Post by scottadams on Aug 3, 2016 1:22:37 GMT
I wrote these down when I was building my 1.1 printer a few months back and kept forgetting to post them. Some have already been addressed/fixed in other threads. In no particular order:
Much of this is nit picky, and some of it is just me being new to 3D printing. But I figured I'd still post it since the Eclips3D2 is coming quickly and maybe some of this would help it be that much better. I'm still VERY happy I chose the Eclips3D printer and love to print with it and tinker with it. When I go to the big Bay Area Maker Faire and see dozens of 3D printer models and my Eclips3D outperforms most of them in speed and quality I feel like I made a great decision!
- Make printed parts have clearance holes where they don't need screw thread engagement.
- The ends of the extrusion are sharp and will cut or scratch. Source or print caps for the 8 points that are uncovered.
- Print the spacer part in a way that the first few squished layers don't throw off the measurements. Maybe have a metal piece cut (could just be flat), and put the expected dimension(s) in the instructible.
- Reshoot the Instructibles photos showing the correct counts of items, hopefully with more contrast so that parts are easy to see. Or just add CAD renders.
- Finish incomplete steps in the Instructible.
- Refer to parts in the Instructible by both part name and number, not just number.
- Instead of suggesting to Loctite the grub screws when first installed, suggest doing it after the belts have been installed and pulley location calibrated. Also maybe suggest Purple Loctite instead of blue, which is meant for screws this small.
- Either slot B4 in the other direction to allow for variance in how far the rods insert into A16 and A17, or give us an assembly length for the whole rod+A16/A17 brackets so that the B4 bracket holes can line up perfectly so that binding along the Y slider rods doesn't happen. Or just make bigger holes in B4 instead of slots.
- Use nylon washers instead of metal ones for end stops and other places we attach PCBs, like on the Azteeg.
- Use square M3 nuts under the heat bed to tighten up the screw instead of super glue.
- Make belt tensioning easier somehow. Idler pulleys, or a screw based tightener on the back of the gantry that pulls the belts together.
- Switch to 24V system. Motors run cooler, bed and extruder heat faster, and smaller wire diameter can be used. But a DC-DC solid state relay is the safe way to power the heated bed.
- Change to pan head screws in the ends of the printed parts that hold the Y rods (A9 & A10) so that the screws going down can be accessed and adjusted without a socket head cap screw being in the way.
- The idler bearing are about 1mm too close in height offset and my belts rub slightly. Another washer on the tall idler assembly lower section would likely fix it. These are the ones on the front of the printer and aren't easily fixable since they're a bit burried under other parts once assembled. If you changed things so that the pulleys mounted on the underside of the mounting plate then they'd be adjustable, plus you could move the lower top/front extrusion down to allow for better visibility of the first few layers and other things like bed adjustment. Moving that extrusion down might also increase stiffness overall in that axis.
- The main gantry printed part is weak on the back where the three square nuts go. The whole back should probably be thicker. Also, the nut arm on the top front left that the blower fan mounts to is weak (mine broke in the mail).
- It looks like the whole z height could be easily increased with the existing parts, or at most four longer extrusions for the vertical members from Misumi. That cost is only about $5 and would give about an extra 40mm of z height.
- Consider adding post-install extrusion nuts to the BOM so that parts can be added after the frame is assembled without disassembling everything. This would simplify the assembly directions too since you wouldn't have to add the extrusion nuts into the frame if you weren't doing an enclosure or mounting other optional things to the frame.
- It would be really nice if we could figure out a good way to move the belt attachment points from the front of the gantry to the rear or something so that there is a more direct way to see and get to the extruder.
- Since the 30mm E3D fan is so loud and annoying it would be great if the gantry allowed for a quiet after market 40mm fan.
- For the people that want to, it would be nice to do custom cable lengths to that routing cables is cleaner. I guess that would mean a set install location for everything, wire lengths, and all the bits needed for the connectors.
- Don't cut the PTFE tube horizontally flush with A4 and A5. Instead, cut it angled or curved to be nearly flush with the hobbed gear and bearing so that it could potentially be used with slightly flexible filament better.
- Don't skimp on the power supply, and get a quiet one if possible (if using near people).
- The printed power switch holder should have a back on it so that 120VAC isn't touchable by fingers. A printed guard on the power supply terminals would be good too, or at least recommend people print one and install it soon.
Much of this is nit picky, and some of it is just me being new to 3D printing. But I figured I'd still post it since the Eclips3D2 is coming quickly and maybe some of this would help it be that much better. I'm still VERY happy I chose the Eclips3D printer and love to print with it and tinker with it. When I go to the big Bay Area Maker Faire and see dozens of 3D printer models and my Eclips3D outperforms most of them in speed and quality I feel like I made a great decision!