Tear down of Cubify cube 3 3D Printer + convert to RepRap

I'm sure that the glue they sell in those little bottles is poly vinyl alcohol, PVA glue. You can buy a gallon of it for much cheaper. $30-$40 a gallon. I use it for making molds so I always have it around the studio. Works great!

 

PV Acetate maybe School glue, yes... we use to eat it as kids. Never thought of it. Should work.

 

I like to use whatever I have laying around. Glue, hairspray, tape, gum, mud. You name it, I've probably used it!

 

And there it is...
School Glue - CLASSROOM DIRECT

Soooooooo..... gonna have to try that THANKS!

 

Elmers coupled with this... Mod Podge Roller Tops with 2 oz. Bottle for Decoupage by Plaid - Walmart.com
Anytime!
Have you tried out that Hatchbox filament yet Tom?

 

Dude! I'll put that in the next Hatchbox filament order

Next wonderful challenge:

Replacing the build plate surface.

Any consensus of the current material being used to cover the aluminum plate?
Each one is failing differently.
On my early build white printer, I have serious distortion and cracks (linear) at the magnet locations.
I was thinking finding a properly textured Formica in pure white.

Also need to be careful to know the homing sensor doesn't freak out. They have samples for that

 

I have some sheet ABS & polystyrene laying around. It looks and feels like the polystyrene is what the top of the build plate is made from. My white printer also started developing some small cracks where the magnets are, but my grey units are structurally sound. Must've been an issue with that machine colors build plates.

 

Later units didn't have that problem but they pitted worse from printing ABS.

 

I just put BuildTak on the plates. it is like $6.70 a sheet, but it lasts forever.

 

And the leveling works okay?

 

LokBuild is the winner. BuildTak will go down the drain....

Btw how come Cube3 is SO smart re bed level and bed CLEAN status?

 

Another question about the firmware patch, if I may.

If a cartridge is used that has a registered capacity of say, ten percent, I understand that that figure will not be "depleted" during use. This is great. If a print job requires fifteen percent, will the attempt to print be met with a message regarding insufficient filament remaining?

 

Youll probably get the "Not enough filament on cart to print this, will print anyway until exhausted"

 

Probably is good. Is that what happens with an unmodified firmware as well?

 

Yep, its meant to continue no matter how much filament is left.



BTW eychey, today I launched a print using an original WHITE cart on the LEFT place, and Cube printer tells me it will print with a different color (just a warning).

 

Same here!

 

Only moments ago, my firmware update to v1.1 was completed. I'm not sure what the initial trouble was, but the attempt was rejected numerous times. Perhaps the 128gb flash drive is beyond the machine's comprehension, as it finally accepted a 4gb unit. I was able to "back-flash" the unit to the original firmware and then forward to v1.1.

With a 2% cartridge in place, I received and accepted the expected insufficient message, which then allowed the machine to exhaust the filament. As I performed a visual check of the cartridge during the print, I accidentally bumped the power brick, causing the machine to shut down. The inspection showed no filament below the drive mechanism, but at the same time, the print bed dropped to the bottom prior to shutting down.

Does this printer automatically drop the bed from a power failure? I see no reason to believe that there is a filament-out detector, as it would have been triggered numerous times in the past from various cartridge flaws and problems. After returning power to the machine, a cartridge check shows 2 percent remaining, even on the empty cart.

Even though I've sold off all my other cartridges, I believe this firmware increases the value of the printer many-fold. In place of a 3D printer I'd have to pay someone to take off my hands, I could possibly sell it for real money, maybe even one hundred american dollars! Nah, I'm going to keep it for mundane, lower value printing tasks, somewhere in a heavily sound-insulated corner!

What link exists to donate specifically to this project? I see on this page there's a connection to FairShare, but isn't there also one aimed for this effort?

 

You're in the wrong thread:
Cube 3 / Pro hacks

 

Well then, since we now should be more watchful about hardware, I've done a little study of the nozzles. Some interesting findings. Those very old cartridges without the windows have a serious problem. Someone in manufacturing thought it a good idea to 'glue' the spring loaded tips on the liner tube. I've seen black and now a natural clear color. It is not just old filament that fails prints, its this glue getting to the nozzle.

It is a good idea to clean this stuff off before putting a reworked tip back into service.
The stainless steel tube is exactly 3mm. A drill bit and a couple of collects or small drill chucks will make short work of the cleaning.
Next I found a heavy power cord. I'm after some 28-someodd gage wire to poke into the aperture. Next put the tip on the backside of the 3mm drill bit. Now warm up the aluminum part of the tip. Before it cools too much, push the wire into the aperture careful not to kink or break it. If the material is still vicious, you should be able to push the single wire strand all the through after removing the drill bit. It will carry with it some of the material. With any luck, if there was a bigger, you got it. If you're OCD, rinse and repeat.

 

Now I'm no sure how an "old cart" vs "new cart" looks like?

 

The newer cartridges have a small portion of the outer case/cover equipped with a flap, an entry door of sorts. It is located just under the drive module. This flap has a fin that extends into the cartridge and keeps the internal bowden tube from kinking or being pulled to one side, which causes frequent failures. The older carts do not have this feature.

As an advisor to the public library for their Cube 3, I've been teaching one of the staff as much as possible to keep the printer in service. It was only yesterday that we discovered the purpose of the fin. We've been lucky in that the aforementioned glue problem hasn't reared its ugly head for their machine!

 

Well neon green has always printed fine but yesterday the only two carts of white filament clogged, one after the other, on the left position

 

Doing tests with Simplify3D and modified CubePro FFF profile.
Pretty much got it working, but there is one strange thing happening:



When printing line, end point is higher on Z axis. What the hell? Anybody knows what is it related to?
Looks like my printer wants to print on the thin air

 

Interesting trick, Kiza.

One of the things about the Cube|Pro is the much greater control over the deposited material.
This may well be something inside the Pro version that causes the Cube3 to look so lousy by comparison.
Making the Pro slicer work for Cube3 has huge implications.

I wonder if this was an early "fabric" routine to keep from disturbing the previous layer.

 

I didn't get that fancy with the merging of filaments.
I have a butane soldering iron where you can remove the tip and you have flameless heat.
I bought this to re-melt the support breaks so color is restored.
If you hold both ends close to the nozzle, they get soft but not to far in.
You can test it but it should be tacky enough to join.
Keep pushing until a disk forms keeping both ends straight and coaxial.
Then just trim away the melted disks and clean up with some 100grit sandpaper.
If you fail, snip and repeat.

 

Turns out the Lego Mindstorms gears fit the cartridge spool perfectly
Just a bit sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow

 

Photos please!

 

oops... already back in the box.

 

Looks like a slowly progressive z-hop instead of an instant one.

 

Problem from kiza is solved.
Working on it.