Now that MKS SBASE is working good, I decided its time to get some mesh material. this is 0.008" thick aluminum mesh by 1/2" tall. was cheap on ebay. I later found out the seller would custom cut a size. so I will be going back for a larger piece.
also 3d printed some cones to support the mesh at the proper focal point for cutting 1/8" material
also relocated my optical Y-Endstop so that my machine homes to 0,0 bottom left corner ( I understand I could have set this to happen in the config file, but the hardware solution seemed easy and legit)
Bought the air assist head and the improved 18mm lens from LightObjects. as stated before this head is sharp lol no I mean really sharp. they did not deburr it at all lol. no prob for the low price.
now I need to re-align my optics because I am getting heavy ghosting on the far right side of the bed. Crap I may have cracked my new lens ! I hope it’s just out of alignment and reflecting off the bottom of the air cone… I’ll check it tonight.
this is just a random kind of post, I want to update you guys on my build so far.
driving the steppers 1/32 really quiets down the machine and makes it seem a lot smoother.
@greg_greene I’m not sure if the cones are the right solution yet. I shaped them like a pyramid so they are stable, I also had to add metal tape to the tops because PLA smells nasty when hit by a laser beam lol
You can have my Makerbot Replicator 2X - haven’t used it in the better part of a year. It just sits there with the last failed print sitting on its bed looking at me. 3D printers are a dark art for even tinkerers like us. My success to fail ratio is well on the fail side - everything has to be just right to get a good print (for large things anyway - things that are non-trivial). I don’t have the patience anymore.
@greg_greene it’s a standard Makerbot Replicator 2X. Has a heated bed and dual heads so you can do two colors of filament at the same time. Maybe 10lbs of different filament left on mostly unopened spools of different colors. Replaced the laptop tape on the heated bed with a Teflon based cover. I’ve used it for ABS but it’s set for PLA and other materials too. That’s why I got it - wanted versatility. Biggest problem selling it is shipping - it’s a big box. I used to do prosthetic printing for eNable but haven’t been able to dedicate the time due to work (it can take 30 hrs to print all the parts for an adult prosthetic hand).
I ship heavy ham radio stuff all the time so I know how expensive it can get, might be a good machine for me to play with - I have no commercial use for it.
