General 3D Printing Thread


 
That's pretty awesome. OpenCV seems so awesome an I've wanted to use it for a long time, but haven't had the chance to sit down and learn it. It's amazing what you can do with it.
 
Tom,
I'm about to assemble my new Heatbed and I 'm curious how/where you located your thermsister. Did you locate it in the center? I bought a 110v silcone heater with the adhisive backing and will attach that to an aluminum plate. Did you still use clips to hold down the Ultiem or did you switch to some sort of epoxy to hold it down?
 
My thermistor is bonded to the underside of the aluminum plate towards the edge. I have the Ultem sheet attached via bulldog clips all around the perimeter. I'll upload a pic later.

12471319165_5f78586953_o.jpg
 
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What filament suppliers have you all had good luck with?

I have been using black and orange Matterhackers ABS without issue. Last night I loaded up a roll of red from them and my nozzle clogged almost immediately...
 
Thanks. I was a little skeptical of the ord and jet on Amazon. I might have to give it a shot.

Do you notice much difference between the more expensive Lulzbot or Ultimachine stuff compared to jet or ord?
 
I've gotten away from ultmachine and lulzbot completely because I find them to be a total waste of money at this point. I was pretty much using protoparadigm exclusively except for emergency orders of Jet or Ord from amazon when I was in pinch. You can't beat 2 day free shipping with prime. What I have been finding is that the Jet or Ord stuff actually prints really well and I can't tell the difference. I use an E3d hotend which requires pretty consistent diameter filament because there is not much room in the steel shaft for accommodating filament much greater than 3.1 or so mm, and I haven't experienced any jams with these suppliers as of yet. They are becoming my goto for standard colors but I still get my specialty colors from protoparadigm.
 
Great. Thanks for the info. I will have to give them a try.

I hope this jam up is just a fluke because I have a kilo of red and a kilo of pink waiting to be used... The other rolls of Matterhacker I have used were always in the 2.91mm diameter range. The red I tried last night was only 2.75mm. That makes me think the filament might have come from a different source.
 
Guy Barton said:
I asked about the Ultem bed material over on the Lulzbot forum. One of the members there found this 0.010" thick adhesive backed Ultem in a 12 X 12 inch size. It might be worth checking out. He said he was going to and would report results.

http://catalog.cshyde.com/item/film...e-36-10a-12-x-12?&bc=100|1002|3001043|3001153
Click to expand...

Sticking that Ultem film down to glass to print on seems pretty similar to using Kapton tape in same fashion, is the Ultem far superior to Kapton for printing on or something? IDK how durable the Ultem is, but at $25 bucks a bed it could get pretty costly if it gets nicked up and needs to be replaced periodically. What is the major advantage of Ultem film over Kapton?
 
It should work, but all depends on how well the adhesive holds up at 100C. All the spray adhesives I tried failed and lifted at that temp, but that was for thicker sheets. 0.01" is starting to get a little thin in terms of durability. The whole point of using the PEI sheet is because you retain all of surface adhesion benefits of Kapton but in a thicker durable sheet that doesn't need to be changed. That tape is less than 3x thicker than standard Kapton tape so I don't know if you are going to be gaining much.
 
Based on Tom's comments in this thread, it sounds like the parts just pop right off his thicker sheets when cool and stick very well when the bed is hot. All the damage done to my PET film has been during part removal.

I just have a hard time getting the parts to stick well enough that they won't lift during printing. I only run ABS right now.

Lulzbots ship with a single sheet of PET film on the bed. I have never used kapton.

Edit: So, would you say the stick and release properties of the Ultem is about the same as Kapton? Maybe I just need to try Kapton. Even with ABS juice, I have a hard time getting the parts to stick. Once I dissolve enough ABS in the acetone to get really good adhesion, I mess up the tape or part trying to remove it!! The PET sheets I have purchased from Lulzbot are six bucks each.
 
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Tom Kole said:
It should work, but all depends on how well the adhesive holds up at 100C. All the spray adhesives I tried failed and lifted at that temp, but that was for thicker sheets. 0.01" is starting to get a little thin in terms of durability. The whole point of using the PEI sheet is because you retain all of surface adhesion benefits of Kapton but in a thicker durable sheet that doesn't need to be changed. That tape is less than 3x thicker than standard Kapton tape so I don't know if you are going to be gaining much.
Click to expand...

Thanks Tom, that pretty much answers my question, seems to me the advantage of Ultem is negated when you use a thin sheet, at that point might as well save some $$ and use Kapton tape. With a $50 wide roll of Kapton you can resurface glass a hundred times at least, never calculated the actual total on a roll but it's a LOT.
I am curious if the thicker Ultem is rigid and extremely flat, or does it still rely on the surface beneath it to provide a flat surface and rigidity?
 
Kapton works very well as a surface adhesion promoter. The biggest problems are that parts can still warp because they can actually lift it off of the bed (the glue is only so strong), and it is easily damaged (especially when removing parts). Ultem is just as adhesive (even more in my qualitative assessment) but is extremely durable because it comes in thicker sheets. I spent months actually trying to find thick Kapton sheets before I finally heard of Ultem. Most things pop off of PEI pretty easily when they are fully cooled. If they don't, you can just unclip the sheet and flex it so that the part pops off. I actually keep a set on carpentry clamps with rubber grips near my printer and use those to pull off any finicky parts that want to stick to the bed. They easily come off with those and are not damaged due to the rubber grips.
 
Depending on how much you squish the print down on Kapton the parts sometimes pop off on their own as it cools (I've come to believe the filament itself also plays a roll in this). I've also found there is a sweet spot for removing parts, at around 50C (in the 50's) the parts seem to release easier. When the bed is hotter the parts hold more firmly, and when the bed is completely cooled they seem to hold solid as well. So try pulling your parts while your bed is in the 50's to see if you have better luck. As for easiest print and release, glass coated with Hairspray seems to be the easiest for me so far (haven't tried Ultem yet), but you may get some curl on the bottom depending on the print.
 
RalphTrimble said:
Thanks Tom, that pretty much answers my question, seems to me the advantage of Ultem is negated when you use a thin sheet, at that point might as well save some $$ and use Kapton tape. With a $50 wide roll of Kapton you can resurface glass a hundred times at least, never calculated the actual total on a roll but it's a LOT.
I am curious if the thicker Ultem is rigid and extremely flat, or does it still rely on the surface beneath it to provide a flat surface and rigidity?
Click to expand...

The Ultem is extremely hard and will not damage with reasonable compressive forces, but it can bend. That's why you need something rigid and flat beneath it to make sure it's flat. I use a piece of aluminum, but a mirror tile from home depot would work just as well.
 
Hmm, OK, being able to flex the thicker Ultem sheet seems like a nice option for releasing parts, that's one big plus, I've often wished I could flex my kapton coated glass! As for Kapton pulling up from glass during a print, I have never had that problem. I have pulled up Kapton occasionally while trying to remove a part, but never during a print. Don't know if this has to do with the type/quality of Kapton. I've been laying it down on the glass after bathing the tape in water (no soap) then squeegee out the water and bake a while on the heat bed, after this the kapton adheres to the glass pretty firmly...

EDIT: I am using a 7" roll of Kapton tape that covers most of the glass with one piece, not multiple strips from a thinner roll.
 
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RalphTrimble said:
Hmm, OK, being able to flex the thicker Ultem sheet seems like a nice option for releasing parts, that's one big plus, I've often wished I could flex my kapton coated glass! As for Kapton pulling up from glass during a print, I have never had that problem. I have pulled up Kapton occasionally while trying to remove a part, but never during a print. Don't know if this has to do with the type/quality of Kapton. I've been laying it down on the glass after bathing the tape in water (no soap) then squeegee out the water and bake a while on the heat bed, after this the kapton adheres to the glass pretty firmly...
Click to expand...

It doesn't happen all of the time, but it can happen. The most common time for lifting is during the part removal. Once I pretty much got 3d printing figured out and had my printer running like a well oiled machine, surface prep and changing kapton became my biggest annoyance with printing. I would put so much effort into squeegeeing out every single bubble until I had an atomically smooth layer on the bed. Then sometimes one print later it was ruined. It drove me nuts. Since finding Ultem, I feel like I have achieved 3d printer nirvana and couldn't imagine going back to kapton. Now I can just focus on printing and don't need to worry about my bed surface.
 
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