General 3D Printing Thread


 
Funny that you mention the filament as possible cause, the blue and black filaments are the cheapest that I could find, and the orange filament is the way to expensive and highly recommend (on one of the Dutch tech forums) "Dutch Filaments PLA", but I guess that price alone is not the only indication of quality. I'll check the Dutch forum for recommend temps.

I have been playing with the speed settings so i might have screwed something up, will go back to default speeds and try again. Haven't touched the retract settings yet so I'm not sure if this is on or off.

This 3D business is not so easy as it looks, lots to learn!
 
Did some testing today, printed a smaller version of the pumpkin with slower speed settings and the nozzle temp at 200C. This didn't make much difference and the object failed at the same point as where the larger one failed. Then I tried Cura instead of Slic3r just to see if the slicer was causing the problem. The Cura version (same temp and similar speed) failed at almost the same point. To check if the problem was Z-axis related I printed a 40mm calibration object with cura and the same settings as the pumpkin. The calibration object printed just fine.

ReprapPrusai3-4.jpg


The calibration object is 40mm high and the pumpkin is 31mm up to the point of failure. Could it be that the problem is with the pumpkin.stl file and how can I check this in Repetier-Host (or the slicer)?
 
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As you do more and more printing you will learn that not all objects behave the same. Some may sit flat on the bed very easily while others tend to warp and lift, it depends a bit on the geometry of the object and the way it is sliced, infill settings, the way your printer is setup etc. So maybe the pumpkin is coming off the bed a bit as it cools which begins to alter the position of the previous layer until the next layer doesn't match up well enough to adhere? The calibration object on the other hand may be staying put on the bed better and therefore printing taller without issue.....

On another note, I've been mainly an ABS guy since I've had my printer, I just have one spool of PLA that I've tried out. Right off the bat I was not fond of PLA, I had problems with layer adhesion on object that print just fine in ABS. I eventually got my temps worked out where I can print PLA pretty well, good layer adhesion etc, getting good results. Then I had a problem, when trying to retract the PLA it got stuck in the (E3D) hotend, I tried higher temps and the usual tricks I have to clear out ABS and none worked. So I had to disassemble the E3D hotend for the first time since I had it (not one problem with ABS). This left me with the individual parts for the hotend in hand, all jammed full of PLA. At that point it dawned on me, damn, I can't just soak this stuff in acetone to clean it out (like with ABS)... Yet another reason why I dislike PLA, what can I use to dissolve it? Well, I drilled out the most of it and then burned out the rest, what a PITA! After getting the hotend back together I decided its ABS all the way from now on, PLA has given me too much trouble....
I assume you are using PLA since you said you bumped the temp up to 200C? Perhaps give ABS a try?
 
This looks like a retract problem to me. I've seen this before where certain layers in an object will slice in a way that there are a series of retracts that can foul the hotend. Look in your slicing settings at what you have set for retraction and in what instances you are using it. Alternatively, post your slic3r config.
 
4mm is a huge retraction distance. Lower that to 2mm and see how it goes. You really want the retraction length to be as low as possible without having too much blobbing or stringing.
 
Peter, I agree with Tom that is a huge retraction for direct drive 1.75 filament. As a reference I use .8mm for PLA .6mm for ABS and 2.0mm for NinjaFlex on my direct drive 1.75 extruders.
 
Everybody thanks for the help so far. I will be on a job in Turkey for the next 10 days so I can't test anything at the moment but will continue as soon as I'm back.
 
It's not that difficult to setup but you have to sacrifice some part of your build area to compensate for the hotend offset. If you are going to do it, I would look into a bowden setup because pushing the mass of two full extruders will hurt your print quality. I played around with it for a while and found that I just wasn't using it so I was pushing around all of this extra mass and reducing my build area for no reason. I ended up scrapping it and went back to a single extruder. The e3d kraken quad setup looks interesting, but again, since I found 2 to be unnecessary I think I would find 4 to be way unnecessary. You also need to look into multi-extruder part design and slicing which I haven't kept up with over the past 6 months.
 
Thanks Tom
I'm parting out my Prusa i2 to build a Prusa i3 Box so I have room to play with dimensions (So I shouldn't lose any build surface). I've seen the Kracken and like it just not sure about 4 heads. I was looking at 2 of the Geeetech all metal hotends (Chime in if anybody has used them). I'm not sure about using Bowden due to the oozing issues I've heard about. But there is a new compact dual extruder for the i3 that looks like it might work. Currently I use a Budaschnozzle and like it. Just trying to get all my ducks in a row and parts printed before I tear the i2 down to build the i3.
 
The Geeetech looks to be a clone of the E3d which I am a huge fan of. I agree about the bowden oozing concerns because they are not easy to deal with so if that compact i3 design is light enough I'd give it a shot.
 
I actually looked at that the other day. I really like magnetic ball joints on those delta printers, I have been looking at one for doing pick and place for building HeaterMeter boards. The FirePick people love the joints and as these guys show, it adds great versatility to what you can snap on the end. Usual caveats about kickstarter 3D printers though.
 
Yes it was. I was pretty excited. Also found a lower weight dual Extruder setup this weekend. Things are starting to come together
 
Results!

HMcaseSkyblue-2.jpg


My first HM4.2.4 case, I'm very happy with the print quality but there is still some room for improvements.
 
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