Hello everyone,
I am planning to order a printRbot simple with heated bed in a few weeks. I know some of you already have this kind of machine and I was wondering if you recommend to add any option on it. Is the original extruder is fine or do I need to put a better one…
I wouldn’t change a thing to start off with… but once you get used to it, the only thing I’d change is adding a slight modification to the extruder to allow flexible materials. The other thing I might change is the hot end… the typical hot end from Printrbot is good, but they have improved ones available.
The motors and electronics are perfect for it.
Bill
Just be thorough with the z calibration. Those z probes are neat and the auto level is a good function for the printer, however, it takes some tweaking to set it consistently. Mine was set up with z-1.75 at the factory. First thing it did was crash the head. Turns out z-0.75 is what should have been in there…
Also, the FET circuit isolating 12v logic from the sensor to the board commonly breaks. There is no bleed resistor or pull down or anything. You could throw in a bleed resistor to prevent ESD or other solution. I had extra optoisolators around, so I just threw one on there (hey, why not?). It’s a minor design oversight, but people end up either blowing the FET, or blowing the sensor frequently enough…
Leave the original extruder and hot end on. Works well. Just keep tweaking the z axis.
Make feet for it, and put rubber pads or RTV on them (or use flex material). It tends to move across the desk slowly over the course of a long print.
Lorin
Thank you everyone for your advice. I will start with the original one and start tweaking it once I have more experience with it.
Julien