Things I wished I knew when I got my Prusa / Started 3D printing

Just a list of things I wish I knew going in that would have made my life easier.Install when you are building it:Get Better ball bearings, get 10x of high quality LM8UU 8x15x24, it´s worth it!Get a silicone sock, the mess it prevents is worth it!Get a steel nozzle, there is no point in using brass ones. You will need a steel Nozzle when printing almost anything other then vanilla filaments, such as glow in the dark filaments.Buy a 0,276inc or 7mm wrench. You will use this to replace nozzles. BE CAREFUL and make sure you are turning it the correct way. I managed to break a nozzle off. And that means you need to buy a new hot-endHex bits 0,098inch or 2.5mm. With screwdriver that can take bits. Also get smaller ones if you can. This will make your building time so much faster, The alternative is allan wrenches. And you will be screwing on your printer after you built it.Get digital calipers when you built the printer. Measure, measure and measureDon´t use force when screwing in bits to 3D printed parts.The tip of screwing a screw slightly in to a nut and then hammering on the screw to get the nut to stick is solid. But you need to hit hard to get it to stick.Calibrating:Getting the first layer perfect, is key. Spend time on this.PINDA probe has a LED on it, the led shuts off when it detects metal. Look at this when you are adjusting the height of the probe. Move the printer head so the probe is above one of the small circles on the print bed. At it´s lowest position the LED should not be lit. Even if it´s not lit you might have to lower it further later, the tiniest differences matter.The probe should be super close to the print bed. Like the thickness of 3 sheets of papers.When doing the XYZ calibrations put a piece of paper on the print bed as it suggest. DO NOT LEAVE THE PRINTER! Turn the printer off if it grabs the paper (or it can damage your print-bed). If it grabs the paper the PINDA probe needs to be lowered.Using the V2 calibration gcode is not a suggestion, it is required to run at least once after XYZ calibration.When running V2 calibration gcode, look on the print bed from the side so you can see how far above the print bed the nozzle is. At the same time adjust the Live Z-level so it´s the thickness of one string of plastic from the print-bed. Then use this and adjust 50mm per square. You should get your printer calibrated with only 2 prints.General tips:Get a liter of Isopropanol from the hardware store to clean of your printbed.Get superglue, some times peaces break off, but you can save them with glue.Throw the glue stick away, it´s useless. Adjust print bed temperature instead, or print a brim if you have problem with it sticking.Get a flush cutter, excellent when cleaning of prints and cutting zip-ties.Is your prints filled with cobwebs? Don´t worry, just use a lighter or something hot and burn them off in seconds. Be careful with what you breath in though. I have a small torch.Coffee filters are great for cleaning printers. They don´t release any lint.Good dust catcherOctoPrintIt´s a worth while upgrade! Once you have it you can´t image being without it. This is what you need:Adafruit, Flex Cable for Raspberry Pi Camera – 1m ( – -) (I would get 1.5meter if available)Pi Foundation, Camera Board for Raspberry Pi NoIR HD V2Transcend, MicroSDHC Transcend, 32GB, Class 10 UHS-IRaspberry Pi 3 (has built in WiFI)3m microUSB charger.Case for PI. I found the other ones uselessCamera bed mount. You need to modify the file though. I found that fork bit on the part that you mount to the bed was to small and broke off. I made it a bit bigger.M3 screws and nutsAlso thank you Prusa support, they are awesome! And I have been pestering them.Did I miss anything? http://ift.tt/2pgnXFI

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