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Month: December 2021

By Posted on Posted in Posts, Uncategorized, Video


Transcript

Hello everybody and welcome to another review. Today we’ll be comparing two Resin Cleaning machines. The first is the Elegoo Mercury Plus and the second is the Anycubic Wash and Cure 2.0 and both are very similar yet different machines as we’ll see shortly. Full disclaimer, I purchased both of these machines myself for the purposes of this review, and the opinions you will see here are my own.

Now, before we begin, let’s quickly cover what these machines do and how they might differ to traditional hand cleaning methods. In this case, both machines serve two main purposes in the post-processing of a resin 3d prints. The first is to clean the model to remove any residual resin which might remain after the print has finished printing. The second is to fully cure the print to ensure the material’s full mechanical properties. Both of these machines are designed to take up as little room as possible by combining both purposes into one device.

Now I’ve been using both these machines for a while now, and I can say that both will achieve very similar results, however the user experience for each of these is quite different in certain aspects. Both of these machines were chosen for the comparison because they were the closest in design and function, So let’s take a closer look at each of them one by one.

The Elegoo Mercury Plus uses a series of buttons to switch between the different modes, as well as controlling the operations of the machines. All buttons are clearly labelled and easy to read, however it is more time-consuming to set cleaning and curing times. On this machine, you have to readily press the plus or negative buttons to achieve your desired cure setting, which is inconvenient, especially if your hands are covered in resin. If you want to run the cleaning mode you’ll have to do this with the machine cover on and although you can place the container lid on it will be a very tight fit. The container lid on my unit had issues with closing properly, and I would recommend that the company change this for future machines. In order to clean the build plate, this machine has an added adapter which clips onto the top of the machine to where the cleaning basket would normally be located. This holder is only currently compatible with certain build plates, didn’t work with my Anycubic Photon. I would have preferred a different method of holding the cleaning basket in place, since it must be clipped into the holder for every use. If you choose not to properly secure the basket, it can interfere or damage the rotational stirrer, since the basket does not have a raised portion. As a safety precaution, this machine does turn off the LED’s if the machine cover is not in place. When I opened up this machine, I did indeed discover tinned terminals, which I immediately proceeded to replace them with ferrules. Although this machine does produce beeping sounds, in most cases this machine isn’t overly loud in it’s warning and operation. A newer model has since been released, which does have some improvements and features.

The Anycubic Wash and Cure machine 2.0 uses a rotational knob to adjust its timing settings, which I’ve found to be a faster method for adjustment. When you press down on the rotational knob, it allows you to start and stop the machine. In order to change between cleaning mode and curing mode, you’ll press on the button that has a cycle symbol on it’s surface. I found that the LED which displayed the current mode selection to be very small and difficult to read. What you see on camera is very much the same as what a user experiences as in person, and it would be something that I’d recommend they improve in future alterations. The basket design has raised feet which helps prevent uncured resin from dripping down onto your surface, however you will still need to place something underneath since the base is still open. One of the best features I’ve found yet on this machine is the ability to place the cleaning container on the machine and run it without the cover. This allows me to run the machine the with the container lid on but not the machine cover, which helps contain the fumes a lot better while preventing the evaporation of the liquid. The top of the container is higher than the LED’s, which make it easier to place and remove the lid during normal operations. The cleaning container has another benefit in that it keeps the build plate above the base by using the tab’s which are designed into the container itself. This means that you don’t have to swap out an additional component when cleaning with your build plate. As for the curing portion, this uses a reflective foil and a base which is inserted onto the gear. The only main concern I have is that liquid may fall into the gear system, since it’s a more open design. As a safety precaution, this machine does turn off the LED’s if the machine cover is not in place, which is a welcome precaution. When I opened up this machine I was very happy to discover that they did not use any tinned connections at their terminals which is a positive move forward for the company. This machine does produce very loud beeping noises and humming sounds when in operation and is something I would like to see addressed in a future product.

Both of these machines do alternate directions when in a cleaning mode, which does help ensure that all material is removed from the prints. These devices would benefit from certain changes in their future designs, once of which is a memory of the last timed setting. Both machines reset to zero for both their washing and curing cycles, which is inconvenient in a production setting where time is at a premium. If an owner has a flex build plate installed, they should not place it inside the cleaning station since this can compromise the adhesive being used to hold the magnet into place. While these machines are great for larger parts, I would like to see them included a finer sized basket for cleaning smaller parts, since these are very likely to fall through the openings of the basket. In my case, I’ve started using a tea infuser to circumvent this issue, however it isn’t entirely ideal.

So with all of this information taken into consideration, what is the final verdict? There are certain aspects of each that I do prefer, however for me the clean winner is the Anycubic Wash and Cure 2.0 for several reasons. The main reason is the fact that they had proper wiring in their machine and the cleaning container. Their basket and container designs were well integrated with the rest of the machine, and this does come at a higher price point. So if you’re under a tight budget and won’t be utilizing your machine on a regular basis, then I would recommend the Elegoo cleaning station, however if you’re producing prints approximately twice a week I would definitely invest in the one by Anycubic. The Anycubic model is simply more user-friendly and can potentially save a user quite a bit of time because of how it has been designed.

By Posted on Posted in Posts, tricks-and-mods, Uncategorized, Video




Transcript

Hello everybody and welcome to another video. Today well be covering a very simple upgrade, which is to replace the standard Bowden tube with a Capricorn tubing instead. As always, do this mod at your own risk, and I’m in no way responsible if any damages may occur.

So why do this upgrade at all? Well, as it turns out, it can often prevent problems before they appear. As some of you may already know, there’s quite a few cloned hot ends on the market, and this does create quality control issues as a result. I’ve actually had the Bowden tube of my CR-30 and Sovol SV1 constrict so much that they completely stopped extruding material. In most cases this can be a minor inconvenience, however in other’s it can be more serious. On my CR-30, the Bowden tube was actually burnt within the hot end and caused the filament to puncture the Bowden tube itself. Most standard Bowden tubes are known to release extremely toxic fumes when heated past it’s recommended levels, so this was a great concern to me at the time. This issue is caused by the heat from the heater block creeping up the Bowden tube, and this is known as heat creep. This is pretty common in most hot ends that come with questionable quality control, however it can also happen to higher end models as well. On my CR10 V3 for instance, I had the same issues when I had added an all metal hot end from a well known company. The most common method to dealing with these issues is to upgrade the Bowden tube to a Capricorn one and is something that I recommend most people do at some point since it’s a very simple upgrade. The Capricorn tubing is made from high quality PTFE tubing along with normally some lubricant within the tube itself. Since the tolerances are much tighter, there tends to be fewer chances of the filament bending within as a result. A standard Bowden tube has a maximum temperature of 230 while the Capricorn one can go as high as 260.

In order to do this upgrade, you should only need one tool, however you have two options available. The first is to use side snips pliers to cut the tubing to the correct length, and then re-open the opening using the tip. You’ll re-open the tubing by using a circular motion to gently reshape it to its original opening size. The second method is to use a PTFE Teflon Tube cutter to get a clean cut on the ends of the tubing. Although the tube cutter does give a cleaner cut, you may still have to re-open the opening of the tubing slightly after having cut it down to the correct size.

The fittings which help hold the tubing in place are what allow for movement in only one direction when they are fully functioning. Putting the tubing into place is the easy part, however to remove it you must apply downwards pressure on the collet of the Pneumatic joint. Applying this pressure helps move the gripping teeth out of the way, which in turn allows tubing to be removed.

Before start swapping out the tubing, we first need to prepare the machine by doing a cold pull. A cold pull helps remove any debris that might be in the hot end and is a highly recommended step to help ensure that the tubing goes in all the way during assembly. Although I prefer to use some TPU while doing this, PLA will also work, but you’ll have to be careful not snap it in the process. To start things off, if you don’t have any filament already loading into your machine, you’ll need to preheat the nozzle so that you can feed some filament through the hot end. Once the filament has been feed through, you can then let the hot end completely cool down. Once it’s Cooldown completely, you’ll restart the heating process while tugging on the filament at the same time. As the hot end heats up, any residue will be dislodged when the filament is pulled out at a low temperature. As you can see, I did this process with both TPU and PLA with the same results. Once again, just make sure not to snap the filament while doing this step.

To replace your Bowden tube, you’ll first remove the existing tubing from your device. Some machines use a small clip to hold the collet into place while other’s sometimes have a zip tie as an alternative, so make sure to remove these before taking out the Bowden tube. You’ll then take this tubing and use it to measure out the replacement Capricorn tubing. By either using a set of side snip pliers or PTFE Teflon Tube cutters, you’ll cut the length of tubing required for your particular machine, making sure to keep the cut as level and clean as possible. If needed, you can use the side snip pliers to reshape the tip of the tubing so that it’s round. You can then begin feeding the tubing into the hot end assembly, making sure that is put all the way in, followed by the extruder.

I hope you guys found this video useful and that you are now more comfortable undertaking this simple modification on your machine.

By Posted on Posted in Posts, tricks-and-mods, Uncategorized, Video




Transcript

Hello Everybody and Welcome to another video. Today’s we’ll be installing the Repkord Upgrade kit for the CR-30 since the motors lack proper support. Full disclaimer, this is not a paid sponsorship, I purchased this upgrade kit with my own money and the opinions that you see here are my own. As always, do this mod at your own risk, and I’m in no way responsible if any damages may occur.

Before we begin, I wanted to mention that this video is based on the original Repord installation video and although it was jam packed with useful information, I believe that it would benefit from an instructional over hull. For this reason, I will be including the link to the original video as well as the upgrade kit in the description below.

So there’s a couple of main reason why you may which to undertake this modification, however it is mainly to help prevent issues after long printing sessions. As mentioned in my review for this machine, this printer is better suited for a production setting where it can be expected to run 24/7. For a small business, having a machine go down can cause expensive delays while replacement parts come in. The CR-30 comes initially with two stepper motors, which do not have proper supports and could potentially deform or break over time. Depending on the deformation of the D-shaft, you could also experience extra rigging on your 3d prints if it becomes bent to one side. This modification adds a support across the stepper motor D-shaft where the belt applies constant pressure.

To start things off, we’ll first remove the original stepper motors that came with the machine. These motors are attached with a 4 mm hex screw and have 3 connection points. Making sure to unplug the original motors, we’ll completely remove the screws holding the mounting bracket in place so that only the tensioner remains. The tensioning screws only needs to be loosened enough to remove the stepper motor. Make sure to place these screws in a safe location because we’ll need some of them latter on.

Before we begin installing the new stepper motors, we first need to adjust the timing pulley to ensure that it is roughly the correct height. This will also allow us to adjust the orientation of the stepper motors according to our preferences after we’ve attached the mounting brackets. From the upgrade kit, we’ll remove the T-spring nuts and screw, while making sure to place these in a safe location for later. You’ll then need to loosen the 4 screws which are holding the stepper motor in the mounting bracket with a 2 mm hex key. Take care when lifting the bracket away from the stepper motor so that the screws don’t fall out of place. You can then place the mounting bracket flat on the table while you work on attaching the spring T-nuts to the frame of the machine.

I found that putting my tweezers in the slot was a great way to keep the spring nut from falling down the T-slot. In order to actually put the T-nut in, you can place a hex key through the hole to allow you to tilt into place. The pliers will keep the T-nut from sliding down while you attach the mounting bracket with the provided screw. Make sure that the bracket is just tight enough to keep it into place while still allowing you to move it if necessary. You’ll place the timing belts within the mounting bracket, making sure that they are opened over the hole for the stepper motor shaft.

We can now begin adjusting the timing pulleys by loosening the small hex screws holding them into their position. Using the original motors that came from the machine as a reference, you’ll line these up and set them to the same height. You’ll want to make sure that at least one of the screws is making full contact with the flattened portion. This will mean that the motor with the shorter height will need to be flipped upside down for a better connection. With the height properly set, you can now connect the motor to the mounting bracket while making sure that the connector is either facing up or down and that the timing pulley is within the timing belt. With the screws for the motor tightened, you can then slide the assembly up towards the tensioner screw and begin tightening it just enough to get a small amount of tension. If it doesn’t reach completely, the belt is most likely caught somewhere, so double check that it’s correctly threaded through its entire path. You can now attach the final screw to hold the motor into place and begin adjusting the timing belt tension until both belts are adequately tightened. Make sure to fully tighten the T-nut once it’s installed correctly by using a hex key which has a ball tip. Don’t overtighten the belt, it should have just enough tension that there’s enough resistance when you pinch it together Both motors need to have approximately the same amount of tension to ensure a proper operation of the machine.

The final stage is to adjust the steps per milometer for the new motors. Go to” Advanced settings” + “Configuration” + “Steps/mm” and adjust the steps for both the X and Y motors from 80 to 160steps/mm. With this complete, you can now begin printing once again.

So who is this mod for and when should someone consider doing this? Well, if you’re in a production setting then I would consider this a mandatory upgrade since it prevent issues before it begins. In this case, it would recommend that the user do this upgrade alongside the Bowden tube and tinned wire replacement. If you’re a more casual user of this machine, you could wait until a latter date to upgrade the motors since in most cases you won’t be tied to a specific deadline, however you do risk wasting materials and time should the motor shafts become deformed.

By Posted on Posted in Posts, tricks-and-mods, Uncategorized, Video




Transcript

Hello everybody and welcome to another video. Today, we’ll be circumventing the creality Wifi Box that’s inside the CR10-Smart. We’ll be doing this in order to be able to fully test the machine for troubleshooting purposes, however this can also be useful if you want to disable the creality box entirely. As always, what you see here is my own opinion and do this at your own risk. I’m in no way responsible if any damages may occur.

As some of you may remember, I did a review of the Creality smart kit, which included the Creality Wifi Box. Although a reseller provided me with wifi box to review, to this date it’s performance has been the poorest I’ve ever rated because of several reasons, which you can check out for yourselves by clicking the video in the description below. Needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled to discover that this machine in fact had the device hardwired within its confines. At the time I was still working on the review for this machine, but I was running into strange issues while printing and I did suspect that they may have been caused by the inclusion of the wifi box. In order to test this theory, I first needed to find a way to print without the use of the integrated box.

After doing some research, I came across an article by Sebastiaan Dammann where he explores a method of unplugging and adding a cable to connect the 3d printer to a computer or raspberry pie. I will be including a link to in the description below for those of you who might be interested. After doing some testing of my own, I did discover that I could achieve the same results, but by retaining to USB input that came with the machine. This meant that I didn’t have to worry about messy cables sticking out of the machine, and I could retain the clean aesthetic. Now, technically, you have two options with this machine. The first, is you can connect the machine via the USB input or in theory through the Ethernet cable. As of recording, I have yet to attempt the second method, mainly since in most cases a person would want to connect to the USB port instead.

Now, the great part about this method is that it’s entirely reversible. You can do these changes and reverse them as you see fit, allowing you to benefit from either solution. There is one thing that will need to keep in mind. You will need to purchase a Male to Male USB Data cable in order to establish a proper connection with your device. Most people don’t realize this, but there’s actually two types of USB Cables that you can get. You can get a cable which only transfers power to another device, which would be the in-correct version for this project. The second one, is a USB cable which allows for information to transfer along with the power and is this one we that will be required. Also, very important to note, the machine MUST be disconnected from the external device in order to start up. What this means is that you will need to disconnect the USB, the connection to the computer or raspberry pie prior to booting up the machine.

As per usual, many of the connections that we will be modifying will be glued together, so you will need to remove the glue prior to changing any of the connections. The first connection that we’ll remove is the connection to the PC and Wifi Hub board. All connections on that board will remain the same except for the WIFI connection which is used to connect to the Wifi Box Board. Next we’ll take the connection going from the Wifi Box board and move the Camera connection to the WIFI connection which is on the PC and Wifi Hub Board. We can then remove the Ethernet and power switch connections going to the wifi box, although this shouldn’t be necessary because the data cable is no longer connected.

Once everything has been properly connected, you can test to make sure that the machines are still functioning properly. As mentioned before, the CR10 Smart must not be connected via USB when first starting up. Once it’s turned one, however, you can then plug it into the device. Doing a simple test to see if the machine is responding to movements and seeing if the machine heats up properly will let you know if everything is working correctly. You can then begin printing or testing your machine depending on your use case.

So is this mod worth doing? Well that would depend on your use case as always. If you are using this machine for client work where security would be an issue, or you’re troubleshooting something on your machine, then I would consider this modification a must. If you are however already used to using the creality cloud even if they don’t respect content creators works then perhaps it isn’t necessary. You can still use the SD card reader which is appreciated, however you may run into unforeseen issues because of the integration of the Wifi box. So although I can see how it could be beneficial to some people, I personally would have preferred that it wasn’t included in the CR10 Smart. Once I’m done testing this machine, I will most likely be removing the Creality Wifi Box entirely unless I can find a proper use case for the device.