3d printer - Leapfrog creatr conversion

[ddmckee54]

I've seen worse prints that people were REALLY proud of.  As in thinking this is a high quality print when it had a terrible finish.  What material are you printing, and what's your layer thickness?

[BillTodd]

Hi,

It is Multicomp-pro PLA sliced in cura with a 0.3 layer ,(0.4 nozzle)  .  I'm new to Cura but having failed to stop Prusaslicer causing blob on insert after retract I swapped . Cura's default seem better chosen. except...

I've just had to cancel a print 2 hours in because of missing supports.

I also need to get myself a proper build plate. I have a PEI sheet stuck to a steel plate that bubble up and pings the part off after a while, A creality style plastic sheet to which PLA sticks like s*** to a blanket, but bulges in the middle if I heat just the middle plate ,  and a painted steel plate that seems OK but just doesn't have quite enough 'stick' for deeper parts.

I'm looking for a custom PEI spring plate supplier (the one I knew in the UK has folded)  310x350 is not standard . I can get 350x350 but I'd need to cut it and I don't think my  guillotine will cut a spring tempered sheet well.

[BillTodd]

Aha just found out why my PEI sheet was shyte  - I had a peel off protection layer 

no wonder it was bubbling 

[awemawson]

"I'm looking for a custom PEI spring plate supplier (the one I knew in the UK has folded)  310x350 is not standard . I can get 350x350 but I'd need to cut it and I don't think my  guillotine will cut a spring tempered sheet well."

A 4.5" angle grinder and a 1 mm cutting disc would make light work of cutting it.

[BillTodd]

Hi Andrew,  Yes I think you're right . I was worried about damaging the PEI , but looking at the steel panels I'm currently using - sliced out of an old PC box with said angel-grinder - the edges are remarkably singe free.

[BillTodd]

I may be premature but, this is as done as I can get it, until the touch sensor arrives.

[BillTodd]

A sleek Biqu microprobe arrived promising +/- 3um accuracy ....



While measuring the logic output, I found it  has a linear range of about 200um thus making it entirely reliant on the logic threshold of the I/O port -   

I cannot seem to get Marlin to use the probe as a Homing device , which is what i bought it for , as i don't really need to level the bed every print and only want to be able to change surfaces (which will vary in height) .

[BillTodd]

 I left it at the end of the last year working OK ,but, when I returned to the other day my resin printed stepper motor end-plates had distorted and jammed due to creep.

So, as a quick fix ,I redesigned it to use the stepper motor with its metal end-plates. After several failures, involving temperature resin selection and weak supports,  i finally have it vack together

Next is to design a new extruder with a different (lighter) motor with a mechanism to allow the hot-end / filament guide to be swapped out (with the long-term aim to have a tool changer)

[awemawson]

Slightly off topic, but in the latest ”Project Binky” episode they are 3D printing solder to form tracks on a PCB. Amazing !

[BillTodd]

I heard about that, I'll chase it down.

I made some frog-legs (a stand for the printer) and modified the Lilly-Pad controller.

By adding M117 Ext:{first_layer_print_min[0]},{first_layer_print_min[1]},{first_layer_print_max[0]},{first_layer_print_max[1]}  to the custom gcode in Prusa slicer , I can automatically select which heaters to use on the segmented bed