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Z-offset: 0.2 mm, 0.1 mm or the thickness of paper? | They are all generic guidelines. Don't count on them too much.
Rather, get an approximate Z-offset value, then print a solid 30x30x5 mm cube.
If, starting from the third-fourth layer, you see some over-extrusion, you need to adjust the extrusion multiplier or the E steps calibration and reprint.
Once the solid cube looks good starting from the third-fourth layer up, then you can tune the Z offset by printing a cube which is only 0.2 mm high (or 0.25 mm, or whatever your first layer height is).
If you see over-extrusion, the Z offset is too big. If you see visible gaps between extrusion lines, the Z offset is too small.
If unsure, better get some small remaining gaps rather than overextrusion and excess material.
The idea is that extrusion issues in the first layer can be caused either by the offset or by the multiplier, so you must adjust the multiplier first by looking at the print after about 1 mm height (the first layer issues tend to disappear after some layers). Once you know the extrusion is right, set properly the first layer. |
3 vs 4 bearings for y axis travel | Ideally you would use three bearings opposed to four. In principle you will only need 3 fixtures to get a stable reference frame. Look at how most Prusa i3 "X" carriages are constructed, they also have just three bearings.
Three bearings are way more easy to line out (especially with tight tolerance bearings), with four bearings you will get binding much more easy than with three.
I've been using three linear (self printed tight tolerance acetal/POM) bearings on the moving bed (Y direction) for quite some time on a Prusa i3 type of printer made from 2040 Aluminium profiles.
A similar reasoning applies to fixating the heated bed/glass slate, only three screws are necessary to define the reference plane. This is how my CoreXY heated bed is connected to the "Z" platform (a slate of glass is perfectly flat as a result of the production process). |
Methods for applying full color graphic decals to the surface of a 3d printed part? | Industry has for years used a 'pad printer' to put images on complex shapes, like plastic or ceramic travel mugs, etc.
I have observed these, but never used one. I see no reason why there couldn't be a DIY version made.
Best of luck, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with! |
Shifted Layers on Replicator 2 | Its not possible to say without seeing the physical machine but I would assume its a mechanical problem. Perhaps the belt or a gear is worn out missing some piece so it slips sometimes. Or the gear its a little loose on its axle. When machine is off you can move the extruder by hand and try to feel if it does so smoothly.
I would not think its electrical but first thing to do is to detach all cables and put them back, because its easy to do. Second is the dismount stepper motor and check that its gear is attached firmly. If there is a bad cable then flexing and pulling it slightly might escalate the problem so that its always broken, which can be a good thing since intermittent problems are so hard to find.
If its the stepper motor driver electronics then a new driver board is needed, last thing to try unless you have two machines and can borrow a part.
I emailed makerbot support once about another problem, I did get some advice that way. |
Arduino Mega voltage regulator overheats with RAMPS board | I've solved unsoldering the diode(D1) on RAMPS. This diode provides to power the arduino board with 12V. If you have a chinese arduino this will probably cause some problems.
I hope this will help someone. |
Do I need a heated bed for printing PLA in an enclosed printer? | The answer is "No" you don't need a heated bed for PLA but it does make the base layer a little easier to lay down and also helps with print removal post print.
PLA is a very easy filament to work with and the majority of PLA printers don't come with heated beds and suggest blue tape and/or elmers glue.
You may find that if you are purchasing very cheap/poorly extruded PLA, that things don't stick as well and a heated bed can alleviate some of these issues. |
How is the print time of an object to be printed estimated? | Much of the software used in 3D printing is open-source, and so are some slicers. Cura, for instance, does (or did, this source code is from an older branch) its print time estimation in gcodeInterpreter.py.
The relevant portion of the source code is (simplified and with many lines removed for clarity):
totalMoveTimeMinute = 0.0
pos = util3d.Vector3()
for line in gcodeFile:
G = self.getCodeInt(line, 'G')
if G is not None:
if G == 0 or G == 1: #Move
x = self.getCodeFloat(line, 'X')
y = self.getCodeFloat(line, 'Y')
z = self.getCodeFloat(line, 'Z')
e = self.getCodeFloat(line, 'E')
f = self.getCodeFloat(line, 'F')
oldPos = pos.copy()
pos.x = x
pos.y = y
pos.z = z
feedrate = f
currentE = e
totalMoveTimeMinute += (oldPos - pos).vsize() / feedRate
As you can see, (this version of) Cura simply:
Loops over all the G-code instructions,
Computes the length of each move (in X/Y/Z) and divides that by the feedrate to get the time that move will take,
Sums this up over all the moves.
and does not take into account:
Acceleration or deceleration. It assumes the printer is always operating at the maximum feedrate,
The length of filament extruded. The feedrate is the speed for the move in (X,Y,Z,E), but Cura only looks at (X,Y,Z).
The time it takes to heat up the print bed/hotend or homing/autoleveling,
The effects of the printer slowing down if moves can not be read (from USB/SD-card) sufficiently fast (though this would be rather hard to include in any estimate).
The accuracy of this estimate can be arbitrarily bad if the feedrate is set to some unrealistic value.
Newer versions of Cura use a much more advanced time estimate method, and it can be found in timeEstimate.cpp. It is much more complicated, and actually takes jerk/acceleration/deceleration into account. It is much more accurate.
We know exactly how 3D (open source) 3D printer firmwares work, so estimating print time is as easy as simulating execution of the G-code by your given firmware. There is no reason you can't get a really good estimation (if you take into account all of the intricacies of your given firmware's acceleration/deceleration techniques) but writing the code for it is rather involved. |
Extruder clicking Tronxy x5s | The clicking you are hearing is either the stepper motor skipping steps or the hobbed gear losing grip on the filament.
Either way, it means that the filament opposes an unusually high resistence to be pushed forward.
A key information to be able to diagnose your problem is whether the clicking is on the firsts couple of layers or throughout the print.
If it is only for the first 1-3 layers the problem is likely to be the printing bed too high (or deformed), so that the nozzle touches it and the bed acts a "lid" on the nozzle preventing the molten plastic to get out. If this is the case, adjust the printing bed to be flat and level (and the nozzle at the right height when homed on the Z axis.
If the problem persists throughout the full print the problem is likely to be related to one of the following:
the extruder not managing to get a firm grip on the filament (worn teeth, slack spring, ...)
the stepper motor being underpowered (this seems not to be your case, given that you have already adjusted the voltage)
a clog, adhesion, or restriction in either the bowden tube or the extruder, for which the best solution is disassemble, inspect and clean (eventually changing the bowden tube if it has been deformed). |
Trend in Filament Costs? | I'm not clear as to the intent of your question, but I would like to provide some insight. Typically, the biggest differentiating factor between a mediocre data scientist, and a good one, is based on the hypothesis they put forth. Therefore, understanding where the cost of filament is derived from is much more important than analyzing the market price equilibrium over a period of time (Even if done with consideration to various filament types).
Here are some basic costs:
Raw material (the cost based on region, and grade)
Manufacturing scale (Mixers, extruders, cooling, spooling, packaging, etc.)
Shipping (Often 50% of cost for small quantities)
Supply chain (Number of middle men)
Without going into detail of every preceding point, I was able to break down costs to a theoretical $10/kg for ABS, if starting with virgin pellets, and shipping flat rate USPS within the US.
The point that I am trying to make is, fundamentals over technical analysis in this case. |
Slicing problem - Slic3r prusa | It's a nozzle size issue. The model contains a lot of details which is really challenging to print with a 0.4 mm nozzle.
A big nozzle is just not able to print such fine details. You should switch to 0.25 mm or 0.15 mm. Just try to set a smaller nozzle in your slicer.
There is a nice article on Prusa's blog showing the difference in printing details with 0.4mm and 0.25mm: EVERYTHING ABOUT NOZZLES WITH A DIFFERENT DIAMETER, especially chapters Examples of practical use and Printing miniatures.
See the difference: |
Randomly underextruding/overextruding small part on CR-10 | The first one has major extrusion problems going on, possibly combined with issues caused by things you did to compensate for it or other issues. You should not see "bubbly" surfaces like that. There are a lot of things it could be, but my best guesses are wet filament, clogged nozzle or damage in the ptfe tube (if your printer uses one), and your 90% flow rate. If it was really printed "right after" the successful hemisphere that probably rules out wet filament and indicates a clog of some sort or your changes to settings.
Your retraction amount is probably good if you have a bowden printer but excessive and likely to clog with direct drive. Coasting and extra unretract are always wrong; they were a hack from a long time ago trying to simulate what linear advance feature in firmware does, but with a fixed hardcoded offset. Flow rate as low as 90% is also wrong unless your steps per mm were miscalculated. You can only go up/down by a few % without messing things up badly; there just isn't that much room for error. |
Ender 3 V2 under extrusion problems | This is some kind of filament stuck in the hotend tube problem. Just like "heat creep" as mentioned above. PTFE pipes should be checked, all parts should be carefully cleaned. I also add checking the extruder (gears, tightness) to the list. The plastic extruder can structurally loosen or break over time. I switched to metal extruder a long time ago, but metal also breaks / loosens after a while. Finally I'm using a double gear extruder without any problem. And I replaced the stock pipes with more durable PTFE and "Pneumatic Fittings". Pneumatic fittings are also very important by the way. |
Easy way to create honey comb filling for a generic printer/onshape | If you want to have a specific infill density, you can design the infill yourself as part of the solid model. (Note I use these two methods to design parts for strength, but it's basically the same thing that you're looking at doing)
I have two methods for doing this as follows (I use Solidworks, but the features exist with most CAD software)
Method 1
Step 1
Design the part for the geometry that you'd like as you usually would. (check the volume of the part)
Step 2
Hollow out your part and set your wall thickness to the desired dimension. In solidworks, you can use the shell command for this. (check the new volume of your part)
Step 3
Create a pattern for the print orientation you want and make the thickness of the pattern set to a variable you can easily change. For example if you want a hex pattern, then create a hex pattern that covers the footprint of your part.
Step 4
Extrude your pattern from the bottom surface to the upper surface.
(depending on how complex your part is you may have to iterate between steps 3 and 4 to fill the part completely, but that's half the fun).
Step 5
Close the part off. The Shell feature hollows out a part, and removes most of one flat surface. You just need to go back in and close this surface off again once you're done, generally with a single extrude.(check the volume of your part again)
Step 6
Now you can compare the volumes of your part, this may require you to change the thickness of the hex pattern, and may require several iterations to get an exact density that you want.
This process wont necessarily work for every part you come up with but it's a good start for fairly blocky parts. It's also relatively quick and easy to do.
The second way is as follows
Method 2
Step 1:
Create your part as usual and save as a unique file (lets call it "Solid file")
Step 2:
Create hollow the part out and save as a unique file (lets call it "shell file")
Step 3:
Create a new part that is your hex pattern, but instead of modelling the walls that will be in your final part, create the hex voids as a solid. Save this as a separate unique file ( lets call it "Void profile")
Step 4:
Create a new part and import both the "Void Profile" and the "Solid File".
Step 5
Subtract the "Void Profile" from the "Solid File"
Step 6
Import the "Shell file" and merge it with the result of step 5
This process I like a bit more, but it takes longer, creates more files and is a bit messier I think. However it gives you a lot more control over how your voids will work and you can delete sections of the voids if you want different parts to be more solid that others.
If you're using solidworks shell model and you have very tight features sometimes it gives you errors, and you may need to suppress small features and then add them back in after all of this. Just a heads up, it can be a bit of a flaky feature to use sometimes.
Now that you have your 'designed' internal structure don't forget to print at 100% infill, otherwise a slicer program may hollow out your designed infill pattern. |
Strange outer skin print quality on Ender 3 | My best guess is you have an under extrusion issue, possibly related to retraction: the issue is exacerbated on parts where the printer has to hop over a gap.
I would try running, in the order:
print a flow rate test, to ensure the amount of filament exiting the nozzle matches with your configuration
print a retraction test, to ensure you are not suffering from some bowden tube issues like bad coupling
check for any clog in the hot end, those can require a bigger pressure to build up before the filament start flowing again
print a temperature tower, to find out if 190° is the right temperature (seems a bit low to me)
With regards to point 2, the Ender 3 is somewhat renown for having poor quality couplers: watch the bowden tube couplers when printing and try to verify the tube is not moving back and forth when hopping over empty spaces... |
Printing dental temporary crowns | You ask about "filament", so I assume you expect fused-filament technologies. These are however not accurate enough, besides being prone to gaps and crevices which are problematic in crowns. The smallest viable nozzle, 0.2 mm, is still too rough for that.
Dental 3D printers need to be very accurate, so the most common technologies used are stereolithography (SLA) and digital light processing (DLP).
Crowns can be made using resin printing. It is possible to use also CNC machining of porcelain, but it's not part of 3D printing.
More info can be found on https://all3dp.com/2/dental-3d-printing-guide/ |
Pronterface won't connect to my Anycubic Kossel Linear Plus | I know this is coming very late, but I'll post anyway in hopes that it may help somebody else experiencing the same frustration.
I received all of the same suggestions again and again on the forums -- about baud rate, COM ports, and a lot else which failed to get Pronterface to connect.
At last I posted to the Anycubic User Group on FB, and quickly received what was in my case the solution -- and so ridiculously simple.
I was told to hit RESET two or three times on Pronterface after hitting CONNECT. Yup, that did it!
Good luck!! :D |
What is the benefit of the Arduino shield based electronics? | Many 3d printer motherboards are based on Arduino/Atmega microcontroller and just add some stepper motor drivers, MOSFETs and such in a single board. That explains why you use the Arduino IDE to update or modify their firmware.
Now why you would want to use an Arduino + an Arduino shield board like RAMPS? Well if you're not good at electronics, are happy with the cost of your own board, don't care much about upgrades/modding beyond what is possible with your board, maybe you shouldn't, it might be overwhelming.
There are several advantages with using Arduino with a shield for your 3d printer, "two boards are not just the predecessors of the one board solution", no.
1) It is moddable/exandable/upgradable/has replacable parts.
If your printer came with its own motherboard that doesn't have additional or enough pins to add more fans, enclosure lights, a second extruder, an LCD and you want to, it sucks. RAMPS can do that, it has plenty of extra pins.
It is upgradable. You want to replace the stepper drivers with a new one? Or you accidentally damaged the one you have? Fear not, you can just replace that instead of the whole motherboard.
Think if it like other motherboards being PCs on which you can't change the CPU, RAM and GPU.
2) It is here for a long time, you will be able to acquire one for a long time.
There isn't just one company making RAMPS or similar sheilds. Sometimes 3d printing companies go out of business or stop producing your particular motherboard. RAMPS is likely here to stay. Because Arduino is very likely here to stay.
3) As said above, not just one company owns or makes RAMPS or other Arduino shields. Besides the possibility of your motherboard not being produced anymore, there's also the advantage of not being at the mercy of one companies pricing and shipping policies. This is true for some other boards as well though.
4) It is possibly cheaper than what have you. I don't want to post a link, but one company right now is selling their derivative of Printrboard for like $180. Check the cost of Arduino Mega, stepper drivers and a RAMPS board yourself, quite a difference. That said, there are some boards which are close in price.
5) It's an Arduino. Why is this a good thing by itself? Because many people who have a 3d printer are tinkerers/makers and they already use Arduino for other projects. It is open source with a rich library to control many things. The modding and upgrades for your 3d printer which can be done with Arduino is another level higher. Or it can be a good learning experience for your future Arduino projects. If on the other hand you already use Arduino and are experienced with it, you might use it just because you know how to control it/fix it better than some specialized board you haven't seen before. Plus for a guy like you your 3d printer's motherboard will be an "off-the-shelf" part, that's nice, right?
Video on RAMPS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYJn6FuWOv4 |
Premium heated bed upgrade options? | If you are only trying to upgrade the "flatness" of the bed and are okay with the heating times you can just put a peice of glass on top. Otherwise you can look into getting a milled tool plate which will be much flatter than a rolled or stamped plate, but you will have to attach your own heating element to this. |
How Do I Speed up The BLTouch Auto Bed Leveling In TH3D's Unified Firmware? | There are multiple ways to achieve this:
In G-code
You don't necessarily need to do that in firmware, TH3D is based on Marlin firmware and is just a monolithic implementation for most popular printers and boards that helps novice users to easily configure their printer, but in the meantime it hides other options from plain sight.
Being a derivative fro Marlin firmware, the bed leveling speed in between probes can also be easily set in G-code. G-code G29 has a speed parameter:
S : Set the XY travel speed between probe points (in units/min)
From below (TH3D firmware) can be seen that a value of 12000 mm/min will speed up and is generally safe to use.
In Marlin firmware
In Marlin firmware, the speed setting in between probes is found in Configuration.h:
// X and Y axis travel speed (mm/min) between probes
#define XY_PROBE_SPEED 8000
In TH3D firmware
In TH3D firmware this speed is buried in the Configuration_backend.h:
#if ENABLED(PROBING_MOTORS_OFF)
#define XY_PROBE_SPEED 8000
#else
#if ENABLED(SLOWER_PROBE_MOVES) || ENABLED(TH3D_EZ300) || ENABLED(TIM_AM8)
#define XY_PROBE_SPEED 8000
#else
#if ENABLED(EZABL_SUPERFASTPROBE)
#define XY_PROBE_SPEED 16000
#else
#define XY_PROBE_SPEED 12000
#endif
#endif
#endif
The speed is depending on setting of the PROBING_MOTORS_OFF in Configuration.h:
// This will disable the XYE motors during probing. Can be useful if you have stepper motors causing interference issues with the EZABL sensor.
#define PROBING_MOTORS_OFF
or depending on the speed settings for specific setting/sensors (ENABLED(SLOWER_PROBE_MOVES) || ENABLED(TH3D_EZ300) || ENABLED(TIM_AM8):
// If you have issues with your machine running the faster probe setting disable the #define EZABL_FASTPROBE below.
// DO NOTE: Most machines will work with the fast probe enabled. Use M48 to verify accuracy.
#define EZABL_FASTPROBE
// Superfast probing - Only works with the EZABL Pro Sensors
// DO NOTE: Not all machines will work with the fast probe enabled. Use M48 to verify accuracy and make sure the Z isn't binding with the high speeds.
//#define EZABL_SUPERFASTPROBE
Basically, if you have not defined one of the following: PROBING_MOTORS_OFF, SLOWER_PROBE_MOVES, TH3D_EZ300 or TIM_AM8, the XY_PROBE_SPEED will default to a value of 4000 (depending of the definition of HOMING_FEEDRATE_XY) since the constant is not defined, see Conditionals_post.h):
#ifndef XY_PROBE_SPEED
#ifdef HOMING_FEEDRATE_XY
#define XY_PROBE_SPEED HOMING_FEEDRATE_XY
#else
#define XY_PROBE_SPEED 4000
#endif
#endif
In Marlin you would simply change the value of the travel between probing speed whilst in TH3D you need to sort out if one of all those conditions are met. For advanced users with a slightly different printer setup, the TH3D software might be less optimal. Do note that forks of the Marlin firmware that are heavily modified always (like TH3D) lack behind the original sources; you are dependent on the implementation schedule of the fork maintainer. But, for people that have not modified their printer, have a limited knowledge of software (C/C++ development) and firmware flashing, or their modification falls in the supported options of TH3D, the monolithic TH3D might be very helpful!
Most probably, your setting is overruled later. |
Print is not properly laminated at certain height | This looks like a heating or retraction issue. I also have a Di3, and I encountered a similar problem a while ago. I have found that leveling the bed very well and making sure the z-axis is aligned fixes most problems with this machine. Re-calibrate your printer and try out a different slicer. This link from the 3D Printer Wiki is very useful. |
Setup for a firefighting solution inside a heated chamber that doesn't destroy the printer? | Firefighting Agent
One Halon alternative is the rather simple and cheap gas CO2. It is neither toxic nor hard to get: "60 liter" water-carbonation bottles are readily available over the counter to create soda water and contain some 200-300 liters CO2
Alternatives are Argon and Nitrogen, but those don't come in these small canisters and dissipate more quickly, but they also need the chamber to be gas-sealed.
Because non-flammable gases act by smothering the flames, it is vital that rooms in which such a gas firefighting system is installed are not rooms in which people are usually, and in case of a workshop, it might be required to disarm the automatic trigger while the door is opened!
Deployment System
Such a soda water machine also would deliver the most crucial parts of a deployment system: the valve. To activate it, a solenoid can be used - once current flows through the solenoid, the valve is pushed open and the CO2 will shoot out into tubing or piping leading into the build chamber.
The gas canister should under no circumstances be inside the build chamber's heated compartment but somewhat close.
Release System
Now we need a way to trigger the solenoid. I propose to use at least some redundancy in construction.
Manual Mechanical Override. This can be as simple as a lever that bypasses the solenoid and activates the valve manually. Also useful for functionality tests.
Manual Electric Override. Using a 9V block battery and some sort of latching switch/button. The solenoid is directly powered from the "reserve" battery now.
Automatic via a microcontroller. Using a small programmable chip, one could use a spare thermosensor inside the chamber to detect temperatures of dangerous levels. As a direct response, it triggers the solenoid to release the gas into the chamber and continue to do so for at least long enough to fully flush the chamber, even as the temperature drops with the injected firefighting agent. It might be best to also trigger an alarm, for example, a repurposed doorbell. If one goes for such a solution, an output of the current chamber temperature could also be integrated, though I strongly discourage from integrating the fire suppression as a part of the printer board!
Automatic via a thermal switch. More simple in design, a Normally Open Thermostat Switch could be used instead of a whole microcontroller. Such a switch could use the same power source as a manual electric override switch, and indeed, be mounted parallel to the same switch. The downside of a hard-wired thermostat switch is, that it sets a hardwired maximum chamber temperature. It'd be best to choose a switch with a reset-temperature that is as far from the trigger temperature as possible to ensure that the chamber contains as little O2 as possible. The availability of switch types here dictates the voltage of the system.
What about the chamber heat control?
Once the firefighting system engages, the chamber should no longer get access to fresh air. This could possibly be made by having a different solenoid push a shutter in front of the air intakes and/or by de-powering any chamber cooling fans.
Door Safety
A magnetic switch in the door should cut power to the solenoid, ensuring that only the mechanical manual override can fire the system. |
Help With PLA settings | It looks like your nozzle is a little too close to the bed, if there is not enough space, you can see through the layer and pressure can build up and ooze out when there is a little more room in a different location (if the bed isn't completely flat/straight).
You could level with a thicker piece of paper or add a Z-offset to the whole print ( e.g. in your slicer, or change the G-code by redefining the Z height).
You could also increase the first layer a little when slicing. |
Is there a G-code to get power supply state? | I don't see one at http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code so it's probably safest to set the power supply to the state you want. |
Prusa i3 MK2 doesn't accept the printing material | My 0.02c:
Cut the tip of the new filament at an angle so that it is pointed enough. This will ensure that it easily enters the hole leading into the hot end beneath the extruder drive gear. A lot of times the curl in the filament (from being wound on a spool) will cause misalignment and lead to it not entering this hole properly.
Check filament debris lodged in the extruder gear teeth. Sometimes this will prevent good grip on the filament.
Finally you can try increasing the nozzle temperature. Often times any residue inside the nozzle will be cleared by elevating temperature and pushing in new filament. |
Surface artifacts when formation of object changes (Layer inconsistency) | I have found the issue. My extruder gear was deformed after 4 months of continuous use which made the extruder have a difficult time when a rapid change in extrusion happened. I swapped it out to a new stainless steel one and it has been working well so far.
EDIT:
These inconsistencies are mainly caused by the pressure in the nozzle not changing fast enough. So to solve this you should look at the extruder setup as that is where the pressure is being controlled. Get any gunk out of there and make sure the path is clear and make sure nothing is grinding and you have a good grip on the filament.
To reduce the change in pressure you should play with printing speed, hotend temperature, linear advance if applicable and you may tune extruder jerk and acceleration although not necessary. |
Support material first layer adhesion issues | Quick, low-tech solution:
There might be several issues in your question, but in relation to bed adhesion, I'll share one of the most useful tips I wish someone had told me when I started out: Spread some glue-stick over the area to be printed.
I used ordinary school/craft glue stick (which I stole from my daughter's school pencil case) - the kind for gluing paper. I use a purple one, so it's easy to see and easy to clean up. I apply a little glue then smear it around with a wet finger to make it a bit uniform.
I have a heated bed (FlashForge Creator Pro) and have used this little trick with a range of filaments. In almost every case, it helps adhesion enormously. Parts and supports stick like mad! But they still come off easily enough the usual way. It is a weak glue, so it won't lock the part to the bed. Once the part is off, the purple glue is visible when wet, so it is dead easy to clean up the part and the bed in a minute or two.
This trick is so easy that it is worth trying first for any adhesion issues, before digging deeper. |
Printing and slicing big pieces with Elegoo Mars (Pro) | With so many questions, I'll provide a suggestion for your first one, the alignment option. There's a 12 minute YouTube video showing how to use Meshmixer (free, multi-platform) to create alignment pins and holes while segmenting a model for printing large items.
The process involves making the cut, keeping both sections. A pin is created and sized, then placed in one of the faces, while the other segment visibility is turned off. The pin is then triplicated, with one pin moved away for printing.
One of the two remaining pins (overlapped) is selected and is used for a Boolean subtract operation, creating a hole that is matching in size and location.
The first segment visibility is turned off, the second segment is turned on and the pin is selected again. The sequence is duplicated, creating a second, matching hole.
I didn't watch the entire video, but if it is not suggested, one should reduce the third pin size, at least the diameter, sufficiently to allow it to fit the holes created by the above process.
Note that the video has some inconsistencies from my experience. Some terms are changed from the video to the program, but should not cause problems. |
Using an Arduino Mega with burnt voltage regulator | Take a look at Ryan's answer to my question. I believe the MightBoard is based on the Mega 2560, so it is possible that some of the other components could have been damaged. If you look at the comments below Ryan's answer, we discussed the possibility of the processor itself being damaged. I had attempted this fix on two different MightBoards and they both ended up turning on, but the firmware wouldn't boot. So, it's safe to say that in my case, the processor on the Arduino was shot.
All and all, I'd recommend not using MakerBot's endstops as they seem to be the main culprit for this issue and has been for years (it happened to me twice since I got my machine in 2012). |
Belt driven axis question | Axis should definitely be at proper position. Otherwise you will get at least 2 issues.
Carriage will be pulled up which will cause stresses on rollers or slides and it will stress your belt
The way the carriage will go will change but because carriage itself is fixed then it will change the speed
3D printing is a precise process. Both issues will have impact on printouts and all your printouts will have broken dimension in the axis in which carriage moves.
Have a look on the picture (it is big to show details)
fig A shows a situation where carriage is far from the axis
In such situation the distance between vertical line of black cross and pink circle is almost unnoticable so both - the force and the distance (so speed) change are very small.
fig B shows a situation where carriage is relatively close to the axis
Then both - the force and the distance change is noticable |
Ender 3 Pro extruder drive rocking back and forth | Sounds like one end or the other in your stepper cable is not seated correctly or has shaken loose there are 4 wires if even one doesn't make proper contact you will get a shaking back and forth almost like a hard vibration. I always take a cable from one of the other steppers plug into this one move the motor with good stepper wire 10-20 mm see what motor does if it is okay then you know it is a cable issue if not, it could be a bad board or stepper. |
QIDI x-one2 : Fan screws not holding filament feeder stepper motor in place | I just had this same problem and my solution was to push the motor as close as I could up to where the screw goes, because they weren’t lined up. I hope that helped. |
Correct amount of force on piece of paper when leveling bed | Actual task in your case is to find correct nozzle height for the first layer, so the force for pulling out the paper is not important. It just has to be the same every time you make calibration. Because of the different force you apply, different paper thickness and other factors, found position can only be treated as 'relative'.
To complete the calibration you will have to make several test prints with different initial heights, starting from the lowest, adding 0.1-0.2mm (depending on the nozzle diameter) before you find the right value.
Please note that 1) initial layer height is not the only factor, affecting adhesion 2) some slicer programs may add not the same amount of height that you specify |
Problem printing circles/holes on Anycubic I3 mega | From your images can be seen that:
Your nozzle is too far from the bed (the lines are not touching), so you either need to level with a less thick paper or allow for more friction between the paper and the nozzle. There is also a plugin for Cura to set a Z-offset.
You need to enable Combing mode = Not in Skin and possibly fine tune your retraction settings.
You could benefit from some more adhesion using an adhesion spray. |
Why Cura flattens first layer of round objects? | All models must be sliced horizontally into layers in order to be printed, and each layer is flat. That is simply the bottom layer. Since you are printing a cylinder, you could always rotate it by 90 degrees, and stand it on its end (before you slice it, naturally). You should always consider the best orientation for printing any model.
Also, if you print a cylinder on its side, the slicer will need to generate a lot of support structures to support the lower curved surfaces. By printing a cylinder on its end, no support should be required. |
Why are delta bots so finicky? | user77232's points are valid but I have done several things to mitigate these issues on my Anycubic Deltas.
First, both of my deltas have linear slide bearings. If your's has the bearing trucks that run in the extrusion slots this will lead to less precise operation and also is a source of wear over time.
Second, be sure that the end stop micro switches are positioned precisely and that their fasteners are tight. You may also want to use a mild strength Loctite on their fasteners. When operated at high extrusion rates all components are subject to significant vibration.
Third, I found that the universal joints are also a significant source of play. I remedied this to some degree by placing rubber bands across the arms at both ends so that the play was minimized. The rubber bands should be wrapped fairly tightly to perform this function.
Forth, I try to tune the belt tension so that all of the belts have the same note when plucked. There are smart phone apps that will help do this. I believe that one that I use is from Gates, a premium manufacturer of drive belts. Also, over time belts stretch so you will need to retension them periodically.
Fifth, run through the firmware calibration process regularly for both positional accuracy and for filament extrusion and retraction variables.
I don't use my deltas much any more since purchasing a popular XYZ type printer but it cost me three times what they did and it still has issues from time to time. |
Replacing RAMPS 1.4 for 1.6 | RAMPS 1.6 is very similar to RAMPS 1.4. Most, if not all, of the changes are hardware improvements, without making the core functionality different. Looking at the incremental changes between versions:
To quote from RepRapWiki: RAMPS 1.5
The RAMPS 1.5 is a variation of the popular RAMPS boards that, like
all other RAMPS boards, is plugged into an Arduino Mega for operation.
The layout of the RAMPS 1.5 is virtually identical to that of the
RAMPS 1.4. The only real difference between the two are the MOSFETs
and the fuses.
To quote from RepRapWiki: RAMPS 1.6
The RAMPS 1.6 is the second RAMPS iteration released by
BIQU/BIGTREETECH. It replaces the original green power connector with
a pair of screw terminals, adds a larger heatsink over the MOSFETS,
and has a larger bed MOSFET. It maintains the surface-mounted fuses
and flush MOSFETS of the RAMPS 1.5.
Also, the positions of the D1 and D2 diodes have been swapped from the
positions in RAMPS 1.4, the D1 diode is now the diode closest to fuse
F2. The same is true for RAMPS 1.5, also manufactured by
BIQU/BIGTREETECH.
So, in short, yes, the RAMPS 1.6 should be a direct plug in replacement for the RAMPS 1.4.
That said, you may be able to salvage your RAMPS 1.4, if you can locate the part that has given up the "magic smoke". It could just be a blown capacitor, or diode. There have been a number of questions relating to that, so it might be worth searching for answers here, on SE.3DP1.
It is probably also worth reading RAMPS 1.4, 1.5 or 1.6?
Additional links
An interesting video, where a variety of RAMPS 1.4 boards are compared, is the first of a series, RAMPS series 1 of 5 - Intro and board comparisons - although beware the loud music...
There is also a RAMPS 1.6 Plus, and a RAMPS 1.4.2 which might be worth considering. I wrote up about these, briefly, (disclosure) in my personal blog, a couple of years ago: 3D Printer control boards.
Footnote
1 Such as How drastic is reversing the polarity of the power supply to a RAMPS board?, which might be relevant in your case. |
CoreXY Calibration Issue | Oscar's answer is the correct solution to this issue. My printer was printing skewed and there is a built in correction for this in Marlin. Unfortunately the X5S does not have a boot loader and I don't have an ISP programmer (yet), so I am unable to re-flash my board at the moment.
In the mean time I created a software fix for this issue. I used a script to add a Affine Shear Transformation to the stl file. This adds a reverse skew to the model so the print comes out (closer to) square. Basically read all the points from the triangle mesh (STL file), apply XY shear transformation preserving Z, re-save the STL. |
How to prevent model from peeling off of resin printer buildplate during print? | looks like you have done a lot of work to try to get it working.
considering you are having issues on one side of the build plate my thought is that it is a levelling issue or an issue with the plate itself. Try levelling it using the video "Getting Started: Leveling the Build Plate" it's for a different printer but pay attention to the part where he goes over making sure the left and right sides are level and how to check that. I had a problem like yours, and the issue was that as I tightened the screw to keep the build plate in the levelled position I ended up causing it to move. I made the same mistake a few times before realizing that I was messing it up the same way every time because I'm right-handed. after realizing that it was easier to fix.
If the issue is the build plate it's self it may be a matter of it not being flat (unlikely), Or not providing a good bonding surface. if the latter I suggest you do some research and decide for yourself as there are a lot of dividing views on how to fix that issue.
It also looks like you are having issues with the print after the bottom layers. It could be caused but the separation issue but it could be that you just need to increase your exposure time for your non-bottom layers |
Filament consistently jamming / clogging in Bowden tube on MP mini 3 | If you have it for years, have you ever replaced the Bowden tubes and hotend liner? This printer might be in need of some dire maintenance.
Also check if the Bowden tube is securely fixed, if infill starts, it might be retraction that is giving problems by lifting the tube alongside the rectracted filament. |
missing small sections of layers after a retraction | Try lowering your retraction settings further. I have had this issue before as well, but you need to experiment with your retraction settings in order to get it right. I would suggest placing 2 one cm blocks side by side and starting with a retraction of 2 mm and working your way up from there until you get the lowest stringiness with the least amount of under extrusion. |
What precautions to take when flashing Marlin 2.0? | It wasn't advised to use the version 2.x because it was in development for 32-bit micro processors. Now that it has been released as the official version, you can use it for 8-bit micro processors.
But, it totally depends on the amount of options in Marlin you activate (bed leveling, advanced menu, M5xx, etc.). Luckily you can see how large the installation is after you have built it e.g. in PlatformIO. Also, in the configuration files frequently is mentioned how much extra storage activating an option costs (search for PROGMEM in the Marlin sources). Unless you want all options active, you'll be fine. I'm running it on an AVR (MEGA2560) for a CoreXY with bed leveling and some more options; it runs fine. |
My 3D model is printing with missing parts when sliced in Ultimaker Cura | There's a setting in Cura to Print Thin Walls. It's turned off by default, and IIRC correctly there's a good reason it's off by default. But for this item, you should turn it on.
Update
Looking again, I see this is vertical, so I'm not sure how well this setting will help. Even if it does create the gcode to include the walls, this would be a tough print. If possible, you may want to rotate this 90° for printing, though I also see the gap on the right that would become a long bridge. |
Is it ok for stepper motors to be hot? | The maximum operating temperature can be found in the specifications of your steppers. Usually the ambient temperature operating conditions are limited to 50 °C with a maximum operating temperature in the range of 70 - 100 °C. For instance, the steppers I use are limited to a temperature of 80 °C. It is however advised to keep this temperature lower, e.g. to max. 60 °C to prolong the life. Do note that very high temperatures could be a problem for "self-printed" stepper mounts of the wrong material (materials with a low glass transition temperature).
To answer your question: "Yes, steppers may get hot, but if you want them to get too hot is up to the mounting system and how long you want to use them." |
OpenSCAD weirdness with imported STL | I see you've accepted cmm's answer, but I'd still like to take a stab at the mechanism of the failure based on your comment on it:
Excellent explanation, thanks. The "WTH" cylinder is centered on the queen piece, and that has a sphere with lots of faces on top. So it looks like the "kink" is inside the queen where the sphere and the base cube overlap, and by accident, my trial-and-error removing of cylinders also removed just the right spot.
My guess is that if you look at the triangle set of the STL file, you'll find the interior of the queen contains the parts of the cube that are inside the sphere and the parts of the sphere that are inside the cube; they may not even be clipped to meet each other properly where they cross each other's surfaces. Sadly there are lots of tools producing invalid STL files like this. The longer cylinder is probaly sufficient to overlap with where the cube and sphere cross, forcing OpenSCAD to break down the model in that region and recompute the mesh where the components overlap. Without that recomputation, the differences likely end up interacting with just the "sphere part" of the STL mesh.
This explanation also seems to be consistent with the description of the thing on thingiverse:
I much preferred the style of Bauhaus set that TeamTeaUSA's designed, but there was a lot of fiddling with the queen and the knight wouldn't print without supports. So I nestled the queen's sphere further into the body so it would print standing up, added supports for the knight and plated the whole thing.
where it looks like the creator took someone else's STL files and moved parts around to create an overlap, likely without proper tooling that could regenerate a valid mesh. |
Has anyone encountered this type of strange print patterns? | It is always very difficult to debug a printer remotely, but here's my best shot. I may be totally wrong though!
Zooming-in your picture seems to show like little bumps (inwards or outwards) that offset the extrusion in the XY plane.
The fact the bumps occur on both the X and Y axis, and both inwards and outwards, and that the patterns are not fully regular make me think the problem could be as simple as the new printing head having some play, and some combination of forces waking bumping it momentarily off its intended position.
Any ideas or suggestions as to what to check next?
Check for play.
Play which is due to a static feature (like a loose bolt, a clamp not holding firmly enugh or a cracked heat break) can be usually be detected with the printer switched off, by holding the nozzle between your fingers and shacking it gently.
Play that is dynamic in nature (for example a roller with an irregular diameter or screwed parts becoming loose only when hot) can be more tricky to detect. The procedure is the same, but tou may have to heat the extruder (and use gloves, doh!) or to repeat it at different positions on the X and Y axis. |
Can 3D printers, such as a TronXY X1, handle 24/7 projects? | I have the same Printer - a TronXY X1, and I feel confident that with a little upgrade here and there, it can handle long prints without problems.
The most needed upgrade is a quality power brick. Mine died after some month. For replacement I have chosen a 12 V/10 A output one of a reputable supplier with warranty and it runs without any warming since.
Then, I did upgrade the hotend itself. The built in hotend can become leaky under long prints. I did fix this by exchanging it for a genuine e3d-v6 lite. Yes, only a lite, because this machine can only print PLA anyways for a lack of a heated bed - and there is little size one can add to the machine's print surface due to design limitations (one can only extend Y and Z to some degree without generating problems).
Tighteners for the X on the Z-axis and the bed are a very good idea to make the printer a little more reliable, resulting in less misprints or lost prints at upper heights due to wobble or layer shift.
Generally, I have printed some quite long prints (several 16 hours, one 28 hours), and with a reliable hotend and good filament feed (in once case the spool got jammed by a pen falling into it), the TronXY X1 did do its work quite good. Mind, that I tend to always print at 0.1 mm layer hight.
I do not know how 4 days of continuous load would work out, but my X1 has some summed up 2 weeks of prints under its belt by now, so... I think it can do this, but I would give it a general check (for example inspect if the bed is still settled tight) between prints. |
While filament loading extruded filament wiggles | If the filament displayed in the photo is the result of unimpeded extrusion from your nozzle, you don't have or have not described a problem. Filament extruded from a hot nozzle will react to many things. If a slight air temperature change is created on one side of the extruding filament, it will cool faster than the other side and curve in the direction of the cooler temperatures.
If there is a bit of old filament on the tip of the nozzle, it can cause the filament to hook back on itself, creating an interesting squiggle of filament before the weight is sufficient to cause it to drop.
A typical 3d printer problem is related to the results of a print or an obvious mechanical failure. Wiggly extruded filament is not a symptom of a looming failure, unless you have other indicators. |
How to fill these squares easily | If you are asking for print then it is yes with FDM (fused deposition modeling) with multiple extrusion you can fill with different material easily. But if you are trying to change the material in your digital design then you need to work on every hole in the array, especially with FreeCAD. If you find any, please update here. |
Can you fix a warped, removeable build surface backing? | Yes. I rigged up the following setup with blue tape and clips and a pen for tensioning, used the nozzle (unheated) to hold the center down against the bed, and set the bed to 100 °C for about an hour. Afterwards the curvature was in the opposite direction and easily compensated by clips. |
Why does hairspray work as an adhesive for ABS? | First of all, not all hairsprays work. The chemicals in hairspray that causes the bonding is "VA/Crotonates Copolymer", it is also called "vinyl acetate/crotonic acid copolymer". Most commonly known as PVA, which is also a filament used as water soluble support material. This is a synthetic polymer created from monomers.
When heated to a certain temperature this ingredient becomes sticky, this makes the filament stick to the plate. It is the double bonded Oxygen molecule that makes this happen. This is not only present in chemicals you put onto the bed, but also the chemistry of certain bed materials. Quoting our own Ryan Carlyle from this thread, A replacement for Aquanet Hair Spray?? Wolfbite by Airwolf:
Most of the popular build surfaces have very similar underlying chemistry. That's because they all rely on diffusion welding for adhesion. The molecular chains at the interface slightly dissolve into each other.
Gluestick active ingredient - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinylpyrrolidone
Aquanet and liquid PVA glue active ingredient - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinyl_acetate
If you're familiar with organic chemistry, what you see here is an identical polyvinyl backbone chain, and functional groups that both have a ketone/ester double-bonded oxygen adjacent to a space-filling component. (The space-filling component probably decreases adhesion so the print can be released.) And guess what? Permanent build plate surfaces rely on the same underlying chemistry:
Lexan also has exposed double-bonded oxygen on a polymer backbone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarbonate
Kapton also has exposed double-bonded oxygen on a polymer backbone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapton
Acrylic also has exposed double-bonded oxygen on a polymer backbone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly(methyl_methacrylate)
PET also has exposed double-bonded oxygen on a polymer backbone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene_terephthalate
Now, if you look at some common solvents for filaments, what do you often see? Double-bonded oxygen on small molecules. Here's ethyl acetate (dissolves PLA) and acetone (dissolves ABS):
These molecules are still diffusing into the filament polymer, but they're so small and mobile that they are able to completely liquefy and dissolve the plastic.
Isn't chemistry great? |
Efficient way to create a "mold" of a solid object in Meshmixer? | Surely! First of all, a mold is, simply put, the negative of the item. So we need to make such a negative and give it some thickness. I have this funnel model...
We start Meshmixer, import our funnel and then go into Meshmix and pull a cylinder into the frame. We size and align it to hide the funnel but for a tiny part at the top (or however much you need to have covered in the mold)
We click the cylinder, press SHIFT and the funnel top. In the top corner a menu pops up:
We choose "Boolean Difference", the menu changes to show this:
Next we alter the Target Edge Scale till we see the top corner (0.6 seems to work) then accept. The result is this mold:
But that's a REALLY snug fit at this moment. 0.0 mm space. We can use that to cast our funnel... but we might want to make this a box for our funnel or we know that our casting material shrinks some 4 to 5 % when curing. So we need some space in the mold or box. So we need to shift the faces some. What happens to holes if we scale the whole thing up by... say 5 %? They become 5 % larger of course! So let's just do that!
Edit
Transform
hook Uniform Scaling
pull X, Y and Z out by 1 mm (which happens to be 4 % in case of a 25 mm item.)
Use those square boxes marked with green dots to pull
Accept and... DONE! Last to do: export as STL and here you go! a Mold that is 4% larger and could be a cap for the funnel. |
How can I see what errors Slic3r have repaird? | Slic3r uses ADMesh internally to validate and fix mesh. You could try to use ADMesh directly to see a limited information about what was changed. Note that Slic3r bundles it's own copy of ADMesh and depending on your Slic3r version and edition, the behavior of it's ADMesh might slightly differ from the standalone one. (For example Slic3r Prusa Editon patches it's own ADMesh very heavily.)
Using ADMesh CLI:
$ admesh cube_bad.stl
ADMesh version 0.98.2, Copyright (C) 1995, 1996 Anthony D. Martin
ADMesh comes with NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are welcome to
redistribute it under certain conditions. See the file COPYING for details.
Opening cube_bad.stl
Checking exact...
Checking nearby. Tolerance= 1.000000 Iteration=1 of 2... Fixed 0 edges.
Checking nearby. Tolerance= 1.000173 Iteration=2 of 2... Fixed 0 edges.
Removing unconnected facets...
Filling holes...
Checking normal directions...
Checking normal values...
Calculating volume...
Verifying neighbors...
================= Results produced by ADMesh version 0.98.2 ================
Input file : cube_bad.stl
File type : ASCII STL file
Header : solid cube (repaired)
============== Size ==============
Min X = 0.000000, Max X = 1.000000
Min Y = 0.000000, Max Y = 1.000000
Min Z = 0.000000, Max Z = 1.000000
========= Facet Status ========== Original ============ Final ====
Number of facets : 12 12
Facets with 1 disconnected edge : 3 0
Facets with 2 disconnected edges : 0 0
Facets with 3 disconnected edges : 1 0
Total disconnected facets : 4 0
=== Processing Statistics === ===== Other Statistics =====
Number of parts : 1 Volume : 1.000000
Degenerate facets : 0
Edges fixed : 0
Facets removed : 1
Facets added : 1
Facets reversed : 2
Backwards edges : 0
Normals fixed : 2
The statistics should give you some idea about what happened.
Using ADMeshGUI:
Find ADMeshGUI at github.com/admesh/ADMeshGUI.
Open the file and click the REPAIR button in bottom right. See the changes. |
Ender 3 Distorted Calibration Cube | Resolution: After many trials and errors, I finally replaced the nozzle with one that that was not partially blocked by filament at its entrance.
Likely cause: A careful examination of the old part hints, that the repeated blockage in the nozzle seems to have been caused by a gap between the PTFE tube and the nozzle, which has considerably moved backwards under the stress of printing as one can see here in a photo of the PTFE tube.
It took me about a month and I went down a few rabbit holes until @user77232 made a great suggestion to check the nozzle and see if it needs to be cleaned. Thanks for helping me out everyone! |
Replacing bearings with Drylin bushings | According to igus commercial documentation, these bushings:
do not need any kind of lubrication,
are not susceptible to humidity (but your steel rods might)
work seamlessly in presence of dust (it gets expelled from the bushing with movements)
I've replaced all of my bearings with these, and in my experience, the above claims have been true so far. I must say that I am really pleased with them. Movement is smoother, and the noise is considerably lower.
I did clean the rods to remove any trace of lubrication prior to installing them. I did not dry them.
I believe that igus is also selling rods in a material designed to even further improve the qualities of these bushings, but it starts to become quite an investment. |
Anet A6 ERR MAXTEMP BED error | I'm posting the answer here hoping that will help anyone that encounters a similar issue. A post on another site indicated that these boards are known to be problematic.
After some digging, I came up with the schematics of this part of the mainboard :
I'm not an electronics genius, but clearly it's not the capacitor; so that leaves the pull-up resistor or the microcontroller.
Since the printer is already unusable, no harm in trying to replace the resistor, which is located just next to the connectors; for the bed it was the second from left, but if you encounter the same issue with another input, you may need to locate the proper one.
Make sure you have the proper tools and knowledge for removing and soldering SMD components; in my case it was a 4k7 resistor in 0805 footprint.
Bottomline : replacing a less-than-one-cent resistor saves a month of waiting for the delivery of a $25 board. |
Ender 3 home location | The Z stop can be loosened and moved up but it seems weird that it would need to be moved and I don't think that would fix your issue. The Z height should be the same for the auto home and printing. I auto home then disable steppers and slowly move to all 4 corners. I have caught myself resting my arm on the X axis and moving it down. If that happens I manually move the Z until it just barely presses the Z stop in when I hear the button click. I have heard some say that they got a warped bed. I wonder if that's the issue. A glass plate would be a good way to be sure or maybe using a straight edge to check.You could also double check the tightness on the wheels is just right. Tomb of 3D Printed Horrors has a really good setup video called "Creality Ender 3 assembly and pro build tips" that has a few other tips that really helped me get set up well. |
Partially missed / dragged layers | I managed to confirm the dragged layers were mostly due to under-extrusion.
I had a faulty extruder (clicking sound) and once I swapped it out it was greatly improved.
It's worth noting I also had a slight z-wobble issue so that could have played a role.
Hopefully this can help somebody out as I hadn't seen this kind of symptom in any of the print quality guides. |
Ender 3 X axis not level | i've just bought an Ender 3 Pro and on assembly I carefully checked and deburred the uprigh rails on their bottom faces to ensure they did not splay out or in etc.
Once the 2 uprights are loosely attached to the base rails I laid the assembly flat onto a table on the uprights to ensure the uprights were square to one another and tightened the screws.
Check the uprights are parallel to one another by placing the top crossbeam on the top of the uprights and check if the screw holes are alligned...….if the screws are tight to enter their holes the uprights are splayed out or in and need correcting etc......a small amount of pressure "can" make them line up.
The X axis rail slides up and down on the two uprights with two 3 wheeled brackets, one either side, that have 3 wheels on them, one wheel on each bracket is the adjuster and it is easy to have the X axis cross beam out of square if you tighten the one bracket to the rail before you test the rail for squareness.
Firstly, place only the 2 wheel brackets on their uprights and adjust the wheels for smooth running, then attach the X axis rail to each wheel bracket and just nip up the 2 screws loosely to hold them to the cross beam.
Now, check the cross beam for squareness by running it to the top of the uprights and measuring the gap left to right between the X axis rail and the top rail, then tighten the left hand wheel bracket screws to the X axis rail......and then tighten the right hand wheel bracket to the cross beam.
Leave the Z axis leadscrew off for the moment and run the crossbeam up and down on the uprights making sure there are no tight spots due to out of squareness.
if it's all freely moving.....fit the Z axis leadscrew.
The bed plate can only be set once you have the machine itself squared up.
Ian. |
Am I allowed to publish a 3d scan of a statue/thing I bought? | If the design was made from an artist and is not public domain, than you should not upload that scan without the (written) permission of the creator of the design. Espacially a scan of a decorative object will likely be protected, so costumers buy the original instead of printing itself or buy a printed version. If you would design a deco object and sell copies of it, you also don't want that others just scan it and print it. |
Using hardboard for 3D printer enclosure; what is the temperature rating of hardboard? | Hardboard is called Masonite here in the States because that is the trade name of the product. If you look up the Material Safety Data Sheet you will see Masonite it states the following (Section 5):
Auto-ignition Temperature (°C): >200 degrees Celsius
In Section 7, it states:
These boards are flammable but difficult to ignite.
Furthermore in Section 10, it states:
Conditions to avoid: Avoid sources of radiant heat and flame; and avoid sparks and sources of ignition in all electrical equipment, including dust extraction equipment.
Avoid excessive build up of dust from boards.
The hot end works of printers are neither radiant heat, nor flames, nor sparks. Yes, you'll have a buildup of heat within the working confines of an enclosure, but if you are only using it for a base there should be absolutely no issues. If you were to build an entire enclosure from hardboard, you could put a thermal probe inside with the printer to ensure it doesn't get too hot, but realistically, it will never get hot enough within the enclosure to light the hardboard on fire. |
Spiky hotend and bed temps | I had a similar problem and there could be three reasons(if the connections are ok):
thin wires to the hotend
one of the MOSFETs was fried
the termal sensor wasn't good enough insert into the hotend
Try to measure the hotend heating element voltage while printing. |
Marlin's bed leveling Mesh Validation Pattern ignoring home offset | A Marlin developer confirmed that bed-leveling and probing are now performed entirely in the machine coordinate space.
To clarify further, if one has a non-zero home offset enabled, the following commands refer to different physical locations despite the supplied parameters being the same:
M206 X10 Y10 ; Set a home offset in X and Y
G30 X100 Y100 ; Probe (100, 100) in machine space
G0 X100 Y100 ; Move to (100, 100) in print space, ie. (90, 90) in machine coordinate space
I was able to correctly align the bed-leveling grid by altering header files in the source code. I defined the XY offset using two new macros BED_OFFSET_X and BED_OFFSET_Y in Configuraion.h and altered the following lines in Conditionals_post.h.
#define X_CENTER ((X_BED_SIZE) / 2) + BED_OFFSET_X
#define Y_CENTER ((Y_BED_SIZE) / 2) + BED_OFFSET_Y
The mesh is now physically aligned with the bed and I have not observed any adverse effects. |
Anet A8 LCD shows garbage data after done printing | This is a known problem of the Anet A8 display, it is caused by electrical interference. Pressing the middle button will refresh the display.
This is prone to happen when doing long prints.
There are some reported successes of people inserting ferrite beads or toroidal rings.
No, this is not a firmware issue, this is a hardware issue. |
Is it a good idea to include thermal fuses in a DIY 3D printer design? | Whether you should use a thermal fuse or not depends on what other safety measures you've taken. You can't look at the safety features of a printer in isolation, you need to look at what other measures are in place.
The main fire hazard in printers is unfortunately (still) the fact that some manufacturers use underrated connectors on their boards, and that some users put bare wires in screw terminals or use inadequate torque when tightening terminals. As the wire works itself loose, it starts arcing and burning the connector. A thermal fuse does not help in this situation (unless you place thermal fuses near all of the connectors, which is impractical). Instead:
Properly tighten screw terminals, check them, and consider using proper wire termination (crimp lugs).
Use strain relief on wires. Make sure wires don't rub against anything, and guide them so they do not bend in a tight radius. Since the extruder (or print bed) is constantly moving, those wires are subject to fatigue.
Make sure connectors (especially those for the heated bed) are rated for the current running through them, and solder wires directly to the board if necessary.
Using a regular fuse may protect against wires shorting against each other should their insulation be damaged. Fuses are usually already integrated into the main board.
Most firmwares include some variant of thermal runaway protection, a feature that monitors the heaters and shuts the printer down if it notices something gone wrong. This protects against:
The thermistor coming loose/reading incorrect values/etc...
but not against:
Bugs in the firmware itself
Failure of the MOSFET
Most printers use MOSFETs to switch power to the heating element. Unfortunately, when MOSFETs fail, they usually fail closed (i.e. conducting). This means that, even if the firmware detects something has gone wrong, it won't be able to do anything about it. Solid State Relays (TRIACs) can fail in the same way.
To protect against this, mounting a thermal fuse (or resettable bimetallic switch*) on the heated bed may be a good idea. However, thermal fuses with ratings up to the operating temperature of a hotend do not appear to be available so this is not an option.
Attaching the fuse physically to the part it is monitoring is the most reliable, but for instance with the hotend (if you wanted to protect it all) this might not be feasible to the high temperatures involved so you'd have to settle with monitoring the air temperature close by.
Also consider thermal balancing. A thermal fuse is unnecessary if the component can not overheat to begin with. For instance, most MK2 heated beds struggle getting up to even 100C, so even with a shorted MOSFET they present no danger. However, if you have a powerful high wattage (mains-powered) heated bed, you should definitely install thermal protection.
E3D supplies their hot ends with 25W, 30W and 40W heaters. The 25W heater is the safer choice, since it limits the maximum temperature the hot end can get to, while with the 40W heater you can reach higher temperatures (and reach them faster). Barring a very unlikely scenario in which simultaneously (1) the power supply fails and starts supplying excessive voltage and (2) the MOSFET and/or firmware fails, a heater that is sized appropriately to the load it is driving can never pose any danger.
I don't think it's common to install thermal fuses on steppers, stepper drives or the power supply (which should have its own protection). For every possible location to place a thermal fuse, you can probably think up a failure mode in which that fuse would save the day, but at a certain point it just becomes overkill. The stepper drivers would likely burn out well before the steppers would get hot enough to pose a threat, and overheating of the stepper driver would probably (violently) destroy it but afterwards it should not pose any threat.
Axial v.s. radial does not matter, just use whatever is convenient for your situation.
* Note that some bimetallic switches short one of the leads to the (metal)
case when tripped, which poses a danger, especially with mains-powered heaters. |
BigTreeTech mini e3 V1.2 endstop installation | You do not need to connect the red (+) wire of the endstops. The controller board uses a technique to ensure the signal is 3.3 V or ground, see the top left schematics of this link (will insert an image later!). Specifics about this technology is found here and is explained as using a pull up resistor.
What happens is that the signal is always reported as triggered, unless the endstop connects the signal wire to ground.
This link shows that only ground and signal are required (will insert an image later!). |
Can I resolder a power connections with a partially burnt board | Possible? Yes. Advisable? Perhaps not. Since it is the power connection, I would be tempted to solder the cables directly to the board. If the board is found to work, I would then install an external MOSFET for the heated bed, to reduce the amount of current that the controller has to handle. |
Why did my stepper motor controller chips burn? | Without more information it is hard to be certain; but, the most likely cause is that the board was installed backwards.
Looking at the photo, the damage on both boards seem to be centered around pin 20 and 21 of the driver IC. A schematic of a similar board shows these are both 5V inputs (DIR and *ENBL). These signals connect to the top and bottom pins of the left connector to the RAMPS.
Since these are inputs, the most likely cause of a damage to these would be a high current over-voltage condition that caused the upper protection in the IC to conduct. This would require >5.5V and a lot of current.
The RAMPS board routes these signals to I/O pins on the ATMEGA processor - see RAMPS Schematic. These can't easily go above 5V without blowing out the ATMEGA and they are not generally high enough current to cause the damage you see.
The most likely high current and voltage would be the 12V motor supply line (VMM). This comes into the board on the top pin of the right RAMPS connector.
Accidentally installing it 180 degrees (which is super easy to do since the connector is not keyed) would connect the 12V VMM to IC pin 20 instead and you would likely see the same burn mark you see on your board.
A better board design would have been to key the connectors by using two sizes and/or cutting a pin so it couldn't get plugged in backwards - but they didn't. |
Do Cura's self-crossing infill patterns account for excess material from self-crossing? | With most filaments you don't need to do anything special to account for overfill caused by these crossing points. When the nozzle extrudes the second direction, it pushes the lines laid by the first direction out of the way. The same happens when the third direction crosses the first two. There's a blob, but it's a blob within the plane of the layer, so it shouldn't stick up out of the layer and upset subsequent layers. There are two complications which can occur though:
When filling each direction, it's usual to keep extruding when moving from one line to the next (not a travel move), which results in getting an extra half perimeter around your infill. This is fine for a single raster pattern, and for box infill, but with triangle, hexagram, or similar, you'd get three half-perimeters (one for each direction). The slicer needs to offset the third direction so that those extra perimeters don't overlap. I don't know how Cura handles this; it's possible that's the source of the dimensional problems you're seeing.
With abrasive filaments, or those that don't stretch (such as carbon fibre or metal fill filament), the "pushing the existing lines out of the way" doesn't really work. You just end up wearing down the outside of the nozzle and getting the kind of blobs you're afraid of, sticking up into the next layer. It's just best to avoid infill with crossings (box, triangle, hexagram, etc.) on such filaments. |
Horizontal line z-axis not printing correctly | You'll notice in the screen capture that there is an icon marked "supports." This is precisely the solution required. When selected, the software should construct a series of vertical pillars in the locations required to properly print the horizontal portion of the knife blade.
It's common for Thingiverse models to have a notation Supports (yes/no) to indicate that this feature should be activated. Depending on the capability of your printer, some angles may require supports that are not required on someone else's printer model. There may also be an adjustment for angle reference to cease supports or to require. My printer will handle up to a 50° from vertical without support. Beyond that, more filament is used, but the result is superior to printing without it, as you've discovered.
Note also that support is typically categorized as "from the bed only" or "everywhere." The former prevents support from being generated between vertically separated parts of the model, while the latter permits it. Some models may have, for example, a foot on the bed not requiring support, but the arm directly above the foot does. "From the bed only" means the arm would droop/fail as no support would be generated above that portion of the model.
If you are using the ReplicatorG 0400 software, referenced from the manufacturer's web site, page 11 of the manual will have additional information regarding support within the program. |
OctoPrint Unable to Connect to Lulzbot Mini | If the printer returns gibberish, the Baud rate of the connection is incorrect. You are using 115200 in the example above. For older Mini firmwares, it should indeed be 115200. For the newer 1.1.5.xx builds, it should be 250000. |
Creality Ender 4 extruder problem | Apparently your 3D printer runs Marlin firmware. Marlin firmware default code has build in protection against extrusion below a certain temperature (usually 170°C) as defined in the printer configuration:
// *** IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO LEAVE THIS OPTION ENABLED! ***
#define PREVENT_COLD_EXTRUSION
#define EXTRUDE_MINTEMP 170
Are you sure that it heats up above this temperature? Please check the connections of the thermistor and the heater cartridge.
Marlin firmware code supports disabling the cold extrusion safety measure by setting:
M302 S0 ; Allow extrusion at any temperature
(save this line in a file with extension gcode and load and run it from an SD card or alternatively hook up your computer over USB to the printer and use an application like Pronterface, Repetier-Host, etc. to upload the command to the printer)
If cold extrusion safety is turned off, you should try to extrude (without loading filament) to test if the extruder works.
To revert use the following code:
M302 S170 ; Allow extrusion above 170 |
Reasons for a PLA print not sticking to bed all the sudden? | There are 3 general factors about print adhesion you always have to keep in mind:
Have a sufficient surface for the print to stick. A pyramid printed on the tip can't print properly.
Check the leveling of your bed occasionally and relevel the bed. By removing prints, one can easily unlevel it over time without noticing it.
Clean your print bed from fingerprints and grease every so often. Fats are good separators between the print and the bed. Getting them off with Isopropyl alcohol or other solvents can restore print surfaces in an instant.
In this specific case, there are some hints that make the general things less of an issue though: Old sliced items print fine, newer not. This hints that you changed something in the print settings. Among the settings that are good for adhesion, check your old G-code for the following three:
Bed temperature. I use 60 °C bed temperature for PLA and have good results on bed adhesion. Others print with 50 °C. However, going too low can make the plastic not stick well anymore.
Extrusion temperature. When the plastic extrudes, it has to be molten enough to push out enough and cold enough to solidify within moments and stick to the surface of the bed. If it is too hot, it would be dragged along, if it's too cold it doesn't get to stick either. I use 190-200 °C for PLA.
The first layer height might be different. I usually use 0.2 mm for this setting, no matter what the actual layer height is, and get good adhesion and not too much trouble with tiny unevenness.
The reason might be a mechanical issue, in that the Z-endstops (in an Anycubic i3, there are two, hidden in the frame sides) might have bent, moved or misaligned over time. Check its positioning. If the mount is broken, there are replacement part designs. |
Is there any (relatively simple) way to determine whether a stepper is being directed to move by the voltage signal across its winding? | So it would seem that there is always a pulsing waveform across the windings whenever the stepper is energized, correct?
Correct.
When the motor is holding its position, is there anything distinctive about the waveform?
Yes there is. This video contains a short example of what the current waveforms would look like.
If I understand you correctly: You want to detect filament events based by doing current sensing on the phases of the stepper motor. The simple of it is that, if the motor is not turning then the Back ElectroMotive Force will be zero. As the speed increases the BEMF goes up, which causes the current levels to go down. Is this how stall detection in some driver systems work.
You may be able to determine if what you want to do is even practical by studying the fundamentals of stepper motor driving; both voltage mode and current mode.
Apart from that it may be just as practical to use a rotary encoder upstream of the extruder motor to detect the filament movement, or lack thereof.
In your case detecting if the filament is present but not moving calls for stall detection. If the PWM pulse occurs but the rate at which the voltage increased (the slope) did not change, then there was no BEMF event. The lack of such an event would indicate that the rotor did not move. If there is no filament to push, then when the rotor moves it will ring (overshoot it's target position and fluctuate back and forth until it settles into the electrical position that the controller intended), because the mechanical load has changed.
For a NEMA17 stepper, these would be very small change in a very brief event. I would start with installing current sensors on both phases, and then doing some signal processing on top of that. |
How can I print in multicolor with Ender 6? | Enabling ADVANCED_PAUSE_FEATURE requires a rebuild and upload/install of a new Marlin firmware. The option is found in the advanced configuration file (Configuration_adv.h).
Please change:
//#define ADVANCED_PAUSE_FEATURE
to:
#define ADVANCED_PAUSE_FEATURE
Rebuild and install the firmware. |
What are the variables for PID control? How to use M301? How to use this command to switch from PID to bang-bang? | What command would I enter to make this a bang-bang PID controller
There's no such thing as a "bang-bang PID controller". "bang bang" is mutually exclusive of PID. The M301 command is only good for fine-tuning the parameters of the PID controller, but it won't let you switch to bang bang. Unfortunately, you must update the firmware if you wish to use bang bang.
You could try setting all values to 0, except P, which you set to an as high value as possible. This will cause the output to be fully on when the temperature is lower than the setpoint, and fully off when higher than the setpoint. However, this can still cause rapid clicking of the relay when the temperature is hovering around the setpoint. Bang bang has some hysteresis built-in (i.e., there is a margin around the setpoint in which the relay will never be toggled); there's no way to emulate this with PID. |
Changing raster angle, raster width and build orientation in Ultimaker Cura | First: Update Ultimaker Cura. The latest is currently 3.5.1.
You can specify the angles and widths with the settings Infill Line Directions and Infill Line Width.
If you want them differently for different objects on the build plate you can specify those settings in the per-object settings menu on the left. |
Homing damages limit switches Ender 3 | Personally, I have found that if you bend the arm of the limit switch out, it gets triggered earlier and solves this issue for good, (broke a switch clean off at the bend on the pins, soldered old switch back onto the pins in the board) bent the arm to a greater angle, so the striker triggers 3-5 mm earlier, problem averted! |
What is the best build surface for PETG? | Removable steel spring sheet with PEI textured coatings
I have been using textured PEI string sheet for most of my prints, just love it.
Prints attach so good but not hard to remove(with proper nozzole Z-offset).
If the prints are small and seems hard to remove,heating up the bed helps a lot.
Almost never used the smooth side, even with proper z-offset, it still damages the surface quite fast.
Here's the link i bought before:
Removal Spring Steel Sheet Pre-Applied PEI+Magnetic Base
This is my setup on a ender3pro: |
Z axis issue with Ramps 1.4 | Found the issue. The steps were set way to high. I lowered my steps to 500 and the steppers seem to perform as they should. |
Is there an easy way to split models in OpenSCAD? | Rather than differencing a copy of the object from itself, which is subject to numerical instability, choose a box ("cube" in OpenSCAD terminology), and intersect it with one copy of the object, then difference it from the other copy of the object. This is all easy if you use modules to encapsulate your parts, and it also works with imported STL files.
Specifically, it should look something like this:
module mycut() {
translate([x,y,z]) cube([w,l,h]);
}
difference() {
myobject();
mycut();
}
translate([u,v,w])
intersection() {
myobject();
mycut();
} |
Slicers and printers compatibility | FDM Slicers are not proprietoryexceptions apply
Most commonly uses Slicers are generally not locked to manufacturers or models. Creality's slicer is a variant of Cura, Prusa Slicer is a (further developed) variant of Slic3r. You can slice models for almost any G-code reading 3D Printer with any of the 4.
The question at the first startup or installation is to automate setup: back when I bought my Ender 3, I had to manually make a profile that would fit my printer. Now, you can choose presets that set up the bed size, a safe start G-code and some settings from where you can work.
exceptions
However, some machines are not compatible with normal slicers, because they either don't run G-code but a proprietary file format or because their geometry is non-standard.
An example of the former type is for example the DaVinci Color printers that use .XYZ files, which contain not only movement commands for the printhead and extruder, but also color print commands for the ink-head. An example of the latter type is "Belt Printers", which use standard G-code but are sliced not in the same way as for normal printers - you need the Cura Blackbelt variant to make the proper command file.
Other slicers like Voxelizer are locked down to the printers of the software's manufacturer. |
I am looking for laser cut cads for my prusa i3? | This is not exactly my part, but the holes place are true. I think if someone measures the bed dimensions( for me it's 21.9mm * 21.9mm) and orders a plate in this size, he can also make holes later with drill(I did it before for another part of my plexi to attach the power supply).
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1310778 |
Display crashed/corrupted on AnyCubic Prusa I3 clone | Issues like this are often caused by the length of the ribbon cable connecting to display to the board, or by its vicinity to other wires. Try routing the ribbon cable away from other wires, and use a shorter one if possible. |
Octoprint: Reducing Camera Lag Time? | This was due to a slow Wifi connection. It was fast enough for the low bandwidth of printer commands and status reports, but the video feed was overwhelming the connection.
Adding a Wifi repeater increased the bandwidth and fixed the issue. |
How sensitive are all-metal print heads? | Full definite answers on your questions are hard be given, there are a few parameters affecting the clogging of all-metal hotends.
All-metal hotends are considered so-called "upgrades" for printers while in fact they usually cause more problems. For high temperature filaments, like PC and some Nylons, etc. (printing temperature above 250 °C) you require a hotend that can withstand higher temperatures for prolonged use of the hotend. The problem is that heat creep (heat climbing up the throat/heat break) causes low temperature melting filaments to become prematurely soft and cause problems when retracted.
This requires the printer operator to provide enough cooling air to the coldend of the hotend assembly (usually the part where the cooling fins are) to dissipate heat creeping up the heat break and carefully tune printing temperature and retraction length.
Note that Ultimaker Cura uses quite large retraction values (default 6.5 mm), which work perfectly for the UM3E. This could be closely related to the compression effect of the filament in the Bowden tube. The all-metal hotends from the UM3 are perfectly capable of printing low temperature filaments, so if dialed in correctly, such hotends are not only to be used for high temperature filaments. |
Would 3D printing multiple copies at once saves time? | Actually no. It will take slightly more for each addition. You also then have the point of failure, where one gets knocked off and ruins all the prints.
The fastest way to print multiple objects is one at a time. In fact slic3r lets you do just that with their sequential printing feature.
The reason is, the time it takes to lift 0.5mm, travel the few MM over to the next object, lower the 0.5mm back down.. Repeat for inner shells, outer shells, infill.. all add time. Doesn't seem like much till you do it 14,000 times.
In the case of your example, it would be negligible. In more complicated or well spaced prints its another story.
For extra extra fast, look into loss PLA casting... |
Why does my Ender 5 Pro bed stops heating 10 °C below the set point | Searching the error message "Heating Failed: Bed Printer Halted, Please Reset" seems to indicate that the bed heater is timing out from not reaching temperature.
If you measure the voltage applied to the bed heater before the error message, does the voltage stay at Max.; i.e. 12V for a 12V bed heater? Or, does the voltage stay constant?
If you raise the target bed temperature, does is still error out at stop at 50 °C?
Since you only indicate changing firmware, we would assume the bed heater is the same as when previously working. Is this true?
Is the resistance of the bed heater a few ohms and not megaohms? |
Help! 3D Printing Corals for Aquarium Decorations | First thing to check it's, What printer are you using? is FDM or SLA/SLS? Technology used is the great bottleneck to achieve the results that you want to.
Also, going cheap in 3D printing it's a way to get bad results. A good setup it's really important to get a great XY and Z resolution.
FDM it's not able to achieve the same resolution as SLS/SLA has, but it's cheaper.
If you using FDM try reducing wall speed, that will increase the detail level. Using a smaller nozzle and lower layer settings will increase it as well.
EDIT: Also, you need to check in the 3D model how the model is. If the details that you're looking for are not there, there is nothing else to do but start doing it by hand. |
Is a slower outer perimeter speed still meaningful? | Lowering speed on outer perimeter has always been mostly wrong, but possibly useful. Usually, it's a poor approximation for what you really want to do, which is lowering acceleration on the outer perimeter, to avoid surface quality and dimensional accuracy errors due to ringing and backlash. However, on bowden printers without compensation for pressure ("linear advance" in Marlin, aka "pressure advance" in some other firmware), slow acceleration and high speeds give really bad error in extrusion consistency, so you're better off just lowering the max speed too whenever you lower acceleration.
It's also possible that you may want to print at extremely high speeds for inner walls and infill - speeds so high that you get a lot of extrusion consistency problems. If so, it would make sense to retain a sensible max speed on the outer wall. This won't avoid the part strength problems from printing too fast, but if your models are just decorative, it might be worth it.
Generally, though, I'd recommend solving these problems right (using linear advance if your printer needs it, lowering outer perimeter acceleration to get rid of artifacts, printing at a speed your hotend can handle, etc.) and deem "slower outer perimeter" an idea whose time has passed.
Also, note that if you're using a bowden printer without linear advance, sticking to the same speed for all extrusion will largely paper over the problem. This is probably the source of your observation that it "improves print quality" for you. |
How do I set the G-code buffer size on Marlin? | Marlin does allow one to change the size of the buffers, in Configuration_adv.h. In the current version there's an ifdef that switches between two cases, one with SD support, and the other without. Both have a movement planner of size 16, which can be adjusted.
Additionally, in the same file, BUFSIZE can be changed to modify the size of the buffer storing unparsed commands before they are parsed and enter the movement planner buffer.
Additionally, for some firmwares, M112 will immediately shut down the printer, no matter what is in the buffer, but the reset button will need to be used, and the axes will not be homed afterward. In Marlin, it's hardcoded to call kill(). |
QIDITECH Dual Extruder and PETG | It was a while back I created this post, since then I've have numerous problems / learning curves and now I'm very pleased to say I have a printer that prints perfectly and is set-up correctly.
I must say that the support from QidiTech is first class and during my journey I was sent a new extruder assembly, new extruders and also new print matts, all completely free and covered by the warranty.
I have now printed numerous models successfully. |
PET-G under-extrusion after changing the nozzle to a 1.2 mm d. one (Prusa i3 mk3s and PrusaSlicer v2.0) | Piecing this answer together from the comments on OP's post.
Myself and R.. noted that a layer height of 0.35 mm, nozzle width of 1.2 mm, and a fairly high feedrate (200 % according to OP, no reference to what 100 % is), is an exceptionally large amount of plastic to try and melt through almost any hotend on the market except possibly the Volcano, or the high-throughput version of the Mosquito.
OP responded that lowering the layer height to 0.2 mm seemed to fix the issue. That's still an impressive amount of plastic, but it's a 43 % decrease in total flow compared to 0.35 mm layer height. |
What is the thermal conductivity of various 3D printing filaments? | All values are in W/(m*K).
PLA: 0.13
HIPS: 0.20
ABS: 0.25
PETG: 0.29
PEEK: 0.25
PLA with copper: 0.25 (see discussion)
PETG with 40% graphite: 1.70 (ansiotropic)
TCPoly: 15
Steel (not a 3dprintable plastic): 10 - 50 |
3D Printing of a Swellable Material | The video treats about sodium polucarbonate (C3H3NaO2) this is a superabsorbent polymer has the ability to absorb as much as 100 to 1000 times its mass in water. This is used as desiccant on products that moisture can be a problem basically during storage prior selling. The video shows the water how is trapped inside the particles of sodium polycarbonate, this happens inside a diaper or any product urine odor absorbing, also is used on waste liquid control.
Also you can find something similar on some products that has a little bag that says silica gel (SiO2). |
cura shows different Z heights | Converted comment on OP to answer:
The comment links to a question on SE.Blender; the answer that led to the solution is quoted below.
The STL exporter doesn't take Scene Scale into account. Import your
STL back into Blender (it will have the same size) and drag Scene
Scale up back to 1.0, and you'll see how the cube grows relative to
the grid.
1 Blender unit equals 1m, but STL seems to assume 1 unit as 1cm.
If you want 1 unit to be 1mm, set Scale on STL export to 0.1 and
Scene Scale to 0.001 to make it match the output scale in viewport.
Note that the STL will be 10x smaller if you re-import it into
Blender! |
How to calculate the strength of a printed object? | Strictly speaking, it is difficult to do calculations on these materials, but not impossible (I've heard about a few commercial analysis tools that do that). The FDM process (Fused Deposition Modeling) creates a product based of fused slices of material causing an anisotropic material (this means that the properties of the material are different in different dimensions). Basically, your product will be quite strong and similar in the X and Y directions, but fragile in the Z direction (layering direction). You can imagine that every layer may be a seed for cracks to grow when you're pulling at the part.
When applying a compression load on a product like in your example, the walls need to be strong enough to hold the pressure (not all of the load as, based on the type of infill, the infill also can/should take part of the load!) and need to be of sufficiently high percentage, not only to take part of the load, but also support the walls to prevent buckling. I remember that stress calculations for buckling are difficult and require FEA (Finite Element Analysis) for more complex objects other than bars or beams.
I think it is difficult to determine or calculate the infill percentage based on the compression load beforehand as you do not know the exact material properties and the buckling behavior. You do know that a 100% infill will give you enough strength and support, you could try to print at a lower infill, e.g. 75%, and test if that works for you. |
How long is an extruder's/nozzle's life? | This is highly dependent upon the type and quality of filament you use.
Exotic materials such as wood, metalic, or otherwise infused plastics can potentially wear out the inside of the nozzle and at the very least leave deposits of composite material in the nozzle. This can lead to more frequent or irreversible clogs. You may also notice your prints becoming "stringy-er" (sorry for lack of vocabulary at the moment) as the volume of your nozzle reduces with more deposits sitting in the basin of the nozzle, therefore leading to lighter extrusions against what your slicer is expecting.
Lower quality materials (common ABS/PLA) can also have an effect on your nozzles life span. So can good quality filament, don't get me wrong. However, lower quality materials have a tendency to go through much more drastic material changes during the printing process than better quality filaments. For instance, a lower quality PLA may not be 100% PLA. It could have 10% Nylon, 5% ABS, 0.1% operator's BandAid, and 83% PLA. Well, the 17% of the filament that isn't PLA has the potential to clog the nozzle just as easily as the exotic filaments. This is why it's so important to verify the quality of your source of filaments.
Some signs that your nozzle may be wearing:
It simply clogs more frequently
The printed part looks "stringy" or "bubbly". The "stringy" effect is that the extruder is not extruding at a fast enough rate for the speed of the motion, which is common if your extruder is about to clog, your filament is crappy quality, or your slicing settings are invalid for your machine. The "bubbly" effect can be from an overheated extruder or another sign that your nozzle is about clogged.
Your filament begins curling around the nozzle as it initially comes out. Typically there is a burr or something that catches the filament on its way out that you can simply take a small file to grind it off, but sometimes it may be because there is the build-up of deposits towards one side of the basin. |
Reprap prusa i3 Y and Z axis swapped when printing GCODE files | Sounds like your slicing program is not set up right.. Or more likely your printer isn't.
I would use Pronterface
I use simplify 3d, but the best free software is Slic3r.
Try those then report back. Honestly I think you might not have it wired correctly. With pronterface tell it to move X. Then try moving it and manually holding the endstop. Then if it does not stop try going tho incorrect way with that endstop still pressed. If you find that your reversed you will need to correct this with your firmware. If I knew this was a ramps board you could reverse the wires, but lets do it in firmware as I am not buying you a new board.
After that you should work. Software wise we just made sure your interface and your slic3r work and talk the same language. Those two I know will not be doing anything funny. After that report back if it is still not working. |
What technics are you using to seal between the throat tube and nozzle? | A seal between the heat break and nozzle should be achieved by tightening them while the hotend is hot. After assembling the (cold) hotend, heat it up to somewhat above the highest temperature you will print at and then tighten the nozzle some more. When it cools down again, you will have a very tight seal. If the nozzle still leaks after this tightening then it is defective.
Using teflon is possible but will limit the maximum temperature you can use your hotend at safely and you won't be able to print some higher temperature materials. |
What's the best printing technique to produce splints (a device to immobilize a body part)? | For anything where there is an open or bandaged wound, you should NOT use 3D printing, and should use sterilized medical equipment to prevent infection and heavy metals infiltrating the bloodstream.
SLA/SLS 3D printing may be the best option for replicating the complex structure of the splint you have pictured above, as FDM printers have difficulty reproducing those structures.
However, FDM printing CAN reproduce it, and generally FDM printers have access to a wider variety of materials of which models can be printed with, so they may be the best option overall.
For something to immobilize a body part that has been broken, you may want to use a stiff material such as ABS or Carbon Fibre, However PLA may work still in these cases.
As for something to support a body part, Flexible or Semi-Flexible materials may be desired, such as Ninjaflex (TPU), Nylon.
As a disclaimer:
I am not a medical professional, This is not medical advice, please consult a properly licenced medical professional first before using 3D printing to solve a medical ailment. |