New Frame
I had a lot of ways I wanted to improve the Rostock, and I had never really been happy with that compliant frame. So in 2019, I upgraded Dr Ooze from a Rostock to a Kossel, by adding 2020 section profiles as a chassis. This was better, but it still wasn’t stiff enough and those plastic wheels on 2020 runners were a big backward step for the bearings. So I let it stew for a year….
These parts were printed at work. Wow! The print quality of the Makerbots is really clunky.
Stiffer frame and better bearings
After a brainwave in April 2020, I added back the 8mm smooth rods with direct metal to metal contact with the frame. Finally Dr Ooze now has a stiff and precise frame, which forms a solid basis for all the following upgrades and calibration. At some point it became this wonderful heap of parts on my desk.
I set up a jig on the pillar drill, to get some good precision engineering.
The latest in bioprinting technology.
A bit of Solidworks to design some new 3D printed bearing chariots to fit my new rail spacing. If I were starting from scratch, good quality linear guide rails would be my choice, but I already had the rods.
Three evenings of calibration and tweeking later, and I’ve got a working 3D printer, with a big upgrade in precision.
Put the Electronics in a Box
The test rig has been sitting, guts out, on my desk for 4 years. It really should have it’s own box.
Upgraded to TMC2209 – Trinamic stepper motor drivers
So much quieter and smoother! And I also upgraded the main board to 32Bit MKS SGen L. This upgrade was a week after I made the box above, and it relegated that box to the scrap bin. Ha Ha!
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Moved to Klipper Firmware, added Raspberry Pi print server Octoprint, moved to PrusaSlicer
Klipper calculates all of the printer moves on the massively powerful Raspberry Pi (well, compared to the previous Arduino mega!). This allows the printer to move A LOT faster and smoother. Goodbye Repetier host – I also tried Smoothie firmware on the way, but Klipper was the stand out winner for a modern firmware.
Added Auto Calibration
With a nozzle probe and it just worked! Reflect back on the long nights I spent with MCP calibrating the first version … and this just worked 😀
Added a Part Cooling Fan and Duct
Which really improved print quality and bridging.
Added a Webcam and Octolapse
So it can now film timelapse videos.
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04/06/2020
I’ve got a printer that works.
What to do next?
- tweek the calibration to get better reliability in the first layer.
- extend the print radius out to the whole bed.
- another box for the new electronics.
- tidy up the wires.
print more stuff.Done!- reflect on what I learnt and write it up.
Moving on…
In September 2020 I got a Creality Ender 3 v2, I’ve been printing on that a lot! and Dr Ooze has gone into storage… until the next round of