Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

Hey there peeps! So I found this forum for posting up your build process and thought, "hey! I can do that!". I'm always taking pictures of the things I build, so I might as well post them up somewhere. I will try and make this as fun for you as it is for me!

First off, a little background on myself. I'm 30 years old, have an almost 5 month old daughter who is always happy and rarely ever cries (lucky me), and have been building/crafting various things since as long as I can remember. I've never had any professional training, all my building is basically learn as you do hobbying. I've been part of the reprap/3D printing community for a few years now, but it still feels like I am pretty much a newb. I also work professionally as a software engineer, previously on video games, and now making training simulations for the military. I currently own a Reprap Prusa provided by MakerGear, I built that from the kit and it serves me quite well. I've made the decision to do a little splurge on a second 3D printer, where I have chosen the impressive Rostock MAX, after I came into a little bit of cash from selling my extra motorcycle.

Ok, that said, back to the build. I have ordered the kit last week and it has arrived yesterday! I spent a little time un-packing/un-taping the parts and so far things look beautiful! I am very impressed with the quality of the parts I've received. I've taken quite a bit of pictures, I will be uploading them soon once I get back home, so look forward to them or else! One little hick-up, however, it appears I am missing a bag of parts Don't lose hope, yet! I doubt this will be the end of my super cool build story! I will make my next post when I get home today, this will be the start of my actual build story starting from the un-boxing and hopefully very well illustrated!

I intend to make this post extremely detailed, going through every little step I took, and mistook, while building! Most likely, it will be embarrassing showing you just how green I am, but I still think building the thing is most of the fun part! I hope you enjoy it as well.

Chapter 1:

Once upon a time, there was a builder. We'll call him, Bob. Now Bob was a little bored one day, cruising the "inter-webz" one night searching for the latest MakerPorn, when he came across the fairest MakerPorn of them all! A beautiful new Rostock MAX Delta 3D Printer Kit! "OOOh", says Bob, then suddenly blacks out. Upon awaking, Bob realizes his credit card was in his hand, and an order confirmation screen was blazing, order complete!

A few painfully long days later when Bob got home from work, he was surprised to see there was a package waiting for him! This was an exceptionally large package, Bob thought to himself, almost as tall as him.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/MrYNH3z.jpg[/img]

"Well", Bob thought, "Lets get our creative juices flowing!". Laying the package down, he carefully opens the box... "PACKING PEANUTS!!!", Bob exclaimed! Then sadness, for Bob forgot his Speedo, there will be no swimming in packing peanuts today

[img]http://i.imgur.com/fTEZ4NY.jpg[/img]

moving on, Bob continued to unpack the contents, laying everything neatly on his workspace (aka floor). But, something was not right. Yes, definitely! Bob could have sworn he ordered the black version. But when he looked at the laser etched board, it looked white!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/8VBlwfS.jpg[/img]

It was a trick! For the white was only a magical coating, protecting the contents inside! After much chanting, and other magical incantations, Bob was finally able to dispel the protective coating and release the true beauty inside!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/IS0angn.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/9MwHabr.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/GuL2n22.jpg[/img]

Bob soon realized that the printer would be much larger than he first had thought. The printing station he had set up prior will never support that size. Something will have to be done about that, but not now.

Our next step is to countersink a few specially marked screw holes located on various pieces from the etched board. Bob had just the tool for that! It is called a drill. Probably not the best tool for the job, but Bob only had basic tools lying around his house. Carefully, as not to drill all the way through the entire parts, Bob drilled small countersinks into them.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/OtbeRX1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/sTLGGo8.jpg[/img]

Satisfied, Bob went ahead to the next step, putting little feeties on the bottom of the printer base.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/y30fLm3.jpg[/img]

It was here when Bob came across his first real bottleneck, as he was following the instructions, it was immediately apparent that some pieces were missing! He thought, "Maybe I just accidentally left it in its packaging!". So he searched, and searched... and searched... The pieces were nowhere! Not in the box, hiding among the packing peanuts. Not in the trash, hiding inside some of the packaging wrappers. Nowhere! Finally, Bob decided to get some help. He sent a telepathic message to the guys over at SeeMeCNC (who sold him the kit) to see what can be done. That day, he received a telepathic response notifying him that the missing parts were on the way! But, he will have to wait a few days

Will this be the end of Bob's super cool build story? Will the parts sent not be 'all' of them? Will the parts sent not even be the right ones? Stay tuned for chapter 2! In a few days.

--
To view the full image album of the build process for this chapter, you can find it here: http://imgur.com/a/y6B6n

Tell Bob it's looking cool so far.
Drat, those missing parts have put a hold on my reading of the story!
Great pictures!

Lochemage wrote:After much chanting, and other magical incantations

Yea, that's one way to put it!

What camera are you using to take those pictures? Great focus.

Eaglezsoar wrote:What camera are you using to take those pictures? Great focus.

I'm actually using my phone (iPhone 5). It's funny, cause I do actually have a digital camera as well, but I think my phone does a better job.

Chapter 2:

Bob was preoccupied all day during work thinking about the missing parts that were due to arrive today. For the eleventeen'th time this evening, he checked the "inter-webz" tracking information, "Out for Delivery". After the longest unrecorded Friday in the history of the universe, Bob finally ended his day at work and went home. In his mail box, stood the most magnificently radiant package labelled with the SeeMeCNC sender address, "It is finally here!".

[img]http://i.imgur.com/X3ngQ4b.jpg[/img]

Inside lay a few replacement packing peanuts, just in case he runs low from his main package, and the parts he was missing!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/Eriu2pz.jpg[/img]

Continuing with the instructions, the next step is the assembly of the three tri-supports. This involved putting together some laser cut melamine laminate with some nylon lock nuts and bolts, thread-locking a stepper motor with a 20 tooth belt drive gear on it, and then attaching some assembled idler bearings. While trying to find the bolts needed for the assembly, Bob thought that the part bags would better serve if they were labeled with their appropriate types and sizes.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/6yrvbac.jpg[/img]

It was at this point that Bob decided some of the laser etched lettering on some of the parts would be nice if they had a contrasting color applied to them! Bob had some acrylic paint laying around, so he put some transparent tape over the letters and etched their shape with a magical razor blade.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/mIvg3F9.jpg[/img]

Using the etched tape as a guide, Bob then painted it over.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/RKGjuHX.jpg[/img]

Unfortunately, the acrylic paint acted more like a plasticy layer rather than a permanent paint, Bob had to be very careful not to peel off the paint while peeling off the tape. Perhaps it would have been better if Bob had carved the black coating off of the letters and painted on the inside wood instead, but he was too lazy.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/ACtWtSa.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/xJJjukK.jpg[/img]

Using his fancy label maker, Bob added labels to each of the tri-support assemblies as well as the stepper motor plugs to identify them from each other.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/USeFh2q.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/IbVtkpH.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/fLDxkBC.jpg[/img]

Assembling the completed tri-supports into the base was especially fun when the top had to be put on. After several minutes of trying to align all of the tabs, and failing, he decided to add a little bevel to the insert holes on the top.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/jTvzu48.jpg[/img]

This seamed to help, maybe. It was hard to tell because it was still difficult, but eventually it all came together.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/dQCoujK.jpg[/img]

Now it was time to put on the tower rails. Trying to insert the screws with their T-Slot nuts would have been so much easier if it was done prior to assembling the entire base together, perhaps the instructions should change the order of that one. Eventually, bob managed to fit them in.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/vYjfg8W.jpg[/img]

By slightly opening the doors on the base, Bob was able to fit the Allen wrench enough to turn the screws. This will be useful when the tower rails need to be tightened in.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/hE5vmkp.jpg[/img]

Once the tower rails are put in, they need to be aligned. The first alignment is the height, which is indicated by a laser cut etching.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/E3QQJdK.jpg[/img]

There was also a small hole near that area, Bob was not sure what that hole was intended for, but he decided that it would be a really useful to help with the alignment. Finding an appropriately sized Allen wrench that fit snugly, he inserted it into the hole and created a kind of 'obstruction' to block the tower rail from going further than that.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/cG5ACuO.jpg[/img]

The hole is slightly further below the actual laser etched line, but it didn't seem like it would cause a problem, as long as all three towers were aligned exactly the same way.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/JBad1YP.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Qm8xR1r.jpg[/img]

Next was assembling the very top of the printer. The top clamps also contained the same hole near the alignment indicator, so the same method was used for this job as well.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/LzXWJae.jpg[/img]

After assembling and ensuring the tower rails were completely boxed, Bob was left with a semi-completed frame of his brand new printer to be!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/dXJRE3E.jpg[/img]

--

To view the full image album of the build process for this chapter, you can find it here: http://imgur.com/a/qaGdQ

Excellent job, I think you win the award for posting the most pictures!
One comment, did you ensure that the top plate aligned with the bottom
plate before you mounted it? There is a "bias" to these plates and the top
plate should be placed on the bottom plate and turned until they line up
perfectly and then mounted. See this thread: http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php ... &start=210

Eaglezsoar wrote:Excellent job, I think you win the award for posting the most pictures!
One comment, did you ensure that the top plate aligned with the bottom
plate before you mounted it? There is a "bias" to these plates and the top
plate should be placed on the bottom plate and turned until they line up
perfectly and then mounted. See this thread: http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php ... &start=210

x2scrap2.png

Good question. Yes, I did, they aligned perfectly when I put them on top of each other. However, I'm not 100% sure if it still lines up after you rotate the plates... and I completely forgot about that alignment when I put the thing back on so I may have put it on at a different rotation. I will have to take it apart and make sure now.

EDIT: After taking it apart, it appears to align perfectly no matter the rotation, so that's good.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/5uvi2cO.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/5AZJIpy.jpg[/img]

I used the "obstruction" method when I put my towers on also, only I used drill bits(I think 5/64 and 11/64?). If you collar the bottom bit to keep it perpendicular it works really well. I would also de-burr the channel at the top and bottom where the belts run. I used a dremmel rubber bullet to just take the sharp edge off. Tough to get at when the plates are on. You might also want to pull those end stop wires through the towers now too Build looks great by the way

Batteau62 wrote:I used the "obstruction" method when I put my towers on also, only I used drill bits(I think 5/64 and 11/64?). If you collar the bottom bit to keep it perpendicular it works really well. I would also de-burr the channel at the top and bottom where the belts run. I used a dremmel rubber bullet to just take the sharp edge off. Tough to get at when the plates are on. You might also want to pull those end stop wires through the towers now too Build looks great by the way

Oh cool, so overall, would you say the obstruction method worked out fine then? I'm not sure what you mean by de-burring, there's not much of a burr anywhere I can see that follows the belt path, or I am just misunderstanding. It looks like the next step in the instructions are to route the endstop wires, so maybe they updated that portion of the instructions.

Thanks

Just checking now so you won't have to take it back apart later.
Now you can continue, secure with the knowledge you did it right.
With that knowledge and 6 beers you'll be able to sleep good!

That geneb is on the job when it comes to the manual follow his instructions and you should be fine.

The de-burring I did was at the ends of the channel on the extrusion where the belts exit and wrap around the idler pulleys. Before I added tensioners, my belts would drift to one side or the other, and the channel edges were just sharp enough to take off tiny bits of the belt edges. I rounded 'em off. My thinking was, better safe than sorry! You may be just fine not doing it.

The "obstruction" method worked great for me. I would add that now is the time to double and triple check geometry! Towers must be square to the top and bottom plates, the exact same distance from each other, at 60 degree angle(which your plates should do for you) and the top/bottom plates should be equi-distant, which the "obstruction" method should take care of Lot's of headaches down the road if you don't nail this one

Keep posting those pics and Good luck

Eaglezsoar wrote:Just checking now so you won't have to take it back apart later.
Now you can continue, secure with the knowledge you did it right.
With that knowledge and 6 beers you'll be able to sleep good!

I hear you, which is why I immediately took it apart and checked the alignment! Thanks for the reminder.

Batteau62 wrote:The de-burring I did was at the ends of the channel on the extrusion where the belts exit and wrap around the idler pulleys. Before I added tensioners, my belts would drift to one side or the other, and the channel edges were just sharp enough to take off tiny bits of the belt edges. I rounded 'em off. My thinking was, better safe than sorry! You may be just fine not doing it.

Ahh, I see now, yeah those edges are quite sharp. I'll have to find a solution to that, my dremmel is broken, but based on how much actual room there is to work with, I'm thinking I may design a 3D printable insert that still allows the belt to pass through freely, but covers the edges up with a nice rounded piece of plastic.

Chapter 3:

It was now time to start some of the mechanical parts. This is where high precision and some good old American know-how comes in handy, Bob thought. The first step was wiring the end stops. These were electronic switches that are triggered when an axis has moved to their home position (or top position in this case). There are three axis, each with their own end stop that must be located at the top of the rig, but wired all the way down to the base. Bob dumped out the bag of goodies that he will be using for this task.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/WKuT9Ke.jpg[/img]

Starting with the wiring, he routed it from the top of the rig, through the heart of the tower rails, all the way down to the base where all of the electronics will be.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/4RHw9ap.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/GtdMqfp.jpg[/img]

It was a little bit of a challenge to get the wiring all the way through the tower, the center hole was so small that the wires got stuck mid-way through. To solve this issue, Bob took a piece of sewing thread, tied a small bolt to one end, and then tied a loop on the other. The idea was that the weight of the bolt would be heavy enough that it would carry the string all the way through the heart of the tower and to the bottom.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/Q1IBD5S.jpg[/img]

Once the bolt made it all the way through the tower, Bob was able to pull on it from the bottom.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/09c4wXe.jpg[/img]

The other end of the thread was looped around the wires, so after pulling a bit on the thread from the bottom, Bob was able to successfully route the wires all the way through!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/WJUQPcV.jpg[/img]

However, a wire by itself is pretty boring, so it was time to actually connect the end stop to the top. With a little preparation of the end stops, they were ready to be installed!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/5gjIWTq.jpg[/img]

Conveniently, the wires came pre-attached with connectors that were made to fit the end stop.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/bI9GeL8.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/gTiBAOe.jpg[/img]

Also, from experience, Bob knew it was ALWAYS important to label your wiring. Often times, in these machines, a lot of wires have the same colors or connector types, and it is never good to plug the wrong wires in the wrong place. Bob also notes that these labels are the same as the ones from the stepper motors, however, since the connectors are of different types, you can still tell them apart.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/7RBwm9Q.jpg[/img]

The next step were the skates... no, not the kind that you slip and fall flat on your face with, Bob meant the kind that make up the moving portion of the tower axes. The "skates" are the actual assembly that moves along the tower. These have to be very carefully assembled so there is not slop in its movement, any slop will result in very terribad printing, and that's just not cool!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/TdQjkOM.jpg[/img]

Assembly of the skate bearings were a bit of a pain, Bob's fingers were aching after the process. The little plastic coverings that had to be put on were extremely tight, and had sharp edges where you needed to press fit them.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/cPkFHb2.jpg[/img]

The Carriage U-Joints were part of this assembly. Unfortunately, the mold used to make these could not make the parts with the amount of precision that it actually needed. So they were purposely made slightly smaller so that the builder could sand it to the proper size first. Bob was not a fan of this task, anything that requires human 'eye' precision, especially when sanding parts, was prone to mistakes. A good mistake could cost him the part, and there were no spares! Using a file, Bob got down and dirty. The idea was that there are some aluminum U-Joints that fit inside the U shaped openings in the carriage, and they needed to fit inside these openings without having too much 'wiggle' room, but also without binding when it does need to move.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/A7r9Pcq.jpg[/img]

This was a very tedious task, and Bob actually went a little too overboard on one of them! Oops. Because of this, the aluminum U-Joint was too loose, and spacers needed to be added (in this case, some washers).

[img]http://i.imgur.com/nRxYvEf.jpg[/img]

Once the Carriage U-Joints were complete, they could be mounted onto the actual skate.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/GOJCNrT.jpg[/img]

After attaching just two of the skate bearings to the assembly, the assembly then needed to be put onto the actual tower! Any more assembly would make it impossible to attach it to the tower.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/m5LZ0Q3.jpg[/img]

Once on the tower, the other two skate bearings could be installed. These two bearings are mounted slightly different, however, because they allowed the bearing to be adjusted to the necessary amount of tension needed to 'skate' smoothly along the rail.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/oga9Yl2.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/xYncS4I.jpg[/img]

After adjusting the bearings, the skate assembly moved very smoothly along the tower rail. Bob was proud of his work! He was able to pop the skate upwards and have it smoothly ride up the tower and then back down again without any binding or slop. He just had to be quick and catch the skate before it slammed into the base, as this would be a large bang noise and possibly annoy the neighbors. Their annoyance will probably cause them to call the police, and the next thing Bob would know is that the police is breaking down the front door expecting a fire fight! Well, not quite, but it would be pretty loud, and Bob didn't want to imagine his printer being damaged before it had a chance to print anything!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/xYncS4I.jpg[/img]

The skate assembly was not finished, however. It also included a fifth 'skate' bearing in the back. Bob thought that the assembly was already quite good the way it was, but he assumed there must be a good reason for have that extra support, and it couldn't hurt either.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/nOUoWRK.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/GwAgwEB.jpg[/img]

At this point, Bob was left with a very satisfying frame for his printer.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/WiN2grm.jpg[/img]

Stay tuned, until next time!

[Queue commercial break]

--

To view the full image album of the build process for this chapter, you can find it here: http://imgur.com/a/yBhAW

Fantastic pictures and storyline. Very well done!

Wow, Bob got aggressive with that file didn't he?

Thanks for the pictures.

Chapter 4:

Bob was getting antsy. He wanted to see this beast in action, but it wasn't finished being built yet! Oh well, he instead decided to go on to the next step. The belt assembly, at first, sounds pretty straight forward and simple. You wrap the belt around the towers using the belt bearings that were installed previously. The start was fairly easy, by dropping the belt end down the gap at the bottom of a tower, it automatically fell between the two bearings as required.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/4zapznP.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/lTC5PHW.jpg[/img]

Once the belt appeared at the bottom of the base, a little maneuvering was required to get the belt wrapped around the stepper drive gear and up over the tower. It was still pretty simple at this point, so Bob could actually do it.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/pHaE4UK.jpg[/img]

Now this is where things got difficult. Bob had to, somehow, get the belts through these little slits cut into the melamine of the skate block. He pulled out some crafting tweezers that he thought might help with the job, and got ready for business.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/aO3AD1w.jpg[/img]

After several failed attempts, he decided that the tweezers were just not small enough. At this point Bob decided to follow Dan Barrans advice, inserted into the instruction manual, of using a small shim. Bob found a small thin piece of cardboard and it got the job done nicely.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/wefthSp.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/anJArpZ.jpg[/img]

Just getting the belt through the slot wouldn't be enough, however. The belts had to be clamped down so they don't loosen. Taking some folded belt clamps, he began the installation. This part was a complicated process because it required the belts to be held with tension at the same time the clamps were being bolted down. So far the build was going pretty well and relatively easy, so it was a good thing Bob 'designed' a build failure to happen at just this point! To bolt down the clamps, T-Nuts were installed onto the inside of the skate assembly. In this case one of them had popped out because it was... purposely... not installed correctly in a previous step (in the software development world, this is called a "feature". Remember kids, it's a feature, not a bug).

[img]http://i.imgur.com/zlBfgcb.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/IlilORe.jpg[/img]

The barbs on the T-Nut had been smashed down flat and were not actually penetrating the melamine to hold it in place. This should have been noticed during its installation, but Bob was apparently not very observant. Bob decided to disassemble the entire skate so he could replace it. After the replacement, and re-calibration of the skate, the rest of the towers went pretty well.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/vgPxrft.jpg[/img]

The new tension that the belts/stepper motor added to the skates made it so they mostly just stuck in the place they were instead of falling down the tower, but it was still smooth and the belts didn't veer off to one side or anything. It is important, when adding tension to the belts, that you don't clamp them crooked. Any amount of tension on one side of the belt that is more than the other will cause the belt to 'crawl' sideways as it rolls along a belt bearing. Since Bob did such a great job clamping the belts down with the proper tension, he had no reason to mess with the adjustments of the belt bearings on top of the printer.

The next thing to do was the fun part, Bob thought. Finally, putting the Delta arm assembly together! This is probably the most noticeable part of the Delta configuration printers, and the reason Bob bought this kit in the first place. The Delta arms were responsible for those really cool 3D printing video's on the 'inter-webz'. Gathering up the parts needed, Bob wiped his drool and began assembly.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/0RQEkeL.jpg[/img]

Again, Bob was required to sand some parts. This time, fitting the U-Joints into the Effector platform. This part wasn't as difficult because the platform was easier to sand. The screws being inserted into platform caused a little bit of deformation in the plastic which resulted in the U-Joints to have a tighter fit, but this was easily fixed. It was important that the screws not be tightened too much as it could strip the threads made in the plastic, but this was a small concern, Bob was weak anyway. This task, fortunately, completed with little complication and needed no fancy spacers like the last job.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/sbED4L3.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/EB2zY5B.jpg[/img]

The Delta arms were extremely easy to assemble, they were just snapped into place without any sanding or alterations. Bob decided to align all of the arms so the 'hump' part of the clamps were facing up.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/r2Wncgv.jpg[/img]

Bob took some time to admire the new look. "Oooooooooh". "Aaaaaaaaah". Using his hands, he manually moved the arms around and even made some awesome "zooom" sound effects!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/qozMChI.jpg[/img]

The EZ Struder assembly was pretty... EZ. It took longer to dig out the right screws than it did to put it together.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/SyT4lGx.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/5x69nNl.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/uAbAvQh.jpg[/img]

Next came the extruder and spool holder assembly. Relatively simple frame assembly here. The most difficult part was attaching the EZ Struder using spacers. The screw holes in the metal guide boss part of the extruder were tight, and the very long screws had to be threaded all the way through it up to the screw head. Bob could have just as easily put the screws in upside down, but he didn't want the threads sticking out of the top. So instead, he threaded the screws all the way through starting with the extruder, through three spacers, through the mounting assembly, and into some nylon lock nuts at the very end.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/4S3b94i.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/L2NdDin.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/w1ZAhrF.jpg[/img]

Putting the extruder mounting assembly onto the printer required a little bit of work. The screws that were used were the tapered flat head kind that were meant to be used in countersinked holes. However, nowhere in the instructions was Bob told to countersink those particular holes. So, Bob did the un-thinkable! He decided to countersink the holes anyway, damn the instructions! Perhaps this was the last straw that finally lands Bob into hell, but Bob wasn't about to have tapered screw heads sticking up out of the printer, what choice did Bob have?!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/wAiMqfo.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/D4fPqKP.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/8iLO1le.jpg[/img]

The same had to be done with the spool holder. Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun. If Bob was tentatively going to hell before, he's undoubtedly going there now!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/rWRi5jX.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/h9i1gPv.jpg[/img]

Unfortunately, the spool holder did not fit the spools he had, so his first task would have to be designing, and printing, a new spool arm to go with his printer!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/mLSNLs2.jpg[/img]

Thanks for following Bob's build so far, stay tuned for the next chapter where he starts to really get wired!

--

To view the full image album of the build process for this chapter, you can find it here: http://imgur.com/a/KQsNR

This has got to be one of the best build logs I've ever read!

Chapter 5:

The wiring is the part where Bob second guesses himself the most. As far as Bob is concerned, it might as well be magic the way a circuit board works, even though he knew for a fact that it was actually being controlled by microscopic gnomes outsourced from China...

The first task is to slice up the perfectly good wiring from an ATX power source and bundle up a few yellow and black wires. What a waste, Bob thought, 90 percent of the wires here aren't even going to be used!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/FfLQR7t.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/cWUC5mP.jpg[/img]

Now, Bob's soldering skills are quite crude, since he opted to take the more inexpensive classes from YouTube University (or, YTU for short). Putting his education to work, Bob extended the power switch wires as they were too short for our use.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/W9bCMkR.jpg[/img]

Once the wires were properly bundled, they had to be attached to a connector piece which will later be connected to the circuit board. This was a relatively easy task as it just required tightening some screws.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/FUAqqlc.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/bMfkaIY.jpg[/img]

Now came the more difficult part, Bob was required to do some soldering on the little adapter circuit board. He had to be very careful not to melt any of the gnomes inside, they didn't have any life insurance so it would be very bad for their families.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/lTulX9U.jpg[/img]

Fortunately, there are a few tricks to this task. Using the main circuit board, Bob attached the adapter to it so he can use it to hold all of the soldering parts together.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/5j3GaZS.jpg[/img]

Melting some of the solder onto the tip of the iron, Bob then touched the iron to one of the pins to be soldered. Once the pin heats up enough, gravity will cause the bead of solder to slide down onto the pin. Of course, Bob's skill for this task was quite lacking, so he ended up soldering multiple pins together on some of them. This was a huge pain to fix. We wouldn't want gnomes to go the wrong way, so these extra connections had to be undone! Eventually, Bob was able to complete this task and continue breathing again.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/LlBOkRI.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/y30G8X1.jpg[/img]

Mounting the circuit board to the printer was not a trivial task, the little nylon spacers just would not stay in place! Bob could barely fit his hands in that cramped space either.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/by6fHI0.jpg[/img]

The heated build platform was next. The power leads that go into the platform had to be tinned, but they were huge connectors so this took quite some time to get right.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/HmQpQKV.jpg[/img]

This is where Bob's disability makes its cameo. At the very beginning of the instructions, there is a list of materials/tools required. Bob skipped those pages, he'll be damned if a few pages are going to tell HIM what HE needs! Unfortunately, the instructions tell him to pull out his 14 gauge wire... what? He had no such thing! After a deadly bout of cursing, Bob finally read the requirement list and set out on a shopping spree. Some un-insulated crimp connectors, check. PermaTex Ultra Copper RTV, check. Some 14 gauge wire... hmm, this was a problem, his local shops didn't carry this size. Bob ended up going for a slighter larger 12 gauge (like the shotgun, but not actually the shotgun, because these were wires and not a gun, which is different, see?). They were quite thick and harder to deal with, but he would have to make do.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/IsLpmUs.jpg[/img]

After tinning the new wires, Bob put it aside and went back to the heated platform. A bit of kapton tape on the center hole will keep the RTV from leaking when installing the thermister.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/YOuMq5V.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/unl5J1M.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/FH1R6dJ.jpg[/img]

Soldering the little bits to the board was relatively simple, Bob bent the connectors so they went into the holes in the board before soldering them on. Attaching the 12 gauge (again, the wire, not the shotgun) was a bit tricky. The solder took a long time to melt because there was so much of it, Bob had to hold the iron on there for several seconds before it even started to melt, but once it did, he was able to add the 12 gauge (the wires) to the platform.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/vxBH639.jpg[/img]

It's always good to label your wires, so Bob made up a few labels. "T" was for the thermisters, one for the heat bed and another for the printing nozzle (which comes later).

[img]http://i.imgur.com/i1Ifn6T.jpg[/img]

A few more labels for the power that supplies the heat for both the heat bed and the nozzle.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/lmrtmJE.jpg[/img]

Routing the wiring through the base of the printer, Bob then installed the heated build platform. The large 12 gauge made it a little difficult since they weren't as flexible as he would have preferred.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/9cOHT8W.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/YfB4BAn.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/hUZmFXv.jpg[/img]

The extruder wasn't all that hard. Bob didn't have PTFE tubing like the instructions called for, but he did have some very heat resistant wires. Using some pliers, Bob was able to extract all of the wires from the heat resistant sleeve and install them to the heat resisters.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/Yp8y21S.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/lpbT1Cr.jpg[/img]

However, the provided heat resisters did not fit into the extruder. So Bob had to roll up a bunch of tin foil to make it thicker.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/OM6p1ms.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/UmIgFtx.jpg[/img]

Once the resisters were fitted and installed correctly (hopefully), some RTV will seal them in place.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/0zAiIw9.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/RmI0fcO.jpg[/img]

An hour later, when the RTV cures enough, the resister leads could be twisted together.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/ypaz51h.jpg[/img]

The crimp connectors are then used to connect the twisted leads to the actual power.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/Iwz6uil.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/sAQXMp2.jpg[/img]

And finally, the thermister needed to be installed using some RTV. Unfortunately, Bob became aware that his kit was missing the second thermister! Oh no! Digging out a spare thermister from his other printer, he used that instead. This will just require changing the thermister type on the Repetier firmware later.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/bsk2DZE.jpg[/img]

There is plenty more wiring to be done, but we will continue that on our next chapter. Stay tuned!

--

To view the full image album of the build process for this chapter, you can find it here: http://imgur.com/a/gwijE

Lochemage wrote:Melting some of the solder onto the tip of the iron, Bob then touched the iron to one of the pins to be soldered. Once the pin heats up enough, gravity will cause the bead of solder to slide down onto the pin.

In order to save Bob some potential headaches later on, I'd point out that this is a great way to make cold solder joints and a really bad way to solder. Bob should really be heating both surfaces, the pin and the pad, at the same time. Cold solder joints will drive you nuts in the long haul.

Bob needs to get those heated bed wires out from under the melamine spacer plate or he's not going to have a level bed.

g.

This build logs reminds me of when we played a drinking game to the movie 'What about Bob?'

Toyguy wrote:

Lochemage wrote:Melting some of the solder onto the tip of the iron, Bob then touched the iron to one of the pins to be soldered. Once the pin heats up enough, gravity will cause the bead of solder to slide down onto the pin.

In order to save Bob some potential headaches later on, I'd point out that this is a great way to make cold solder joints and a really bad way to solder. Bob should really be heating both surfaces, the pin and the pad, at the same time. Cold solder joints will drive you nuts in the long haul.

I'm hoping they won't be cold joints, I put the iron on the pins and let them heat up until the bead of solder moves onto the pin, which takes a second.

geneb wrote:Bob needs to get those heated bed wires out from under the melamine spacer plate or he's not going to have a level bed.

g.

I'm not sure what you mean. The wires have to go under the spacer because the slot in the base where the wires go into is under it. There are also those nylon spacers there to prop the space up a bit in the air, too.

Just make sure that the wires aren't lifting the bed up - it's just something to keep an eye on.

g.