List of recommended UP Mini Mods?

[John]

I am considering purchasing an UP Mini as my first 3D printer as the current discounted price seems pretty good.

From what I have reading reading, there are a number of mods that rectify some design problems. Is there a consolidated list on which mods are considered essential and those that are a nice to have?

[DrewPetitclerc]

Yes, buy the Up Plus instead, I hear you can get the mini for free.................. think about it............

Regards
Drew

[John]

My budget doesn't stretch that far at this time, otherwise I would.

[Toejamfloyd]

I found a short list of mods a user posted to his Amazon review. Here they are, copy-paste -


a. Heated bed issue - I read online of somebody replacing the 55C thermostat on the bottom of the bed with a 100C thermostat. I did just this. It took all of 5 minutes to de-solder the 55C thermostat and sold in its place a 100C thermostat. Bang. Problem solved. 100C is a great bed temperature, and with the enclosure closed it keeps everything nicely warm.

b. Extruder temperature limitations - As I mentioned the software only offers a single PLA and a single ABS mode. The solution was a $50 product I purchased online from Octave (a distributor of these printers and plastic manufacturer based in the US). The 8-function device simply plugs into the extruder and bypasses the connection between the heating element and the mother board. It's a box of resistors that will limit the current the heating elements gets, thus adjusting the temp. Settings range from 209C to 266C. Perfect. If the software can't be changed a hardware mod takes care of it. I just leave the software on ABS mode to always have the heated print bed on (even for PLA prints). Thanks Octave for the quick shipping and good product. I just wish you would have responded to my two emails.

c. PLA jams - a simple fan soles this. I setup a USB fan the blows right on the extruder while printing. With the fan I have never had a PLA jam. As soon as I remove the fan it will jam within 15 minutes. I have a 60mm CPU fan on order that I will mount onto the extruder to replace the USB fan. I also removed the door and top hatch (they just pop right out). On the rare occasions that I do print ABS I can pop the door and hatch back on.

Source - http://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R1I39Q7 ... B00E5OQIKS

[Toejamfloyd]

Also, here's a thingiverse mod to pull the brains out and mount them in a cooler. Pretty smart, from the looks of some of the posts here...

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:222235

[Toejamfloyd]

I am now using this thread for a repository for my mini when it shows up

I found this mod for air-flow over the electronics. The pictures from GrantWatson provide a great job detailing exactly what to do. - http://www.pp3dp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=34222

Hopefully my unit will have this extra fan header. I also found a model number on this fan. I'm not going to order one myself, as I have plenty of dead laptops hanging around my office. It is located here - http://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Mothe ... B00JQ783I4

[stormychel]

Because of a shoulder fracture I can't go to work and have much time to learn the ins and outs of this printer, been testing it for 2 weeks now. Problems and solutions :

- ABS only works if it's the OEM stuff at 260 degrees. Problems with other ABS is burning / smoking / feeder jams. Solution : bridge pin 3 of the heater block connector trough a 100 ohm potentiometer. This gives you a range of 260 degrees to lower the target temperature. It's an easy and cheap fix.

- PLA is the same story, OEM stuff works ok, other stuff jams the feeder. Solution : partly solved with the potentiometer trick, and I added a cpu cooler from a laptop, sticked it to the top of the bottom door so it blows right to the feeder motor. Leave this off for ABS to avoid warping/delamination.

- The PTFE-tube from the filament clip on the back to the extruder = friction = more chance for feeder skipping/jam. I leave it off as I don't see the need for it... I think the engineers got confused looking at 3d-printers with separated feeder / hot block, as the bowden cable connects these to let the cable trough...

If you have questions about the potentiometer mod feel free to ask.

[gandalf]

I have one of the very recent bacth of mini, and tough I would mention that the headbed now comes from factory with a 60° thermal switch. Well at least mine did !

G

[jeeplvr]

I print some pretty nice stuff on my UP Mini but only with help from this forum and two years of modifying, changing print heads and experimenting etc. All of it has came full circle back to the original print head arrangement with the exception of a nema 17 motor instead of the Nema 14 and a modified wind barrier.
My heat bed is back to original with the exception of a 90c thermal switch. 100c is too high and even the 90c is too high for some small models. I use a small toggle switch to turn the heat bed on and off as needed.
Inside the print head assembly I have redesigned the filament guide and bearing and I can print many models now without jams.
This machine is for ABS only. It simply isn't designed properly to work with PLA.

So, to get a good working machine similar to mine, you need the following:
1. 80 or 90c Heat bed thermal switch with toggle switch
2. Optional: Nema 17 stepper motor for the print head
3. Optional: Redesigned filament guide for the print head.
4. Print only with good ABS

All my stuff is on http://www.thingiverse.com/jeeplvr/designs

[stormychel]

Thanks for sharing!

Mine works properly with PLA now because of my fan mod. This adds 2 fans to the extruder stepper, and reverses the stock fan.

My only remaining issue is ABS warping. I already have a 80° C thermal switch, should be enough because 90% of ABS's shrinkage happens under 60° C. Just a little hesitant to fiddle with the heat bed...

[roller]

Although porr adhesion due to low heat is one factor to warping the primary reason for warping is due to the cooling of subsequent layers ... something a hotter bed doesn't fix. In fact, where prints would peel up off my Mini the equivalnet result on the Plus would be for the print to split.

The key solution is to keep the area around the print area warm. This is where the Mini has an advantage but that gaping hole in the top need to be sealed and the lack of heat generation from the bed needs to be resolved with preheating (I used a fan heater) and also letting the heated bed sit heating for some time to get the internals nice and toasty. If you can get the air temp to 50C or above you should get much better results. Of course improving the bed heat only makes this all work a whole lot better and much, much more reliably.

[stormychel]

I'm a little scared about fiddling with the thermal switch... know my way around electronics but I don't like doing something permanent to a device I need...

I never though about the hole at the top, will draw and print something that fits there so I can seal it off easily.

Bed temo is not that bad though, I measured 55-60 yesterday, but the print still curled. Probably that top hole!

[roller]

I stuffed foam in there.