I think a holiday was what I needed to get my head in the right place for this stupid printer!

Turns out the current Marlin forks have removed the probe feature, as its being reworked. I figured this out in the longest way possible – after around two days of calibrating my z offsets with software. I go to probe, nothing happens. I re compile my old firmware, i get the probe, but no soft end stops. Two weeks later, I just accept that, and use my screws as end stop offsets, and I have the probe back.
Other mods have been a new fan bracket thing for the hot end – it kept colliding into the X and Y towers – now they’re at an offset and fits well – what it hits now though, is the probe pillar, the little thing that puts the probe away after it completes its 22 point calibration!
Maybe I should go to FSRs, but that would mean that I have to undo / redo a lot of work – not happening anytime soon!
The fans are too good though, and my stupid heater cannot manage to keep temps. it got to around 180 despite the target being 210. I reached for my e – z fuse tape, and applied it – now its lovely and insulated, looks pretty decent also.

I’m running new filament, after printing a new spool holder, the thing can be left, I’ve gone shopping to return home to completed prints, its a good feeling! The filament looks good, I have printed around a third of the spool so far, and its been trouble free.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:992116

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ERCEAGW/ref=sr_ph?ie=UTF8&qid=1441382224&sr=1&keywords=filament
I did have some prints go bad, what looks like the z axis got some skipped steps (on a delta that looks like steps skipped in x / y), not sure why, I did some oiling, and then decided its due to the belts being a bit too tight. When the effector was dancing around doing small infills, it would be quite graunchy, so I slackened off the belts a little and that appears to make it nice and smooth. I ran some prints very slowly last night and the loudest thing was the fan on the hot end – its a very quiet machine.
I also got around to printing and installing the LCD cover – which makes things nice and tidy – it isn’t the nicest of models though…
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:320117
I also had a go at using meshmixer to generate some rather intelligent support structures – unfortunately it fall off mid way through the structure – but due to the wonders of reprap, it somehow fixed itself when it counted!

I doubt i’ll get time for many more mods to be honest, but the list is still there
Images:
I know Mark uses this model on his i3 so thought i’d do the same.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:37327

Some more Grasshopper generate forms – using the same two profile rails, I was able to modify the amount of divisions of the curve, then draw an arc between the two curves along the sub division. 

These guys were printed flat, at 0.2mm and 0.3mm

I then re oriented them vertically – spiral vase mode. 0.2mm approx 10mm/s!

Grasshopper vase, worked really well – apart from the undersides of the wibbly bits. I think I will re print, but at a much slower speed – you can see the errors just building up from a previous blip.

Last Updated on 12 October 2015 by Mark