Building a RatRig V-Core - 4 IDEX 3D Printer - Part 2: Z Axis Components

[@jaimevaldez3058]

i love your 20+ minute videos on building the ratrig! will definitely subscribe.

[@RocketkidDesigns]

Thanks for that, I was worried they were too long but I am having trouble making them any shorter.

[@NDesign3D]

I feel a lot more confident now in my future build after watching this. Thank you for this! Subscribed!

[@RocketkidDesigns]

I'm glad to hear that, and I hope this helps. The build is fairly straight forward, there are a few parts where I found ways I would have done it differently after the fact. The SW part had a learning curve but I also modified some things there that I'm planning to share when I get to it. If you have any questions shoot'em my way.

[@theolivegrove342]

This is dangerous. Every time I watch one of your build videos I feel more encouraged to build something myself. Thank you for making the build so e Accessible. I laughed so many times and realized after I finished the video I had almost a 3D image of the build progress mapped in my mind. Thanks for putting out quality content! 🎉

[@RocketkidDesigns]

Awesome! That's exactly my goal, other build channels kept me motivated so I'm glad to be able to help others now!

[@slight-mechanical-destruction]

Cool jacket!

[@RocketkidDesigns]

Haha thanks, didn't know if anyone would catch that, I probably should have left that off for the video

[@thebrigandier]

Thanks for these vids. I have a 500 on the way, feels a lot less intimidating now.

[@RocketkidDesigns]

Thats great, I'm happy to hear that! Feel free to post questions along the way if you have any.

[@josuebello7385]

So far, what is your general opinion of the machine??? Great video great jacket!!!

[@RocketkidDesigns]

Honestly I spent more time getting it tuned than I planned to, but that would be way faster the second time around and now that i know how to resolve the issues i was eeing.. As far as the machine goes once it's running, it's been great. It's the largest printer I own so it's come in useful for larger prints i couldn't do before. The extruder hotend combo does really well with a .6mm nozzle on those large prints and the flow rate is pretty impressive. I ran the flow rate test to 20mm3/s and it never showed any issues. That's enough for me because anymore runs too fast mechanically in my opinion and layer adhesion seems worse in my experience. The idex is really neat, I haven't had a chance to put it through it's paces too much yet but when it's well aligned and configured it's way faster than any other material changing I've seen and it seems really capable.

[@ApocalypsesDawn]

@@RocketkidDesigns When you say "getting it tuned" do you mean slicer settings or like Re-aligning hardware and what not. What was your struggle?

[@RocketkidDesigns]

@@ApocalypsesDawn So some slicer tuning, but there were a bunch of annoying issues getting the first print going. I had to update quite a few things in the config files in klipper because I was getting errors that weren't explained and it just wouldn't print. There were quite a few things there. Once I got through those I didn't have to deal with them anymore but it would be handy if they provided some of the fixes in the default configs. Mechanically I had some issues with the idex setup because they say to not put in the hybrid belts until after tuning but they're required for idex to work at all. Then I kept getting really strange artifacts that I thought were ringing or ghosting but I couldn't get them to go away. Then I saw them on a large straight print and realized they were related to the teeth in the belt, basically I had it tight enough that when each tooth went over the smooth idler pulley it would cause the print head to slightly move and make the waves on the print. That was weird because I didn't think they were very tight, but loosening fixed that issue. There were a few others, and I actually came up with my own solution for controlling the part cooling fans for the odex setup that I haven't seen anywhere else. I'll be making a video about that too soon.

[@ApocalypsesDawn]

@@RocketkidDesigns Dang man that sounds like a headache I look forward to the next video. I'm hopefully putting mine together next week. I'm a noob at kit printers so I imagine I'm going to be pulling my hair out at some parts.... Can't wait lol

[@RocketkidDesigns]

@ApocalypsesDawn oh you'll be fine it's really not as bad as it sounds it just takes some patience which I'm usually lacking haha. If you have any questions let me know. I'm trying to answer them in the videos but if there's anything specific I can address it.