First "print"

I have seen this done with a Prusa i3 and I thought I would give it a try with my Delta Steel prototype, until I have my Bowden extruder and hotend ready: use the printer as a plotter by attaching a pen to the carriage/effector. This is quite easy to do with the Kossel Mini effector design that I am using.

The next step was to go through the basic 4-point calibration procedure and adjust the endstop screws on the X, Y and Z carriages, as well as roughly leveling the heatbed. This took a lot longer than I thought it would, I guess because of my inexperience in dealing with linear delta printers. I learned a lot in the process, though, and I'll write about it later in a separate blog post.

After I had reached the point where I could barely insert a small piece of paper under the tip of the pen at the four different points in the calibration procedure, I was ready to test the printer as a plotter, so I sent it the very same Cura-generated and edited G-code that I had used in the previous "in the air" print video. It worked better than I expected:

So this is my first "print" and on the whole, I am quite happy with it!

That, by the way, is the effector that I am using on the Delta Steel itself, as you can see in the first picture above. This is exactly what a RepRap 3D printer should be able to do: print its own parts!