Directions for FDM 2000 machine

Turn on machine by pressing round 'start' button (white color)

When changing tips, use the aluminum tip for the wax, and steel for ABS

-do not tighten tip when machine is cold. Wait until correct temp is reached, then gradually tighten tip with the round wrench that came with the fdm. Otherwise you may cause a backup of material in the head, leading to the material not feeding, and instead gobbing up the head

• FDM head pressure jam (prepare to set aside ~45 minutes) : if you are having trouble getting the wax to actually load properly (wax oozing out of the tip when you press the 'load' button), you probably have a pressure jam in the heating element area of the tip.
  • What you should do is turn on the FDM, allow it to come to operating temperature, then remove the tip of the offending side (ie that side which will not load).
  • Next loosen the head by unsnapping the cam locks on both sides of the head. Gently work the head back and forth until it pops loose (drops slightly- don't use alot of force here!!!).
  • Gently swing the head out. The back of the head has a set of motors and gears to feed in the wax.
  • Unbolt the motors with two each allen screws, and slide them out (you may need to remove the motor wires (grey) from their retainers), carefully laying them down on the same side of the head from which they came.
  • Use a pair of needle nose pliers to gently remove all caked wax from around the inlet holes
  • since the head is still warm, take a piece of wax which is about 12" long and feed it into the hole which is jammed. Gently continue to feed the entire piece in the hole, you should see the melted wax coming out of the bottom of the head where the tips are normally attached. Perform this feeding operation for around 20 seconds to clear out the wax that was in there originally, leaving a correctly pressured clean new section of wax.
  • Bolt the motors back in place, placing the wires for the motors where they were originally
  • Gently and very slowly use the fdm tool (round and black) to screw the tips back in place, pausing every so often. Move too fast and you will cause the very same pressure bubble you just removed! If that happens, open up the head and do it again! The only need to be flush (bottomed out), not too tight.
  • close the head, making sure the two wax spooling coming out of the two holes on the fdm side are flush
  • Load the modelling material (see instructions for that)- does it load? Same for support. Allow the material to ooze out of the tips for 20seconds

-if the head is gobbed up, open it with machine on by unlatching two side latches, gently popping the head down about 1/8 inch, then swivel it to the side and look inside. If you can, remove any extra material loose in the head. Otherwise you must turn off the machine, let it cool, then remove the head by unsnapping the two latches, if you have not already, then remove the cable by gripping the knurled area on the right of the head, the section close to the head (there are two knurled areas on the cable attachment), and rotating it toward you, ie counterclockwise from the perspective of the cable. Now you can lift the head off its swivel points and remove it.

-once outside the machine, you can remove the two drive feeder units (motor and gear assembly) very easily by two 3/32 allen screws each assembly. It is recommended that you slide each wire for the motor assembly out of the tie down slot, as this gives more length to put the assemblies down to the side without disconnecting the motors

-at this point, you can clean the entrance to the heating elements- wax tends to melt there and block the hole.

Load the material when machine is up to temperature:

-move to the back of the machine, and gently feed the wax from the spool (GENTLY!!!) until it is taken by the drive wheels. If more than a few seconds pass and you don't feel the wax being slowly fed into the machine, check for jams, problems in the head, etc.

-you have to load each spool separately - ie load the model material, then the support material, switch by pressing the button on the keypad that says model/support. There is a green light above whichever material is selected. Also, the lcd screed displays which material is selected. Within 10 seconds, you will see wax come out of the tip for the respective material in the machine.

Once set up. (model temp ~73, support temp ~71 degrees, envelope 42 degrees - for wax)

Run insight, open a file (stl file) set up the machine parameters, such as the material, tip thickness, object scale, etc.

To get all the necessary computations out of the way, click the green flag, and all operations will be taken care of - toolpaths, slicing, supports.

Then send the file to the machine. There is a button in the toolbar, and when clicked this will bring up a second program. The fdm monitor tells you what the fdm's status is. If ok, go ahead and build the file (one of the buttons).

BEFORE DOING ANYTHING FURTHER, CLOSE THE DOOR AND TURN THE LOCK KNOB !!! OTHERWISE YOU GET A FRUSTRATING LACK OF THE SYSTEM DOING ANYTHING! You can recognize this by a repeated 'PD TIME FAULT' error on lcd screen.

Once file sent, you should see the pause come on. Make sure the platten is below the tip, press pause, fdm goes through a calibration sequence, ending in the 0,0 point on the rectangular platten, move the tip to an empty location on the platten, move the z-height so tip is in contact with foam, just barely, and press pause again. Machine will go through a short sequence to begin the wax moving, and then will start the part. Should work at this point. Enjoy!