Work in progress

I realized my Z axis end stop was not stopping the motors kept spinning even after they actuated the switch. Upon doing some tests I found the wires were not transferring the signal or getting power at all. I contacted the seller of the product who promptly sent me a new one.   Although it took 3 weeks to get here even through it was shipped first class which should have taken only 3 days. I now have that hooked up and working like it should.

I am now at the point where I should be able to stay printing. After all I have everything I need to do so. The other day when I turned everything on my server for the printer wasn't properly working. I reimaged the SD card but still haven't did the setup again. I was concerned about the Arduino and the Ramps 1.4 not working properly. I uploaded the test code and now the printer just moves a little bit, had a spike in power draw, and then stopped responding. That's where I am currently. I now have to take off the board and check to make sure there isn't something blocking the pin. Worst case scenario is having to buy a new set costing at least 50 dollars not to mention the possibility of it not arriving on time. 3d printers, especially self made models, are not very popular yet to be able to source parts locally

Problems, Problems, and more problems

One of the things to be expected while building something as complex as a 3-D printer is problems. Not just "Oh I forgot to plug it in"  but "the thermistor is not capable of handling the amperage of the MOSFET in the way it is configured in the code" for example. Here are some of the problems I have run into so far:

Z motors were jumping around making irregular motion when instructed to do a morion. Some research and a magnifying glass revealed a fleck of solder bridging two solder joints under the stepper drivers. With a razor blade the joint was removed, and the Z axis worked.

Motors were not traveling correctly, would go 1mm one direction when inatrucyed, .4mm the other direction. After more research I figured out I missed checking for jumper pins having to do with the stepper drivers microstepping. These pins are crucial at getting the correct distances and proper motor steps based on the G code.

I did over spring break get my LCD up and running as well as Ocroprint setup on my Raspberry Pi with a webcam. This allows me to control my printer from any computer I want to, as well as using my phone. I can control the printers motion, heat up the bed and extruder, and start a print from anywhere with my phone wherever I am.

At this point in the build I am eager to print my first item. Unfortunately there are still more problems to work out.

Deliverable Day!

My printer is done! I have everything built and the software is good enough (more on this later). Anyhow, with the exception of bolting the extruder to the mount, and getting the plastic filament to print something there's not much else I can do.

The software for my printer is still a little bit iffy. There are many variables and settings in some 1000 lines of code, not to mention what is needed to get the LCD screen working. I have put test code on the Arduino and confirmed all my motors move. This is good. For some reason they move really fast when homing, I still may have to change some speed settings for that. The printer does connect to the computer, and takes commands. The software will be changed more as I go along to accommodate new parts or calibration. Some of the software on the computer is a little buggy and I may try a few other programs. After I get my filament I am going to just go for it and print something. It may not work the first time, or the second, or the third... but that's all part of the fun. I still have to do a little more calibration on the motor voltage, as well as frame calibration after I print a calibration piece. This will also show the quality of my printer, and how it stacks up against the commercially available $1000 dollar printer.

The 3-D printer ready to print, calibrated and all!

My cable problems!

Final Note: One of the things that I noticed was the excess of wires. Right now there are 20 motor wires (5 motors/ 4 wires each), 9 end stops wires (3 end stops/ 3 wires each) 4 temperature sensor wires (2 sensors/ 2 each), 4 heater wires (2 heaters/2 each) 2 fan wires (1 fan/ 2 wires) and 4 power wires (2+/2-). That's a grand total of 43 wires going to a board a little larger than a deck of cards, and most of the wires move while printing! I already have some cable management files to print when I get my filament.

More Software...

On Wednesday I received my last part for my 3-D printer, the hot end. Now I just have to get some filament (the plastic you print with) and be on my way!

Another thing that I did this week was do my first (and only) soldering for my project. From what I had read I was worried that everything would have to be soldered, and secured with heat shrink tubing. Luckily most of my parts came with connectors at the right spacing that plug right into the board! I could shorten the lengths of the wires, but for now I am going to leave them at the lengths they are and secure them with zip ties. Anyway I had to solder the heat resistant wire to the heated bed (it gets up to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, which would melt the insulation on regular wire) and then add extenders on to the wire to reach the board. This wasn't very detailed soldering so I didn't have much trouble with it.I will probably still have to add plugs on the ends for easy access to the RAMPS board. I also had to extend the wired on my fan with a length of doorbell wire (it was what I had in my garage).

As I may have mentioned before there is code for my 3-D printer available online for free. The downside is that it is written for many different types of printers in many shapes and sizes. This means that I have to do some math to calculate the steps my motors need to take based on rod pitch, belt pitch, pulley size, gear ratios etc. I also have to get my end stops positioned in the correct way, select my power supply, fan type, hotend type and so forth. This is easier than it seems as you just have to un-comment some things in the code, but looking through thousands of lines worth to find the correct item to configure is quite monotonous.

Getting the code right

I finally am at the point of wiring everything together and start printing. I knew from

the beginning this would be one of the most difficult parts of this build, as well as one

I could learn from the most. I started out by wiring everything up and plugging it into

the computer. I uploaded the MARLIN code with its stock settings (not set up for my

printer, more on this later), and opened the host software (that I haven't used before).

It easily recognized the printer, and the small Led began blinking on the control

board. I clicked the up button and hoped for the best. Instead of the smooth and quick

motion I heard a knocking in the motors. Quickly I unplugged the power and tried

again. I tried moving a different axis by clicking the home icon. Quickly the Y axis

zipped across its rails and hit the back of the printer. The motor kept trying to spin but

was cut short by me turning of the power. We packed everything away for the night.

During my down time at school, and a little while over the afternoon scouring

the internet for sources. I found out 3 rules you are supposed to follow.

1) Don't plug in anything while the power is on

2) Adjust the drivers to change the voltage needed for the motor

3) Only plug in one motor at once

All of these sources warned of burning out motors, drivers, and other electronics, all

of which I hoped I hadn't done, as I didn't follow any of these rules the night before.

To my glee, nothing was burnt out and broken, perhaps luck was on my side.

Anyway, I am planning on going through the code this weekend to accommodate my

printers settings.  I am really hoping to get things figured out so I can get going on

printing things, after all the deadline is closing in.

I also have finished the extruder with the exception of the hotend destined to arrive on

Monday.

On the road again...

Once again I didn't quite make my deliverable (A completed 3-D printer). However I am closing in on that goal. Right now I am about 75

Printer so far, notice the motors.

% done with the mechanical construction of the frame. I have added the motors and the end-stops, as well as all the X,Y, and Z axis.

I still have to put the belt on the pulleys attached to the motors, make sure everything is properly aligned, a herculean task in itself, assemble the extruder, wire everything together, upload some code and get printing! That may seem like a lot, which it is, but most of it is what you may call "busy work", it just takes time. I have already set apart Sunday as a build day to hopefully finish things up.

That leads me to the past weeks progress. I received my electronics package on Tuesday with the parts to get me going again. This package contained the end-stops, heated bed, Arduino, Ramps 1.4, and belts as well as a few other wires and things. I immediately ran into a problem. The endstops I received had the mounting

The whit part in the picture was the issue.

holes under the wiring harness. Turns out it is impossible to plug something in when there is two giant bolts sticking out of the top. Luckily after some internet searching I found a solution. I had to precariously bend the contacts enough to get the bolt through the opposite way, without breaking anything. (See Picture). This proved to be taxing as I didn't want to break anything and have to buy more parts.

My next issue was with the bearings. They were supposed to fit nicely in the holder and slide freely. They instead decided to bind against the steel so much that you couldn't pull on them without the whole printer moving (at least 15 Lbs). I shaved some of the plastic and the problem was solved.

Final note: I bought my hot hot end end today, the last needed part!

The LCD controller

At a Standstill

Parts

Over the past week I received a few more parts for the printer namely the:

Raspberry Pi

• Printed Parts
• Mounting Plate
• Couplings
• Motors 
• Raspberry Pi (A small computer for Wi-Fi 3-D printing, also a regular computer unto which I am typing this post right now)

I am still waiting on the electronics which has led me to a halt in assembly

Progress

Completed X-Axis

Since I finally got all of the parts I needed to begin my assembly I got started tuesday night. The first step was the x-axis which depending on your perspective is the "to and fro" of the motion. I had to start with zip tying bearings (metal slides) onto the heated bed mount (holds the part being printed). After that I started the process of using the metal rods. This was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Most of it was taking the rods, pushing them through plastic pieces

Heated Bed Assembly

, and adding a washer and nut. Some of the plastic pieces had small string of plastic hanging in there gaps that had to be removed. The leftover strings gave me a idea of how small of detail I can have. According to my calipers these parts were printed with a .35 mm diameter, pretty small if you ask me. Then came adding the smooth rods. It appeared to be a easy process, just snap them into place. This was easier  said then done. Apparently you can't fit a 8 mm rod into a 7 mm hole. At the website suggestion I got a hair dryer and heated up the plastic parts. These resulted in the parts shrinking giving just enough room to slide the rods in. I slid the heated bed assembly on and the x-axis was done. I took some time to snap together the frame to see how big the footprint would be of the completed printer, it is comparable able to a milk crate. I then started putting together the Y axis. Again I inserted bearings into there holders, and had to use heat to get them in. I added the nuts used to help the carriage move up and down. This leads me to where I am now. I am waiting to get my electronics, which contains the en end-stops. My directions say to go ahead and add them in. I didn't want to be in  difficult place later, so I am delaying until I get them. According to there tracking they are between New Hampshire and here.

Assembly table 

I had originally planned to build a whole desk out of pallet wood, but the wood  kept breaking no matter how gently I pulled them apart. Instead I am using a card table, and a tool holder/riser to hold my TV with build instructions on my Raspberry Pi as well as tool holder. Side note: Broken pallet boards are great for for or bonfires.

Assembly Table