Okay, I'm going to gripe a bit.
Lately, my Prusa build has just been one roadblock after another. This came to a head last week when:
1. I found that my X-axis carriage could not be assembled as instructed without the belt clamp screws hitting the slide rod. And the next screw size down was too short to reach the retained nut. And nowhere in the errata or the 'net are there any mentions of this issue.
2. My X-axis carriage won't slide, despite being assembled properly, and even with the offending clamp screw removed. I'll try reaming the PLA bushings a bit, but frankly, given that I bought my printed parts from Nophead and his parts have excellent build quality, I don't think the problem lies there.
3. Mounting the Pololu stepper motor daughterboards into the RAMPS board in the correct orientation is absolutely vital -- turning them around (and there is nothing to prevent that) will destroy them instantly on power-on. Okay, I can overlook the lack of any safeguards there. But then the official Wiki for these boards mentions how important the orientation is... and says NOTHING AT ALL about what the orientation should be!!! I had to spend hours Googling about to find just one blog post with a photo that has (I hope) the correct orientation. WTF, people? Seriously.
4. My RAMPS board turned out to have been factory-assembled with a heat sink that makes physically impossible to mount the Extruder Pololu. Again, no mentions of this anywhere within Google's scope of search.
5. My EBay stepper motors don't appear to work properly with my test control board, even after confirming that the board itself works properly. Okay, this one is on me -- EBay practically defines "caveat emptor."
So, after some frustration and swearing, I took a step back to look at things. The Prusa just keeps getting bogged down the further I go, and I've put nearly enough money into it to have bought a ready-to-use Makerbot. I have learned a lot from it, though.
Meanwhile, my RepRapPro Huxley, which I received for supporting the IndiGoGo (think KickStarter) campaign, is in a box waiting to be built. It's a complete single-source kit, all parts in one box, should go together and let me start printing with minimal fuss and/or tuning. So, after some thought, that smart move seemed to be to put the Hux together fast and get printing, and turn my Prusa into my "beater" -- the one I could experiment with and break, while using the Hux to print fresh and improved parts for it (the Thingiverse categories for better Prusa parts is HUGE).
So, I started putting the Hux together this past weekend....
Screeching halt.
The print quality of these parts is just embarrassing. I know not everyone can be Nophead, but I really expected better from a company with "Pro" in the name.
And then the threaded rods -- all of them cut with the ends mangled enough to make threading nuts onto them darn near impossible. The last time this happened (with the Prusa vitamins kit), I had to find a machinist with an 8mm thread die to recover the ends. This time, being at home, I spent about three hours cutting myself up to get the nuts on for the main structure triangles. I shudder to think what the rest of the rods are like.
So... here I am. Spent more than enough money to buy a ready-to-run Makerbot, got two kits, and can't be certain either one will be workable. Okay, I get it that this is a crowdsourced thing, and my Prusa problems are at least partly due to my pieced-together build approach using multi-sourced parts. And maybe I shouldn't complain too loudly about the Hux, given the low donation I had to make to get it (but still, cutting threaded rod that badly just pisses me off! It's not that hard to do it right!). But right now, I'm just really, really cheesed. I don't have the time or the resources to keep re-making or hand-building every part on these things, and frankly I'm feeling like I've been taken to the cleaners.
I suppose I'll feel more charitable after I cool off and get some perspective. But right now, I just want to kick some people where it really hurts.
Lately, my Prusa build has just been one roadblock after another. This came to a head last week when:
1. I found that my X-axis carriage could not be assembled as instructed without the belt clamp screws hitting the slide rod. And the next screw size down was too short to reach the retained nut. And nowhere in the errata or the 'net are there any mentions of this issue.
2. My X-axis carriage won't slide, despite being assembled properly, and even with the offending clamp screw removed. I'll try reaming the PLA bushings a bit, but frankly, given that I bought my printed parts from Nophead and his parts have excellent build quality, I don't think the problem lies there.
3. Mounting the Pololu stepper motor daughterboards into the RAMPS board in the correct orientation is absolutely vital -- turning them around (and there is nothing to prevent that) will destroy them instantly on power-on. Okay, I can overlook the lack of any safeguards there. But then the official Wiki for these boards mentions how important the orientation is... and says NOTHING AT ALL about what the orientation should be!!! I had to spend hours Googling about to find just one blog post with a photo that has (I hope) the correct orientation. WTF, people? Seriously.
4. My RAMPS board turned out to have been factory-assembled with a heat sink that makes physically impossible to mount the Extruder Pololu. Again, no mentions of this anywhere within Google's scope of search.
5. My EBay stepper motors don't appear to work properly with my test control board, even after confirming that the board itself works properly. Okay, this one is on me -- EBay practically defines "caveat emptor."
So, after some frustration and swearing, I took a step back to look at things. The Prusa just keeps getting bogged down the further I go, and I've put nearly enough money into it to have bought a ready-to-use Makerbot. I have learned a lot from it, though.
Meanwhile, my RepRapPro Huxley, which I received for supporting the IndiGoGo (think KickStarter) campaign, is in a box waiting to be built. It's a complete single-source kit, all parts in one box, should go together and let me start printing with minimal fuss and/or tuning. So, after some thought, that smart move seemed to be to put the Hux together fast and get printing, and turn my Prusa into my "beater" -- the one I could experiment with and break, while using the Hux to print fresh and improved parts for it (the Thingiverse categories for better Prusa parts is HUGE).
So, I started putting the Hux together this past weekend....
Screeching halt.
The print quality of these parts is just embarrassing. I know not everyone can be Nophead, but I really expected better from a company with "Pro" in the name.
And then the threaded rods -- all of them cut with the ends mangled enough to make threading nuts onto them darn near impossible. The last time this happened (with the Prusa vitamins kit), I had to find a machinist with an 8mm thread die to recover the ends. This time, being at home, I spent about three hours cutting myself up to get the nuts on for the main structure triangles. I shudder to think what the rest of the rods are like.
So... here I am. Spent more than enough money to buy a ready-to-run Makerbot, got two kits, and can't be certain either one will be workable. Okay, I get it that this is a crowdsourced thing, and my Prusa problems are at least partly due to my pieced-together build approach using multi-sourced parts. And maybe I shouldn't complain too loudly about the Hux, given the low donation I had to make to get it (but still, cutting threaded rod that badly just pisses me off! It's not that hard to do it right!). But right now, I'm just really, really cheesed. I don't have the time or the resources to keep re-making or hand-building every part on these things, and frankly I'm feeling like I've been taken to the cleaners.
I suppose I'll feel more charitable after I cool off and get some perspective. But right now, I just want to kick some people where it really hurts.