M2 Purchasing Itinerary

[Dale Reed]

My dad gave me the gifts of Heathkit and Craftsman for birthdays / Christmases when I was growing up, so I ordered the kit and it went together smoothly for me. As a plus, you end up with plenty of spare metric hardware you can use to attach accessories (from Thingiverse, or yet-to-be-invented), and lots of handy big and little zipper-lock plastic bags. (You get about three big ones, each of which can hold a spool of filament and some desiccant just perfectly.) Also helps to know how it went together so you can more quickly and confidently take it apart if it needs fixed (not often!) and get it back together once fixed. And you save a few bucks.

On the plus side for assembled, you basically take it out of the box, do some unwrapping, set it on a sturdy surface, hook it up, run some quick checks, level the bed and start printing.

Either way, I think you still get a little chocolate and a nice thank-you note from Karen!

Welcome to the fun!
Dale

[sprior]

I've gone a different way instead of the VIKI panel. I set up a Raspberry Pi running Octoprint to control the printer via a web interface and a cheap webcam hooked to the Pi to allow me to monitor the print. Frees up your computer and it's a cheap solution. I upload the gcode file to Octoprint and let it go from there - skip the SD card.

[Bluesoulx12]

I recently was gifted the wonder that is Kobalt so I will most likely building it just to have some fun to be honest. Unless the factory does it's own super secret calibrations if it's assembled that I should know about.

Also can you define big prints for a .5 extruder. Big in terms of volume or just large print times?

[jsc]

Volume is limited by the print area, and is the same for all nozzles. A .5mm nozzle will allow you to lay down fatter traces and reduce print times, but reduce the resolution possible in the X/Y plane. In the other direction, a smaller nozzle will give you finer resolution, but take longer to print. You should start off with the default nozzle size.

There is no difference between a kit-built M2 and a factory assembled one, other than the care you put into it. It's not too difficult, and there are several threads on this forum that address some of the issues you may run into. You can always come back here and ask if you have any questions.

The M2 IRC channel is also a good place for quick help.

[Bluesoulx12]

How about additional steppers motors/fans? I heard they can be problematic.

[jsc]

The old fans were low quality bearing fans, with the 50mm bed fan a 12V unit that was being run at 24V and relying on PWM to keep it from burning out. The currently shipping ones, though, are apparently decent ball bearing units, and of the proper voltage rating. You shouldn't have a problem. The stepper motors have also gone through some revisions, I believe. I recall some hearsay that the Z stepper used to run hot; it doesn't any more. Also, people have reported that after heavy use, the filament drive gear gets worn down. I wouldn't bother being proactive in getting extra units. If you have a problem within six months, it should be covered under warranty and MakerGear is pretty good at taking care of its customers.

Really, the most common problem you are likely to encounter after heavy use is a clogged hot end. There are several threads on how to clear those, here is one of mine with some useful links: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=732. You may wish to lay in some liquid paint stripper with methylene chloride, and the three drill bits recommended by jimc here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=162

The other commonly reported problem (again, after heavy usage) is a cracked mount, either the filament drive or the motor mount. The motor mount is printable and available at MakerGear's github page (probably one of these: https://github.com/MakerGear/M2/tree/ma ... 0Parts/STL), and the filament drive is also there, although I have used and can recommend this one: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:267137. Print anything near heat in ABS.

If you are interested in being a guinea pig, check out the preorder for the v4 dual extruder.

[Bluesoulx12]

Where's the preorder link?

BTW thanks for all the quit responses everyone it definitely assures me I am in a great community

[jsc]

http://www.makergear.com/products/m2-upgrades

Grayed out now.

[markb]

I've gone a different way instead of the VIKI panel. I set up a Raspberry Pi running Octoprint to control the printer via a web interface and a cheap webcam hooked to the Pi to allow me to monitor the print. Frees up your computer and it's a cheap solution. I upload the gcode file to Octoprint and let it go from there - skip the SD card.

I also have mine setup this way and love it. It emails me a picture of the print when it is done.
You can use it to pause the print and restart it. We check in the prints with Kindle android phones laptops…

[Toby]

One thing no one's mentioned is storing filament. If humidity is high where you live you will want some sort of humidity control. PLA (and ABS? I'm not sure) can absorb moisture from the air and then prints get funky. I live in Florida and rarely use my AC, so this is a major concern. I keep my unused filament in a plastic container lined with weatherstripping and including a passive dehumidifier from Amazon. There's a picture of it in the M2 tips thread. Here's a link to Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H0 ... UTF8&psc=1

I also added a small active dehumidifier to the room I have the printer in. It's a peltier type so no moving parts except a fan and is quiet and efficient and works very well. Here's an amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QT ... UTF8&psc=1

I haven't had a problem leaving filament on the printer and right now I'm in the middle of a print where I just changed to filament that had been stored for over a month. Not a whisper of a problem (like a puff of steam from the hot end). So I'm happy with this system.