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#13's first box arrived in NZ

Discussion in 'General Phlatprinter 3 Chat' started by kneedrag, Dec 6, 2010.

  1. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    I was pleasantly surprised when my first box landed here today. The courier was more worried about my longing face looking into his van when he only handed me one box...

    Asking me whats wrong is something missing I just looked and smiled and said I will be seeing you a few more times in the next few days. ;-)

    Now I know they parts are close...
     
  2. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    :D Very cool kneedrag! :D Soon very soon
    Mark and Trish
     
  3. Crash

    Crash Moderator Staff Member

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    You, kneedrag! You got your package (well, the first anyway) in very good time considering how far it had to travel! LOL

    I'll be sending good thoughts your way that you get the rest of your shipment sooner than later.:D
     
  4. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    Yeah thanks, I got it much sooner than I was expecting at this time of the year. I was expecting at least another week or two's wait.

    Can't wait to get home from work today and see what else has landed on my doorstep. ;-)

     
  5. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    Box 2 arrived today... 3 and 4 landed in the country but I think customs may have stopped on of them as it is marked held for clearance. Suppose time will tell. Hopefully will be able to start building soon.
     
  6. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    Box 3 arrived however box four with the DVD and other nice bits may have been stopped by customs for further processing. O well hopefully by the weekend...
     
  7. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    Ok so late Friday afternoon I get a letter from Customs. Basically summed up as follows, "We have your box in holding an don't know what it is. Please contact us so we can decide how to tax you."

    They are not open over weekends so I have to wait until Monday. Typical the last box through they scratch their heads over. ;-) Lets just hope they only want to charge me standard GST and not some weird other product tax.

     
  8. theothers

    theothers Administrator Staff Member

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    Wow! So close but so far away. That is really a shame that they are closed ALL weekend! I tried to look at the shipping label to see what we listed as contents but I am not able to view that detail. I believe we would have written machine parts. Please, let us know how this works out as we are always trying to learn how other countries handle our packages. It's interesting and it allows us to answer questions later.

    Have a great weekend anyway :D

    Mark and Trish
     
  9. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    Yeah according to the letter it is labeled machine parts. Will have a chat with them on Monday and see what they say. Ironically I have been getting parcels in business wise for close on a year and this is the first one they stop. So can't say I have been unlucky in that regard.

    Either way is is nearby I can smell it. ;-)
     
  10. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    Right so in between fighting a horrible bug my kids decide to share with me I have finally finished jumping through the hoops.

    FYI for any other NZ exports this is what stopped it.

    Most parcels that fit under $400 usually don't get stopped. However the box in question was marked $500. Which then customs will try to work out what to charge GST wise. Because there was no invoice attached for that value they asked me to provide the original invoice.

    Now due to all the parcels coming to over $1000NZ I had to apply for an Customs importers client code.

    So easiest way around this would be either to ensure there is an invoice attached to each box detailing the amount and contents. This way they will evaluate each box on its own and not as a collective. Also it breaks the cost down to less than $1000 elevating the need for a client code. Which for most people who don't need that often. Not so much of a worry to me as I just did it under my business which does a fair amount of importing anyway. Just first time I have topped a $1000 import. ;-)

    Don't know how practical that is splitting an invoice.

    Anyway I have just got the invoice from Customs for my GST just trying to figure out the quickest way to pay and get my last parcel delivered now. ;-)
     
  11. theothers

    theothers Administrator Staff Member

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    Thanks for letting us know why your package was delayed at customs. Our shipping label does provide information about what's in the package and we are not required to include an invoice on the outside of the package. However, it seems like the process could have gone smoother had we done so. We will keep this in mind in the future! As far as breaking up the invoices, that wouldn't be a problem at all. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for the feedback.

    Mark and Trish
     
  12. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    No worries, always interesting figuring out how each countries customs department works. Thankfully NZ customs is easy to work with and get answers out off.
     
  13. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    Ironically the statement from Customs saying I have paid them has arrived on Friday already yet the parcel has not arrived yet. I am sure that they lose the parcel in the warehouse and have to find it first sometimes.

    Normally if customs don't grab it it lands in NZ and the next working day it is on my doorstep.

    I am sure at this very moment there is someone running around the warehouse going now where did I put that box???

    O well at least all the bug's are being worked out before I get to build mine. ;-) Thanks beta builders. ;-)
     
  14. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    After a late night/early morning I have just finished connecting up my MK3.

    Quite a nice difference building this one compared to the MK1. Congrats Mark and Trish you never fail to amaze me.

    Only problem I had is that all the nuts and washers for the door seem to be missing. There were nuts in that packet but all the wrong sizes. You don't perhaps know the sizes of the nuts so I can make a dash to the hardware store and fit my door. ;-)

    I am metric brain so all this 1/16th etc just confuses me. ;-)

    Anyway now to try and get EMC to talk to this one.
     
  15. theothers

    theothers Administrator Staff Member

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    Great to hear from you kneedrag and congrats on finishing your build...well almost :oops: We will pm you the nut and washer information and are happy to send these to you but with the international shipping, it would probably be much quicker for you to pick these up locally.

    Thanks,

    Mark and Trish

    edit - pm has been sent kneedrag. Let us know if you need anything else.
     
  16. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    All good, Just wanted to know the sizes. Will pop into the hardware store tomorrow.

    Almost there with getting it to work with EMC. Few more adjustments and calibrations in the morning and hopefully will be able to do my first official cut.

    But going to have and "early" night tonight. ;-)

     
  17. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    Humm just the x-axis giving me grief. Seems the pressure rollers are putting to much pressure on the rollers and the stepper is skipping steps. I have jacked up the voltage to the stepper and that seems to have sorted some of it however it still skips.

    Time for some coffee a bit of a head scratch and back to trying to figure out why.
     
  18. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    Finally got the time this weekend to fit the new rollers. Suddenly she is not longer skipping steps starting and finishing in the same spot and being a delight to use.

    Tonight I will run some more cuts through to bed her in and make sure it was not a one off wonder last night. However finally it looks like I have a working #13 phlat with no skipped steps and fairly well calibrated. Small bits here and there I am sure I will have to sort but circles are looking like circles. ;-)

    Thanks Mark and Trish the new rollers were defiantly worth the wait.
     
  19. theothers

    theothers Administrator Staff Member

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    Glad to hear it kneedrag. Let the fun begin :dance3:

    Mark and Trish
     
  20. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    Right I can almost feel I am there, backlash sorted, foam twisting sorted, calibration sorted.

    However the foam is moving in the printer from the beginning of the cut to the end about 1-1.5cm to the right. Which of course is making my accurately calibrated MK3 now not so accurate.

    I am busy videoing what it is doing at he moment and hopefully it is something stupid I am doing.

    I had a theory that the foam may not be the same thickness on both sides however based on that the foam should move left and right and this always moves to the right.

    I will however give a 6mm depron sheet a run through as well as I know that is 6mm the whole width of it and see if the same thing happens.

    But a difference in cutting speed is so much better. MK1 3 hours for this cut now 22min, which means less cutting time and more flying.
     
  21. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    Ok so its the foam it seems. 6mm depron half way through and no issues. Measured the EPP and the one side is 9mm's roughly give or take 0.2mm. The other side in particular the side that it moved to was 8.6-8.4mm. The more interesting question is why is all the EPP sheets doing it. Time to try some from another box. See if I get the same results. Will be annoyed if it is the foam.
     
  22. Evil-Tunes

    Evil-Tunes Moderator Staff Member

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    I think EPP is hard to cut because of the Squisheness of the Foam. I remember A thread about it But, I cant find it rite now. What if you added depron strips along side the EPP that might help keep the rollers Square and from pushing down too hard and skew ? I think that might solve the problem.


    Cheers
    E-T
     
  23. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    Weird thing is it is not skewing but moving while keeping straight. I am trying with some different EPP sheets which seem to be more evenly sliced.

    Weird as I never had problems like this on the MK1 with EPP. O well I am sure I will find the cause after a few more runs.
     
  24. kneedrag

    kneedrag Member

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    Easy low tech solution. Build a guide for the EPP foam. ;-)

    I clamped a straight section of pine to the front of the Phlat. Then the one smooth side of the EPP runs against it. So far half way into the cut everything seems to be holding together and staying in alignment.

    I think I may have to find a way to make this a more perm solution.
     
  25. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    I was talking with scraig last night and he told me that he was cutting epp very will with higher rpms 35000 (dremel) I really do not cut much epp but this may be something to try out when I add the bosh router mount to the Phlatprinter
    The bosh router attachment mount can be found here if you want to give it a try http://www.phlatboyz.com/Phlatprinter-3 ... _p_72.html
    Mark and Trish
     

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