Ordered my kit and looking for any build tips/tricks/caveats

Purchased my kit last night and I’m on vacation this next week. Parts are coming off the printer as fast as i dare. Im looking for any tips you guys might have to share or things to watch out for (rookie mistakes) when building the machine. I’m aiming for a 3x3 foot build area (used the calc to get belt measurements) with an emergency stop and the lcd screen. I havent started looking on thingiverse yet but im betting one of you fine gents have uploaded a cover for the electronics/lcd.

My only concern at the moment is that a few of my parts have printed with a few overhang issues (printed with supports but cura deemed my machine capable and my machine was found wanting) on some of the area the conduit goes into. My question is if I were to just file/sand it down it would cause any issues (have two more rolls of filament on the way so reprinting is nothing but a time sink). I’ll upload pics in a moment.

The part in question

Thats just a resting spot for conduit, nota big deal at all… Just sand it down so its fits well in there and you will be just fine. Thats one of the few parts that has no impact on much if its not perfect, but you will want to sand it so the conduit fits well

I agree with what Ryan said. You will want to make sure you follow the infill recommendations. There are a lot of stressful areas that will crack of you try to cut corners. How accurate is your printer as far as size? If you have not printed a test cube or something similar and measured it you might want to before you print a bunch of tight fitting parts that don’t fit.
Have fun with your colors and start thinking about what router you will use and look for the different mounts and dust shoes. A lot of people (including myself) are using the DW660 by Dewalt. It is powerful enough and cost effective. There is a thread that @Karl has that show how he modified an existing dust shoe to work with the DW660.
Good luck and keep us posted

I’m printing a test cube now (printed one before the switch to pla and i was getting pretty spot on, i think biggest varience i measured was .1 mm difference in total height of a 20mm cube while all walls were within .02mm accuracy). Any particular points on the models i should watch for? I have a nice set of digital calipers i can take a measurement on.

as for the router I was planning on going with the dewalt but im at a loss for what end mills to pick up to start out. Im planning on mainly working on wood to start but want to definatly get some work in on acrylic both cutting and engraving. At the moment I have a dremel with flex bit and about 1000 various bits to work with so I will probably start with that till i get the system up and functioning and then upgrade the mount and setup to the dewalt for higher power cutting later on.

One thing I have been thinking about doing however is rigging up a key lockout system so my kids cant get into it, should be pretty easy just gotta google down a good switch to work with.

thats what i figured, from what i can tell the conduit only ever makes contact with the bearings unless its a fixed position piece. Some of the pictures in the instructions are a little hard to tell but that makes sense to me

Getting good dimensions on a test cube is good, but it’s only half the story. A lot of the critical fitment points are internal (screw holes, nut traps), which are affected by different parameters than the outer dimensions. A good calibration guide can help you dial those in. Here’s a good place to start: http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Triffid_Hunter’s_Calibration_Guide.

All that said, I think you’re okay as long as you’re close. I had to drill out the screw holes and do a little sanding on the pieces that bearings get inserted into, but it wasn’t difficult and didn’t take long. The tightest fit I had was on the corner blocks, and I created a wedge that opened the block enough to get the conduit in - problem solved.

Test fit all the parts before final assembly. Make sure the conduits fit snug, but not over tight. Test all the bolt and screw holes and drill them out so the bolts/screw slide in easily. Assemble everything without tightening any of the bolts, you will need to square everything up when it is all together, so don’t risk cracking anything before final assembly. You will find that you do not need to tighten the bolts much, just snug them up. The same goes for all the bearings, put them on loose until everything is together and squared up. Then tighten them only as much as needed.

I found a difference in the brand of filaments I used. Some filaments need more work than others. I found a kit of hobby files handy for small spaces, larger half round files for touching up things like in the picture above. I used sandpaper wrapped on a tube that was slightly smaller OD than the conduit handy. An exacto knife worked well for enlarging things like nut traps. And a drill and bits for some of the holes.

I also suggest exploring this web site and forums, you will find a lot of good information here. I tried to document all the little challenges and tips I found during my build. You can find it here:

Good luck with your build!

Dave

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have made some decent progress so far. I’ve built the table and outer frame and am currently printing the middle z pieces and feet when those are done. My biggest question so far is how people are checking for the frame being square. Its been a long time since I have done any serious wood work or measuring for such craziness. I have a speed square (the triangle shaped ones) and large T square but I am betting those are going to be a pain to check it with due to the corner blocks. What kind of tool are you all using?

These models are also putting my printer through its paces. Had two solderless mounts that failed to print because my belts slipped a bit. Had to open the machine up and tighten down the belts but everything seems to be doing ok now. A few of my bolt holes are a little tight clearance wise but a few seconds with a file cleans them up fine.

I’ll post some pics soon of the build progress.

Apparently reading is hard :slight_smile: I just found the directions (under assembly of course) on how best to square up the machine so really I am good. Now just to finish printing parts and get this assembled.