RazzMaTAZZ - my KITTAZ Build

I was surprised no one grabbed RazzMaTAZZ to name their printer! I’m going to document the build and plans to evolve this printer into a high resolution, double wide (24" x 12" X-Y), single-nozzle dual extrusion (Cyclops) system. But, I’ll start with the basics…

First the perfunctory UNBOXING:

Everything nicely packed and labeled.

Some quick observations: I was impressed with the quality of the printed parts and especially the pressed-in brass threaded inserts. Nice touch will result in easier assembly and a stronger, better overall build.

First up, the extruder.

I never get tired of extruder builds. The Wade’s is a workhorse. This one was nicely printed and went together easily. I really like the thumbscrews for the spring tensioner adjustment, nice touch.

Straight-forward assembly. I’m not used to such massive print heads - delta’s remote the extruder and the print head is small and light.

Firstly, I noticed that the bottoms of the linear guide holders were not flat so I used a fine file to clean them up:

Here’s the completed assembly:

Yep, I ran those bearing holders on a sandng disc, did the trick…all the little necessary finishing stuff. No big deal right :wink:

I skipped the bed assembly and went on to the Y Axis Assembly.

It all went together smoothly. The only note - the M2 crews (Bag 3) for the limit switches are called as M2 x 12mm - the bag actually contains 10mm long screws and they fit perfectly. So far, the instructions and parts have been spot on.

Not worth photographing - attached the fan to the control box lid. I really like the control box, clean and functional.

Easiest wiring job on any machine I’ve ever built! All the harnesses are cut to length, terminals pre-crimped, ready to plug and play.

Humming right along with the build.

And now on to the fun stuff - frame assembly and finishing up!

Ok, RazMaTAZZ’s frame is done and nice and square. I assembled it on my granite machinist’s block (2’ x3’) although a granite counter top like this one would work equally well. I used several precision squares and, of course, measured diagonals after assembly. Now is the time to make sure the mechanical structure is correctly aligned and square - or it will come back to haunt you later!

The only minor issue I had was the Z axis screw shafts at the motor end were too tight to fit the bearings. A little light sanding (600 grit) to remove the blackening and they fit nicely.

UPS is supposed to deliver my 3mm filament today so I should be printing this weekend. Next up, final assembly!

Build is all done but one odd thing - the slots on the aluminum bed are on the wrong side (they are on the right). However, the offset center hole to mount the linear bearing dictates that it is setup this way (i.e. I can not simply flip it over). Am I missing something or is this an issue (known or unknown)? I zip tied the heated be wiring to the left rear bed clamp so I am good for now. Those slots apparently are for tie downs.

Ok, I probably put the bed on 180° off. I powered up, uploaded Marlin and connected with Pronterface (I’m on Mac) and jogged around and tested the hot end and bed. Everything was fine, I tested the home switches with M119 to make sure they were working properly - and they are.

Then I clicked HOME and watched the Z move up, then when the Y homed, it rammed into the back - as if the home switch wasn’t depressed. Well, it wasn’t! There is no stop on the bottom of the bed the way it is mounted. I’m guessing the home switch trigger is the piece that protrudes from the belt clamp (on the left in this photo):

Just guessing, I haven’t powered down to flip it over yet.

Ok, so that was the problem - I installed the table rotated 180°. I have that sorted now and everything back together. Now when I home, the table moves to the front (it was correctly moving to the rear/switch before). The Y jog controls move in the correct direction. I know how to change this in firmware but I’m a little perplexed on what happened to cause it. There is only one way to connect the stepper so it is not wired opposite. Any ideas?

I also have a binding issue on the left size Z I need to chase down.

My Z “binding” issue was my fault - I did not push the X axis smooth rods in all the way so they were flush with the mount. The rod end was hitting the power supply mount.

But, I am not having luck with the Y homing. Y Home is moving the bed forward - away from the switch at the back. When I changed #define Y_HOME_DIR -1 to +1 (home to max, which is with the be at the back, correct?) nothing happens. Home button in Pronterface does nothing. Perplexing!

Glad you have most of it sorted! Your Y travel is due to how you have the belt routed. Flip your belt mounting and it should then move in the right direction.

Thanks and yes, I figured that out and posted on another thread. So I am all set and just finished my first print. I’ll post that in a few minutes.

Got my build polished off, my 3mm filament (natural PLA) came in and it was time to print. The calibration went smoothly, I’m meticulous about calibration! I used a dial indicator to verify it and all was good. I didn’t calibrate the extruder yet but figured 840mm/s was in the ballpark. I used the octopus.gcode file - talk about lazy, I didn’t even slice the first thing myself.

Considering the quick and dirty approach to the first print, this came out reasonably well:

]

and after a little cleanup:

Now some observations…

The kit went together nicely. I made a boneheaded mistake and oriented the table 180° and that resulted in misrouting the Y belt, which resulted in incorrect homing behavior. Talk about cause and effect! That was sorted reasonably easily.

Calibration went smoothly. I think my table is tougher back as the nozzle is very close to the front left clamp at 0,0,0 but there is about 1cm from the edge at full Y travel. I can probably fix this in firmware with a homing offset.

I used the pre-sliced roctopus.gcode file just to see what would happen and to my surprise, it wasn’t horrible. However, the layer cooling fan is defective. As soon as it was supposed to turn on, it emitted the magic smoke. I quickly paused the print, unplugged the fan, and continued without it.

I printed on blue tape. I prefer to do that while I break in a new printer so I don’t scratch or mar the PEI surface that I’ll ultimately install. Once the printer is calibrated and I have experience, I’ll add PEI. Unfortunately I gave my last Amazon .03" sheet to my son for his mini kossel and Amazon is now back ordered on it. McMaster has the .04" and I’ve used that before. It is glossy both sides so does require a little "roughing up"to give a nice matte surface finish on the parts.

I can’t believe how big 3mm filament is! It’s like a hard plastic rod! I’ll live with the Buddhashnozzle and 3mm filament for a bit while I figure out how I want to mount the Cyclops twin extrusion-through-one-nozzle hot end. I plan to use twin Bowden tubes and remote mounted extruders to take a lot of the mass off the X carriage. I’ve been printing on delta’s with Bowdens for years and have it dialed in really well.

My next step is to work up a printer profile in KISSlicer and get some calibration prints going.

Yea, its very easy to do the Bed 180 flip like you did. The guide calls it out, but it doesnt really annotate what orientation you need to make sure is correct. I had to redo mine too during my build.

Thanks for the walkthrough, I can only hope you will document your change over to a double bowden set up.

I am curious why you want to use KISSSlicer? What advantages do you think it has? I use Simplify3D exclusively at this point.

KosmoPi,

I have lots of experience with every slicer on the market (and a few that are not). I am constantly pushing the limits of what slicers can currently do - both from an aesthetic perspective and a mechanical perspective. Bottom line, with KISSlicer I can print a fully functional 3D fly fishing reel with no cleanup, machining or fasteners required. They look like this:

And mechanically, they are very strong and go together and spin perfectly. See the video Field & Stream magazine posted on my 3D printed reels in January. Even I was surprised at how well they stood up to those big fish!

I’ve used KISS, Slic3r and Cura for years but only KISS can produce the results I want. This is just an example, I have a lot of other projects of equal complexity and KISS just produces better results. May be a personal thing, but my prints speak for themselves and I’ve not been able to get the same level of consistency and results from other slicers.

[pardon the following soap box, don’t read if it is going to upset you]
As for S3D, I may as well just get this off my chest now. I had a very poor experience testing it. Before buying, I emailed the owner and described - with the photos above and many others - exactly what I need to do, especially around the “ability” to slice different parts of geometry differently. I asked the same specific question 3 times and was told all 3 times that S3D could do it. It can’t. S3D can change slicing parameters “by layer” and that IS NOT the same thing as what I specifically asked. I even thought that this was the case and phrased my questions very carefully to get to the truth. He knew exactly what I was trying to do and that S3D was not up to the task. Rather than be honest (and there were 6 other items that I specifically asked about) he wanted the sale and since there is no free trial, I bought. Frankly, I don’t even care about the money but I don’t like being deceived. I gave it a solid work out even after determining it did not do what was asked and promised. This and a bad experience with getting a license key (took over 3 days) and the fact that you have to be moderated on your first several forum posts, left a really bad taste in my mouth. The lack of any reasonable control over infill was a deal breaker in and of itself. The fact that perimeters are printed 1 at a time is also a deal breaker with some of my challenging parts. There quite literally was nothing it could do as well or better than the other slicers I use. I don’t care about support generation - if I need support I design it as part of the object (IMHO the way it should be done) and I don’t care about printer control - there are many other solutions including printing from SD card for that. So I asked for and got a refund. I understand that some folks are happy with their purchase, that’s fine. If the product ever produces results up to my requirements, I’ll take another look maybe.
[off soap box]

Yes, I wil l document everything I do here as I mod RazzMaTAZZ!

Cheers,
Michael