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Will 3D printing work upside down or in zero gravity? I assume SLA printing only works on Earth and upright.
But would fused-filament printer (e.g. Prusa Mk3) work in zero gravity? What about upside down or sideways? If not, could it be modified to work in other orientations? Have there been any demonstrations of it? | Yes!
3D Printing upside would only potentially have an issue with the first layer if you're using an extremely large gap on the first layer, however in normal circumstances there's enough pressure that the filament is squished into the bed, if you've got one yourself you can put it on it's side, the question when it comes to 3D Printing isn't upside down, but not the correct way, as it's presuming that gravity pushing down is the important thing, while in every other orientation it also works.
In theory SLA printing would work just fine, as long as you're able to seal the build plate and vat together so no resin leaks out. |
Only generate supports between object and bed (for a brain model) I would like to print a model of my brain (figure 1), it requires supports (figure 2). The supports also get generated between the brain folds/wrinkles of the brain by Slic3r. I only want the supports to be generated between the bed an the object, not within the object itself. I thought of writing a script to edit the g-code, is there an easier way out?
Figure 1:
Figure 2: | Within Slic3r, there are settings for support, which can be enabled to create support only from the build plate. This would still generate supports under the brain, but not within the hollow sections. |
Hatchbox Silver PLA settings? I have a RepRap Prusa i2. I have done the majority of my printing with clear PLA that I got on the cheap from eBay. It works just fine.
I bought a roll of Hatchbox Silver PLA (1.75 mm) from Amazon. I have never had a print go well with it. I have tried various combinations of hotter and cooler extruder and bed (180 - 220°C extruder, 50 - 78°C bed). Prints always either curl up from the bed after 5-20 layers are deposited or delaminate in the middle of the print. I print directly on the heated glass bed, and have also tried various cooling fan settings.
Does anyone have good settings (Slic3r) to use with this stuff? Or any other advice for getting a successful print? | I've been using Hatchbox 1.75 mm (but white), and settled on 190°C extruder temp, and 60°C bed. I've had trouble getting some prints to adhere to the bed, but most have been ok; I don't see a clear pattern. I don't know whether it's the fiber or my settings. I'm trying slightly higher temperatures, higher extrusion rates, and other filament brands to see if those help. Will post back if anything clear shows up... |
"Err: MAXTEMP: E1" when THERMAL_PROTECTION_HOTENDS is disabled I am trying to port Marlin to my Qidi Tech 1 printer which previously ran Sailfish 7.8. Everything worked fine on the old board, including the temperature sensors.
All cables except for power, LCD, and USB (for flashing) are disconnected. I am still very early on in testing and have yet to plug anything else in.
When uploading Marlin to the board, at first startup I received the following error:
Err: MAXTEMP: E1
PRINTER HALTED
Please Reset
There may be a problem with my configuration. So I commented out all of the thermal runaway protection options since the bed and extruders aren't yet connected:
//#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_HOTENDS
//#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_BED
//#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_CHAMBER
I rebuilt, flashed, reset, and the printer is still telling me that E1 is at MAXTEMP.
Why am I still getting this thermal protection message?
I cleared the EEPROM from the LCD menu in Sailfish before flashing.
This board uses an ATmega2560 and I'm using the default fuses (E:FD, H:D8, L:FF, LOCK:CF). | #define THERMAL_PROTECTION_HOTENDS is for thermal runaway. When the temperature "should" be climbing or falling at a predicable rate, or holding steady once at running temp.
#define HEATER_0_MAXTEMP defines the maximum temperature Marlin will allow the extruder to get to before initiating a shutdown. This is ALWAYS active for an active extruder (E0) This setting is what will throw MAXTEMP if it is exceeded.
MAXTEMP error when there is no heat on is usually from a short in the thermistor cable. |
Short-circuited heatbed After some months of good quality prints, since yesterday my heatbed does not heat anymore.
I've a BQ Prusa i3 Hephestos with this heatbed, controlled by this mechanical relay and powered by this power source. I know that a mechanical relay is not the best choice for a 3D printer, but I only had one of those when I've built the bed and setting bang bang control for the plate gave me some satisfactory prints.
Since if I connect directly the heatbed to the power source, the latter stops working (I think because of its shortage protection), I'm almost sure that in some way I've managed to fry my heatbed.
Before buying a new one, though, I'd like to understand how I've broken the current heatbed without doing anything but printing, to avoid similar situations in the future.
I'm afraid I've forgotten some component whose functionality is to protect the heatbed (maybe a diode or something similar, I'm sorry but I have never studied electronics).
I've attached a very simple wiring diagram showing the current configuration. | I see four points of error:
The heatbed could be faulty.
The lines could be faulty.
The trigger signal could be faulty.
The power supply could be faulty.
So, how to check what it might be? We need to measure, but we need to measure in a setup of 12/24 V circuits while they are live. While not necessarily considered "dangerous", take extra precautions! Remove the parts you will need to access from the machine, ground the power supply, and use your utmost care! Make sure the heatbed is not connected to the Power supply, so we can measure it in the safest way.
Ruling out the Heatbed
The first step can be done without power: the resistance of the heatbed should be non-0, non-open line. It's best to measure directly at the input pins to the bed. If it shows close to 0 (some milli-Ohms), open line (OL), or no continuity (NC), it has a short or is burned out and needs to be replaced.
Ruling out the Power Supply
Once we have reached a safe setup, take a voltmeter and measure the voltage (potential difference) on the pins you reserve for the heatbed. If it is 12 V with some tolerance, it's good, otherwise you might need to get a new power supply or have a professional fix yours.
Ruling out the trigger signal
Next, move your measuring to the output of the board. Now order your board to heat up the bed. Make no illusions, we will trigger TRP, as the bed is disconnected. This will need us to reset the board between tests. You should see a 5 V trigger signal. If not, your board or firmware might be faulty and require different investigations.
Ruing out the lines and switch
Next step is to swap to Resistance mode on the multimeter and measure the resistance of the switch, best with the whole power line. Under "heating", the setup should show a close to 0 Ohm resistance, if not it should show an infinite or open line.
What now?!
If it is neither of the 4, reassemble on the test stand, reconnect the bed to the power supply and investigate all connections between the elements we just checked. Now order a heating procedure - as all components should be ok, it has to be one of the interfaces between the parts. |
How to connect filament end-to-end? Is it possible to connect two pieces of 1.75 mm filament end to end, with no change in width? I am asking the question because I am interested in creating a multi-filament feeder to a single extruder, and I am curious about the process of changing filament while the 3-d printer extruder continues uninterrupted. My current best-guess at the optimal solution is to someone 'cut' one end of the filament and 'melt' it to the end of another filament. | You'd have to ensure that the joining portion of the two filaments do not "bloom" or increase in diameter, which would happen if unconstrained at the melting and joining time. Alignment is also critical, otherwise you have a varying diameter from one color to the next at the point of join.
There's an item on ebay which is precision drilled and has precision machined mating surfaces to ensure alignment of the filament. The filament is extended through the two components, heated (in the case of the video, with a match) and the two metal parts are pushed together. The joining of the metal parts also cuts away the excess bulge of the melted filament, ensuring correct diameter.
In the case of the above item, the joining devices have to be threaded with the filament prior to the joining process and then have to be threaded off the filament by pushing them the entire length of the filament.
This would be okay if one were joining short lengths only. Consider how much fun it isn't to have to slide these two pieces over an entire full spool of filament.
A split device which would enable one to un-latch or otherwise open a clamshell to release the filament would require much more challenging machining to achieve the necessary precision, which is probably why we don't see such a product. |
Which are the food-safe materials and how do I recognize them? What materials which are commonly used in 3D printing, are food-safe?
Are there any certifications/grading process for such materials, which can help me with my cross-checking and selection?
I have been using an FDM printer. | Food safety is a property of both the process and the material. You can't stick food-safe material in a printer that has previously been used to print something food-dangerous and expect the result to be food safe.
The only way to know if a given material is food-safe is to ask your supplier, but a lot depends on how you then process it. For instance, FDM printers often have brass nozzles, which contain lead. To print food-safe materials, you need to use a stainless steel nozzle.
Food safe materials can be identified by mean of an universal symbol.
Moreover, to ensure food-safety of a 3D printed model you may need to further process it (for instance, by vapor smoothing or coating with a food-safe lacquer). Some claims circulate on the internet that 3D printed models may have surface porosity in which bacteria can grow, but I've not been able to find a reliable source for this claim. Still, you need to be cautious. |
OpenSCAD 2018 Command line First, I'm using Linux Mint 18.3 (Sylvia). Until now, I've been using OpenSCAD with the GUI and never experienced issues. Now I try to start OpenSCAD from the command line, but it always opens an empty file, even if a file with the specified name exists.
Since I have a rather big script, I'd like to generate the STL's via the CLI. Due to this error, I can not even do any tests for parameter passing.
What I'd like to do is to issue a command (flom the command line or in a shell script) that says "Set objectID to 1, render and export the result to stl".
Here is my M(N)WE:
// test.scad
objectID = 2;
if (objectID == 1)
difference(){
cylinder(d=20, h=50, center=true);
cylinder(d=16, h=50.2, center=true);
}
else if (objectID == 2)
difference(){
cube(50, center=true);
cube([35,35,70], center=true);
}
Any help will greatly be appreciated. | You can specify variable values from command line using:
openscad ...\
... \
[ -D var=val [..] ] \
... \
... \
filename
See the OpenSCAD Manual. |
My printer is making mistakes on the right half of the print, but not the left I am an absolute beginner having issues with my Monoprice Maker select v2 printer.
The left half of my prints look fine but the right half always gets messed up. When I watch it print the right half of an object it seems that the PLA isn't sticking even though I level the bed thoroughly beforehand. I don't think the problem is that the right half of my board is not sticky enough, because when I move the print so that the whole thing prints on the left half of the bed the problem persists.
I have attatched a photo to show what I am talking about. Any help is appreciated
Edit: I'm using inland pla. The extruder is at 220° and the bed temp is 60° | I found the problem. This model of printer Monoprice Select v2 has bed warping issues so when the bed heated up it would warp severely. I bought a glass bed and all my problems were solved. |
Increase volumetric flow rate using a longer nozzle I'm looking to increase the printing speed, through increasing the volumetric flow rate, which is currently at 5 mm³/s. Larger amounts cause the feeding mechanism to skip steps.
I'm running at 190 °C, which helps with easier bridging less stringing and personally see no reason to increase the temperature to the popular 205 °C.
So, my thought process is the following: since I run at lesser temperature, there is still potential for the heating block to provide more heat and I need a longer nozzle to accumulate more heat and provide more surface area for transfer to the fillament (PLA), to speed up the melting of the plastic inside the nozzle (which seems to be the bottleneck).
That's similar to using larger tips for soldring iron, when faced with heating up large surfaces in order to desolder something large, since we need to stay at precise temperature, and need to increase the heat supply as well.
The suggested solution is to switch to the E3D's Volcano "everything included" kit. Which is nice and cool, but I don't think it's that necessary.
Is it possible to just switch to a volcano nozzle? (Manufacturer#: VOLCANO-NOZZLE-175-0400)
Would it actually noticeably help to increase the extrusion speed?
Current setup:
Ender 3 Pro, no mods
Classic 0.4 mm nozzle | Yes, the Volcano or the Super Volcano allow for larger flow rate (typically when using larger nozzles), that is where they were designed for. Just the nozzle will not help you, you need this larger nozzle shaft to be inside a Volcano heater block, else you cannot transfer the heat.
According to measurements from Metaform, the volumetric flow of a Volcano hotend is larger than the regular E3D V6 hotend. |
Easiest way to build a horizontal hotend mount at home, without printing For my Frankenstein's printer I am at a loss with the hotend mount. I cannot drill holes of 16 (upper diameter) and 12 mm (clamping diameter, 6mm high) which i would need to mount the E3D V6 clone I have.
What I am looking for: a hotend mount plate that tightly fixes the hotend while having some holes for screws to mount it to the horizontally moving x-y drives. As I cannot print yet, it needs to be manufacturable at home. I thought of something like this:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:285405
I could get a piece of wood thin enough to fit the 6mm gap for the hotend, would not really be able to put any screws through it along the flat axis. also I would have to glue the layer with a 16mm hole on top. Not to say that I don't own a drillbit of 16mm diameter...
Are there some completely different ideas around which I didn't think of yet?
Additional info: the x-y axes are made from a scanner bed and an underneath mounted dvd drive laser positioner. Ideally, I'd want to mount the hotend directly to the DVD drive but a) there is almost no space for that, and b) I'm pretty sure I will burn the DVD drive's motor somewhere along the way, so I don't want to put too much work in the individual DVD drive. | You could cut a v-notch groove in a piece of plywood to hold one side of the groovemount neck, and then use a bolt through another piece of wood to push the neck into the V-notch.
There are lots of options when building RepStraps and JunkStraps. Really depends on what sort of hardware and fabrication capabilities you have on hand. |
Dimensions off on final part I'm experiencing an issue with my Makerbot Replicator 2X (2000+ hours printing). The dimensions of my final part are smaller than what is initially modeled. My parts have been coming out roughly 0.3mm smaller than what is initially modeled. Is this a common issue or does this sound more like I may have a hardware issue?
I've confirmed that all my belts are tensioned properly and lubricated correctly. I haven't seen a calibration step that would correct for this issue short of manually scaling my parts to correct for the offset. The offset appears to only occur in the XY axis, never seems to happen in Z though
Example:
In the part modeled I had the width designed to be 35 mm (face to face, parallel walls). It doesn't seem to matter what size of part I have the final dimensions always seem to be off by about the same amount. | Yup that is what happens. It is simply the plastic cooling and shrinking. It will happen on just about any printer. 0.3mm on a what 40mm part. That is 99.3% on target.
There are some great blog links about it,
and here is a Stack overflow where I talk about it more in detail.
The only mitigations I can think of is
1) use a hear chamber.
2) use a SLA 3d printer.
I wouldn't worry about it. Just make sure your designs have good tolerances. |
How to add a proper fillet to corner of a cuboid in Fusion 360? I am a total beginner to Fusion 360. I need to add a fillet. Look at the picture to get better idea. | There are probably many ways to do this, this method describes how I do this.
First you need to fillet the top, then you chamfer the edges.
Create a lid:
Fillet the corner edges:
Chamfer the lid edges: |
Will 3D Printed Dice Be Fair? Is there anything to the process of 3D printing that might make the dice unfair/land on a specific side more frequently? Or will any imperfections be negligible, thus making the dice fair? I'm more concerned about making a d20 than anything else, so focus on that shape if need be.
I am using a MakerBot Replicator+ with FDM, so take this into consideration if it affects your answer, and if you believe a different printing process would have an advantage over this don't hesitate to include it. | It probably won't be fair.
Incidentally, I have a decent amount of experience with 3D printing.
It depends heavily on the particular technology that you're using to do the 3D printing, but nearly all forms of printing aren't perfect--depending on the design you make (solid? honeycombed? hollow?), there will be slight, or not-so-slight variations across the faces, which will result in an unfair die. In particular, the faces that are parallel to the build surface will probably be different compared to the ones that are angled.
You could probably deal with some of these problems with some kind of post-processing, but honestly at that point buying dice would be easier. 3D printing is for making custom or prototype objects, and isn't really suited to mass production of simple shapes like dice.
Even manufactured dice have some imperfections, and a slightly unfair die probably won't make much of a difference in gameplay, but it will be hard for you to determine whether the imperfections from 3D printing are severe enough to make the die unfair without rolling it many times and looking at its distribution. Again, at that point, it's easier to just buy the dice.
That being said, custom d20s can be super cool looking, and if you're going to 3D print something, might as well make it look cool... |
FLSUN QQ doesn't print and stops at Z=15 mm When I try to print something that is not the test model already on the SD, which means when I try to slice something in Cura 4 and than I start the print, the nozzle stops at Z=15 mm and only the extruder motor goes foward and backward. I tried to modify the G-code but I didn't solve the problem. I need help because it's my first delta 3D printer and I don't know what to do. | A distance of 15 mm is about the height of the probe or Z-offset. That can be a clue.
Compare the G-code from the testprint with the G-code you sliced. It can give you other clues. |
How to build a CT scan into a printable 3D model? I have a set of 2D pictures from a CT scan.
How can I convert them into a 3D model for 3D printing? An example looks like this: | Using the terms "convert CT scan to 3D model," I found a number of links of tutorials. One of them is described as free, with registration and appears to be web based. The link, Embodi3D, appears to have a relatively comprehensive set of instructions to accomplish your goal.
Instructables also has a similar tutorial. Should neither of these prove suitable, the search terms above may be of value.
Image below via Instructables: |
Is it possible to 3D print shapes of atomic orbitals for a regular customer? Disclaimer: I am not a professional 3D printer, so I'm not really familiar with how 3D printing works.
I was thinking about trying to make a real life model of the atomic orbitals, to clearly see how the orbitals are really shaped. I thought about trying to 3D print a block, made up of colored transparent "ink", in such a way that the darkness of the color at a point in the block should be proportional to the ψ2 value (probability of the electron cloud). This would print a block in which high density areas are darker than light intensity areas.
My question is, would it be possible to design an algorithm to print a specific darkness of ink at a specific location based on the computed value of ψ2, which is obtained by solving Schrödinger's Equation. Also, would it be possible to have this fullfilled at a reasonable price to be afforded by a regular customer, such as an engineering employee? | As Darth pixel mentioned, your best bet would likely be to explore subsurface laser engraving which makes little bubbles inside acrylic to make it translucent (frosted) on the inside in certain places. However, it is expensive, it has no colors, and the resolution isn't usually great (it may look speckled on the edges instead of having a smooth gradient from clear to whitish).
A better option might be to 3d print a probability map of a 2D image an orbital cloud where height corresponds to probability rather than color. (So it will look like a hill or group of hills) This would only run you a few dollars. |
RetinaCreate Optimal Rotation I'm currently using FSL3d's RetinaCreate to prepare 3d-files for printing for research purposes. In this, I am relying on their Optimal Rotation feature which rotates the object by, as far as I can tell, judging models on their stability with regards to the printing direction. After rotating the model, supportstructures are generated to keep the model in place while printing without the bits and pieces floating about and to keep structural stability.
My question is, as I've neither found a manual nor any source-code (and admittedly I am terrrrrible at maths), how can I describe the kind of algorithm/logic used by the software here? This is essential for me, as I need to describe this in my research. Cheers, Jesse | Optimal rotation can be considered from different perspectives. For example
as little support as possible. This way app tries to orient object so as much surface as possible doesn't overhang and doesn't need support
bed only support. App tries to orient object so all overhanging parts can be supported directly from the heatbed (not from the object itself)
But have a look on Meshmixer as Ryan Carlyle suggested. In this app you can see 3 kinds of auto orientation procedures. Additionally Meshmixer can create angle support and tree-like support.
In terms of mathematics.
I cannot suggest any sources but you can imagine the way it calculates such optimal rotation. Let's say it will be dead simple explanation of the second approach:
Let's get all faces (facets) and let's project their center points on the "floor" (heatbed) or "ceiling". If imagined projection line slices any other faces then rotation is not optimal. App can calculate "a weight" of such orientation and then try to find the smallest weight of all possible orientations.
Of course it's not that simple. App has to manage concavity, which face requires support at all, and many other aspects but in general you can imagine the algorithm.
edit
"as little support as possible" could be considered as easier to imagine "as little shaddow as possible" and the problem can be simplified to projection and ray tracing
similarly "bed only support" could be simplified to "cast shaddows but not on itself" |
Top layer and walls have gaps even with 120 % flow (Cura) I'm printing with Geeetech A20 printer, PLA.
I've started printing the same test piece while changing the following parameters:
Temperature from 215 °C to 195 °C (lowering by 5 °C on each print)
Flow multiplier from 100 % to 120 % (increasing 5 % on each print)
Speed on two first prints was 60 mm/s and on two last 40 mm/s
Bed leveling is perfect, the hardware seems to be in tact, the nozzle is clean and still the walls on the outer curve print well all the time, but in the inner circle they seem to be under extruded (even though flow is up to 120 %)
I am planning on going on with these tests until I get the perfect print, but I am hoping somebody can guide me on what to try next.
I've been reading about the issues on so many articles that now my head is a mess and I just need some clear instructions. | You are lowering temperature and increase the flow at the same time - which is contradictory (filament is less runny, but you pump more of it). Though 195 °C seems to be very safe for printing PLA at 40 mm/s. Just doublecheck that when you disable motors, and push filament with hand, it melts quickly and easily goes out. Otherwise you will deal with temperature-related issue.
Outer walls are usually printed slower, and even when underextruded, part of line may appear constant thanks to leaking filament (it has time). Next retraction will cause stop leaking, and the other wall is printed with almost no pressure. Maybe your constant issue with "inner circle" is just a consequence of such moves.
My suggestions:
Did you calibrate the extruder (steps per mm)? - if not yet, do it (it's a basic skill); to quickly check if this could help, try to continue increasing flow by 5% and observe what will happen then, because maybe this is simple underextrusion due to incorrect steps/mm?
Are you sure that extruder motor is not loosing steps? (e.g. too weak motor against the pressure)
Are you sure that filament is not slipping? (e.g. blunt driver's teeth, or too loose idler)
Could you unintentionally enable volumetric extrusion? |
Fusion 360 M3D Slicer I have created a design with fusion 360. I tried to print it with my M3D Pro printer but it seems the designs have a flaw.
If I try to print the bottom part, the second layer is wrong. It seems to have moved to the left by a few centimeters.
Here is the link to the .stl files and pictures of how the first few layers turned out.
https://seafile.fmk.me/d/09e43aa7fc8e416ab187/
The bottom.stl file can be loaded and viewed in the m3d software but leads to faulty print after the first layer. The top.stl cannot even be viewed in the M3D software.
Other 3D files from thingiverse etc. can be printed without a problem.
Do I need to enable any special features to be able to print those files correctly?
Yours, Felix | FMK, I loaded the two STL files, top.stl and bottom.stl into Meshmixer. Using Analysis, Inspector, no errors were found in the models. I then loaded the STL files into my slicer, Simplify3D. Due to common Y/Z exchange, the models were loaded in a vertical orientation. It was simple enough to use "Place surface on bed" to get things "squared up."
The g-code preview showed also no failure points.
My first suggestion would be to ensure that you have your model flat to the bed. I've run into too many Thingiverse models that the creator made with a non-zero planar reference, that is, the model was tilted a few degrees.
You say that you created the model in Fusion 360, which would imply that your model is square to the plane.
I'm not familiar with M3D software, but if you have the option to use a different slicer, use Slic3r or Cura to see if you have the same results.
As it stands, I'd consider no fault in the model files. |
Recommend simple software to create calibration print for table leveling I've just bought Anycubic i3 Mega printer and trying to level it.
So far I've printed test object and 2 others but looks like there are problems with leveling.
I want to make image of 5 small one layer squares(one in each corner and one in center). Looking for recommendations of simple software/tutorials/approaches to do it. I tried zbrush but found that it kind of complicated. | You are probably looking for something like this:
Note this is for large beds (300 x 300 mm), so you would have to X, Y scale this in your slicer.
This is a simple part that is very easily generated with OpenSCAD 3D design software (very good modeller if you are familiar with software coding), but could easily been designed in any other tool.
Another leveling and centering print that is created with OpenSCAD is this, and could be a start for you to create your own design:
Note that the file with the design is located in the "files" section.
Edit:
Some code for OpenSCAD made within 5 minutes (I don't type fast so it could have been faster if I did not use the constants, but if you go OpenSCAD, making parametric designs is almost a must ;) ):
// Set constants as you like
width = 30;
depth = 30;
layer_height = 0.2;
first_layer_height = 0.2;
nr_of_layers = 2;
box_size = 180;
// Calculated parameters
height = first_layer_height + (nr_of_layers - 1) * layer_height;
// Draw the test object
translate([-width/2, -depth/2,0]){
// Draw the center square
cube(size = [width, depth, height], center = false);
// Draw the corner squares
for (x=[-1:2:1]){
for (y=[-1:2:1]){
translate([x * (box_size-width)/2, y * (box_size-depth)/2, 0])
cube(size = [width, depth, height], center = false);
}
}
}
Rendered figure: |
Printer inverted Y-axis I made a custom printer with RAMPS. I used Y-MIN endstop at beginning. After few prints I discovered that Y-axis was inverted (mirrored).
I fixed Marlin firmware and now I have:
#define Y_MAX_ENDSTOP_INVERTING true
#define INVERT_Y_DIR false
#define Y_HOME_DIR 1
#define USE_YMAX_PLUG
I also connected the Y-endstop to Y-max pin on RAMPS.
Now the printer homing in the same direction than before (in front) and the y-endstop works as expected.
If I try to start printing or if I try to press the "center" button in Pronterface, the Y-axis moves in the wrong direction.
Can someone help me? | This blog post shows 3 main solutions:
Flipping the motor cables (As suggested in the other answer)
Switching the x and y-axis:
This may switch the direction of your y-axis depending on the way your printer is setup)
Change the direction of the axis in firmware which you can see below how to do:
"When the solution opens up, you will see many different files open. You need to navigate to the Configuration.h file. Within this file scroll down to the following lines of code:"
// Invert the stepper direction. Change (or reverse the motor connector) if an axis goes the wrong way.
define INVERT_X_DIR true
define INVERT_Y_DIR true
define INVERT_Z_DIR true
"This is where you need to switch the values around. If they are currently true, change them to false and if they are false, change them to true. Due to the fact I was having issues with my x-Axis, I have changed the above to the following:"
// Invert the stepper direction. Change (or reverse the motor connector) if an axis goes the wrong way.
define INVERT_X_DIR false
define INVERT_Y_DIR true
define INVERT_Z_DIR true |
Thermister stops reading temp after a few seconds. (Marlin 1.1.8, Tronxy X5s stock Melzi board) I think it's best that I explain what my issue is before I explain how I arrived here. I have a Tronxy x5s with a stock board that I am repairing for the sake of repairing, even though I know I should probably just spring for a new board. It's the principle of the thing.
The extruder thermistor accurately reads for a few seconds, and then gives a negative reading as if it's been unplugged.
I know that this is the same reading of an unplugged thermistor because when you unplug either the extruder or bed thermistor from a known-good port, it gives this same negative reading.
It is not attached to the original pin. It is attached to a new pin that I moved it to. I cut the old pin off from the thermistor port and soldered the new pin to the traces of the port. Then I changed the pin in the configuration file, and it works, for a while.
The electronics are messy but sound; I have used my voltmeter to verify connectivity and voltage.
The thermistor works; it reads a little over 100kΩ in my hot garage and the temperature changes after I put it in my hand for a few minutes. But this temperature change only registers, as explained in the rest, for a few seconds.
I am sure there's a configuration somewhere in the firmware that I am missing that causes that pin to either go "off" or become disused after a few seconds.
Greater context:
The printer was working great for months, but one day the extruder thermistor shorted so badly that the Analog to Digital pin on the Arduino powering the Melzi board was permanently damaged. The temperature reading consistently stayed at 260 °C, even when unplugged.
I wanted to come up with a repair solution rather than replacing the board (even though I have plans to do that anyway), so I downloaded the datasheet for the Arduino Mega 1248P and looked for other ADC pins I could use. I found that ADC Pin0 was unused on the board, so I thought I'd isolate old pin (ADC Pin 7), solder the trace to the new pin, and change the firmware to reflect the new pin.
Then I changed the pin used for that extruder thermistor reading in the Pins_SANGUINOLOLU_11.h config file (the old Melzi board for the Tronxy X5s is a Sanguino):
// Temperature Sensors
//
#define TEMP_0_PIN 7 // Analog Input (pin 33 extruder)
#define TEMP_BED_PIN 6 // Analog Input (pin 34 bed)
Changed to
// Temperature Sensors
//
#define TEMP_0_PIN 0 // Analog Input (pin xx extruder)
#define TEMP_BED_PIN 6 // Analog Input (pin 34 bed)
I didn't know what "pin 33" was or used to be so I just put xx in the comment.
Anyway, my hardware was good, and my software was supposedly good, so I flashed the new firmware, plugged it in, and turned it on:
Yay! But after a few seconds...
Boo. It stops working.
I am sure my connections are solid: I've tested for connectivity and voltage. Both the new port and the heat bed thermistor port get 4.97 volts, so it's not a voltage drop. It's something in the Arduino.
Any ideas? | Thermal expansion is opening a connection somewhere. It might not be one of your solderings, but if you shorted the board bad enough to fry pins, it could have cooked something somewhere else, and putting current through it is heating up the spot enough to break the connection. Either somewhere else in/on the board, or inside of the IC chip itself. |
Can I repurpose the ISP pins in the lower right corner of the Melzi board? Background: I have many years of experience with AVR and ARM Cortex PLCs and I feel very comfortable using them in projects but I am not an EE or SE. So, if I make a mistake or misunderstand something, keep that in mind. Thanks.
I cracked open the case on my Maker Select v2.1 and I noticed that I have a 2x3 header that is labeled ISP. This is fairly standard for the AVR PLCs and the Melzi board that I have uses the ATMEGA1284P.
I have asked at numerous forums and nobody seems to really know the answer (the downside to RepRap--people use but don't fully understand).
I'm wondering if I can tweak the Repetier firmware (I'm using the stock version 0.91) to use the ISP headers as a standard SPI bus. It has the SCK, MOSI, and MISO pins but it doesn't have the SS pin.
What I want to do is put a port expander on the SPI bus and break out additional usable GPIOs.
So, is there a hardware limitation or any other reason why I wouldn't be able to repurpose the ISP headers into an SPI bus? | In theory, you can; but, you may need those pins to attach an external programmer to bring your system back to life when playing around with the code.
Here are a couple of articles that could help if you still want to pursue that path:
Can SPI programmer interfere with other components on same pins?
Can I reuse ISP pins for other tasks?(Target: Atmega164p)
Another option (the one I chose) is to just buy a RAMPS board set. I got one on ebay for $19 and it have lots of more options for IO. That way you can play and still go back and plug in your stock Melzi and print whenever you need it.
I got all this for $40 - boards, display, cables, power supply, and even shipping
Here is a really nice detailed description of converting a Duplicator i3 from Melzi to RAMPS. The process would likely be very similar for your printer.
The biggest challenge will likely be setting up the firmware
BTW, what printer did you get? |
Filament that will not stick to wood glue? I am looking to 3D print some small molds that will allow wood glue to dry but not stick.
Is there a recommended filament that is known to resist binding to simple wood glue?
Alternately, is there an inexpensive adhesive (like wood glue) I could use instead that will not stick to the 3D printed mold? | You are looking for a filament that does not bond to wood glue, or as weak as possible. You misunderstand how wood glue "bonds" to plastics:
Wood glue is typically PVA. It bonds to wood and paper by seeping into them before curing and hardening. The mesh of the glue entangles fibers of the wood/paper and itself, bonding with not only the exposed surface but also with material up to the depth it penetrates.
When such a glue is applied to a typical print surface, it seeps into the cracks and through print imperfections but does not penetrate the print to the same degree as it does in the open wood fiber setup. It clings to the surface and only bonds - if it does - only to the surface layers. The same effect happens when you cast resin into for example a silicone mold: there is much less chemical bonding, at best at the interface, and quite some interlock.
To prevent such, two things should be made: first, you need to smooth the mold as much as possible and have all the angles right. It might be easier and faster to coat the hard molds in a smooth lacquer, which not only removes the creep areas but also acts as an interlayer, making release easier.
Then, you should use a mold release agent. Mold release agents come in many shapes: I have seen Talcum Powder being used effectively for both metal as well as cold casts, if the shape of the mold was well made (no undercuts, no unpowdered areas). Easier to apply are usually mold release sprays for many applications - careful, some are PVA based and would be the same as the glue you want to cast. For a concrete casting, I had used plant fat as a decent mold release agent.
What might be an alternative to wood glue depends on what you want to do with the finished product.
As far as materials that actively don't bond go, you could look into POM (Which is a pain to print and expensive - it's a bearing material) or nylon (also a pain to print). |
PRUSA likes the bed to be cleaned with isopropyl alcohol. What else should I use? I have the original Prusa i3m3 printer. Prusa recommends cleaning the bed before each print with isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol), with only occasional cleaning with acetone. The textured bed prohibits using acetone.
Given the SARS-COV-2 situation and COVID-19, isopropanol is impossible to find, and will not be in stock on shelves in the US for months.
What would you suggest as an alternative that might still be found on store shelves? | Ethanol (Ethyl Alcohol) should work just fine as long as it's around 80% or more. It's very similar to isopropanol as a cleaning solvent. What you're basically doing is removing any stray grease from the bed with a solvent that evaporates quickly.
Methanol would also probably work. It's very poisonous though, and shouldn't come into contact with your skin, so it requires a bit more careful handling. Methanol also has the benefit that it can't be used for hand sanitizer (since it's absorbed through the skin), so supplies shouldn't run out.
Look for alternative sources, for example, methanol is often sold as de-icing agent for pneumatic brakes on trucks. Just make sure it's pure alcohol without anything funky added. |
Premium heated bed upgrade options? The stock heated bed which came on my Creality printer is significantly warped beyond any simple leveling with the screws. Lets say I want to upgrade the stock bed to a premium heated bed, does such a thing even exist? None of the beds I see list any specs or tolerances regarding flatness or deviation.
What should I be looking for to ensure I am looking at a superior bed? | 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. |
A single angle, single phone model windshield mount -- a job for a 3D printer? My end goal is getting high quality dash footage from a 6 month road trip I'm going on. From my research, very few dash cams support 4k 30fps filming, and the ones that do overwrite their own footage really quick, so instead of that I'd like to use my iPhone. I have a wide angle lens for it, and I figure I can mount it to my windshield, behind the rear-view mirror.
But here's the problem: there are no windshield phone mounts that allow for the angle I need. They're all designed to point the phone screen at the driver, and the little ball joints that let you set the angle just don't work to point the camera straight ahead. I've tried like 5 different ones, and they all have this problem.
What I need is a solid thing that sticks to my windshield and holds my phone in the correct direction. Once stuck, it never needs to be adjusted. I think I could use 3M strips to stick something to the glass, so the only remaining part of the mystery is this: A piece of plastic the exact right shape to hold my phone and point it at a specific angle.
My question is: Is this a good use case for 3D printing? And if so, how would a complete amateur get started on this?
A few more requirements that I'm not sure if 3D printing can meet:
It would need to withstand heat, as it would be left in the car on hot days in the south.
It can't be too brittle, as speed bumps and dirt roads will knock it around a fair bit, and it has to support a large phone with an added lens. | You'd need to print in a heat resistant material - ASA for example - and design the part for your needs, but this project is certainly feasible and doable with 3D printing. If that isn't enough for you, you could drill a hole to the internal cavity (it's best to have an infill pattern that does not split the internal cavity into several ones. Gyroid is one of these) and fill it with resin to make it even more sturdy.
With the right design, you could also go for SLA/DLP aks resin printing, but I am not well versed in the properties of printed resins but that they have some of the best inter-layer bonds.
If you don't want to get a 3D printer yourself, order the part printed, which usually comes cheaper than an entry-level printer with better quality for a one-off project as you won't have to learn the ins and outs of your printer and how to ensure the quality in the material you choose. Some print services also provide really exotic materials. |
3D printing problem: waved walls The problem
When I print with my mElephant 3D printer from Makeblock, the prints come out with waved walls like in the picture below. I am using PLA filament from https://makeblock.lt
What I tried
I tried changing temperatures 190-220, tried to change the flow rate. Also checked if the bolts are not lose. Everything seems good.
My printer | I had the same problem with ABS, but printing different test objects I found out that the distance between the wavy structures depends on the cross sectional area of the object. Printing the testcube in 70.1% (1/sqrt(2) times of the original size) takes half the time per layer and the distance between two grooves doubles. I was printing ABS with 0.1 mm layer height and the simple bang-bang heat bed controller. The temperature is clearly wandering for 4° with a period of aproximately 2.5 minutes, which corresponds to the groove distances. After changing to a PID controller for the heated bed the temperature stayed within 0.1°C and the problem was gone. Several hundredths of a millimeter thermal expansion of the heated bed can have substantial impact at 0.1 mm layer height!
You can enable the PID controller for the heated bed in Marlin or Skynet firmware by enabling (removing the //) here:
//#define PIDTEMPBED
and disabling (putting // at the beginning of the line) here:
#define BED_LIMIT_SWITCHING
in Configuration.h. Calibration of the PID controller can then be done with the GCODE Command:
M303 E-1 S90 C8
for 90°C. I had to preheat the heated bed before, otherwise the calibration would run into a timeout. The command will return parameters for the PID algorithm. The values can then be applied by the
M304 P579.01 I100.87 D586.0
GCODE command (here for example values). Everything can then be saved to the EEPROM with
M500
Bang-Bang controller:
PID controller: |
Replacement Z Probe for MP10 Has anyone successfully replaced the inductive Z probe on the Monoprice MP10 (Mini or regular) with a different type, such as BLTouch or IR?
I find that the stock inductive probe isn't so accurate, and since it's inductive it only works with the aluminum build plate but not with glass or PEI, which I much prefer. | From Thingiverse you can find a BLTouch mount for the MP10 (and MP10 mini):
Note that in order to use the BLTouch sensor you need a different controller board that supports connecting a BLTouch sensor as the MonoPrice controller board doesn't support connecting a BLTouch sensor.
From ref.:
A BLTouch adapter for the Monoprice MP10 & MP10 Mini. NOTE: you will need an open source control board to get this to work as the stock firmware on the MP10 line of products does not allow for a BLTouch. |
Hotend heating failure too short before limit I am trying to resolve this for months and have tried almost everything, I guess.
I am using Marlin firmware on a custom extruder with a custom fabricated heating block in which heater and thermistor (Marlin Temp_Sensor 11) are set up perpendicular to each other. Whenever I try to heat it up to 200 degree Celsius, it falls short and fails at around 140 and that too with a very low pace (especially between 100 to 140).
I have already tried PID tuning, ADC values calibration, etc. Also, I have tried varying the values of Watch_Temp_Sensor in Configuration_Adv.h. I don't know what's going wrong.
Can extruder coldend fan have an effect on the heating of thermal block? I have tried heating the hotend without cooling the coldend, although it takes around 10-12 minutes yet it works perfectly fine then and it reaches to the desired temperature.
The power supply is working fine
P.S. I am not using any kind of pre-built extruder like E3D etc.
This is the setup:
This is the thermistor setup:
This is a view of heater position: | There are many unknowns at this point, you need to work methodically through each stage. You probably also need some test equipment, at least a basic multimeter. Ideally a temperature probe too.
First, check that your power supply can drive the hot-end directly. You already know how long it takes to reach 120°C, so be sure to not let it heat too far beyond this time. This will bypass all of the control logic, and risks overheating your hotend/burning out the heater - but it should be OK if you limit to a few minutes.
Check the temperature reading, and cross check with some PLA or other low melting point filament to see if you actually reach ~180°C. Check the voltage as close to the heating cartridge as you have a connection point. It should be at least 11V (with a 12V PSU). My guess is that you have a bad connection somewhere...
If you observe the hotend getting hot enough to melt plastic, check the thermistor readings. You should see a fairly constant rate of heating well past 200°C. However, I expect this will work fine.
Finally, check the hotend mosfet drive and output as the hotend reaches the target temperature. It should be on, then switching on/off, then off as you pass the target.
If this all looks OK, repeat but with the board in-circuit and controlling the heater. It may be that the mosfet is damaged, or it is not being driven very well - but to progress past that point we need to see voltage readings at various points. |
Where to find information on 'fast' or 'professional' 3D printers? I work for a company that makes items from plastics.
Many or our current runs are between 500 and 5000 copies, but knowing the company, if we find a good method to do smaller runs, they are willing to see if it is a good commercial option.
At the moment we do use several different methods but the technical people are not yet looking into 3D printing.
While I am not sure printing is the right option just yet, I would be surprised if it will not be in the future.
At this time I am interested in finding information to convince the tech people to look into the abilities of printers and what would impress them to look further would be printers that can produce in short times or at multiple stations so the overall run will be relatively short term.
Our current items are mostly simple in shape, (disks with relief print) and small in size (no bigger than a 2 pound coin).
Do you know an online magazine where the tech people can look or can you suggest a (few) printer(s) to look at right now?
Links to online general information or names to search for will be great.
Knowing our current bunch of tech people they will likely prefer commercial available printers but proven 'home build technology' might be useful as well. | Since your company specializes in small objects, SLA printers seem to be a good choice, since it has better detail but small printing area. However, SLA printers tend to require lots of post processing.
If you need a printer for rapid prototyping, you should be using FFF or FDM printers which don't need any post processing. At most, you could sand surfaces to have a smoother finish.
If you need fast printers on the other hand, Delta type printers could be something to look at. Kossel or Rostock printers are faster than standard XYZ printers/CoreXY printers.
As for magazines, Make Magazine features 3D printers and 3D prints if that's what you're looking for.
Terms you can look up online (this includes some names of popular printers): FDM printers, SLA printers, Kossel printer, Rostock printer, CoreXY printer, Prusa i3, Formlabs Form 2, Ultimaker
If you have any questions and/or I got anything wrong, please notify me. |
Gap between infill and walls for one filament only When I'm printing with my Chromatik filament white, 1.75 mm in diameter, I observe a gap between the infill and the walls (see picture).
Everywhere on the web I can find explanations for this kind of problem (apparently it's the symptom of loose belts), but I have this problem for this filament only. I have the filaments Chromatik electric blue and Octofiber black and I don't have this issue with them. I tried to increase the temperature by ~10 °C, but it didn't have much effect.
Have you ever seen that guys? I repeat, it's with this filament only. | I have observed similar issues between walls, not necessarily between the infill and the walls.
It is most likely that the viscosity of this filament is way different (less fluid) than the other filaments you print. Not only mechanical issues (to be precise: inaccurate positioning e.g. caused by loose belts) could play a part in this, but also printing speed. A more viscous filament needs more pressure and time to get the filament through the nozzle. This is exactly what happened in my case, because of different wall speed line settings (inner and outer), the filament did not flow fast enough leading to under extrusion. In your case you probably also have a higher infill than wall speed, so lowering your infill speed may mitigate your problem. Also, most slicers have an option to define the overlap between the infill and the perimeters/walls, you could also increase that for this filament. |
Can MeshMixer export models for color 3D printing? I have captured several models using 123D Catch and Autodesk ReCap 360.
I do all my "clean up" work in MeshMixer to prepare the models for printing, and while exporting to STL works great for printing on my home FDM printer I haven't been able to get color files exported.
I would like to export scanned models from MeshMixer and upload them to an online printing service (i.e. Shapeways or iMaterialise) and have them printed on high end color machines.
My current workflow goes as follows.
Export raw model (OBJ) from 123D Catch or ReCap.
Open model in MeshMixer v10.10.170.
Remove unnecessary parts of the model.
Export model as OBJ, OBJ with per vertex color, or VRML.
Zip model and exported texture files and upload to an online service.
The file in MeshMixer looks great, but ends up with either jumbled or nonexistent textures when it's uploaded to an online service. I'm guessing I'm exporting the file wrong for 3D printing, or possibly that I need to do some post-export editing to make everything line up correctly. | Color is only displayed if you set MeshMixer to render VertexColor:
MM menue/View/MeshColorMode/VertexColor
Color should be visible if VertexColor is active.
Meshmixer is a sculpting program, so it isn’t made for taking exact
measurements, creating mechanical parts, or creating architecture
models.
Basic rendering options make pretty screenshots, but advanced users
might want to add in backgrounds or set up custom lighting.
Also, you can read more about this matter on this link. |
Poor surface quality when sweep interrupted I just started 3D printing a few weeks ago, so I'm still trying to get a handle on the tricks. I printed something with a flat surface and a few raised pieces (shown below). I'm pretty happy with the surface quality overall; however, in the locations where the print head came back for it's second pass the quality is worse. Is there any way to fix this? I'm assuming it's a slicer issue...
Using Ultimaker Cura 4.4 & Ender 3 Pro | It looks to me like you have underextrusion in these regions probably due to loss (oozing) of material during travel moves prior to printing them. Aside from small gaps in the surface sweep at the part you're talking about, I see a long slightly-diagonal light-gray line between the middle of the right and the middle of the bottom of your image, which appears to be material that oozed during combing.
Make sure you have retraction enabled, have sufficient retraction (at least 6 mm for bowden; somewhat less for direct-drive) and either disable combining or set max combing distance very small (like 1.5x nozzle width) and see if this helps. |
Apparently systematic nozzle clogging A Monoprice Maker Select V2, upgraded incrementally with a Micro Swiss all metal hot-end, machined lever, and D4 extruder gear, systematically fails to produce complete prints, as seen below:
The following observations can be made.
The nozzle clog appears at different heights/elapsed times, so it does not seem to be because of heat creep, which ought to take the same time to take effect, each time.
All the clogs so far have been easy to clear manually, once the hotend has been made accessible.
The filament (1.75 mm PLA) is quite new, has only been sitting on the spool at the top of the printer, seems regular in density, is not visibly damaged etc.
In the original configuration, before the upgrading, the printer worked fine for some months.
One possible explanation might be inconsistent temperature in the extruder, but the display does not show any great variation.
Any other theories? These latest prints were made at 210 °C.
The nozzle clogging was verified, each time, by trying to extrude using the printer controls; and then cleaned manually by taking off the "cold end" part, heating the extruder, and pressing the remaining filament out by hand.
Not so long ago the nozzle was cleaned with ethyl acetate and a needle, so I do not believe carbon build-up is the explanation.
Cura settings: | The Micro Swiss hotend uses an all metal hotend. These type of hotends are more difficult to operate considering they do not have a Teflon liner that shield the filament of heat creep. From this article:
Jams and clogs are often from a combination of excessive heat and
non-optimal material flow. This effect is worsened by poorly cooled
all-metal hot ends, high torque extruder gears, small nozzles/layers,
slow printing speeds, too thin first layer, and excessive retraction.
The bold faced text in the quote sums up what is causing this. A smaller gear requires more force/torque as the arm i.e. the radius is smaller.
The article describes what steps you could do to alleviate the problem. Of all the suggestions, "Minimize retraction", seems a possible candidate for you to look into considering the posted print settings. As this is a heat related problem it is advised to also increase your printing speeds, these are pretty low (30 mm/s for slow and 60 mm/s for normal printing) and also check the cooling of the "cold end" (the fan that cools the radiator fins). Also reduce the printing temperature, 210 °C is pretty high for PLA filament, personally I don't go over 200 °C (note that this depends on your filament, but most PLA brands can be printed in the 185 - 195 °C range).
You have a pretty large retraction specified. The Ultimaker default is 6.5 mm is considered to be large, but works perfectly for Ultimaker machines (read Bowden tube setup). In my Ultimaker 3E which uses all metal hotends, or, in my custom HyperCube Evolution, also Bowden, but with a lined hotend, 6.5 mm retraction works perfectly.
Please look into this answer and this answer. Both describe that the retraction performance is worse with all metal hotends. My experiences are exactly the same with metal hotends, at least the cheaper production ones (I tested cheap all metal hotends, but also ran into problems because of production and design errors, I have not tried the better quality heat breaks/throats yet).
Please lower the retraction setting considerably to see if it has an effect. The Monoprice Maker Select uses a direct drive. Direct drive extruders do not need a large retraction length setting. If the filament is hot in the throat (as there is no PTFE lining that in fact acts as an insulator), too large of a retraction may not be reversed when the filament cooles during the retraction.
I think you might be experiencing what is described in this question: "Extruder prints fine up until further down the print". This answer describes issues of the metal heat breaks.
To comment on your statement in comments above, I am not suggesting you should use a liner in your current extruder. I'm pointing out the differences. Metal hotends are just more tricky to operate regarding retraction and heat management. |
Is it possible to 3D print sharp objects with high details? And how? I mean 3D forms like these? In a small scale (height: 1-2 cm, width: 0.5 cm).
I want to keep all the form's details.
If it is possible, what printer do you advise? How much does it cost to print one piece like that in terms of ink? And what is the most permissive software for this kind of printing? | Best option for something like this would be to use an SLA printer. They can do sharper image detail compared to FDM style printers.
That being said, printing something like this poses its own set of challenges. In order to print a part, some surface needs to be in contact with the built platform, and depending on which surface chosen, you will end up with having some amount of overhang, or undercut. Not an issue in and of itself as these can be supported with support structures. For the size that you're looking at printing though, removal of the support material will be a bigger challenge.
As for costing of this, that's not something that this forum is used for, but these structures don't look absurdly difficult to print. If you were to contact a local print shop, or check on Google for an online print house, they will be able to give you costing on printing these. |
Why does PETG require slower speed? PLA has a heat capacity of 1.8-2.1 J/g-K, while PETG 1.1-1.3 J/g-K. This means that each gram of PLA needs more energy to heat up. I assume no "melting latent energy", since we talk about plastics.
The density is about the same.
Still, printing speed for PETG is said to be kept at max at 60 mm/s, while PLA can easily go up to 100 mm/s.
Why is PETG supposed to be printed slower than PLA?
Edit: a link to a more recent question may be of interest: Power consumption of filament extrusion | The density of PLA is around 1.25 g/cm³ and the density of PETG is around 1.38 g/cm³. When you're talking about the amount of energy needed to melt a particular volume (which is what your extrusion units are) rather than mass, you need to scale the heat capacities (with units of $\frac{\mathrm J}{\mathrm g\cdot \mathrm K}$) by the density to get $\frac{\mathrm J}{\mathrm{cm}^3\cdot \mathrm K}$. This brings their volumetric heat capacities somewhat closer: 2.25-2.63 vs 1.52-1.79 (about 47% higher for PLA rather than your figure of about 62%), but with PLA still higher.
You also have to account for heat loss to the environment. PLA is typically printed around 200°C or 210°C at most; PETG in my experience requires 250°C to reach low enough viscosity to be printable at any speed. Assuming an ambient 20°C, the rate of heat loss should be something like 25% higher for PETG. So the hotend has that much additional energy needed to begin with.
Beside that, PLA is printed at temperatures where it's still extrudable and able to bond even if the temperature drops significantly below the nominal nozzle temperature (down to 180°C, maybe even slightly lower), whereas PETG has trouble with increased viscosity and poor bonding right away if temperature drops.
Going broader still, PETG seems to need to keep its heat longer after being extruded in order for layers to bond well. (As evidenced by the need to lower fan or turn it off completely.) A slow-moving nozzle both provides heat (from the proximity of the nozzle itself) to slow the cooling, and reduces air flow across the part (by not causing as much air flow itself just by moving). |
What prints can I do to test/calibrate my printer for precision? I specifically want to test
calibration
tolerances
precision
accuracy
I'm having trouble with Print in Place models and I'm trying to find out if there's something I can do to improve my print quality.
The printer I am using is a Kossel clone, specifically a FLSUN QQ and assume FDM printing. | Any print you make can be considered a test print! But, specific test prints are easily found on the internet and lend themselves better for specific tasks. In order to improve your printer / print quality, you need to follow a meticulous series of tests and record the parameters you use to slice the model. Each test should be broken down into several print process parameters (and recorded) and tested for their effects (e.g. speed and temperature).
A general accepted strategy is to calibrate the extrusion process first and that look into the general accuracy.
Filament deposition calibration
An important aspect of printing is deposition of just enough filament (if you deposit too much the lines become wider, and so are the dimensions). To calibrate the extruder deposition of filament you can easily heat up the hot end, mark the filament with respect to a certain reference point and extrude e.g. 100 mm. Now measure the filament mark again with respect to the reference point to verify you actually extruded that same demanded amount.
Accuracy
For general accuracy printing of 20x20x20 mm cubes is usually fine. Note that the print accuracy is generally determined by the printer (construction) itself, but can be influenced by print speed. Large speeds in combination with a large mass of the printer head can lead to positioning inaccuracies (like overshoot). That said, you should also look into the printer itself. Does it have play? Are the belts tight enough, but not over-tightened? Is the bed skew, or are XYZ perpendicular?
This cube is frequently used to calibrate the dimensions:
Please do note that the poster of this picture probably produced a dimensional accurate print, but still faces under extrusion (as seen from the gaps between the lines)
If dimensions seem to be off reasonably, e.g. more than 0.2 mm (depending on the printer construction) you could change the amount of steps per mm in the firmware. Do note that the steps per mm is mechanically determined by the belt and pulleys.
More tests?
Even more tests can done to make specific filament adjustments. E.g. "temperature towers" can be printed to test the optimal parameters for filament flow and / or bridging (printing in air between two parts), or overhang (unsupported parts of the print). But, these last tests are not specifically designed for the issues you mentioned.
Tolerance test
Once you have calibrated the printer to the ability of yourself and to the capacity of the printer itself you could try to print a dimensional printing tolerance test. Such tests are usually constructed by cylinder shaped (or diabolic shaped) objects in a housing that is slightly larger that the shape. |
How to sort G-code on SD card based on material (ABS|PLA|SBS)? I have various G-code files stored at SDCard attached to my Prusa i3 MK2S printer. They are either for ABS, PLA or SBS. The more files I had on the SD card, the more I was running into trouble of finding for which material is which G-code.
To tackle the situation I created folders ABS, PLA and SBS and put new files into those directories.
Is there any better method of finding, backwards from G-code, which material settings were intended to be used?
If so, is there a way to read temperature settings from G-code by Prusa i3 firmware without printing the actual model? | Good question as I also ran into some files not remembering for which purpose or which material I printed these. The online G-code visualizers do not display the temperature or the correct filament width, so basically that won't help you (unless you modify the open source programs...). Reading from firmware would not be possible without adding a new feature, as far as I know, this is not implemented in Marlin Firmware or in Prusa firmware (which is based on Marlin).
When using a printer server like OctoPrint, you can store your G-code files in a folder structure that you can define yourself; so basically create a directory structure based on the material type, brand, etc.
However, it is relatively easy to write a small program in Python to read a file and interpret the lines (even if you're not a programmer). There are lots of tutorials and examples to find to open files read the file e.g. line by line and detect strings to identify the settings for G-codes M104/M109 (hot end temperature) and M140/M190 (bed temperature). Usually you slice your models with a specific set of bed and hot end temperature (which you know), so basically you can find out which material was meant to be printed with the G-code file. You could even let the program sort the files for you by moving them into separate folders.
I'll add it to my list of things I'd like to do some rainy day! :)
Note that some printers use different, or even custom G-codes to control bed temperature; e.g. when reading Ultimaker 3 G-code files you cannot see the bed temperature! |
Pronterface not connecting ERROR: A device attached to the system is not functioning I'm assembling a 3D printer with the RAMPS 1.4 shield (board) and an Arduino Mega. I have assembled the structure and the electronics (set drivers, placed the jumpers, connected stepper motors, etc.) and have uploaded Marlin firmware (configuring: thermistor, etc.) on to the Arduino Mega.
At first I tested my printer without end stops and at that time it worked perfectly.
Today I added three end stops and tested again. First it worked fine but after couple of minutes Pronterface gave this error:
> Connecting...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "printrun\pronterface.pyc", line 1053, in connect
File "printrun\pronsole.pyc", line 720, in connect_to_printer
File "printrun\printcore.pyc", line 46, in inner
File "printrun\printcore.pyc", line 197, in connect
File "serial\serialwin32.pyc", line 31, in __init__
File "serial\serialutil.pyc", line 261, in __init__
File "serial\serialwin32.pyc", line 71, in open
File "serial\serialwin32.pyc", line 186, in _reconfigurePort
**ValueError: Cannot configure port, some setting was wrong. Original message: [Error 31] A device attached to the system is not functioning.**
I tried removing end stops, re-wiring, removing all cables from the RAMPS shield except power cables. Still it gives that error. Although Pronterface connects to the Arduino board when the RAMPS shield isn't powered up. Also the Arduino's regulator is heating up.
Do I need to buy a new RAMPS shield? | Finally, I found the solution after frying up a Mega board. The problem is with the Mega board. Part of the board is not functioning properly or not connecting with the RAMPS 1.4 shield properly. So I tried with a new Arduino Mega board and it worked.
Also removing the D1 diode is the solution for the voltage regulator overheating on Arduino mega board as mentioned in question "Arduino Mega voltage regulator overheats with RAMPS board". |
Parts of my (apparently manifold) model aren't appearing in my Slic3r preview I have an STL file that, when I load it in Slic3r, looks fine, but somewhere in the actual slicing process, something goes wrong and parts of the model disappear.
That's the render on the left, and the slicing preview on the right. That big hole is the most obvious fault, but there are more little notches elsewhere on the model; you can see a couple on the bottom edge there. It looks like the program is ignoring some of the model's faces entirely. What's all that about?
The model passes every manifoldiness test I've thrown at it: Slic3r's, Meshmixer's, Blender's, and a couple of online services I've forgotten.The walls that go missing are pretty thin, but they're at least a millimeter at their narrowest point, so I think it should be thick enough for the printer to handle.
Here's a link to the STL file in question, on FileHosting.org, FlashHovering.stl. | I fixed it!
I had my extruder diameter set to 0.5 mm, and the narrowest point of the model was just a hair under a full millimeter, so I guess the program took it to mean that it should only put down one line of material. I made the walls a little thicker and now it looks fine. |
Temperature sets to cooling when print starts CR10s Pro v1 I've got this second hand printer today, but, when I want to start printing, the temperature sets to cooling mode and the print never starts.
This is what I've done so far...
Upgraded firmware for the board and screen to Tiny Machines latest version.
Check temperature manual for bed and nozzle and works fine
Level the bed
I used Cura with several profiles, even with an Ender 3 profile from my other machine to see if the slicer is the one giving issues
On other G-codes that i tried, the message changes to in the pause and completing percentage is set to 218 %...
Any ideas? | File name is too long, I had the same issue, shortened the file name and now printing perfect |
I need assistance replacing the PTFE tube in the nozzle on our Flashforge dreamer We disassembled everything in order to unclog the filament from the tube, but now I can't seem to get the nozzle to screw back in to the hotbed with the PTFE tube in place. Is there some kind of trick? I feel like if the tube were slightly smaller in diameter it would work. I'm using the same tube, just without the filament that had clogged it. Am I just not using enough force? | I got the same issue before. When you tried to push out the material from the tube, one end of the tube was being pressed. The tube was so soft that the diameter at that end was slightly increased. Hence it was difficult to put the tube back. When you tried to tighten the screw, more force applied and the tube end was pinched more. I got some spare tubes from the supplier. I simply replaced the tube. The PTFE tube could be pulled off from the nozzle. |
Does the resin vary from a printer to another? I am using a clear resin to print parts using a Formlabs printer. At the moment, I am using the resin from Formlab which comes in a cartridge that fits in the printer. However, I would like to move to a cheaper option if available. I would like to able to refill the cartridges that I have rather than buying a new cartridge.
Is it possible to buy some clear resin from an outer source or would that damage the printer? | According to Formlabs (at least their FormLabs Form 2 and 3 models), their resin is 405 nm which is a fairly standard resin.
There's a wide variety of resins our there that are compatible with 405 nm, and many resin makers/resellers advertise what brand, make, and model of printer they are compatible with. I have an AnyCubic Photon v1 and it uses the same 405 nm resins. You might have to do some testing to see what specific brand or style works for you, including changing your settings (if possible in the software you use). FYI, I use a version of CHITUBOX which does allow settings for exposure time, raise height, pause time, and a few others.
Knowing that it uses 405 nm UV also allows you to know what kind of UV lights to get for easy indoor curing, too.
I'd like to say that it's not likely for these resins to damage the printer, but FormLabs seems to use a plastic tray, instead of the aluminum tray I'm used to so I don't know if there would be a chemical reaction, though I'm skeptical if there would be. I'm assuming it's using a similar FEP clear film for the bottom to the AnyCubic, but I can't confirm this, since the FormLabs film seems to be integral to the tray, rather than replaceable.
I can see why you are looking for other resin options. One place I saw online has a 1 L FormLabs cartridge for \$150, when 500 mL on Amazon is usually between \$20-30. I've seen special resin, such as flexible, as high as \$60 for 500 mL and ABS-like resin for $40, though. Water washable resins seem to be in the \$40-50 range. There's also "natural" or plant based resin for about the same price as regular resin, but might have a different reaction to your tank.
I'd assume that every brand of resin (except for the rebranded stuff) has their own chemical makeup besides the various types of resin, so you might have to some testing, although I realize that messing up a tank that's \$150 to replace is not exactly something you want to do every day.
I can tell you that I've used at least 6 different brands of resin and they all react differently to the UV. I mostly have tested clear, and just that produces a variety of results, from how easy/hard it is to cure to what color it turns when it over cures. (I'm still trying to find a clear that fully cures actually clear.) Where I was going with this is that with all these resins I've used, I haven't had any that caused damage to the FEP film. Some have stuck really hard and I had to be really careful pulling it off. However, I've only had 1 film need to be replaced due to clouding, and I have 4 Photons and used all resins I've tested with all my machines. |
Is PETG filament food safe? I've been trying to find a 3D printer filament which would not release any chemicals if in contact with heated water for a substantial amount of time. So far, I've easily ruled out both PLA and ABS, as they're not considered food safe from what I can find. I have found PETG filament, which seems to be food safe.
My question is: "Is there's anything special you'd have to do to make sure the print is food safe, or as in my case, to make sure it's safe for usage in a mug?".
I will be using a steel extruder as brass ones may contain lead. | Many manufactures list their filaments as being food safe, but I would not treat this as "gospel truth". Apparently, the FDA considers PETG to be safe for food contact, but they are probably thinking about injection-moulded and vacuum-formed parts. Unfortunately, an initial search of the FDA's website did not yield any definitive information.
Even if a particular filament is genuinely food safe, that does not mean that a 3D-printed part made from it will be food safe, since there will be an abundance of nooks and crannies where bacteria can lodge and reproduce. You would have to sterilise a utensil before and after every use to be absolutely safe.
Anyway, good luck with making a water-tight mug with an FDM printer. You will probably have to seal it to make it water-tight, and then it will be the food-safety of the sealant that you will need to worry about. I would give it a miss, if I were you (at least, for other people's use). Items intended for one-time use would be OK, I suppose. |
When should I use a raft, when should I use a brim? Taken from the answer provided by @EricJohnson,
When should I use a raft, and when should I use a brim? What advantages does each have over the other?
Raft
Brim | A raft will allow for better adhesion for the whole print as the raft attaches to the printing surface and the print attaches to the raft. Rafts go all the way under the print and consist of multiple layers, whereas a brim is only 1 layer and on the outside of the print. Rafts are normally harder to remove than brims because of the increased contact with the print.
From my own experiences, the brim does not help a lot with layer adhesion as it is only 1 layer. I normally use a raft when I need a nice looking 1st layer that is not on the bed or when there are not enough contact points. |
Dual PSU with one switch fuse My home built printer has been having issues running properly. The x/y/z motors will run freely with standard non build position commands but when they are suppose to start a raft layer and they freeze up and don't respond properly. When I put my hands on my x/y motors they're cold as if no power is getting through, yet they ran just a moment before. I currently have a variable PSU which allows from 0-48v power output. I started turning the supply up and as I reached about 34v I noticed the motors started to run properly but my board did not regulate the power and instead started pushing the power through all of the ouptuts activating the second empty extruder and causing the heat on my extruders to rise to an extreme 300°C vaporizing my PLA. Ever since this incident my board continues to attempt to push power through all outputs regardless of the power output settings (ie if I set the output on my PSU to 11v, the motherboard still activates all motors and heaters) I am curious if I were to use 2 24v PSUs in parallel (or a series) if that would allow my motors to get the power they need without putting strain on my motherboard. | @TomvanderZanden's comment is right. You have probably damaged your motherboard and/or driver boards by applying 34 volts. You should never exceed rated voltages.
It might help to study stepper motor driver circuits a bit. Stepper drivers usually act as current sources, not as voltage sources. They typically have a high-frequency switch that applies pulses of voltage so that the current through the inductance of the motor matches the current needs for the desired step position. Motors generate torque from the strength of the magnetic fields, with is linearly related to the current through the coil. The voltage drives the current, but the current cannot change instantaneously in an inductive circuit. Unless the motors have an uncommonly high coil resistance, two to five average volts will be enough to provide the maximum current.
The motors are pretty insensitive to the voltage applied, as long as the current meets the specifications. The motor driver chips are sensitive to the applied voltage. They are sensitive because the internal switches and logic can only withstand certain voltages, and they are sensitive because the circuits assume that the current won't change too quickly. If the current gets so high that the magnetic material in motor saturates, the inductance suddenly becomes much lower, and the current can spike to very high levels. This current spike can destroy drivers.
Heaters also have a voltage spec. The heaters I've seen are specified for 12 or 24 volts. To avoid burning out, a heater must have a low enough thermal resistance to the object being heated that the inner heater temperature is not so high that the heating element is damaged. Powering a 12v heater from 34 volts would cause the current to increase by a factor of 34/12 = 2.83. The power would be that ratio squared because both the current and the voltage are higher. The heaters, whenever they were on, would be generating 8.02 times the power. This might not result in the good behavior of the heater control systems, and could damage the FETs which are driving the heaters.
As for changing the power supply, before doing that I would want to check that the power supply was not supplying the needed voltage and current.
When you've replaced the motherboard and drivers, and configured the drivers for the required operating current, attach a voltmeter to the power supply. Turn on all the heaters, power up the otors, and watch the supply voltage. If it remains true (say, within 15%), the power supply isn't the problem. If the voltage dips, or pulses, or does anything other than staying stable, I would consider a higher current (not higher voltage) supply. Connecting two supplies in series causes problems with the ground reference of one of the supplies. Connecting two supplies in parallel, unless they are designed for that use, often isn't any better than a single supply because they will not necessarily share the load well.
Good luck! I look forward to further questions. |
Filament extrusion always stops at some point during print I own a Creality CR-10 (using Ultimaker Cura for slicing) and I am experiencing terrible printing problems.
My problem: I am not able to print anything that takes several hours to print. For parts printed in 30 minutes or so, my printer usually works.
The prints end up like this (unfinished and with a lot of stringing)
This below is actually the best result I got so far.. (important note: there is no under extrusion during the print, it suddenly stops out of nowhere..)
(Although I have to use terrible retraction settings and need a lot of post processing because of all the stringing - you might have an answer for that too.. I just couldnt get the 3d printer to print parts properly with good retraction settings.)
The problem is that at some point of the print, no more (PLA) material is extruded and the printer moves without actually printing anything. The first couple of layers usually work (you can see that in the images) but after wasting almost 600 grams of PLA, I am not able to find a solution myself.
.
I have some suspicions:
Could the problem be the angle, the PLA is inserted into the feeder? (so that it is almost a 90 degree bend)? The filament comes from a spool in the right hand side. But I dont think that this would cause such a problem..
Is it a software problem? Here are all my cura settings (I even reduced the printing speed to 30mm/s at 205°C - still didnt work..) :-(
Could the length of the bowden tube and it tangling up be a problem? (as you can see in the image below)
And annother important thing: The feeder always grinds into the filament (even at those low retraction settings) and it is always very hard to pull the filament out of the bowden after a failed print. Sometimes its almost impossible and i have to use heavy tools for it.. that should be the probelem
I already did some atomic pulls, replaced the nozzle and switched the bowden tube.
I have a dream: My printer printing a part without any stringing and actually finishing the print. Please help me to achieve this dream..
Thank you for your help in advance. :)
(and the filament I used, sorry for the bad quality of the pic) | Stringing?
The stringing is explained by your relatively low retraction settings, 1.5 mm is not much for a Bowden setup. As do too high printing temperatures.
Stopping mid printing?
What you are experiencing is called clogging, the extruder cannot push the filament through the hotend and cause the grinding you report. Clogging mid printing is usually caused by insufficient cooling (for the temperature you print at) of the cold end (causing heat creep; slowly increasing temperature of the heat break), especially all-metal hotend assemblies are notoriously known for this problem.
Your Bowden tube does make a lot of kinks, maybe you can improve the path of the Bowden tube. Also if you are concerned about the sharp filament intake angle, you could print a filament guide: |
Can commodity 3D printer extrusion hardware and filament be used for injection molding? Assuming you have a suitable oven to maintain temperature at the filament melting point and a suitable mold that can handle the temperature, is a commodity 3D printer hotend and extruder, with large nozzle, suitable for injecting material into the mold? I'm thinking of a setup like having the hotend mounted through a wall of the oven, braced against a hole in the mold inside the oven, and feeding filament via motor or manual cranking outside. Or is much higher pressure needed to make something like this work?
Certainly there are better setups to do this for manufacturing at scale, but the point of this question is whether you can do it with minimal setup effort and cost using commodity parts and filaments rather than needing expensive or custom-built equipment and material sourcing.
For relevance to the site in case it's questionable: certainly if this technique is possible, it could be used along with initial 3D printing of a design and using that to produce a (e.g. high-temperature epoxy) mold. | Injection molding requires two major components: pressure and heat. So your question can be broken down into those two halves: can your average extruder handle injection molding temperatures, and can it handle injection molding pressures?
Let's start with pressure.
Per this page on the University of Minnesota's site, plastic injection molding tends to require pressures of around 2 to 8 tons per square inch. Assuming you're using a 0.4 mm nozzle, which has a cross-section of 0.126 mm², that works out to be 0.000195 (1.95E-4) square inches, which translates to about 3 lb of pressure total at the nozzle assuming you're going for the high end of 8 tons (16,000 lb). However because of the way that you're treating the molten filament in the extruder as a hydraulic fluid, you've got to deal with the fact that the "piston" on one end is actually quite a lot larger area, which means you have to multiply the force by that difference in size. The cross-section of 1.75 mm filament is approx. 9.62 mm², or 0.149 in². That's 76.4 times larger, which means you need to be pushing on the end of that filament with roundabout 230 pounds, or 105 kg, of force.
For reference, the Nema 17 that's on my extruder is spec'd at 76 oz-in of torque, geared down 4:1 through a Wade's extruder, and then acting on a hobbed gear with a 6 mm effective diameter (3 mm radius). Much to my own surprise, as I write this, that means that my little plastic extruder is actually capable of just north of 160 lb of pressure force! All these numbers would need to be recalculated for 3 mm filament, and I have no experience with 3 mm, so we're going to skip that one for now.
Now, that being said, my extruder is also capable of shredding filament if conditions aren't just right. The main two problems you'll have to overcome is 1) gripping the filament hard enough without destroying it, and 2) keeping the filament from buckling. I think if you got clever with some gears keeping multiple hobbed gears synced up, and a polished aluminum or steel feed tube, you could absolutely make your own extruder that's capable of consistently putting 300+ pounds of force on your plastic filament without it buckling or stripping. The downside is that your feed rates are going to be fairly slow, so each injection molding is likely going to take you quite a bit of time. A larger motor such as a beefy NEMA23 might help offset that by giving you much higher torque at higher speeds, so long as you can melt the filament fast enough. However we'll need to revisit these pressure numbers in a few moments, after I explain a few things about temperature.
Next, let's look at temperatures. Obviously we know that we can melt the filament itself as it's moving through the extruder. Using a Volcano nozzle or something, you can even guarantee molten filament at a fairly high extrusion rate. However most printers are designed such that the filament cools to solid (60-80 °C normally) almost immediately. Injection molding designs require that the entire mass of plastic be kept molten. Fortunately, ABS and PLA melting temps are easily reached by literally any toaster oven, so stick your setup in there and you're golden, right?
But wait, there's more!
One of the problems you'll run into immediately is that extruders are carefully designed so that the plastic is molten for as little time as possible, because molten plastic against a metal tube introduces a bunch of friction, hence the need for super high pressures during injection molding. If the plastic melts too soon, then you'll clog up your heatsink (the "cold" side of the extruder), and won't be able to extrude at all. This is a fairly common source of jams in 3D printing, where you're extruding too slowly and there's not enough cooling on the heatsink. Fortunately, E3D sells a water-cooled Titan extruder that would keep the heatsink cool. However the rest of your gearing assembly, and the motor, will also need active cooling, as heat damages the permanent magnets in the rotors, and the printed geared assembly obviously will melt if put inside an oven. Your best bet might be a water-cooled Bowden setup, assuming you can find tube fittings that can withstand several hundred pounds of force. You might look into using solid tubes like brake line rather than your normal PTFE shenanigans.
TL;DR:
Get you a water-cooled extruder, make a super-strong Bowden setup, and gear down a huge motor with a bunch of synchronized hobbed gears, and you might actually pull it off! There's plenty of Thingiverse extruder files you can use as a starting point.
As far as commercially available extruders go, however, I don't think you're going to find anything that's immediately available that can handle what you need it to without some level of modification depending on your selected injection pressures. |
Klipper BED_SCREWS_ADJUST and SKEW_PROFILE interaction Klipper lets you define a skew profile that is loaded / unloaded on demand during START_PRINT / END_PRINT macros called during printing of a sliced file. This seems to be the recommended way to apply the skew in Klipper, in fact it is in the documentation this way: https://www.klipper3d.org/skew_correction.html.
My question is, should I also manually load the skew profile prior to executing the BED_SCREWS_ADJUST built-in command in Klipper?
Or does BED_SCREWS_ADJUST ignore the skew entirely so it doesn't matter? | The skew correction works in X/Y axis while bed screws helps you correct the ax axis. Since they don’t work in the same axis, I don’t see why they would interfere with each other. |
Ender 5 Plus not going "home" (or zero) correctly I have been successfully using the Ender 5 Plus for a month now. But suddenly the printer wont go back to zero or "home" correctly. Whenever you press home or start a print it should go and hit right side, then top and finally go to zero. However right now it moves up directly from wherever it is place. What can I do to fix it? Any ideas? | Is your BL touch flashing red, or is it solid red? Flashing red means that the bed is raised up too high, there needs to be enough clearance for the measurement probe to fully extend when you start it up.
Even if it is not flashing red, try moving the print head and bed manually:
Remove your SD Card, unplug any computer hooked to the printer's USB cable
Boot UP Printer
Tap Settings
Tap Move
Move Z down at least 50 mm from print head
Move Y so it is resting against the stop switch
Move X so it is resting against the stop switch
Turn it off and wait for a minute or so
Turn it back on
Tap Settings
Tap Leveling - this will make it do the homing function
This should get you to the correct home position, but if you are still having problems, you need to re-level your printer manually and you may need to adjust the Z-offset.
The Z-offset tells tells the printer to Add or Subtract height on the Z-plane to get the nozzle close enough to the print bed that the extrusion sticks.
Let us know if this works for you, or if you found a different solution. |
How to configure Cura to run the Z probe before heating I'm using Cura as my slicing/printing software and I just started using the BuildTak printing surface.
The BuildTak is damaged by pushing a hot nozzle into it and my printer's (Robo3D R1+) autoleveling feature works by pushing the nozzle into the build surface.
Is there a way to configure Cura so that it runs the Z probe first, then heat up the nozzle?
My first sheet of BuildTak already has 10 small holes in it (at the homing position and at the 9 leveling touch points) | In Cura (and Slic3r), you can 100% customize what the printer does before printing your actual model through custom start/end g-code.
If you navigate to the Start/End-GCode tab in Cura, then select start.gcode, you can see what operations are run before each print begins. Lines prefixed with ; are comments, and does not affect the printing in any way.
Basically, we want to manually tell the printer to do the auto leveling before heating up the nozzle by editing the g-code in start.gcode.
G-Code generated with the default start.gcode:
If you try to slice some model with the default code found in start.gcode, you will get something like the following (depending on your printer):
; CURA AUTOMATICALLY INSERTS THESE TEMPERATURE CODES
M190 S70.000000 ; Set bed temperature to 70 degrees
M109 S210.000000 ; Set nozzle temperature to 210 degrees
; THESE ARE THE CODES FROM START.GCODE (for a ROBO 3D R1)
G28 ;move printer to endstops (the home position)
G92 E0 ;zero the extruded filament length
M565 Z-1 ;set z-probe offset
G1 Z5 F5000 ;move the printer 5mm above the bed
G29 ;run auto-leveling
; THE ACTUAL MODEL BEGINS HERE
;Layer count: 168
;LAYER:0
.
.
Analyzing the g-code output
At the top of this code snippet, we can see that Cura automatically inserts g-code for heating up the bed and nozzle to their respective temperatures with the M190 and M109 g-codes. This means the printer always will heat up the nozzle before reading the start.gcodes that we set. However, if we manually override M109 code in start.gcode, the M109 at the top will automagically disappear from the generated g-code output! (Thanks, @TomvanderZanden!)
We could therefore use the auto-leveling command G29 before manually setting the nozzle temperature with M109; specifically, we want to add M109 S{print_temperature}, which reads the Basic -> Print Temperature-setting in Cura, and replace {print_temperature} with it automatically.
Manipulating start.gcode:
In order to postpone heating the hotend till after probing, start.gcode could be something like:
G28 ;move printer to endstops (the home position)
G92 E0 ;zero the extruded filament length
M565 Z-1 ;set z-probe offset <----- ( YOU HAVE TO ADJUST THIS, READ BELOW)
G1 Z5 F5000 ;move the printer 5mm above the bed
G29 ;run auto-leveling
M109 S{print_temperature} ;set nozzle temperature, and wait for it heat up
And that's about it! You can then use these codes in your start.gcode. However, you probably will have to recalibrate your z-prove offset.
Adjust z-probe offset:
Normally, auto-leveling is done with the nozzle heated for a reason: when the nozzle is warm, it expands slightly, moving closer to the bed. You might therefore have to adjust your Z-probe offset with the M565 command (as demonstrated in the snippet) to account for the increase in nozzle length when warm.
Remember:
Remember that when editing g-code in this manner, you will take full control of how the printer operates. You could therefore very well do something unintended, so keep the power switch close! |
How to I assign an imported STl file to a variable, polygon, or otherwise manipulate it? I have 2 STL files that I want to chop, rotate, and glue together. If I printed them and literally chopped and glued them together, I would be done. Very simple operations.
I imported them both into OpenSCAD, but I can't find docs or figure out a way to do anything to the STL files once they are imported. They imported fine. I don't know how to assign a variable name to the imported object, which I presume is the next step before I can rotate and move the objects around. I might be going in the wrong direction though, I don't know. usually during an import of a module you can assign a variable name, or instantiate it. Since the import also instantiates it, I'm at a loss for what to do next. I've programmed in a smattering of languages, but haven't touched OpenSCAD in ~3+ years.
When searching, I find a cornucopia of slightly related information like how to import a file from 2011, but nothing about how to work with it once it's been imported. | One can create a module to import the respective STL files.
module bring_it_on_1() {
import("c:/user/models/egg_on_face.stl");
}
translate([-10, 20, 0])
bring_it_on_1();
Other modifiers can be used and will act on the STL file appropriately. |
On a LENS printer, does the head move, or is it table that moves when printing? I'm wanting to know how a LENS printer moves to create 3D prints. | Whilst this is not a definitive answer, if you watch the video on their website, LENS 450 Systems, it is the bed that moves in the X and Y axes - the head remains static. The bed also appears to move in the Z axis, after each layer (as there is noticeable bed wobble).
However, the head is on an armature so it could be that which moves - it is not entirely clear.
LENS 450 System for 3D Printed Metals
Note that the MR-7 system appears to be similar to the 450, with its "3 Axis CNC Control System". However, the 850-R differs, inasmuch that it has:
5 Axis CNC Control System
XYZ gantry + tilt-rotate table
which are not mentioned in the specifications of the 450 and MR-7, so the 850-R could well differ from the video. |
Why does my Anycubic Predator print backwards? My Anycubic Predator prints really well except for everything being backwards. Text and anything that is right or left handed comes out mirrored. The same files print correctly on other printers.
Is this a software issue or hardware? | The right-hand coordinate system is the most used system on printers. So, when facing the front of the printer, the most common arrangement using a is:
X+ will move the print head to the right
Y+ will move the print head away from you (towards the back of the printer)
For a Delta printer, when facing the printer, the Z pillar/tower should be at the back, the X tower on the left and the Y tower on the right. Do note that these tower are not corresponding to the axes movement, but are simply named as such so that you can use the designated stepper axes as indicated on your controller board. If you position the printer this way you have access between the X and Y pillars.
If the prints are mirrored in X direction, you need to swap X and Y steppers. X is the left column, Y the right. |
Slicing adds holes/cracks to my object I recently got started in 3D printing but here's an issue I can't seem to find a solution for (I don't know what exactly to look for).
Here's what I did:
I used InkScape to convert an emoji in to a svg and imported it in to Blender
Used the Solidify modifier to make the curve a solid and converted it in to a mesh
Extruded the mesh a bit, fixed a few non-manifold vertices and erroneous faces and saved the whole shebang as STL
Imported the STL in to my printers software:
After slicing it looks like this:
Is the software making a mistake during the slicing? Or is my mesh screwed up?
I have a FlashForge Finder and using the software that came with it: FlashPrint.
Edit: I uploaded everything to Thingiverse for those who are interested. | here is just a addenum to Tom van der Zanden's answer
this is (an example of) what you may design - nice object with virtual outline, and virtual fill
so this is what you see (and what you potentially expect)
but here is what you get (and probably not really expect)
red parts are the areas which are not covered by fill because nozzle cannot reach there
solution is
to redesign your object in smart way or
to use smaller nozzle or
to use smarter app (like Slic3r)
and of course you can use all 3 options together to get best results ;)
EDIT
here is simple explanation why smarter app could do the thing
and here goes the difference
green parts are new covered areas
not much but somthing extra |
How specific can I get setting layer heights? When choosing a layer height, I know that often you go as fine as your printer will do for better precision, but sometimes you go a little thicker, for speed, for example.
I also see 0.1 mm and 0.2 mm as common thicknesses.
What are my options here? When I'm working on a part where I want to print a draft piece, and the quality matters less, can I set it to 0.15 mm? 0.11 mm? The Ultimaker Cura slicer I normally use will let me put in almost anything, but what can it really do? If I can use values in between simple 0.1 mm increments, are there reasons I might want to do so?
For reference, I have a Monoprice Maker Select Plus with a 0.4 mm nozzle and, again, Ultimaker Cura as the slicer. But more general answers for other printer types and slicers are also encouraged. I want to know about this generally, and not just for one printer. | Layer hight can be theoretically anything as long as it fits into these ranges:
it needs to be at least one step for the Z-Axis motor to be physically possible
it should be at max 3/4th of your nozzle diameter to create an adhesion surface
In praxis, the lowest setting for layer height due to physical limitations of the extrusion systems is around 0.05 mm.
Also, not any number is possible, it is dependant on the Z-axis system: since one or one-half step is the smallest rotation that the stepper can achieve, the raise that belongs to this partial rotation is how much one and the next layer height can be together. The step limitation usually is of no concern though, unless one has a very steep lead screw.
As a rule of thumb: doubling layer thickness results in almost half the print time. 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 mm are common because they allow easy checking the printed accuracy in Z-axis with calipers. |
Subdivision surface for STL files How much should I subdivide a surface in preparation for 3D printing?
For computer graphics, I know that I need to balance the smoothness and the rendering time, but for printing, I'd like it to be completely smooth. Are there any reasons why I shouldn't subdivide a lot (e.g. 7x) in preparation for 3D printing? | Subdividing an existing mesh further won't do anything because you're not adding additional detail, just representing the same thing with more triangles. Subdividing as "preparation" doesn't make much sense. You should make sure the mesh is created with sufficient detail while modelling.
A mesh created for 3d printing should generally have a lot more triangles than one created for use in rendering, but within reason. It doesn't make sense to make the mesh (much) more detailed than the printer can print, and similarly having lots of triangles can make the slicer slow or unreliable. As a very rough guideline, I would say that 10.000-100.000 triangles per model is reasonable (but this obviously depends on the size and level of detail).
Some slicers may output G-code that will have segments corresponding to each and every triangle in the model, even if these segments are very tiny. This may cause the printer to slow down a lot while printing, but most slicers take care of this by merging small segments into larger ones. Depending on your slicer, you might have to watch out for not having the triangles be so tiny that the number of segments created becomes a problem. |
Flexible filament frozen I was thinking about what would happen when flexible filament is frozen. Would it become brittle or still be rather tough*. A situation I think of would be a ice tray in the freezer. It is nice to have some flex to get the ice out, but PLA and other filaments wouldn't work, but will flexible filament work?
*when I say 'tough' I mean having similar properties when unfrozen. | The behaviour of "frozen filament" will entirely depend from the specific formulation of it.
The term "flexible filament" encompasses a variety of different polymers as for example: thermoplastic elastomers like TPE and TPU (e.g.: ninjaflex), copolymers (e.g.: bendlay), copolyesters (e.g.: Ngen Flex), polycaprolactones (e.g.: PCL), etc...
Even in those broad classes of chemicals, the amount, type and quality of additives will affect the physical properties of the filament a lot. In fact rigid.ink even produces a flexible PLA that proves the point of additives radically affecting the properties of the main material.
In general, all materials lose elasticity at lower temperatures (a Space Shuttle came down because engineers failed to account for this). Polymers that do not contain water are unlikely to crystallise though, so I would expect it to become stiffer but not to fail catastrophically at 0°C. |
SeemeCNC Rostock V2 in 2020 Looking to get into 3D printing without spending too much up front for now. Found an assembled seemecnc Rostock V2 for sale at a very good price considering its MSRP is 1k for the kit pre-assembly.
My question is, will this 4 year old printer be significantly lacking in any way compared to a new lower-end printer from 2020? I know the technology moves so fast.
Thanks so much in advance,
Alex | I definitely wouldn't start with a Delta printer.
Cartesian printers have become "the norm" for a good reason - they're very easy to use and tune, so I'd recommend getting an Ender 3 or Biqu B1.
It'll still print just fine, but that MSRP is in no way realistic in 2020. If it's offered under maybe 100$, it might be interesting as a secondary machine, but I wouldn't pay more than that. |
Ender 3 v2 Cura Profiles - Anyone willing to help/share? I searched online, and found two YouTubers who shared their Ender 3 v2 printer profiles, and I've been having more or less better success with theirs than mine, possibly because I was basing mine off the Ender 3, and they were basing theirs off the Ender 3 Pro...
Would anyone here have the settings for the Ender 3 v2 for Cura, that's the printer definition, with the measurements, offsets, etc. and also maybe a few print profiles, one of my biggest problems is stringing, lots of my prints have stringing, and the new profiles helped with that, but I'd like to have some more, and also a solid baseline from which to build, and learn, and try to figure out what I'm doing wrong... | Use the profile for any Ender 3 model, or better yet just start from scratch and put in the important properties that actually vary per machine - bed size, temperatures needed, etc.
Cura profiles for specific printers, especially the ones Youtubers are promoting, are almost always misguided if not outright wrong. They're a mix something like 5-10% settings that are actually physical characteristics of the machine, and another 5-10% dubious settings that are tradeoffs that might help avoid common problems for the machine at the expense of making other (often worse) problems, and the remaining 80-90% personal preferences of the person who made the profile. For instance, looking at Cura's base Creality profile:
Machine max accelerations are all wrong, at 500 mm/s². The machine can actually handle at least 3000 mm/s², and unless you've updated firmware to have Linear Advance, increasing acceleration is the only way to avoid inconsistent extrusion.
Z speed limit and acceleration are very low. This makes seam more severe and has no benefit.
Print speeds are random and differ per type (outer wall, inner wall, skin, infill, etc.) which doesn't work right on a bowden machine without Linear Advance firmware.
Z seam type is overridden. This is purely personal preference and has nothing to do with the type of printer.
Gaps filling settings are overridden. Same issue.
Retraction settings are botched, especially increase of window for max retraction count from 4.5 mm (default) to 10 mm, which will cause severe omission of retractions (thus stringing, oozing, and failed adhesion) in any print with thin layers and fine detail.
Enabling skirt. This is purely preference.
Lots of support settings. What's needed here is 90% of a function of the object you're printing and 10% a function of your machine's properties and there's no indication that the settings in the profile have anything to do with properties of Creality machines.
Etc. etc. etc. Most of the above dubious/wrong stuff was added fairly recently in Cura, taken from the "Creawsome" profile popular on Youtube and Reddit. Before that they had a more minimal profile that at least wasn't wrong.
The actual properties you need to set in the profile for your particular machine are:
Bed size/print volume
Heated bed
Filament diameter
Nozzle size
Retraction length (depends on hotend and extruder type, bowden tube length if bowden)
Retraction speeds (depends on extruder capability & friction in path, etc.)
Fan speeds (depends on how powerful your fan is)
Setting max speeds and accelerations is also useful to get more accurate print time predictions, but not necessary. |
Affordable 3D printing of reflector Are there any 3D printing services or something similar to 3D print or injection mold light reflectors?
I'm trying to find something that is similar to PCB printing that allows you to upload a 3D design of a reflector and they will produce this reflector and coat it with mirror surface. | I would not recommend extrusion printers for this, because they are unlikely to produce a smooth enough surface. To get a clean surface, the irregularities have to be a fraction of visible wavelengths, which is to say on the order of 0.01 micron.
Without knowing what sort of reflector you're thinking of (flat? spherical? parabolic?), it's hard to recommend a specific optimal, cheap approach. All in all, you're probably best off looking in standard catalogs such as Edmund Optics. |
How to address bed scratching on a Creality Ender 3 So bed scratching seems to be a real thing, and not a single post I've come across (I've looked at more than 30 by now) actually answers the question on exactly how to stop this.
Now, I have an Ender 3 and this is becoming enough of a headache that I want to just give it away. I thought that the old bed was just wrecked so spend £30 on a new glass bed .. Guess what .. Wrecked that too.
Please don't suggest I level the bed - it is levelled, not gravitationally, but mechanically.
I have tightened everything up.
I have tried altering the XYZ axis on the actual printer.
I have tried adding some numbers to the Z axis in Cura, but it just snaps back down to zero.
I have played with base layer thickness, with no difference.
I have run nine different test prints, with every single one coming out perfectly.
I have ABS at 250 °C and bed at 90 °C. Sticking to the bed is not a problem.
Why .. Why, why why, is it scratching the bed when I then go to print something? Nothing has changed!! I even zero'd the test prints in Cura the same way I did my parts prints.
Would seriously appreciate some help before I just toss this thing. | Most likely your print surface is uneven. You can try rebuilding your firmware with mesh bed levelling that allows you to manually probe and store n*n grid bed mesh setting the height offsets at each point manually (however, on stock setup you might need to disable certain features for the compiled firmware to fit). Other option would be to use some kind of ABL as mentioned above. You can also try installing Z offset plugin on Cura and raise it up a bit.
The last thing to check would be comparing the test gcode to your slicer generated ones (via any text editor) looking for differences in G0/G1 Z movement in the beginning of the gcode. If there are ant differences, that would give you a hint where to progress further. |
Sudden underextrusion on Ender3 I have printed a couple weeks perfectly fine with my Ender 3. Two weeks ago I changed the firmware but the settings were all fine and resulted in good prints.
Now, suddenly during a print the extruder motor started to under-extrude.
I thought "hey, could be the file" and used a test file that printed well two weeks ago: Under-extrusion, barely a line.
I looked at the extruder, no filament grinding, no clicking from lost steps or moving against pressure. The Bowden tube is firmly seated though.
I measured what is coming out: instead of 50 mm I ordered to push into the hotend got 28.7 mm. So I went and looked at the steps/mm, which is 93, exactly what it is also on the TronXY X1, which uses pretty much the same extruder setup but for a different style, same sized gear.
I cleaned out the nozzle nevertheless, but that didn't change the results.
What might be wrong and how can I fix it?!
Edit:
Touching the filament while I was printing a freshly sliced test, I realized it DID lose steps, just the filament did slip back (almost) quietly. Pressing a finger on the filament made me able to feel the shiver in it.
Inspecting what was printed showed, that the nozzle had migrated against the print platform a little over the weeks. | A close inspection of what happened when printing the first layer resulted in this:
The missing steps on the new print came from the nozzle scraping too close to the print surface, which lead to no first layer
Readjusting the Z-axis end stop, which had moved down, resulted in no more lost steps, but the print not sticking for the first test.
Releveling the bed and making sure the bar was parallel to the bed resulted in a perfect first layer.
Lost steps and under-extrusion could not be replicated after 48 hours of rest for the printer.
I have no idea why the print had failed due to under-extrusion during the print, but apparently, my immediate tests were flawed enough to not detect the first layer height resulting in getting almost no extrusion. This I mistook for massive under-extrusion, making me believe something else was at fault. |
How to remove internal part of a hex grid I am modelling a few cut templates to be used on an hexagonal grid (honeycomb) material using OpenSCAD. Basically, from a reference cell, I need to select all cells that are within a given range and given angle.
I implemented this by creating an in memory grid that covers an area larger than what I need (extra range, 360 degrees), and then testing each cell for both the distance and angle requirements, extruding only those that test positive for both conditions.
Everything works as expected...
...but now I would also like to add the possibility to have the outer contour of the template without having each individual cell within it (so, a single thin line going around the whole "pizza slice" above).
I'm pretty new to OpenSCAD: what would be the best approach here?
(I'm happy even with a solution that requires to re-implement what done until now). | I ended up finding a reasonable solution myself:
Basically, I diffed two identical, non-hollow geometries, in which the first one had the cells larger than they needed to be (so overlapping with others), and the second one had them exactly of the right dimension:
difference() {
base_geometry(range, angle, infill, extra_padding = 2);
base_geometry(range, angle, infill, extra_padding = 0);
}
This way the only portion of the solid remaining was the extra_padding on the outer edges of the geometry. |
Slow speed of the delta 3D printer I'm running a large delta 3D printer with Repetier firmware.
The problem that is irritating me is that the speed of the carriages are too slow, like an old lady that is walking in a football field. When I command G1 Z10, for example, the carriages move with a super low speed. I checked everything but I couldn't find the problem.
Here are the specifics and the current settting of the printer:
electronics : Arduino Due + RADDS 3 42cmo6 6 kg
2.5 A stepper motors for x,y and z axes
3 TOSHIBA ''TB67S109'' stepper drivers (0.1 resistance, 1/16 mic stepping)
Vref of drivers: 0.7 V (when I increase this to 1 volt a weird
sound comes from steppers and the carriages won't move)
number of pulley teeth: 20
belt pitch: 2
steps per rev: 200
micro stepping: 1/16
steps per mm: 80
Max. travel speed: 300 for X,Y,Z
Homing speed: 100 for X,Y,Z
Travel acceleration: 3000 for X,Y,Z
Print acceleration: 1000 for X,Y,Z
PS: I'm currently calibrating the printer and haven't printed anything yet. | When you command a move such as G1 Z10, you are omitting the speed at which the tool head travels. Without specifying the speed, the speed from the last command or speed setting is used. Frequently, after levelling the bed, the tool head is raised in Z direction with a low speed (movement in Z direction is always much slower than in X or Y direction), if you command a movement after raising the tool head it uses this speed. For faster movement you must include the feedrate, e.g. G1 Z10 F600, now it will accelerate from the initial feedrate (e.g. 300) to 600 during the move. If you want instant speed you set the feedrate first and then move the tool head:
G1 F600
G1 Z10 |
What special considerations must be taken when designing parts for 3D printing? What are the 'headline' basic design rules for FDM?
Which topics for design principles do you recommend to someone who has purchased an FDM machine and wants to understand what is practical? In other words, where is the place to start when you don't yet know what questions to ask?
This question and its answer discuss design tools and the workflow but doesn't cover design rules.
Design rules here meaning the principles of what is special about planning a design to be manufactured with an FDM process as opposed to traditional machining or a printing process like SLA, not the detailed/automated checks that would be applied to something like a PCB layout prior to sign-off. | Designing a part for 3D printing often doesn't seem to have many special considerations, but I have learned the hard way, that there are some things to do differently. This is just a list of things to that one should keep in mind in addition to basic principles of design1 when designing parts, keeping the subsequently slicing the parts in mind too:
Print orientation
There are many ways how you could orient your print, but usually, there is one orientation, that has the least need for support. Look at your part critically and keep this orientation in mind when designing. Especially look at overhangs and bridging, and if you can get away without.
Overhangs
There are 3 sorts of overhangs:
Small overhangs ones that are neglectable.
Long overhangs which can get support.
Overhangs that can't be supported.
When designing parts, you want to make sure you only have type 1 and 2 Overhangs, as type 3 overhangs will sag and fail. Think carefully if you can rotate the piece to get a print orientation that does not need an overhang that can't be supported by an automatically generated support structure. If that is impossible, try to implement a sacrificial piece that can turn the overhang into a bridge.
Smaller overhangs can be made neglectable by adding a phase to the underside. This phase's angle is depending on the printer. In my experience, 70° is something many printers can manage, but I prefer 45° due to the ease of making them. A fuller can work to give a small overhang the needed support, but often has problems for larger overhangs!
Bridges
Overhangs turn into bridges if they are connected on both sides. These either have a limited length, depending on the printer you use or need a support in the center. Check if you really need a bridge or if you can rotate the piece to get away without.
Avoid vertical holes in bridges
It might be something that might surprise but a vertical hole or slot in a bridging part is something that often fails as the bridging strings just sag as they are terminated mid-air without a support structure and finally fall, ruining the bridge. Yet such a support structure sometimes could not be removed in all cases, so something needs to be done differently.
One such a solution is to add a 1-layer sacrificial layer on the bottom of the hole: printing a solid layer by bridging is possible, and the subsequent hole/slot can still be free. It has to be cut free after printing in post-processing though.
round holes in Walls
Round holes in standing walls can become problematic to print once the diameter gets too large. A trick to keep the upper parts of the hole to sag into the cavity, making it undersized or needing to drill it to size later. To prevent this, the upper side of the hole can be adjusted: instead of a round upper rim, turn the hole into a teardrop. This reduces the overhanging area. Keeping a 60° top angle on the hole should be fine.
If the hole is used to key an item to an axle, put the keyway to the top of the print orientation, so it takes the place of the teardrop-tip.
Some more about holes one can learn from Makers Muse (Angus Daveson)
Reduce internal structure
I have seen prints fail for strange reasons. One of them was a piece taken from a straight up industrial design plan, then scaled down. This one resulted in too much tiny internal geometry, resulting in a lot of material and time wasted on printing these internal pieces that nobody could reach, that were fused together for the original gaps were already 0.2mm and less and besides that, there was the occasional print failure.
Removing any non-essential internal geometry lessens not only the printer's load, but speeds up the print, lessens the material waste and can prevent failures due to clogs or other unexpected behavior. If you can't fix it in design, there are workarounds, but try to need to avoid them!
Avoid Intersecting Shells
As we are at it, often game and graphic designers are lazy and use intersecting shells. These can become quite messy in the slicing step. If possible, try to avoid intersecting shells, even as modern slicers have learned to fix this by themselves by now. The results of that are not always pretty if you forget to flag the "Union intersecting shells" option in your slicer.
Sizing
We might not always be aware of it, but prints do shrink in the XY axis and to a different degree in the Z axis as they cool, during and after the print is done. This is what causes warping in the first place and lead to many lost prints (especially on non-heated beds). This behavior has to be taken into consideration especially when designing bores. My suggestion for this is twofold:
Intentionally design the hole to be too small and add extra wall material in slicing, then drill it up to the right diameter. Drill slowly to not melt the plastic.
Learn your shrinking parameter for the material and design with that shrinkage in mind, possibly iterating the print a few times. Note that different spools/colors of the same material might have different shrinking!
Minimum Wall Thickness
A 3D-printer can not reliably print walls that are thinner than the extrusion width of a printer. The choice of the correct nozzle for an extrusion width is a question upon itself..
Tapping/Screwing/Inserts
For tapping prints directly, you need wall thickness - according to the norms - you'll need usually about 0.2mm diameter that can be tapped into for the standard sizes. Using 3 perimeters with a 0.45 mm extrusion width will give walls of 1.2 mm, which I consider a rather strong wall, and provides quite some tolerance to drill up to size and then tapping screws into. You will get away with 2 perimeters for smaller thread sizes (M3 and lower), but for large ones (M10+), you will want a fourth or even fifth perimeter.
Remember though, that the printed PLA is not good for very strong threading: Tapping prints directly is pretty much only for low- and non-load-bearing connections. If you combine several pieces with screws, try to design the parts to make some sort of compression fit using a bolt and nut, or use several, small diameter screws with a fine thread. Avoid coarse thread if you can, stay on the small side.
If you need a load bearing connection with screws, the best strength comes from using a metal insert or provide a space for a nut to fit into. Metal inserts are usually placed by heat-setting them: put the heat-set insert onto a soldering iron tip and push it into the slightly under-sized hole, melting and molding the print to fit the insert, providing strong threads that are held really good in the shell of remolded plastic.
As a compromise, modern slicers allow to use modifier meshes, that could be used to increase the strength of modeled threads or holes that need to be tapped.
Do you want to know more? CNC Kitchen (Stefan) had made some tests on the strength of these connection type.
Print strength
Keep these general rules in mind when designing load-bearing parts:
Generally speaking, FDM prints are strongest in carrying along their Z-axis when withstanding compressive forces, as then the print layers of the shell are forced against each other. It also excels at fighting bending forces this way. But this orientation is also giving us the lowest tensile strength, as each layer boundary is a possible breaking point.
The XY-plane usually excels in tensile strength but sacrifices some of its ability to withstand compression (it is not proportional though).
Printing a part at a 45° angle will give often a great compromise of strengths, but might need an additional surface to get a good first layer - this surface can be sacrificial with the use of support.
For deeper information on the strength of parts and materials in comparison and how to manipulate it, there are large playlists of tests made by CNC Kitchen (Stefan) and Thomas Sanladerer (Tom)
Post processing
Post processing can be your best friend when printing, just as it can be your worst nightmare. I won't detail all methods of postprocessing, but some that are quite applicable.
Assembly/Gluing
Remember to design your parts with gaps for the glue when designing parts for assembly, and you might want to include guidance notches/noses to make sure the assembly aligns. This is especially needed as the parts shrink a little and have a rough surface.
If you need to assemble your part due to the available print volume, be sure to include ways to key the parts together. Pegs or outcroppings/indents (often called keys) that match up to one another make alignment on assembly much easier. It can be a good idea to design yourself a "cookie cutter" file that is applied after designing the part that automatically includes the glue gaps and keys.
There are a lot of glues and other methods to merge the parts. A more in-depth look at some of them is What glues for PLA? but you will have to keep in mind how you want to combine your pieces in the design step - and account for it.
Print in Place/PIP
In this vein, learn the tolerances your printer can manage to allow print-in-place(PIP), allowing functional parts that require no assembly. PIP is something that isn't possible with subtractive manufacturing usually, but remember that in 3D printing you might need to break the parts free after printing from bridges or sagging. Usually, a single strong turn suffices. To be able to do this, you might want to include a position for an Allen-key to manually turn the parts.
To learn how fine your tolerances are, there are many tolerance gauges/tests around. A rule of thumb for many printers is, that 1 nozzle width is often easily achievable with a good setup, 0.5 nozzles are achievable with some effort and 0.25 is somewhere close to the 'holy grail' - you might want to change the nozzle to a smaller one in case you want to have very thin gaps.
Composite construction
There are ways to turn your (mostly) hollow prints into much stiffer versions of themselves by turning them into composites, for example by using a resin or a different hardening fluid (like foam or plaster) as a filler or coating material.
When planning to do so, remember to include inlets/outlets for it and the air. It can be a good idea to design the part in such a way that it just contains the walls and a pre-planned support structure. In doing so, remember to disable infill in the slicer to enforce the flow you want in your structure. Look at how the ribs inside of an airframe are designed for general rules on hollow parts: include holes. This allows the flow of your fluid into each and every corner instead of blocking the flow. This can also reduce the needed number of inlets and outlets from one per chamber to one per part.
Plastic Properties
Remember we work with thermoplastics. Learn what kind of postprocessing your thermoplastic allows and its mechanical properties. Some examples:
APS can be vapor smoothed with acetone.
Many plastics can be annealed by baking at or little above their glass transition temperature, increasing strength and layer-to-layer bonding.
When using power tools on plastic, use ample cooling and time, as otherwise, one quickly melts the prints!
Surface Finish
The surface of FDM prints is somewhat rough. To smooth it out there are 2 general ways: fill it up or smooth it down. If you want to fill it up, design the part undersized, if you smooth it down, add sacrificial thickness. It is common to combine both, adding body filler first, then sanding down till the print material shows through again. If doing this, make sure to check your sizing.
If there comes a lacquer layer atop, remember to account for that thickness: undersize surfaces, oversize holes!
1 - this means, that thoughts about postprocessing that are not unique to 3D printing are not elaborated on here. Examples are painting, coating or smoothing the surface mechanically.
Further reading/viewing
Further information can be gotten from these playlists, though they aim at times for newbies:
CNC Kitchen (Stefan): 3D Printing for Engineers Playlist
CNC Kitchen (Stefan): 3D Printing Tips
Maker's Muse (Angus): 3D Printint 101
Maker's Muse (Angus): Advanced 3D Printing Tips
Maker's Muse (Angus): CAD for Newbies
Maker's Muse (Angus): CAD for 3D Printing |
Why is CLIP so much faster than SLA? Stereolithography produces parts by projecting ultraviolet light on the top of a vat of liquid photopolymer, causing it to harden. CLIP produces parts by projecting ultraviolet light through the bottom of a vat of liquid photopolymer, causing it to harden. This seems like a minor difference, yet CLIP is reportedly much faster (I've seen numbers as high as 100x). Why is this? | It's important to understand what specifically is being compared. CLIP is much faster than bottom-up technologies that require a peel step between every layer. For example, the Form1 galvo SLA printer tilts the resin vat to separate the transparent bottom from the print. That is, by far, the slowest part of SLA/DLP printing with most modern light sources. Where the speed comes in is that without a peel, a continuous "movie" can be used to cure the resin rather than a series of alternating images and peels.
Top-down printers can print dramatically faster than bottom-up-and-peel printers. CLIP is not necessarily faster than top-down. For example, the Gizmo 3D line of top-down printers are very similar in print speed to CLIP. (http://www.gizmo3dprinters.com.au/)
Most "consumer" SLA printers these days use bottom-up-and-peel techniques, because this has some practical advantages over top-down printers:
Way less resin is required to fill the printer when the part is pulled out as it builds rather than being lowered into the tank (along with the Z stage) as it builds. Resin is expensive. This also means bottom up printers can be smaller and have fewer mechanical parts such as leveling devices submerged in resin.
Standard resins contain an inhibitor chemical that prevents polymerization in the presence of oxygen, which causes the surface layer exposed to air (and low-level stray light) to not cure. So top-down printers must shoot light through a non-curing layer before reaching curable resin. This makes the tuning more sensitive and can somewhat reduce detail compared to a bottom-up printer curing right on the window.
Replacement vats or windows for bottom-up printers may be seen by manufacturers as a profit-generating consumable, since they have to be replaced somewhat frequently.
Top-down printers have to worry somewhat more about resin flow rates as the part is lowered. Air bubbles may be pulled into the resin or the fresh resin layer above the part may vary significantly in thickness if the part is submerged too fast for the resin viscosity. (Admittedly, bottom-up printers will experience excessive suction forces and potentially break off bits of the print at high peel speeds.)
CLIP is a bottom-up technique that doesn't require a peel step, because the vat creates an oxygen layer over the window that keeps the resin from curing directly on the surface and sticking. In that way, it arguably performs more like a top-down printer than a bottom-up printer.
Top-down printers that are designed to overcome the above issues and use high-intensity light sources can achieve exceptionally high print speeds. This includes similar "continuous" build techniques used as in CLIP. |
How to activate Power Loss Recovery in Marlin? Standard Marlin has one problem: when the power suddenly is gone, the print is gone. Prusa and many china printers however come with "Power Loss Recovery" or "Power Out Protection" or similar. But especially China printers come without Thermal Runaway Protection, so in order to make the printer safe, one often has to get rid of TRP (in the basic shape it comes).
How can the PLR be turned on? | Marlin firmware has such a feature that can be enabled to resume printing after a power outage.
To enable power-loss recovery you should send
M413 S1
to the printer using a console (e.g. using Pronterface, OctoPrint, Repetier-host, etc.) or put commands in a text file with extension .g that can be printed from SD card. To disable power-loss recovery send/print:
M413 S0
To report the state of the power-loss recovery, send through a console:
M413
This will result in a returning message in the console of e.g. This Power-loss recovery ON.
To retain the setting, you can use M500 to store it in memory.
If you enable M413 in Marlin firmware, the printer will write a resume printing file to SD card e.g. every layer.
From M413 - Power-loss Recovery documentation I quote:
Enable or disable the Power-loss Recovery feature. When this feature is enabled, the state of the current print job (SD card only) will be saved to a file on the SD card. If the machine crashes or a power outage occurs, the firmware will present an option to Resume the interrupted print job. In Marlin 2.0 the POWER_LOSS_RECOVERY option must be enabled.
This feature operates without a power-loss detection circuit by writing to the recovery file periodically (e.g., once per layer), or if a POWER_LOSS_PIN is configured then it will write the recovery info only when a power-loss is detected. The latter option is preferred, since constant writing to the SD card can shorten its life, and the print will be resumed where it was interrupted rather than repeating the last layer. (Future implementations may allow use of the EEPROM or the on-board SD card.)
This means if you cut the power you can resume the print layer, the only problem is that the part must remain attached to the plate, if it comes loose it is hard to resume printing. This feature is now commonly found on printers these days.
The regular pause and resume functionality of the printer will not work when the power is cut over night, i.e. no recovery file is written in such a case. |
Thermoelectric cooler for part cooling fan? Is there any research into use of thermoelectric cooler along with part cooling fan to get quicker cooling without strong air currents that apply pressure to the still-soft material? I experimented with custom fan ducts in the past trying to get better cooling and avoid warping for printing thin layers of PLA at high speeds, but found that the concentrated stream of air blowing on the part actually deformed it before it could cool. At the time I wondered if using significantly colder air, at a much lower flow, would work better. But every time I've searched for thermoelectric (peltier) coolers with 3D printing, I've found results that are about cooling motors or the heatbreak (especially inside heated enclosures), nothing about part cooling.
If there is no research on this and I want to experiment myself at some point, are there constraints I should consider for how to mount it (in my case on an Ender 3, but also in general)? Perhaps on a separate intake duct before the cooling fan? Or between the cooling fan and hotend assembly to let the waste heat dump into the assembly that the hotend fan is already cooling? | On the printhead?
TECs or Peltier Elements are incredibly inefficient compared to airstream coolers. Their only benefit is perfect temperature control, from which you will have nothing because there is no firmware that cares for the temperature of cooling air or the cooling body of a Hotend. Also, a TEC creates a lot of heat on its output side - which means you heat the air just millimeters away from where you want to cool the air!
To get the heat produced by the TEC away, you either need a rather large cooling body - which is a lot of weight and space you need. As a result, you reduce the maximum print speed a lot. A water cooler isn't necessarily that much lighter, but it also gets us the trouble of having a highly conductive liquid right on the printhead.
lighter alternative: compressed air
You'd have much better efficiency by having compressed air decompress (as in: get out of a slim nozzle) slowly just a few millimeters in front of the air intake of your part cooling fan - expanding air cools down a lot, and running a compressor for a few moments takes less energy than running a Peltier element with the same temperature drop. In a pinch, a CO2 canister could provide the needed high pressure air, and a nozzle like you have it on an airbrush would work.
Move it off the printhead?
As the weight of the necessary secondary equipment is an issue, it might be better to move the Peltier element off the printhead. For example, by using a flexible hose that supplies the air to the cooling fan, and feeding that with precooled air - and now a Peltier element can shine: by having the weight be no longer a matter, we can use a rather large cooling body on the outside and cooling fins on the inside. |
Can I print jewelry without any loss of the precious metal? What is the 3D printing technology that allow to have minimal loss in precious metals when 3D printing jewels? | The jewelry industry typically uses printers that print in wax, and transform the models into precious metal by lost wax casting. Statasys offers wax printing in their Solidscape line, 3D systems offers ProJet. With this process there is basically no waste, since you can remelt the casting sprues.
I am not aware of printers that print directly in precious metal. It might technically be possible with DMLS but you have to fill up the entire machine with metal powder, which is cost prohibitive (and potentially more wasteful). |
Layman term explanation of the difference between voxel and point cloud can anyone explain in the simplest terms please what is the difference between a point cloud and a voxel mesh? | A point cloud is often derived by sampling. Each point represents an observation. Sometimes, a point cloud is turned into a surface by fitting triangles to the points in the form of an STL file.
A raster is a 2D grid of pixels. It divides the area of an image into constant-sized little squares. Each of these squares has a value.
A 3D raster is made of voxels. It divides 3-space into constant-sized little cubes. Each of these cubes has a value.
Pixels and voxels are rendering techniques. A point cloud is a sampling technique.
The Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voxel, is helpful.
In a real system the pixels may not be square or the voxels not strictly cubic, but in every system I've worked with, they do form a regular tiling of the plane for pixels, and fill 3d space for voxels. |
Marlin 1.0 works: Marlin 2.0 destroys Z-axis motion I have an FLSun 3D Cube, running off an MKS GEN V.1.4 main board. With Marlin 1.0, the Z-axis works great (and has been for three years). When I try to upgrade to Marlin 2.0, moving the Z-axis 10 mm results in extreme motion -50 mm at least, left motor then the right motor, three or four times, very fast. It's loud, it's jarring, and it's at the very least incorrect.
What setting am I missing? | I believe (from reference) the default steps per mm for the FLSUN 3D Cube are:
X, Y, Z, E0
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT { 100, 100, 400, 150 }
Default marlin 2.0.x are:
X, Y, Z, E0
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT { 80, 80, 4000, 500 }
Such a setting would explain the excessive speeds; while the printer only needs 400 steps for advancing a single millimeter, the stepper receives 4000, this implies a tenfold, hence larger displacement and higher speeds. |
Options for getting a really flat build surface I've been fighting on and off with issues with my build plate seemingly not being perfectly flat. I've ordered a machined straight-edge and some new feeler gauges to diagnose the problem (and test any potential replacement) better, but I'd like to get an idea of what options are available for obtaining a flatter build surface. I'm not really interested in approaches like BLTouch since I want accurate flat bottoms on my prints, not just consistent adhesion.
My printer is an Ender 3 and I believe my problem is a mix of wear to the Buildtak clone surface and warping in its backing plate. Mine is the newer model with removable buildplate and clips, and the backing is reportedly a "glass fiber" (FR-4) material that's hard to find genuine replacements for.
Glass seems like an obvious option - I might even put a buildtak clone on one side of it and use that most of the time - but I'm somewhat concerned about weight and whether having glass moved by the Y axis is going to limit acceleration. I've had (seemingly unrelated) problems on and off with layer shifts, which seem to be mostly Marlin's fault not mechanical, but I'm scared to introduce another factor that might encourage them.
Are there other non-glass options I should consider that would provide a rigid, flat backing? I'm very happy with the buildtak clones and their adhesion properties, so my leaning it to look for something that makes a good backing for them rather than a material that's intended to be built directly upon.
Measurement results: Using a machined straightedge and feeler gauges, the surface seems to be at least 0.10 mm but less than 0.15 mm lower within a couple inches of the bed center. This is plausibly just wear on the buildtak-clone surface, so I think I'll try to see if I can get by with just replacing that for now. But I'm still interested in the general topic of the question. | It all depends on what you mean by "flat".
Is the problem that the build plate isn't flat (perfectly planar), or is the problem that the distance to the build plate varies based on X and Y coordinates? They are very different problems.
"Bed Leveling" is the process of allowing the firmware to know the Z position of the build plate for every (X,Y) location. Some printers support measuring a mesh of points and interpolating the mesh. This compensates quite well both for warped build plate, and for bad positioning mechanisms which add some position dependent Z-axis offset.
If you really need a flat, planar, build surface, perhaps because you are printing mirrors or precision parts, glass should work well. It is still, and will not brook any inelastic bending. It will shatter before it takes on a curve. If possible, you could consider a Pyrex® bed, since it has a lower coefficient of thermal expansion and won't warp as much with a temperature gradient through the glass.
I tried to find a spec on how flat your glass might be. I'm assuming it is "float glass", which is made by floating molten glass on a pool of molten tin. I didn't find a spec, but I found this answer to a similar question:
I doubt you will find such a spec- float glass isn't manufactured for
that purpose and it isn't really in the manufacturer's interests to
maintain such a spec. that said, the stuff is surprisingly flat, just
as a side effect of how it's made. you don't say what your needs are
other than near optical tolerances . might just be good enough for
you. consider though that granite surface plates of certified flatness
can be had fairly inexpensively these days.
So, it is clearly flat. I can't tell you how flat. And the flatness depends on not applying stress to the glass that causes it to bed. Thicker is stiffer (probably at the third power of the thickness ratio). |
First layer of print comes out poorly even when placed on a raft (which prints fine) I'm printing PLA with the Creality Ender 2 and my print comes out totally fine with the exception of the first layer.
Here's the weird part though, if I place a raft or a brim below/around the print - the raft or brim will print perfectly cleanly. Even on a raft though, the very first layer of the actual print comes out ugly, as seen in the photo below, but the raft itself will be perfectly printed.
Following that first ugly layer of the actual print, the rest of the print will be 100% clean. This happens consistently every time I print any object.
The perfectly printed raft can be seen on the right and the ugly first layer that printed on top of that raft can be seen on the left. Be sure to click the image to see the details of what I mean. | Turns out it had to do with the nature of the small holes that I was printing. I had to slow the speed of the initial layer down from 25mm/s to 15mm/s and also set Cura to 'optimize wall printing order' so that it didn't jump back and forth between holes constantly.
I also sped up the travel speed to 50mm/s on the initial layer to minimize oozing (although I'm not sure this actually did anything). Print came out beautifully.
Didn't even need the raft. |
Palette 2 with an Ender 3 Printer Has anyone had any luck with printing multi-colored prints with the Palette 2 on an Ender 3? If so, what is your steps/mm for the Ender 3 and your flow rate in whatever slicer you are using? I currently have my flow rate at 100 % and my steps/mm at 104.4, and I believe this is what is causing my Palette 2 to not produce accurate results.
About the Palette 2
Palette 2 is a separate device providing one multi color filament out of multiple single color filaments.
As the Ender 3 does not support multi-colour printing, that's why I'm using the Palette 2. It allows any printer to print in multi color as it adds multi color printing to single extruder printers. | On this thread, Does anyone tried Palette 2.0 on Creality Ender 3 or Ender 3 Pro?, there are a couple of useful links:
There is a video, albeit for the CR-101, but that should be of help: YouTube - Setup Guide: Creality CR-10 with Palette 2;
In addition, this Facebook group, Mosaic Palette, Palette+, Palette 2 (Pro) Users, apparently has some users who have paired their Ender 3 with the Palette 2.
However, with respect to your question about the flow rate and steps/mm, there isn't much info out there about that, and no one seems to have experienced similar issues, but your issue might have something to do with profiles - which, as you haven't mentioned them in your question, it is hard to know if that might be the issue or not.
In the same thread, this post, states:
I use it with the Ender 3. There is a profile in Canvas and Chroma for it also.
This link here, Chroma for Palette 2, states that after using Cura, you then need to load the G-code file into Chroma v3.1, after having selected the appropriate profile. However, if you use Canvas, then there is no need for Cura nor Chroma, as Canvas can slice. This link goes through the whole process for Benchy.
At the risk of repetition, the process for preparing the print, post-slicing, is also given here, from Multicolor 3D Printing How To: Using the Mosaic Palette+ with the Creality Ender 3, albeit slightly different from the link above:
Setting Up Chroma:
When you load up Chroma, you’ll be presented with a blank canvas ready
to be filled with your 3D creations. In the top left corner, make
sure that you have the Ender 3 selected from the drop down menu.
After this you can click Load Print. From there you’ll be presented
with your gcode files that you have on your computer.
In this example we will be selecting the butterfly-1.gcode file, and
clicking Open. From here Chroma will be compiling and arranging the
settings for the gcode file to be displayed. This might take a minute
or more.
Selecting Your Colors:
Once the loading is completed, you will be presented with the 3D
rendering of our butterfly! This butterfly will be in 4 randomly
selected colors by default, but we will be changing this next! To
change the colors, navigate to the top of the screen where you will
see 4 colored circles, and drop down arrows along with each circle.
These circles represent the colors of each tool head.
To change the color, click on the Tool Head Colored Circle, and your
options for color will appear, we’re going to select Black for our
first color. After this, you will want to select the Default PLA
Settings by clicking the Drop Down Arrow to the right of the first
Tool Head Colored Circle.
As we make these changes you will notice that the 3D rendering of our
butterfly will change to our corresponding colors. Repeat this
process for the remaining 3 Tool Heads, remember to use the Default
PLA Settings for each Tool Head.
Saving Your Project:
After you have selected all your colors, you will click Save for
Printer in the top right corner of Chroma. From there, name your
file, and click Save. You will be then presented with a loading bar
as Chroma prepares our 2 output files. One of the files will be an
adjusted gcode file that has added the purge tower we just modified,
and the other file will be a file that goes straight to the Mosaic
Palette+.
Printing Your Project:
Once the files are ready, you will be presented with a screen that
says “Ready to Print!”. On this screen you will be presented with the
files you have created for your project, which for us are the
butterfly-1.msf which goes to the Mosaic Palette+ and the
butterfly-1.msf.gcode file which is your newly created gcode file.
You will also be presented with “Materials Used” for the project,
“Number of Splices” for the project, and “Number of Pings” for the
project.
After this, you will need to turn your Creality Ender 3 on if it isn’t
already. After making sure that you have all your components set up
and assembled correctly, then it is safe to begin the printing
process.
Depending on your specific project will determine how long the
printing process takes. But once your printing process is complete
you will be presented with your beautiful multicolored 3D butterfly
(or whatever your project was)! After printing is finished, you
should let the project cool before you attempt to remove it from the
tray. Once it has cooled you can now gently pry the project off of the
tray.
Footnotes
1 The CR-10 is, on a broader level, an Ender-3 with 2 lead screws and a slightly different board. |
Could you use ultrasonic vibrations instead of a roller with an SLS/SLM printer? I've been thinking, SLS/SLM printers currently use a roller to spread 3d printing substrate, but wouldn't ultrasonic vibrations spread the substrate more cleanly, accurately, and with greater density than a roller? | No
The problem is twofold. Resonance and Granular convection
Resonance
Let's start with an empty box. We toss in some powder to create the first layer and use an ultrasonic to create a first layer. What happens? The bed starts to resonate depending on the sound you send into it in patterns - and the powder starts to form valleys and ridges along them as one can see in this video.
Granular Convection
What happens if one shakes a box of fine granulate that contains larger items? Granular convection happens! All items raise simultaneously and the small items start to fall first, resulting in them getting under the larger ones, so as a result end up pushing the large items up.
Because of both effects, there won't be an even layer and it would raise the items printed, even if we managed to get good layers. |
Optimum ratio of line width to layer thickness for overhang performance? When I have overhangs in my model, Cura colors them red. However, I noticed if I make layer thickness thinner, the red area is reduced or disappears.
This could mean that thinner layer thickness is better for overhang, but it could also mean that a larger ratio of line width to layer thickness is better. It makes sense that if line width is 4X the layer thickness (such as 0.15 layers with 0.6 line width), overhang performance should be better than if line width is only 2X (such as 0.3 layers with the same 0.6 line width.
Is there a model that explains the optimum ratio of line thickness to layer height? Is only the ratio important, or is layer height also important by itself? | Cura high-lights overhangs in red if the printer would end up printing completely into thin air.
If your overhang is angled instead of being a purely vertical-to-horizontal transition, a much thinner layer height can increase the chances that enough of the prior layer exists to support the next layer being printed.
Basically, the thinner the layer (within reason), the greater the allowable angle of overhang that is safe to print. |
After 1.5 hours of printing quality degraded Testing my new Wanhao i3+. PLA plastic(Wanhao), basic normal quality settings in Cura (I guess 0.1 mm layer, 40 mm/s speed, 60c bed temp, 200c extruder temp). After 1.5 hours of printing quality degraded, it makes some loose structure.
Edit:
After finish I noticed that problem exists only in layers where it cycles printing/no printing. There is no problem on layers where it print continuously.
What is the reason can be and how can I fix that? | This is very likely under extrusion caused by your feeder pressing down too hard onto the filament. If the feeder presses the filament very hard it then gets squished a bit, this is not causing much issues when you're only feeding in one direction as the drive gear is still pulling on fresh filament and shoving the squished part down at a steady rate. BUT once you got retractions things get awful as the squished filament then gets retracted and fed again at the same pace but due to the elongation at a smaller rate of material causing underextrusion.
You can either trade it in to some overextrusion by adjusting the extra length on restart setting, retract a shorter piece of filament (like only retract half a mm or something) or loosen the feeder so it doesn't squish down on the filament as hard. |
Loss of extrusion in Stratasys FDM liquefier I am running a Stratasys Dimension 768 SST, with a "rebuilt" extruder (dual setup includes support + model). This extruder, basically, follows the OEM design with exception to the tubing diameter (few mils smaller for rebuilt, although there is a generous inlet taper and/or bushing, larger than the filament diameter feed stock) and the way the tubing has thermal contact with extruder body and cartridge heaters. The OEM design, apparently, had some thermal epoxy to "bed" the 2 nozzle tubes, which are brazed into the nozzle tip block. The approach, I am using, is Al foil packing around the SS tubes, tight to the Al extruder body (still brazed connection to the nozzle tip block). I had no choice but to recondition the extruder, because of a breached nozzle tube. In any case, with a cleared out nozzle inlet to start each time, I do get transient extrusion at standard temperatures of 250 (support) and 280 (model ABS), and in an adjusted temperature range, with some preliminary experiments. I clear out the nozzle inlet with a metal pin, down to the tube bend (I don't get why the design had this problematic 90 deg bend radius close to the cold end, feed wheel!) For the support, the extrusion goes for about 5 secs, then slows down, and the support filament feed stock stalls and strips out the filament, turning it into white debris. For the model, the extrusion goes longer for about 20 secs, and also slows down, and, in this case, the model feed stock splits and gets fed outside the nozzle tube inlet, but no white debris in this case. This cycle may be repeated by cleaning out the inlet clogging with the stiff metal pin.
I realize this is not a perfect description of the system, but I am hoping that someone who knows this extruder configuration or a similar one (system is quite old, unfortunately), may chime in here with suggestions. I will add, that I am running the system in a so-called maintenance mode and have some minimal adjustment of the firmware (like the hot end temperatures - defaults mentioned before) for the build mode (which is only during actual part run).
Thanks in advance for your help or suggestions!
Here are some diagrams/link to descriptions for the extruder as well:
My exact extruder (i.e., head) system:
http://www.amtekcompany.com/pdf/dimension_bst_sst_elite_768_head_clog_guide.pdf
A similar extruder (showing heaters, extruder body to isolate model & support paths, tips, and thermocouples)
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwifyLnJsu7OAhVIOCYKHaSIDLQQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.3dprintforums.com%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D2237&psig=AFQjCNGM1BTAiWzUn4fNJ8-z5HDWxa6OEQ&ust=1472824417165187
This site shows another user take apart/redesign the extruder in question (pay attention to the 90 deg bend in the nozzle tubes)
(see attached picture)
I also have a few documents: user manual, service manual, etc. that I may share, if I knew how to upload to this website. | This isn't a "turn this knob and all will be well" answer, because your machine setup sounds pretty unique to what most people will have experience with. Not being familiar with the older Stratasys printheads, but based on my overall experience with 3D printers, there are three things that could be an issue:
The nozzles are obstructed. The way you talk about clearing the jams of pushing a tool up through the nozzle end would not effectively clear a jam, it would only push the debris back into the print head, just waiting to be pushed by the plastic back into the nozzle. It could even be a piece of aluminum foil from the rebuild process. The typical way jams like this are cleared is to do a "cold pull" where you heat up the hot end just enough to be able to pull the plastic out, before it has really had a chance to liquify, hopefully trapping the debris in the plastic, then cut the end of the plastic off and reload. The 90 degree bend in their design may make this very hard if not impossible to do.
Heat creep. The tubes are a slightly smaller diameter, and if heat is creeping up the print head and letting the filament expand in these tubes, it may be expanding enough that it will no longer move through the print head. Diagnose this by letting the printer jam, then cool off for a few hours. If you can print again for a short time period before it jams again, this may be your issue, where as an obstructed nozzle would not allow any more filament out. Either turn down your temps, or increase your cooling on the print head to address (or get the original size tubes if possible).
Print head temperatures too low for the print speed. The Stratasys Fortus 250mc I use runs ABS at about 300 degrees. Many of the reprap printers run even higher than this for ABS. The other thing to remember when ever you see people mention what temperatures they use, is that this is relative, and only a guide, as what the temperature reads at the thermocouple or thermistor is usually slightly off from the temperature that is melting the plastic based on heater location in relation to the plastic and thermistor. This can be diagnosed by printing until it jams, pause the print for something like 30 seconds to let the hot end melt more plastic, and then resume printing. If resumes proper printing this may be your issue (and it will jam again shortly if you do not adjust temps). |
Is there an easy way to add rounded edges to semicircle in OpenSCAD? I've put together a flashlight mount for a camera coldshoe in OpenSCAD. I originally modeled it in FreeCAD and it was easy to round the edges of the clamp with a fillet and that makes it a little easier to get the light in and out of the mount.
I'm not sure how to do it in OpenSCAD. Naively, I'm sure I could calculate where on my semicircle I would need to add some cylinders in order to round the sharp corners, but it seems like there'd be something a little easier than that.
Am I missing something?
Here's the coldshoe light mount SCAD file and this is what it looks like: | I'm far from a wizard with OpenSCAD, but enjoy using the program, learning something new every time. In your case, it's likely that you can use the roundanything library to accomplish your objective.
The library will present various implementations in the samples, making it an exercise for the reader to determine which module calls will present the solution.
The image below shows a part which has had the radii applied in a manner similar to your image: |
Will there be any negative effects on the print process if the printer is outside? If I buy a printer, it will be going on a small table on a front porch so as to keep the smell from the house. The porch has a roof, so precipitation is not a concern. I will find a way to keep the wind out, so that will also not be a factor. The only concern I can see is the lack of climate control. The printer will probably be an Ender 3 Pro. Will this turn out bad for the prints? Do I need to be concerned about dew? Any other concerns? Solutions? | Unless you enclose the printer fully in some way or another, I see problems, even beyond just print quality:
humidity can and will end inside the printer by condensation and destroy the electronics, especially in the fall and winter months.
being accessible, children from the neighborhood might get their stubby fingers into the running machine or throw off the leveling.
being not locked in a box, people might decide to nick your printer.
If the printer is in the sun, the filament might age much more rapidly
Moisture can impact your filaments, making prints impossible with some filaments unless those are kept in a dry container.
Shifting temperatures along a day could lead to prints warping during printing, resulting in deformed prints. |
How to connect a Geeetech Prusa I3 Pro B to Repetier-Host on mac My y-axis is running in reverse and slamming into the front of the machine. This is not ideal for my needs.
I need to connect to it with the Repetier-Host software to fix this, and in general. This connects fine via USB, but then says Unknown printer firmw... Waiting for temperature. Sending further commands does nothing as far as I can see.
Does anyone know what I need to install to get this working? | This is not a direct answer to your question, but a solution for your problem.
If a motor is running in reverse, there are at least 2 solutions. You can reverse the connector of the leads to the stepper, or flash new firmware where you reverse the stepper in the configuration file.
The most effective and fast solution is to reverse the connector of rearrange the wires in the connector. |
Having trouble getting first layer support to stick I'm having an issue where the first layer of my support structures isn't sticking on the edges and causing the print to (eventually) fail. Any ideas on how I can fix it?
I'm using Slic3r. | There are many things you'll need to check and/or confirm to ensure that you will have a good bond to the bed. The first is to confirm that you are using a genuine Prusa printer as it appears in the photo. Having built one recently makes it easier for me to guess that is the case.
Have you performed the bed calibration sequence? The manual provides a series of steps which results in a zig-zag pattern of filament being placed on the bed, while the z-height is adjusted from the panel. You want to have a filament trace that is only slightly squished onto the bed, not flattened so much that it's cutting into the PEI and not so high that it's nearly cylindrical.
The bed must be of the correct temperature for the filament selected. If in doubt, raise it five to ten degrees C. I recently assisted with the aforementioned printer that had a peeling problem and the bed temperature had to be raised to 70°C from the "standard" 55°C generated by Slic3r.
It is critical that the bed be clean as well. Denatured alcohol is recommended, with application of a clean cloth.
Your photo is somewhat out of focus, making it difficult to determine if the brim is being created at an excessively high z-level, which will cause peeling. The main body of the print, also out of focus appears to be heavily flattened, but that could be an artifact of the photo.
The reflections on the bed appear to indicate that some gouges in the surface exist. If your PEI is damaged, you will have the problem you described. I've seen videos in which the bed is not quite as gouged and was refreshed with very light sandpaper or very light steel wool or both. Of course, after using such material, clean the surface thoroughly.
I understand the PEI that is applied by the manufacturer is quite thin and can be further damaged if too much pressure is applied while refreshing. It is far better to apply too little pressure if you plan to perform this task.
Consider to read through the manual and address all of the calibration aspects of the printer to establish a base point for the problem you are experiencing. |
FDM, ABS Post-processing methods I have built a few parts that have printed 'pins' on them (2mm diameter 1.5 cm length). Due to the orientation that the build requires the pins have to have support material on them. (The part has to be printed with the pins parallel to the build plate for strength reasons and the orientation can't change).
The problems i'm having is that the surface of the pins are quite rough. The pins are designed to press-fit into a soft rubbery tube, and the pin surface roughness is cutting into the softer tube. The roughness is due to both the layer edges of the print, and that the support material leaving some 'burrs'. I'd like to smooth the outside of my pins with some type of post processing technique. Ideally I'd like to keep the pins as close to dimensionally accurate as possible, but I realize they won't be perfect.
The two methods I've considered are sanding the pins by hand and placing my part in an acetone vapor chamber for a while.
Sanding, I think, is the best option of the two so far but it's a bit tedious, and is quite difficult to do, due to the size of the pins, their location and my fingers are pretty big relative to the space I'm working in.
I don't like the idea of using acetone because the few times I've tried doing this in the past, my parts always came out warped or misshapen I think due to the relief of stresses. (or I did it wrong, both seem plausible).
If anyone has a third option (or more) I'd be glad to hear. Or if there is another approach altogether that I haven't considered that can be done on an FDM style printer that would also be appreciated. | Your objective is quite a challenge, considering the limitations within which you have to operate. Small diameter of an appreciable length is daunting indeed.
I would consider to use a regulated heat source such as a soldering station, one with removable tips. After electing an appropriate tip to handle the dimensions, a hole drilled into the tip to accept the pin diameter and length would be the next step.
There would be consideration needed for the plastic material pushed ahead of the soldering tip, as well as angular stability while pushing the soldering iron onto the pins.
To improve these circumstances, a sharp edge ground at the end of the soldering iron tip would give a better shearing of the excess plastic.
The temperature control would be critical to prevent destruction of the pin within the tip and to provide optimum removal via the cutting end.
Directly related to the above, but without the heat would be the equivalent tool to be used in a rotary grinder such as a Dremel. The bore of the custom-made cutter would match the pin and the sharp cutting end could also have serrations such as those found on hole-saws. Low speeds and a steady hand are required!
If either of the above suggestions do not remove sufficient plastic roughness, one would make the pins of a larger diameter and ensure that excess is removed to specifications.
EDIT: Additional thoughts. Hobby stores and online equivalents will sell very small diameter tubing. It might be an easy matter to find 2 mm inside diameter tubing of brass or even stainless steel. A few passes on a piece of sandpaper while the tubing is chucked in an electric hand drill and you have a sharp cutting edge. |
Is it possible to 3D print a front bumper grille for a Honda Accord CL7? I probably have to find out all the answers myself, but I could really use somebody else's experience.
what material should I use, so the grill does not bend when exposed
to the heat coming from the radiator
I have to print the part in slices; what glue can I use to join them lately, again so it resists the heat from the radiator and doesn't catch fire
is there maybe a CAD file describing this part, so I don't have to manually create it from scratch? | Your best bet for the material would be one of the high temperature filaments like the ColorFabb HT ones, they can take quite a punch when it comes to heat.
As for the model, you could try to source one of the grills that is at least as good in shape as possible and get it scanned, there are people offering this as a service for example over at 3dhubs.com
Glue is really depending on the part, I would suggest creating a click-together type of system so the "glue" is only stabilizing it and not beeing a structural component. You can also get hold of a 3D Pen and weld the parts together with the same material used to print. |
Marlin is restarting when pins 5 Vcc are enabled and has a servo motor connected (RAMPS 1.4) My printer uses an ATMega 2560 with a RAMPS 1.4 shield, A4988 stepper drivers and a 2004 controller LCD interface. The PSU is 360 W (12 V, 30 A).
I bought a BLTouch for my printer, but when installing, Marlin is restarting and is unable to complete the boot.
I realized that this problem happens when it is being powered only by the PSU. When it is started by USB, it works normally.
Note, the USB + PSU combination, when the system (Marlin) has been started by USB, also works normally.
I tried to configure the servo in other positions (0, 1, 2 or 3), but the results were the same:
USB starts = Ok
PSU starts = infinite restart
Another possibility that I tested, was to change the BLTouch for a SG90 micro servo, to check if it was not a problem in the equipment. The result was the same:
USB starts = Ok
PSU starts = infinite restart
In fact there seems to be some problem between ATMega 2560 and the RAMPS 1.4, when powered by the PSU.
Does anyone know how to solve the problem?
In the last case, would the exchange of ATMega 2560 + RAMPS 1.4 be the solution? | PSU is only feeding 12 V into RAMPS, but (if I remember correctly) RAMPS is using Arduino's onboard regulator for converting 12 V to 5 V. That regulator can not provide much power.
If you connect some significant load to any 5 V pin (like servo, LCD backlight, or BLTouch), the regulator will be overloaded and its output voltage will drop (too low or unstable voltage will prevent Arduino from running correctly).
You can prove this hypothesis by measuring the voltage on any 5 V pin when Arduino is in "infinite restart". It will likely be far below 5 V.
Connecting USB helps because it provides additional power for 5 V rail (but you may be overloading the computer's USB port by doing this).
The solution is to get an external 12 V to 5 V regulator (with enough power, something like 3 A should be ok) and connect it between PSU and some 5 V pin on RAMPS. (Or get PSU that has both 12 V and 5 V output)
If you get an external 5 V supply, it may be a good idea to then completely disconnect RAMPS from Arduino's 5 V regulator. Have a look at https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,799595
Also, the regulator on the Arduino board will likely be overheating and may get damaged (But regulators usually have some overcurrent protection so it probably will be OK)
The regulator is located somewhere near the power connector on the Arduino Mega board, Google "AMS1117" if you don't know how it looks. Replacement is possible with intermediate soldering skills. The regulator is only used when powering Arduino from power connector or Vin pin (RAMPS uses the Vin pin). If powered from USB or 5 V pin, it can run without it. |
PET-G grid print problem My supports 'grid' prints with empty spaces (after stoping extraction over perpendicular lines)
(BTW. I have checked the direction when it appears and it has nothing to do with coastig)
(the end result is: extra filament sticks to nozzle forming 'big bomb' and end up with screwed printout due to layers shift)
Printer: Qidi X-Plus
Slicer: Qidi Print 5.3 based on CuraEngine 2019/09/24
Retraction: 3 mm, 30 mm/s
Filament: PET-G Spectrum
Temperature: 220 °C
Bed temperature: 80 °C
Speed: 60 mm/s
What could be the reason? This is particularly evident on PETG. | You mentioned coasting. Absolutely make sure that's off. Coasting inherently extrudes less material than what's needed to print the model correctly, and this underextrusion will accumulate. PETG is really sensitive to underextrusion because it doesn't self-adhere well without a lot of effort to get things right (temperature, speed, etc.) and unless/until the amount extruded is enough to adhere well, it'll just get dragged by the nozzle.
Also 220°C is way too low for PETG, and low temperatures will exacerbate this kind of problem. I'd consider 230°C the absolute minimum for PETG, and 240-250 preferable. Ignore what the filament manufacturer or vendor advertises about lower temperatures being okay; this is normally a marketing ploy to ensure they can sell to users with printers that don't recommend high temperatures or have hard limits in firmware and users who are worried about PTFE off-gassing when operating at higher temperatures (not a real issue at or below 250°C, and probably not even up to 260-275, but still common FUD). Even if they don't want to be deceptive they're competing with other vendors who do.
Further, make sure fan is off, or at least set to very low speed. Rapid cooling will completely mess up PETG adhesion. PETG is still very viscous at printing temperatures (unlike PLA) so there's no need to start cooling it right away to ensure it keeps its form.
Finally, PETG is just a real pain to print with. At first I thought it was a nice material, because it holds shape well and can stand up to fairly high temperatures (which are still true), but there are lots of gotchas and it's really hard to tune your settings to get good adhesion and strong parts. Be prepared to do a lot of experimentation beyond the things I've written in this answer to get good results if you want to keep using it. |
Can a heatbed PCB (Prusa Mk2) be straightened out? I have a really bent heatbed PCB, the middle is elevated about 3 mm with respect to all edges.
I have found this thread Warped PCBs, where a heating method is applied by baking a PCB in the oven, as described here: 3.2 Bow and Twist Repair.
Can this help straightening out a Prusa heatbed PCB? If so, can I apply the heat by the heatbed itself, or do I need to utilize an oven? Will the pressure from the strongly clamped glass plate be enough or will the glass break at these temperatures (given that the heatbed can reach them). | Electrical engineer here. There is nothing odd about putting a PCB in an oven. Any surface mount PCB is assembled using a reflow oven which heats all the components, as well as the PCB itself, several degrees for quite some time up to the 'soak' temperature, which is 150 °C.
After that, the PCB (and components, still not soldered but held down with solder paste) are heated up to the reflow temperature, which for lead-free processes (i.e., all of them) is 245 °C. After this point, they are held at that temperature for 60-90 seconds to allow the solder to completely reflow. Note, this is not time spent with the oven temperature that hot - this is time the entire PCB, which edge to edge has reached 245 °C, spends at that temperature.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with, nor anything odd about putting a PCB in an oven or otherwise getting it hotter than it's glass transition temperature. Doing so is a key part of their commercial assembly into electronics and has already been done to every PCB you own.
Please ignore the 'accepted' answer - it's incorrect.
PCBs are usually made out of glass epoxy composite (FR4) with a glass transition temperature of 140°C. There are high heat varieties with a glass transition temperature of 170°C. I do not know which variety the Prusa MK2/MK2S uses specifically, but FR4 doesn't have a 'sharp' glass transition anyway, so you want to err on the side of hot regardless of the specific type. Get it nice and cozy at at 190-200 °C, and increase the temperature until it unwarps. The solder's liquidus is about 220°C, so you should try to keep 20 °C shy of this just because kitchen oven thermostats are not to be trusted.
I own a MK2S, and have personally heated my heat bed up to above the glass transition temperature of PEI (don't ask) which is 217°C, and this was not a problem (well, except for the PEI but again, don't ask). It didn't suffer any ill effects, nor did I expect it too. I'm printing on it right now, as I type this. It's perfectly fine to heat it up that hot. That was the entire reason FR laminate was even made - to be rigid and to tolerate being hot. Solder ain't gonna melt itself.
Note, however, you will need to remove the PEI/Ultem sheet as well as the adhesive before you do this. Prusa has instructions on how, look under replacing the PEI print surface.
Now, as for the actual procedure, the pcb isn't going to magically just become flat. You have to force it to flatness. Flatten it into submission. It will only be as flat as the hopefully flat surface it is resting on. And, given the gradual transition of the material, it isn't going to exactly become super pliable even when a good deal past its glass transition temperature.
What you ideally want is two plates of aluminum large enough to sandwich it between. Or steel, or any metal. They need to be thick enough to not flex so they are very flat. A pizza stone, if you can find one that is flat, or a slab of granite also works. I know none of these are exactly 'just laying around the house' type objects, but really any flat surface that will tolerate the heat that you can rest the pcb on is acceptable. (Kids - ask your parents first)
The only problem is it will likely not unwarp itself under its own weight. You'll need to put a large flat thing on top of it too, and either have it be heavy, or add heavy things on top of your large flat thing. You want to make a heat bed sandwich. Also, it needs to be shielded from the oven heating elements (be they electric or gas), as these will radiate heat a lot hotter than the oven temperature when they turn on. Don't worry - aluminum foil is enough to shield anything from the heat, but again, you should have something very flat and substantial on top.
Oh, and remove the screw hole sockets from the PCB. They just need a hex key and some pliers to unscrew. Don't lose the lock washers.
Anyway, the above procedure, while definitely a pain, will restore (or if it was always warped, imbue for the first time) flatness as good as the flat things it is sandwiched between.
The flatness of kings.
This isn't exactly unknown either. People do it. It works. |
Help needed to design 3D printer part I am attempting to build a 3D printer using the Bear Upgrade for guidance.
However, I want to modify some of the parts. I am basing the modified parts on the original designs.
I would like to understand the reason behind some design details presented on the original designs so that, if necessary, introduce them into the new designs.
Item 1) The holes are not round. Why???
Item 2 ) There are some little squares inside the piece which i don't know if they are there for some structural reason
Please use this link to the piece depicted above.
Here is a drawing of the full assembly, showing that this piece is the y axes linear rods holder: | Item 1) The holes are not round. Why???
Two things about this. First, the print is upside down. The holes are not round to accommodate the fact you cannot print a round hole unsupported. If you try to print the circle unsupported, when you get to the top portion, it will sag until the print catches up to it. By that time, the circle is flat at the top and you won't be able to fit whatever you were trying to fit into it (without some post processing). Printing the V-ish looking part at the top will ensure you'll be able fit things through it you meant to fit through (sorry if that's redundant). If you'd like to know more, take a look at the following Maker's Muse video:
Item 2 ) There are some little squares inside the piece which i don't know if they are there for some structural reason
To be very honest with you, I don't know why the little squares are there either, however, I believe you can answer this part for yourself.
I think the answer lies in the part, meaning, if you can manipulate the 3d design in whatever you're using to design it, you can look into the part and see what's going on with it. It appears there are dashed lines in the center parts, which would make me believe these are hidden lines. There is a feature there which is inside of the part which you cannot see otherwise. By turning it, you should be able to decipher what these features are for and therefore should be able to discern what the small squares a for as well. If, after you've looked the part over completely you cannot discern a purpose for the squares, don't design them into your part. It may just be they are an artifact of the design itself and doesn't provide anything worth repeating in your own design. Bottom line, don't get hung up on the minute details which in the end don't mean a thing. |
Typical plastic strength at 1500 RPM I'm planning to print a certain sample holder which is going to be placed on a CD-Rom BLDC motor and spun at about 1000-1500 RPM. The holder would essentially be a 2-3 mm thick 100 mm square platform with 1-2 mm thick hooks rising up from outer edges of the platform to hold the sample. The bottom of this platform would also contain a 15 mm diameter crevice designed to latch onto the disc holder attached to the motor. How durable would this printed holder be under these conditions, if it was made of ABS plastic, for example? | Really the only thing that would matter for this project is the amount of torque the motor has available and subsequently how heavy your setup is that is connected to the motor. A part that size may just be too heavy for a CD-ROM motor if you intend on adding more parts.
However, to answer your question, ABS should be able to endure the stress. I recommend paying attention to how the hooks are printed. You'll want to make sure that the hooks are printed in profile, meaning that the profile of the hooks should be printed with each layer. This will help provide structural integrity to, what sounds like, the most stressful area of the part (the outer edges of a spinning device and a clamping feature).
Something to keep in mind for projects like this is that most of the time the design will likely be the cause of failure, not the capabilities of the material. |
Continuing a failed print when you have Auto Mesh Bed Leveling When you have Auto Mesh Bed Leveling enabled on your printer, it's not possible to continue a failed print, is it? | Continuing a failed print has nothing to do with automatic bed leveling. It has everything to do with knowing which line failed, repositioning to resume from that point, and resuming from that line of code. |
New glass bed, should I glue it? I have an Ender 3, I got a new glass bed, the bed comes with glue on the back.
Should I stick the glass bed to the aluminium base? or just use it with the clips?
I saw other people just use the clips, but my glass seems to have a sticky back... | There are pro and cons for leaving the sticky protection baking paper on the slate of glass:
pros (for not glueing it):
Can be removed more easily in the future (the collant is not easy to remove, requires a solvent and elbow grease)
Can remove the slate of glass to put it in the refrigerator to loosen stuck prints
cons:
Need for binder clips that may cause nozzle collision and decreases bed size (unless you use kapton tape to fix the bed)
Backing paper adds another layer of insulation (unless you remove it and all the goo) |
Does right handed radial fan exist? I have mounted two radial fan on my printer as a part cooling solution.
As you can see, the fan has input on the left side and blows air down. Does a mirror construction exists? With outlet on the right.
I can even print my own casing, but I'm not sure if the fan will work, if I change the rotation direction.
I'm using this print cooling fan duct: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1850163
The fan on the right side has the opening facing the hotend, and there is not much space, so the impeller can catch on wiring etc. If the right fan had opening to the right, there would be no such problem. | https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/120mm-Small-Squirrel-Cage-Exhaust-Plastic_653850349.html?spm=a2700.7724857.normalList.14.23834341IiKFAu&s=p
After quite a bit of searching the above link from Alibaba was all I could find. I suspect that they don't make them like that because of the direction of the rotation of the blades. Perhaps they are made so that the rotor can be swapped around if necessary.
(https://i1.wp.com/www.homeintheearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/CentrifugalFanTypes.jpg)
The different curving of the blades affects either the volume or the pressure of the airflow (or both).
Alternatively how about one that is more agnostic:
https://www.amazon.com/2Packs-Wathai-40x40x10mm-Brushless-Centrifugal/dp/B07RNZF97F/
Or just 3d print your own housing! |
Why does print fall apart at beginning of top layer? I'm looking for any idea of what could cause this problem. I'm printing (1.75mm PLA @ 220C) a 14cm x 14cm box, sliced with Simplify3D. Relevant settings are 3 bottom layers, 3 top layers, 3 outline/perimeter shells, and 15% orthagonal infill every other layer.
The first 3 layers print fine. Here's the first (bottom) layer after removing the print and turning it over:
The infill (layers 4-10) also prints beautifully (see left side of photo below).
But the moment it starts printing the next layer (layer 11, the top layer of the bottom of the box), which should be solid fill exactly like layers 1-3, it starts underextruding and generally looking like crap:
The first time this happened, I figured the nozzle got clogged or the extruder gear started slipping. This is not the freshest PLA, so maybe it was a PLA quality problem. But the same thing happened at the same layer when I tried it again. And again. And again. As soon as I cancel the print I can have it extrude 5cm of filament and it's fine, no clogs...and if I immediately start another print it again perfectly prints layers 1-10. So it doesn't seem to be the extruder, the nozzle, or PLA quality. I can't imagine the "stress" of laying 7 layers of infill could screw up the next layer...
I just can't figure out how layers 2 and 3 could be basically perfect, but layer 11 is consistently a disaster, when they should be almost the exact same gcode (only a mm apart). I looked at the gcode and it's basically identical for layers 3 and 11, including same feedrate (G1 F2250).
This is on a DeltaMaker printer with a new E3D Lite6 hot end. Can add more details if needed, but basically I'm just looking for an idea of what could cause this.
Update: Just tried a different roll of PLA and got the same results. | I doubt this is a printer or filament issue. Rather, I suspect it might be related to how your slicer handles bridging scenarios (which basically is what laying down layers over infill is).
You could try to:
Increase the infill percentage and/or use an infill pattern that provides better support for the top layer (so that it isn't allowed to sag as much). You will probably still se some sag, but that is usually covered up by the next layer. Adding print cooling might also help here.
Adjust the bridging settings in your slicer software. If under extrusion is the main issue, perhaps you could try to increase extrusion for bridges?
I am no expert with Simplify3D, and I suspect that the default settings actually might be pretty good. I would therefore try option 1. first. Perhaps someone else here can give a better answer related to your slicer. :-) |
Marlin firmware: unload filament with G-code I have upgraded my ER-20 with a Bondtech dual gear feeder.
It is not or hardly possible to load/unload filament manually with this feeder, so some .gcode is needed to do it.
I wanted to implement something similar to the atomic cleaning method for unloading: https://ultimakernasupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004187066-Atomic-Cleaning-Method
Here is my current .gcode:
G21 ; Metric values
G90 ; Absolute positioning
M82 ; Extruder absolute mode
G28 ; Auto home
M420 S1
G1 X100 Y100 Z100 F1000
; M92 E415 ; 415 steps/mm
M302 S105 ; Allow extrusion above 105C
M109 S218 ; Heat hotend to 218C
M400
G92 E0 ; Reset extruder positioning
M104 S160 ; Start the cool down
M117 Extrude prime blob
G1 E10 F100 ; Extrude a short before unload to avoid blob forming
M109 S160 ; Wait for 160C
M104 S110
G92 E0
G1 E0.2 F100 ; Pressurize the hotend
M117 Pressurize hotend
M109 S110 ; Heat hotend to 110C
G92 E0 ; Reset extruder positioning
M117 Pull out slow
G1 E-3 F200 ; Pull back a bit, slow
M117 Pull out fast
G1 E-430 F2000 ; Pull back 43cm with 2000mm/min
G92 E0 ; Reset extruder positioning
M400 ; Wait for command finish
M117 Remove the filament now
; M400 ; Wait for command finish
M302 S170 ; Allow extrusion above 170C
M104 S0
It doesn't work:
the auto bed leveling is always done, I don't know how to turn it off
when I see that the "Extrude a short before unload to avoid blob forming" event is happening, I also see the "Pull out fast" message on the display and the "print" process ends
Could anyone take a look at this code please? Or is there any .gcode validator for Marlin somewhere?
What I intend to do with this code:
heat up the hotend to 218 °C
extrude some material while a cool down to 160 °C is already started
when temp 160 °C is reached, start a cool-down process to 110 °C and push a little material to the feeder (pressurize)
when 110 °C is reached pull out some material from the hotend slow (maybe the feeder won't be enough strong to do it, but I have never reached this point to check)
then pull out the filament from the Bowden and feeder fast | There are three things to fix and one suggestion:
Change follwing lines of M109, using parameter R instead of S, because the latter is not waiting to cool down:
M109 R160 ; Wait for 160C
...
M109 R110 ; Heat hotend to 110C
The behavior of M420 will depend on type of bed leveling, saved mesh, etc. It is off topic to troubleshoot this. The printer operates 10 cm above the surface for this operation. G28 disables bed leveling. Why do you need to re-enable it? Just remove this line:
; M420 S1 - remove (or comment out)
Redefine maximum extrusion length in Configuration.h to allow for scripted long pull (G1 E-430), for example:
#define EXTRUDE_MAXLENGTH 450
Suggestion: Use relative mode for extrusion (M83) instead of absolute positioning (M82). It will simplify your code a lot. You just want to express the distance in E parameter. Then you will not have to reset position with G92 E0 every now and then (do it just once on the start). (I use this Extrusion mode also for slicing becuase it makes easier to re-start a print in case of failure). |
How to extend Marlin to support additional movement axis? On a RAMPS 1.4 it is possible to mount 5 stepper motors: X,Y,Z steppers are used for cartesian movements, while E0 and E1 are provided for extruders control.
I want to use E0 and E1 as additional movement axis in a robotical arm.
Is it possible in Marlin and if not, how can one approach the problem? | I found many ways to re-task extruder steppers to
behave like cartesian-like controls:
If your application does not require contemporary movement of
all axes, you can enable multiple extruders setting the EXTRUDERS
define in Marlin's Configuration.h.
Then you can select which extruders will be set as E
variable in G1 commands, by sending T0, T1 and so on.
If your application require contemporary movement of all axes,
you can enable the MIXING_EXTRUDERS option (source).
With that option, you are basically splitting the E argument
between steppers. To set the ratio of your movement, you can give
M163 S0 P0.6 # Set stepper 0 to ratio 0.6
M163 S1 P0.4 # Set stepper 1 to ratio 0.4
M164 S2 # Create a virtual stepper with given settings
T2 # Select the virtual stepper
If you want to configure additional steppers as proper axis,
check this commit. |
3D printing and coating of heat-resistant objects, such as a turbine blisks or blades Is it possible to 3D print an axial turbine 2 - 4 inches (50 - 100 mm) in radius, capable withstanding temperatures about 800 - 1000°C and rotation speeds of 100 - 120 x 103 rpm?
How expensive is that? Is it cheaper to mill such a turbine from a whole piece of alloy?
What technologies and materials should be used?
Are Inconel alloys suitable for 3D printing?
Are there any titanium alloys suitable for this task? I've read titanium is rarely used in rapidly rotating parts due to its ability to ignite if mechanical failure occurs and rotating blades touch the casing. Do titanium alloys still have this drawback?
Is it possible to make disk of titanium and blades of Inconel, and have them welded (considering heat expansion)?
How blades or blisks can be ceramically coated?
Thank you! | This depends primarily on economics and on desired lifetime. Rather obviously you need a material whose strengths and melting points exceed the operational specs. Determining the various break strengths (shear, bending, etc) is an engineering problem, not a manufacturing problem per se.
Next, consider the production time and cost of 3D-printing vs. some typical assembly line process. Nearly always the 3D approach loses for large quantity builds.
Designing and operating devices like this can be extremely dangerous. Very tight tolerances are required. This site describes the difficulties, starting with material choice, moving on to tolerances, and so on. I don't think you want to go at this in your basement. |
Can you print at 0.3 mm with a 0.2 mm nozzle? I recently ordered some spare E3D 0.4 mm nozzles. However, there was a mix up at the factory and they delivered 0.2 mm nozzles instead.
I usually print at 0.3 mm using a 0.4 mm nozzle. Can I still use the 0.2 mm nozzles to print at a resolution of 0.3 mm? | To get the best results, the plastic coming out of the nozzle needs to be squished/ironed down by the nozzle. If you are using a higher layer height than nozzle size, this does not happen. Instead, you are taking a 0.2mm diameter string of plastic and folding it back onto itself to create a thicker 0.3mm bead.
Triffid_Hunter's calibration guide recommends using a layer height that is not higher than 80% of your nozzle size, so with a 0.4mm nozzle you should not print layers thicker than 0.32mm, and with a 0.2mm nozzle you should not print layers thicker than 0.16mm.
While it is not impossible to print thicker layers with a smaller nozzle, the results won't be as good. Moreover, if you are used to working with a 0.4mm nozzle then swapping to a 0.2mm nozzle may take some getting used to, as printing with smaller nozzles is more difficult (for example, the smaller the nozzle, the higher the likelihood of clogs). |