Hey guys, i’ve been printing for a few months now. I got my Dremel Idea Builder to start and it’s been awesome. It is a nice little printer for the price and is pretty amazing, I wanted to get a rostock max v2 due to the obvious upgrade but don’t have the money ATM. I want to collaborate with fellow Dremel Idea Builder owners to talk about mods and see if we can come up with some here and make our machines awesome. Well i’ve already put the omnistand in my printer and am using Hatchbox PLA at 206° and have for the most part calibrated as best as the printer can handle. I use simplify3d, i’ve made a filament filter/oiler, and replaced the crappy dremel “buildtak” for blue tape with hairspray which is working better for me. I level before every print and make sure the head slightly touches the orange paper on every point although sometimes i don’t know if it keeps the calibration as when i try again sometimes the head is touching the plate too close. I ordered an all metal hotend and got the wrong one so that’ll be an upgrade soon for exotics. And now to get to a couple mods i want to try and collaborate upon is:
1. Has anyone tried Nema-17 stepper dampers in the dremel to make it even quieter than it is, and for accuracy? I’d love to do that but want to know how it would work.
2. A heated build platform… This is the big one… This is the reason i want to upgrade to a different printer (can’t ATM) and i am frustrated at not being able to print in ABS and other materials that print at 230° or less. That mod would make the dremel so awesome in my opinion as it is a quality printer and can handle ABS but has no heated bed. I think it’s possible as it is a rebranded and “refirmwared” version of the Flash Forge Dreamer which has a heated plate. I saw somwone on Thingiverse
( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:[1587208](tel:1587208) )who is testing one they made right now but haven’t been too responsive to my requests other than just saying a link will be coming soon although i don’t know what they mean by that. Well I guess we can leave this thread open to discuss these mods and also general help and info on the Dremel Idea Builder: the mid-cost 3d printer, that preforms like a high end 3d printer, that has the features of my paper printer LOL 
A heated build plate would require a metal carriage arm. You would also probably have to replace the leveling mechanism once you change the plate.
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I’m actually thinking of just using something like protopasta HTPLA with properties similar to ABS while being as simple as PLA. Has anyone here tried it?
If this is the stuff you’re thinking about, it should be alright. I usually never go above 80 degrees C on our local Makerspaces Makergear M2.
Yeah, all i want is to be able to print abs so if that stuff is similar i might try it out!
If you want to print while heating up ABS, just make sure the plate doesn’t get so hot that it melts what’s holding it up! 
sk4477
7
I haven’t modded my Dremel yet. I did get myself an external spool holder and swapped the nozzle with a MicroSwiss hardened nozzle, that’s all
However, i was very happy to find out that the Dremel prints Filaflex flexible filaments quite nicely at 230°C on Buildtak (original Buildtak), which i think is a nice boost to what I can do with my Dremel.
I have some Colorfabb NGen and Extrudr Green-Tec filament sitting on my desk which I want to test with the Dremel. They are sturdier than PLA and supposedly easier to print than ABS. We shall see.
Well for example, right now i need a replacement bushing for a set of metal bars at my shop. I could make one with steel with my machinery, but i’d rather do it quickly on the printer. I’m looking at the HTPLA-CF and am thinking of trying that since normal carbon fiber filament is pretty strong but maybe not strong enough for what i need. Any suggestions? I wanted to use stainless steel but heard it isn’t very strong.
Went ahead and ordered some, i don’t need strength as in bend, but rigidity to hold weight without falling on someone’s head. Not many reviews so i’ll post here after i try it this week
First if all, I had this printer, in one word it is bad. Watch out, it is limited to Dremel PLA, if you use it probably. I will clog, in a week, at least in my experience. it is closed source
I have gotten great results using hatchbox, it all comes down to fine tuning your settings. I’m not going to do the ABS things anymore but will try the carbon fiber HTPLA
As in i’m not going to be modding it anymore, the guy on thingiverse is doing it and i might aswell save up for an upgrade. I’m going to use an abs alternative instead!
sk4477
14
This “can’t use anything but Dremel” is nothing but a myth. IMHO originally invented by Dremel to sell their overpriced spools.
I’ve been successfully printing non-Dremel PLA almost exclusively for quite a while now. I’ve been printing with cheap ass BQ PLA for 19,00 EUR (22 US$)/kg, Austrian based Extrudr PLA and the expensive Colorfabb PLA/PHA. I used Recreus Filaflex and Colorfabbs Woodfill as well. The only PLA that has given me problems so far was Verbatim PLA, but that spool of Verbatim also sucked in my Witbox2, so I tend to think its not the Dremels fault.
… and I am pretty sure i’ll find even more brands and filament types that will print well, because at its heart the Dremels MK10 extruder/hotend is sound and reliable and perfectly capable to print whatever you want within its limits (230°C / no heated bed). Granted, there’s one important thing to do when trying non-Dremel filaments: ditch the rather limited Dremel slicer in favor of either the free Autodesk PrintStudio or the paid Simplify3D. Both give the control over the settings needed to properly adjust for whatever filament you’re trying to print with.
The Dremel 3D20 is a great entry level printer that is now available for less than 800,00 EUR incl. tax here in Europe. Its one downside is the missing heatbed and maybe the noise level. But it sure ain’t a bad printer. My Witbox2 came and went, got replaced with an Ultimaker UM 2+ but the Dremel I kept for its ease of use, the enclosed frame and the great results I am getting from it. I highly recommend it - if it fits your “profile”.
Exactly, Hatchbox is working great and i’ve heard protopasta is awesome with the hardened nozzle. One big freaking problem i have and need help on or advice. Do you guys have to relevel ALL THE TIME?!!? I havs to do it before every single print, and it’s so annoying. Using the little orange sheet it comes with i get it to where the cold nozzle barely scrapes the sheet and then i go through the leveling process and click finish and it takes the nozzle to the center of the plate and i check with the orange sheet and it is really close to the plate and has a lot of resistance. And if i press level again and do it right after i just did, sometimes i get 1 or 2 of the 3 points that are too close…
And i don’t think it’s too loud (i don’t have another printer to compare to), i think it’s just noisy with it’s “music” and fans which can be either annoying or cool depending on my mood. I’m thinking of instead of buying nema 17 dampers, i saw a model on thingiverse of the dampers like the astrosyn ones, and i could maybe print in the Carbon Fiber HTPLA and use a rubber seal to make my own which would silence the printer and with that filament it would probably last!!!
sk4477
17
In my experience, it needs releveling fairly often, yes. At least as compared to the 3x more expensive Ultimaker which i leveled exactly 5 times on the first day I got it (because the assistant confused the heck out of me)… and never since. The Witbox2 was a different story, I couldn’t keep it level at all. Well, it did turn out it was broken.
One thing that helped me was some advice I’ve gotten early on and to my surprise it actually works: observe how the first layer is supposed to look, how squished the line should be. Then relevel as needed without the leveling assistant. Here ist what I do: always print with a few lines of skirt (outline), watch how it lays down the skirt and adjust the 3 knobs as needed while it is printing the skirt. This way releveling never turns into the huge production number.
Also don’t yank too hard on the printbed as this will throw it out of level. And I think taking out the buildplate doesn’t help either. This is where Buildtak comes into play: Its adhesion capabilities are both a blessing and a curse. PLA sticks to it so hard, it easily forgives if the distance between nozzle and Buildtak is a bit too big. (Too close and good luck getting your print off again - without yanking too hard and therefore screwing up the leveling)
Do you think I should try doing the dampers out of that filament? Thanks for the great info
Hey, along with the CF HTPLA, I ordered Taulman Nylon 230 which is supposed to print at 230°C and no heated bed, and Ninjaflex. Have you guys tried these on the idea builder or in general? I could use tips!
Could you give me tips on flexible filament (ninjaflex) please, and have you tried taulman 230?
