This printer kit looked promising on Aliexpress, cheap, and looked like a good project to start with. With the intention of taking it apart completely I pulled out the credit card one night and made my purchase. 
Printer advertising image. Looks promising, 150x150mm build plate, bigger than the MPSM and still a pretty small form factor. 
The extruder is metal but turned out to be really bad, this had to get replaced. 
Z axis limit switch and linear motion view. The rear bracket is metal but front ones are plastic. 
Loving the placement of the extruder motor on this design. 
More plastic on Y axis motor mount and some unsecured heatbed wiring. Very bad choice, especially on a bed sligner. This can cause early wear on wring and possible fires. 
BIQU base v1.0 control board and a weird modular cable extension setup going on. Sadly, the stepper drivers are built in the board. 
Patch panel view. Kinda messy, will most likely remove this entirely at some point. 
Plastic pulley brackets, not very surprising at this price range. 
V slot wheels for linear motion and more plastic brackets 
AC adapter outputs 12v 10 amps. 
First prints turned out horrible. Time to tear this guy down. 
First things first, removal of front plate and installation of new limit switch bracket. 
Arrival of alloy X axis motor mount. Part was ordered from TaoBao (Aliexpress for westerners) and this shop has some pretty cool hop ups for tronxy style printers. 
Y Axis pulley tensioner installed. A similar style for 2020 extrusion was installed on X axis. Also from same shop. 
Removal of v-slot wheels for Y linear movement and installation of rails. The pulley bracket allowed more clearance for the GT2 belt, was quite happy that this worked. 
Eventually the acrylic plate will be replaced by aluminium. Note the installation of heatbed insulation material. Also coming up is spring steel magnetic sheet with PEI surface. 
E3D V6 clone installation on openbuilds style gantry plate. 
Hotend installed with parts cooling fan at temporary location. 
Temporary Titan clone extruder installation.
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It is important to protect your equipment from fires and short circuits. The best method is to include fuses. Primarily at the heat bed, hot end and between your power supply and your board.
The rating of the fuse is dependent of the voltage and wattage you are using.
Recommended values:
Heatbed: 10-15A
Hotend: 5A
Board: 5A
A great way to organize them all is to print this nifty fuse holder:
You can also buy an inline fuse holder and install it onto your exisitng printer, simply replace the lead coming from your PSU to the board with it.
Another example of a blade fuse holder on a build.
Want the convenience of magnetic build plates without having to spend too much money?
A magnetic build plate system can cost up to hundreds of dollars. 
What you’ll need:
- Flexible adhesive magnetic sheet big enough to fit on your build plate.
- Spring steel sheet sized to your printer dimensions.
- Printing substrate of your choice.
- Remove current adhesive and substrate on your heat bed and place the magnetic sheet sticky side down on the build plate.
- Stick PEI or Buildtack or other new printing substrate on the spring steel sheet.
- Place the spring steel sheet on your build plate.
And that’s it! A cheap new magnetic flexible build plate system for your 3D Printer!
Need to share a Fusion 360 model with someone for some editing help? Here’s how to do it with a public link so you can maintain could editing functions. This will allow anyone with the link to be able to access the most recent version.
So you have been into 3d printing for a while and have a giant collection of 1000’s of .stl files saved on your computer and you have no way of easily viewing previews. Looking for a way to be able to view your files as soon as you open up your STL folder?
Here’s a program developed by cabbagecreek way to be able to preview a thumbnail of your stereolithography files.
Download options
marlin3dprintertool.se
Github
From the website:
Marlin3dPrinterTool is a open-source software that helps you configure and test your 3D printer. The software contains some components that are not free and leave some demo and watermarks. The Software is ditributed with “beerware license” as in “free as in beer” and all donations will be used to pay for the components.
The software is under development and some features ar not fully tested on all types of 3D printers. The code is tested on:
– BigBox Pro
-Rigidbot Big
-RapideLite 200
The main features are:
-Endstop testing
-Bed limit and bed abjusters position
– Z-probe configuration
– Bed Level Tool
-Scan building surface and create visual chart
-Z-rod maintenance
-Auto PID calibration
– Extruder calibration
-Firmware upgrade and migration
-STL thumbnails in Windows File Explorer
More information,tutorials, YouTube-videos and documentation can be found at http://www.marlin3dprintertool.se/
M1.Download the program off one of the links provided.
2.Click on the .msi file to start the installation
3. When prompted with the option, you can select to install the FileExplorer STL Thumbnail Extension or to install the Marlin3DPrinter Tool. This guide will only focus on the extension.
4. Once installation is done, open the STL Configuration link that just appeared in the Start tool bar.
5. Click on install and register STL thumbnail
You might have to restart File explorer on you are done, the configurator allows you to do it automatically.
You also have the option to set the viewer as default and to change the STL preview color .
Thats it, You are now able to preview .stl files in Windows Explorer!
Most printing enthusiasts love a quick fix when in a pinch. Binder clips can be useful in a few situations.
Holding down glass sheets on the heatbed
As a makeshift filament clip
As a filament guide
Stock up on a few next time you have the chance!
Having a level build platform is crucial to successful prints. This allows the first layer to be applied evenly and properly adhere to the build plate. having the nozzle too far from the build plate can cause the print to warp or even dislodge while printing. If your nozzle is too close to the build surface, the filament will be squished against the bed and this could either jam the extruder nozzle or complicate the print removal process.
First off; when leveling the build platform you will have to heat the bed to it’s printing temperature. The thickness of an aluminum bed will vary greatly depending at what temperature it is in. To level your bed properly, the same temperature at the time of printing is needed.
Place a sheet of paper on the platform, you will want the nozzle to touch the paper and still be able to move it freely with a bit of drag.
Move the extruder to each corner of the platform making sure that the amount of drag is constant on each corner, adjust the screws on the corners accordingly.
The center part of the build plate is the most important to have leveled properly as this is the location where you will most often be printing at.
Make sure to double check all positions once you are done leveling all four corners.
Perform this routine every time a physical parameter is changed on the printer, or if the printer is moved to another location. Once you get the hang of it, it will be very quick to level and you will not need to resort to any auto calibration features on your printer.
The most efficient method I have found to store my spools is to use Sterilite containers. Place your spools inside with desiccant packets and you are good to go. The gasket mounted inside the lid provides an airtight seal to prevent humidity from getting in and ruining your filaments.
Here’s a quick DIY spool holder from leftover printer parts. I understand that you might not already have these parts on hand if this is not the case hope you can get inspired by this and create something similar. The criteria for this mini build was to use parts available on hand and to have a solid one piece spool holder. (Although I had to order proper length bolts for the v slot wheels)
Total build price: Under 25$
What you’ll need:
2x 2040 Extrusion cut to 230 mm
1x 2040 Extrusion cut to 70mm
4 x V slot wheels or 625zz bearings
12 x 5mm T nuts
4 x 5mm x 15mm hex bolts
8 x 5mm x 8mm hex bolts
4 x Extrusion corner brackets (STL)
4 x 5mm washers
4 x 2040 Endcaps (STL)
Stock fans can be pretty noisy especially if your printer is set up to operate inside your house. One easy modification that you can do to quiet down your printer is to swap your heat sink fan with a quieter one.
Noctua fans are quite popular in PC builder communities and have been recognized to run quietly. This will be a major improvement to the cheap fan included in most printer kits as they are also designed in a way that they increase airflow.
Depending on your situation you might want to find a fan that either is the same size or bigger than your current one. If you want a bigger fan you might have to print a new shroud or fit an adapter at the existing mounting location.
Now if you are using a Noctua fan, chances are that you will either have 3 or 4 wires coming out of it. The three wires are for PWM control (Pulse Width Modulation), this usually allows your fan speed to be switched on and off and the RPMs can be controlled by computer. The fourth wire is usually for tach feedback (speed reference). This article will not get into more detail since we will not be using these features. We simply want to use the fan for constant cooling on the printer heat sink.
On a 4 wire fan, make sure to only connect the yellow to positive and the black to negative. In this configuration, the fan will run as long as there is 12v applied to it. Wiring the fan otherwise can cause it to fail.
Project cost: 20$
Tools Used:
Phillips screwdriver
Wire cutters
Crimping tool
Molex connectors
Heatshrink
Heatgun
Noctua (NF-A4x10)
Replacing the fan on a E3D Titan Aero heat sink was pretty straightforward since it hadn’t been mounted on the printer yet. The extruder comes prewired with Molex dual connectors for the fan and thermistor cartridge so the Noctua fan was fitted with a Molex plug, the unused wires were simply tucked into the cable sleeve and then heat shrink was applied to clean up the install.
This build is
planned to have both the heat bed and hot end running on 24v. The
remaining electronics will be running off of a separate 12v power
supply; the fan included in the extruder kit was rated at 24v.
Noctua 40x10mm mounted to e3d Titan Aero.
Here is another example of a fan upgrade on a Monoprice Select Mini. The stock fan was snipped off and the original cables were used to power the new fan. A connector was then placed at the end of the fan and the mating end was then crimped onto the existing wires. This improvement reduced the noise and increased airflow.
