Folger Tech 2020 i3 Printer Kit (Official Thread)

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LancelotL
Very impressed. I have everything calibrated and tweaked. This is my largest and most complicated print yet. The detail is fantastic.

That is pretty sweet. The overhangs that make up the eye sockets look really good too. What layer height did you use?

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woodknack

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msaeger

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animoose
I would love to see some pictures of the new extruder drive front end, if someone could take a few and post them.

What part do you mean by the front end?

I have been printing out this mount. [www.thingiverse.com] I don't know if it's worth it or not it's probably going to hang over the front side just as much as the setup I have not using your mounting block I modified.

Can i ask what you might gain by that extruder mount? I was thinking about changing too but mine is running pretty good now. Also The one you are doing is direct drive. From what i've read(I could be wrong) a geared driven extruder is faster then a direct drive. So really your just putting the same thing on that you already have. Now if you put on a ed3 with an external motor drive (something thats not hanging off the x carriage that is gear driven) then I see an advantage. Less stuff hanging way off the x carriage = less weight and vibration. Plus a gear driven extruder for faster prints. Then I see an advantage.

Probably nothing something is just compelling me to make it. The only thing that might be be better is the weight is more centered over the axis instead of hanging over the side but probably won't make a difference. Are you talking about a bowden setup? otherwise weather the extruder has a gear or not the motor is still going to be moving.

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Newbie with Folgertech 2020 i3.

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therippa


Also, I found a better x-endstop holder - [www.thingiverse.com]

3X4n3ub.jpg

Very nice, I like it. On my list.

I think I'll grab some good lm88us as well. Bowden and then Lead screws will be soon enough, already printed those parts a while ago just a matter of picking them up.
Has anyone else switched out their stepper motors ever to 0.9 degree ones or am I alone in that?



Myself, I'm down for a day or two right now, changing out the autolevel setup a little. It works great, but, the micro switches I had around that I used were the "snap" kind (I think that's the right description?) Basically, they require too much force to engage. So much that you can see the Z carriage just barely unload and even the servo bracket I was using bend a tad bit. Obviously not good when you need that to be accurate and consistent.

Because the servo bracket sandwiched between the stock Folger Tech heatsink and fan, there's only those two bolts holding it in.

This is the one I was using, going to toss it

[www.thingiverse.com]

This is the new one, it's mounted now and is in nice and tight. I'll design something for myself as a challenge when I'm back up and running. [www.thingiverse.com]


I had other microswitches around that require much less force to engage -- they are smaller, so, had to print another servo arm. For anyone looking for a servo arm (or anything servo related, as it's modeled already in OpenSCAD and easy to modify), I used this which was originally designed by the creator of the HeaterMeter... which is how I got into 3d printing in the first place
[www.thingiverse.com]

Hmmm still chasing this over extrusion thing. I have narrowed it down to looks like it is over extruding the outside layer. I currently have the shell thickness at 0.6 (went down from 0.8 as a test) in cura. It only seems to do it on small parts. I am printing something that gets bigger as it goes up and the over extrusion goes away as the print gets bigger. I am out of ideas. Temp doesn't seem to change it.

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built350camaro
Hmmm still chasing this over extrusion thing. I have narrowed it down to looks like it is over extruding the outside layer. I currently have the shell thickness at 0.6 (went down from 0.8 as a test) in cura. It only seems to do it on small parts. I am printing something that gets bigger as it goes up and the over extrusion goes away as the print gets bigger. I am out of ideas. Temp doesn't seem to change it.

Try a different slicer (like slic3r) and see if that makes a difference.

I think I might have figured it out. I lowered the shell thickness down to .4 and it seems to have helped. It only does it on a overhang. Once the print goes up it is perfect.

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therippa

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animoose

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therippa

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srcga
Went to put some lithium grease in the bearings on the Y carriage last night.

I just loosened the rods and backed them out enough to get inside the bearings.

Getting a bit of bearing noise now, hope I didn't bend the rods . Will try to see if I can get them aligned and quiet it down

These LM8UU bearings are starting to get on my nerves. When replacing the y-carriage this weekend, I noticed one of them had worn out a gasket and started chewing into the chrome rod. Replace all of them, ordered a new rod. I have maybe 6 hours on the new set and one of them is already so bad the grinding noise made me kill a print in progress. I think I finally may get around to installing the igus bushings I have (should have just done that this weekend, but wanted to save them for the x-carriage).

Edit: Nevermind, I'm an idiot, one of the nuts fell of one of the corner screws on the heatbed, and the screw was making the noise

I've had exactly the same thing happen, and also got vibration from the clips that I use to hold the glass down to the heated bed. And I think the aluminium bed acts like a big sounding board so things sound worse than they really are. That said, I'd like to hear how it works out with igus bushings, as I've considered doing that as well.

I have 4 RJZM-02-08, purchased here while they were still $5, and just ordered 4 RJ4JP-01-08 from here, but they won't be delivered until mid-November. It's really hard finding the right size, as most of their bushings that have an 8mm hole are 1mm too long and too thick, so you'd have to remix anything that takes an LM8UU to fit.

If these end up having backlash problems like a few people describe, I'm going to suck it up and buy proper LM8UU's at $5-6/piece.

Also, I found a better x-endstop holder - [www.thingiverse.com]

3X4n3ub.jpg

I just ordered (12) RJ4JP-01-08 bearings from Igus US in RI. They were in stock and are on their way, tracking shows them arriving (VA) tomorrow (I placed the order yesterday). They were $2.31 each plus shipping. I used our company account so I'm not sure if they are sold directly to the public or not!?!? I'll list the sales guy contact info below, he was very helpful and they were a pleasure to deal with. FYI: These are not listed on the site as of yet, so you'll have to contact Igus directly to purchase.

Andres Flores AFlores@igus.com

Inside Technical Sales

igus® Inc.
257 Ferris Ave
Rumford, RI 02916

To my unskilled 3d eyes but skilled plastic processing eyes, it looks like a shrinkage problem coupled with not enough grip on the glass plate. Just my humble suggestion.

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srcga

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therippa


Also, I found a better x-endstop holder - [www.thingiverse.com]

3X4n3ub.jpg

Did you notice any difference in print quality by changing out your lead screw?

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woodknack

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srcga

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therippa


Also, I found a better x-endstop holder - [www.thingiverse.com]

3X4n3ub.jpg

Did you notice any difference in print quality by changing out your lead screw?

Hard to say, I did a bunch of other upgrades along with it, and noticed better print quality. What I do notice with the lead screw is better printer quality... they don't bend like the provided screw rods do, and when I raise by z-axis past the 50% point, the printer doesn't look like it wants to tear itself apart anymore.

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therippa

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woodknack

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srcga

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therippa


Also, I found a better x-endstop holder - [www.thingiverse.com]

3X4n3ub.jpg

Did you notice any difference in print quality by changing out your lead screw?

Hard to say, I did a bunch of other upgrades along with it, and noticed better print quality. What I do notice with the lead screw is better printer quality... they don't bend like the provided screw rods do, and when I raise by z-axis past the 50% point, the printer doesn't look like it wants to tear itself apart anymore.

I may make the change. But right now its running so good I don't dare touch anything. LOL I also wish the price was less for those rods and nuts.

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woodknack

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therippa

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woodknack

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srcga

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therippa


Also, I found a better x-endstop holder - [www.thingiverse.com]

3X4n3ub.jpg

Did you notice any difference in print quality by changing out your lead screw?

Hard to say, I did a bunch of other upgrades along with it, and noticed better print quality. What I do notice with the lead screw is better printer quality... they don't bend like the provided screw rods do, and when I raise by z-axis past the 50% point, the printer doesn't look like it wants to tear itself apart anymore.

I may make the change. But right now its running so good I don't dare touch anything. LOL I also wish the price was less for those rods and nuts.

Well, list yourself on 3dhubs, do a print or three for cash, and then buy them

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Mach

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LancelotL
Very impressed. I have everything calibrated and tweaked. This is my largest and most complicated print yet. The detail is fantastic.

That is pretty sweet. The overhangs that make up the eye sockets look really good too. What layer height did you use?

Thanks! I used 0.25 mm. I had some odd gaps between filaments at the honeycomb holes on the very top of the skull. Nothing serious but not perfect and I'm not quite sure how to fix that. Maybe I just need to put a couple more solid layers at the very top. Just ordered some glow in the dark ABS and will try it again! By the way, what purpose do the add-on cooling fans serve that blow down on the heat bed? Is that so the plastic cools down faster after it has been extruded?

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LancelotL

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Mach

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LancelotL
Very impressed. I have everything calibrated and tweaked. This is my largest and most complicated print yet. The detail is fantastic.

That is pretty sweet. The overhangs that make up the eye sockets look really good too. What layer height did you use?

Thanks! I used 0.25 mm. I had some odd gaps between filaments at the honeycomb holes on the very top of the skull. Nothing serious but not perfect and I'm not quite sure how to fix that. Maybe I just need to put a couple more solid layers at the very top. Just ordered some glow in the dark ABS and will try it again! By the way, what purpose do the add-on cooling fans serve that blow down on the heat bed? Is that so the plastic cools down faster after it has been extruded?

Yes, the extra fans cool the top layer so that it does not get deformed when the extruder works on the next layer. Care has to be taken though to avoid cooling the bed and the nozzle with the fan, to avoid lifting and jamming. some people make a fan shroud to put around the heatsink fan to redirect the extra air coming from the fan, instead of using a extra fan. I should probably do this for my printer, but I am to lazy to design a custom one for my bowden setup

Hi, i'm new to 3D printing and just got this kit in the mail. I started building it, but got stuck at the first step. When attaching the 2020 corner brackets with 4mm T-Nuts and 4Mx8MM Pan Head Bolts, the corner bracket doesn't attach to the 2020 frame piece. The corner bracket falls out and slides around. The same thing happens with the SK8's. Can someone please help me solve this problem?

Thanks.

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twigtree
Hi, i'm new to 3D printing and just got this kit in the mail. I started building it, but got stuck at the first step. When attaching the 2020 corner brackets with 4mm T-Nuts and 4Mx8MM Pan Head Bolts, the corner bracket doesn't attach to the 2020 frame piece. The corner bracket falls out and slides around. The same thing happens with the SK8's. Can someone please help me solve this problem?

Thanks.

Corner are secured with set screws... The t-nuts are a little more tricky. They may turn on there own as you tight the screw or you may have to help them with a small screw drive or paper clip.

Hello everyone... I have started working on my printer and I have a couple of questions.

When fixing the rods at the bottom frame I flip the rods and end up with the 2 LM8UU on the left and the single one at the right side of the frame, did this will make difference or can i keep it like that and continue?



As I'm not sure about the bearings I'm wandering if the location of the belt carriage on the bed has to move from the holes closer to the bearing holder (as is on the pictures from the guide) or be put on the ones at the center of the plate?

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Mr.Fus
<------------------------------------------------->
Green M3D (Running v.1.3.6.3Beta)
FolgerTech Prusa i3 (2020 Frame)
<------------------------------------------------>

Sorry that this isn't related to your question, but are the SK8's and corner brackets mounted to your frame? Mine fall out and slide around.

Thanks

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Mrfus
Hello everyone... I have started working on my printer and I have a couple of questions.

When fixing the rods at the bottom frame I flip the rods and end up with the 2 LM8UU on the left and the single one at the right side of the frame, did this will make difference or can i keep it like that and continue?

14442588662361393696746.jpg

As I'm not sure about the bearings I'm wandering if the location of the belt carriage on the bed has to move from the holes closer to the bearing holder (as is on the pictures from the guide) or be put on the ones at the center of the plate?

14442595203091269676782.jpg

It doesn't matter what side the 2/1 bearings are. You want to keep all of that stuff loose and get it so the center belt holder thingy is in the center of the frame.

Ok... then im going on the right direction!

The SK8s and corner brackets are just tightened enough so they dont slide off the frame if i move it around... i let the parts too loose when i started and everything was falling apart!

Im guessing that after the steeper, belt and the other components of the Y axis are mounted i will have to loose the screws and realign the whole assembly to get it centered on the frame?

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twigtree
Sorry that this isn't related to your question, but are the SK8's and corner brackets mounted to your frame? Mine fall out and slide around.

Thanks

Like Mopar mentioned above, the corner brackets are secured with the M3 (3mm) set screws that are included in the kit with the other screws and such. The SK8s are secured with the 5mm T-nut and a M4 (4mm x 8mm) socket head screw that looks like this


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2015 07:57PM by Mach.

I'm just about at my wit's end with an issue I'm having. I built the 2020 and calibrated it a few weeks ago, and everything was working great. Then a week ago I tried to calibrate the stepper drivers with them all plugged in - my probe slipped and I shorted the rightmost pin (+V) on the Z stepper driver to the leftmost pin (GND) on the Y stepper driver. Saw sparks fly and my printer would no longer connect.

So I ordered a new Mega and RAMPS board and 2 stepper drivers to replace the affected components. Got them today and plugged them all in. Now the stepper drivers are receiving signal, but NONE of them work properly with the manual controls in Repetier. Here's how they're behaving:

X: Jerks around when moving in positive or negative direction. Sometimes when I increment by 1, it turns jerkily for a little turn, and sometimes it just buzzes and doesn't move.
Y: For the most part same behavior as X axis. One time I tried to move 10 steps in the negative Y direction and it moved across the entire axis and slammed into the endstop.
Z: Turns loudly and jerkily

When I try to move the X axis .1 steps, it does fairly well. When I try to move it 10 steps, it whirrs and sounds like it should when it's moving, but doesn't turn the motor. Could this be an issue with stepping speed?

I know the stepper motors are receiving some sort of signal since they're all moving in the right direction, just jerkily and intermittently. Voltages are set to .3-.5V and I'm sure there's no endstop problem since I'm setting the stops manually and Repetier doesn't give any endstop hit messages. I also tried reflashing the firmware and reinstalling Repetier, same deal. What could this possibly be? Usually you see problems with one particular motor, but ALL of my motors are misbehaving. Did I demagnetize my motors or get a bad replacement RAMPS or Mega, or could the problem be with the power supply?

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2015 08:42PM by em00.

I have already printed this i3 Y Belt Holder and I'm going to print the end support that you were mentioning on the previous posts (X End Stop).

I made some numbers, the distance center to center of the rods should be close to 14 cm, the 2020 is 37.5 cm and the SK8 is 42mm wide, so from the edge of the frame to the edge of the SK8 I should measure 9.65 cm and that should make the Y-axis construction close to perfect center on relation to the whole frame... at least I think should be!!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2015 10:14PM by Mrfus.

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Mr.Fus
<------------------------------------------------->
Green M3D (Running v.1.3.6.3Beta)
FolgerTech Prusa i3 (2020 Frame)
<------------------------------------------------>

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em00
I'm just about at my wit's end with an issue I'm having. I built the 2020 and calibrated it a few weeks ago, and everything was working great. Then a week ago I tried to calibrate the stepper drivers with them all plugged in - my probe slipped and I shorted the rightmost pin (+V) on the Z stepper driver to the leftmost pin (GND) on the Y stepper driver. Saw sparks fly and my printer would no longer connect.

So I ordered a new Mega and RAMPS board and 2 stepper drivers to replace the affected components. Got them today and plugged them all in. Now the stepper drivers are receiving signal, but NONE of them work properly with the manual controls in Repetier. Here's how they're behaving:

X: Jerks around when moving in positive or negative direction. Sometimes when I increment by 1, it turns jerkily for a little turn, and sometimes it just buzzes and doesn't move.
Y: For the most part same behavior as X axis. One time I tried to move 10 steps in the negative Y direction and it moved across the entire axis and slammed into the endstop.
Z: Turns loudly and jerkily

When I try to move the X axis .1 steps, it does fairly well. When I try to move it 10 steps, it whirrs and sounds like it should when it's moving, but doesn't turn the motor. Could this be an issue with stepping speed?

I know the stepper motors are receiving some sort of signal since they're all moving in the right direction, just jerkily and intermittently. Voltages are set to .3-.5V and I'm sure there's no endstop problem since I'm setting the stops manually and Repetier doesn't give any endstop hit messages. I also tried reflashing the firmware and reinstalling Repetier, same deal. What could this possibly be? Usually you see problems with one particular motor, but ALL of my motors are misbehaving. Did I demagnetize my motors or get a bad replacement RAMPS or Mega, or could the problem be with the power supply?

Did you home the axis before you tried to move them?

Thanks for the suggestion - I definitely homed every axis before moving them. Ran into that issue during the build.

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srcga

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therippa


Also, I found a better x-endstop holder - [www.thingiverse.com]

3X4n3ub.jpg

Very nice, I like it. On my list.

[/quote]

Printed this -- nice piece but I think I am going to remix this one -- the stock Folger X carriage hits the endstop mount before the switch itself.

Shoot. I'm also looking for a replacement. I broke my Z-axis endstop cranking down on the bolt trying to get it to stop sliding around. I moved that one to the X axis for now so I can print something better.

I did a very simple remix to try to avoid the problem of hitting the mount before the endstop: [www.thingiverse.com].

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See my blog at [moosteria.blogspot.com].

Well, this is the X endstop I'm using at the moment. It works better than any of the others I've tried. It can't be bumped around, and the X carriage can't hit the bracket before the motor trips the switch. I will probably tweak it a bit at some point. When I offset the sensor mount further left, to allow access to the lower mounting hole without removing the sensor board, I lost a few mm of print area at the right side of the bed.

[www.thingiverse.com]

I've tried other mounts that were so loose, that just homing the x axis caused the mounting bracket to move over just a tiny amount each time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2015 02:58PM by Bert3D.

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Folger Tech 2020 i3 Wiki

Custom google search for the Folger Tech 2020 i3 forum topic by Animoose

My Thingiverse Designs

Is that meant to go on the right side? (I figure it should be easy to mirror to mount it on the left...)