First Voron build (Trident formbot pro kit)

[RiseOverRun]

I've been jonesing to start this build for awhile, but got delayed by the various storms (delayed shipping) and then work and travel.  I got my PIF parts from triponaduck which looked amazing, and have been working when I've had time the last week.  Don't have time to work on it today so I thought I'd start writing some things up.

 

So, working on either a workbench or on a large 2x2' terrazo (cheapest I could find) tile I mounted on some 1/4" ply to make a portable work surface.  Putting together the frame was a joy.  Just simply and satisfying.  Came out nice and square.

[[ I tried uploading images, but they come out as a solid color -- any hints? ]]

Edited March 4 by RiseOverRun

[RiseOverRun]

Putting in the gantries and idlers were also pretty straightforward, though I had to assemble the idlers using forceps to insert the bearings and washers.  I have no idea how you're supposed to do the Indiana Jones-style switcharoo with the screws.  

I stressed a bit about the greasing-the-rails. Couldn't find mobil EP2, so settled on Lucas white lithium NLGI2, as it had what seemed to be similar properties to the recommended EP2. Also in greasing I probably overthought it and followed some bad internet advice at first.  I think I overgreased , which made the bearings catch at first, so they'd tend to pop out (though were stuck in the grease, so easy to rescue).  Once reassembled, the carriages bled grease for a few slides up and down the rails, but then slid nice and smooth and clean.  So I'm assuming that's a-ok now.

Running the belts was also no problem (I heard people complaining about getting them through the idlers, but I had no trouble with that).  However, I found the belts binding and was confused for awhile. Then I realized I had run the B belt wrong and skipped one of the idlers, so it was binding along the frame.  Pulled that out and fixed it, and was about to be done for the night when I realized I had run it in exactly the same wrong way.  But by then I understood the CoreXY system way better and was much more comfortable with the hardware.  So that's a win.  

 

[[ Again I'll add some images when I can figure out how to upload images that aren't corrupted ]]

[RiseOverRun]

The first place I had any real trouble was putting together the stealthburner.  The manuals are all pretty easy to follow, but suddenly I was following 4: SB, Tap, the CAN board, and the formbot trident errata suggestions.  The bouncing around confused me even though I had read through all of them a few times.  It was just a bit slower going than it needed to be.  What stumped me though was mounting the Dragon SF hotend.  The instructions are pretty sparse "yep, your hotend will vary, but it's basically the same as shown here" (fair enough).  But mine wouldn't fit.  Luckily the discord community was great and kindly pointed out I hadn't removed the "groove collector" which, fwiw, is labeled "adapter" on the Dragon product guide.  It took me a bit to figure out what they were talking about, but some photos and interpretive dance and it all made sense.

Small other problem I had here was that (little did I know) there were at least two options back brace for the CAN board.  I followed the manual instructions (I'm pretty sure the formbot guide doesn't say to skip it), but when I got to wiring, it told me to use an entirely different one.  Not a big deal, but for that wiring I had to remove the terminal to pull the wiring through the cable covers, etc., so I didn't want to have to pull it back out and do it again.  

So I'm now paused at the electronics put on the DIN rails, but wiring is incomplete.  Mostly because I know once I get it wired I won't be able to sleep until I get it printing...

[zav3nd]

As far as pictures I used Caesium to make them small enough to upload. 

 

Grease wise I used Lucas red and tacky (because I had it), I was going to buy EP2 but I couldn't find anything that made it "better". But I don't think anyone has built 2 printers at the same time and same conditions to really tell what NLGI 2 grease is better.

[RiseOverRun]

Still can't figure out how to upload images that don't become solid blocks of color.  Neither original jpgs, nor pngs nor downscaled (in gimp) work.  Oh well.

I got everything wired up and reasonably clean, and the printer was even working for a bit.  Was finishing up calibrating it.  But I've now twice had the wiring on the SB2209 thermistor break (once at first start, and then again this morning).  At first I thought it was 100% my fault and I had just ganked the wiring. But now I realize that the SB2209 access cover may not have helped matters much. It definitely pushes pretty hard right at the thermistor connector, and JST terminals are just not very forgiving in that way.  The thermistor wiring has fiberglass insulation which is a pita to crimp with (tried once, and the wire is now too short to try again), so I think I'm going to splice it to a bit of PTFE wiring later, unless somebody has a better suggestion.  Then I guess I'll just run things without the lid until I can figure out which mod will give me clearance.  Or I'll just punch a hole there myself if I can figure out which stl file is the right version to start from.

Edited March 15 by RiseOverRun