If you are getting a sort of skewed square (not true square) then it is likely due to the angle alignment between the X and Y frames. You might have to bend the X and Y frame so they are 90 degree adjacent to one another. You should get a set square as your 90 Degree reference when aligning the X and Y frames.

I agree with what cha.968 said about "Everyone can 3D print at a cost!". Its like a joke about Airasia, the more you pay, the better the service. The less you pay, the crappier the service. Also, the best cheapest may be out there but it is certainly not cheap in our currency.

You can jump right into the 3D printing business and provide the service to everyone but can everyone accept the service you are expected to provide?

My advice for a beginner is: go for a reprap, learn the necessary skill to operate and maintain a printer, get lots of experience from 3D printing hundreds of designs, learn to design your own 3D models, then after all that consider buying a good quality 3D printer and start your business. My 2 cents as a 3D printing service provider.

Also koonghx, welcome to the reprap forum, where we double as sources for sourcing 3D printer parts and support group...

The list of parts and links for sources are scattered across this topic. Have to go back several dozen pages to find them.

I got most of my stuff from Ebay, still alright but expect long shipping time.

This post has been edited by altan: Jan 25 2015, 09:20 PM

Congrats on the assembly.

As for your heater bed issue, it could be a few things but I don't know you will have the tools to test the system. Anyway you should read this http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?219,169361,169361 since this has the same issue as your heater bed transistor overheating. You have to check the resistance in your heater bed to find the current draw for a 12 volt supply. I have a 8" x 8" MK2A heater bed and it has a resistance of about 1 to 2 ohms which means it will draw about 6 to 12 Amps, so your bed should be between these resistance ranges. Another thing to look for are the polyfuse, which are the flat light brown pieces (either shape as a disc or square) mounted next to the transistor. Make sure the plastic bit that got burnt isn't the fuse because the fuse may not work properly when damaged. If all else fails, it could be the transistor and you may have to try replacing it with a different one.

Try checking your heater bed connection and measure the resistance of the heater bed.

Whoops, my bad. Wasn't paying attention.

Could it be your wiring and or check to see if there is power at your extruder connector? Also, make sure its connected to the correct terminal connector, its D10 for the first extruder and D9 for the second extruder. You might want to post some pictures of your setup.

Can you try check if the MOSFET is working with a multimeter with the dial in voltage.

Your extruder heater cartridge is definitely working but now it could be the connection or the MOSFET or your firmware.

This post has been edited by altan: Jan 27 2015, 10:47 PM

Can you post a picture of your thermistor or your hotend? Thermistors don't have polarity because it is sensed based on the change in resistance with temperature. The one thermal sensor that has polarity are thermocouples, which is sensed based on the voltage (polarity) produced when heated.

"Leak out" is quite vague for us, you might have to state where its leaking...

No worries, you will eventually learn the terms and components while tinkering with your printer.

That is bad, I mean that dark substance on top the heater block indicates PLA leakage. This is usually due to the heater block coming loose when heated or the threading may have been compromised. One way to fix this is to tighten the connection between heater block and heat sink by using a spanner. Make sure to heat up the hotend to about 100 to 150 deg before attempting to unscrew or tighten the connection because the PLA inside the hot end will make it difficult to unscrew or tighten. By the way, that should be a E3D hotend right?

That's one huge proximity sensor!

Appreciate the acknowledgement. I am also learning from you guys as well.

Normally I would look up in reprap.org for the names of the things or the terms but forums are still the best place to ask.

If for some reason the tightening fails, use one or two layers of PTFE/teflon tape or plumbers white tape to form a nice seal between the hole and thread. You can buy it off from any hardware store for a few ringgit.

Sure and how did your friend use his phone to debug the problem?

If you check wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene, the melting temperature is quite high and in some hotends, they use a teflon tube as a lubricating sleeve for the filament guide.

I have not tried printing on glass before but you can lay masking tape and use dilute PVA glue for the first layer adhesion and to reduce warpage. Another method is to use raft or brim (my favorite) to create better surface adhesion. Brim creates a border that extends surrounding your print so mounting to the bed surface is better for your print while holding down the edge from warping.

Let us know which problem you are facing based on the link provided by cha.968.

Nice find! That's a really good link for 3D printing diagnostics.

Yup, some recommend using business card as a more advance way of leveling the bed.


After a long time of leveling beds and with enough experience, you can use the agak2 method to level beds. I do that a lot nowadays because I ran out of business cards for that.

More like lost the business card and I normally level with the hotend warmed up to 210 Deg so any hotend expansion is taken into account with the leveling for the first layer.

Normally, I only check when the first layer print is having problems, otherwise I won't disturb the bed. I also notice the bed level will shift especially after removing a finish print that was stuck to the bed. Probably the prying and pulling caused the problem.

I have a still-not-in-use-and-not-sold 0.3 mm China JHead hotend for sale. I have been using this Jhead model for all of my prints and so far I have not have any problems with it and all of my prints turned out really nice. I won't be able to sell you the nozzle alone and besides, you have to get the whole hotend since the nozzle is part of the heating block. If you are interested, you can PM me more about it.



Housing for my RPI? I prefer it naked...



My recommendation, just print a housing for it and attach it to your reprap. It will save you the trouble from unplgging and setting it up as you move the printer around and protects it from dust and PLA/ABS stringing buildup.

Glad to hear more people are interested in Reprap and 3D printers.

You may want to get a separate solid state switch and a dedicated power supply for your Heater bed because the controller board is not meant to take in very high currents ( more than 10 A) at one time. The melted green connector indicate the connector is not designed for such currents and I have mentioned before that it is not recommended to directly connect the heater bed to the controller board and instead to be safe, use the heat bed output to control a high current solid state switch that regulates the heater bed power.

I bought a 28A solid state switch a while ago but have not have the time to buy a dedicated power supply for it yet. I was planning to use a 250W computer PSU as the power source but It didn't work as expected due to the over current safety kicking in every time I power the heat bed.

You could use the IRF3808 transistor but you should not tap power from the controller board and instead hook the power supply directly to the transistor source lead. Also, separating the transistor from the board and having it on its own heat sink will be a safer choice.

This post has been edited by altan: Feb 4 2015, 02:38 PM

The proper term for G-code generator is slicer. I am using Cura 14 as the slicer and the host software is Octoprint on the Raspberry Pi.

IMO, easiest slicer and host to use is Cura and Pronterface (now called Printrun for the GUI version).

Other known slicers out there: Slic3r (Tons of parameters to play with) and KisSlicer.

Other host: Repetier Host and Makerware (works for makerbots only)

Firmware is a bit difficult to determine for my printer but as far as I know, it should be a heavily modified Marlin for the Printrboard Rev D.

This post has been edited by altan: Feb 4 2015, 11:05 PM

Regarding the firmware for Printrbot, apparently the firm ware is so heavily modified I can't just simply load it onto a Ramps 1.4-Mega and hook it up to the Printerbot just like that. I tried it the last time and it was a big headache to get everything setup properly and in the end the auto bed leveling feature doesn't work with the Ramps 1.4-Mega controller board.

The manual bed adjustment would be redundant as the auto bed leveling code will cancel out any adjustment to the bed and carry out the print based on the 3 point plane estimation. The only thing I need to manually adjust is the hotend tilt level with regards to the probe which is something I find annoying because the angle of where the nozzle points is not taken into account in the auto bed leveling. In other words, what happen was my hotend and probe carriage frame is slightly bent out of shape so I find that the nozzle height is different for the three probe points. I have to someday try and bend the frame back so it is level with the induction probe.

How did you break a leg?

If not mistaken, Slic3r allows you to add additional Gcode to the start and end of the print. You can add a Gcode command saying where you want the hotend to move to the end of the print. I forgot which command to use, you have to search it up.

Recently been busy...


I have a few 100k NTC thermistor for sale, If you like, just PM me. Though its not the same as the one in your picture, it a 1mm glass glass sealed thermistor, the common one.


Lucky for me, I travel between JB and SG so I can go over to their office, chit chat, and buy a couple of filaments...

This post has been edited by altan: Feb 10 2015, 06:11 PM

Does anyone know how to contact the e-Nable community in Malaysia (the group that showed up in the newspaper for 3D printing a hand for a kid) because someone I know would like to contact them.

Thanks but are they related to e-NABLE group because I think they want to find volunteers in Malaysia.

It a 3D printing company that would like to be in contact with an e-NABLE volunteer so they could find children whom they can sponsor a 3D printed prosthetic limb.