Buying the M2: Help me start out right

[pyronaught]

I've got a nut on both sides actually.

[insta]

Just do the bottom. Both sides could make it worse, as you might pull tension back out and let the screw move again.

[jeffpowell101]

Did a nut come with the lot for this purpose? I missed that step if it was.

Also, when is the part fan (the 50mm fan) supposed to be on? What exactly is its purpose?

[Tim]

This is known as the bed fan, and the purpose of the fan is mainly for PLA, which needs to be cooled fast as it comes out of the nozzle. Typical settings for PLA are: no fan on the first layer, followed by 60% fan or more on all other layers. ABS does not require the fan. PETg seems to work best with the fan on, but earlier I was using an opaque PET+ that started warping and popping off the glass plate as soon as the fan hit it, so I kept the fan off.

I don't really like the positioning of the bed fan on the M2, because it's asymmetric and will cool different parts of a print (particularly large prints) at different rates. But overall, it does its job.

[pyronaught]

I had quite a bit of leftover fasteners with my M2 kit. I believe the Z bolt is an M4 thread, and I had several leftover M4 nuts. I also had several dozen M3 nuts and another dozen or so M3 lock nuts left over along with various lengths of M3 screws. Is this normal? Some big sections of my kit were also already assembled, such as the X axis rail already being bolted to the metal plate, the entire Z axis assembly was already put together and the Y axis rail was also already bolted to the platform arm. The instructions showed the assembly of some of these things so not sure if this is normal or not. It only took 4 hours to put the whole thing together with all those pre-assembled parts.

[jimc]

yes makergear gives you all kinds of extras.

[helifrek]

I have a little 4 or 5" deskfan aimed right at the nozzle that I turn on when the bed fan comes on. Solved a few issues with overhangs curling up on me. Also, a member here designed a fan mount that has space for 2 led strips, it has a different angle on it that seems to help get more air to the tip of the extruder.

[Dale Reed]

That would be this: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:348480

Also, in my M2 kit from 4/2013, several of the bags of parts (especially the M3 nuts and washers) had supplier labels on them. Cheaper to throw in a supplier bag of 50 nuts if you need 35 than to pay somebody to count out, say, 35 of them and label a bag.

Dale

[helifrek]

I looked all over and couldn't find your thread Dale! I was really tired last night too...... that probably had something to do with it!

Also, if you haven't done this yet, Do it!
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1712&p=6718&hilit=spider#p6718