Tinyhead]

Now that is a vase that I really like and the color is fantastic!
Excellent job! May I ask if that is PLA and what is that great color?

I like the look of it too. I saw it on in this thread (http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=2684) and figured I'd give it a shot.

It's just black PLA by Jet from Amazon.com.

[Eaglezsoar]

Now that is a vase that I really like and the color is fantastic!
Excellent job! May I ask if that is PLA and what is that great color?

I like the look of it too. I saw it on in this thread (http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=2684) and figured I'd give it a shot.

It's just black PLA by Jet from Amazon.com.

That's amazing for a black PLA, it must be the way the light is hitting it, irregardless it is very nice.

[Tinyhead]

Started printing the full version of the vase last night. Came down this morning and it was at 91% (still about an hour and a half left). It was my first print from the SD card and took around 13hrs. When I saw it, it was within the last couple inches of the operating envelope and my hot end wiring was dragging on my print as it went around. Luckily it didn't get snagged on one of the vase corners! That wire loom is like velcro when it comes to thin points like that! I pulled it up in the picture and rested the cables on one of the extruder mount screws.

Still printing away!

Full scale next to 50% scale.

[Eaglezsoar]

Very, Very Nice! That shiny black looks really good.

[barry99705]

Did it make the same lightning bolt pattern like the smaller one?

[Tinyhead]

Did it make the same lightning bolt pattern like the smaller one?

A bit. I made 3 versions of the vase. 50%, 75% and 100%. The 50 by far had the worst case. On the 100 and 75, the layer changes started to come away from one of the 90 degree angle seams, but maybe only came out by about 1cm and seemed to make more of a straight line and not a zig-zag 'lightning' pattern like on the 50% one.

[Eaglezsoar]

Have you tried the randomize starting points options?