Yup, Another Non-Voron - Fabreeko RatRig V-Core 3.1

[Penatr8tor]

For some unexplained reason... I felt an overwhelming desire to build a Black & White printer.

Step 1 complete...

Here we go...

[mvdveer]

5 hours ago, Penatr8tor said:

I felt an overwhelming desire to build a Black & White printer

What?  No color printing..........

Good color choice

[smirk]

These Ratrig builds are fun, it's bit like going on holiday somewhere partially familiar but with some alarming differences like pants rather than trousers or fannies.....

[Penatr8tor]

Well... I built a Voron Core XY and a Voron Bed Slinger... I also built a RatRig bed slinger so next up is a RatRig Core XY. 

Without sounding like I've chosen RatRig over Voron... I really enjoyed building the little V-Minion and I'm completely blown away by the performance, print quality and how reliably it prints. I'm hoping I get similar results with the V-Core 3.1 300. I like the 300^3 size printers. Large enough but not too large. So we will all see how this build goes. I'm enjoying the process of printing up the parts and getting ready at this point. Looking forward to a fun build. According to FedEx I should have the full kit in hand by Sunday aka Printer Builders Christmas. 

I want to say... My Voron 2.4 is the best printer I've owned, period. It consistently prints at a level unmatched by anything else. Speed, Quality, dependability, etc, etc. My Switchwire on the other hand... that thing has fought me all the way. It prints pretty good / OK right now, I'm having an issue with print quality that I need to work out still. I have hope and an extra LGX Lite so I'll be hitting up the group in the near future to help me resolve this problem.

That's it for now... Stay tuned.

 

[Razor1666]

I'm struggling also with print quality on my Switchwire or more so with consistency. I'm frustrated with my layer shifting but that could be the Skr mini V2 board. Might have to switch it up 

 

Looking forward to your next build. How did you like the RatOS on the minion?

 

 

[Penatr8tor]

2 minutes ago, Razor1666 said:

I'm struggling also with print quality on my Switchwire or more so with consistency. I'm frustrated with my layer shifting but that could be the Skr mini V2 board. Might have to switch it up 

Looking forward to your next build. How did you like the RatOS on the minion?

I'm beginning to think the layer inconsistency is a function of the Core XZ kinematics. Of course I could be wrong but it sure seems like it is to me. I don't see how it can be the SKR tho as the Raspberry Pi is doing most of the heavy lifting. Again I could be wrong, just speculating and using gut feel at this point.

I really like the RatOS. They did such a nice job. If you don't already know... There are separate config's for every component, steppers, controllers, hotends, and extruders, etc and the printer.cfg just points to the config that matches your hardware. When I was done loading up testing everything... I just hit print and the first print was better than anything I've printed on my SwitchWire, even after all my tweaking, etc, etc. I have a post about taking my printer on the road, check it out if you haven't already. The short story is... I put together a quick and dirty touch screen to run Klipperscreen, copied a ton of G-code onto the printer, loaded it in my SUV with a half dozen spools of PLA and drove to Florida to show my Dad this past Christmas. I stayed for two weeks and printed dozens of little boxes and screw top vials and figurines and stuff right from the touchscreen with no network connection. I even did a couple two color prints swapping filaments mid print. When I got home, it ran just like the day I left and it continues to operate at the same level. So yeah, I guess I kinda like the RatOS. LOL BTW it has all the cool macros you need already built into the OS, Bed meshing, Pribe blob or line, load/unload filament and they all work right off the bat. You can't go wrong building a V-Minion IMO and for ~$600 complete with Pi... It's pretty good deal too.

[smirk]

7 minutes ago, Penatr8tor said:

function of the Core XZ kinematics.

Interesting, I wonder if it's something to do with weight of gantry rather than the XZ setup. I wouldn't expect there would be much "quality" difference between XZ and XY kinematics (still two drives, bunch of belts just in different planes) so I would've expected XY to  show up as dimensional inaccuracies as much as as layer inaccuracies.....(well I know there's always wobbles and nothing is perfect with these hot-glue-guns)

Sorry thinking outloud here, guess the big difference between the two is gravity, which might have more of a detrimental affect on the XZ setup than the XY setup.....

[Penatr8tor]

@smirk Agree. It could be belt tension as well. I think they're pretty tight but they might not be. I want to think it's the extruder but I doubt it. I will do some research and revisit the SW in the near future. If anything it will be an interesting problem to solve.

Maybe I can get @Razor1666 to start a post, he's having issues as well and they could be related.

Edited March 10, 2023 by Penatr8tor

[atrushing]

1 hour ago, Penatr8tor said:

I will do some research and revisit the SW in the near future. If anything it will be an interesting problem to solve.

I will have to follow this study. I am looking into changing my Sidewinder into a Switchwire but it would be quite involved if I want to keep the build volume (mainly on the X axis). I would hate to do all of the work and loose print quality.

Using a KeyBak on the V-Minion I do notice that it doesn't have a very smooth movement. I wonder if this could be a contributing factor.

[mvdveer]

5 hours ago, Penatr8tor said:

My Switchwire on the other hand... that thing has fought me all the way.

Mine has retired in the basement. I love tinkering, but that printer has the best of me.

[mvdveer]

4 hours ago, Razor1666 said:

but that could be the Skr mini V2 board.

You may be onto something as this is the same board I have in the switchwire

[Penatr8tor]

3 hours ago, mvdveer said:

Mine has retired in the basement. I love tinkering, but that printer has the best of me.

I see a pattern forming. 

[Penatr8tor]

3 hours ago, mvdveer said:

You may be onto something as this is the same board I have in the switchwire

Same one I have too.

Hmmmmm Another pattern. Interesting.

[Penatr8tor]

Right on schedule...

 

[Penatr8tor]

Did a quick unboxing.

Came with a Rapido, LGX Lite, LDO steppers, Harness, Octopus, MeanWell PSU.

Going to be a metric crap ton of screws on this build. The bag with fasteners felt so heavy that I decided to weigh it. 6.5 lbs (~3 kilos). She's gonna be on the chunky side. No doubt. Hahahaha

 

[smirk]

Were those packing boxes bigger on the inside than the out? That looks like even more stuff!

[mvdveer]

4 hours ago, Penatr8tor said:

Right on schedule...

Exiting times ahead. Looking forward to this build.

[claudermilk]

18 hours ago, Penatr8tor said:

Did a quick unboxing.

Came with a Rapido, LGX Lite, LDO steppers, Harness, Octopus, MeanWell PSU.

Going to be a metric crap ton of screws on this build. The bag with fasteners felt so heavy that I decided to weigh it. 6.5 lbs (~3 kilos). She's gonna be on the chunky side. No doubt. Hahahaha

 

Nero's building one. There are a metric crapton of screws on it. Looks like a tank.

[Maurici]

On 3/10/2023 at 3:57 PM, Penatr8tor said:

My Switchwire on the other hand... that thing has fought me all the way

 

On 3/10/2023 at 9:00 PM, mvdveer said:

Mine has retired in the basement. I love tinkering, but that printer has the best of me.

 

On 3/10/2023 at 4:17 PM, Razor1666 said:

I'm struggling also with print quality on my Switchwire or more so with consistency

Really, I don´t understand it...

My switchwire just works. First layer may be a bit quirky every time at a different temperature, but once I have a material figured out... It is just click and print. And I expect a significant improvement here after I move to Klicky. But for ABS and PC, that are already figured out... IT just works!

What is the layer consistency issue you are talking about i may be able to help?

[Penatr8tor]

16 minutes ago, Maurici said:

What is the layer consistency issue you are talking about i may be able to help?

Let's cover this topic on another thread. I don't want a conversation about Switchwire performance on the same thread as my V-Core 3.1 build.

I'll create a new thread for the Switchwire issue/s and hit you up. 

@Maurici I created a post in Gen Discussion related to my Switchwire issue/s. I'll post up some pictures this afternoon.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Penatr8tor
Added a topic

[Penatr8tor]

Here we go... I set up a table in my spare room to build the V-Core.

Extrusions and Screws and T-Nuts, Oh My!

96 screws to be exact LOL

[smirk]

My, that's pretty. Just someting about that I think you should do some stop-motion animation....with all the little corner pieces jostling around.

[Penatr8tor]

OK, A little bit further along and ran into a snag that won't get resolved until next week.

More screws and T-nuts. It is the RatRig way. I find it amazing just how good we humans are at eyeballing things...  There are 24 screws, 24 washers and 24 t-nuts... I just pulled out of the bags what I thought was enough and what's left? 2 screws and a washer. 

 

Building the frame. Flush and square, flush and square... This is the way we build the frame.

 

Here are the two front Z axis motor mounts assembled.

 

Bed support arms complete.

 

Frame Mock-up

So this is the snag that I hit head on and also the cause of my build delay... There's a partition frame that the rear Z axis motor assy mounts to on the front side, leaving the rear as your mounting plate / surface for the electronics. Only problem is... No panel. The instructions warn you to attach the panel before bolting everything into place because it could be a pain to install after the fact. Me being me... I said to myself, "How hard could it be...". LOL So I hunted down a video from Vector-3D where he added the rear panel after he'd already built the printer without it. Yup... Total cluster function. So I had to stop with the frame until I get my sheet of plexiglass in the mail. They said Saturday but now it's Monday so... I still have plenty of printing and other sub-assemblies to build while I'm waiting. I'm looking forward to doing my own enclosure for this printer but that's down the road a bit.

 

I really like the design of the leadscrew / Bed Arm assembly. The leadscrew attaches to the motor with a solid coupler. Underneath the coupler is a 3 pc. thrust bearing. On the top of the leadscrew is an arm with a bearing in it that doesn't allow the tip of the leadscrew to flop around. It basically becomes a rotating shaft with bearings on both ends. The linear rails will mount to the inside of the front vertical extrusions and the front face of the central rear extrusion with the arms mounting to the slide. The leadscrew nut is attached to a de-coupler inside the bore of each arm and that takes care of any misalignment in the assembly. Smart and well thought out IMO. I also like the way the bed mounts as well. 3 ball bearings with a tapped hole mounted to the bottom of the plate.  They ride on the two pins inserted into each of the arms. Underneath the pins is a magnet the centers the ball along the length of the pins. Cool idea.

 

That's it for now...

Edited March 16, 2023 by Penatr8tor
Spelling of course

[smirk]

3 hours ago, Penatr8tor said:

I hunted down a video from Vector-3D where he added the rear panel after

Well done on the patience, I don't think I would have been so sensible

[Penatr8tor]

@smirk Well it's like I said to my nephew... Experience... It's what you get right after you F something up, and I have a lot of experience. 

I've gotten much better at looking before leaping over the years.