MakerBots, RepRaps and UP!s: It's 3D printers!

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Sagebrush: Feb 26, 2012

FuriousAngle posted:

So fortunately it looks like I just sucked with the initial calibrations. I got a tiny level and really got in there and tried to get everything not only level, but really made sure the nozzle was the right height off the print bed.

Just FYI, the latter thing here is what people really mean when they say "leveling the print bed." Yeah, it's good to have the bed level to the floor so there aren't any undue forces on the motors or skewed parts of the print...but it's far more critical that the bed is precisely aligned with the motion platform, whether or not that's aligned with gravity. In the extreme case, you might have a machine that's significantly out of square (damaged caused by dropping it, running it into the end stops too many times, poor assembly, etc), but as long as you align the bed to whatever axes the machine moves in, you can still get decent prints.

When I'm re-leveling my machine, I first of all raise and lower the gantry while using a set of 1-2-3 blocks to make sure that the machine itself is squared up internally (if you have dual z-motors, it's possible for them to get out of alignment and skew one of the axes). Then I drop the head down near the bed and tram it around, watching the reflection in the glass to see that the apparent separation doesn't change. If it goes significantly up or down, that part of the bed needs to be leveled. I fine-tune it by sliding a piece of paper under the nozzle, lowering the head until the paper just drags when pulled, and doing that test at all four corners and the center. Any places where the paper either slides freely or jams indicate you need to do more leveling.

Finally, if I'm really trying to get it flat in order to print at low layer heights (0.1mm or less), I hook a dial indicator to the extruder carriage and use that to make adjustments. However, I find that just the procedure with the paper can get the bed level to +/- 0.003" across its whole length, which is usually completely fine.

There are a couple of other things that can compensate with a poorly leveled bed: decrease your first layer height or increase the first-layer flowrate (gives you extra squish into the bed, which increases adhesion), add some blue tape (lets you get closer without jamming the extruder, because it compresses slightly, plus the wax coating and roughness of the tape increase adhesion), or use a gluestick on the print area (just plain stickiness).

Ultimately, though, you'll solve a lot of problems in one shot by spending the twenty minutes or whatever to really get the bed dialed in. Usually, unless you put a lot of force on the bed (accidentally bang it, or have to really hammer on a part to get it detached) the leveling won't change across prints.

Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 07:40 on Aug 15, 2016

# ? Aug 15, 2016 07:33

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# ? May 8, 2024 23:21

hayden.: Sep 11, 2007; here's a goat on a pig or something

What's the issue with PEI and humidity? I live in a super humid place and didn't name my PEI or anything. I noticed slight lifting on corners of prints. Not sure if this is because there's a lot of air bubbles between PEI and glass (in the adhesive) or maybe plate isnt hot enough.

# ? Aug 15, 2016 14:22

jubjub64: Feb 17, 2011

hayden. posted:

What's the issue with PEI and humidity? I live in a super humid place and didn't name my PEI or anything. I noticed slight lifting on corners of prints. Not sure if this is because there's a lot of air bubbles between PEI and glass (in the adhesive) or maybe plate isnt hot enough.

I was having problems with my PEI sheet getting large bubbles between it and the glass. It was bad enough that it caused an uneven surface. After scouring the web I found a thread in the Taz 5 forums where the printer's manufacturer claimed that the bubbling that many were experiencing was due to humidity trapped in their PEI that expanded when the bed was heated. They said that now they bake all PEI sheets before assembly to prevent this problem so I started doing the same with my i3 duplicator. Since baking the problem has been reduced significantly. Perhaps I just applied it more effectively this time but I think having the PEI heated when applying helped.

Edit: I live in Houston, hence my humidity problems.

Edit: If the print is lifting I would say the bed isn't hot enough or you need better first layer adherence by changing first layer height. In my paper leveling tests I have the nozzle almost scratching the paper it is so close. If the PEI sheet is lifting then it might be the problem I just described.

jubjub64 fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Aug 15, 2016

# ? Aug 15, 2016 15:29

FuriousAngle: May 14, 2006; See your face upon the clean water. How dirty! Come! Wash your face!

Yeah this is a really daunting process. Not as bad as I'd feared it would be, but still pretty complex. The test gcode file printed pretty great (with the exception of some odd striations on the sides and a few strands of PLA being dragged along underneath it. I figured if the X-Rods are level and the platform is level then I shouldn't have any problems with variance in distance between platform and nozzle. It's worked so far, so I'm happy with that. I'm sure I'll need to re-calibrate soon though and I'll use the advice you guys gave me.

The thing that's causing me the biggest question-mark right now is that most of the files I have are in STL format and it looks like the printer looks for GCODE. I'm currently using Slic3r, but the output is garbage. Does anyone have a better program for dealing with this conversion, or so I just need to monkey around more with the settings to get something that works?

# ? Aug 15, 2016 15:36

jubjub64: Feb 17, 2011

FuriousAngle posted:

The thing that's causing me the biggest question-mark right now is that most of the files I have are in STL format and it looks like the printer looks for GCODE. I'm currently using Slic3r, but the output is garbage. Does anyone have a better program for dealing with this conversion, or so I just need to monkey around more with the settings to get something that works?

There is the free program Cura that many use. It has default settings for many mainstream printers. There is the un-free program Simplify3D that also has most printers pre-programmed in. Both are really good but I prefer Simplify3D for its additional features.

# ? Aug 15, 2016 15:39

rawrr: Jul 28, 2007

You might want to give Cura a shot as it generally has one of the better interfaces (especially if you're just getting started).

In lieu of doing more manual leveling you might be able to get away with setting the slicer to overextrude the first layer to improve adhesion of the print to the bed; the first layer is really the only one that's sensitive to that, as the first layer itself is self leveling.

# ? Aug 15, 2016 15:46

FuriousAngle: May 14, 2006; See your face upon the clean water. How dirty! Come! Wash your face!

jubjub64 posted:

There is the free program Cura that many use. It has default settings for many mainstream printers.

rawrr posted:

You might want to give Cura a shot as it generally has one of the better interfaces (especially if you're just getting started).

In lieu of doing more manual leveling you might be able to get away with setting the slicer to overextrude the first layer to improve adhesion of the print to the bed; the first layer is really the only one that's sensitive to that, as the first layer itself is self leveling.

Thanks for the Cura suggestion. I'll give that a shot.

Also, double-thanks for the overextrude advice. I'll look into that for sure.

# ? Aug 15, 2016 15:48

hayden.: Sep 11, 2007; here's a goat on a pig or something

jubjub64 posted:

I was having problems with my PEI sheet getting large bubbles between it and the glass. It was bad enough that it caused an uneven surface. After scouring the web I found a thread in the Taz 5 forums where the printer's manufacturer claimed that the bubbling that many were experiencing was due to humidity trapped in their PEI that expanded when the bed was heated. They said that now they bake all PEI sheets before assembly to prevent this problem so I started doing the same with my i3 duplicator. Since baking the problem has been reduced significantly. Perhaps I just applied it more effectively this time but I think having the PEI heated when applying helped.

Edit: I live in Houston, hence my humidity problems.

Edit: If the print is lifting I would say the bed isn't hot enough or you need better first layer adherence by changing first layer height. In my paper leveling tests I have the nozzle almost scratching the paper it is so close. If the PEI sheet is lifting then it might be the problem I just described.

Do I have to buy another sheet of PEI, or will I be able to peel mine off, get the adhesive off, bake it, and re-apply? I did a pretty lovely job applying the 3M adhesive, I applied it to the glass first which meant all I could really do is just plop to PEI on top of it. I didn't think the air bubbles would matter much but I guess they do. My print bottoms are pretty sloppy and the lifting is only mild, but the pieces still work fine for my needs.

hayden. fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Aug 15, 2016

# ? Aug 15, 2016 18:58

Golluk: Oct 22, 2008

Any recommended place to buy a Maker Select if I'm in Canada? The few places I've checked seem to have them at 550-600 CAD, when they should be closer to 450 CAD (350 USD).

Golluk fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Aug 15, 2016

# ? Aug 15, 2016 19:28

One Legged Ninja: Sep 19, 2007; Feared by shoe salesmen. Defeated by chest-high walls.; Fun Shoe

Rapulum_Dei posted:

everyone uses level.

This is from 3d printing's machining roots. When you're trying to get a 30' lathe bed on a flat plane, so it cuts a straight cylinder, you don't have many good ways to reference that big of a plane. So if you use a precisely calibrated level you can place that at every point on the ways and when they're all good, it's flat.

E: This wasn't directed specifically at you, I was just pointing it out.

# ? Aug 15, 2016 20:50

jubjub64: Feb 17, 2011

hayden. posted:

Do I have to buy another sheet of PEI, or will I be able to peel mine off, get the adhesive off, bake it, and re-apply? I did a pretty lovely job applying the 3M adhesive, I applied it to the glass first which meant all I could really do is just plop to PEI on top of it. I didn't think the air bubbles would matter much but I guess they do. My print bottoms are pretty sloppy and the lifting is only mild, but the pieces still work fine for my needs.

The PEI is pretty robust so I imagine you could reuse it (I did). You will need to get some Goo Gone or other adhesive remover and a scraper (I used the one that came with my printer) for the 3M gunk (let the Goo Gone sit on the adhesive for a few minutes). First I would heat up your bed to about 100 degrees and then start prying off the PEI from the glass. I lucked out and the 3M stuck to the glass and not the PEI. Once you get the 3M off of both sheets you will want to use soap and water to get the Goo Gone oils off as well. I don't think it matters if you put the 3M adhesive first on the glass or the PEI, whichever gives you the most control.

Also, if you do bake the PEI sheet I would do the application of the 3M near the oven to keep things hot and dry during the process. Like I just put down a sheet of foil on the stovetop (we have a flat glass one) and even put the stovetop burner on the warm setting. Then I kept the still hot oven open a crack while I applied the 3M to the glass and then the PEI (or vice versa). It can be tricky applying everything while hot so maybe let the glass and PEI cool down to just below skin melting temps before applying adhesive (also gloves maybe).

# ? Aug 15, 2016 21:21

hayden.: Sep 11, 2007; here's a goat on a pig or something

Thanks, I'll give that a shot. I'm glad it came with 6 adhesive pads, already used 3 since I hosed up cutting it twice.

# ? Aug 15, 2016 23:09

ReelBigLizard: Feb 27, 2003; Fallen Rib

Pro tip - Lighter fluid, like you use for zippos, is the same thing as goo-gone at a fraction of the price.

# ? Aug 15, 2016 23:40

hayden.: Sep 11, 2007; here's a goat on a pig or something

Thanks, I was actually looking for something lying around that would work but didn't see anyone mention that online. I also have a gallon of pure acetone but opinions seemed to say it didn't work as well.

I'm like 10% sure you guys are trying to get me killed. Baking PEI? Covering it in lighter fluid first? Am I going to get poisonous fumes and then burn to death?

hayden. fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Aug 16, 2016

# ? Aug 16, 2016 14:26

bolind: Jun 19, 2005; Pillbug

Well hello there 3D printer thread.

My colleague somehow convinced my boss to shell out for a Robo3D, but so far the performance has left a lot to be desired.

Issue #1
It seems like the servos skip steps. Once in a while, an entire layer will shift roughly 1mm along an axis, and then the rest of the print will just continue from there:

(That side should be completely flat.)

Issue #2
Round holes have a very jagged edge, and when the machine is printing it, it shakes like nobody's business. Is this machine really not capable of making a smooth circular motion in one plane?

(This hole also shows the step skip issue from issue #1)

Issue #3
This is actually the major issue. We haven't been able to complete a print yet. Sooner or later in the process, something causes the hobbed nut to start gnawing on the filament, eventually eating a nice little arc, thus no longer feeding filament, thus ruining the print.

(Also, are the burr-marks on the filament normal.)

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

bolind fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Aug 16, 2016

# ? Aug 16, 2016 15:03

Queen_Combat: Jan 15, 2011

Check your hotend temp, and raise it.

# ? Aug 16, 2016 15:19

bolind: Jun 19, 2005; Pillbug

Geirskogul posted:

Check your hotend temp, and raise it.

Already at 216C...

# ? Aug 16, 2016 15:24

Queen_Combat: Jan 15, 2011

Are you printing PLA or ABS? On ABS I print at 242-247. Yeah it smells a little, but I get better layer adhesion and I don't strip filament anymore.

# ? Aug 16, 2016 15:39

bolind: Jun 19, 2005; Pillbug

PLA. 1.75mm. Black, if that matters.

I'm speculating that the skipped steps and the gnawed filament are related. What if a step is skipped downwards (so the printer is effectively trying to print the same layer twice) - would that give enough resistance to the extrusion to cause the gnawed filament?

# ? Aug 16, 2016 16:28

jubjub64: Feb 17, 2011

hayden. posted:

Thanks, I was actually looking for something lying around that would work but didn't see anyone mention that online. I also have a gallon of pure acetone but opinions seemed to say it didn't work as well.

I'm like 10% sure you guys are trying to get me killed. Baking PEI? Covering it in lighter fluid first? Am I going to get poisonous fumes and then burn to death?

I baked mine at 250-300 degrees for about an hour and a half, guess I should have mentioned that. Don't die.

# ? Aug 16, 2016 16:38

Some Pinko Commie: Jun 9, 2009; CNC! Easy as 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣!

bolind posted:

Well hello there 3D printer thread.

My colleague somehow convinced my boss to shell out for a Robo3D

I found the problem.

EDIT:

Seriously. I've had two Robo3D printers--one I actually purchased and the second that was from winning a Facebook contest for one--and both of them died within two months of getting them.

The warranty/support is a joke (literally waiting four weeks for them to get around to deciding to ship warranty parts, etc.), and you're basically poo poo loving out of luck if you didn't just immediately return the printer to Amazon.com or Bestbuy within a week of testing it and not getting it to print a circle properly.

If you bought it directly from the company that makes it, congratulations on your $700 paper weight. They want you to pay to ship the printer to them for a return plus some 20% "re-stocking fee" even if the printer is dead on loving arrival.

That is leaving aside the fact that their build space is misleading because the heater on the bottom of the bed is only 8" x 8" and randomly placed at assembly (anything that falls outside of the area covered by the heater will not print properly).

Meanwhile, that $350 Monoprice Maker Select I bought that is the favorite newbie printer in this thread and Reddit? It runs figurative circles around the Robo3D printer in every metric that matters.

Tell your boss he got hosed and laugh at your colleague for being a loving moron for recommending that printer for use in a business setting.

If your boss is really wanting a 3d printer that is useful in a business setting he should go up to the $1k+ class that the Ultimakers and Rostock Max deltas live in, or take a look at the actual $6k-$700k honest-to-god made for industrial use 3d printers (Stratasys or PolyJet manufacturers of said printers) instead of the hobbyist printers we talk about here.

Some Pinko Commie fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Aug 16, 2016

# ? Aug 16, 2016 16:45

Rubiks Pubes: Dec 5, 2003; I wanted to be a neo deconstructivist, but Mom wouldn't let me.

My printer ate filament like that at first and it was due to the extruder getting hot from being right above the hotend. Printed a little fan mount and have a fan pointed at the extruder and never had another problem with that.

# ? Aug 16, 2016 17:04

bolind: Jun 19, 2005; Pillbug

Wade Wilson posted:

I found the problem.

EDIT:

Seriously. I've had two Robo3D printers--one I actually purchased and the second that was from winning a Facebook contest for one--and both of them died within two months of getting them.

The warranty/support is a joke (literally waiting four weeks for them to get around to deciding to ship warranty parts, etc.), and you're basically poo poo loving out of luck if you didn't just immediately return the printer to Amazon.com or Bestbuy within a week of testing it and not getting it to print a circle properly.

If you bought it directly from the company that makes it, congratulations on your $700 paper weight. They want you to pay to ship the printer to them for a return plus some 20% "re-stocking fee" even if the printer is dead on loving arrival.

That is leaving aside the fact that their build space is misleading because the heater on the bottom of the bed is only 8" x 8" and randomly placed at assembly (anything that falls outside of the area covered by the heater will not print properly).

Meanwhile, that $350 Monoprice Maker Select I bought that is the favorite newbie printer in this thread and Reddit? It runs figurative circles around the Robo3D printer in every metric that matters.

Tell your boss he got hosed and laugh at your colleague for being a loving moron for recommending that printer for use in a business setting.

If your boss is really wanting a 3d printer that is useful in a business setting he should go up to the $1k+ class that the Ultimakers and Rostock Max deltas live in, or take a look at the actual $6k-$700k honest-to-god made for industrial use 3d printers (Stratasys or PolyJet manufacturers of said printers) instead of the hobbyist printers we talk about here.

We're not making parts that really matter, just a few enclosures for Raspberry Pis and such. It's 100% not business critical.

That being said, aforementioned colleague has two of these at home, and one is hosed too, so I'm not entirely sure why we went for a third one. He keeps claiming the working one works beautifully though. We bought it in the US and had it shipped over to Europe, and I can sorta sense that support and warranty is a joke already now. It was well over a grand US after shipping and duties.

Rubiks Pubes posted:

My printer ate filament like that at first and it was due to the extruder getting hot from being right above the hotend. Printed a little fan mount and have a fan pointed at the extruder and never had another problem with that.

It works fine for a while and then it chokes, so that could be it.

# ? Aug 16, 2016 17:33

Some Pinko Commie: Jun 9, 2009; CNC! Easy as 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣!

bolind posted:

We're not making parts that really matter, just a few enclosures for Raspberry Pis and such. It's 100% not business critical.

It is literally cheaper to order them via Shapeways.com or 3dhubs.com (or even the handful of listings on Amazon.com for injection-molded plastic cases) than it is to go through the trouble of fighting with a bad printer manufacturer, then. In every meaningful metric of "long term", it doesn't make sense to buy a hobby-level 3d printer for something as simple as an enclosure.

# ? Aug 16, 2016 18:38

bolind: Jun 19, 2005; Pillbug

It probably is. Thing is, we're making custom stuff for rack mounting them, and it's also other boards similar to the pis well as fully custom stuff. That being said, I suspect more than a little bit of the reason is simply as a perk to the guy who bought it.

Personally I'm just treating it as a "for fun" side project. Fundamentally I don't care whether the stupid thing works or not.

# ? Aug 16, 2016 19:15

Sagebrush: Feb 26, 2012

bolind posted:

Well hello there 3D printer thread.

My colleague somehow convinced my boss to shell out for a Robo3D, but so far the performance has left a lot to be desired.

Issue #1
It seems like the servos skip steps. Once in a while, an entire layer will shift roughly 1mm along an axis, and then the rest of the print will just continue from there:

(That side should be completely flat.)

Issue #2
Round holes have a very jagged edge, and when the machine is printing it, it shakes like nobody's business. Is this machine really not capable of making a smooth circular motion in one plane?

(This hole also shows the step skip issue from issue #1)

Issue #3
This is actually the major issue. We haven't been able to complete a print yet. Sooner or later in the process, something causes the hobbed nut to start gnawing on the filament, eventually eating a nice little arc, thus no longer feeding filament, thus ruining the print.

(Also, are the burr-marks on the filament normal.)

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

I can't tell you specifically how to fix the problems on your printer, as I have no experience with that model, but

#1 yes your stepper is skipping steps. Usually you fix this by checking for binding in the relevant axis (the carriage should slide smoothly with little resistance, when the motors are off); increasing the voltage to your stepper motors (may not be possible on that machine); and if those don't work, slowing down (the motor may not be able to keep up with the momentum of the carriage and reverse its direction cleanly at high speeds).

#2 this has more to do with the slicer or the file. Make yourself a test piece that's just a simple cylinder and print it out trying a couple of different slicing algorithms. There's no one fix for it. Some slicers have a "maximum frequency" setting that will try to eliminate short moves that cause vibration.

#3 your extruder is jammed somehow. The filament strips like that when the motor tries to push it into the hotend, but it won't go in. This could be: insufficient temperature in the hotend (or extruding too fast for the heater's thermal capacity), a mechanical jam in the nozzle (clear it by heating it up and poking into the nozzle with thin wire), or something more insidious like a molten plug higher up in the hotend that has solidified but now can't be re-melted. If it usually extrudes fine at the beginning but starts stripping later in the print, it's probably just printing too fast for the temperature setting. I personally print PLA at 220 (this will vary by as much as 30 degrees depending on the manufacturer, though), and black PLA slightly higher than that.

Also, make sure that after a piece of filament strips, you go in and clean every single little tooth on the drive. They'll get little crescents of plastic stuck in them, and that will lead to more stripping immediately if you don't clean them out before the next print. A dental pick is a great tool for this.

Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Aug 16, 2016

# ? Aug 16, 2016 21:48

CapnBry: Jul 15, 2002; I got this goin'; Grimey Drawer

Sagebrush posted:

Finally, if I'm really trying to get it flat in order to print at low layer heights (0.1mm or less), I hook a dial indicator to the extruder carriage and use that to make adjustments. However, I find that just the procedure with the paper can get the bed level to +/- 0.003" across its whole length, which is usually completely fine.

Excellent post but I'll add my bit. Hooking a dial indicator to the carriage can be pretty easy. I spent a ton of time designing various bolt-on mounts to hold it steady during testing, but really you just need something that will not move through the course of testing. I just grab a clamp and squeeze it on.

And run a bit of gcode that lifts it up and moves it to 4 points along my bed. I used to just bring it down and drag it back and forth with the steppers off but would actually twist slightly as I moved it. I realized that pronter was made for moving around so I just typed up some gcode

code:

G28 X0 Y0 ; home XY
G1 X20 Y20 F3000
G28 Z0  ; home Z and a different point so the dial is on the bed
G1 Z20 F300 ; lift up

G1 X20 Y20 F3000  ; front left
G1 Z12 F120 ; down 
G4 P2500
G1 Z20 F300 ; lift up

G1 X260 Y20 F3000 ; front right
G1 Z12 F120 ; down 
G4 P2500
G1 Z20 F300 ; lift up

G1 X260 Y225 F3000 ; back right
G1 Z12 F120 ; down 
G4 P2500
G1 Z20 F300 ; lift up

G1 X20 Y225 F3000 ; back left
G1 Z12 F120 ; down 
G4 P2500
G1 Z20 F300 ; lift up

M18 ; motors off

My front left corner is somehow 0.004" lower than the rest of the whole bed (as measured with 9 points via the manual gcode) which is ~0.1mm. Just something I keep in mind when I place objects in the slicer, not that it makes a tremendous difference, but a corner there has a higher chance of curl because it isn't laid down as close as the rest of the bed.

# ? Aug 16, 2016 23:12

FormatAmerica: Jun 3, 2005; Grimey Drawer

I got a Makergear M2 for our lab at work and it's definitely one of the better decisions of my career insofar.

So, so worth the $1.7k for something that just cranks poo poo out with absolute perfection every time.

# ? Aug 16, 2016 23:35

FuriousAngle: May 14, 2006; See your face upon the clean water. How dirty! Come! Wash your face!

I was feeling pretty good about being able to print out a tiny batarang, but then this happened while I was printing one of the test files for the Maker Select v2.

It looks like up to about 75% or so the thing was printing fine. Then all of a sudden it started losing cohesion and then the neck just LOST it. It's troubling if I'm having this hard of a time printing out the already gcoded files.

Does anyone think they could spot offhand what went wrong with this and how I might be able to fix it in the future?

FuriousAngle fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Aug 17, 2016

# ? Aug 17, 2016 03:38

Stupid_Sexy_Flander: Mar 14, 2007; Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?; Grimey Drawer

Always check the top 3.

1: extrusion rate (make sure you configure this for EACH filament)
2: speed (lowest I'd go is maybe 30mm/s, highest would be 45-50mm/s)
3: bed leveling

The other one would be increase the temp on the pla by a few degrees. Are you printing from the sd card they send you? Cause it's a piece of poo poo and you should just copy the files while you can and then lob that fucker in the garbage. Use one of your own.

Best option is to grab one of the 20mm boxes off thingiverse and spend some time and waste some filament making some cubes and open top boxes until they come out correctly sized (extrusion rate), and then tackle the rest of the stuff.

Anyone know offhand what the gap on the print bed to the nozzle should be measurement wise? I found a depth gauge today and I thought I'd see if I can get it working better with it instead of a piece of paper.

# ? Aug 17, 2016 04:01

FuriousAngle: May 14, 2006; See your face upon the clean water. How dirty! Come! Wash your face!

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

Always check the top 3.

1: extrusion rate (make sure you configure this for EACH filament)
2: speed (lowest I'd go is maybe 30mm/s, highest would be 45-50mm/s)
3: bed leveling

The other one would be increase the temp on the pla by a few degrees. Are you printing from the sd card they send you? Cause it's a piece of poo poo and you should just copy the files while you can and then lob that fucker in the garbage. Use one of your own.

Best option is to grab one of the 20mm boxes off thingiverse and spend some time and waste some filament making some cubes and open top boxes until they come out correctly sized (extrusion rate), and then tackle the rest of the stuff.

Anyone know offhand what the gap on the print bed to the nozzle should be measurement wise? I found a depth gauge today and I thought I'd see if I can get it working better with it instead of a piece of paper.

Yeah, I was using one of the files from the SD card they sent me. And yea, it's definitely a piece of poo poo but in theory the files should have the right calibrations to print without much problem, right? I've had less success with STLs I've found online. I managed to print that 1/2" batarang without a problem, but other than that I haven't had any luck with files I've found online. I was hoping the pre-existing files would have had the right settings put in place.

Edit: Oh okay, I mis-read that part about the POS card. Yeah, I'll swap it out for one of mine.

FuriousAngle fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Aug 17, 2016

# ? Aug 17, 2016 04:16

Sagebrush: Feb 26, 2012

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

Anyone know offhand what the gap on the print bed to the nozzle should be measurement wise? I found a depth gauge today and I thought I'd see if I can get it working better with it instead of a piece of paper.

It should be zero millimeters when the machine is zeroed.

# ? Aug 17, 2016 04:59

hayden.: Sep 11, 2007; here's a goat on a pig or something

Sagebrush posted:

It should be zero millimeters when the machine is zeroed.

When you home the nozzle, is that the same as zeroed? How can we fit paper under it if it's zero?

# ? Aug 17, 2016 05:36

Sagebrush: Feb 26, 2012

If the machine position readout (wherever that is -- either find it in your machine control software or send an M114 command to report the current position in the terminal) says 0 in the z axis, then you should measure zero offset from the bed. Usually the home position will be zeroed in all three axes, yes, but not always. Check the readout to be sure. The key is that the machine head is accurately placed wherever it thinks it is; if the home position is 10mm in the air and you measure exactly 10mm from the bed surface, that's fine too. It's just easier to see when the head's touching than to measure a distance.

You can't fit paper underneath if the head is zeroed, true. An old machinist's trick to finding the actual zero is to put the paper underneath the tool, lower it until it just starts to drag on the paper but doesn't bind, and then measure the paper's thickness (use calipers or a micrometer) and subtract that value to get a perfect touch-off. A piece of notebook paper is around 0.003" thick, so click down three thousandths in the machine controller and you'll be spot-on. 0.1mm is reasonably close to that value if your controller is metric.

Note that of course this only makes sense if the whole bed is totally level -- it's more likely that just tramming around you'll be off by more than .003 regardless, so subtracting the paper thickness won't make a huge difference.

Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Aug 17, 2016

# ? Aug 17, 2016 05:48

Sagebrush: Feb 26, 2012

Pro tip: when smoothing ABS parts with acetone vapor, don't do it indoors. If for some reason you have to do it indoors, don't do it on your kitchen stove.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFPAXZwSAf0&t=65s

http://hackaday.com/2016/08/16/fail-of-the-week-how-not-to-smooth-a-3d-print/

# ? Aug 17, 2016 07:47

ReelBigLizard: Feb 27, 2003; Fallen Rib

Man, if only the printer had some sort of built in electric heat plate he could have warmed it on.

The indoors bit isn't really a problem, especially as you only need a tiny splash in the bottom of the chamber. Acetone on open flame though :lol:

# ? Aug 17, 2016 09:26

Rapulum_Dei: Sep 7, 2009

And the kicker is he was trying to smooth PLA.

# ? Aug 17, 2016 09:52

Acid Reflux: Oct 18, 2004

Not printer related, but relevant - I got 1lb of melted paraffin wax to autoignite on my (electric) kitchen stove during my first attempt at DIY machinist's wax. Turns out that a candy thermometer does not work well for that particular application. I was ready for it though, because I anticipated the possibility, and had both the pot lid and a fire extinguisher close at hand. Only needed the lid, thankfully. After that little fiasco I sacrificed my deep fryer for science and made a couple of lovely, not-at-all-burning batches of wax.

In hindsight, the very moment that the possibility of flaming paraffin even entered my head should have been the same moment I decided not to try it, but hey, you can't make an omelette without melting some wax. I think.

# ? Aug 17, 2016 22:01

jubjub64: Feb 17, 2011

Sagebrush posted:

Pro tip: when smoothing ABS parts with acetone vapor, don't do it indoors. If for some reason you have to do it indoors, don't do it on your kitchen stove.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFPAXZwSAf0&t=65s

http://hackaday.com/2016/08/16/fail-of-the-week-how-not-to-smooth-a-3d-print/

From the little I have read on the subject of acetone smoothing I thought that it wasn't necessary to heat the acetone. Just dampen a paper towel with acetone and put that and the printed part in a tupperware container (separate with a foil sheet)?

jubjub64 fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Aug 18, 2016

# ? Aug 18, 2016 01:41

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# ? May 8, 2024 23:21

Snackmar: Feb 23, 2005; I'M PROGRAMMED TO LOVE THIS CHOCOLATY CAKE... MY CIRCUITS LIGHT UP FOR THAT FUDGY ICING.

jubjub64 posted:

From the little I have read on the subject of acetone smoothing I thought that it wasn't necessary to heat the acetone. Just dampen a paper towel with acetone and put that and the printed part in a tupperware container (separate with a foil sheet)?

Yeah, you can definitely smooth ABS that way but some people go further and do acetone vapour smoothing (requiring heat) which gives a very even, smooth, and shiny look to parts

# ? Aug 18, 2016 01:47

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