Book Image

3D printing with RepRap Cookbook

By : Salinas
Book Image

3D printing with RepRap Cookbook

By: Salinas

Overview of this book

A systematic guide consisting of over 100 recipes which focus on helping you understand the process of 3D printing using RepRap machines. The book aims at providing professionals with a series of working recipes to help make their fuzzy notions into real, saleable projects/objects using 3D printing technology. This book is for novice designers and artists who own a RepRap-based 3D printer, have fundamental knowledge of its working, and who desire to gain better mastery of the printing process. For the more experienced user, it will provide a handy visual resource, with side-by-side comparisons of the two most popular slicers, Skeinforge and Slic3r. A basic understanding of designing and modeling principles and elementary knowledge of digital modeling would be a plus.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
13
Index

Troubleshooting issues with the heat bed

There are different methods for generating heat for a build platform. The most common component used for a RepRap printer is a PCB bed. This is a printed circuit board, which has etched copper traces running throughout one side of the surface. This creates the heating element. On the other side is a silkscreen surface with hot zone warnings. This is the side that is used to print on. Some 3D printers, such as the RepRapPro Mendel, have a sheet of aluminum sandwiched between the PCB heat bed and the glass plate.

In this recipe, we'll look at solving some common issues with this system.

Getting ready

A basic set of tools is always useful. I would speculate that if you own a 3D printer, you at least have a small collection of tools. A multimeter should be added to this collection. The instrument's function for testing voltages and resistance will be invaluable for troubleshooting the electronic systems in your printer. To measure the heat sources...