0. Pre Work:¶
Bootcamp¶
Around mid November-2021, I started a type of Fab Academy bootcamp. The point of this boot camp was to get prepared for the start of Fab Academy. During this time period I did things such as pratice surface mount soldering and building a 3d printer. Additionally, I had a large amount of time to think about my final project and the path I wanted to take.
Setting Up the Soldering Equipment¶
During our first non offical meeting I recived my soldering iron and a surface mount soldering kit. Setting up the iron was simple as it only required taking it put of the box and chosing a tip. Personally I think the thinner tips are better so I went with the thinest one. I did notice a large chizel shaped tip and am curious what that would be used for. I’ll have to try it out sometime. After setting up the iron I vynal cut a sticker of an airplane to personalize it. Aditionally I also recived some quality of life tools such as a tube of flux and a solder sucker.
Surface Mount Soldering¶
As stated earlier, I recived a surface mount soldering kit along with my iron. The kit contained an american flag and several red, white, and blue micro LEDs. Aditionaly I was also given a pair of micro tweezers to help. One of the first things that came to my attention after opening the kit was how incredibly small the LEDs were. Telling the top and bottom of the LEDs apart was easy as the top jutted out slightly from the base of the LED. However, telling the positive and negative pins apart was a much ore chalanging task. On the top of the LED there was a tiny dot signifying the positive leg. At first I needed a camera or something similar to see the dot but as a praticed I learned how to tell with a naked eye. For some reason the dot on the yellow lights were on the bottom while the reed and blue lights had their dot on the top. This took me much longer then it should of to figure out. The first row of lights took me around 2 hours to finish and when I was done only about 80% of them actually worked. As I progressed I experimented with diffrent methods of soldering and found one that (sometimes) worked. Basically I would put solder on one of the 2 pads. Then I would grab the LED with the tweezers and proceed to heat up the solder I just put on the Flag. I would then slide the LED ontop of the solder, align it with the other pad and let the solder harden. After the LED set I would put some solder on the bottom pad fully locking the led into place. Compared to the 2 hours for the first row, it only took me around 45 minuites to finish the last row.
Building the 3D Printer¶
About mid January 2022 I recived my 3D Printer which was an Ender 3 Pro. I was and still am excited as I have worked with a Ender 3 several times before and know they are great printers. Building it was not nearly as difficult as the soldering was but that doesent mean I had no issues. Down below is a walkthrough of how I build my printer.
Out of the Box¶
The printer already came with the main base already assembled and the build plate mount attached. Additionally about 90% of the wiring was already taken care of which was a big help. after removing all of the contents from the box I noticed that the printer came with a glass build plate. I have been 3D printing for around 4 years and have always been told that glass buildplates are the best buildplates you can get. Unfortunatly I have never actually got to try it out but now I can so I am very excited! The printer also came with a set of instructions which were almost completely disregarded with the exception of looking at a few pictures and making sure the box included everything it should. After attempting to organize my workspace I got to work.
Step 1: Mounting The Vertical Supports¶
For the first step I took one of the two long legs and bolted it to the side of the base. The screws were under the leg so it was a bit difficult to screw it in but after some trial and error I got it.
Step 2: Mounting the Vertical Stepper Motor¶
After bolting in the leg I connected the stepper motor that would drive the printer nozzle verticaly. This was a bit difficult and required some experimenting with tightness of the screws befor I got the motor to line up nicely with the vertical leg. [WARNING: Make this motor as parellel as ossible with the print bed. If the motor is to crooked, it may burnout during operation.]
Step 3: Mounting The Horozontal Motor, Horozontal Beam, and Fillament Motor¶
This step was the most challanging of the whole build as it was difficult to orient the motors correctly due to its odd shape. Once I got myself oriented I slid the horozontal beam into place and bolted it onto the motor attachment. This was a bit annoying as the screws were a bit difficult to reach and took a while to tighten due to their odd location. After the beam was secured I slid the motor mound and the attached beam onto the vertical support.
Step 4: Mounting The Second Support And Top Bar¶
This step was basically a repeat of step one as it just involved installing the second support beam and the top support beam. There was no real challange here as it just involved bolting things in.
Step 5: Mounting The Display And Power Supply¶
Last but not least i hooked up the display and PSU to the body of the 3d printer. This was easy as i just needed to plug a few things in and screw them down to secure them to the 3d printers frame.