my 3D printer is being horrible again, considering upgrading.

[manikyath]

so.. something like a year ago if memory serves (probably longer, but that'd make me feel old) i got a wanhao on recommendation of a forum user.

 

now.. i love this little printer, with some work done to it i can make it print faster than my friend's ultimaker, but.. its been moody..

 

a quick summing up of the annoyances i had with it:

- the firmware.. is terrible.. it is everything you imagine a chinese 3D printer to be.

- it is noisy as all hell. even with a sound dampening box around it.

- cooling remains problematic. seriously..

- while VERY "modular", maintenance remains a pain, especially because the bearings are as cheaply made as the firmware.

- it just once again ate a buildtak surface, i love buildtak, but GOD is it a pain to replace on this printer. (either i remove it with the heated bed in the printer, or i have to take the heated bed out which means fishing the cable out the controller board)

 

 

as a bit of a thought experiment, disregard all sense of budget, but think in terms of value for money.. i'm looking for a printer that solves some of before mentioned problems, while taking these preferences in mind:

- i DONT want brass nozzles, if it comes with one, i want to swap it out. glowfill will ruin brass so fast

- i am alergic to printer clogs, so i prefer an all metal hotend. MUCH prefer so.

- i use cura, i like cura.

- all the fillament i have is 1.75, i'd prefer to stay with 1.75

- i print with NGEN_FLEX often, i like my feed motor to be as close to the nozzle as possible

- i like a powerful hotend and heated bed, seeing my nozzle go from 30 to 200°c in under a minute screams time efficiency to me

- as before mentioned for heated beds as well, boiling water is the standard

- i like build quality, if it wobbles more than the cabinet its on, i'm turning it into a coathanger.

- 200x200 build platform MINIMUM, the majority of my prints are very large in surface area.

 

my question is, with these things in mind, what options are there? i dont mind some tinkering or modifying, but i eventually want a device i want to be able to walk up to, press print, and not have to mess around for it to work. i'm considering building my own, but i want a good base to start from, and as of yet i havent quite found that either.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Anet a8 /s

 

Honestly find an old ultimaker and fit a flexion extruder to it somehow

[manikyath]

3 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Anet a8 /s

i said something i can expect to work

[iamdarkyoshi]

Just now, manikyath said:

i said something i can expect to work

I dunno, sounds like both my anets are working better than yours, and I have twice as many to have fail

[manikyath]

Just now, iamdarkyoshi said:

I dunno, sounds like both my anets are working better than yours, and I have twice as many to have fail

the printer works.. it just has a number of downsides that kinda bug me.

[werto165]

A core xy (hyper cube)or a cr 10? You could probably make it quieter by getting a ramps board and replacing the motor drivers can't remember the specific ones but there's two options usuallyu for it and one of those is the quieter one.

[Bigbootyjudy]

What's your budget?

 

[manikyath]

11 minutes ago, Bigbootyjudy said:

What's your budget?

 

On 12-8-2017 at 11:40 PM, manikyath said:

as a bit of a thought experiment, disregard all sense of budget, but think in terms of value for money

reading is hard, isnt it?

 

if i wanted, i could get the latest and greatest of our friends at ultimaker, but the amount of money doesnt equate the amount of benefit for me.

[Pixel5]

which wanhao do you have?

 

sounds like it just needs some tweaking and should be good to go.

The Plus models firmware is actually pretty solid but i still recommend anyone to use Octoprint if you really want to print hassle free.

 

Also get a glass plate as print bed, smooth prints and an even surface to print on makes all the difference.

[manikyath]

11 hours ago, Pixel5 said:

which wanhao do you have?

 

sounds like it just needs some tweaking and should be good to go.

The Plus models firmware is actually pretty solid but i still recommend anyone to use Octoprint if you really want to print hassle free.

 

Also get a glass plate as print bed, smooth prints and an even surface to print on makes all the difference.

i3 plus, it just has "severe mood swings"

 

as for the firmware.. i've considered ripping out the controller, the firmware is not doing what i'm telling it to do, thats something i've taken as a certainty by now.

 

EDIT: forgot to mention, i'm unsure about glass at this point, because of several reasons.

[You_are_a_cunt]

Oh so THAT'S where the faint burning smell is coming from.

[Pixel5]

15 hours ago, manikyath said:

i3 plus, it just has "severe mood swings"

 

as for the firmware.. i've considered ripping out the controller, the firmware is not doing what i'm telling it to do, thats something i've taken as a certainty by now.

 

EDIT: forgot to mention, i'm unsure about glass at this point, because of several reasons.

 

what exactly are you trying to do that the firmware doesn't do?

before i started using octoprint i mainly did bed levelings and started prints from the SD card, beside this there was not much i needed to do to get good results.

I did some upgrades to the printer in the last few months like a better cooling fan and shroud and the Z Brace mod.

I also tried different linear bearings but it turned out they were too sticky and caused wobble.

Its also always a good idea to print some belt tensioners just incase they fail and you are good to go.

 

also glass is the ultimate answer to bed leveling and surface smoothness issues but make sure you buy boro silicate glass or you will have bad time.

 

 

all the parts you need for this cost less then 50 bucks and turn this thing into a rock solid printer, if you want to use octoprint you may need a little more then 50 bucks if you dont have a raspberry pi laying around.

 

 

[manikyath]

5 hours ago, Pixel5 said:

 

what exactly are you trying to do that the firmware doesn't do?

before i started using octoprint i mainly did bed levelings and started prints from the SD card, beside this there was not much i needed to do to get good results.

I did some upgrades to the printer in the last few months like a better cooling fan and shroud and the Z Brace mod.

I also tried different linear bearings but it turned out they were too sticky and caused wobble.

Its also always a good idea to print some belt tensioners just incase they fail and you are good to go.

 

also glass is the ultimate answer to bed leveling and surface smoothness issues but make sure you buy boro silicate glass or you will have bad time.

 

 

all the parts you need for this cost less then 50 bucks and turn this thing into a rock solid printer, if you want to use octoprint you may need a little more then 50 bucks if you dont have a raspberry pi laying around.

 

 

i get the feeling that the firmware is straight up ignoring some settings punched into cura, most specificly around speed.

 

i also feel like the temperature isnt quite reading  out right towards ABS temperatures, but i'll have to dig deeper into that.

 

at least wanhao allows me to tweak some shit.

[Hackentosher]

On 8/21/2017 at 0:01 PM, manikyath said:

reading is hard, isnt it?

 

if i wanted, i could get the latest and greatest of our friends at ultimaker, but the amount of money doesnt equate the amount of benefit for me.

So get one of these? http://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/59-original-prusa-i3-mk2-kit.html If I were to do it over again right now, I would buy one of these in a heartbeat over an ultimaker. Ultimakers are nice, but their extruders and hot ends are objectively shit. Also extruders have gotten light enough to where bowden setups are not necessary. Like at all.

[Pixel5]

13 hours ago, manikyath said:

i get the feeling that the firmware is straight up ignoring some settings punched into cura, most specificly around speed.

 

i also feel like the temperature isnt quite reading  out right towards ABS temperatures, but i'll have to dig deeper into that.

 

at least wanhao allows me to tweak some shit.

Speed is a whole other topic for itself, are you talking specifically about higher printing speeds or more slower ones?

 

the firmware as preset values for maximum acceleration on every axis and generally limits that should prevent damage to the moving parts and the drive system.

i typically print at 50mm/s maximum and have slower values for the first layer and outlines so only the infill is actually printed that fast.

 

if you are having problems with the temperature readings you may want to try a new thermistor, drop in replacement is 5 bucks for 3 of them.

http://www.ebay.com.sg/itm/331721610140

 

if you want to change some settings in the firmware you can connect the printer via USB to your PC and you repetier host to gain direct firmware access.