New users moving first steps here.
I’m software engineer, with some basic experience of operating traditional (i.e. non-CNC) lathe, which I don’t have a the moment. Instead I have 2 3D printers (Anycubic Mega S) and I am interested in building a Primo (will take my time), potentially adding a 4th axis for both making it a CNC lathe (which I guess we can still call it 3-axis) and for making slightly more complicated parts without having to reposition them, which I think can be a pain.
In fact I have questions if Primo would support a 4th axis and what you would suggest for holding pieces in a way that’s easy to hold them, reposition them, and (most importantly) making sure that the tool does no hit the clamps! But I’m getting far ahead of myself, and I will take my (long) with with this, so no hurry. Instead, a question about this quote
If your 3D printer is of questionable quality it is best to run a quick basic frame test to make sure the parts will print as intended. If the test indicates that your frame is not square, then carefully check the frame and adjust, and retest.
What do you mean by “square” here? Of course it’s not square, there will always be a tolerance and if you have an accurate enough instrument you will measure that. In my case, the two sides of the large square and the diagonals of the small ones are between 14.5mm and 15mm: a caliper set at 15mm was able to “get” them all, some with a bit of wobble. I am pretty sure (but not 100% certain) that the most wobbly (one of the diagonals) was dialed in at 14.5mm – and at that setting the caliper could not get any of the others (certainly not the other diagonal, but not even the sides). I wanted to measure them with better, but while I was attempting to do so, they detached from the printer bed and now they are too floppy to measure.
So, advice: is that printer accurate enough? Yes, no, or print again to be sure?
Also, do I need the advanced frame test or something else to test the z? That test is big and I’d rather spare me the effort to run it if I can (or maybe I can scale it 50% in all dimensions? or 50% in x/y and leave it as is in z?)
Also, I noticed that some of the features of that test are round holes parallel to the bed. In my experience with this printer (and the settings I run it with, and the brand of PLA I use, and the plethora of details that make a 3D print different from another), these sort of holes come out “sagging”. Not that I printed many of them: I try to slice it in another position. But the ones that I did print it horizontally were not round (I compensated that a bit by making them ellipses in the CAD, so the sagging made them closer to round than otherwise). And to complete the information, the ones I printed in this position were at most 3mm in diameter, all the larger ones I printed either with support or horizontally. So will this be a problem?