Here’s a throttle for my boat’s outboard engine I’m planning on printing in plastic and mounting next spring. I have a big problem with the throttle on my boat, so I thought I’d try making one instead.

I finally added a J-HEAD hotend to my reprap and configured it to get it running. I’m using Pronterface with SFACT embedded as the print software. It works really great. I first tried editing all the SFACT settings to get a good print, until I realized I mainly had to get the steps of the extruder right in the firmware, and everything else worked pretty well without change. I’m using a lexan print plate, which works great… well… until I forgot to oil it and it got stuck to the box on the picture. I had to break the lexan plate to get it off.

The firmware is Teacup and the electronics is Gen7. I’m using PLA bearings, which is probably not optimal, but works ok… It’s pretty much a standard Prusa. It was fun to build and it’s working!! I’m so happy.

Here are some test prints. I’m pretty happy with the quality. It’s not quite as good as the Makerbot, but almost. I have a z-axis wobble, and fixing that would put it very close in print quality I think. I’ve just tried PLA so far, as I don’t have a heated build plate.

Hmm… I should really get a better camera for taking close-up photos. Bad focus on my phone camera.