Re: What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer
 

Many spacers, motor controller mounts, and sensor mounts later I agree with Don's assessment.

After we finish robot parts I think our cube may end up doing some replacement parts for a repman 2 that one of our engineering classes class is currently repairing.

Re: What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer
 

I have noticed that if I design in piece in Autodesk Inventor (2012 or 2014) and save as a .stl file and import into the Cube software, the dimensions are way off - I have to shrink to 40-60% of the original size to get it to approximate what I designed. I have confirmed that the design is in inches, and I import into the Cube software in inches as well. Any others have this issue?

Re: What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer
 

Actually, I have heard that as well. Our team uses Creo but the person who normally sets up the printers tried to make some spacers in Inventor because that's what she's familiar with and she had the same issue with dimensions being way off. No idea how to fix it (she caved and downloaded Creo), but you're definitely not alone.

Re: What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer
 

Even if your part is drawn in inches, autodesk inventor will export the stl file with centimeters. Before saving, choose stl, go to options and change the unit to inches. It defaults to cm.

Re: What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer
 

Miracles never cease! It worked like a charm. Thanks

Re: What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer
 

We had the same problem with the part coming off. we fixed it by decreasing the z gap. the printer now pushes the filament on to the plat instead on laying it on.

Re: What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer
 

We found that if you shrink it to 39.42% it will be the correct size.

Re: What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer
 

How did you come up with that number? Trial and error? We have been using 40%

Re: What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer
 

It's 1/2.54, because inventor defaults to exporting in centimeters, even if the part is in inches, so you need to convert. If you export in inches, it's the proper scale.

If you aren't using inventor and can't change the stl export to cm, use 0.393701.

Re: What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer
 

Ah. Thank you.

Re: What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer
 

We have some huge Talon cable mounts that printed before we caught on to the inches - centimeters thing. Kinda neat in a way, because we could see the details easily instead of squinting to make out the tiny features...

Re: What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer
 

the way we found it was we printed a part that was supposed to be .5" wide and we measured it with our calipers and it was 1.268" wide and then we did the math and got the 39.42%

Leveling the print pad
 

When we first started using our Cube 2, we thought that the leveling command would actually make and save adjustments. We learned that this command's purpose is only for checking the gaps, and does not make any changes.

We found that having the corners of the print pad at different heights contributed to an uneven thickness of the filament on the first layer. The tip was not running parallel to the print pad. Because of this, the tip would come too close to the pad in the areas where the gap was small, which caused a thinner strip to be laid down. We think this may have also contributed to the filament flow error that appeared multiple times. Eventually, it got to the point where every print attempted would fail.

Because of this, we tried to level the print pad according to the instructions. We were either very confused or the instructions were not adequate, so we looked at how it was built and figured out a way to fix this problem that worked for us.

First off, notice the print pad is mounted by three fasteners, however one of them is not adjustable (it has a solid spacer). The other two have nuts above and below the black mounting plate. In order to make an adjustment to one fastener, you will need to loosen/tighten both of the nuts. For example, if the gap at the front of the pad is too large, you would need to adjust the front screw. In this case, you would need to loosen the top nut first, and then tighten the bottom nut, which raises the pad.

This process is very tedious because multiple iterations are required. After each adjustment, you need to check the gap for all four corners, and then repeat the process between the two fasteners until the pad is level. We found it easiest to leave the tip in one corner, make adjustments for it, and repeat for each corner.

After levelling the pad, we experienced no further print failures, and the quality of the parts improved.

Re: What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer
 

To make the cartridge be recognized, we duct taped the cartridge in to the printer in such a way that the cartridge was held diagonally in to the printer.