Playing with my Things (1, 2, & 3)... Three Merc builds/rebuilds...

[river topaz]

Whink Rust Remover but do NOT put it in a glass container, word of warning.

This video was sped up, just FYI. At the beginning, the plastic bottle has the hydroflouric acid in it. You only have to leave it in for a couple of seconds UNLESS you want something more matte. That's why I left it in there for so long.

[urban field]

@river topaz digging the setup, need to get on your level!! Appreciate the video, will definitely help lots

[river topaz]

You don't need the hotplate mixers and all that for titanium. They're really only useful for aluminum because you have to maintain certain higher temps.

[urban field]

@river topaz I have a magnetic stirrer, and a hot plate(expensive sombitch that needs fixing) Have my eyes on some equipment I'll own someday haha. Slowly building up the lab

[ripe yew]

https://tenor.com/view/credit-card-smacking-credit-card-on-table-gif-21340324

[toxic portal]

Awesome video - watching it in action is pretty cool

[ripe phoenix]

practically walter white out here lol

[river topaz]

If anyone was ever curious about seeing a Plus sized bed vs 400mm vs 410mm. 👍

[river topaz]

So the other day, I did a thing. Spent the majority of it polishing titanium plates to the point of 'f' it and then anodized. Now installed onto Thing 3.

Now, I'm set up and anodizing black parts for Thing 1.

[formal dawn]

dayumn those plates are nice

[formal dawn]

how much did you pay for fmg plates in titanium?

[river topaz]

Let's just say my curiosity was not cheap. 😅

[zenith sun]

Looks so friggin cool

[river topaz]

Today's activities and tentative plans:

Thing 1:

• All parts for the AWD FMG mod anodized, assembled, and installed. ✅
• Replaced some of the black standups and spacers with some red ones for flair and ordered some to replace the ones on the stepper towers. ✅
• Replaced all the printed spacers on the FMG with metal ones. ✅
• Install new belts. (In progress)
• Reassemble toolhead
• Reinstall bed.

Thing 2:

• Clear anodizing all the metal Hydra plates. (In progress)
• Installing the rest of the metal Hydra parts after anodizing is complete.

Thing 3:

• Finish installing belts on gantry. (In progress)
• Wire new electrical components.
• Assemble and install toolhead

[river topaz]

Work on Thing 2 has been slow going because I keep pivoting on different things. Then again, that's like every build I do. 😅

Finish anodizing the metal Hydra and tension plates. I had finished them before but I wanted an even thicker coat since I wasn't planning on dyeing these pieces. So back into the process they went for an additional 3-4 hrs each.

Then decided to remove the mini-Oldham couplers from the arms because something in my brain just said do it... and installed one of the Hydra arms in with the integrated lead screws stepper. Without the Oldham or the lead screw coupler, it seems like I should be able to hit bottom like the last pic. 👍

[glossy tusk]

wait, titanium plates?

that is baller

but they sure look nice

[river topaz]

Thanks! Yes Thing 3 has an aesthetic that I felt only titanium plates would match. 😅

[formal dawn]

@river topaz what voltage do you need for your nice colors?
And do you just use baking soda as electrolyte?

[river topaz]

I generally start with voltage around 60V and move upwards of about 110V. Yes I do use baking soda as my electrolye but I also etch the titanium pieces first with a hydrofluoric acid. you can see it in this video: #1173779324457975869 message

[formal dawn]

Yeah i saw that, i hope i can get that stuff in germany
Aggressive chemicals are usually hard to get here
Do you seal the anodizing layer in hot water afterwards?

[river topaz]

I usually just boil it afterwards but I also recently purchased a bottle of nickel acetate for better sealing. 👍

[formal dawn]

i bought both a psu and that rust remover stuff
how do you hold the ti pieces? i read you should use ti wire?
what thickness would you recommend?

[river topaz]

Yes, I used Ti wire. I purchased both 2mm and 1mm wire. The 1mm was much more malleable if you want to sort of weave it through holes but I used the 2mm and a pair of pliers to bend the wire so that it would go through 2 different holes and apply outward force against the wall of the hole. Does that make sense? Also you are going to need some type of electrode to go into the electrolyte like a piece of aluminum or lead or titanium to connect the negative side. 👍

[formal dawn]

yeah that makes sense
i read that you can just use alu foil as electrode

[river topaz]

You can

[formal dawn]

maybe ill buy some thicker aluminum foil
normal stuff seems too flimsy

[river topaz]

If I remember correctly, using thinner aluminum foil did cause some black stuff floating around in my electrolyte but that might have also been when I was doing aluminum anodizing because of the acid.

[formal dawn]

guess ill just have to try

thx for the advice!

[river topaz]

Since I'm here, I might as well post an update... 😅

[formal dawn]

i hope i will do better than precurssor xD

[river topaz]

Decided to replace some of the fasteners on Thing 3 with titanium ones but seeing the nice polished finish of the M5 screws next to the roughness of my titanium parts really started to bother me so I decided to redo everything. Polished everything pretty close to a mirror finish and redid all the anodizing to add more yellows and greens into the mix as well. Additionally, I added titanium SLM mini tanks to the Hydra and also anodized my Chube Compact sleeve. Also added a shot of it when it was completely purple for @ripe yew . 👍

I also decided to test this titanium gantry I found on AliExpress for giggles but if the first bed mesh comes out looking like trash, I already have an aluminum replacement ready to go. Here's a pic after I heat treated it to see if it really was titanium. Just finished polishing most of it to prepare for anodize it electrically. 👍

[formal dawn]

beautiful parts

how hard was countersinking those ti parts?

[river topaz]

Thing 2 now has its official metal Hydra plates on (thanks to @lilac night for the laser work)

[ripe yew]

Titanium isnt much harder, jsut takes longer

You really want me to spend money huh?

[river topaz]

I actually had to buy a carbide counter sink bit because it ate up my other countersink bits pretty quickly.

[lilac night]

The TI mini tanks look awesome

[formal dawn]

yeah i was thinking that ti is hard to machine
so i dint think the normal steel bits would work great

[river topaz]

This was the bit I used, apologies for the dirty fingernails but I've been literally polishing titanium for the last week.

And lots of lube. 😅

[formal dawn]

that looks interesting
probably much more expensive than simple steel bits?

[river topaz]

Actually I think this thing was only like $6 or $8 US.

[formal dawn]

oh nice

[ripe yew]

My silver chube could use some purple

Just need to convince luke to sell me just a housing

[river topaz]

@formal dawn

I hope you can find an EU alternative

[river topaz]

Holy crap, if he does let me know because I would totally buy one too! 😅

[formal dawn]

im not sure ill be countersinking ti anytime soon
i already have a spare set of fmg plates i dont need another ti one lol
i think i wanna get ti tension plates
but probably cnc machined

[ripe yew]

Ti is heavier than alum, just keep that in mind

It is prettier, but heavier

Thats why I stuck with silver alum

[formal dawn]

yeah ik, thats my other reason not to get ti fmg

[river topaz]

I made a post in Tips and Tricks about different gantry weights for the 370/Plus build and I'm wondering if I should do another on different FMG parts weights since I have them in aluminum and titanium and I'm ordering some in steel.

[river topaz]

Yes, just let me screw up so you can learn what not to do. 🤣

[formal dawn]

steel fmg??? wild

that would definitely be cool

have you looked into diferent rods? i have carbon rods but there are very serious concerns that those will just explode lol
so i also ordered ti (ill try anodizing them)
alu could probably also work

[river topaz]

If you check out that thread in Tips and Tricks, you'll see that mentioned that I have 2 CF square tubes on order. One with 1mm walls and another with 2mm walls so I can get those weights and also do some tests. 👍

[ripe yew]

Steel would do great in an oven

Not so much open air

[formal dawn]

yeye i read that, but i dont mean gantry, i mean the pulley rods

[river topaz]

Ooooh gotcha

[formal dawn]

thats the only big weight saving on the x joints that i could do, the carbon rods would save 17g

[ripe yew]

https://tenor.com/view/apple-pencil-apple-jerryrigeverything-bend-snap-gif-21396003

[formal dawn]

i had chatGPT calculate sheer forces for differents rods
it was pretty much:
steel: 100%
alu 7075: 90%
ti grade 5: 110%
carbon fiber: 15% 😂

[toxic portal]

These came out Awesome!

[river topaz]

Stepper towers on Thing 3 are installed. 👍

Purchased the incorrect number of colored standoffs so I had to order more which will be here tomorrow but I have the other ones installed for now.

Also, mounted the FMG parts for Thing 2 and about to add the toolhead and belts.

[river topaz]

There was some initial concern about the additional height from the 2040s on the gantry instead of the original 2020s, but, with using the Xol toolhead and a UHF hotend, there is no issue. In fact, I still have about 5-6mm of extra travel left over so even with a standard HF hotend and the Xol, it'll be fine.

If I ever decided to swap this machine over to a top mounted rail with something like the VZeroG CNC printhead, then I'd probably have to go with 12mm standoffs in the mini tanks instead of 8mm. 👍

[ripe phoenix]

anodize the steppers. you wont

[river topaz]

Is that a challenge?

[ripe phoenix]

maybe

[river topaz]

Hmmmmm I wonder if I can anodize them clear and then powder coat them with glow in the dark...

[lilac night]

Just get ceracote for them

[river topaz]

I'd have to look that up. I wonder how that or powder coating would affect cooling efficiency.

[lilac night]

Cerakote is really thin and high temp

C series doesn't need to be oven cured

[slender abyss]

Titanium parts? These look fire

[river topaz]

Belt installed on Thing 2!

Also, I anodized this titanium gantry for Thing 3 but I still need to verify its straightness once the linear rail is attached to it. It has just the slightest wave in it on the rail mounting side and I'm concerned the linear rail will try to conform to it instead of vice versa but I am unsure because we are talking about an 8mm steel linear rail vs a hollow 20x20mm titanium tube with 1mm walls. Regardless, If it doesn't work out, I do have a different gantry ready to install as soon as the additional standoffs get here today. 👍 I did try to polish the Ti gantry up some but it just wasn't having it and etching it before anodizing pretty much ate all the work that I did on it anyway. Oh well... 😩

[river topaz]

Colored standoffs came in and the FMG for Thing 3 has been assembled and installed. Also, ordered some titanium M3 button head screws to replace the ones on the mini-tanks, why not? Installed the titanium gantry bar even though I'm not 100% happy with it or the color but it's fine for now until I come up with something else.

[ripe yew]

I ordered my 50mm bolts for my stepper towers

Those rainbow bastards should come in soon to match the rest

I want a purple x gantry now

[river topaz]

Oof yeah I had to get 55mm ones for the 9mm. So limited on interest bolt head styles too. 😭

[ripe yew]

I managed to find socket head

$5.50 a pop XD

[river topaz]

I wanted some like these but had to settle for the ones I got. 😢

But they also forced me to repolish everything because the original rougher anodized finish looked bad next to the polished head of these screws. 😅

[ripe yew]

It sucks chasing perfection XD

[river topaz]

@ripe yew did you see someone edited Vez's version of the Goliath SLM sock with the ZeroG logo? It's a pain to polish but I made some suggestions to the guy to go help make it easier to polish. I'll probably give that version a try too if he updates it.

But I still need to get rid of these other socks too or buy a half a dozen Goliaths 😅

[ripe yew]

I wish I didnt get burned out on the goliath

Its just been one issue after another with it

[river topaz]

Mine was running okay for a while when I had it on Thing 1 but I feel like I was having some issues with it as well and I'm not sure if I'm going to put it back on since I have other hotends I want to try too.

[ripe yew]

https://tenor.com/view/simpsons-homer-bart-lisa-join-us-gif-5447754

[river topaz]

Got the entire gantry (outside of the toolhead), CFLAP/CPAP, rear Hydra arm all wired up and the back panel on.

Tensioning the belt now as it will be nearly impossible to do once the side panels are on. Might try to design a window or a cutout with a printed door or insert that can be cut into the side panels so I can reach the bolt holding down the front AWD towers UNLESS a new AWD front motor mount is made. But, for now, this will work. 👍

[ripe phoenix]

https://tenor.com/view/oh-really-charlamagne-tha-god-gif-25196238

this looks sick

[river topaz]

Finally back in its usual location and doing the final wiring of the bay. 👍

[river topaz]

Currently (no pun intended), I finished the power lines for mains and DC. Decided to go ahead and use the terminal blocks I had instead of some solution that was too nutty.

Also, decided to use the red/black braided loom kit I got where I can.

Accidentally cut the wires going to the bed a little short so I had to adjust my plan which was originally to mount the Wago holder to the bottom of the bottom Hydra extrusion with the orange pointed towards the back. Instead, I realized I could just flip the Wago mount over where I ended up mounting it which works just as well. 👍

[river topaz]

Got everything wired up on Thing 1 for now except for the 5V step down converter I'm using to power the Neopixel hub. Additionally, the wires for the A/B steppers are temporary because I just wanted everything plugged up for now so I could get my config sorted out and do some testing etc etc. I had to add a BTT Cubic MMB because I needed more thermistor ports for the HB Classified motors and also added a fan breakout board to control all the AWD motor fans with one socket.

I need to grab my little vacuum and clean out the e-bay a little. At some point, I should also go down to the library and cut out a new vinyl sticker for my bay top panel. The old one has a purple Z and logo accents that I need to replace with red.

Got Thing 1 up, configured, and running. Also, got the transformer in and temporarily wired up. Now, just waiting on new LEDs because the old ones were RGB and I didn't like the white it put out. Also had to model and print out a mount for the transformer. which is in progress.

[river topaz]

Toolhead finally all wired up and ready to go except for Velcro cable ties that should be here today or tomorrow.

[river topaz]

And before anybody says anything, I did replace the blue ECAS with a black one. 😅

[river topaz]

Got the toolhead finished with some Velcro cable ties for the hose/umbilical/PTFE tube.

I was originally going to put this 24V white LED strip in the e-bay but was instructed by @velvet pecan to install red LEDs or face death. So RGBW it is, with red set as the start up color. 😅

[ripe phoenix]

yall seem to be great friends :)

[formal dawn]

red definitely looks better than white leds in there lol

[river topaz]

She's more like my dumb idea conscience. I make a dumb decision and she calls me out on it saying it's dumb. 🤣

[frigid snow]

What toolhead, extruder hotend combo is that? Looking amazing!

[formal dawn]

zero g vz cnc toolhead, i think thats a chc xl hotend and idk the extruder

[river topaz]

@formal dawn had most of it correct. ZeroG VZ CNC toolhead, CHC XL, and the extruder is called the Miró extruder. It's a compact dual drive extruder inspired by the Sherpa but independent of design. Originally, I just wanted to test it out but I've really liked it so far so I decided to reprint the colors in the new motif and stick with it on this machine for now. Additionally, I like that it has a built-in filament sensor.

[cinder wagon]

How are the LED’s mounted around the skirts? Looks great

[river topaz]

Thanks! Literally just the adhesive backing to the underside at the top of each skirt piece. 😅

I also wired a bridge for the break at the center parts.

[cinder wagon]

Came out amazing, does this mean you no longer have access to the screws for it? 😂

[river topaz]

Yeah but then again I don't need to have access to the skirt screws for now.

Also ran 24V red LEDs under the DIN rails because I wanted to use the 24V LED socket on the Leviathan board. 😅

[formal dawn]

What are all those boards? Esp32, usb hub? What are those on the last rail?

Is that a leviathan with expansion board?

[river topaz]

From left to right:

Front extrusion: 24V to 5V step down transformer

Front rail: Neopixel hub by Blamm, PSU x 2 - UHP 200-24, UHP 350-48

Middle rail: Zero4U USB hub, LDO Leviathan board with expansion board

Back rail: terminal blocks for DC, BTT Cubic MMB, NH-36 USB adapter, X.R.Bunker fan splitter board, Crydom SSR, terminal blocks for AC

[formal dawn]

Is the neopixel hub connected to klipper or just always on?

[cinder wagon]

It's an ESP32 running WLED

[river topaz]

Made some progress on Thing 1.

AWD seems to be working ok. Got it homing and performing Z tilt properly.

The BoxTurtle is up and running, along with the Turtleneck 2.0, but I still need to edit some of the configs and calibrate everything. There were some initial hang-ups but I finally got it all sorted. 👍 I'll also need to get a slightly longer USB cable to have the Turtleneck 2.0 up at the top with the BoxTurtle.

Before I actually put the BoxTurtle to work, though, I'm going to put the panels back on, comment out the include, and run a couple of prints sans BT.

[cinder wagon]

Very excited to hear what you think about the AWD, I'd love to try it for 9mm metal some day,

Really jealous of the visuals of your printer 😂

[river topaz]

There are definitely some pluses and minuses, in my opinion, in this particular AWD setup that I'll have to write up shortly. 👍

[river topaz]

I really like the aesthetics as well. Turned out better than I had planned and looks really good with the dark panels on the sides. I'll likely replace the sides and back with the ACM/Aluminum panels soon™, though.

[cinder wagon]

👍 Sounds good, haven't read too much up on it so would be nice before i potentially try it myself

[cinder wagon]

Can recommend alu structural panels, would be good especially with AWD in your case ;)

[river topaz]

Oh I should also mention that I replaced all the stainless steel bearings in the HB linear blocks on the gantry with silicon nitride. 😁 It's so smoooooooth.

[cinder wagon]

Yeah you put me up to those shenanigans aswell.. scope creeping me😂

[cinder wagon]

It’s a good idea, getting a lot of ideas In general off of your Things, also aesthetically

[river topaz]

@cinder wagon I decided not to put them on the Z axis so I have enough to do another gantry. Not sure if I'll go Thing 2 or 3.

[cinder wagon]

Ahh yeah, I didn’t even consider the Z axis honestly

I’m still going IKO for X, so just my Y rails will be getting the ceramic treatment

[river topaz]

I have a full set of ULS rails for a 370 build but that's another story for a future time... 😁

[cinder wagon]

And I haven’t heard of this yet !?

[formal dawn]

You doing ceramic linear rail bearings now? XD
Where do you even get those lol

[river topaz]

Yeah. 😅

I picked up about 500 of them off Amazon. G5 3/32" (~2.381mm) for MGN12 size linear blocks and 5/64" (~1.943mm) for MGN9 size blocks. The smaller the G, the better. 👍

[formal dawn]

And that didnt mess up the preload?
How many go in one mgn12 block? Doesnt seem to expenaive to do actually

[river topaz]

It was right around 66 to 68 bearings (can't remember off the top of my head) but it didn't seem to mess up anything. Movement is pretty smooth. I also switched to the Krytox lube, though, which did impact movement a little but only because it's cold right now. 👍

Just ordered a new longer USB cable so I can mount the Turtleneck 2 up at the top of Thing 1 with the BoxTurtle but I also need to figure out exactly what I want to do for the nozzle brush and where it should go. Additionally, I'd like to install the Goose Pellet purger onto the machine but I may need to order more ASA-CF for the printed parts. 😫

[river topaz]

Pretty much done for now until the USB cable gets here. I did get some new black rigid lead screw couplers to swap out for the semi-flexible membrane couplers but I'll need to print new thrust bearing spacers first.

Back on Thing 3 for now. Changed the bolts on the CFLAP to titanium because... why not? Bought some new wires for cleaner wiring but I need more braided loom. 😢 Still trudging forward...

[urban field]

@river topaz I saw that you're redoing your box turtle to an 8 lane. Do you plan on enclosing it?

[river topaz]

Yep. 👍

[urban field]

That's dooooope

You design it?

[random kelp]

what does the flap even do?

[river topaz]

It redirects the flow of air either towards or away from the toolhead so that the CPAP fan can stay on and doesn't have to spin up. It's meant to improve cooling efficiency.

[river topaz]

No, I had help from DLLPDF. They are doing the frame and I'm remixing printed parts to fit this setup.

[urban field]

Very nice, will be cool to see how it looks when you're all finished

[toxic portal]

What dimensions does this come in at? Looks awesome!

[urban field]

Calilantern mk2 the way to go?

[river topaz]

I'll have to double check but it's the same size as the regular enclosed BT plus 360mm length-wise for the additional lanes.

Finally got a brush and bucket remixed and fit on Thing 1 for the 400mm bed and I mounted my Turtleneck 2.0.on the back so I could see it. Finally finishing up the config right now. 👍

Also, got in some wafer head M5 screws for the X gantry so the Kraken ducts on the E34M1 doesn't collide with the bolt heads. Everything is all clear for sensorless homing on Thing 3. Hopefully I can maximize X for the 410mm bed. 👍

[toxic portal]

Nice. Thanks for the data. I want to put a bucket on my 400. Looking to swap to Kalico and go sensorless on the Catahoula build - if I manage that without too much hassle I’ll swap over the Chaos build.

[river topaz]

I had to remix the bucket STLs slightly to fit my particular setup with the CHC XL but it wasn't a big mod, just slightly lowered the bucket mount, increases the height to span the extrusion channel better, and I moved the brush more towards the bed. Now, the bed passes by without issue but the little bit of extra silicone of the bed heater just barely grazes it. Not going sensorless on Thing 1 but definitely on Thing 3.

[river topaz]

Wiring ready for Thing 3's toolhead. Since I'm going sensorless and CPAP, it was a lot simpler. 😅

[river topaz]

I couldn't help myself since I was reprinting some parts in Cookiecad's new Unicorn Elixir ASA, I just had to reprint the toolhead and feet. IMHO, it just looks almost ethereal vs the darker Ambrosia Stardust ASA.

[river topaz]

I printed different fan covers to try out on Thing 3 but settled on the last pic.

Oh, I suppose I should mention that I got the toolhead attached to the machine and all components wired up to the EBB36 Gen2 and secured with zip ties. Also, swapped out the black 24V 4010 fan for a Fysetc 24V LED 4010 fan.

[river topaz]

Also remixed and printed the AFC bypass to fit on the backside of Thing 1. In the future, I'll either look into remixing all these extra BT-related parts to fit on the BT directly or see what good models exist out there already that could apply to my build. 👍

[formal dawn]

Nice ti screws

[river topaz]

@snow sky if you look up CFLAP in this thread, I believe I've made a couple of ports about it. 👍

[snow sky]

Thanks

[urban field]

@river topaz you finish your 8 lane build?

[river topaz]

No, still waiting on the frame to get here from DLLPDF, had a relatively large order of different parts/kits

[river topaz]

Nearly done setting up Thing 3. Everything is installed and working. Nearly finished with the config.

Got sensorless homing set up for X/Y (see video). I was originally just going to do sensorless homing on X and endstop on Y but it made more sense to do Y as well and have it knock to the left and front where 0,0 is anyway.

Who says you can't fully travel a 410x410 bed (see pics)? 😅 From 0, 0 to 410, 410. However, there's not much room left for travel in the back but there is still some margin on the sides for a brush/bucket or maybe something in the back if I place it between the stepper mounts and the umbilical/CPAP tube holder.

Just finished PID tuning and Z tilt is working well. My last belt comparison with Shaketune was 92.7 but I'm wondering if I can do better. Still need to run input shaper, do a bed mesh and determine the Sherpa Heavy's rotation distance and I should be good to print.. something with Thing 3. 😅

Had a small issue with lane 4 of the BoxTurtle on Thing 1 but swapped out a stepper driver and we're finally all green. Got my bypass spool mounted as well. Have to bite the bullet and go through all the BT calibrations and whatnot. 😅

[random kelp]

Nice