I initially wanted to post this as I went along but didn't manage it. I've tried to cut it down to some tips I found and where I had problems. Setout tools and fixings. White towel to catch loose parts and protect during assembly. I read some users weren't happy with the black screws, oil from them was maring the acrylic so I sourced some stainless screws to use on the exterior. Original screws were used on the black printed parts. Yes, white nut traps...... Far too much time spent getting these done. I chose to spray them with a can but the 'plastic paint' I chose was very poor and even after two days drying time it crumpled up when applying a second coat. In the end I used Tamiya acrylic (gloss white) to brush paint a thick coat on the outer faces, rubbing down any crumpled paint from the original coat. Many of the square nuts were a tight fit and some needed some fair force to push them in. Strangely, some I couldn't fit by hand if the nut wasn't square to the hole and took fair force to push in then once they were squared up, they fell straight back out! Spots of superglue used on all of them to hold the nut in place. Emergency Haribo: I'm a mechanical engineer so if all else fails there's always 'Old Faithful' ;o)
Y-Axis Parts Cleaned up holes where needed. Pulled in M4 square nuts using an M4 capscrew. Checked and double-checked these were positoned as some have found them loose later and it can be a disaster to correct. Attaching self-adhesive cork. Wiped part surface with isopropyl alcohol. Take care removing backing from cork as you can tear the adhesive off too. X-axis Idler Carriage Centring the linear bearing (upgraded to Misumi ones) is tricky as they are a tight fit. Used a screwdriver to very gently lever the plate open, be careful!! Fitted M3x25 screw for end stop but reached the end of the section to find that the hybrid uses an M3x10, doh! X-Axis Motor Mount M2.5 hex nuts are tricky to fit. Very tight fit, used a pair of pliers to locate then a scredriver to push home. Took a fair bit of force to do. Hybrid X-Carriage Support material removed after posting for help (thanks Sarah). M3 square nuts for bearing covers sit a little proud and a bit loose too. Fixed them in position with a drop of superglue (keep away from threads). The nuts for the rear cooling fan are loose to allow adjustment so I temporarily fitted screws to stop them falling out when moving about. For a single extruder, at this stage it's not 100% clear which hole to fit the o-rings to. It's the right hand hole in the head when facing the machine but it's not clear which way round the part sits at the end. Hybrid IR Sensor. M2.5 nuts a tight fit and screws tricky to engage. Used a longer scre to pull them into place before fitting the board. Top Spool Bearing The printed parts didn't fit together so a fair bit of filing needed. One part now fits into the other. IEC Socket A different design to that on the build manual photos. The bend on the short live wire is much tighter on this one. A bit concerned that the connections across the switch are close together.
Titan Extruder Assembly The screws in the photos show loctite on them. I followed suit, DON'T DO THIS! (see later). It's not clear which way round the aluminium spool should go? The notes specify that depending upon the thickness of the part mounting to, a spacer will be needed and a link to a part is supplied. The problem is, I don't have a printer to make one! This means that the mounting screws are too long as supplied. Really, the mount for the Titan should be thickened up as supplied to suit the supplied screws. I chose to use a cutting tool to shorten the screws. X-Axis Assembly A check dimension between the printed parts would be useful to prove that the rods are bedded into the printed parts correctly. When fitting the bearings, I greased them as well as I could but it's not easy. What I did in the end was to squeeze some grease into the bearing then partly inserted the rod. I then held a finger over the end of the bearing whilst slowly pressing the rod. This forces grease down through the bearing until the excess is forced out of the end seals. Seemed to work quite nicely. Electronics cover The fan blades are a little deceptive, as it works in the opposite way to what I would expect. Follow the pictures rather than using what direction you think the fan works (I didn't and got it wrong). Spool Carrier Acrylic part a VERY tight fit in the printed parts, even after filing some away. Z-Axis Bed Assembly Correct orientation not 100%. Note there is an engraving that states which side goes downwards. Drive surrounds very tight on screws, engraved nut traps on acrylic don't hold the nuts very well. The heated plate should really be better located than is described. I would use a temporary spacer to set the position of the tapped spacer pieces so that they are equal. If they are not then your bed may not be flat or quite as square to the beatings as you'd wish. Looking back, I'd maybe try fitting a plastic spacer between the acrylic and the spacer piece. Those screws look like they may allow some sideways motion while printing. Frame Base Fitted all microbarbs by pulling into place with a screw (use a washer under the screw head to help stop marking od the acrylic). PSU fitted but I didn't realise until later that there are two different sizes to the nylon spacers, some have a larger inside diameter.
Rumba Wiring Current leads supplied for the z-axis motors have a plug fitted at the Rumba end so no stripping of wires needed. I applied labels to as many wires as I could as I went along. Frame Build After reports of possible cracking of the acrylic when tightening the screws I was paranoid and proceded with great care. Only just tightened them until they pulled the plates together. After the amount of effort getting some good paint on the nut traps I became obsessed with using the best ones in the front of the frame...... LCD Display Drilled two 3.5mm holes in the facia to allow access to the reset button and contrast potentiometer. Despite looking at what others have done here and taking measurements, I still got the potentiometer hole wrong and had to extend the hole with a file. X + Y Axis Assembly I got the front Y-axis ends the wrong way up first attempt, check twice! Greased the bearings. X-Axis Carriage Attaching the bearing holders was fiddly. The rear one was especially tricky so I used a mirror as shown to allow me to see what I was doing. X-Axis Belt fitting Tricky but OK in the end. Y-Axis EndStop Switch Getting the cable through the hole was very difficult. In the end I loosened the motor screws to make a little more room and pushed the plug through with a screwdriver.
Y-Axis Motor Install Fitting of the Astrosyn damper not clear, no screws provided but I had spares. I couldn't see how the damper is keyed to the motor? Y-Axis Belts I found that the belt tensioners were too wide to fit within the y-axis ends so I filed off quite a bit of material to allow them to slide together. I'd recommend fitting the belt to the rear of the x-axis idler first as the front is easier to access. I found the belts quite loose when I initially fitted them so I trimmed around 3mm off the end. X-Axis conduits Printed parts filed to fit in holes in acrylic frame. X-Axis Drag Chain I found that the heat shrink doesn't grip the braid too well and pulls off the end a bit too easily so in all cases I used some black tape too. Frame Top The drawing looks like the microbarbs are fitted to the black printed part but they're actually in the acrylic. Nut traps fitted and tightened gently. Inner Struts I followed the recommendation to tape the nut traps in position. I'd recommend checking that a screw will go all of the way into the trap at this point before it's too late. I found that one or two of mine, the square nut thread was damaged and wouldn't take a screw all of the way through. IEC Socket The new design socket is a very tight fit in the hole and I had to file away some material to get it to fit. I looked at the position of the cable compared to the switch and thought that when leaning round the right of the machine that the cable would get in the way of trying to reach the switch. I tried fitting the socket the other way round but I wasn't convinced that the PSU cables would reach. (Once complete, I do find that the cable gets in the way of accessing the switch, I'll probably try ro fit a secondary switch on the front of the machine at some point) USB Socket Nuts were needed on the back of the socket to hold it in place. Hot End Assembly Heater measured resistance was 22 Ohms. The manual for the calculations don't seem too clear here. Everything else on the hot end went together fine.
Cable Spine The PTFE tube was a very tight fit in the printed parts and I ended up creasing the tube when trying to fit it. In the end I removed the parts from the frame then ran a drill through them and filed them back a bit. I'm still not convinces by this design, a better solution maybe clearance holes for the tube and an adjustable clamp at the spool end. I tried pushing the tube into the Titan end but it was far too tight and I damaged the tube several times. I decided to file away a little from the Titan but was worried that any swarf would fall into the hot end. With this in mind I decided to remove the Titan and work on it away from the machine. The screws into the motor came out fine but the shorter screw just rotated in it's thread. I realised that the brass fitting in the plastic was just rotating. Looking at the side of the Titan, there's a tiny hole next to the brass piece and I managed to force a small screwdriver in to hold it in place to allow the screw to be undone. Once the Titan was off the X-axis I found that cutting a 45degree on the PTFE tube allowed easier fitting and I could line up the end to follow the hobbed section. Refitted the Titan without using Loctite this time and only just tightened the short screw. Base Fitting Again used tape with the heatshrink to seal the ends of the braid. Used tape to hold the baseplate to the frame assembly while fitting the nut traps. First Power On Felt like Dr Frankenstein shouting LIVE! as I flicked the switch. Hmmm, nothing. Swapped the LCD cables over (I thought I'd marked them correcctly) and all's good. (Edit: picked up the wrong photo here and can't find the original power on pic.........) Fitting of the Z-Axis Rods Greased the bearings as previously. Alignment of X-Axis Tricky to get right, only slight pressure needed to change the alignment and if you knock the Y-axis belts it can pull the X-axis out of line. Commissioning - Belt Tensioning Not easy to tell from the videos just how much tension is needed. hope it's right......
This is where I had a problem! Z-Axis Tramming and Offset Setting up and alignment of the rods and bearings was easy enough. It would be useful to explain how the z-offset value entered in the Rumba works, I'm still not sure I understand this. I ran through the z offset setup then the x and y end stop adjustments but found that I was still getting the z adjustment the wrong way round. In the end I decided to start again, not a good idea........ I reset using the 'Restore Failsafes" option and began again. I started to run the bed downwards to adjust the heights at the two motors whan it made a loud graunching noise, horrible! I tried to stop it but the bed was still behind the figure on the LCD and it was still trying to move. Looking at the LCD, the z-position was nowhere near the real position. I'd missed the setting of the z steps/mm........ Looking below the bed I noticed a small length of silver swarf sitting next to the right hand motor. I disconnected the motor and tried turning it manually but it seemed to be OK. Not a great deal of resistance. I reset the left/right bed heights and tried moving the bed upwards again. The right hand motor paused for a couple of seconds before stuttering and moving the bed upwards while making all kinds of horrible noise again. At this point I ran to the forum to ask for help and gave up for the day. The following day, with replies from Old_Tafr and Dr Jeep* on the forum (thanks folks), I began to look at the problem again. I disconnected both screws from their couplings and raised and supported the bed out of the way. I blutacked an allen key to each coupling as a pointer and tried moving the z-axis. The right hand motor just sat there and stuttered while the left one rotated properly. I tried changing the motion to 1mm and the right hand motor stuttered then turned the wrong way! I tried increasing the z-axis voltage a little but the same thing happened. When dealing with my R/C models, a stuttering brushless motor usually means a connection fault or a broken controller so I tried swapping the z-motor wires over and everything was fine! So, I'd fixed the problem I made but still it didn't explain the horrible noises.... (* Dr Jeep ..... is that a Sisters of Mercy reference???) I went beck to re-aligning the z-screws and nuts. Everything seemed good until I tightened the nuts again. Back to horrible noises and jamming of the right hand motor/screw. I loosened the screws and tried again. It took me a few attempts to get the motor, screw and nut alignment right on the r/h side. I think I was moving the brass nut out of alignment when trying to tighten it's screws. In the end I gound that holding the top of the leadscrew central to the top cover hole while tightening the brass nut screws worked for me. A fair bit of work in the end but I got everything aligned nicely eventually.
On to my first print! Completely failed to adhere to the bed so I stopped it after about 20 seconds. I'd forgotten to apply UHU Stick...... doh! 2nd attempt...... Woohoo! Not bad at all. Yes it's a 20mm cube but it worked OK. I used Simplify3d with the 'standard' settings that Alex9779 posted. Thanks Alex! 2nd real print, it has to be a benchy doesn't it? Again, standard settings, no tinkering and used the yellow PLA sample that came with the BB. Very happy, some minor defects, slight banding but I'm a bit wary of changing anything in case it gets worse! Any suggestions for improvements please let me know! Thanks to everyone here and at E3D for their help so far and for what seems to me to be a great printer. Jason
Great post I'm thinking must change the default z steps/mm for my custom firmware to prevent that. My logic being that any settings reinstated with 'fail safe' shouldn't cause crashing. Great first prints
Before deciding on doing anything with banding do a wide diameter tall tower. Not in black, white or transparent. Like the yellow to show details. How where your Z bearings? Smooth as butter and sliding by them selves or slightly uneven in motion? A good thing to check and match bearing to the 4 rods and find the best matches. Use the best bearings on the Z axis. Before assembling the lead screws move the bed assembly upp and down on the bearings to see if there are any snags. It should be absolutely smooths no matter how slow you lower it.
Thanks guys, The bearings felt very smooth as I fitted them. I didn't cross-check them on different rods but did try to feel if they could move sideways on the rods or twist and I could hardly feel anything. I think the second benchy photo really over exaggerates the banding due to the lighting. Interestingly, I tried a second benchy today but in red PLA. The small defects visible on the hull here were replicated precisely on the red one showing that it is the S3D code (I believe at the layer change point) causing the marks. The print failed towards the end as it was one of the sample lengths and it got tangled up while I wasn't looking..... I'll post a picture tomorrow.
i suspect, altering the following line in configuration.h may make sense for people with the newer 8mm-Pitch Leadscrews & Nuts. #define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {160,180,1600,417.5} // default steps per unit for Ultimaker to #define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {160,180,400,417.5} // default steps per unit for Ultimaker
Thanks Paul, I'm pretty new to all of this, I assume that's in the firmware of the Rumba? I'm in no rush to go into that kind of depth at present. Here's a comparison of the two benchy prints: The 'issues' are not massive, just some minor variations. I might try tinkering with the S3D settings a little to see if it makes a difference. Maybe reducing some of the speeds may have an effect? Thanks again, Jason
The banding, i don't think is too bad. The little holes, they may be down to retraction settings in Simplify3D so have a play with them.
I agree, I think it's really a case of fine tuning. I'm pretty happy with what I've got so far. I've only been using the sample materials. Given they're relatively short lengths I've only been printing small items to test the BB. I'll run out of that today and will go onto my spools which I'll feel happier printing larger models. Of course a larger print will help hide the smaller spot flaws but may uncover some larger travel issues. Looking forward to it!
Yep, although I have compiled it, I've not actually tested it. My thinking here is that the default values, although maybe not desirable, should not cause any crashing if you were to forget to change something after resetting to defaults etc. My understanding is that the old leadscrew had a pitch of 2mm, thus required 1600 steps. Newer owners (assuming all preorders and future owners) will use the newer 8mm pitch, so requires less movement, ie 400 I'm of the school of thought that thinks any Values set by a 'restore fail safe' should not have any detrimental effect, appreciate this is difficult on a platform that organically changes constantly. Maybe set them then to 0 .
