New 3D Printer

[Chris Savage]

I have had terrible pain three out of five days this week. Plus we have had out of the house appointments for every day except for Monday - when we were too tired to do anything. Well, next week should be better - I hope.

Hope you feel better soon. 

[granz]

Feel better. That's an ORDER!! lol 

Sir, Yes, Sir! 

[granz]

Good luck on your printer, I need to try mine again.

Hope you feel better soon. 

Thank you, both of you guys.

[granz]

What does the nozzle look like?? If it's like the Neptune 2, those are really cheap. 

Edit: looked.  Do you just replace the whole hotend assembly to change nozzles??

Yeah, it looks like you replace the entire hotend. If that's all that I need, I found one for $35, with two-day delivery (less than $2 more than one which will be delivered in later Sept. ) If I need the entire assembly, then that raises it up to $85 (with tax, that is over the price of my printer, plus shipping, no estimate on shipping cost, nor do they even try to give a delivery date.) I also found an extruder assembly on Amazon, but that is $130, plus tax, and delivery is also the second half of September.

I'm going to quit for now. Maybe after an evening with my girl-friend (best friend/buddy/partner/lover/wife ) and a good night's sleep, things won't looks so bad.

Well, I finally found out how to remove the hot end. The original single duct fan venting was replaced by the guy that sold it to me, and replaced with a better dual-duct vent (blows from both sides of the hot end.) Unfortunately, this also blocked the hot end and prevented me from being able to pull it out.

I found a video where You Tuber, Just Vlad, showed accessories for this printer. One of the accessories was the dual-duct vent. Although I had found these before, this was the first video where he showed how to replace the original.

(Check out starting at the 17:00 time point.)

With this, I was able to remove the vent, and pull the hot end. There was some filament which was stuck in the hot end, so I had to clip that, and remove the filament. New hot end went in nice and easy, replace the filament with a roll straight out of the Zip-loc with the desiccant, and...

(This is an epoxy mixing tray. A simple quick print that 3D Printing Canada shows on what to do with the last little bit of filament. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiVHDMfWe0c&t=357s)

There is one more thing that I want to print. Just Vlad mentions in the video that the Bowden tube is a bit loose on the feeder mechanism. So, he put one of these (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2994683 braces in and it cleaned up the stringing really nicely.

[granz]

...Worst case, there have been a few people who say that replacing the nozzle (about $35) makes the printer run like new. After that, I'll need to make sure to set the printer settings correctly.

Well, after (finally) getting the nozzle replaced, I have to agree. Having a working 3D printer is lots of fun. I can hardly wait for the larger print volume and multi-color printing of the A1.

[Chris Savage]

Having a working 3D printer is lots of fun. I can hardly wait for the larger print volume and multi-color printing of the A1.

Definitely!

[granz]

Well, I was supposed to post this yesterday, but...

Here is a tool for opening twist-top bottles (like a coke bottle.)

(https://makerworld.com/en/models/1077335-universal-bottle-cap-opener?from=search#profileId-1068385, from InitMaker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umm1UpCA5AY)

It turns out that when we took our friend Shirley home from her monthly meetup with her nephew, she asked us to come up to her apartment to open a bottle that was too tight. I told her to bring it to Church and I would open it then.

So, it was right after that when I figured out how to fix my printer. Then, after printing the epoxy tray that I started printing this opener. After starting the print, I remembered that Shirley had trouble opening bottles - so I'll take it to Church to see if it would help her.

Well, her bottle lid was too wide for the opener, but she wanted the tool for other bottles.

Marilyn sometimes has trouble opening bottles (and occasionally I do too.) So, in the slicer program, I took the opener, moved it over a bit on the print bed. Then I copied it and placed another one on the bed so there were two.

So, this started about 6:00 in the evening, last night, and ended shortly before midnight:

Now we have two, one for the car (where we sometimes have trouble) and one for the house. It was pretty good trying out the manipulation in the slicer and having that little success.

[granz]

Just started another print. This print is for a frame that slides onto the back of my PicoCalc, and lets me hook up a breadboard for having the PicoCalc do lab work, data logging, control processing, etc.


(Click here for the thread for this PicoPac)

This picture is from the developer. On the left is the frame, removed from the PicoCalc, where you can see the breadboard. On the right is the frame, mounted onto the back of the PicoCalc. I have wanted to print one of these things for over three YEARS!!! Wow, I hadn't realized that I even had the PicoCalc that long! Time flies when you're having fun (or when you're getting old. )

This print job is supposed to run until about midnight, again (now I'm getting impatient - one printer is just not enough! )

[granz]

Another great print:


There was a bit of stringing, but it was amazing. The bridge of the bar across the back - just incredible.

This is my largest print so far, and the first for my electronics hobby.

[granz]

It took a couple tries, but I finally got the Voxel working from my computer. Previously, I had to slice the object, and then save the .GX file on a thumb drive to transfer it to the printer. I tried to get it on my WiFi network, but it just won't work. Peter's printer connected up to his WiFi easily, but mine won't. It appears that when you upgrade the Monoprice Voxel firmware to a ForgePrint Adventurer 3 printer (the Voxel is a clone of the Adventurer) it can no longer connect to a WiFi router. However, it can still operate in hot spot mode. So, I plugged in one of those cheap WiFi USB nubs to my computer, and set that to the printer's hot spot. Yay! it works. Print to the Voxel (that thinks that it is an Adventurer) and to the A1 without leaving my computer.

So, it's been a while, and I have been printing quite a bit on my Voxel - even though I received (and really like) my Bambu Lab A1. I really do like having two printers - I've even had two prints going at the same time.

I purchased one of those razor scrapers that you use to scrape paint off a window pane for scrapping off the prints from the build plate. BAD idea! Do not use one of these things. I chopped up the build plate quite a bit, so had to order another plate. I like the PEI plate that came with the A1, and so found a set of two for my Voxel, and ordered them. In the mean time, one of my prints stuck to the plate so hard, that it ripped the plate apart in removing the print.

The new PEI plates arrived the other day, and I immediately started a print of an articulated lizard, that was in my Voxel from the previous owner. It turned into a huge pile of seemingly melted gooey plastic. Yuck! So, I started another print of a FlexiRex dinosaur. This also came out looking like a pile of molten crud. Great, now what?!?!

So, I ordered another original plate - it should be here tomorrow. In the mean time, I will pick up a glue stick tomorrow, and see if using that on the PEI plate helps. If that does the trick, I will have those two PEI plates, plus the new original plate. If I can't get the PEI plates to work, I will request a refund, and return them.

[JKnightandKARR]

It took a couple tries, but I finally got the Voxel working from my computer. Previously, I had to slice the object, and then save the .GX file on a thumb drive to transfer it to the printer. I tried to get it on my WiFi network, but it just won't work. Peter's printer connected up to his WiFi easily, but mine won't. It appears that when you upgrade the Monoprice Voxel firmware to a ForgePrint Adventurer 3 printer (the Voxel is a clone of the Adventurer) it can no longer connect to a WiFi router. However, it can still operate in hot spot mode. So, I plugged in one of those cheap WiFi USB nubs to my computer, and set that to the printer's hot spot. Yay! it works. Print to the Voxel (that thinks that it is an Adventurer) and to the A1 without leaving my computer.

So, it's been a while, and I have been printing quite a bit on my Voxel - even though I received (and really like) my Bambu Lab A1. I really do like having two printers - I've even had two prints going at the same time.

I purchased one of those razor scrapers that you use to scrape paint off a window pane for scrapping off the prints from the build plate. BAD idea! Do not use one of these things. I chopped up the build plate quite a bit, so had to order another plate. I like the PEI plate that came with the A1, and so found a set of two for my Voxel, and ordered them. In the mean time, one of my prints stuck to the plate so hard, that it ripped the plate apart in removing the print.

The new PEI plates arrived the other day, and I immediately started a print of an articulated lizard, that was in my Voxel from the previous owner. It turned into a huge pile of seemingly melted gooey plastic. Yuck! So, I started another print of a FlexiRex dinosaur. This also came out looking like a pile of molten crud. Great, now what?!?!

So, I ordered another original plate - it should be here tomorrow. In the mean time, I will pick up a glue stick tomorrow, and see if using that on the PEI plate helps. If that does the trick, I will have those two PEI plates, plus the new original plate. If I can't get the PEI plates to work, I will request a refund, and return them.

Cool. My new one can connect via Wifi, but not sure if I'll use it or not..

[granz]

Well, the new plate arrived, and sort of worked. I printed the FlexiRex, but it also stuck to the build plate too tightly. I ended up putting the plate back into my Voxel and pre-heating the bed to soften the plastic. This almost worked, unfortunately one of the segments was still stuck so tight that pulling it off tore the surface of the build plate along with it. Another $20 down the toilet.

Lesson learned: do not print highly articulated parts on my Voxel. Although the same Flexisaurus Rex did print great on my A1's PEI bed. If I can get the new PEI plates for my Voxel to work, the Rex may print on that as well.

[JKnightandKARR]

Well, the new plate arrived, and sort of worked. I printed the FlexiRex, but it also stuck to the build plate too tightly. I ended up putting the plate back into my Voxel and pre-heating the bed to soften the plastic. This almost worked, unfortunately one of the segments was still stuck so tight that pulling it off tore the surface of the build plate along with it. Another $20 down the toilet.

Lesson learned: do not print highly articulated parts on my Voxel. Although the same Flexisaurus Rex did print great on my A1's PEI bed. If I can get the new PEI plates for my Voxel to work, the Rex may print on that as well.

Well THAT sucks.... so far my double sided no issues. Hope theres no further issues like that for any of us...

[granz]

Nope, neither the original, nor the PEI, plates worked. I'm going to have to return both purchases and get another original plate. Then I'll need to be careful what I print on my Voxel.

[granz]

I found a Reddit thread where they showed that the surface on these plates can be replaced - they are just stickers. So, I pulled the sticker off of one plate, and replaced it (badly) with one of the PEI plates. No go, the PEI plate is just not sticking to the bed, because I didn't clean the bed and use fresh glue. I did go through the calibration (leveling) process, but with the poor cleaning job I did, that did not help. I also pulled the sticker off the other plate, but did not get to cleaning the glue off it, either.

Also, yesterday, Peter (we went to Cleveland to pick him up for a family picnic ) told me about something he saw about using "Gaffer's Tape" on the print bed. That is supposed to help with protecting the surface of the print bed. So, a roll of that is supposed to arrive today.

I also found a magnetic print bed, and that is on its way and should be here on Tuesday. So, hopefully my Voxel will be back in production soon.

The two plates that have the surface taken off will serve as test beds for new surface stickers once I find the stickers to purchase. Or, maybe I'll try them with just Gaffer's Tape as the surface. More to come about this experiment.