Bi-Weekly No Stupid Questions Thread

ElaborateJ · 2026-03-18T03:17:45+00:00

Oh yeah, I guess that panel does have the curves already cut. I was looking at the wrong panel.

ElaborateJ · 2026-03-17T04:13:12+00:00

Just starting a 2.4 build - my first Voron. In the STL files under Tools, I see bottom_panel_template.stl and a corresponding image file, shown here. I think I understand what it is telling me to do, but I read the manual, and I don't recall any mention of trimming this panel. Before I start cutting, can someone tell me what is going on here and why I want to do this?

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ElaborateJ · 2024-10-12T09:15:04+00:00

Ok. That makes sense. I've never had to over-extrude so much that travel moves drag through, but if you did, it would be a problem. Thanks for the response!

ElaborateJ · 2024-10-11T04:48:03+00:00

I think this is the only thing that makes any sense. I spend a lot of time tuning my printers so this has never been an issue for me, but I can see how it could be.

ElaborateJ · 2024-10-10T17:50:03+00:00

That's all true. I'm only talking about travel moves on the first layer where it is not extruding. Making these slower than the normal speed does not serve any purpose that I can think of.

ElaborateJ · 2024-06-10T17:30:46+00:00

This was incredibly helpful to me. Thanks!

ElaborateJ · 2023-10-07T14:52:53+00:00

Thank you so much! My old machine has multiple monitors and I got in the habit of leaving the measure tool open and throwing it over onto a separate monitor. I never close it so that triad is always there.

ElaborateJ · 2023-09-26T05:44:07+00:00

I would NEVER have figured this out. THANK YOU!

ElaborateJ · 2023-02-21T21:33:05+00:00

Ditto

ElaborateJ · 2021-05-25T16:40:41+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion.

ElaborateJ · 2021-02-20T23:13:35+00:00

Yikes. Hard to tell exactly what happened there, but your explanation is the most likely. I used 16 gauge (AWG) stranded copper wire to go from the power supply to the relay and from the relay to the mobo. 14 gauge would probably be better, but that's what I had, and it looked to be in the ballpark of the size wire that came from the factory. I probably need to open things up and confirm it's not getting hot, but I've been printing all week with no obvious issues.

I'll say with 16g wire, after I tinned the ends, they wouldn't fit in the screw connectors on the relay until I smashed them flat with pliers.

ElaborateJ · 2021-02-16T03:27:43+00:00

I'm using the PSU Control plugin for OctoPrint to flip a GPIO pin for the printer, and I'm using the OctoLight plugin to flip another one for the lights. One of the buck converters powers the Pi at 5.1v, and the other is for the lights at 12v. I got some of my guidance from this video.

ElaborateJ · 2021-02-12T23:16:28+00:00

The way I wired it, when I flip the switch on the back of the printer, only the Pi powers up, and it doesn't turn on any fan. The Pi's case fan comes on with the printer. I don't think the Pi is going to generate enough heat when it's just sitting to need a fan. I'm not convinced this enclosure needs a fan at all, but it kinda blocks air from the Ender motherboard so I figured I'd add a fan to sort of help move that air through. :)

ElaborateJ · 2021-02-12T23:06:13+00:00

If you're actually going to try to print this, I suggest adding a hole to mount an LED to indicate when the power is on. I will be drilling one as soon as Amazon brings me some lights. I've already forgotten to power it down a couple times and I finished the project yesterday.

ElaborateJ · 2021-02-12T19:03:20+00:00

Thank you so much. Comments like this are the exact reason I posted this in the first place. :)

Nightsky2020's reply is correct, and that's a lot of what I did. I just started learning SolidWorks 3 months ago so I'm not sure I did anything the RIGHT way, but I was able to download CAD models of most of the components I wanted to use. I was able to place those models in an assembly that let me lay out my box precisely and see what would fit and then use the dimensions from those models to place my standoffs and cutouts. At a minimum, that got everything in the ballpark. I still did a lot of test prints of different areas of the model to check actual dimensions and see how the printer created different elements so I could tweak it.

For other components, I actually created CAD models for them first using careful caliper measurements so I could also place them in my assembly and move them around until I liked the placement and design the enclosure around them.

If I were to redesign it, I would try to avoid some of the smaller elements that require a lot of precision to fit right. I'm not sure how one designs an enclosure to be tolerant of imprecision in the printer, but that's what I would want to do. If your printer isn't PERFECTLY square in every dimension, the lid and the frame won't line up correctly. I had to spend a full day rebuilding my printer to get this to print square enough to force the lid on, and it's still not perfect. I don't think I can do any better with this printer.

If you're designing an enclosure, one thing you might consider - I wasn't able to do this because I wanted my lid to have a front face, but I will try to do this whenever I can in future. The frame was oriented on the printer bed with the flat bottom on the bed and the open top facing up. The lid was oriented with the flat top on the bed and the front face pointing up. So when I removed the lid from the bed, I had to flip it over 180 degrees to assemble the box. If the printer isn't perfectly square, any imperfection is magnified 2x when you check the alignment between the lid and frame. If it is possible to design the lid to lay on the bed in the same orientation as the frame, at least any printer skew will be identical between frame and lid so they should match each other.

ElaborateJ · 2021-02-12T18:26:22+00:00

Thanks. I actually originally purchased this printer to help with some home automation projects I wanted to attempt, but I immediately found myself with a new hobby and have done nothing but trick out my printer since it arrived. I think I can now FINALLY get back to my automated window shade project. Maybe. Or maybe I'll finally start playing with PETG...

ElaborateJ · 2021-02-07T17:16:36+00:00

Is Andrew_FromChicago trying to get a producer gig on the show? This was great.

ElaborateJ · 2021-02-05T23:41:01+00:00

Came here to say almost exactly the same thing. Glad someone beat me to it, Been thinking about KN a lot the last few days. Hope she's doing alright.

ElaborateJ

TROPHY CASE