When: 8 July, 10am
Members present: Alexis, Carissa, Vanessa
Main Body (back) Mk VI & Yarn Feeder Mk IX
The new Main Body (back) Mk VI and Yarn Feeder Mk IX were mounted on!
The Main Body (back) Mk VI was done printing! We mounted it onto the 3D printer, along with our yarn feeder Mk IX (print 2, since the first white piece that printed had its bores blocked. Here comes a △ triangle △ test print!
Time lapse of the triangle test run! Unfortunately, the machine jammed after about 2 minutes of printing, though we’re not sure why.
Small triangle that’s pretty well-printed, considering all the corners too.
LA-Tubing Connector Stabiliser Mk II
We designed and printed it out, so that it would be able to have a much smoother interface between the rapidly-moving LA-Tubing Connector and the stabiliser, which was previously just aluminium profile.
Stabiliser Mk II.
Unfortunately, we had quite a few issues with this design:
- The piece was not able to touch the LA-tubing Connector at all, totally defeating its purpose
- This was mainly due to the bracket holding the profile (to which it was attached to) not allowing the stabiliser to be as close as needed
- The stabiliser was also not long enough to reach the LA-tubing Connector
- The stabiliser was not at the right position: the in-between position between the highest and lowest points of the LA movement –> This is necessary so as to reduce chances of jamming in the occasion where the connector hooks onto the tubing
With these in mind, Carissa designed Stabiliser Mk III!
Stabiliser Mk III, in its Fusion360 glory!
Yarn Feeder Mk X (Wow 10!!!)
The opening of 2mm works fine, as seen above. However, we decided to make an additional change, which is to remove the second interface of between the Yarn Feeder and the felt. Previously, it was just a support backing piece, but we decided to remove it as it seemed to only be providing unnecessary friction.
Yarn Feeder Mk X
Unfortunately, when we tried to screw in this new Yarn Feeder, it broke the counterbore structure of the main body, so we sent it for reprinting. For now, we still screwed in anyway; not the most stable, but it will do for now.
We had a few test runs where the yarn wool refused to adhere to the felt, and we weren’t sure why. Finally, we had one where it managed to print really well onto the wool, but we had to use our hands to keep the yarn feeder steady (since the counterbores weren’t in to do so). We cut off the excess yarn, and manually felted the last bit into the felt.
Video of today’s test run… Fuzzy cheeto.
The end result of the test run. It kinda looks like a planchette… Spooky~ 👻
At this point, we realised what else might be causing the bad jamming. We had removed the stabiliser piece for further testing, and the uncontrolled y-axis rotation might be what’s causing the misalignment after all.
Looking back at the LA-Tubing Connector Stabiliser, we realised that the thickness of the new Stabiliser Mk III was wrong. We stopped the printing, and instead played around with the Stabiliser Mk II, and got it to work! After a few adjustments, we managed to get it just right.
Improvising with Stabiliser Mk II. It works!
After this, the needle became a bit bent, so we came up with a new design for our Needle-tubing Connector. Instead of 6 screw holes, this connector has 8 screw holes to improve the clamping strength. We’ll probably attach it (and change out the bent needle) on Wednesday when we meet again!
Both sides of Needle-tubing Connector Mk V!
12 July Update: Here’s how the final piece looks like!
Trial and Error with Coding
Vanessa helped to edit the Marlin code. She changed the #define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT { 80, 80, 400, 50000 } to { 80, 80, 400, 40000 } instead.
Under machine settings on Cura, we had previously changed the nozzle size so that there would be a greater difference between each ‘layer’ of the print. This was because it seemed like it was not able to print as well over previously embroidered areas. This… might be a problem? So, we made some changes to the settings on Cura:
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- We changed the shell to 2mm under print settings.
- Under Print > Experimental settings, we changed maximum travel resolution to 1mm.
- Under Print > Build plate adhesion, we changed skirt line count to 0, which stops the printer from printing a border around the actual print.
Afterwards, we tried to solve the problems of the printer not printing in the centre of the plate, and the printer jerking slightly before it starts each print. It was a process of trial and error, as documented below:
| Modification | Result |
| Using the original settings for our embroidery machine | Printed exactly in the centre of the plate, but jerked |
| Changed starting position to default settings of printer (X0.1 Y20) and aligned object to the centre in slicing software | Did not print exactly in the centre of plate |
| Changed settings to “Origin at centre” | Print did not print at centre of plate, still jerked |
| Under Start G-code, changed G1 X70 Y70 Z40.0 F3000 to G1 X65 Y65 Z40.0 F3000 | Printer jerked |
| Under Start G-code, removed G92 X0 Y0 Z0 | Printer jerked and moved to wrong position (off the base) |
| Changed to “Origin at centre” and aligned object to the centre in slicing software | Start point is not the same as the origin (still jerked) |
| Added G90 (before G92 line), Removed G1 X70 Y70 Z40.0 F3000 line | Printed in the corner of the plate, but did not jerk |
| Added G90 (before G92 line) , Removed G1 X70 Y70 Z40.0 F3000 line, changed G92 X0 Y0 Z0 to G92 X70 Y70 Z0 | Machine jammed |
Seeing unfavourable results, we decided to try to create custom settings for our embroidery machine using the “Custom FFF printer” function on Cura.
- Nozzle settings: Nozzle size = 2mm; compatible material diameter = 1.75mm
- Printer settings: Unselect heated bed, X (width) = 150mm, Y (depth) = 200mm, Z (height) = 200mm
- Start G-code: same as previous (the one that Guo Yao helped us write in [#22])
- Infill settings, material settings, speed settings, cooling settings all same as previous
With these custom settings, the printer did not jerk, but it moved really far away from the centre, which means it’s still unsuitable for our printing purposes 🙁
With this, we tried to change the start G-code again:
| Modification | Result |
| Removed line G1 X70 Y70 Z40.0 F3000 | Machine made weird noises; print head didn’t move at all |
| Removed G1 X70 Y70 Z40.0 F3000 AND G92 X0 Y0 Z0 lines | Machine made weird noises (see video below), but still moved |
Video of our machine singing 🎤 (it’s very talented!)
That’s all we have for now!