Midnight Makers - Let's Build & Calibrate Our PrintrBot Simple Metal 3D Printer! (May 28th & 29th)

LisaSelk · May 12, 2015, 5:44am

Two classes coming up at the end of this month:

Midnight Makers - Let’s Build a PrintrBot Simple Metal 3D Printer!
Thu, May 28, 11:45pm – Fri, May 29, 3:45am
Midnight Makers - Let’s Configure Our PrintrBot Simple Metal 3D
Printer! Fri, May 29, 11:45pm – Sat, May 30, 3:45am

These are classes for Midnight Makers at the 'Space!

Let’s meet at 11:45 PM on Thursday night in the small conference room (“Quiet Room”) to get things moving, and work on building a shiny new PrintrBot Simple Metal 3D Printer until around 3:45 AM Friday morning.
Let’s meet at 11:45 PM on Friday night in the small conference room (“Quiet Room”) to get things moving, and work on configuring our shiny new PrintrBot Simple Metal 3D Printer until around 3:45 AM Saturday morning.

We’ll work on building the printer during the first class, and will work on calibrating it during the following class.

Members who attend (and assist) for at least two hours on both nights will be added to a list of members who will help maintain the printer.

Once we complete the build, we will have a 3D printer available to print PLA on, as well as experiment with some of the other alternate types of filament on the market now. Some of the types of filament I’ve read others have been able to print on the PrintrBot Simple Metal are:
BambooFill
BronzeFill
Ninjaflex
Semiflex
LayWood
LayBrick
GlowintheDark
Taulman Bridge
Taulman PCTPE
Taulman T-Glass

I can hardly wait to try some of these out!

paulstaf · May 12, 2015, 1:08pm

My friend and I built mine in about 4 hours one evening about 3 weeks ago. Great little printer so far. I gouged my Kapton tape and that is when I discovered that using the blue painter’s tape instead of the Kapton seemed to work much better. Mine has a heated bed.

Their instructions were lacking a little bit in a few areas relating to the heated bed. There are many ‘notes’ by people who have put them together, so make sure you read through those as they are very helpful where the official documentation is lacking. Also make sure you are reading the specific instructions set for the printer you are building…there seems to be slightly different variations.

If you have a heated bed, you will find some plastic pieces that there aren’t instructions for, and they go between the steel ends and the aluminum bed to help insulate the heated bed and prevent heat dissipating off the steel ends. Also, there will be a silver aluminum blanket with no instructions and it goes on the outside of the heater element as you connect it to the aluminum bed. It too is an insulator to try and reflect all the heat back into the aluminum bed. Besides those couple of items it is a pretty “by the book” build.

Also, if you have a heated bed, you don’t need to install the round barrel power connector because it won’t be used. The ATX power supply connects directly to the board because the barrel connector cannot handle the current.

I recommend using the filament they send with the printer until you have it all calibrated and then try other filaments…you don’t want to introduce variables into the mix before you have it running properly on the supplied filament. Wish I could come watch, but I am a daytime worker, and that conflicts with being a Thursday, midnight maker…

themitch22 · May 12, 2015, 10:11pm

This will be like the Mendel90 build class except it won’t take nearly as long to build

The good thing about the Printrbot as well is the calibration is already setup for Slic3r, Cura, Simplify3D, etc. There might be some adjustment for extrusion speeds depending on the filament and nozzle size.

Another note is the extruder needs to be modified if we want to use Ninjaflex, even then it’s still not as clean printing as I’ve seen the PolyPrinters do with Ninjaflex. Semiflex might print better. My experience with @redslashace Printrbot was overall amazing for the price, but ninjaflex is definitely a different game.

I would recommend 0.5mm+ nozzles if we are going to use T-Glase, Laywood and other *Fill materials since they can jam and they don’t flow as well.

I can’t wait for the class though, it sounds like fun.

I’m probably putting myself in a corner but there’s a possibility the Mendel90 will be printing by the time we start the Printrbot build.

LisaSelk · May 12, 2015, 10:27pm

@paulstaf & @themitch22 ~ Thx for the tips guys! I’ve been reading up on their forums and lots of good hints 'n tips there, too (such as labeling the wires 'n all… ); but, real first hand knowledge from y’all - especially info specific to the model we have - is much appreciated! We do have a heated bed (plan on using the blue painters tape with it); and, will def keep this info handy during the build!

oh 'n I’ll be sure to order .5 mm nozzles!

Any other hints 'n tips will also be much appreciated! From what I’ve read (and watched via YouTube) so far, it seems like a pretty easy build… I am totally stoked about this!!!

LisaSelk · May 28, 2015, 3:21am

TOMORROW is the Big Night!

Let’s meet Thursday Night at 11:45 PM to get things rolling for Midnight Makers - Let’s Build a PrintrBot Simple Metal 3D Printer!

Awesomer · May 28, 2015, 5:32am

Screw Sleep, I will sleep when I am dead. Planning on being there.

…X…

LisaSelk · May 28, 2015, 5:36am

Awesome @Awesomer! Less than 24 hours until we begin!!!

Here are a couple pages to skim through in the meantime…

http://printrbot.com/project/simple-metal

Specifically, go down to the Videos section and watch over 'em, if you get a chance…

http://help.printrbot.com/Guide/Printrbot+Metal+Simple+(Model+1403)+Rev+F+Printrboard/151

This is the guide for the model we have (Ref F). There are links to more guides (such as for installing the heated bed, etc…) on this page.

LisaSelk · May 29, 2015, 12:35am

Getting sooooooooo close to time!

I’m sure a lot of y’all are familiar with Tom’s Reviews! He did a walk-through on how to assemble a Printrbot Simple Metal Kit… It’s actually for the one just prior to the Rev that we purchased; however, he makes note of what the differences are, so it’s still totally relevant!

Here are the videos… Enjoy!

LisaSelk · May 29, 2015, 11:36am

@Gimli, @Matthew_Hoinkes, James, @themitch22 joined me tonight to build our newest 3D Printer! Her name is Midnight, and we are gonna crank her up n get her calibrated tonight!

LisaSelk · June 2, 2015, 9:14am

Quick update: “Midnight”, our new Printrbot Metal Simple 3D printer is out of the box and on the table; but, it is NOT quite ready to be used yet.

Unless you are one of the five members who worked on it Thursday & Friday - or Sean (since he’s helping with the Banana Pi 'n all), please do not mess around with it at this time.

I’ll be sure to let y’all know (here and on TALK) when it’s working and we are ready to train members to use it.

Thanks!