Author: josh

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Prusa i3 Mk3 Review

Finally, have had five minutes to put together a short review of the Mk3

After a fair few months, my machine arrived all boxed up. the PSU was a little dented soon pulled straight with needle nose pliers but apart from that arrived in good shape.

I decided to build this indoors as the bad weather and space is a factor when dealing with 100s of parts.

this is not my first Prusa kit. the last one took well over 8hrs to build and I did this over to days and then there were a few hrs tinkering to make it print well.

after seeing a few live builds from some of the youtube celebrities. I started it took a lot less time to build than the last one think I had the machine build in around 4hrs. had to do this over a fair few days though as little one had a cold and was in need of daddy time. I blame this for me messing up a few steps. will talk about that later.  the manual is epic and very well documented. I would, however, recommend using the online manual for bigger pictures and comments from users are always helpful.

after the build, I flashed the firmware to the latest version as there updating and fixing stuff all the time.

turned on the machine was greeted with would I like to run the wizard to configure my printer.  said yes it runs through fans bed and got to x then failed with the axis being too short. this had me puzzled for a few days. changed belt tension made sure every this was aligned.

turns out that I had missed a step in extruder assembly and inserted 2 bolts the wrong way around and was missing a few square nuts. hence why I blame macs (my son) as he cannot answer back lol.

once this was corrected ran the self-test again and it flew through without issues.  then calibrated z without an issue.

first layer calibration was a little awkward but think this was down to a firmware issue. as I have now updated firmware and my issues with prints not sticking seems to have gone away.

I printed an exhaust vent for my k40 laser it took 16hr to print. I did this as my first print as wanting to get as much done in a weekend so I can keep articles coming on the website.

I have now printed several of the test prints on the sd card see the images below and as always floorless.

I am yet to test out all the functions of the printer like power panic and was having issues with stepper motor crashes so turned it off as was messing up prints. I have not tested any of the functions since last firmware update. will add my findings to the review once I have tested them out.

my thoughts on the printer so far.

  • price is mid-priced but worth the money for the support and the features
  • quality is great every part fitted and there are spare parts just in case you drop that vital screw or nut.
  • easy to put together great instructions if you read them all Doh.
  • advanced features crash detection power failure and filament sensor I am yet to test but autoload works well just wish that they would implement the self-heat option when inserting filament.

I would recommend this to any hobbyist who is not experienced with 3d printers who want to learn and have a printer that will work out of the box without having to fix issues from poor manufacturing. this printer will produce high-quality parts in a lot of materials.

 

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New Exhaust ducting and fan For K40 Laser cutter

As i had a week end  moving stuff around in the man cave as family where away for the week end i have had some time to re jig things in the cave. It is far from perfect but will do for the short term.

Finally had time to build my Prusa i3 Mk3 as my other 2 printers are in need or repair.

I thought for the first print that i would make a new extractor for fumes as much as i love the smell of burning wood. it can smell quite pungent.  when i start cutting other materials like acrylic it will probably not good to inhale.

the reason for this is the one provided with the K40 is a bad  very cheaply manufactured device that i does not work very well as it dose not sit properly and leaks. also the fan is very badly made.

After looking on thingiverse i found a few designs that i like the look of but settled on this one  as would just fit on the MK3 print bed.  with the a glue stick i got it to print in 16 hrs using 0.2 layer height.

It turned out very nice. i brought some 100 mm tumble dryer vent tubing that might have to change as noticed yesterday that it already got holes in form dragging it around the man cave. will be cutting 100 mm hole in the wall to add a vent in the future or cracking a window to hang it out.

i then attached it to a inline fan and added more tubing the other end i am not convinced the fan i brought is powerful enough but will update this if i have to update the fan.

will be reviewing the Prusa i3 Mk3 soon after i have done some more prints.

 

 

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Light Object Cutting head and air assist upgrade of new mirrors and adding led lights.

Be warned if you’re in the UK import tax is killer on USA imports atm. For mirrors and lens cutting head and the motorized bed had to pay a further £80 in tax.

You will need a cheap pump for this paid £15 for one-off amazon.

Removal of the old cutting head in my case just twisted and it came apart. Removed old cutting head.

Added new mirror and lens to light object cutting head and reinstalled.

Change other 2 mirrors as easy to remove and change you just need to unscrew the cover and replace with the new mirror.

Then realigned the mirrors for the new set up.

Took 2 weeks in the end to align lens and mirrors this was my own fault as I had used an angle girder to cut down my exhaust it had vibrated all mirrors out of alignment loosen mirror mounts.  I managed to bring it in from the man cave as son and wife were having some time with family in Wales.  The joys of dad life and before you ask I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Next up I  installed the cable chain I brought off Amazon,  to hold this on I used 2 cable ties through the laser carriage and shortened the other end of the chain I then stuck the other end down with 3M double sided foam tape.  I then run the silicon tube for air assist. in to control box part f the printer, there is a spare hole at the back of the enclosure I ran the silicon tubing through there.

i then have attached pump which is plugged into the mains i will be making this controllable of my custom control panel once i get some time to build it so probably over the next few weeks.

as i know the workings of this printer runs off 24 and 5 v i opted  to get a set of 5v led M3  light tape 200cm  white. i ran this around the inside of the enclosure and then through in to the control box area of the laser. i will be adding a on off switch to my custom control panel via a 5v power supply to control lights and laser focus tool

i will be adding laser focus tool soon i will also run the wiring for the cable through the chain at some point in the future.

Have more to add soon just posting in dribs and drabs as and when i have time to do stuff.

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K40 Setup and review

I have wanted a Co2 Laser for some time for the man cave as it’s a useful bit of kit. For engraving and cutting materials.

I got a great deal on what is known as a K40 laser these lasers are from china so don’t expect good quality.  If you do your research, you will know what you’re getting in to before you buy.

It arrived. Well packed in massive 42kg box.

What was in the box.

1 x k40 laser cutter.

1 x extraction fan. (rubbish Quality binning and upgrading)

1 x extraction tube. (rubbish Quality binning and upgrading)

1 x water pump. (rubbish Quality binning and upgrading)

1 x usb dongle. (Never used as didn’t use the supplied software)

1 x cd with Chinese cutting software. (Never used as didn’t use the supplied software)

1 x tube of something think its silicon

1 x double sided tape. (meant for mirror alignment)

What you will need to get this working is a bucket and some distilled water as you will need to keep the laser water cooled.

The setup.

You will need at least 5L of distilled water connect pump to water inlet tube and place in bucket with distilled water place the out let tube in there as well. the pump is rubbish some times works some times does not so have to tap it with something heavy.

Install extractor fan and attach extraction tube. again rubbish will need to be upgraded will cover this in a later post once have printed a new exhaust adapter

There is a earth connection that I didn’t use as being in the uk our plugs are earthed.

Then plug it all and switch on.

Make sure you set the dial down before testing the laser as up can possibly blow the laser tube.

Placed some plywood down and hit the test button the gauge registered 5ish mA lifted the lid nothing no marks on the wood. Left lid open and did it again saw the glow of the tube. So knew it was working.

Figured the mirrors were not aligned. Spent the best part of an hour looking at youtube videos and webs sights that all talk about adjusting mirrors but don’t talk about what screw does what.

I decided to sleep on it oh and a have baby. A month later having some man time as wife was away with our son. I came back from a few days working in Amsterdam to the house I decided to bring the laser in the house and work on it as the cave is cramped to work on big stuff. After 40 mins with the aid of some 3d printed parts I got the lens and mirrors aligned at last.  Link to 3d printed parts off thingiverse.com. i also brought and added a 3d printed air-assist and laser pointer for showing were laser was pointing at on the materal got this off ebay.

 

Moved the laser back to the cave and ready to action.

Now I bypassed the Chinese software as had been able to do some research on the machine. I had invested in a 3d printed air assist and laser maker. I also had installed k40 whisper instead of the hacked version coral draw and coral laser.

Cuts and engraves like a dream. Well worth the money.

The future modifications.

As someone who like perfection I have dumped some money on my machine and over the next few months. I will be upgrading the machine.

List of upgrades

New mirrors all around as the quality of the Chinese mirrors are ok but not the best quality. (Done)

New light object air assist and cutting head and cutting lens. (Done)

New Control panel for more functions.

Adding Motorised adjustable bed (Built) wiring loom and board upgrade first.

3d Printed exhaust vent

New exhaust fan

New water cooler pump

Adding Flow and water temp meter.

New controller board and software.

Adding lcd screen

This will be done over the next few months as have limited amount time as family time comes first.

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Been busy working in the background

They say kids change life they are not wrong since having our son have only had time to order new bits and upgrades for equipment. have had not time to test out my new screenz streaming box or get the cameras up and working.

Creality CR-10 large format printer i got from gear best has been working well but as most who know me i cannot leave stuff alone so will be upgrading it shortly already added self leveling probe to the system but more to come.

New in the man cave is my k40 Chinese  Co2 laser cutter that  was OK out of the box. But as being a born to tinker i have already started to modifie the machine. will add a review and upgrade of the machine shortly.

as adding motorized bed new air assist and lens and mirrors as well as a Cohesion3D controller board. i will then be upgrading my control panel for the machine to make it super 

Have had some down time on 3d printing as my Prusa i3 Mk2s MMU kit has not printed right since i upgraded the machine hoping on Prusa support to sort this soon. see image below having jamming issues on second layer.

as the winter nights are still with us been teaching my self cnc cam and i have also invested in a cnc milling machine that should land any day soon need to make some space in the cave for this influx of equipment.

in short good times a head when i get some free time to do stuff will start posing some live video and video reviews of things i am doing soon.

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Sorry for not posting

Have been tied up with the arrival of our son Macsen James in to the world that and my streaming solution has packed.up. i have got a new streaming studio via a kickstarter project i backed a while back.

I am  working on a new way of showing off the cave and projects being run on my 3D printers and laser Cutter.

more news and projects coming soon cannot believe its been since may since i last posted lol

 

 

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Hyper PI Bar Top Retro Arcade. Part 2 Wiring part assembly

Right, a little later than advertised in a prior post. didn’t get wrapped up till the early hours and still waiting on perspex so I can mount the monitor in the box.

started off wiring up all the buttons using the quick wiring loom

you have 4 wires to connect yellow and black are on the actual button on and off. the red and the black wires are for the led power they will only light if connected the right way around there are no markings.  So I would connect the USB board to a laptop and plug Molex into the connector board and loosely connect the red and the black if it doesn’t light first-way swap it over to get the button to light.

After wiring, all the buttons and joystick switches make sure all right if using a windows pc to check to open up joystick settings then can test all buttons and make sure the joystick is set up right as can reverse up, down, left and right.

After wiring all the buttons time to build the frame.

I brought a 100mm set of speakers that were not designed to be installed in this type of cabinet as universal I wanted to make some standoffs so I fired up fusion 360 designed the standoffs and then exported them to STL file which I then sliced and printed.

I then screwed these to the enclosure. I then started to slot the enclosure together as I am still missing the perspex I did not install. hoping that I can do that today.  the joysticks were a tight fit as the screws I used were a little longer than needed so I cut down the support bracket to get them to fit.

was fiddly but i manage to get it all together hoping for a delivery of perspex today so i can mount the monitor.

I decided as I am screwing all components to the baseboard I would print myself a raspberry pi 3 case to screw to the baseboard.

found a nice nettfab case on thingiverse.com and will install this tonight.

was getting very late so I decided to bolt down the joystick PCBs and call it a night.

will post more later today depending on the parts arriving today. will post some final shots of it fully working.

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Hyper PI Bar Top Retro Arcade. Part 1. Applying Graphics and Starting the Cabinet Build.

First of all the why am i doing this. well i used to collect arcade machines and hack mulit board systems. due to now running family business and life being a lot more hectic i had to shut down my xxxx-in-1.com site after it was taken down by hackers. i sold the office that was housing my collection. but miss my arcades machines so decided to build a small one for the man cave.

will cover full size arcade machines soon as will have 2 that i will be modifying in the future to build the ultimate PC driven full size machines.

Back to the build.

i ordered a flat pack kit off ebay. form http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/arcade_flat_pack

i went with a 24″ cabinet design as had a spare monitor kicking around in storage.

I then ordered a cheep set of red and blue led buttons with zippy joysticks can be found on ebay from http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/extreme-hardware  i ordered some extra buttons as the kit could support more than supplied went with white buttons for player 1 and 2 start

they come with usb encoders designed for raspberry pi as low voltage leds instead of the more voltage hungry 12v ones for main stream machines will cover them in other build.

For cabinet graphics i asked mark from arcade flat pack he recommended rockstarprint.co.uk  ended up buy some side art and 3d carbon fiber for other panels.

there are some other bits you will need. amps and speakers whent with 100mm speakers and some 12mm t-molding. from: https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/

You will also need a raspberry pi 3 micro sd card again size is up to how big a image your going to build  and 2 usb memory sticks or powered hard drive depending on how big of a install you want to do as its quite modular.

Recommend getting the pi 3 from http://www.thepihut.com

Sd cards and usb keys are available every ware

tools:

  • Craft knife
  • Screwdriver set
  • some 200 grit sand paper
  • Hex key set

Starting the build i have already test assembled the cabinet to make sure all parts fitted. there was a issue with perspex that is being replaced as 20″ perspex was sent by mistake.  its in transit as i type.  as the wife is out for a few hours thought i would apply artwork and make a start of installing all the buttons.

disassembled kit

removed parts  that i will cover in graphics and vinyl wrap sanded to scratch up the faces that the vinyl is going to cover and removed dust.

ruffly cut the vinyl to shape then started to peel.

Then start in one corner to peel the vinyl and wipe with a cloth.

now trim off over hangs using sharp craft knife position blade at angel cut out any holes and features.

sides done

Insert t-molding and cut to length then tap in to slot using back of a screw driver handle.

now for other panels.

Part 2  Wiring up the buttons and installing speakers and all pcbs coming Monday the 8th time allowing.

Please note all links are people i have brought off and i am not affiliated with all my views are mine and not sponsored.

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Right Lets get started

RIGHT time to lunch the site and get things going sorry for the delay but been ill then busy with work.  but i am back will be kicking of my next post shortly. starting with building a cheep retro arcade bar top using a raspberry pi and Hyper pi to give you the ultimate retro arcade with out a expensive pc.

Then will do a upgrade video on my Original Prusa Mk2 to Mk2s once it arrives

i am having a clear in the cave as have a influx of bits i wanna review but have very little space to do so. i have a few days next week to box up and bag up all the extra stuff i dont need in the cave then should have some more room to build stuff.

Up Coming reviews

Trunis 3D printer / Lazer engraver.

Polymakers Polysmoother and polysmooth PLA.

So whats been happening in my cave

I built my first printer.  My original Prusa i3 Mk has been printing some fun stuff over the last few months. just a few images some of the cool stuff i have built.

Retro Mario Cube Link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1721234

The chaos of the man cave with some new figures i have printed awaiting paint need to clear and re organise.

Candy machine  Link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1453445

Fidgit Spinner with 9.5mm ball bearings and 608ZZ bearings Link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1970961

Will start the build of arcade cabinet later and start posting some images.

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LED Have landed so lets get them prepped for the print and build.

Right as i am waiting for my printer to ship have been getting prepped for adding some mods.  so first project will be adding some LED panels so i can light up the printer and monitor the printer remotely. the reason for doing this is the printer is housed in the man cave and as much as i love watching my prints. i also have to do other things when printing. with  octo print i can keep a eye on prints and stop failed prints before getting a big mess.

Will cover octo print set up on a raspberry pi 3 in a build project in the near future.

have already sliced the print in slicer for some black PLA  the led panels were brought off ebay for a cheep price form Hong Kong and took around 2 weeks to come they are so cheep £2.08

the connectors supplied were for interior lights. luckily the 2 pin connectors that they join to are easily available to buy and have already made up 2 x 1 meter leads.  I have been talking with Scott Smith from prusamk2.com who did the remixed on this design for the lights and he has recommended hooking them directly to power supply so when printer is on lights are on. might add a switch in the near future. have seen several other designs but ended up with these as in have ordered the multi material upgrade for printer so will need the space on top bar.

Tools Used:

  • Wire cutters.
  • Wire stripper.
  • Crimping tool.

Connectors / Materials Used:

  • 2 x 12V Car 48 SMD White LED Lights
  • 2 Pin Dupont Housing Female Free Terminal Connectors.
  • 1 Meter red wire x 2
  • 1 Meter black wire x 2

Cut wire in to  lengths of 1 meter.   Strip tips by 5 mm twist and place in to the crimp connector now for the fiddly bit crimp small crimp part on front of connector to hold the wire then crimp the wire sleeve in the second one.

will add some images of the crimping process.

you can then insert them in to connector they will only fit one way.  Once i have my printer will document connecting them up to the power supply as apparently theirs a 12v spare connection on it.