The MendelMax Experience

Saturday, January 2, 2016

2016! Let's Get this Mutha Printing!

Happy New Year!

2016 has stirred me back up to get printing and tinkering again. Well lets say at the beginning of December 2015 I caught the bug again. I needed to print something I had wanted for a long time and just when I was about to print that famous waa waa waa waaaaaaa sound effect came into my head. Nope printer has suffered a stroke and you are not printing today! I literally spent almost 2 weeks trying to figure out why this happened. I for one am not the best trouble shooter but I had to dig in, who was I gonna call? Started with checking out the power supply, I had one just pop with sparks after it sat for awhile so that's where I started. Stupid me had the wrong voltage set on the meter, AC not DC was reading 25V. Crap I said because this is supposed to be 12V! Hey I found my problem so I thought and proceeded to use a ATX power supply I had lying around. Went thru so YouTube videos and thought I had found the right one. NOPE! Just a little advice if you are going to use an ATX power supply is NOT TO CUT ALL THE WIRES BACK YOU DON'T NEED! Sorry but it didn't work for me and I was careful not to leave any exposed wires. I capped them all with heat shrink tube and only used what I followed on the YT video. Damn thing started to smoke and good thing I didn't plug it into the Arduino Mega board. Took a step back and tested my power supply again and it was fine with the correct 12v DC output it should be.

Next I unplugged everything on the Arduino and just plugged the motors back in. I disconnected the extruder filament so it could just move and not push filament thru. I used the RAMPS 1.4 test code for the Arduino and the motors tested fine. You can find that code thru the link above down towards the bottom of the page. I then used the EPROM clear from the example codes provided by the Arduino software to clear out its memory. With me being overly cautious I always save the same files in a few different places and I could not zero in on the last know good Marlin config code I had saved. I was forced to start over and use the updated Marlin, Arduino software and then the newer Slicer and Pronterface programs. I seemed to have gotten things semi back to normal but it still isn't right to me. The motors have different tones now as they move which isn't the end of the world but those of you know when you get used to something it causes you to find out why its not the same and well you know what I mean.

I may be changing things up a bit as I would like to build a new 3D printer. The Kossel is what I want to build and looks very promising!

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Some more shots of busy things

I finally have all my updated motors installed. I waited on the Z axis motors and found a deal so bought those. I added some feet levelers with rubber pads on them. And also have some shots of the new Y axis carriage I printed out. Its so much better than what I had and much lighter. I did print a Google watch holder for a friend but didn't take any pics of that

A new beginning? .... !

Way too long between posts. Well life gets in the way and the fun stuff suffers. Well life is fun as well but you know what I mean! I put the breaks on my 3D printer over the past year but was able to make some adjustments here and there. I cleaned up the printer, turned it on and printed a 25 mm calibration cube. Not too bad as my numbers are just off by a pinch. I setup a new project area for model building and made a nice spot for the printer, I just need to keep the area clutter free. Right... So here are a couple pictures of this new thing I am making. Its called the screamer and you can get it here SCREAMER. If it works well I will get some other colors made.

Just realized I used the same Life gets in the way speech! The portal gun from my last post was scrapped. I couldn't get past a couple of the parts to print and my son lost interest. I'm gonna really try to keep up and want to eventually maybe create a new printer with my MendelMax, hopefully I didn't say that in my last post from last year!

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Long overdue update with pics!

So life got in the way of posting and update so here were are. I am in the process of printing a Portal Gun from the game. Portal Gun
Those not familiar with the game, go here(Portal) to check it out. Its from Valve and I being an avid gamer myself along with my son, really enjoy playing it

I want to upgrade the bed I have to a lighter rig so that's one of my near future plans. I had a big mess develop with the clear filament I had. It really was garbage and lesson learned. If its brittle when you buy it, don't use it, return it, never buy from that vendor again, period. Then I was printing some lucky money Buddha's for family members and the red I had sprung off the holder and that was not fun I can tell you. Don't let that happen!!! Summer is coming up quick and hopefully will have some pics up of the finished portal gun real soon!!

I found out something interesting to help in sticking the objects to the boro glass. Elmer's Glue Stick! I stopped using Kapton tape and was strictly using hairspray that is until I found the stick. Cleans off with water and just apply it after you have started heating the bed. I don't know how many uses you will get out of a application of the glue buts its a welcome addition!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

I have an update coming real soon and some pictures.... Be sure to check out my BoM list to help with your DIY printer!

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Spring is trying to ... well spring!

So it took 1 month and no patience to decide to go back to my Greg's/Wade extruder. I couldn't get the micro tuned in and I didn't want to try anymore. My time is valuable these days and I've wasted more time dickin' around with the printer and not making things! I'll throw up some pictures I have and I finally put together a BoM list. I didn't include prices as they change week to week. I included vendors I actually bought my stuff from and some that I bought other items from after I had my printer built. But I like their style of doing business and that's what counts in my (thin) book!
Of course you will find things all over the place and my advice would be try to get things grouped up to save on shipping. I gave up on that because I kept forgetting to get this or that and then realizing hey that the wrong this or that after ordering and well you get the picture... Some of my listed vendors have the same things as others do on my list so it's how you want to spend your money. I did save money building/sourcing myself so I'm happy about that. You live and learn on purchases and I think I have noted that previously here.
Ok so now how to I add a file to my blog......... hmmmmm...... BRB!

My list is what I purchased to build my MendelMax 1.5. I have purchased other thing as well after this was built and your milage may vary with your build. Ask any comments you wish and I will try to answer them the best I can!

Ok for now you can download the BoM

Just right click and "save as"

Here.... Mendel Max BoM 1.5

Monday, February 25, 2013

And going.... and going...

So I am into my 4th month with my printer. I wish I could say its been a smooth ride but I have had some setbacks. For one thing my .35mm J-Head V-BV came apart somehow and I wasn't able to salvage the PEEK, so there went another $30! Put it back together and failed to see that I needed a piece from the old unit I cut up and had to order a new hollow set screw to hold back the inner tube. I am printing off a new extruder body as I am changing to a micro extruder with a PG35 motor. Its a direct drive unit and as of today am waiting for more parts to show up.... Parts Parts parts..... you never know what you will need and then realize you should have ordered 3!! maybe 4 even..... I have been trying out new colors and the transparent ABS I used really is a show stopper! It printed like a wet dream and I will be buying more of that. I have red but not liking that as it is de-laminating a bit. I currently am using silver and it is turning out really nice. Here are a couple pics of some progress

Not so good Red