There have been some hiccups in this process unfortunately. I still think this is a doable thing but for me, I have given up and purchased a Cricut machine to do what I wanted to do. It is still worth talking about where things were going so well and not so well.
It's got a Knife!
So I purchased a generic knife holder with blades that fit elegantly into the blade holder I 3D-printed. I used small rubber bands to hold the holder together. I got my cutting mat and a piece of paper and started running some tests. And...it did work in SOME directions, but often the blade would get caught in certain areas on the flat bed. So I continually tried to mess with the bed level manually. No matter what I did, there were just some areas on the bed that would catch the knife.
The thing is, I had noticed in my 3D printing stencils as well that the corners just wouldn't get level. Thus I am struggling to remove stencils from acrylic glass.
So the big lesson I learned here is that, the bed MUST be very level!
And it's possible that my bed is slightly warped from all the heat over the past couple years.
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| You can see there are fewer layers in the upper line of her hair. |
Auto Bed Leveling
This started me on my decision to get an auto leveling device for my printer. I looked into both the Creality brand devices the CR Touch and BL Touch. In the end, I was convinced that the CR touch would be the better choice. However, I checked my electronics on my machine (the motherboard) and realized that my model was old so I got the adaptors for it too.
Now, what I did not realize is how finicky and complicated this device could be. Turns out that my motherboard is an 8-bit board and the device I purchased requires a 32-bit board. However, I was still able to physically install it with the adaptors. I downloaded some firmware meant for the BL Touch for an 8-bit motherboard to see if things would still work.
At first, it seemed to work! It would auto-home to the right spot. But since the CR Touch was wider than expected, the blade holder needed adjustments. So I took it off for the time being to just get the CR Touch working. However, when I did that, suddenly it was colliding with the bed on the Z-axis.
Right now, I am not sure where to start with troubleshooting this issue. Because it WAS working with the BL Touch firmware, I figured that I would not need to upgrade the motherboard. Or it may be that I used outdated firmware. I don't want to break my machine but at this point I'm debating if I should return the CR Touch in exchange for a BL touch which would work with my 8-bit motherboard. Or do I get a new motherboard and install that?
The motherboard is more expensive by a couple bucks compared to the BL touch. Plus there's the hassle of exchanging an item. Part of me thinks, maybe I can get it to work since it seemed to for a bit.
All in all, I'm just plain frustrated, so I opted to buy a Cricut because I do have several projects that require stencils, engraving and such. It's worth the investment to me.
I will no longer arm my 3D printer with a knife, but I do want to get the leveler working. Just it's become a challenge beyond my scope.
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