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thread-8619 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8619 | Odd print artifacts on same layer as large top surface | 2019-04-05T04:48:44.687 | # Question
Title: Odd print artifacts on same layer as large top surface
I printed the following object (*I'm printing the single opening version, Flower\_pot\_3.STL*), and observed an unusual print artifact. I would like some idea of what's going on so I can avoid it in the future. The object is essentially an open-top box. In the image below, you can see a ridge along the bottom of the print. This corresponds to the upper surface of the bottom side of the box. The ridge is present for 4 layers, the same number of layers on the top surface. The defect is basically a positive ridge all the way around (not a layer shift). The G-code render below is for the top layer of the bottom surface.
System Settings
* Printer is Prusa Mk3, with white PLA plastic. Nozzle is HS steel at 210 °C
* 0.2 mm Layer height, 15 % Gyroid infill, 3 perimeters
* Perimeters are printed first each layer, with the outer perimeter coming last.
\-
Ideally, I would like to know what caused this artifact, and what I could do to avoid it in the future. I can add more information as requested.
# Answer
Just a guess here. If I understood correctly the deformation is at the first layer of the box bottom, it seems highly unlikely that it randomly happened at this exact position so I am assuming that if you do the print again you will get the same deformation at the same place (you can test this maybe ? I know it is a long print). In this case it is more likely that is a slicer issue than something with your machine and it could also be a problem with the stl model. Maybe try to create a small simple box then slice it using the same setting and try to see if you can reproduce artifact.
> 1 votes
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Tags: print-quality, prusa-i3, pla
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thread-8602 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8602 | Print initial layer only on outside of print | 2019-04-02T17:49:46.540 | # Question
Title: Print initial layer only on outside of print
I am using Ultimaker Cura to print what are essentially cookie cutters - a thin wall that is a silhouette of the shape. I would like to have a broader surface for the top. In Ultimaker Cura, I set it to print a wider "initial layer" but this initial layer is printed both inside and outside the print. Is there a setting I can use to print the initial layer outside the print? I am using Fusion 360 to create the model and would like to avoid having to build this separate layer for every model I build, unless it can be done fairly easily as these shapes will vary for each model.
As an additional question, what would be the best way to split an image into individual pieces - one for the outline of the whole shape and individual pieces for each distinct part of the image, say eyes, nose, mouth - that you would use to build the image after you cut out the pieces? I've tried using InkScape but I am not able to get it to divide them into clean pieces.
# Answer
The solution to getting the brim set up was to select the area for each individual piece (in GIMP), then duplicate that selection and "grow" it to make it larger to create the lip. From there, I extruded the larger section a few millimeters and extruded the smaller selection on top of that and hollowed it out. Still working on the exact measurements to achieve the lip width and height, but the process is in place.
> 1 votes
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Tags: 3d-models, ultimaker-cura, fusion360
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thread-8634 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8634 | Small dent problem | 2019-04-06T17:27:36.820 | # Question
Title: Small dent problem
Whenever I print, I tend to have a small dent that appears on several of my prints, that are not in the original design. These are not following the layer orientation.
As far as I notice, nothing blocks the extruder of my prusa-i3. I print with PLA, so not a material where I would expect weird behaviour.
What could cause that problem?
# Answer
This looks very much like it is the seam between the outer perimeters that is placed one over the other. This can be solved by choosing a different Z-seam alignment. In Ultimatker Cura, the setting is called `Z-seam alignment` and should be set to `random` for cylindrical items.
> 4 votes
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Tags: print-quality, prusa-i3
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thread-1083 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/1083 | Layer delamination | 2016-05-03T16:21:48.817 | # Question
Title: Layer delamination
I've printed mostly ABS in the past and encountered delamination between layers many times. I've ensured the following conditions regularly:
* Build plate is level
* Base of print isn't warped (using ABS slurry)
* Prevent air draft. I've added acrylic panels to the sides of the machine and the machine is in a custom cupboard.
* Nozzle temperature at about 225C
* HBP temperature at about 112C (I live in NW USA, so the ambient temperature is typically fairly cool).
* Using MakerBot filament
What are some other variables to consider to help prevent delamination between layers?
# Answer
Cool environmental conditions are the single biggest contributor to ABS delamination. Delamination or edge/corner cracking is caused by warping stresses when the first layer adhesion is stronger than the interlayer bonding. Or it happens when the heated build plate allows a strong non-warping foundation to be built until the print is too tall to be adequately warmed by the plate. In either case, the corners of the first layer can't lift, so the print cracks elsewhere to relieve the stress.
All ABS warping stress, in turn, is caused by the repeated thermal contraction of the fresh plastic layer at the top of the print. The FDM process sticks hot, expanded plastic onto cool, contracted plastic. When the new layer cools, it tries to contract, but it's stuck to a layer that is already fully cooled/contracted. This generates a large shear stress between the two layers. The accumulation of those shear stresses over many consecutive layers generates a large-scale bending force on the entire print. That's what causes both warping and delamination.
The less the previous layer cools below the glass point of the plastic, the less thermal contraction it experiences before the next layer goes down, and therefore the less warping stress will accumulate as the *next* layer cools.
Environment temp is the biggest thing you can control:
* If your printer's environment is below 35C, you probably shouldn't even bother printing ABS.
* A 50C environment is significantly better and will have minimal problems with warping and delamination. This is within the ambient temp ratings of most motors and electronics. Air-cooled extruders can typically extrude ABS reliably up to about 60C ambient, at which point they may be prone to clogging. And don't forget about plastic structural parts in your printer.
* Industrial ABS printers with heated build chambers print ABS in a 75-85C environment, with lots of airflow. In terms of cooling regimes, ABS in an 80C chamber acts very similar to PLA in a room-temp environment. No warping, but lots of airflow required for good detail.
Printing ABS at a higher nozzle temperature (say 240-250C) will also improve layer adhesion so delamination is less likely to occur. The same warping stresses will be there, but the layer bonding may be stronger than the internal stresses in the part so it survives printing.
> 8 votes
# Answer
I know some could not fit your question but maybe someone will look for all possibilities.
Delamination can be caused by:
1. filament
* humidity
* diameter
2. extruder
* pressure (holdfast) - soft filament can be crumpled caused by extensive retraction)
* dirty jagger teeth (knurls)
* thermistor/wire failure - when it reports temp under ie 170C then extruder doesn't extrude
* caret floatage (extruder motor cannot pull filament so it climbs)
3. general
* printing speed
* temperature issue
> 4 votes
# Answer
Delamination should not happen when the temperature is correct. As already pointed out, different temperatures between hot and cold layer cause warping, but warping is not delamination. If you print at the correct temperature (higher for bigger pieces, lower for thin columnar pieces), the layers will stick.
This is the procedure to optimise the printing temperature to avoid delamination:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:35088
Print the object at increasing temperatures (210-250C, 5C by step) and when cooled try to break it. Pick the temperature (for THAT SPECIFIC filament roll) that gives you the highest strength.
Other test objects such as http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:915435 are meant to test print quality, not strength. For strength and delamination you need the procedure I described above.
> 1 votes
# Answer
wall size and filling are also parameters. If wall size is too thin delamination is more visible
> -1 votes
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Tags: fdm, makerbot, abs, print-quality, delamination
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thread-8534 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8534 | Why is 2 / -2 / 2 equal to -2 in OpenSCAD? (Mathematical Order of Operations) | 2019-03-23T05:29:42.700 | # Question
Title: Why is 2 / -2 / 2 equal to -2 in OpenSCAD? (Mathematical Order of Operations)
Recently I have been doing more complicated math in OpenSCAD and I have run into something that I find strange. Take a simple math expression: `2 / 2 / 2`. By any programming language this will equal 0.5 (1/2), and OpenSCAD agrees. Something like this: `2 / -2 / 2` should also be -0.5 for the same reason. However, OpenSCAD thinks this is -2. That is `echo(2 / -2 / 2);` gives `ECHO: -2`. My calculator, other programming languages (and myself) all say its -0.5.
Is this a quirk of OpenSCAD, or am I missing something obvious?
# Answer
> 8 votes
I suspect the behavior you are seeing is an undocumented feature (aka, bug) of OpenSCAD. I've found in the latest stable release that if the - is placed on either end, the result is -0.5, but in the middle, my results are the same as yours. Surrounding the -2 with parentheses results in a correct answer, however.
It appears that the parentheses turns a mathematical operation into a signed integer. It follows that the operations without the parentheses is right to left:
2/2 = 1, negative 1 with the minus, 2/-1 = -2
# Answer
> 4 votes
I filed this issue as a bug with the OpenSCAD project, and there is now a fix merged into master, as well as a test case to prevent regression. The latest nightly builds should handle this correctly from here on out.
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Tags: openscad
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thread-8641 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8641 | How does a UV LCD 3D resin printer work? | 2019-04-08T01:05:38.823 | # Question
Title: How does a UV LCD 3D resin printer work?
I've been wondering this for a while, and have searched for hours and have found nothing except undetailed explanations and projects.
How does a UV LCD 3D resin printer cure resin exactly? I understand there is an LCD screen, but where does the UV light come from? Where is it placed?
# Answer
> 9 votes
I'm surprised your research hasn't answered your question, as the concept is relatively simple. You have most of the answer in the question. The missing item is a light source. Usually the source is an array of ultraviolet LED modules. There are resin printers that would not be called LCD printers, as they use computer display projectors to generate both the image and the UV to cure the resin.
A rather extensive list of various resin printers can be found at aniwaa.com along with a clear explanation of the technologies.
The image below is courtesy of the link in the previous paragraph.
The light source that answers your question is visible in the third picture. As noted, the LCD panel blocks the light based on the image to be cured. I think the "uses its own light" is somewhat misleading, unless the builder has found a high-UV output LED LCD panel or is using daylight resins and has configured for long burn-in times.
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Tags: sla, knowledgebase, resin
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thread-8512 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8512 | Avoiding stringing with flexible filament | 2019-03-21T01:31:57.710 | # Question
Title: Avoiding stringing with flexible filament
I have some flexible PLA filament (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VKSSA4E/, presumably a mix of PLA with some platicizer) that's supposed to be easy to print with settings similar to regular PLA. I've seen recommendations to disable retraction, and indeed I get huge failures to extrude at all for a while after retraction if it's enabled. But with retraction disabled, I get stringing all over the place, and since the material isn't brittle, it's really difficult to remove.
I'm using a bed temp of 60 and print temp of 220, increased from 210 for normal PLA since I had trouble getting it to adhere at lower temp. Printer is Creality Ender 3. Using CuraEngine for slicing. The extruder is feeding the material fine; there's no kinking going on or anything.
Where should I start trying to improve this? Might retraction work with a really really slow print speed or greatly reduced retraction distance? Or are there other ways to avoid stringing?
# Answer
> 6 votes
OK, this turned out to be really idiotic. The main source of the problem was Cura's custom start gcode for my printer (Ender 3), maybe duplicated for other printers too: it crams a massive amount of filament through the extruder to prime it. With flexible filament, this doesn't actually extrude most of it; rather, it just builds up as pressure in the bowden, which makes the first few \[tens of\] layers ooze like crazy, and then the hot nozzle picks up the ooze and drags it all over the place, and yay, stringing everywhere!
A previous version of this answer (see edit history) described a lot of options I was using to try to improve things, some of them rather dubious. Really, the core of the matter, which can manifest in lots of ways, is that if pressure builds up in the extruder due compression of the material being easier than forcing it through the nozzle, it will ooze during travel, or as a glob prior to travel during ineffective retraction, and either way it will eventually lead to catastrophic stringing. So to solve this, I needed to address all the ways it could happen.
* First was the start gcode. I dropped the extruded material amount over 200mm for the priming from 15mm to 9mm (about 90% nominal material needed rather than 150%) and edited the custom end gcode to revert all but 1mm of the retraction it does, after homing. This reduces the need for wacky over-priming at print start, and makes the state after printing roughly match the state after loading filament, so that print results are independent of whether filament was just loaded or not.
* Second, pressure can build up again if the extrusion rate is too high for the material, nozzle size, and temperature. At 30 mm/s print rate and 0.3 mm layers, I found I need a ridiculously high temperature like 235 °C to keep it flowing. This in turn produced a lot of sagging of overhangs, so really 0.3 mm layers seem to need significantly slower printing, defeating the purpose. 0.2-0.25 mm seems to flow marginally ok at 30 mm/s and 215°C, which is better behaved with regard to overhangs, and fine at 225 °C.
* I'd noticed previously (in the previous version of this answer) a problem with layer adhesion with temperatures lower than 225 °C. This was not actually a layer adhesion problem but rather an underextrusion problem, the same one causing stringing.
* The retraction amount still needs to be sufficient to account for the compression of the material in the bowden, plus enough to get it backed out of the hotend. I seem to need at least 15 mm, compared to 5 mm for plain PLA. Note that retraction min travel needs to be disabled (set to 0) to prevent skipping retraction for short moves, where stringing will be the worst.
* Higher retraction speeds seem to work better, and without them the 15 mm retraction is miserably slow. However, I found that my printer's default limits on extruder feedrate and jerk were very low. Adding `M203 E200` and `M205 E25` to the custom start gcode made it honor my requests for faster retraction, and doesn't seem to have any ill effects.
In summary, the settings that work for me are:
* All print speed settings: 30 mm/s or less
* Travel speed: 250 mm/s
* Retraction amount 15 mm
* Retraction speed: 150 mm/s
* Retraction combing: all
* Retraction hop: disabled
* Retraction min travel: 0 mm
* Temperature: 235 for 0.3 mm layers, 215 for 0.2 mm layers
And the results:
# Answer
> 5 votes
You could enable `combing` in the slicer. Combing not only prevents retracts, it also uses already laid down paths for movement from one to the other location and as such reduces the amount of stringing.
# Answer
> 0 votes
The right path seems to be enabling retraction, but tuning the retraction and print speed settings. I started out by dropping all speed settings to 30. With retraction disabled, this turned the stringing into solid walls between paths, with only a tiny gap at the very start of the wall, right after the extruder stopped:
This suggested that the sudden drop in pressure at the nozzle is cutting off the string momentarily. Back to that thought in a bit.
Independently of the pressure thought, I decided to turn retraction back on, but with *really* slow retraction speed. This helped a lot, but probably not the way I expected; I think what it did was give the nozzle time to ooze at the point where retraction happens, rather than in the travel path. I also turned off `infill_before_walls`, so that the retraction and potential oozing would happen in the infill region rather than walls, and increased the travel speed way up to 200 to take best advantage of the moment where oozing is interrupted.
At this point, I'm getting almost-acceptable results with `retraction_retract_speed` set to 5 (vs default 25), default retraction amount, and `speed_travel` of 200:
Back to the pressure idea, I'm thinking that the right solution is probably to perform the retraction concurrently with the travel, keeping some negative pressure the whole time, and possibly jerking the extruder back further just before hitting the travel destination to prevent a string from forming there. Cura has no features to do anything like that, but it shouldn't be difficult as post-processing on the gcode. I might try prototyping it like that to see if it works.
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Tags: print-quality, filament, flexible
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thread-8624 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8624 | Strange outer skin print quality on Ender 3 | 2019-04-05T18:09:44.843 | # Question
Title: Strange outer skin print quality on Ender 3
Does anybody have an idea what causes the strange outer wall skin texture? I don't know why this happens; the inner wall looks fine, but the outer wall looks distorted.
Also it's strange that the distortion only happens on the left side for about 2 cm on all prints.
Disabling retraction had no effect. Reducing the printing speed neither improved it.
Edit: I'm printing at 0.16mm layer height with 98% initial flow rate and 94%. No support. Standard PLA with the standard nozzle at 190°C. I am using Cura for slicing if it matters.
Printing speed is at 40mm/s for the outer wall and 80mm/s for the inner one. I already tried to decrease the outer wall speed to 20mm/s without any luck. Except for one other print, I never had an issue with those settings.
I just finished a print with 100% flow rate to exclude its the flow rate. With 100% only the front improved at all.
# Answer
My best guess is you have an under extrusion issue, possibly related to retraction: the issue is exacerbated on parts where the printer has to hop over a gap.
I would try running, in the order:
1. print a flow rate test, to ensure the amount of filament exiting the nozzle matches with your configuration
2. print a retraction test, to ensure you are not suffering from some bowden tube issues like bad coupling
3. check for any clog in the hot end, those can require a bigger pressure to build up before the filament start flowing again
4. print a temperature tower, to find out if 190° is the right temperature (seems a bit low to me)
With regards to point 2, the Ender 3 is somewhat renown for having poor quality couplers: watch the bowden tube couplers when printing and try to verify the tube is not moving back and forth when hopping over empty spaces...
> 2 votes
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Tags: print-quality, troubleshooting, creality-ender-3
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thread-8635 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8635 | What is the reinforcement for 3D printing concrete cement? | 2019-04-06T19:11:09.137 | # Question
Title: What is the reinforcement for 3D printing concrete cement?
When houses are printed with concrete cement what replaces the steel rebar for reinforcement?
Here's a link referencing printing concrete: https://www.aniwaa.com/house-3d-printer-construction/
> House 3D printers use extrusion technology. Some construction 3D printers look like super-sized desktop FFF/FDM 3D printers (gantry style), whereas others consist of a rotating mechanical arm.
>
> In both cases, paste-type components such as concrete are used as filament. The material is pushed out of a special nozzle to form layers. To put it (very) simply, paste extrusion is similar using a piping bag to spread frosting on a cake.
>
> The printer creates the foundations and walls of the house or building, layer by layer. The ground is literally the printer’s build plate. Some concrete 3D printers, however, are used to 3D print brick molds. When molded, the bricks are then piled atop each other manually (or with a robotic arm).
Like most of the people here my experience is with a printer (RepRap) that can use PLA or ABS. With all the materials normally put into concrete, using an extrusion printer to print concrete is puzzling.
# Answer
There is no reinforcement. You can use this ‘printing’ solution for walls but by default not for floors. There are experiments that use the solution to span a gap but they use relatively thick plates.
For example, see this paper, Design of a 3D printed concrete bridge by testing.
> 3 votes
# Answer
To answer your question, they use steel or fiber glass.
Why does concrete need reinforcement? Concrete is very useful to absorb compression loads, but breaks and cracks very easily when subjected to tension loads. Rebar, or steel constructions are added to strengthen the concrete to bear the tension loads. My house has walls that are littered with steel wires/fibers of about 10 cm (about 4 inches) and about 1.5 mm in diameter close to the surface (drilling holes into the wall frequently means hitting such a fiber which comes out and leaves a scar on the wall...). My walls are constructed in a factory flat on the ground, those fibers are added to prevent shrink cracks in the first layer of the wall (the side you always look at); after that, rebar is added and the rest of the wall is cast and after drying the wall is put upright and transported to the build site.
Injection of fibers is not new to 3D printing; it is already possible to print short fibers embedded in filament, or continuous where filament and thermoplastic material join together in the nozzle. The company I work for creates molds and aerospace parts this way.
You can imagine that it would be possible to print concrete with fibers/wires or continuously with wires. Technically this should be feasible, but I guess that larger diameter wire (rebar) is actually needed instead of relatively small diameter wires. Also, fibers can only be laid down in the direction of travel of the nozzle, not perpendicular to. Rebar often shows strengthening in multiple (three) dimensions, that is not possible with 3D printing.
There is some reported success on printing reinforced concrete:
According to BAM Infra:
> “They have succeeded in developing a process to also print the steel reinforcement at the same time. When laying a strip of concrete the concrete printer adds a steel cable so that the slab is ‘prestressed’ so that no tensile stress can occur in the concrete.”
But this means that the print is a part printed at another location, not on location.
There is also some success with using horizontal fiberglass reinforcements within the walls during the printing process.
See e.g. this reference, this reference for more information on reinforced concrete printing.
> 3 votes
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Tags: print-material, concrete-printers
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thread-8646 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8646 | Long prints shifting with Ultimaker 2 | 2019-04-10T08:14:57.157 | # Question
Title: Long prints shifting with Ultimaker 2
I am currently using Ultimaker 2+ to print some big parts with PLA. As long as the printing lasts for less than 15 hours (that's what I observed by experience, approximately), there are no problems. If the duration of printing is greater than this time, the part would get shifted from its initial position. It looks like the part is not sticking to the bed anymore.
I was first using classic glue sticks and this problem occurred. Next, I tried with different masking tapes but the problem remains the same. The glass bed is **not** heated. The first layer and the following are actually pretty clean. I use brim. I reduced the printing speed to 20 mm/s on purpose to see if it would reduce the probability of this phenomenon to occur. However, this is not the case.
Do you have any experience concerning this problem, ideas, suggestions?
# Answer
If the brim is firmly connected to the part and sufficiently large, you could "duck tape" the brim to the bed after a few hours; by then you should have enough space/clearance to work with.
But maybe the best advice is to invest in a heated bed platform, or use the heated bed if you only did not enable it. Heating the filament to the point close to the glass transition temperature ensures that the printed filament stays ductile. Once filament cools down, it shrinks and cannot grip on the to build plate indefinitely.
My Ultimaker 3 uses a heated build platform that can virtually make every filament stick to it as long as you prepare the bed correctly. On glass I prefer to use a specifically designed printing spray called 3DLAC; that, and a little heat (depending on the filament you print; i.e. the glass transition temperature) make that I never have had any problems with getting filament to stick to the build plate. I'm even able to get the slippery filament POM to stick to the heated bed.
> 3 votes
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Tags: print-quality, pla, heated-bed, adhesion
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thread-5465 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/5465 | Is it advisable to use additional external fan(s) for printing PLA? | 2018-02-11T19:38:49.110 | # Question
Title: Is it advisable to use additional external fan(s) for printing PLA?
I was wondering if adding (an) extra fan(s) (not connected to the printer, but blowing on the print area) could improve the quality of PLA based prints(printing at 210 C). The printer already has a built in fan with a fan shroud that directs air to the hotend, but is it beneficial to add an extra fan in order to get better results on overhangs, fine details, etc, or does extra cooling negatively/not affect print quality?
# Answer
> The printer already has a built in fan with a fan shroud that directs air to the hotend
**Unless your printer is defective, it may look like so, but the airflow should really be directed towards the print, not the hot-end**. Cooling the hot-end will at best just waste energy, requiring extra heat to keep it hot, at worst affect your print quality negatively.
> is it beneficial to add an extra fan in order to get better results on overhangs?
The issue with external fans, not connected to the printer, is that you can't properly direct their ariflow, so:
* you *will* direct some of it on the hot-end itself (see above on why that's not good)
* you will potentially cool your print unevenly, which - depending from how much, how fast, and what type of filament you are using - may warp your prints
That said, depending from a number of factors, including your ability to position the fans appropriately, **you *may* gain some benefit from them (I saw people doing this to help with PETG stringing), but I would recommend instead to upgrade the part fan of your printer (e.g.: larger diameter, higher RPM) and your duct (better focus on the extruded filament)**, as these upgrades will have no drawbacks and will perform consistently on each part of the print.
For most common printer, there are printable mods that allow to do both, often available off thingiverse or on dedicated user community forums.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Fan blow at hot end is necessary because hotend needs cooling.
For PLA it will yield better result with a seperate controllable fan direct airflow across the print head, but just like everything with 3D printing, you will need to test out every possible configuration to get the best for your setup.
> 0 votes
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Tags: pla, quality, cooling, print-fan
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thread-8649 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8649 | PLA 3D Print longevity after being printed | 2019-04-10T13:35:19.157 | # Question
Title: PLA 3D Print longevity after being printed
I am curious about the longevity of a PLA printed part used in a commercial application. It would be a mounting bracket installed in an industrial enclosure. The internal cabinet temperature would be less than 100 °F, and have an internal air circulation fan to keep the control PLC cool.
It would be in a steel enclosure, in an industrial environment, with no sunlight or UV exposure.
Would the PLA hold up over time, or have any issues with delamination or brittleness?
# Answer
I've had white Hatchbox PLA parts in use outside in direct or partial sun for 3+ years without issue. It may help if you paint the parts for outdoor use, but I suspect the environment you describe would be fine for several years.
> 3 votes
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Tags: pla
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thread-8663 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8663 | Success metrics for 3D prints | 2019-04-11T16:43:17.427 | # Question
Title: Success metrics for 3D prints
I'm doing some testing for objects in 3D printing for a report. I'm trying to get success metrics for it but a bit unsure of what else I could do since would ideally like hard values for it. For example, I have:
* Filament needed
* Volume
* Ease of removal
* Weight
* Time of print
Would anyone know anything else?
# Answer
The success metrics are entirely up to you, the user of the printed part. For example, the strength of the part under the load it's desgined for will be critical for an end-use part (such as as hook), but doesn't matter at all for a fit or appearance prototype. Conversely, the dimensional accuracy is very important for a fit model prototyping a complex assembly, but might be unimportant for an appearance prototype or for some kinds of end-use parts.
Because there's a wide range of uses for printed parts, there's a wide range of possible metrics. Mostly they depend on the original design, the print options chosen (e.g. infill style), the material chosen, and the capabilities of the printer. Here are a few:
* Dimensional accuracy (of the part compared to the design)
* Dimensional stability (does the part warp or shrink afterwards)
* Total time to print + finish
* Material cost of print (build materials and other consumables)
* Weight of printed part
* Labour of operating the printer and any post-processing
* Surface appearance/smoothness (different for horizontal, vertical, angled, and curved surfaces)
* Surface friction
* Surface hardness (can you scratch it easily)
* Colour accuracy (of the part compared to the design, for colour printing processes)
* Colour stability (do they fade over time)
* Colour resolution (are colour changes sharp or blurred)
* Rigidity (different in different axes)
* Failure load (different in different axes)
* Non-adhesion across small gaps (as in a tolerance test)
* Porosity (e.g. if printing a container for liquids or gases)
A big cross-cutting metric is repeatability. If you make the same print again the next day and repeat any of these measurements, how different a result do you get?
There are also some metrics that are more about the material choice than the way it's printed:
* Outgassing
* Flammability
* Toxicity
> 1 votes
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Tags: print-quality
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thread-8666 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8666 | Ultimaker 3 Extended prints pores in walls | 2019-04-12T07:49:08.763 | # Question
Title: Ultimaker 3 Extended prints pores in walls
We have a fairly new Ultimaker 3 Extended.
When printing ABS with the AA0.8 nozzle and the recommended settings (up-to-date CURA) we receive a very poor wall quality that exposes some kind of pores. I've attached an image of those pores.
I assume those pores are dragged by the nozzle when it moves inwards to print the infill.
I already tried to increase the wall thickness or increase the layer height to 0.3 mm. Are there other settings I might be able to tweak to eliminate those pores?
# Answer
While no expert, I'm wondering if you're going the wrong way with tweaking your parameters.
If I'm reading your question correct, you have a fairly large nozzle (it's a 0.8 mm?) and then you're using ABS which requires more heat (230 °C nozzle temp) than say PLA does (typically 190 °C). Along with that you are using a fairly thick print layer of 0.3 mm, where I've normally only used a 0.1 mm layer height. You add all this stuff up and it seems to me the nozzle temps are probably not keeping up with the amount of filament you are trying to extrude, and due to these things, you're seeing the gaps in the print.
My thinking on this to fix your issue is to do a couple of things. You can slow down your print speed to allow the heating element to keep up. Secondly, use a smaller layer height. Both of these things should help, but will increase print times dramatically. You could also go to a smaller print orifice. Lowering the orifice size to 0.4 mm would again, increase print time, but would mean less filament extrusion and the chance for the nozzle temps to keep up with extrusion needs.
> 1 votes
# Answer
First of all, I agree with the other answer, which suggests slowing the print and increasing the temperature (upvoted). I also see some evidence of de-lamination between layers in the photo, which lends weight to that idea.
But I want to address this:
> I assume those pores are dragged by the nozzle when it moves inwards to print the infill.
Perhaps. There's also a chance these gaps are the result of the nozzle as you suggest...
... however, if that's true, it's almost certainly not the nozzle itself. For the nozzle to cause this problem, the z-axis would actually have to descend as the layer tries to adjust upwards.
Instead, I'd look for a clump of material stuck to the nozzle edge, either during a priming phase in the machine beginning g-code or picked up from the first layer where an early part of a brim/raft/skirt may not have completely stuck to the print bed.
This happens commonly with my printer now that the nozzle has aged some, and I tend to watch the printer carefully while it warms up for a new print so I can remove the priming material with a putty knife before it can cause a problem.
> 1 votes
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Tags: print-quality, ultimaker-cura, quality, ultimaker-3
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thread-8677 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8677 | CR-10 Layers not printing after certain amount of filament printed | 2019-04-13T11:36:47.460 | # Question
Title: CR-10 Layers not printing after certain amount of filament printed
I am printing on a CR-10 for the first time with white filament<sup>1</sup>. The problem is it seems that after a certain amount of filament printed one or two layers don't stick to the print which causes a huge gap in the end.
I think the pictures speak for themselves:
Here is what I already tried:
* Different print speeds (60 mm/s and 45 mm/s)
* Different nozzles (both 0.4 mm)
* Print-temperatures of 200 °C and 205 °C
* Resliced models in case of faulty `.gcode` files
* Support densities of 10 % to 20 %
* Different models
I tried this with two different models, two print attempts each. The gap occurs earlier in the larger model and at almost the exact same layer on both attempts, same for the smaller model.
The most frustrating thing about this is that it happens a few hours into the print so I can't just sit next to it.
It seems that at a certain layer the filament doesn't stick to the print anymore which causes those straight parts.
I ruled out a faulty z-Rod since the gap occurs at different heights.
I am printing White PLA from Janbex with 60 °C bed temperature. I slice with Cura 4.0 (the linux version).
---
<sup>1</sup> I've been printing for over a year now, it's the first time I use white filament. I don't think that it is entangled filament since the spools from Janbex are always perfectly wound. It did occasionally happen with other filament too though but not this often. I have a theory that it might have something to do with the geometry of the model since there were a few very close hard edges at that height. Maybe the filament didn't have enough time to cool down on those spots. I'm trying to print with lower layer height (0.15 now, 0.2 earlier), maybe that will make a difference...
# Answer
> 1 votes
If the problem occurs at same height I would focus on the Z axis, in particular the gantry and its rollers. Try to remove the Z axis screw and feel if the you can slide the gantry up and down with ease, in particular if it gets harder to slide at roughly the height where the problem occurs. You can use the eccentric nuts to adjust the rollers preload and make it slide smooth. Next on my checklist would be the screw: verify there is no issue on the screw at that height, the Ender 3 is renown for having a Z rod issue due to misalignment between the motor and the nut on the gantry. While writing another idea came to my mind, but I'm sure already checked that: the filament is not clashing or being clamped somewhere when it reaches that height, right? A filament guide would generally exclude that...
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Tags: print-quality
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thread-8538 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8538 | Prusa i3 MK3S Z axis moving down in calibration wizard | 2019-03-24T16:55:26.320 | # Question
Title: Prusa i3 MK3S Z axis moving down in calibration wizard
During recalibration of my printer (due to the nozzle catching on the prints), the Z-axis went down where it used to go up, damaging the heatbed steel sheet in the process. It then failed calibration. I didn't change the wiring since previous print although I re-adjusted the PINDA probe. What can I do to fix this?
# Answer
> 1 votes
*Answer taken from OP's comment*
---
the issue has been resolved (the PINDA probe was too high)
---
Tags: prusa-i3, calibration, z-axis
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thread-7522 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/7522 | Z-axis of Anet A8 always moves additional 5 mm upwards when moving X and Y-axis in Ultimaker Cura | 2018-11-28T14:48:12.013 | # Question
Title: Z-axis of Anet A8 always moves additional 5 mm upwards when moving X and Y-axis in Ultimaker Cura
I have an Anet A8 using the Marlin 1.1.8 Firmware.
There are two (very much related) things that bother me:
`G00 Z0` (after auto home from printer menu which places the nozzle at Z10.09 according to my settings) goes to Z5. `G00 Z-5` brings the nozzle down to the bed but I cannot see any offset like 5 mm.
In Ultimaker Cura I use the jog buttons (like I always do when leveling the bed) but every time I do this it seems that a Z movement of -5 is added. So I press jog distance 10 to the right. The nozzle goes to the right **AND** up 5 mm. Same with all other jogs. If I do X movements from the printer menu directly, the printer behaves correctly.
What's new is that whenever I connect or disconnect Ultimaker Cura, the display shows Z-4.99 on the display. I went through all settings even the Marlin `configuration.h` to check where I could change this but didn't find it.
I am using a sensor as limit switch which pysical distance to the bed is 7.51 mm. M503 tells me that there was an offset (M206) of Z of 5. So I sent M206 Z0. In my firmware (configuration.h) the Z\_PROBE\_OFFSET\_FROM\_EXTRUDER is set to 0 ... hmmm, sounds incorrect to me. other z offsets I cannot see being different from 0.
# Answer
> 2 votes
*Answer taken from OP's question*
---
(24.01.2019) UPDATE: I updated Marlin to 1.1.9 and used the configuration from repository. Since I also printed a new print head (for Bowden extruder) I had to rework all offsets. Same time I switched to Simplify3D (cause I need better control for support blocks). Since then the problem disappeared (not surprised). I could not figure out what setting caused my problem. Thank you!
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Tags: ultimaker-cura, anet-a8, troubleshooting
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thread-8681 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8681 | Bed and nozzle temperature jumping | 2019-04-14T09:39:38.207 | # Question
Title: Bed and nozzle temperature jumping
During my last print I noticed this jumpy behavior during heat up (blue is bed, red is hotend):
So I am wondering about the jumps. What could cause this? I do not think that it is a defunct sensor (it is in both sensors) and I also don't think it is real. Could this pose some sort of hazard as temperature might not properly be controlled?
I use an Anet A8 printer with Marlin 1.1.9 and Octoprint
# Answer
Since the terminal temperatures never exceed the setpoints, there's no apparent potential for disaster. Whether it's due to missing readings or to some sequencing of power (current) applied to the bed vs. the hotend, it really doesn't matter.
If you have a similar graph of the temperatures over an hour of printing and you see signifcant anomalies there, that might be of interest.
> 3 votes
# Answer
It looks like everything is ok with the real temperature, and it is just Octoprint missing some readings, like Oscar said. But I think it is unlikely the USB cables fault, the whole print would fail in that case. I think the PI is to busy, maybe due to a Webcam streaming at high rate (try reducing the framerate). Another reason might be if you use a PI Zero W, especially if you transfer data over the Wifi at the same time, since Wifi and USB cause bottlenecks for each other on that board.
PS. I'd comment, but don't have privilege yet.
> 2 votes
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Tags: anet-a8, heat-management
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thread-8696 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8696 | When installing a glass bed, what do you change? | 2019-04-15T18:03:11.117 | # Question
Title: When installing a glass bed, what do you change?
I have an Anet A8 clone printer with a heated aluminum print bed. I'm considering purchasing a glass bed to add on top of the aluminum. When adding a glass bed on top:
* How would I go about installing the glass onto the aluminum bed? Is the major concern here just affixing it?
* How do you adjust for the added thickness of the bed in the printer? Is this just through a limit switch adjustment or something firmware/software related?
* How much do you adjust your heat (if at all)? Does it take a longer warm-up time due to having to heat the glass?
# Answer
> 3 votes
The most common way to install a glass bed (assuming it's literally a piece of borosilicate glass) is with binder clips. Glass *is* an insulator, so you may need to adjust your bed temps by a few degrees, and it will take somewhat longer to warm up.
You shouldn't need any firmware changes, but will need to adjust whatever z homing you do. If you have a limit switch currently, you'll need to move it by the thickness of the glass. If you have an inductive probe, it should still continue to work, but your z-offset will need to be adjusted. If you have BLTouch or a piezo, nothing should need to change there.
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Tags: heated-bed, anet-a8, glass-bed
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thread-8690 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8690 | Strange problem with quality, what might be the reason for these bubbles? | 2019-04-14T20:53:48.570 | # Question
Title: Strange problem with quality, what might be the reason for these bubbles?
I changed the filament, and to adjust filament temperature, I printed a test model and it looked good:
But printing another part did not go so well:
After the failed print I ran another test:
Еverything is done with the same settings. And I think the temperature and settings are okay.
Is it possible to have a missed step on the Z axis, and this has caused the crushing of the layers or bad filament quality.
Where does the problem come from?
# Answer
It definitely looks like the temperature is too high
but it can also mean that
* the speed is too low and/or
* the cooling fan is not driven correctly and/or
* over extrusion could play a role here
this is the scenario with all these issues together
too high temperature melts too much filament which is put by too slow movements
;)
check the printing when your object changes from well printed to this ugly state
> 4 votes
# Answer
Looking at the second photograph and the way that the filament switches abruptly from smooth to irregular deposition, I would say that you have a partially clogged nozzle.
Pre-heat the nozzle and extrude some filament. It should drop straight down from the nozzle. If the filament curls as it comes out of the nozzle, the nozzle is partially clogged. You may be able to clear the clog by doing what is called a "cold pull":
Pre-heat the nozzle so that it is possible to extrude filament. Then switch off the heater and allow the temperature to fall below the pre-heat temperature of the filament (140°C for PLA, say). Now disengage the extruder gears and gently withdraw the filament completely from the hot end. On removing the filament completely from the printer, you should find a "bullet" on the end of the filament in the shape of the melt chamber. Hopefully, the dirt that caused the clog will be embedded in the bullet.
In order to prevent dirt from entering the nozzle, it is a good idea to install a filament cleaner. This can be as simple as a piece of sponge containing a couple of drops of light machine oil, or you can make something a little more sophisticated. There are plenty of designs that you can download on Thingiverse.
> 4 votes
# Answer
From third picture - moisture!
Is new filament cheap? I guess it was too long on stash and/or bad package.
Look for Maker's Muse's video on Youtube about this topic.
> 0 votes
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Tags: print-quality, change-filament
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thread-8699 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8699 | G-Code for resetting to 100% speed | 2019-04-15T20:11:55.320 | # Question
Title: G-Code for resetting to 100% speed
I had problems printing parts and I figured out that my children have turned the knob of my Prusa i3 MK3 and set the printing speed to 112%.
Since I'm not experimenting much yet, I'm not printing at different speeds than the original speed. I wonder whether there's a G-Code command that I could let Slic3r insert at the beginning of each print to ensure the print starts with 100% speed.
# Answer
You can put the speed to 100 % by G-code command: `M220 S100`.
The `M220`command is described here.
Know that speed changes sent to the printer have an effect on the next printed layer, it first finishes the current layer at the speed commanded before starting printing the layer.
> 8 votes
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Tags: g-code, slic3r
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thread-8539 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8539 | Trouble printing small thin pole | 2019-03-25T02:17:45.767 | # Question
Title: Trouble printing small thin pole
3D-printing newbie here. I have a Geeetech's Prusa i3 mk2 B.
I'm trying to print this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1358311
That's a mold, with 2 external parts and a core. The exterior prints wonderful. But the core is too messy. Take a look at this:
What riddles me is that the side parts, and the pole's base, print fine; so this does not look like a bad calibrated printer, but something else entirely. My guess is this is some precise tuning I don't know yet.
I've been trying to print that little pole without success for over a week now. Tried all this:
* Changing the slicer program (I've used Ultimaker Cura and Slic3r prusa edition)
* Tuning the e-steps for avoiding over-extrusion.
* Tuning the z-steps, so the nozzle doesn't melt the last layer when printing a new one.
* In the same sense, changed the nozzle heat.
* Tried lots of different layering, speed, walls, bridging, and quirks configurations.
So far, the best I got is a little pole not-too-deformed so I can make my part anyway, even when the pole is not well printed. But after seeing lots of videos and reading lots of tips online, I still don't understand how to tune my print for that simple little pole.
Other that tips, what I would really like to ask is if somebody has a name for that problem I'm facing, so it would be much more easy to search for my tuning options.
So... any clue how to fix this?
# Answer
> 13 votes
Basically, **you print too hot (and fast) without enough cooling**. The deformed small pin in your image is a perfect example of depositing new layers onto too hot (not cooled down enough) prior layers.
You can easily solve this by printing two identical parts spaced apart from each other. This allows the layers to cool before the next is deposited.
From mastering Ultimaker Cura:
> When printing a series of small parts, print them all together. The travel time between the parts is often enough time for the layers to cool without changing your settings.
If you do want this to print as a single piece, you need to:
* **tune down hotend temperature** (use the minimum temperature that gives good print results, printing a temperature tower will help to determine this),
* **increase minimal layer time** (may not always work as speed will not be lowered under the minimum printing speed) and
* **increase part cooling fan percentage** (or print a better fan duct that allows for more cooling air to reach the print; many fan ducts are too convergent, the pressure increase is then too big for the fan to effectively push air through it).
# Answer
> 6 votes
The thin core gathers too much heat in the printing process. If you need to print slender objects, either:
* Print several. This is the most simple solution and best for beginners.
* Increase cooling. A better cooling solution or increased fan speed often can help to get thin or delicate objects printed.
* set minimum layer time to slow down the printer automatically on layers with low cross-sections. If too small, it could pause on the edge of the print, which could leave scorch marks.
* If you know a little more about your printer and got your retraction dialed in, you can go more advanced: set `minimum layer time` to 10 to 15 seconds **and** activate the accompanying Z-hop. This will prevent the scorch marks, but you might need to make sure you don't string.
This way the part has a chance to cool down between printing layers.
# Answer
> 6 votes
The other answers have addressed the heat problem. The other risk is that a rod printed vertically like this is prone to snap, because the weakest axis is between layers.
I often rotate pieces like this and print with the rod horizontal. You then have to remove the support and/or brim material, and probably do a bit of sanding to get it properly round, but the final part will be much more reliable (not break).
# Answer
> 0 votes
I'm sorry for the long time I took to answer, but the ammount of NEW problems I faced since started this question was so big that wanted to write a list of them before answering my own question. I've finally also desisted from the list, as the problems tends towards infinity.
Simple version: printing more than a single item did the trick, as several people proposed here. But then the piece broke when tried to remove it from the hot bed, as somebody else also warned me here. By that time I tried a temp tower, had to recalibrate almost the whole printer, had to also relubricate it, had to learn some tricks about sticking and de-sticking pieces from the bed, tried several different glues, started to fine-tune my slicings, and so on and so on... man, 3D printing is laborious.
But I wanted to let this link here for all the fellow newbies out there reading this.
https://all3dp.com/1/common-3d-printing-problems-troubleshooting-3d-printer-issues/
That was exactly the kind of document I was looking for online as a newcomer to this world, and I'm sure it will be useful for a lot of people.
Thanks everybody.
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Tags: prusa-i3, ultimaker-cura, slic3r, geeetech
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thread-8702 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8702 | How to fix transparent outer face? | 2019-04-16T00:08:43.507 | # Question
Title: How to fix transparent outer face?
I have a 3D model that is essentially a mostly outer cylinder but with some geometries in the inner wall. However, it seems that MakerBot print software is having trouble interpreting places when the outer wall is just a thin face (with no thickness) and makes the model seem transparent there when looking from the inside, even though it looks solid from the outside. I think for this reason, the model is completely filling in the cylinder in those places, which is what I am trying to fix.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
# Answer
> 4 votes
You've not offered the source of the model, nor the software from which it was created, but I suspect that you'll find the "invisible" faces have reversed normals. This is a characteristic of modeling software that believes the outside is the inside and vice versa. If you are comfortable with using another program, you can check/confirm those problematic sections.
I'm fond of Meshmixer, a multi-platform 3D modeling and editing program. It will display reversed normals with a bit of zebra striping. One can use the Select tool, highlight those faces and use the Select Edit, reverse normals menu entry to repair the problem.
Some slicers will automatically repair this type of problem. For a different approach, download and import your model into Slic3r, which will indicate that it has corrected xx errors.
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Tags: makerbot
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thread-8706 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8706 | Ender 3 first layer of ESD PLA printing on raft fails | 2019-04-16T19:40:00.770 | # Question
Title: Ender 3 first layer of ESD PLA printing on raft fails
I was asked to print something with ESD PLA and the first layer, on a raft, is coming out like this:
Nozzle temperature was 220 °C and I'm using the default Cura draft profile.
Can you provide any tips on how to get a good print with this?
# Answer
The gap between the raft and the first layer is too large (you need to switch to expert mode in Ultimaker Cura to see the values of the option before you can change them) and the hotend is too hot (normal PLA generally prints at 190 °C, ESD PLA prints at higher temperatures; you could aim for 210 °C as a start), This makes it difficult to precisely deposition the first layer on the raft as the nozzle drags the hot filament causing inaccurate first layer deposition.
Furthermore, PLA generally doesn't require a raft to print the part. The Creality Ender 3 has a rough bed (like a BuildTak surface), you could print directly onto the bed surface.
Source states:
> Extruder Temp: Typically 210-220°C. ESD PLA is a filled product and has a higher melt viscosity vs. unfilled PLA. Therefore, it is sometimes necessary to print at higher temperatures than your standard PLA to allow the resin to flow properly.
This implies that a hotend of 220 °C mot not be hot enough, in that case the filament is too cold and viscous and gets dragged because the gap is too large.
> 2 votes
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Tags: print-quality, pla, rafts
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thread-8712 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8712 | How does acetone "rejuvenate" PEI? | 2019-04-17T00:04:58.017 | # Question
Title: How does acetone "rejuvenate" PEI?
The Prusa3d knowledge base mentions that acetone will "rejuvenate" PEI in addition to cleaning oil and grease from the surface.
> About once a week, or when **prints stop sticking**, use **ACETONE** to clean the bed. It removes grease better than IPA or Windex. It also **rejuvenates** the print surface. However, if you use acetone every day, PEI will become brittle and start cracking.
From a chemical or physical perspective, how does acetone affect the PEI surface?
# Answer
> 7 votes
Rejuvenate is probably a bit of an exaggerated term. The number one adhesion suppressor is grease. The stuff that comes off of the fingers used to handle the sheet. Even if you are careful and only handle the sides, the grease will be carried to the center of the plate next time its cleaned with less aggressive solvents.
Isopropyl alchohol does break down grease but not to the extent that acetone does. Acetone also attacks plastic particles that accumulate on the print surface over time.
PEI is resistant to a wide array of chemicals\[1\] including acetone but it can become brittle if exposed to it too much especially when hot so acetone is not recommended for daily cleaning.
\[1\] Ultem Product Broshure table 4-3
# Answer
> -1 votes
Acetone is smelly nasty stuff. Here's a sample recommendation for PEI maintenance from one of a few (million?) 3d printing help sites.
> Use isopropyl alcohol, methyl alcohol, soap, Heptane, Hexane, or Naphtha. Avoid ketones (such as MEK) or strong bases (such as sodium hydroxide).
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Tags: print-quality, acetone, pei, chemistry
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thread-8721 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8721 | Configuring of MKS_GEN_L V1.0 | 2019-04-18T10:42:32.927 | # Question
Title: Configuring of MKS_GEN_L V1.0
I've bought a new "MKS GEN\_L V1.0" and I'm trying to configure it with Marlin 1.1.X. I changed motherboard in `configuration.h` from previous:
`#define BOARD_RAMPS_13_EFB 33 //RAMPS 1.3 (Power outputs:Hotend,Fan,Bed)`
to
`#define BOARD_MKS_GEN_L 53 //MKS GEN L`.
I'm getting this error:
```
pins.h:268: error: #error "**Unknown MOTHERBOARD value set in Configuration.h**"
#error "Unknown MOTHERBOARD value set in Configuration.h"
^
In file included from sketch\MarlinConfig.h:42:0,
from sketch\G26_Mesh_Validation_Tool.cpp:27:
SanityCheck.h:58: error: #error "MOTHERBOARD is required. Please update your configuration."
#error "MOTHERBOARD is required. Please update your configuration."
^
SanityCheck.h:786: error: #error "**Z_MIN_PROBE_USES_Z_MIN_ENDSTOP_PIN requires the Z_MIN_PIN to be defined.**"
#error "Z_MIN_PROBE_USES_Z_MIN_ENDSTOP_PIN requires the Z_MIN_PIN to be defined."
^
SanityCheck.h:942: error: #error "**LCD_BED_LEVELING requires an LCD controller.**"
#error "LCD_BED_LEVELING requires an LCD controller."
^
SanityCheck.h:1084: error: #error "**HEATER_0_PIN not defined for this board.**"
#error "HEATER_0_PIN not defined for this board."
^
exit status 1
#error "Unknown MOTHERBOARD value set in Configuration.h"
```
# Answer
> 7 votes
The motherboard definition in `configuration.h` should be written like:
```
#define MOTHERBOARD BOARD_MKS_GEN_L
```
actually the word `MOTHERBOARD` was missing and there is no need to write `53 //MKS GEN L` at the end.
The number definition is declared in `boards.h` \- you just confused the two files, indeed you should not forget to define the motherboard constant itself. Do note that this is basically a RAMPS board, see `pins_MKS_GEN_L.h`.
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Tags: marlin, arduino-mega-2650, ramps
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thread-8717 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8717 | Polypropylene Bed Adhesion | 2019-04-18T01:51:39.197 | # Question
Title: Polypropylene Bed Adhesion
I recently upgraded to a Polypropylene print bed, but I haven't actually been able to complete a print.
Adhesion seems incredibly inconsistent, even on the same spot. Sometimes it goes down great, and sometimes it just curls up and clumps on the nozzle. I even cranked the temp up to 220 °C for the PLA and 70 °C for the bed in an effort to get it to stick for an initial layer, and it still isn't sticking.
Any tips? I've been cleaning with rubbing alcohol, but I don't know if there's any trick. Clean when hot? Cold? Let sit after cleaning before using? Is it just a matter of incredibly precise bed leveling?
# Answer
> 1 votes
When you updated the print bed, you may have affected either the manual or auto calibration of the bed height and bed leveling.
First layer adhesion is depends critically on an accurate first layer thickness, which depends on the bed height calibration. Adding or, perhaps more critically, removing any bed surface thickness could cause a problem.
With many forms of auto bed calibration, a sensor detects a steel or metallic reference under the surface. The thickness from that reference to the surface of the bed is not automatically detected or compensated. Changing the bed surface, even renewing the surface with another sheet of the same material, may alter the bed thickness enough to affect the adhesion fo the first layer.
If the bed is properly adjusted, the problem may be the surface of the polypropylene. I see that some instructions for cleaning polypropylene build surfaces suggest isopropyl alcohol and/or a mild soap solution. I find that with a PEI build plate, it is sometimes necessary to clean the surface with acetone.
Acetone is superior at removing oils and films from the surface and will do better than multiple isopropanol cleanings. I checked a table of chemical compatibility, and polypropylene is highly compatible with acetone, so a thorough cleaning will not degrade it.
# Answer
> 0 votes
If you are using PLA, 200 for the extruder sticks the best for me. The other issue with adhesion is the greater the difference between the extruder temperature and the bed the poorer adhesion. There are other things can help with this. Using a higher bed temperature for the first layer can help. A slower extrusion speed allows the extrusion to cool more before getting as long of a length to for the contraction force; thus improving adhesion.
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Tags: adhesion
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thread-8252 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8252 | Is this hot end salvageable? | 2019-02-12T19:00:05.360 | # Question
Title: Is this hot end salvageable?
Kicked off the second long print in a series (printing Lack enclosure components). First 10 hour print was flawless. Started this one, saw the first layer laid down well, went to bed. Woke up to this (you can see the successful prints in the background):
The whole heater block and nozzle is entombed in PLA. The leads to the heater and the thermistor are too. I'm assuming there's no solvent for this, and I'm better off just buying a new hot end.
Thoughts?
# Answer
## Yes
I had a somewhat similar clog once, and I could fix it back up. However, it is a lot of work.
## Hobbyist Way
### Step 1: heat
As long as the heater cartridge is still ok, just fire up the printer, move up the print head by 50 mm and wait some two or three minutes till the goop is warmed enough at the core to melt. Set the hot end to 200 °C and no cooling fan.
### Step 2: rough clean
Check the cables for your hot end and thermistor as long as the plastic has not yet softened up around them and especially surrounding the thermistor: When the glob is removed in one swoop, you might tear the lines! It's better to use a sculpting tool or exacto-blade on the softening plastic and make an opening that allows the glob to be pulled away safely with minimal pull on the cabling.
When the blob has softened enough, you can just pull at the outer of the blob to pull it down. Use a tool like pliers and pull off the worst that still sticks to the hotend. Pulling the blob free can take a while, so be patient and careful.
If you have a soldering iron, you can use that as a heated scraper from the outside and skip on heating from the inside. If you have no temperature control (as if your thermosensor is shot) outside heat is the only safe way.
### Step 3: Cool down
After having made a rough clean up from the outside, let it cool down so you can dismantle it.
### Step 4: dismantle and clean the hotend.
This is actually rather simple, and I will point to a question where I outlined that for a broken thermistor cartridge. You have a working thermosensor at least, so less problems on that front.
## Shortcut
If you have a hot air gun for hot air soldering, you can be much faster! Skip step 1 to 3, dismantle the hotend and go straight to Step 4, dismantling it and cleaning it out of the machine with the hot air soldering tool as a heat source. Heat and scrape away, and get out the thermosensor and thermosensor as soon as possible to prevent destroying them.
> 5 votes
# Answer
Careful application of a hot air gun, along with mechanical prodding (pliers, pokey sharp stick tool) will soften the PLA. It will soften on the outside but the heat transfers inward rather easily and quickly and is retained for some time.
When heating and poking, force the mass downwards and then away from the heater block. If the outside becomes liquid, too much heat is being applied and may damage other components.
An SMT soldering station with adjustable temperature and airflow rates would be ideal, but a garden-variety hot air gun with a concentrating tip could be used effectively.
> 2 votes
# Answer
If you can remove the hot-end it is easier. If not, carefully use hot air to soften (not melt) the PLA so you can more easily pull away chunks.
When the hot-end is removed from the other plastic parts, you can get more aggressive with hot air. BUT, be careful of the thermistor and heater wires. They are fragile, and can easily be broken or pulled out of their devices.
Heat and patience is the key. If you do break a heater or thermister, they are pretty easy to replace. Depending on the hot-end, the heater and/or the thermister may be locked in place by a set screw. That set-screw is probably locked in place by plastic, so use the hot-air gun to melt that plastic and allow you to back out the set-screw.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: prusa-i3, hotend, troubleshooting
--- |
thread-4330 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/4330 | Anet A8 frame replacement | 2017-07-02T20:18:50.810 | # Question
Title: Anet A8 frame replacement
My Anet A8 frame are broken. I find frame project AM8 - Metal Frame for Anet A8. I like it but I can't find aluminum extrusion needed, like this: MiSUMi - Aluminum Extrusion - 5 series, Base 20, 20mm x 40mm.
Maybe somebody knows where I can buy it in Ukraine? Or maybe another frame options?
# Answer
There are lots of online sources for T-slot aluminum extrusions from ebay to McMaster. If you want more options do a Google Search.
> 3 votes
# Answer
I highly recommend the Bosch Rexroth series of aluminum hardware.
I also recommend RS components as a distributor for this material. They have local warehouses, and provide very fast shipping.
Here is the part you are looking for on their UK GB website.
Here is an assortment of compatible hardware.
By the way, RS components has a Ukraine website, where you may be able to order from a Ukraine warehouse for faster/cheaper shipping.
> 2 votes
# Answer
Not precisely cheap, but if you look on aliExpress for *AM8 3D Printer Extrusion Metal Frame* you will find kits build precisely for moving Anet A8 to aluminium frame
> 1 votes
---
Tags: diy-3d-printer, anet-a8, hardware
--- |
thread-8719 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8719 | Marlin customization; additional output after G0/G1 move | 2019-04-18T05:51:05.557 | # Question
Title: Marlin customization; additional output after G0/G1 move
This question concerns an Anet A8 with customized Marlin Firmware 1.1.9.
I need to generate an additional digital output to signal move complete to trigger some data acquisition process. The extruder is not connected and was planning to use those outputs.
Which section handles G-code processing and is there an already available option to get the job done?
Basically, I'm trying to use the Anet A8 as a computer-controlled positioning system. It involves some other elements which need to be triggered in a stationary state. The requirement is: `G0 X10 Y10` after this is complete: set a pin high and low after a 10 ms delay. this after every move. Additionally if I could add my own G-code to preserve the original operation would be ideal.
# Answer
> Which section handles G-code processing?
In Marlin Firmware, G-code is processed by procedure `void process_parsed_command()` in file `Marlin_main.cpp`
> I need to generate an additional digital output
A G-code that is able to set a port value is `M42`.
You could write a procedure that schedules certain port after a `G0` or `G1` move, recompile and upload the firmware.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: marlin, anet-a8
--- |
thread-8713 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8713 | Layer lifted and separated from ESD PLA | 2019-04-17T10:44:42.763 | # Question
Title: Layer lifted and separated from ESD PLA
I'm using the default Ultimaker Cura draft profile but with the nozzle temp at 220 °C because this is a special ESD filament.
All was going well after some troubleshooting thanks to some users on 3DPrinting.SE but this happened over night:
What would cause an entire layer to lift off the main body, continue to print and then turn to spaghetti?
The red circled part was supposed to be part of the blue outline.
# Answer
The spool kept getting caught on itself and tightening. I unrolled some of it and rewound it and the print came out perfect. @anttix was almost correct with the clog theory.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: pla, print-material
--- |
thread-8732 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8732 | Marlin error Rx_buffer not declared in scope | 2019-04-19T00:43:37.290 | # Question
Title: Marlin error Rx_buffer not declared in scope
After one successful preview of compile, the upload returns error
```
rx_buffer not defined in this scope.
```
How do I fix this?
# Answer
> 1 votes
The line defining `SERIAL_PORT` in `MarlinSerial.h` should read:
```
#define SERIAL_PORT 0
```
To \[mis-\]quote this answer from RepRap:'rx\_buffer' was not declared in this scope (the emphasis is mine):
> ```
> #define SERIAL_PORT 4
>
> ```
>
> This is the serial port on the controller, not the serial port on your computer. 0 through 3 are valid options on a controller with a atmel 2560.
>
> Unless you are doing something like serial over bluetooth or deliberately not using the USB port ***you should not change this from 0***
The same error is reported on the Arduino forums, 'rx\_buffer' was not declared in this scope:
> Have redone over 5 times and always getting " 'rx\_buffer' was not declared in this scope ".
>
> Now I tried Factory marlin and same " 'rx\_buffer' was not declared in this scope " . Dont know what to do - I'm so lost.
>
> ...
>
> ```
> #define SERIAL_PORT 4 //before was 0
>
> ```
>
> Nothing else
---
Tags: marlin
--- |
thread-8735 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8735 | Replace X axis motor with different model | 2019-04-19T18:01:26.497 | # Question
Title: Replace X axis motor with different model
Last week, my X-axis stepper motor died. It was a 42SHD0217-24B model. I ordered the same online, but the vendor made a "mistake" and sent me the 17HS3401S model.
I know these motors use a different voltage, so I adjusted the screw on the stepper driver and managed to get a smooth rotation with the new model. I know that these 2 motors have a rotation of 1.8° per step.
My questions are the following:
* Since they have the same rotation angle per step, I shouldn't have to calibrate the new model, right? (I'll use the original wheel)
* Did the vendor send me a motor with inferior performances?
* Will my performances degrade if I use the new motor? (Lecture on motors appreciated). By that I mean: will my top moving speed be affected? Will the motor miss more steps at high speed?
# Answer
> 1 votes
> Since they have the same rotation angle per step, I shouldn't have to calibrate the new model, right? (I'll use the original wheel)
Yes, you do not have to change anything, other than the Vref of the stepper driver.
> Did the vendor send me a motor with inferior performances?
Yes, the one you received has a lower height, so smaller coils and smaller permanent magnets; basically lower torque.
> Will my performances degrade if I use the new motor?
That depends on the loading of the carriage of the X-axis, it could if it is heavy; you now have less torque available to move the carriage. But, this type is frequently found in 3D printer kits and should work.
---
Tags: stepper, motor
--- |
thread-8731 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8731 | Simplify3D with error in preview? | 2019-04-18T23:55:04.333 | # Question
Title: Simplify3D with error in preview?
I am trying to print a belt but when I preview it, the model doesn't fully render
It isn't rendering the full model correctly. The model is rendering halfway but isn't fully which is why you can still see the infill when the slider is at max which isn't normal.
This is what it *should* look like:
I have a 0.4 nozzle and those with a 0.6 have been able to print this. What is going on?
# Answer
First I thought that the model was improperly modeled due inverted faces or any missing line to close that faces but, I rendered the same STL to be printed 0.4 nozzle with height 0.2mm and looks pretty well.
Then I suspected that you were trying to print with 0.4 nozzle at 0.6 layers, which this is totally wrong but, I decided to set the 3D simplify and do the test. The program just show a warning about first layer height adhesion, the click OK and the part is rendered correctly.
However the recommended settings for a 0.4 nozzle should be less than 80% diameter = 0.32mm as maximum to get a proper bonding.
So, I think that you need to download the part and render it again. The time to process this render under XP with an small PC last for 5 minutes. So on bigger PC's will be faster.
Here is the link where I downloaded the "belt Komplett 805"
> 1 votes
---
Tags: g-code, simplify3d
--- |
thread-8741 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8741 | Test print coming out spongy | 2019-04-20T14:52:14.167 | # Question
Title: Test print coming out spongy
I acquired an Anycubic Chiron yesterday. I went through the leveling procedure and I think the level test print came out okay so I printed a 20 mm calibration cube and a benchy. Both of these came out with a sort of spongy consistency.
I have no idea what could be causing this so some advice would be appreciated.
I'm using Ultimaker Cura 4.0.0 and printing in PLA.
# Answer
It turned out I had the wrong filament size set in Ultimaker Cura. Fixing this resolved the issue.
> 9 votes
# Answer
I would lay odds on it being your filament is moisture saturated. You don't state what type of filament you're using, but to my understanding this is what happens when it is saturated. The water evaporates as it goes through the nozzle, which causes the filament to puff up, which leaves voids in your print.
The print itself looks like it came out rather well. I mean, the edges of the print are solid and everything is clearly defined. This would state to me the slicer and the printer itself are doing their jobs well. You didn't measure it (or leave any hint you did), so I'll assume the overall dimensions are good.
Try a different filament and see if you get better results.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: ultimaker-cura, troubleshooting, anycubic-chiron
--- |
thread-4925 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/4925 | Missing print steps in e-waste 3d printer | 2017-11-09T16:38:14.603 | # Question
Title: Missing print steps in e-waste 3d printer
I'm trying to create a 3D printer based on this instructable, EWaste 60$ 3DPrinter.
I have followed the steps provided there, and I'm facing the problem that the x-axis isn't able to move, i.e. the motor works fine but the z-axis part which is connected to x-axis doesn't move left and right. I have tried the following already:
1. Changed the design of 3d printer by attaching x-axis with y-axis and leaving z-axis separately
2. I gave a little force to the z-axis part and it starts to move left and right.
Any help on this would be appreciated!
# Answer
Firstly, the X-axis *should not* be attached to the Y-axis.
Secondly, with respect to the Z-axis not being moved by the X-axis, it sounds like the X-axis stepper either:
* is dead, or;
* does not have sufficient power to move.
I would suggest removing the Z-axis from the X-axis CD carriage, in order to reduce the mass and therefore the power required to move it, and test the X-axis in isolation. If it moves left and right correctly, then it is not dead (obviously). If it does not move, then try adjusting (increasing) the current to the stepper motor, by adjusting the EasyDriver (assuming that you are using an EasyDriver stepper motor controller):
If it still does not move, then replace the stepper (or the whole X-axis CD-ROM drive, which is probably easier).
Then replace the Z-axis and test the X-axis movement again. If it does not move then the stepper does not have sufficient power, or strength, to move the mass of the Z-axis and, again, will probably require increasing the current to it, by adjusting the EasyDriver (as above):
* If that does not help, then it will probably need need replacing.
* If it does move, then you've fixed it.
---
### Addendum
Having re-read your question, you state that the X-axis stepper motor works fine. So, it could be that the mechanism to which the stepper motor is attached is broken (teeth, gears, etc.) and not moving the CD carriage correctly. Again, remove the Z-axis and check the mechanics of the X-axis.
If they are damaged, then you will probably need to replace the CD-ROM drive that was used for the X-axis.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: diy-3d-printer, troubleshooting, e-waste
--- |
thread-8729 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8729 | Tronxy X5S-400 Marlin stuck at splash-screen | 2019-04-18T21:02:41.060 | # Question
Title: Tronxy X5S-400 Marlin stuck at splash-screen
I got a Tronxy X5S-400, I assembled it and when I power it on, I see on the screen one of the below images and gets stuck there.
Is the firmware broken? If yes, where can I get a `configuration.h` file?
I verified that the two buses between the screen and the mainboard are not loose or incorrectly connected.
The board is a MKS Melzi v2.0 clone
# Answer
It looked like the firmware wasn't flashed correctly in the factory. What I did was to flash a bootloader using an Arduino compatible board and to flash the Marlin software e.g. according to videos from this guy.
Next, the menu wasn't displayed correctly so I added, in the `Configuration.h` the following lines:
```
#define ST7920_DELAY_1 DELAY_NS(63)
#define ST7920_DELAY_2 DELAY_NS(100)
#define ST7920_DELAY_3 DELAY_NS(125)
```
Now the display is working fine, and the Marlin firmware can be directly flashed from the computer because the bootloader remains there.
I also had a problem with the heating bed which was heating very slow and I had to raise consistently the `TEMP_BED_RESIDENCY_TIME` and decrease `TEMP_BED_HYSTERESIS` to 1.
> 2 votes
# Answer
If the controller is one of Tronxy's new Chitu boards, you will not have the option of recompiling the firmware, since they are locked down. Apart from checking that the PSU is delivering the correct voltage, your only option may be to request a new main board from the vendor.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: marlin, firmware
--- |
thread-8758 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8758 | How to connect optocoupler module to ABL sensor and Ender 3 board | 2019-04-23T03:35:45.877 | # Question
Title: How to connect optocoupler module to ABL sensor and Ender 3 board
I am trying to figure out how to wire up Auto Bed Leveling (ABL) on my Ender 3 using the optocoupler and inductive proximity sensor below.
I cannot figure out how to wire it all together, all the tutorials I have found are for 2 and 3 wire per side of the optocoupler.
# Answer
Connecting is pretty straightforward like the other modules, difference is an extra input lead.
From e.g. here: Module interface description:
1. DC+: Positive DC power supply.
2. DC- : Negative DC power supply.
3. PWM: Signal input (connect MCU port, PLC interface, DC power supply, etc.)
4. GND: The negative terminal of the signal
5. OUT+: Positive output terminal (connected to the device positive)
6. OUT-: Negative output terminal (connected to device negative)
So, 1 and 2 connect to your power supply that matches the voltage of the logic of your microprocessor (5 V) as this must be linked to 5 and 6 which are connected to the endstop signal and ground respectively.
As for the sensor, blue is GND, black is signal (PWM) and brown is power as seen in e.g. this answer.
> 2 votes
# Answer
This is a bit of an *addendum* to 0scar's answer, as I didn't want to edit it in to his post.
For completion, the sensor's internal schematic is on the side of the sensor itself<sup>1</sup>:
where:
* PNP - 1 BN - Brown - V<sub>SUPPLY</sub>
* N/O - 4 BK - Black - Sensor output
* 4 mm - 3 BU - Blue - GND
However, the complete diagram, taken from Instructables - Enable Auto Leveling for Your 3D Printer With an Inductive Sensor (Marlin Firmware), can be seen here:
---
### Footnotes
<sup>1</sup> Taken from this image, which was on this product page, 4mm Inductive Proximity Approach Sensor Switch PNP NO DC 6-36V 200mA Cylinder:
There is a bit more to the schematic, which can be glimpsed here (on the left hand side):
A fuller, but blurry, view of the left hand side can be seen here, from this product page:
> 1 votes
---
Tags: creality-ender-3, bed-leveling, z-probe
--- |
thread-8747 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8747 | How to improve very poor quality prints on my Ender 3 | 2019-04-21T07:58:34.010 | # Question
Title: How to improve very poor quality prints on my Ender 3
I get very poor quality prints from my Ender 3: The prints are weak, brittle , stringy and contain gaps.
Please help me sort this as I'm new to 3D printing and have no idea what the problem might be!
The prints look like this:
# Answer
i would suggest to start with something simpler
there are many test objects to print and see the results please take a look here
the idea is to recognise issues (one by one or at least the most basic) and point them and eliminate them directly
looking at your printout i could of course suggest many things but it would be better to make this process more clear... for you
so you could manage it on your own
to be somehow constructive
i would say there are 3 main issues on the picture you've presented
* HE temperature
* printing speed
* not-so-stiff printer construction (or belt tension)
print test cube and show your results so we can go further
> 2 votes
---
Tags: print-quality, troubleshooting, creality-ender-3
--- |
thread-8765 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8765 | Unbonding Hot Glue | 2019-04-23T22:44:15.120 | # Question
Title: Unbonding Hot Glue
I made a print that involves joining two halves together to create the full model. I decided to use hot glue to bond the halves and on one model, the parts came together slightly skewed. Is there any way to ‘unbond’ the hot glue without ruining the model so I can realign the pieces? Touching the glue gun tip to the hot glue wouldn’t work, as the glue is *inside* the model.
# Answer
Depending on the composition of your model, the heat you've applied by using the glue gun has distorted the surfaces, or they haven't. One would hope that the model is composed of material that is not unduly damaged by the heat of the gun.
I suggest that if you can test the material of the model independent of the misaligned item, you can determine if my answer will work.
Apply hot glue to a test section, let it cure. Secure another portion to the test, but apply it in such a manner as to be displaced by gravity if it is not cooled. The first part should be "locked" to a surface, while the second should be free to move if not glued/cured.
Place the section in a small heated chamber such as a toaster oven. Observe the parts as you slowly increase the heat. When you see the unsecured part begin to slide/move, you've determined the temperature at which the hot glue releases.
According to a quick search, hot glue melts between 120°C and 200°C. The latter temperature is for specific high temperature sticks, while the lower number is for low temp sticks. PLA printing temperatures are often above 200°C, which gives you some leeway.
Unfortunately, PLA will soften before it melts and that can happen well below the melting point.
Testing will give you more definitive results.
If your testing appears promising, you may be able to place the model in the oven at the predetermined temperature, let it reach softening temperature, then slide the parts into position.
EDIT: A second option...
I've had a new attack pop into my alleged mind. I recall reading that alcohol will help clear hot glue and a quick 'net search confirms that both isopropyl alcohol and denatured alcohol will work on cleaning up hot glue.
I can attest that denatured alcohol does no harm to PLA or to ABS and we use it at the maker space to create a faster release from the PEI bed. Of course, if the model has tight fit, it's going to be much more time consuming to get sufficient alcohol into the gap to free it up.
I'd consider an ultrasonic cleaner with a bin full of denatured alcohol as the first option, even over the pre-heat above.
> 3 votes
# Answer
What is on the market as Hot Glue - or rather "Hot Melt Adhedive" (HMA) is usually a slightly ductile, thermoplastic that sticks to most surfaces because it can easily mold into slight deformations.
## HMA basics
One of the most common base thermoplastics is Ethylene-vinyl acetate, aka EVA, mixed with terpene-phenol resin (TPR) to make it tackier and wax, like paraffin, as a filler to make it more economical. These HMA's are usually rated for 30-50 °C ambient temperature and start to soften enough for stress creep at 60-80 °C. Using this low level of heat might allow forcing the parts to move slowly without getting into the more dangerous zone of 120-200 °C, where the HMA actually melts and PLA follows suit.
### CAUTION!
Yet we got a problem: many PLA mixtures I have encountered do soften enough at temperatures around 60 °C (like sitting in a hot car) so the print can be deformed permanently. This finding for non-annealed PLA also matches with what Stefan of CNC Kitchen found in a temperature resistance test. He found in the conclusion that 55-60 °C starts to affect non-annealed PLA while tempered PLA can withstand 160 °C to 180 °C, depending on the blend.
## Cutting
However, most HMA formulas result in a material that can be carved and cut with a sharp knife. As long as your halves don't have interlocking lugs that block access to the *plug* of HMA, you could use a long, thin blade to slowly cut the halves apart.
## Localized heat
Another solution might be coming in the shape of a soldering iron: by using it to apply the heat more localized than with a hot air gun, the HMA plug might get softened and then either removed in pieces or realigned. This needs considerable control over the heating and a careful hand. As an alternative, if the halves are not *too* much skewed from their intended positions, a hot soldering iron might be used to smooth over the edge, but it would destroy surface details.
## What to do better next time?
There are basically two things that could help to prevent misalignment before the HMA application step:
* Alignment lugs/notches would make sure the pieces snap into position.
* If none are present, holding the piece into position and spot-welding in some none visible places - for example using friction welding as explained by Polymaker - can help to keep the pieces in position before the addition of the HMA.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: post-processing
--- |
thread-9770 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9770 | Trouble with sizing in Fusion 360 | 2019-04-24T18:14:20.410 | # Question
Title: Trouble with sizing in Fusion 360
I had imported a `.stl` file into Fusion 360- from Blender, but I couldn't size it to my required dimensions. Then I tried to make an object in Fusion. It works but when I want to size it (by hitting the `D` key) it says:
> \[Error: Sketch geometry is over constrained\]...
I realise if I add a sketch, that is flat I can size with `D` key but if I extrude it I couldn't size it any more. Same thing if I add a 3D object for example a box. Anyway I add a point on a face of that body (in the middle), then I could size it from that point to a edge but that all.
* What did I do wrong and why I couldn't I size that body?
* How do I suppose to size it?
* With the `.stl` file imported from Blender or with the body made by me in Fusion 360?
Please help me understand how this site works with size...
# Answer
Welcome to SE.3DP!
First off, F360 isn't the best with STL files. If you're having trouble with constraints and dimensions, I would suggest watching this Maker's Muse video first: How to use Constraints! CAD for Newbies with Fusion 360.
Second, Fusion360 is very tricky with importing STL's. My steps below should help.
1. In the lower right-hand corner, at the rightmost end of the timeline, you'll see a little gear. When you click on the gear, click the very top option: "Do not capture design history". This puts you into **Direct Modelling** mode.
2. In the top left-hand corner, where it says "Model", and select "Mesh" from the menu.
3. Along the toolbar, in the "Create" section, click "Insert mesh". When that's done, go back to the top left where it now says "Mesh" and use the menu to go back to "Model".
4. Now that you're back in "Model", go to the "Modify" menu. In there, find the "Mesh" section, and in that box, click "Mesh to BRep". That will convert your STL into a Fusion360 file that you can edit.
Now, if you want to use constraints, I would suggest sketching out your object entirely in Fusion, making constraints and dimensions along the way. I know it's annoying, but it'll be easier to modify it in Fusion. Hope that helps!
> 5 votes
---
Tags: fusion360
--- |
thread-8751 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8751 | PLA print warping on heated bed | 2019-04-21T23:29:26.213 | # Question
Title: PLA print warping on heated bed
I am trying to print the 3 jaw lathe chuck on Thingiverse. This specific piece is the scroll.stl, but it applies on every big piece. The print material is (transparent) PLA, that I print on custom glass bed, which is heated by a regular heated bed at 65 °C. However, my print is warping on the external edges of a solid 2 mm for a 85 mm diameter print.
I didn't use the cooling fan. And I don't have an enclosure to keep the warmth inside the printing area. The nozzle temperature is around 200 °C.
What could be wrong? The printer is a slightly modified Prusa i3 MK2.
# Answer
Several things I've done to stop warping when it occurred:
1. Use a wider brim.
2. If the brim isn't sticking, use a higher bed temperature for the first layer.
3. If the brim comes up only on one side or warping is only on one side, make sure the bed is level.
4. Slowing down the print will keep you from having as long of a strand cooling down. This will lower the contraction force and reduce warping.
5. A hotter bed temperature will reduce the temperature difference between the extrusion and the bed, thus reducing the contraction force.
200 °C is a good temperature for getting PLA to stick. I've tried lower extrusion temperatures to reduce the temperature difference between the extruder and the bed, but this decreases adhesion to the bed and is counterproductive.
> 2 votes
# Answer
Glass is tricky. Try using a glue stick. It makes the problem getting it off more than keeping it on. Magigoo and Aquanet also come highly recommended for glass. Another thing would be printing with a raft. Raft's stick pretty well, and most prints stick to a raft, and those prints won't lift. A third trick would be using an extrusion multiplier *on your first layer only.* As far as slicer tricks go, check to see when (if at all) your cooling fans turn on. usually, fans will turn on about 12-15 layer into your print. Any earlier, and they may peel. Bed level, although crucial to have to some degree of accuracy, is somewhat nullified when a raft is used.
Hope that helps!
> 1 votes
---
Tags: print-quality, prusa-i3, warping
--- |
thread-8629 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8629 | Filament Length too short for extruder to push filament | 2019-04-06T08:26:40.260 | # Question
Title: Filament Length too short for extruder to push filament
When filament is too short for the extruder to push will there be a stop in printing on the Ender 3, meaning that I should replace the filament when the end of the filament is near the extruder?
# Answer
The extruder can't push anymore when the filament is past the extruder gear. If your filament has run out to that point, the print will *not* halt but print without a filament, meaning that the print will fail. You need to pause the print in time and then put fresh filament into the printer.
If the end of the filament is cut flat at the end and the new one is flat too, the new filament can push the old one out to the nozzle, reducing the waste to a minimum, if you can live without retraction for the amount of length that has to be used up. You could friction weld the two parts together to alleviate this.
> 4 votes
# Answer
When the end of the filament is beyond the reach of the hobbed stepper gear, your print will stop extruding. Some printers (i.e. Prusa i3, Craftbot 3, etc) have runout sensors. These sensors can be a switch or some form of a circuit that is broken when the filament isn't there to close it (I'm no mechatronics engineer or anything, so my terminology may be a bit off). When these switches are tripped, the printer automatically pauses the print, allowing you to come and rescue it. Fancier printers like the Craftbot 3 will actually send you an email when your filament runs out *or even jams!* Of course, that machine is over $3600CAD, and well out of most peoples price range. The Ender 3, being around 300 dollars, is not equipped with a runout sensor. Switches and 3D printing files to make your own are either cheap or free.
And yes, some filament may need to be wasted if you do a swap. Direct drive extruders have the same problem but at a much smaller scale. If you just feed new filament into your machine, you will lose all retraction (which is annoying) until the second length of filament is in. At the point where the filament switches, (depending on your extruder and print speed) you may get a small patch of under extrusion. Nothing that will seriously compromise part strength, but it won't be super pretty.
Hope that helps!
> 2 votes
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Tags: filament, extruder, hotend, creality-ender-3
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thread-8760 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8760 | Underextrusion after long travels | 2019-04-23T08:05:51.343 | # Question
Title: Underextrusion after long travels
I'm having problems when printing small parts over big areas.
I'm currently printing quite big casing (~180 mm x 100 mm), which has hexagonal holes on the corners. On the first layer the printer prints, in order:
* Supports inside the holes,
* Borders around the holes
* Border of the whole casing and finally
* Infill (since it is first layer, infill is solid)
When printing borders around holes, printer's head travels between all holes (so that's around 90 % of the whole bed width), what results in filament oozing and the hole borders being underextruded (sometimes to the point, that filament doesn't stick to the bed).
My setup is CReality3D Ender 3 with Ultimaker Cura 3. Most important settings:
* Print speed 40 mm/s
* Nozzle temperature 215 °C
* Bed temperature 60 °C
* Retraction on travel turned on
* Retraction additional prime amount set to 0.05 mm<sup>3</sup>.
* Outer walls printed after inner ones
What would help (I guess) is slowing down the print after long travels or priming more filament, but proportionally to the travel distance. There are no such settings in Ultimaker Cura though.
How can I deal with such problem?
# Answer
> 2 votes
it seems like retraction issue
i would say you should experiment with
* retraction length - so it would retract more
* extra extrusion after retraction - so the printer could put some material before it will start your next hole :)
unfortunately there is no good guide how much it should retract and how much it should additionally extrude as it depends on "all your printing circumstances" but here is my arbitrary list in order of importance
* filament (density - type and producer)
* temperature (viscosity - hotter filament flows easier)
* nozzle diam (as filament escapes easier through big hole ;)
* heat barrier (cooling efficiency - filament should be cool as long as possible up to (or down to) the nozzle)
* extruder gearing quality (good coupling makes precise retraction and extra-extrusion)
* cooling (fan and duct should cool your printing right after it sticks to the surface)
and one more thing worth to mention
usually the first layer is not cooled which makes whole system hotter (so filament flows easier)
you could experiment with it too especially for big printouts
so
* overextrude first layer AND
* turn on cooling first layer
it seems like there is a bunch of things you can do to master it :)
good luck - it's definitely manageable
# Answer
> 2 votes
Set `retraction_min_travel` to 0. The default value is 1.5 and skips retraction when moving less than 1.5 mm. This leads to serious oozing whenever your print has small travel, which seems likely between the hole walls and the supports inside the holes.
Also, the "custom start gcode" in Cura's Ender 3 configuration seriously over-primes the extruder, possibly making retraction ineffective until the pressure drops. Lowering the `E15` and `E30` amounts to `E9` and `E18` improved things **a lot** for me, especially with flex filament, but also with normal PLA. Printing a skirt or brim would probably be an alternative if you don't feel up to editing that part of the config.
Increasing the retraction amount could also help. You should **not** need extra prime after travel. It can only help if you've lost material to oozing during travel, and if you have oozing, that's a problem in itself that you need to solve, not paper over by extruding additional material.
---
Tags: print-quality, ultimaker-cura, troubleshooting, creality-ender-3
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thread-9779 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9779 | Printing with Nylon 6,10 | 2019-04-25T16:27:29.330 | # Question
Title: Printing with Nylon 6,10
Can Nylon 6,10 be used for 3D FDM printing? What range of temperatures be used to print with it? How does it compare to the standard 3D printing Nylon material (I think it is 6,6).
# Answer
> 1 votes
Based on the information from a Quorra question about what the difference between Nylon 6,10 and Nylon 6,6 is and a ULprospector article, we can establish:
* 6,6 is a smaller molecule than 6,10.
* Base materials are different - hexamethylene diamine and adipic acid (6,6) compared to hexamethylene diamine and sebacic acid (6,10)
* 6,6 has a stronger tensile and compressive strength as it is more densely interlocked, but it also has a higher melting point. This means also that 6,6 is more heat tolerant.
* 6,6 is also known to have the least degradation of strength under moisture, compared to other Polyamides.
* HOWEVER, 6,6 has a lesser resistance to weak acids compared to 6,10, it is also the most sensitive to UV-light and degradation from air exposure.
* 6,10 also bests 6,6 in regards to absorbing less moisture (a large problem with 6,6), but is more expensive than it.
* Recently 6,12 is replacing 6,10 for it has very similar or better properties while being cheaper.
While I see no problem with the technical ability to make a Nylon 6,10 or Nylon 6,12 filament and print with it (the lower hygroscopic of the larger molecules might make that even easier), you will make a compromise in other areas of the material, most liekly cost and availability - to my knowledge no filament that claims to be Nylon 6,10 or Nylon 6,12 is on the market at the time of this writing (April 2019), and as such there are no known benchmarks for print settings needed are available. I would expect the print temperature to be slightly lower than that of Nylon 6,6 though.
---
Tags: print-material, nylon
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thread-8626 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8626 | Palette 2 with an Ender 3 Printer | 2019-04-06T00:02:38.257 | # Question
Title: 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.
# Answer
On this thread, Does anyone tried Palette 2.0 on Creality Ender 3 or Ender 3 Pro?, there are a couple of useful links:
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
<sup>1</sup> The CR-10 is, on a broader level, an Ender-3 with 2 lead screws and a slightly different board.
> 2 votes
# Answer
The guide is at Getting Started With Palette 2 (Setup to Printing), which includes guides to use the correct slicer software and swapping the firmware.
The latter part may be a little bit of an ordeal on the Ender3 as there is no bootloader on it - however, it is not apparent from the instruction, whether this would be an issue or not - it seems to be a fairly simple process.
> 1. Open your Palette 2 package and remove your Palette 2 unit and USB cable. Connect your Palette 2 to your computer.
>
> To help the updater recognize the port for your Palette, try unplugging other USB devices.
> 2. Download our Firmware Installer for your operating system.
>
> Latest Palette Firmware V. 4.2.3 (Mar 14, 2019)
> 3. Follow the on-screen instructions and click "Install Latest"
> 4. Once the firmware is updated, you will receive the *Success* message, and you can unplug your unit from your computer.
>
> ---
>
> <sup>1</sup> For Linux users, please refer to this support article.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: print-quality, extruder, ultimaker-cura, creality-ender-3, pallete-2
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thread-9783 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9783 | Can I replace a damaged firmware of a 3D printer based on Arduino Mega? | 2019-04-25T20:32:56.457 | # Question
Title: Can I replace a damaged firmware of a 3D printer based on Arduino Mega?
I have acquired a second hand 3D printer, the GEEETECH I3 Pro B. The previous owner tried to change the firmware but he made a mistake and he bricked the board.
I want to substitute the firmware of the board (which is an Arduino Mega 2560 based board). Do you think is possible if the board doesn't respond to the controls?
I have inquired and found an open source software called Marlin I want to use to restore the printer.
If you have an advice or you think that I can do it in any ways tell me.
# Answer
It is hard to diagnose the board without hands on experience. It is even more difficult if you get a board that has been "updated/upgraded" by a previous owner leaving it not in working condition.
But, there are at least 2 solutions.
1. You could buy a new printer controller board, upload new firmware and connect all connectors.
2. You could try to burn a new bootloader onto your current board and upload a new version of the firmware.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: diy-3d-printer, firmware
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thread-8421 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8421 | Replicator+ Motherboard Model | 2019-03-06T20:35:26.030 | # Question
Title: Replicator+ Motherboard Model
What is the make/model of a MakerBot Replicator+ motherboard?
I'm assuming that the make is now MakerBot since they are now closed-source.
# Answer
It might be this board, MakerBot 5th Generation motherboard, (original image)
The image was very small, so it is rather blurry, I'm afraid.
I have contacted the suppliers for confirmation, and will update this answer, when/if I get a reply.
However, according to this eBay item, Makerbot Replicator Motherboard Carriage, it *could* be inferred<sup>1</sup> that the same motherboard (**MP6292**) is used in the Fifth Generation *and* the Replicator+
> This part is the aluminum carriage that attaches the main board to the printer frame.
>
> Compatible with Makerbot Replicator Fifth Generation (5th Gen) and Replicator+ (Plus).
>
> NOTE: Motherboard show here is for illustration purposes only! Motherboard (MP6292) is NOT included.
>
> Main board presses right onto the carriage. No special tools are needed for assembly. Retaining screw is included.
A much clearer shot of the MP6292 Motherboard
---
<sup>1</sup> However, that depends on whether you want to trust eBay descriptions.
> 2 votes
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Tags: makerbot, replicator+
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thread-5892 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/5892 | How long will my print take? | 2018-04-28T17:46:41.677 | # Question
Title: How long will my print take?
If I have a stl file is there a good way to estimate how long it will take to print on a given printer? I know there are a lot of things that go into print speed, such as the speed of the printer, the size of the print, etc. I was wondering if anyone knows of perhaps an application that you could enter your printer's specifications and the stl that you want to print, and it could calculate the print time?
# Answer
All commonly used slicers (e.g., Cura, Slic3r, Simplify3D,...) give an estimation of the print time.
> 3 votes
# Answer
The duration of a print is affected by the print properties. Speed, nozzle diameter (or line width), layer height, amount of perimeters, infill percentage, combing, support structures to name a few important parameters.
So, the only way to tell how long the printer will be printing a certain STL is by loading the STL file into a slicer and slice the model with those settings. The most common free slicers are Ultimaker Cura, Slic3r and payed slicer Simplify3D. Alternatively, when you **already have G-code files** and do not have the STL anymore or don't want to slice it again (e.g. because you cannot remember which settings you used), you could upload your G-code here and it will calculate it approximately for you (as it does not know the dynamics of the printer).
Note that these times are approximations of the real time it takes to print the object as it integrates the tool path and speed to get the time. Sometimes these calculations are off as the actual printer may behave differently than projected by the slicer. From experience I can tell that the Ultimaker Cura slicer predicts fairly accurate print times for the Ultimaker 3, so they have tuned their slicer software to their machines. For your own build or other brands this may result in different/inaccurate print time estimations.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I use Repetier software with the Cura slicer and the print time estimate tends to be about 10 % longer than the actual print.
> 1 votes
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Tags: software, speed
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thread-9780 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9780 | Removing glue residue on part after printing | 2019-04-25T16:38:27.463 | # Question
Title: Removing glue residue on part after printing
Following advice I read elsewhere, I have covered my (heated) print bed with blue painter's tape, and before each print I apply an Elmer's purple washable glue stick to improve bed adhesion.
After the print finishes and I remove the part from the bed, the bottom is covered with a white residue. I'm fairly certain this is the dried glue. It turns purple again when I wet it.
Is there an easy way to clean off this residue, or is there a better technique?
# Answer
> 3 votes
Elmer's Purple Gluestick is pretty much based on PVA with a water-indicator. It is a water-soluble material. Tossing the piece into a water bin and brushing it with a toothbrush should remove everything.
# Answer
> 0 votes
I have two different makes of masking tape. The print stick so well to one of them that I end up ripping the tape up to get it off and the bottom of the print has the tape suck to it. The other roll was the complete opposite, nothing would stick to it. I ended up using the non-stick tape and applied a diluted (30% PVA - 70% water) glue to the (tape covered) hot bed. Works wonderfully.
Mike.
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Tags: print-quality, adhesion
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thread-9794 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9794 | How to prevent z-fighting in OpenSCAD? | 2019-04-26T17:56:10.070 | # Question
Title: How to prevent z-fighting in OpenSCAD?
Z-fighting is a 3D rendering artifact of coplanar surfaces (means, of triangles located in exactly the same plane and overlapping each other).
It can happen in OpenSCAD's preview mode when doing a `difference()` or `union()` operation. In case of `difference()`, the rendering artifacts can prevent seeing into a hole in the object. The "compile and render" mode in OpenSCAD does not have z-fighting issues. But since it can take some time to render an object in that mode, it is not a practical solution during development.
How best to avoid z-fighting?
If the answer involves changes to my OpenSCAD code, I would love to see an idiomatic answer / established convention of OpenSCAD coders, if that exists.
# Answer
The general advice in the OpenSCAD community is to "extend your cuts and embed your joins" (source). The rendering artifacts are one thing but rather just an annoyance; however z-fighting can also cause unexpected errors during STL export (I did not experience that myself so far, just read this somewhere).
So you would change the dimensions of your objects very slightly (`0.01` mm works fine) so that:
* for a `union()`, there is overlap volume between the parts
* for a `difference()`, the intersector has volume both inside and outside of the intersected part
Now you could adjust both the size *and* position of your parts to keep the mathematically exact dimensions for the resulting part. But I found that for the purposes of 3D printing, such accuracy is not worth it because it complicates the formulas so much.
Instead, I adjust *either* position or size of a part, depending on what is simpler in each case. A measure in the final design will be off by 0.01 mm, which does not matter.
And I keep the 0.01 mm offset in a variable called `nothing` (picked that up somewhere and liked it …). This keeps the calculations intuitively understandable.
## Example
To create a cylinder and cut a hole to half of its depth, I would do this:
```
//!OpenSCAD
nothing=0.01;
height=40;
difference(){
cylinder(h=height, r=20, center=true);
translate([0, 0, height/4 + **nothing**])
cylinder(h=height/2, r=15, center=true);
}
```
Now the hole is `nothing=0.01` less deep than half of the cylinder – that's the inaccuracy I accept.
*(Note: If you don't have OpenSCAD installed, you can also try the above code online by copy & pasting it into OpenJSCAD. Include the magic comment in the first line to switch it to OpenSCAD syntax.)*
> 14 votes
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Tags: openscad
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thread-8682 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8682 | "Seams" in first layer | 2019-04-14T15:19:04.527 | # Question
Title: "Seams" in first layer
My first layers started to have these "seams" in them. I am printing on the Anycubic Ultrabase.
Any other layer is fine.
Has anyone else experienced similar problems or an idea of how to debug this issue?
The picture is of PLA (BQ Easy Black) printed at 215 °C on the Ultrabase. The the same issue with BQ Easy PLA red, turquoise and white (205 °C), Zaper PETG Brown 230 °C and HobbyKing translucent ABS Red (245 °C).
Changing the nozzle did not change anything.
# Answer
Normally, such patterns are caused by too close printing to the bed (nozzle to bed distance too small), but considering the not fully flattened out extrusion lines (on glass I get a mirror shine fully closed surface) this does not seem to be the reason; you could try to increase the gap a little, in Ultimaker Cura this is very easily done with the Z Offset Setting plugin. Alternatively, you could use a little thicker paper to calibrate the bed levelling.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: ultimaker-cura, anycubic-i3-mega, anycubic-ultrabase
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thread-8750 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8750 | Tuning PID parameters for hotend | 2019-04-21T16:58:08.840 | # Question
Title: Tuning PID parameters for hotend
I have a TEVO Tornado that I messed a bit with, so basically now I have:
* MKS GEN 1.4 board
* TMC2130 stepper drivers
* E3D v6 hotend
A few days ago the heater cartridge so I replace it with the old one that was on the hotend of the TEVO Tornado. Now ideally both should be 40 W from what I found online but after I replaced it the heating didn't work as expect so I set out to re-tune the PID parameters but no matter what value I try the temperature is always oscillating below the desired temp. Say the desired temp is 200 °C then the head temp will oscillate between 187-200 °C. I tried `M303` auto tuning but with no luck for some reason the temperature can't go above 160-170 °C when auto tuning so I get a thermal runaway error.
I tried setting the D term to 0 and then to 1000 but the difference in behavior didn't change a lot which I think is weird... I thought the board might be going crazy so the timing for the PID controller is messed up but the thing is that is was working fine with the old heater cartridge. Any ideas?
# Answer
> 1 votes
Issue was with PID tuning nothing to do with the hardware. I switched to a duet wifi and used the auto tuning of the reprap firmware and now it is just working beautifully. I guess I was doing the manually tuning in such a bad way and the auto tuning on marlin was not working correctly for me.
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Tags: troubleshooting, hotend
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thread-9792 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9792 | Which software do I need to start print something? | 2019-04-26T15:16:45.453 | # Question
Title: Which software do I need to start print something?
I'm still new to 3D printing and I want to print something. I expect that I'll mess it up since I find nothing to adjust it but it is now laying around for 4 months and I'm sick of it.
So my question is where do I find Windows software to print something and of course where do I get a 3D model?
I own a Geeetech i3 Pro W.
# Answer
> 6 votes
## First; find a model!
To print something you require a **model** (usually this is in STL format, look into websites called Thingiverse and MyMiniFactory for examples). Once you have a model file, you need to make it readable for the printer firmware.
If you can't find suitable model, then you need to design a model yourself (or ask someone to do it for you) or adjust an existing model to suit your needs. "Good (preferably free) Beginner Software for Part Creation?" is a good place to start.
## Second; use slicer software
For a printer to be able to print the model, the model needs to be sliced into layers. These layers need to be printed at specific speeds, temperatures, etc. Search online and look at the filament packaging (usually the ideal temperatures are on the packaging) to find the ideal temperature for your filament. If you are not using the right temperatures, your print will most likely fail. Programs that are able to slice models are called **slicers**. The most popular free (and Windows compatible) slicers are Ultimaker Cura and Slic3r (or its Prusa distribution).
The slicer produces a printer readable file called a G-code file (file filled with printer instructions for e.g. movement and heating). This G-code file can be sent to the printer using specific printer software (e.g. OctoPrint, Repetier-Host, etc.) but more common or simple is to put the G-code file on an SD card and print the file using the print menu on the printer LCD.
# Answer
> -1 votes
If you're just starting out then Tinkercad (website) is a good place to start designing your own objects. Later you can get to grips with OpenScad for more complex shapes. Both are free.
---
Tags: 3d-models, slicing, fdm, knowledgebase
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thread-9804 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9804 | The first layers while printing look strange | 2019-04-27T20:12:39.200 | # Question
Title: The first layers while printing look strange
I own a Geeetech i3 Pro W and I started printing today. Amazing how it works.
I just recognized while printing my first bigger model something very strange: At the beginning some parts are missing and there are huge holes. However when I keep it printing the following layers "fix" the issue. I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong.
I almost forgot to mention that I think I'm using that PLA, the bed has a temperature of 60 °C and the extruder 200 °C.
Here are two pictures after about 1 layer and after about 4 layers:
# Answer
From the first layer image it can be seen that your nozzle to bed distance is just too large:
1. the lines of deposited filament e.g. in the brim are not touching,
2. deposited filament lines are not "squished" or "flattened" to the build plate,
3. filament is cutting off corners as it is dragged while being hot and not stuck to the bed,
4. filament leaves the nozzle in "blobs"; it sort of free flows from the nozzle as the bed is too far to give resistance.
Use the plain paper technique while levelling the bed. The paper should give a slight drag/resistance when pulled/pushed. Proper levelling and a proper nozzle to bed distance for the first layer are essential for successful prints.
There is also an option to integrally lower the print level in the slicer software, but it is advised to properly level the bed (hardware solution) instead of using software tricks to sort out the problem.
> 0 votes
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Tags: prusa-i3, quality, geeetech
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thread-9807 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9807 | Damage to bed surface from heat or chemical or..? | 2019-04-29T00:55:38.327 | # Question
Title: Damage to bed surface from heat or chemical or..?
The original bed surface of my Ender 3 has become brittle and finally cracked, requiring replacement. I'm trying to figure out what the cause might have been to avoid it happening again. It seems to have started after using "flex PLA", which involves both high temperatures (225 °C) and plasticizers mixed in the PLA. Could either of these have contributed to the problem? I'm not sure what material the bed surface is - it's the new one that's removable and held on by clips. If it's PEI, the glass transition temperature is supposedly 217 °C, just above what I use for normal PLA but well below what I'm using for the flex, so perhaps that's the cause?
Image of the damage:
# Answer
The build surface on the Ender3 is a BuildTak clone. The picture is a bit unclear, but given my experience with BuildTak (clones) this certainly damage because of heat. You can, as suggested before, replace the bed surface, but I do not think it is necessary at this stage.
Normally these surfaces do not get damaged that easily but to prolong the life try to keep the following points in mind:
* Correct height between nozzle and bed.
* Don't let the nozzle heat up/cool down close to the bed (for example after a failed first layer).
* When using sharp tools to remove prints be careful nut to dig into the surface.
* Don't use too high of a bed temperature (my BuildTak clone once had bubbles forming because the layers separated)
* Clean/degrease the bed, although this is more to ensure proper bed adhesion.
* I found out that if the bed stops sticking you can revive it by sanding it a bit.
> 3 votes
# Answer
The material used for the Build surface is not PEI but a BuildTak Clone that offers adhesion through a rough surface texture. I do not know what exactly is in the composition of the polymer, but I can say that my bed surface needed replacement about 9 months after purchase after I vigorously removed a piece I printed. As a matter of fact, most build surfaces - even PEI - are pretty much going to wear out over time and need occasional replacement. Luckily, a build surface isn't expensive usually.
To prolong the life of the bed surface, I suggest:
* check the nozzle distance to the bed, as printing too close can make plastic residue extremely hard to remove.
* be very careful when using sharp tools to remove parts - don't let a corner bite into the surface!
* don't use a soldering iron or hot air gun on the build platform to remove stuck parts, you'll melt the surface and degrade it
* clean the surface at times.
However, replacing the bed is easy enough, as I found out here.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: creality-ender-3, material, bed
--- |
thread-8386 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8386 | Why did my stepper motor controller chips burn? | 2019-03-01T18:55:10.040 | # Question
Title: Why did my stepper motor controller chips burn?
I just installed a few of these chips on my RAMPS 1.4 board and tried to turn it on, and the lights on my RAMPS board lit up, which was normal. Then I saw a spark growing and I turned the power off. I removed the chips and they were burned as in the photos. Is this a fault of the board, or the chips?
I had two more on it which were fine, at least, they did not seem to be not burned. Both chips seemed to burned at the same pins, which makes me think those are just trash chips, but I have no clue.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Without more information it is hard to be certain; but, the most likely cause is that the board was installed backwards.
Looking at the photo, the damage on both boards seem to be centered around pin 20 and 21 of the driver IC. A schematic of a similar board shows these are both 5V inputs (DIR and \*ENBL). These signals connect to the top and bottom pins of the left connector to the RAMPS.
Since these are inputs, the most likely cause of a damage to these would be a high current over-voltage condition that caused the upper protection in the IC to conduct. This would require \>5.5V and a lot of current.
The RAMPS board routes these signals to I/O pins on the ATMEGA processor - see RAMPS Schematic. These can't easily go above 5V without blowing out the ATMEGA and they are not generally high enough current to cause the damage you see.
The most likely high current and voltage would be the 12V motor supply line (VMM). This comes into the board on the top pin of the right RAMPS connector.
Accidentally installing it 180 degrees (which is super easy to do since the connector is not keyed) would connect the 12V VMM to IC pin 20 instead and you would likely see the same burn mark you see on your board.
A better board design would have been to key the connectors by using two sizes and/or cutting a pin so it couldn't get plugged in backwards - but they didn't.
---
Tags: troubleshooting, stepper-driver
--- |
thread-216 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/216 | My heated glass print bed keeps chipping and cracking. How can I prevent this? | 2016-01-13T21:00:04.907 | # Question
Title: My heated glass print bed keeps chipping and cracking. How can I prevent this?
My thermoplastic FDM printer has a heated bed and uses glass as the printing surface. Sometimes the glass will chip or break entirely when I'm removing my print. This happens most often when the print has a large area in contact with the glass.
What can I do to keep this from happening?
# Answer
> 6 votes
Some things I've tried that have helped:
Lay down a layer of masking tape. Most people who do this use blue painter's tape. The plastic should stick nicely during printing, yet release reasonably easily when you remove the print from the heated bed.
Lay down a later of Kapton tape. The principle is the same as masking tape, but Kapton tape has a smooth surface and is more durable than masking tape. The down side is Kapton tape is far more expensive, and applying it correctly is a LOT more work, since you have to use water and you have to keep bubbles from getting underneath it.
Put some ABS scraps into a bottle of Acetone, and allow the acetone to break down the ABS til you have a slurry. Spread this slurry as evenly as possible across the build plate, and allow the acetone to evaporate away. This leaves a thin film of ABS on the plate, and will release much better than if you print directly onto the build plate. I recommend using clear ABS if you can, since some of it will stick to your print and clear will be the least visible. You'll need to re-apply it regularly, since it will come off with your print where it touches the build plate. **WARNING**: Use proper ventilation and avoid contact with acetone. That stuff's not good for you. Also it's flammable, so keep a fire extinguisher nearby.
I prefer the ABS/acetone slurry method, but it requires good ventilation and a handy fire extinguisher. Also note that you don't have to print in ABS to use an ABS/acetone slurry; I print primarily in PLA and it makes no difference.
I've also heard of others using a glue stick or some other surface treatments that allow for good adhesion during printing while still allowing for easy removal.
# Answer
> 8 votes
I use the glue stick method. I like to take my build plate out and put it in the freezer. The different coefficients of thermal expansion between the glass and plastic usually means that the part just pops off in the freezer.
# Answer
> 1 votes
You can try using a raft with a bottom that is not 100% solid. Something with lines or crossing lines will lessen the contact area with the bed making it easier to remove.
Note: reducing the adhesion to the bed will make prints more likely to fail.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Richrap had a detailed blog post on this issue.
TLDR: Glass screen protectors (for ipads or other tablets) are wells suited to protect the glass from chipping.
# Answer
> 0 votes
I have 2 suggestions.
First, get better glass. high quality borosilicate plate glass at least 3 mm thick should shrug off even scraping with a razor.
Second, don't scrape it with a razor, put the whole thing in the freezer (or fridge, or in front of a fan, wherever), borosilicate is known for having a very low thermal coefficient, so the plastic is going to shrink more than the glass and should pop right off
---
Tags: fdm, heated-bed, hbp, fff
--- |
thread-9820 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9820 | Specifying Z offset in Marlin firmware | 2019-04-30T02:39:39.480 | # Question
Title: Specifying Z offset in Marlin firmware
I need to set a Z offset for the Flying bear P902. I calculated the offset (-2.98). But, every time when I try to input this using the LCD screen of my 3D printer, the value jumps to either -2.99 or -2.97. As -2.97 is just a little bit too far from the bed and -2.99 is just a little bit too close to the bed (and -2.98 is perfect), I really want to input this specific value. I have tried many times on the LCD screen and also in the firmware itself.
But, even after uploading the firmware, it still displays -2.97.
This is the line of code I was changing:
```
#define Z_PROBE_OFFSET_FROM_EXTRUDER -2.98 // Z offset: -below +above [the nozzle]
```
Is there a way I can input -2.98?
# Answer
> 16 votes
### Z-offset persitently stored in memory?
Maybe the value of `-2.97` for the `Z_PROBE_OFFSET_FROM_EXTRUDER` is retained in the EEPROM memory when you upload new firmware.
You could try to send the G-code `M502` to the machine to re-load the values from the firmware overwriting currently stored values.
### Alternative Z-offset using G-code commands
Note that there is a different (and more common) solution to set the Z-offset using G-code `M851`, you can do this after you uploaded the firmware to the printer. Sending G-code commands can be done using printer software and a USB connection to the printer through a so-called **terminal** interface. This can be done in OctoPrint, Repetier-Host, Pronterface (Printrun software suite), and probably many more. Alternatively, you could make seperate G-code (basically text files with extension `.g`) files with each step in a single file and "print" the files through the SD interface of the printer menu.
The following strategy must be followed to specify the Z offset:
* Heat your printer up to your printing temperature and allow a few minutes for it to expand and settle
* Reset the existing Z-offset to zero `M851 Z0`
* Home all axes `G28`
* Move the nozzle to the middle of the bed `G1 X110 Y110` (if your bed is 220 x 220)
* Turn off the software endstops with `M211 S0`
* Move the nozzle down so it is just gripping a piece of standard printer paper
* Set the Z-offset to the displayed value. E.g. if the printer displays a Z-Value of `-1.23` enter `M851 Z-1.23`
* Store it to the EEPROM `M500`
* **Important notice!** Enable the endstops again with `M211 S1` or the printer head will collide with the bed on the next `G28` command
---
Tags: marlin, calibration, firmware, z-probe
--- |
thread-7695 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/7695 | Z axis: Stepper motor and lead screw torque calculation | 2018-12-18T08:15:42.187 | # Question
Title: Z axis: Stepper motor and lead screw torque calculation
I am trying to figure out some calculations regarding stepper motor and lead screw.
These are the things need answer:
1. Selection stepper motor to lift given weight?
2. Amount of load threaded rod can handle?
I found a this topic how much weight can my stepping motor lift?
where,
* p = pitch of the screw
* Se = screw efficiency = Standard lead screw will be between 20% (.2) and 40% (.4)
* Sf = static force. This is the force that is needed to start the movement. The number may be eliminated, but it is good to use a number in the 5 N to 20 N range.
* Load = the expected load that the effort will need to carry (i.e., the router and the included axis assembly that the motor will need to lift)
* R = radius of the lead screw
Based on this equation with following data
* Load: 5 Kg = ~25 N
* Thread rod specs;
+ Pitch : 1.25 mm = 0.0492126
+ Dia : 8 mm = 0.314961 inch
* Motor :
Calculated **Effort = 6.22 N = 1.4 lbf = 22.4 ounce**
Radius = 8 mm = 0.315 inch (using Pitch conversion table)
So torque = 22.4 * 0.315 = 7.056 oz-in = 0.0498 Nm
As per data sheet Motor can provide an Axial force of 10 N. I'm using two of such motors, so this motor is enough
However, based on this calculator, Lead Screw Torque and Force Calculator, with following information:
>
Torque required to raise in 0.0252 Nm.
* Which should be used for calculations?
* How to find the running torque of stepper motor?
* I know it will be less that Holding torque, but what percentage?
Nema 17 that I've given Holding torque is 5.5 Kgcm or 0.55 Nm. My second calculation gives the calculated torque to lift is 0.0252 Nm.
Also from this Threaded rod load table, load capacity of 8 mm rod is somewhat around 270 Kg.
Looking for further inputs.
# Answer
> 1 votes
***This is a work in progress - I'm still plugging in the numbers***
---
A couple of issues:
* You appear to be mixing Force (effort) and Inertia and comparing them directly - this mistake seems to have come from the first link;
* You used 8 mm *diameter*, instead of 4 mm *radius*, to calculate the torque
* You haven't calculated the holding force, which would provide the holding torque required, which can be easily compared against the specification of the stepper motor;
* I can't see where you obtained the value for axial force of 10 N, from the datasheet of the stepper motor.
Regardless of these issues, tackling each question separately:
---
> Selection stepper motor to lift given weight?
### First equation
Your first equation, for *effort*, is
$$F\_{effort} = S\_f+\frac{Load}{2\*\pi\*\left(\frac{R}{P}\right)\*S\_e}$$
where,
* *Starting Force*, from linked article, worst case scenario, $S\_f = 20$ N
* *Radius* $R=4$ mm$=0.004$ m
* *Pitch* $P=1.25$ mm$=0.0125$ m, and
* *Screw Efficiency*, from linked article, worst case scenario 20 %, $S\_e=20=0.2$
So filling in the numbers, for 25 N:
$$effort = 20+\frac{25}{2\*\pi\*\left(\frac{0.004}{0.00125}\right)\*0.2}$$ $$effort = 26.22$$
It is worth noting that this *running* torque only comes to 6.22 N, much smaller than the *worse case value* of the starting force, of 20 N:
$$\frac{25}{2\*\pi\*\left(\frac{0.004}{0.00125}\right)\*0.2}$$ $$ = 6.22$$
and plugging in the numbers, for 50 N:
$$effort = 20+\frac{50}{2\*\pi\*\left(\frac{0.004}{0.00125}\right)\*0.2}$$ $$effort = 32.44$$
Again, it is worth noting that this *running* torque only comes to 12.44 N, much smaller than the *worse case value* of the starting force, of 20 N:
$$\frac{50}{2\*\pi\*\left(\frac{0.004}{0.00125}\right)\*0.2}$$ $$ = 12.44$$
**It should be noted** that these values are for a force, in N, not torque, in N•m, and *I can't see on the datasheet were you obtained an Axial force of 10 N*. To convert these to a torque, you must multiply by the radius of the M8 x 1.25 spindle - M8 is 8 mm, therefore the radius is 4 mm, which is 0.004 m:
$$T\_{raise} = F\_{effort} \times 0.004$$
Thus reducing the values for the Torque (derived from the effort) even further, by a couple of orders of magnitude, to 0.104 and 0.12976 N•m, for loads of 25 N and 50 N respectively.
So, the estimated value of *worst case* starting force would appear to be the dominant factor in selecting the stepper motor.
Regardless of all this, if, as you say, that the holding torque, $T\_H$, is higher than the running torque, $T\_{raise}$, then the holding torque would be the deciding factor in selecting a stepper and the running torque can be discounted.
It is unclear whether the equation that you found is the appropriate equation for calculating the holding torque. This equation appears to be for *moving* the load, whereas you need it for merely *holding* the load. For completeness both the holding and lowering torque values should be calculated.
### Second equation
Your second equation apparently from Wikipedia - Force, via Lead Screw Torque and Force Calculator,
$$Torque\_{raise} = F\*D\_m/2\*\frac{L+\mu\*\pi\*D\_m}{\pi\*D\_m-\mu\*L}$$
where,
* *Force*, $F$
* *Diameter*, $D\_m$
* *Pitch distance of square thread*, $L=\frac{1}{D\_{Thread}}$, where $D\_{Thread}$ is the thread density given in the table.
* *Coefficient of friction*, $\mu$
Whilst I can not see that equation on Wikipedia's Force page, I *did* manage to find the equation for raising, and the equation for lowering, on the Wikipedia page for Leadscrews - Mechanics<sup>1</sup>:
$$T\_R = \frac{Fd\_m}{2}\left(\frac{l+\pi\mu{d\_m}}{\pi{d\_m}-\mu{l}}\right)$$
and
$$T\_L = \frac{Fd\_m}{2}\left(\frac{\pi\mu{d\_m}-l}{\pi{d\_m}+\mu{l}}\right)$$
Plugging in the numbers for 50 N of load:
$$T\_R = \frac{50\times0.007375}{2}\left(\frac{0.00125+\pi\times 0.25\times0.007375}{\pi\times0.007375-0.25\times0.00125}\right)$$ $$T\_R = 0.1848 \times 0.308$$ $$T\_R = 0.0568$$
Plugging in the numbers for 50 N of load:
$$T\_L = \frac{50\times0.007375}{2}\left(\frac{\pi\times 0.25\times0.007375- 0.00125}{\pi\times0.007375+0.25\times0.00125}\right)$$ $$T\_L = 0.1848 \times 0.193$$ $$T\_L = 0.0357$$
**NOTE**: As the link to the calculator states, there are two different torques - one to *raise*, $T\_R$, and one to *lower*, $T\_L$. As the lowering torque, $T\_L$, is *less than* the raising torque, $T\_R$, then it isn't *really necessary* to calculate it, or consider it when selecting the stepper, as the raising torque is the dominant factor.
Again, if, as you say, that the holding torque, $T\_H$, is higher than the running torque i.e. $T\_R$, then the holding torque would be the deciding factor in selecting a stepper and the running toque can be discounted.
---
> Amount of load threaded rod can handle?
This would appear to be much simpler to answer, as a value is given in the specifications for the rod, depending upon what you actually mean. It *could* be:
* The weight that the rod can support before slipping, or;
* The weight that the rod can support before slipping before mechanical failure,
I would imagine that, the specification given is the weight supported before the threads give way and break.
---
### Footnotes
<sup>1</sup> These equations only account for the friction of the thread and the term for the collar appears to have been omitted.
From Torque Required to Raise Load (TR) Calculation, the *full* equation, for *both* thread and collar, is given by:
$$T\_R = \frac{Fd\_m}{2}\left(\frac{l+\pi\mu{d\_m}}{\pi{d\_m}-\mu{l}}\right)+\left(\frac{F\mu\_cd\_c}{2}\right)$$
where,
* *Torque* required to raise load, $T\_R$
* *Load*, $F=50$ N
* *Mean diameter of square thread*, $d\_m = X?$ m
* *Mean diameter of collar*, $d\_c = X?$ m
* *Pitch distance of square thread*, $l = 0.00125$ m
* *Coefficient of friction for thread*, taken from the **Solved Example**, $\mu = 0.25$
* *Coefficient of friction of collar*, taken from the **Solved Example**, $\mu\_c = 0.25$
As the mean diameter, $d\_m$ is not provided, it can be determined from the pitch, $l$, and nominal diameter, $d\_n = 8$ mm, by
$$d\_m = d\_n-\frac{l}{2}$$ $$d\_m = 0.008 -\frac{0.00125}{2}$$ $$d\_m = 0.007375$$
The mean diameter of collar, $d\_c$ is not given...
Plugging in the numbers for 50 N of load:
$$T\_R = \frac{50\times0.007375}{2}\left(\frac{0.00125+\pi\times 0.25\times0.007375}{\pi\times0.007375-0.25\times0.00125}\right)+\left(\frac{50\times0.25\times{d\_c}}{2}\right)$$ $$T\_R = 0.1848 \times 0.308+\left(6.25\times{d\_c}\right)$$ $$T\_R = 0.0568+\left(6.25\times{d\_c}\right)$$
---
Tags: z-axis, stepper, lead-screw
--- |
thread-7880 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/7880 | How specific can I get setting layer heights? | 2019-01-06T01:48:16.233 | # Question
Title: 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.
# Answer
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.
> 4 votes
# Answer
You decide which layer height you want based on the quality you desire, but never go over about 75 % of your nozzle diameter, so with your 0.4 mm nozzle never choose layer heights larger than 0.3 mm. The rationale of this rule of thumb is that the filament leaves the nozzle as a tube and needs to be flattened to make it adhere to the previous layer.
> 3 votes
# Answer
1. The thicker the layer, the smaller the number of interlayer contact zones (this is a weak point), the higher the strength of the part.
2. For good interlayer adhesion, the thickness of the layer should not exceed half the diameter of the nozzle (this is pure geometry). The recommended value is 0.8 * 0.5 * D.
3. There is an opinion that the thickness of the layer should be a multiple of the height of the Z climb to one full engine step (in order to avoid accumulation of error).
Thus, for an engine with a step of 1.8 degrees and a screw with a step of 8 mm per revolution (most common configuration of Z-axis), the layer thickness must be a multiple of 0.04 mm. For a nozzle with a diameter of 0.4 mm, the recommended layer thickness is 0.16 mm, maximum valid is 0.2 mm.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Let's start with the stepper motors used to move the z-axis. Most printers use a Nema-17 motor, and most Nema-17 motors turn 1.8° per step. For the motors that don't use 1.8°, almost all of them are .9°, such that assuming 1.8° is pretty safe for most us (if you have a .9° motor and wrongly assume 1.8°, the motor will just take two steps instead of one).
But these motors don't move the print head or bed directly. Rather, they will turn a threaded rod to lift or lower the necessary part. We need to figure out the linear distance traveled along the rod per step.
There are two ways to determine this. First, we can look at the threads on the rod, and think about the linear distance traveled if the rod turns one complete revolution. Use a sharpie marker to trace a thread, and then measure the distance.
Alternatively, if we check the specs for the rod in terms of threads and pitch. Most 3D printers use 8 mm rods, but looking at my own printer these aren't standard metric threads. Indeed, the pitch can vary quite a bit from printer to printer. Both 2 mm and 3 mm pitch is common, with the number of threads on the rod varying from 1 to 4. To find the linear distance of a revolution, you multiply the threads by the pitch. A 3 mm pitch with 1 thread has a linear distance of 3 mm. A 2 mm pitch with 4 threads has a linear distance of 8 mm.
With either method, we know the linear distance for one complete revolution (360°). But a single step only moves a small portion of that: 1.8°. Thankfully, this works out to an even number: 360/1.8 = 200. There are 200 steps per revolution.
Now we know enough to figure out the step distance. The math looks like this:
```
StepDistance = (RodPitch*RodThreads) / 200
```
As an example 2 mm pitch and 4 threads produces this expression:
```
(2 * 4) / 200
```
and the final result is:
```
.04 mm per step
```
Those values are common, but not universal, so you need to know what numbers to plug in for your printer.
You should also be aware that many stepper motors can take half steps or even divide a single step up to 256 times. If you can watch your printer smoothly move from very low to very high, or vice versa, without jerking for each step, this is what it's doing. That means your printer may be able to make adjustments as fine as .00015625mm. At this point, we're down in nano-meter territory. I think it's probably best to assume your printer wants to take at least a half step when moving from layer to layer.
Now lets look at applying this `.04 mm per step` value to a real printer. Please remember: this is just an example, where the .04 mm number is based off a specific rod type. *You need to know the values for your specific z-axis rods*.
Let's say you have a printer that advertises a .1 mm minimum layer height and a .4 mm nozzle. Given the .04 mm steps, you *might* do much better actually using .12 mm layers, which is an exact multiple of .04 mm. But then, if we consider half steps, .1 mm could be just fine. On the other end of the range, we don't really want to go above 75% of our nozzle width. That's .3 mm. Given a .04 mm step height, a better max is really .28 mm... but, again, considering half steps, we could in theory choose to do the exact .3 mm height.
The main thing I want to take away here is for when you're looking for an in-between layer height: .1 mm is too slow, but .2 mm is too course. It's probably best to bump up the layer in exact half-steps. For this example, that's .02 mm increments. So after .1 mm we try .12 mm, then .14 mm, and so on. Finer adjustments may be possible, but there's a power of two law at play here, so keep dividing things in half, rather than by 10ths. If you don't get good results this way, try assuming full steps, and start at .12 mm for the layer height, then go to .16 mm, and so on.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: layer-height
--- |
thread-7510 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/7510 | Does color changing PLA require a hardened nozzle? | 2018-11-27T19:34:27.540 | # Question
Title: Does color changing PLA require a hardened nozzle?
I've seen comments about glow-in-the-dark filament being abrasive and would damage a bronze nozzle so a hardened nozzle is recommended.
Is the same true for filament that changes colour when warm (for example when held in your hands)?
# Answer
> 4 votes
The color changing material used in the filament is most likely a Leuco dye. There are several types and some can be abrasive (just like the glow in the dark dyes); but, they aren't like putting sand through your nozzle. Since brass is really soft, even something like the dyes can cause it to wear; but, it will take a while.
The safest bet is to use a hardened nozzle; but, if you are just doing a small print then it probably won't be too hard on the brass nozzle either. I have heard of people printing an entire spool of glow-in-the-dark PLA with a brass nozzle then examining the nozzle and not noticing any wear.
Also, some people like the better thermal characteristics of the brass over the steel; so, they just stick with the brass nozzle for everything and replace it when needed.
---
Tags: pla, nozzle, color
--- |
thread-9808 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9808 | Filament mixer? | 2019-04-29T03:03:33.663 | # Question
Title: Filament mixer?
I've seen questions about (like What is stopping us from mixing 3d filament colors in an Extruder?) and some solutions for mixing filament colors/materials at print time for multi-color printing, but my question is different: Are there any (affordable) commercially available devices, or DIY/homebrew solutions, for taking 2 or more 1.75 mm filaments, mixing them in proportion, and extruding back as 1.75 mm filament for use in a printer?
In principle it should just take N extruder drives fed a the right proportional rates, one of the multi-input hotends, a 1.75 mm extrusion nozzle, and another drive to pull the extruded filament at the right rate to keep the diameter stable. But I'm curious if anyone's tried and tuned this. Another approach might be taking a hotend made for 3 mm filament, drilling the nozzle orifice out to 1.75 mm, and feeding 3 pieces of 1.75 mm filament into it at once (size seems to match pretty closely).
My interest in this is that I mostly print small things, and it takes months to go through even a single kg of filament, so it's impractical to buy and keep around a bunch of different colors. I'd also like to be able to experiment with mixing flex PLA and plain PLA to get a material with a lot less plasticizer, so that it's not flexible, just less brittle.
Shredding into pellets and measuring out ratios is too much overhead to make it worth it. The key part of the question is doing it direct from filament to filament.
# Answer
> 2 votes
OK, it just turned up on Thingiverse that someone has demonstrated a trivial machine to do exactly what I asked for: any FDM printer.
> Its sounds crazy, but it works! This technique will allow you to create one offs, and to color match your 3D-prints.
>
> It works by changing the filament (and the color) of your filament while printing, and this causes a multi colored filament, that can be printed again to archive a homogenic-color.
Source 3D-Printable Filament! -Print Your Own Filament for Multi-Color!, with demonstration video.
I'm in the process of trying this and it looks promising! The filament:
measures 1.65-1.75 mm in diameter and feeds and extrudes cleanly.
The first test print:
came out somewhat underextruded, but decent, with uniform mixing of color. Mixed filaments were white flex PLA and blue regular PLA, and the plasticizer seems to have mixed as expected too, but the print feels brittle due to underextrusion still. I suspect with some tuning of flow printing the filament, very good results could be had.
On further inspection, the brittleness/underextrusion seems to be somewhat localized, so it likely comes from *inconsistent* diameter/density of printed filament. This actually seems consistent with what I saw from the slicer output for printing the filament: there were regions at +/- 45 degrees (+ or - depending on layer) in the spiral where it seems like wall gaps differed and extra gap fill material did or didn't get printed. This could be a slicer bug but it seems more likely it's a bug in the model, and I'd probably do better to recreate it myself in OpenSCAD...
# Answer
> 0 votes
## Making your own filament
Theoretically, this could be done with any filament producing equipment by taking the two filaments and shredding them into pellets and feeding them to the machine in the right mix for the color you want. Industrial setups like a Filabot are heavy, large and expensive though.
Luckily, hobbyist filament making setups exist. They vary in price and quality but can achieve ok to good results, if you tinker with them a little. Among the kits that I have seen to work is the Filastruder, but there are also DIY instructables that cost less than 200 $.
### Obtaining pellets
If you are good with mechanics, you might design a feed mechanism that pushes the part filaments with known feed rate into a cutter to pelletize the filament in the wanted amounts to each other, creating a homogenous mix over the length of the filament.
### Blended waste
As an alternative to self-made pellets to mix in the hopper for the filament maker, one can use shredded waste prints/support structures. After smashing the material to rough chunks, using a blender to gain evenly sized small chunks of 1-2 mm, the stuff should be small enough to feed through the hopper without a problem. the blender also would take care of proper mixing and could take raw filament to mix with *used* ones.
## Mixing in the hotend
Mixing filaments in the hotend would need a specialized hotend with two feed ends into the melt zone and two extruders that push the filaments with the same feed rate. The modification of the feeding system would be extensive and demand a custom firmware.
## Splicing filaments
Another possibility would be a machine that splices the filament in a defined manner. One machine that might be able to do this seems to be the Palette 2 by Mosaic, but it costs (April 2019) round 600 USD. Another possibility could be to use the multi-material upgrade of a Prusa i3 Mk3.
This would generate however a non-homogenous mix of the filaments, the transition zones changing from high concentrations of material A to high concentrations of material B whenever the materials swap. Even with very short areas of spliced material the mix will be inconsistent. With colored filaments, this could generate a rainbow pattern.
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Tags: extruder, color, filament-production
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thread-9821 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9821 | Print came out like a wafer | 2019-04-30T02:57:45.477 | # Question
Title: Print came out like a wafer
I'm not sure how else to describe it. There's probably a name for this but I just don't know it. But the bottom few layers came out great, but the rest came out kind of like a triscuit. Below are pics of my print and settings. I am using a delta style printer. Can someone tell me what this issue is called and how to fix it?
# Answer
The phenomenon you experience is called **under-extrusion**. Under-extrusion is the effect of extruding lesser filament than required for the print. The result of under-extrusion (depending on the amount of under-extrusion) can be described as spongy prints, gaps in prints/layers, failed prints, etc. As the amount of plastic flow is less than required for the print, the quality and print strength is much lower than that of a normal filament flow printed part.
Most severe under-extrusion is usually caused by **incorrect filament diameter** setting. E.g. Ultimaker Cura (to date, April 2019, the version is 4.0) is notorious for resetting the filament diameter to 2.85 mm after you upgraded to a newer version (because that is the diameter of the filament the Ultimaker machines use) while most people use 1.75 mm diameter filament.
From the settings if appears you have set the correct filament diameter (i.e. if you use 1.75 mm filament). Please measure the filament over a few meters and determine the average filament diameter to be sure.
In your case it must be something else!
A higher temperature causes filament to be more fluid (do **check if the temperature you use fits the type of filament** you use), so an increased temperature should help against under-extrusion (less friction for the extruder to push the filament through the nozzle). Please do **check the extruder stepper**; is it skipping?, is the tension the extruder gear exerts on the filament enough to prevent slipping?
Finally, **blockage** of the nozzle; partial blockage of the nozzle can prevent consistent flow from the nozzle. It is advised to rigorously clean the nozzle (e.g. using the atomic cleaning method where you heat up the nozzle insert filament and turn off the heat to pull the filament out when temperature is about 30 °C lower than the printing temperature of the filament) or replace the nozzle.
---
To complete the answer, another source for under extrusion that is seen from the beginning of 2020 of Marlin firmware operated 3D printers is that instead of normal extrusion (where E in the G-code file denotes extrusion of filament movement in units of length), the printer assumes it is volumetric displacement. From the Marlin menu of the graphical controller you can change volumetric displacement to length displacement by disabling volumetric flow.
> 11 votes
# Answer
## Underextrusion.
* I suggest upgrading to Cura 3, as you are working with a version 1.5.
* If you print PLA, you print WAY too hot (190-200 °C Nozzle, 60 °C Bed), if it is ABS, knock down the temperature a little.
* Check for a clogged nozzle.
*
> 7 votes
# Answer
Just to add to the already made answers:
Check out **heat-creep!**
When heat from the hot-end creeps up in the filament, it melts and blocks the extrusion (more or less severely), and under extrusion results.
It's basic characteristic is that the print **starts out great**, and then **some time in**, under extrusion happens.
The solution is to cool down the cold part of the hot-end which is usually done with a small fan directed onto the cold part, e.g the top part where the filament enters the hot-end.
Most hot-ends have a heat sink on the cold part, but in my experience this is not enough and for me a fan has always been needed.
> 3 votes
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Tags: print-quality, ultimaker-cura, extrusion
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thread-9839 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9839 | What materials would be appropriate for pool parts (chlorine & UV exposure) using SLA or FDM? | 2019-05-03T17:11:34.603 | # Question
Title: What materials would be appropriate for pool parts (chlorine & UV exposure) using SLA or FDM?
I've got a printer on the way later this year that's supposed to be able to do both FDM and SLA (with the appropriate accessories). I'm interested in printing some parts for swimming pools (the types that generally cost fifty cents to make, but with markup and shipping end up costing thirty or more dollars).
I need to find a material that can withstand exposure to chlorine (up to 15ppm for the rare nuclear shock) and UV from the sun, hopefully for several years.
I think that I'd prefer an FDM filament initially in order to test, but understand that FDM processes may require more post-processing in order to keep water from penetrating layers.
What are some other considerations that I should be aware of? Having a white color would be preferable, but if it's available in other colors and would be suitable, it might be fun to make some different colored eyeball fittings.
# Answer
> 6 votes
Have you thought about using ASA filament? ASA filament is very strong. ASA filament is similar to ABS filament (if you have ever worked with that). When contrasting it to ABS filament, ASA has a higher resistance against UV and chemical exposure. It will also have no problem with the water. Both ASA and ABS filament print at about the same temperatures.
Here are some links that might be helpful :
Hope this is helpful.
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Tags: sla, filament-choice
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thread-9838 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9838 | Can I repurpose most of the components of this Prusa clone for a Delta? | 2019-05-03T16:20:34.980 | # Question
Title: Can I repurpose most of the components of this Prusa clone for a Delta?
I have a generic Prusa clone that I'm not using (my primary issue with it is the lack of rigidity in the frame housing as built). Will the motors (ks42sth40-1204a) and controller that come with it be good for a large-ish Kossel? Something no smaller than 200x200, preferably closer to 300x300? How do I reason about this?
Also - I know the Duet board seems to be recommended for Deltas, but can I use the RAMPS board that I already have here?
I don't have a design finalized, but have been looking at this Kossel, Building a Large Kossel Delta Printer – pt. 1: Parts and Planning, which uses a Flex3Drive effector.
# Answer
### Stepper motors
For equivalence, 4.8 kg⋅cm is 0.471 N⋅m or 47 N⋅cm.
Looking at the RepRapWiki - Nema17, the most common steppers are:
* Kysan 1124090/42BYGH4803 (54.0 N⋅cm),
* Rattm 17HS8401 (52 N⋅cm), and
* Wantai 42BYGHW609 (39.2 N⋅cm).
The Kossel that you refer to is of a similar size to the Kossel XL. Again looking at the RepRapWiki - Kossel, the recommended stepper is the Kysan 1124090 Nema 17 Stepper Motor which has a Holding Torque of 5.5 kg⋅cm.
So, without knowing the exact make and model of your stepper motors and assuming that the specifications for your stepper motors given in the Prusa clone are correct, your steppers are not as strong as those recommended (apart from the Wantai). However, the recommended steppers may be over-engineered and provide \[much?\] more torque than is strictly necessary. After all, the holding torque of your steppers isn't *that much* below the recommended values.
If I were you I'd build the Kossel using your steppers and it might, in all likely hood, work out fine. FWIW, I have used the Rattm 17HS8401 in my Kossel Mini and Kossel XL. I got them on eBay and were quite reasonably priced.
You should probably read this article, RepRapWiki - Choosing stepper for a delta. Whilst no concrete values for holding torque are given, this is interesting:
> ### A good practical setup
>
> The Fisher, a small delta printer was designed by late RRP company. As for all their printers, they were using small and compact steppers with a torque of 2.2 kg.cm. This is lower than most repraps but is sufficient if there is no mechanical problem (friction).
>
> These small motors have a low nominal static torque, but they also have a low inductance (2.5 mH), while due to their small size, the nominal current remains reasonable (1.2A).
as is
> ### High inductance motors
>
> You find on the market steppers sold for 3D printers, with a torque ranging from 2.6 to 4.4 kg.cm and a current of 0.4 A. This low current appeal builders as it make the electronic driver heating much less.
>
> However, it came at a cost, which is a very high inductance which varies from 30 to 35 mH. That means these motors are totally incapable of any speed. They are unusable for a delta and a bad choice for another printer. As an example, a 4.4 kg.cm motor wired for this low current, while having a static torque twice the Fisher motors, simply cannot reach the maximum speed used by the Fisher, effectively having a near zero torque over a given speed. Same motors with a winding giving a nominal current of 1.5 to 2 A will be more usable.
### Controller
Also, yes, RAMPS is fine for the Kossel, although the firmware calibration is obviously different, as it is a delta and not cartesian printer. For calibration, refer to How do you calibrate a delta robot 3D printer?.
Although, as Scott Lahteine states early on in this video, How it's Made: The Marlin Firmware!, using an 8-bit controller for delta printers is pushing their capabilities somewhat.
### Extruder
I'm not familiar with the Flex3Drive, but it certainly looks interesting. I have used the 3325\_0, this NEMA-17 motor has an integrated Planetary gearbox with a 52/11:1 ratio. It generates 16.2 kg⋅cm of torque at 1.68 A. I wrote a short blog about it here, The extraordinary extruder.
### Building Tips
Also, if you are planning on building a Delta/Kossel, then I'd seriously recommend watching the series of videos on YouTube from BuildA3DPrinter.eu as they are extremely informative and helped me a lot, Build manual Kossel XL & Kossel Mini. I just checked their website to try to see which make and model of steppers they use, in order to get an idea of the holding torque, but they seem to have stopped trading. However, their stepper motor page states the following:
> The standard motor for most 3D printers including ours, the 42byghw811 from Wantai Motors.
>
> Holding torque is 4.8 kg⋅cm or 47.1 N⋅cm. Shaft diameter is 5 mm and stepping angle is 1.8 degrees.
So, to sum up, your steppers *should* be fine.
> 3 votes
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Tags: prusa-i3, diy-3d-printer, printer-building, delta
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thread-9847 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9847 | Good profile for slicing ABS in Slic3r? | 2019-05-04T02:06:13.443 | # Question
Title: Good profile for slicing ABS in Slic3r?
Does anyone know of a good slicer profile (i.e., an `.ini` file.) for Slic3r for printing ABS for a Prusa i3 MK3S printer?
# Answer
ABS is a plastic type that has a relatively large shrinkage when cooling down compared to other filaments;e.g. much more than the popular replacement PETG (which prints similarly as PLA but has properties like ABS).
As of this shrinkage, it is the operator of the slicer to produce an environment to properly print ABS. This not only implies that correct settings for the slicer itself need to be chosen (depending on the brand: high hotend temperature; about 220-240 °C, high heated bed temperature; 90-110 °C, using a large brim), but also that the printing environment is optimally setup to allow printing successful prints. You should think of adhesion to the build plate, modifying parts to include so-called Mickey Mouse ears and an enclosed printer space to regulate the temperature. ABS doesn't like temperature changes as that will result in split layers. This is why ABS is difficult to print for most people, it is best not to choose this when you just starting printing, nowadays much better alternatives are available called Co-polymers like PETG.
> 2 votes
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Tags: slicing, slic3r, abs
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thread-8265 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8265 | Delta Printer: After Calibration X and Y Axis are slightly different | 2019-02-13T08:41:01.257 | # Question
Title: Delta Printer: After Calibration X and Y Axis are slightly different
I noticed that my x axis is slightly longer than my y axis (~0.6%) if I print an object. What parameter in Marlin can be tuned to correct such issues? The rod length parameter seems to rather influence the overall scaling of the object. The other parameters such as Txyz and Exyz influence the flatness according to the bed. I noticed, on the firmware of the Duet there is a gcode command for this particular issue, which I haven't found in Marlin yet.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I *think* that you probably need to adjust the following two parameters in the Marlin firmware, in `configuration.h`:
* `MANUAL_HOME_Z_POS`, and;
* `DELTA_SMOOTH_ROD_OFFSET`
See my answer to Delta printer nozzle not moving square with a perfectly level bed (as if the bed is bent... but it isn't).
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Tags: marlin, calibration, troubleshooting, delta, axis
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thread-9853 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9853 | Does the X/Y bed orientation of a model affect the print detail quality? | 2019-05-04T21:20:48.253 | # Question
Title: Does the X/Y bed orientation of a model affect the print detail quality?
My FDM printer bed moves on the Y-axis and the print head moves on the X-axis and raises on the Z-axis. When printing rectangular objects (a model of Notre Dame in this case), are there print detail quality advantages to aligning the model perpendicular to the X or Y axis, or at 45 degrees? Part strength is not an issue and support is not needed.
Thanks.
# Answer
In short: Not really.
longer version: It depends.
The main culprit of losing details in this case would be the weight and speed of the thing moving. So if you have a heavy X-axis carriage, acceleration and decelerating the carriage won't be instant. Same with the bed (Y-axis).
Another culprit can be slop in the system, so check your linear bearings and belt tension.
Also keep in mind that you are printing on the bed, so the weight of the Y-axis increases while the print progresses. This shouldn't be a problem for small prints, but if your print becomes bigger it can decrease the quality. Another factor is that every print will bend a little the higher it gets, so if you print a tall slender object, don't accelerate the bed too fast ;)
To summarize, for high detailed prints:
* Lower the speed
* Check the system for slop (tighten belts, and align linear bearings)
* Take the lightest axis for the highest detail (keep the weight of the print in mind)
One thing that you can do to test your machine is to test the ghosting on each axis (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:277394).
> 4 votes
# Answer
I'm under the impression that your question hints on rectilinear motion by aligning the print part to the axes motion of the printer. So, placing it under 45° would suggest movement of both steppers to make a straight line opposed to one stepper movement for a straight line.
Basically, the weight of the carriage and the play in the system determine the quality of the details. Not how much steppers are involved to print the part. As an example, CoreXY or H-bot style printers use 2 steppers to print a straight line and a single stepper to print diagonally. These printers are capable of producing very accurate prints.
On a Prusa i3 style printer it is not expected to see large differences unless you print very fast so that the inertia or play take a predominant role in the quality.
> 0 votes
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Tags: print-quality, print-orientation
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thread-9854 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9854 | Laser scanning to 3D printer | 2019-05-04T23:30:14.220 | # Question
Title: Laser scanning to 3D printer
I have one `*.xyz` file (from a laser scan) that I wanted to mesh and create a 3D printable file.
I saw some YouTube videos from Meshlab and try to follow the steps explained in the video, 3D Laser Scanning - Meshing Point Clouds in Meshlab;
When I reached the step: "Remeshing, Simplification and Reconstruction I discovered that "Surface Reconstruction: Poisson" does not appear in my Meshlab (V2016.12).
I search on web to see if I could use another modelating method, but everybody said the «Poisson» method is the "one"!
I have two questions:
1. It is possible not have the "Surface Reconstruction: Poisson" in the program (there is something I need to pay for use it?);
2. Not having the "Surface Reconstruction: Poisson", is there any other possibility to create a surface from a xyz point cloud?
# Answer
Same menu, different location in the sub-menu (at the bottom):
As T.M. states in their comment, see Poisson mesh reconstruction on StackOverflow:
> MeshLab 2016 now uses the new version of the Poisson merging, and the filter is called:
>
> Screened Poisson Surface Reconstruction
>
> it is in the same submenu, on the bottom. The relevant parameter (octree depth) is called Reconstruction Depth. It is now possible to merge multiple layers at once, without flattening them beforehand (as before). If source layer(s) have color, the result will be colored too. If you want to have the same result of the old version, put 0 in the "interpolation weight" parameter
> 3 votes
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Tags: scanning
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thread-6722 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/6722 | Relation between layer height and bond strength | 2018-08-23T10:59:49.767 | # Question
Title: Relation between layer height and bond strength
I've seen many references to a FDM print being weakest in the Z axis, due to poor bonding between layers compared to the extruded walls.
Thinking about optimising this for a specific material (excluding temperature and geometry), is there an optimum layer height? It seems obvious that too thick a layer will give less compression and maybe less heat transfer into the layer below (so 0.3 with a 0.4mm nozzle might be expected to be a bit weak). Is there a single break point (i.e. less than half the nozzle is good), or are super fine layers either good or bad?
I'm specifically using PLA at the moment, in case different materials have different behaviour in this respect.
I am **not** asking how to model the strength of layer bonds or how to take that into account when designing a part.
# Answer
My3dmatter.com performed a series of tests with PLA, using "a universal testing machine". They conclude:
> Layer height influences the strength of a printed part when it becomes thin. A printed part at 0.1mm shows a max stress of only 29MPa, as opposed to 35MPa for 0.2mm (21% increase).
>
> Past 0.2mm, the max stress remains fairly constant around 36 MPa (we confirmed this conclusion with an extra test at 0.4mm, not shown here because it was not part of the same batch).
Note: It is recommended to read the full article to comprehend the complexity of the subject matter.
> 8 votes
# Answer
According to the people of Ultimaker, the best layer height for PLA is 50% of the diameter of the nozzle. They did extensive testing, although they have not, as far as I'm aware, released any research papers or numbers gathered from their testing.
So, if you have a 0.4mm nozzle, keep your layers at 0.2mm height for best bonding, 0.4mm for a 0.8mm nozzle, and so on.
The max ratio possible is 75% of nozzle diameter, though, at this point, your print has the consistency of a spider web. I tried with a 0.4mm nozzle and 0.3mm layer height and nearly crushed the test print when taking it off the print bed. Anything above that and you end up with the dreaded spaghetti plate.
(Note: I own an Ultimaker 3 Extended, thus why I asked them when I was doing some tests.)
> 2 votes
# Answer
The question is not easy to answer as it would be difficult to give exact print guidelines. This answer from user @typo already shows results of the print height versus the specimen strength (IMHO his answer should be the accepted answer), as taken from this excellent reference at 3DMatter which basically describes the results of a series of experiments. This answer builds upon his answer. In reference to your question, this reference did not optimize the print settings (all specimens are made with the same print settings), so your question is valid.
It is assumed that you imply in your question that all print parameters that effect the inter-layer bond strength needs to be taken into account for the optimization. Many parameters are in play to bond the filament onto the previous layer, amongst these parameters are e.g.:
* Print speed
* Filament temperature
* Print height
* Print cooling
All these parameters influence the deposition temperature which in its turn determines the bonding to the previous layer. Not only printer parameters play a role here, but also the properties of the material itself. Between the various brands, and even within a single brand, material variations (e.g. color doping, or different process batches) influence these parameters.
The question states
> It seems obvious that too thick a layer will give less compression and maybe less heat transfer into the layer below
Well, this is not so obvious and assumes that compression is the main driver for bonding a layer. However, the larger the layer height, the more filament can be deposited at once with a higher heat capacity (stays hot longer), so potentially this could have a positive influence on the bond (higher temperature, better adhesion).
The print fan cooling parameter could play a very important role here (or even the filament print temperature). In fact, the results of this are already shown by the 3DMatter experiment referenced above. If you keep all print parameters the same except for layer height, the bond strength increases. This implies that in order to get a better bond for low print heights, you should decrease the amount of print-fan cooling flow, or increase the filament print temperature. How much this is should be done in a similar experiment where you lower the cooling air and increase filament print temperature for more specimens (separately) and test again. This is referred to as a design of experiments.
Theoretically, you can make the bond at any layer height just as good provided you optimize the correct parameters. This implies that there is no relation between the print height and the bond strength, it is just a matter of proper setup.
Also, I would not say that poor bonding strength is the cause of failure in Z direction, as FDM deposits layers in between each layer you will have a lot of potential crack initiation locations, this is usually the starting point of the failure. I have seen prints start the failure between the layers, but not continue to crack along the layers, but traversing through the layers meaning that the bonding strength is not that bad after all.
> 2 votes
# Answer
Just adding another datapoint. CNCKitchen has a new video where he analyses this for cross layer and between layer tension. He also references some other research (which is rather inconclusive). He supports the coarse estimate of 'no more than 50% of the nozzle diameter, with performance also dropping at very low layer height.
He found cross layer tension supported more than 2x the layer-to-layer tension (with a typical 3-wall, low infill pattern).
> 1 votes
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Tags: print-quality, slicing
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thread-9859 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9859 | After homing all is fine, when printing the Z-axis stops advancing | 2019-05-05T19:07:19.320 | # Question
Title: After homing all is fine, when printing the Z-axis stops advancing
My Prusa i3 has developed an issue.
It homes fine and has no issues. But, when I press the print button it gives a sneeze (quick screeching noise from the Z-axis stepper motor) and start to print. The only issue then is that there is no lifting on the layers when it prints! When I kill the print, it stops, lifts and goes to the home position as if nothing is wrong.
Video link: Prusa I3 Z-axis issue
Does anyone know of a remedy for this issue?
# Answer
Awesome, I got it fixed!
I've restored to default the Firmware EEPROM Settings in the driver program and it's all fine now. I have no idea how that got changed as I would never go mess around there.
I CAN PRINT AGAIN!!
The program I'm using is Repetier. It has a Firmware configuration setting under the printer settings. The values in there was a bit odd so I took a chance and pressed the Reset to Factory Settings and it worked. There is no version number attached to the setting
> 2 votes
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Tags: z-axis
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thread-9862 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9862 | Can a model change size when using a different filament type? | 2019-05-06T00:59:38.303 | # Question
Title: Can a model change size when using a different filament type?
I printed a case for my phone, a Motorola G4 Plus. I found the model of the casing on Thingiverse
I just downloaded the model, used Meshmixer to check for issues, after that, opened Simplify3d and saved it for printing using an SD Card. The printed size of the model was smaller than expected.
The model designer, says in the description that he used flexible filament. Is it possible than if I change to that filament, the model result is completely different?
Print result - phone casing:
# Answer
Of course it can change size... but definitely not in scale you've presented.
Filament as same as many other materials can subject something called shrinkage. It depends on physical properties of the material and as its name suggests cause the dimensions to shrink.
Here is wikipedia article.
The same happens to almost all plastics. But this phenomenon is almost unnoticeable in terms of PLA... well not really...
Bending is mostly caused by shrinkage. We have heated beds (among others) to prevent it. And we use adhesives also to prevent bending so to prevent effects of shrinkage.
It can be also noticed when you print specific volume (and/or specific base surface) and you left the model on the HB until it cools down - the model can come off the HB on it's own even when adhesive was used.
But your "shrinkage" is definitely not that one.
> 5 votes
# Answer
**No**, choosing a different filament type will not result in a different size *(unless you use PLA that foams on extrusion, it increases size but then again all other dimensions would not fit either as it expands uniformly)*. The overall dimensions are defined by the coordinates in the G-code file which is based on the geometry of the model. If the printed model has dimensions that differ in the region of centimeters (like shown in your images) a different filament type will not change the size. Differences in the order of fractions of a millimeter are possible.
Probably the size has accidentally changed while loading the model in one of the tools prior to slicing to G-code.
---
Sidenote; there are techniques to anneal PLA after printing, you will then observe changes in the size of the part you printed, but I don't think you have annealed the print. From the link above:
> On average, you’ll see PLA **shrinkage of about 5% and growth of about 2% along the relevant axes**. If this shrinkage and growth is going to be a problem, you can compensate for it beforehand during the design and printing processes.
> 5 votes
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Tags: 3d-models, 3d-design, simplify3d
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thread-9833 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9833 | Is it possible to know which is the correct temperature range and speed for any model? | 2019-05-01T17:56:17.063 | # Question
Title: Is it possible to know which is the correct temperature range and speed for any model?
Trying to print a 3D model for my mobile phone, but I see that when printing the sides, being thin, increases the retraction and the recoil seems a little abrupt and makes a coarse sound.
I would like to know if it is possible to know what speed and temperature is recommended to print a model.
In my case I use Simplify3D, and when I'm going to save the file in `.gcode` format, I see that there are some ranges shown in colors, how does this apply to the models?
# Answer
The first indication for print speed and temperature should be taken from the box the filament comes in. Generally it specifies temperature ranges for the hotend and the heated bed. Sometime, mostly online, more parameters can be found amongst which is the printing speed.
Do note that temperature and printing speed are linked, if you want to print faster you should increase the temperature. But, if you are printing small or thin things you should print slower so that the part cools enough for the next layer. Basically, part cooling is then also important, but not all filament types (e.g. the ones with a high melt temperature like ABS or PETG) like being cooled too much. So you have another parameter to consider.
It is difficult to instruct you to print at a certain speed and certain temperatures as it is highly depending on the filament (e.g. also the filament diameter), the machine type/make and model, extruder setup (direct or Bowden), the print, enclosure, etc.
Because of the many parameters affecting printing, it is usually suggested to calibrate the printer by printing a temperature tower or performing retraction tests to find the print window for your specific setup.
> 4 votes
# Answer
So as someone else on here mention, those settings shouldn't be for the model but for the filament. Sadly, you will need to test 99% of filaments to really figure this out. I have a modify tester, and on the description it tells you how to set your temp. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3347967
You can look at the remix if you want to grab the blank model and put your own numbers on it. It should be noted that things like water in the filament can mess with how the filament reacts to speed and temp. If you have questionable prints coming out of a filament that sat there for a long time. You can easily run it through the test to figure out the temp.
Anything else I could add is would just repeat what most of 0scar said.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: 3d-models, simplify3d, speed
--- |
thread-9876 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9876 | Printer LCD controller required when using a Raspberry Pi + LCD? | 2019-05-08T05:20:33.300 | # Question
Title: Printer LCD controller required when using a Raspberry Pi + LCD?
When using a Raspberry Pi and an LCD to run the printer, can the LCD controller that comes on the printer be removed or does it need to be used also?
# Answer
> 3 votes
No, when you run the print jobs from a Raspberry Pi, e.g. using the OctoPrint print server, you do not need the display of the printer as you can control the printer from the Pi screen or from a browser of any other device. Do note that not all functionality of the LCD controller is built-in in those printer servers, but you normally have a terminal to interface using G-code with the printer, or you can make macros to do that.
In some cases it might be handy to leave it on the printer for small adjustments, homing an axis, or feeding some filament; it saves you some time opening a browser to control the printer when you operate the printer remotely and allows to troubleshoot the machine manually.
---
Tags: electronics, raspberry-pi, full-graphic-smart-controller
--- |
thread-9878 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9878 | Why do 3D printers have only one limit switch? | 2019-05-08T14:48:36.270 | # Question
Title: Why do 3D printers have only one limit switch?
I have seen that many 3D printers have only one limit switch for each axis, how does it know where to stop on the other end?
My first guess is that the machine knows how big the plate is, and calculates it accordingly.
If this is true, then if I were to use a RAMPS, I would have to modify the software to figure out the build plate, it won't have the hardware to autocalculate.
# Answer
> 7 votes
In principle you only need the minimum axis position (or the maximum), the offset to the bed and the size of the bed in the direction of the axes. Fortunately, you can specify this in the firmware:
E.g. in Marlin Firmware offsets are defined as travel limits:
```
// Travel limits (mm) after homing, corresponding to endstop positions.
#define X_MIN_POS -33
#define Y_MIN_POS -10
#define Z_MIN_POS 0
#define Z_MAX_POS 240
```
Bed size:
```
// The size of the print bed
#define X_BED_SIZE 200
#define Y_BED_SIZE 200
```
Do note that some printers do have maximum endstops on top of minimum endstops. This is handy in case of layer shifting (e.g. caused by the nozzle catching the print as such that the belt skips notches and as such redefining the reference frame) to prevent the carriage from destroying the printer at the maximum of the axis.
---
Tags: diy-3d-printer, printer-building, desktop-printer
--- |
thread-8715 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8715 | Ultra high precision and accuracy printing | 2019-04-17T19:00:44.430 | # Question
Title: Ultra high precision and accuracy printing
I work in a teaching hospital and we have a research project we're interested in pursuing. We'd like to 3D Print tubes we'd implant into rats to help with nerve regeneration. We're interested in the shape of the tubes right now, more so than what material it is or whether it's biocompatible etc..
So this question isn't necessarily about what type of plastic or whatever we should print in. My question is more so:
> We'd like to print a tube that's 1 mm in diameter, about 1 cm long and has as many micro "tubes" crammed through it as possible, something like this:
I currently have a Stratasys j750 in my lab, a UPrint Se and a Prusa i3 Mk3s. They all work well but for the detail I'm looking for, come up a bit short. They have advertised accuracies of 14 microns (well, the j750) but thats just in the z direction, x and y are more like 200. If I went to get PRECISE, what technology should I look into?
# Answer
Update on this:
Per this article: 3D printing strategies for peripheral nerve regeneration
There are a few 3d printing technologies beyond your typical FDM/SLA/Polyjet that can get this small.
* Melt Microextrusion
* two photon polymerization
* Something called MEW
* continuous liquid interface production
I found various articles where someone "printed" that small, but it was often kind of a misnomer where technically something was made additively, but it wasn't a "printer" that you could go buy. I think two photon polymerization may be the "best" actual printing method for what I want, though the price tag associated with that style of printers may be out of my range. But it can definitely get that small, this technology can apparently get down into the nanometer range.
> 1 votes
# Answer
This is an interesting question. A good thing to note when we start talking about SLA and other jewelry grade 3d printing, that you will have to factor in the materials toxicity when we start talking about medical applications. You can also look into DLP 3d printers but they will not have as good quality.
What can help you right now is these SLA printers I see that form 3 has 25 microns, with a laser dot of 85. Well within your tolerances. Just make sure to get dental grade or medical grade resin.
Note that if there are bends, then you will have issues with SLA printing, depending how steep the angles are.
There are other technologies, such as metal 3d printing or SLS printing, that will likely be out of your price range such as the HP Metal Jet that can do 21 -xy by 50 -z microns. Or binder based 3d printing which will have the best internal geometry, as powder will act as support, and is easily removed.
There are many specifically in the bio printing area that might be what you are looking for as well, this is more an alternative. You can look into what the researchers at Penn has been doing, where they have been using Sugar to create vascular networks. As far as I know they do not sell it as a product at this time. Here is more information about scaling vascular networks
See here for more information about other printing technologies
> 4 votes
# Answer
The typical low-end consumer printers that are so common now in the $100-800 range (yes, I've seen small ones sell that cheap) cannot achieve this, even with special nozzles.
But your machine is a bit nicer than that. Looking online at the manufacturer's page for the machine, we find these specifications:
```
LAYER THICKNESS
55 microns
BUILD RESOLUTION
100 +/- micron accuracy
```
That's not gonna cut it. 100 microns is .1mm. +/- 100 microns means it can error that much in either direction from where things should be. To illustrate why this is too much, I'll use the image of the tube in the question, with the 1mm diameter as a scale, and layer the 100micron error potential as a grid over the image:
This grid doesn't show the size of the filament: just margin for error. It's getting close to what we need, but it's not there yet. To reliably create your tubes, you want the error to no more than 1/4 the diameter of a tube itself. Based on the image, the tube size is about 180 microns, so you want to look for something with an error in the range of +/-45 microns. \_Maybe you could do this with a tube — more of a rounded rectangle — lying on it's side.
> 2 votes
# Answer
FDM/FF printers can#t achieve those resolutions due to several constraints. The biggest problems are wall thickness and resolution:
The print needs to be made from walls that are at least one nozzle wide. Commonly available nozzles go down to the 0.15 to 0.2 mm area, so the thinnest wall has to be at least this wide or be ignored.
The resolution is probably an even bigger problem: common consumer grade and industrial machines can get dialed in to have errors down to the 0.1 mm. Which would be, with the aforementioned smallest nozzles, up to half a wall width shift! Shifting the print by that would destroy the functionality of the print surely.
## But, is there a solution?!
The only solution that comes to my mind is using a resin based printer like SLA or DLP. SLA printers can get down to 0.025 mm layer height, usually demand a minimum of 0.14 mm wall thickness, but newer machines can cut that almost by two.
The error on the SLA Form 2 machines is, compared to its minimum wall width, pretty much nonexistent for features of about 10% larger than its spot size (0.144 mm), so for 0.15 mm and up it prints pretty much spot on. Extrapolating this means that you'll need a SLS machine such as the Form 3, for minimum reliable wall lines of roundabout 0.09 mm. However, one wall thickness is usually bad, but it might achieve walls of 2 perimeters, coming down to about 0.16 mm.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: print-quality, resolution
--- |
thread-8256 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8256 | MKS 12864OLED Display setup | 2019-02-12T20:17:22.147 | # Question
Title: MKS 12864OLED Display setup
I've bought MKS 12864OLED and connected to my DIY 3d printer with Mega/RAMPS combination. In Marlin's configuration.h file there are these lines to uncomment:
```
// MKS OLED 1.3" 128 × 64 FULL GRAPHICS CONTROLLER
// http://reprap.org/wiki/MKS_12864OLED
//
// Tiny, but very sharp OLED display
//
//#define MKS_12864OLED // Uses the SH1106 controller (default)
//#define MKS_12864OLED_SSD1306 // Uses the SSD1306 controller
```
I'm not sure to choose between 'SH1106' or 'SSD1306'... either way, the LCD module is not working.
# Answer
*First of all let me state that I do not own the module! The analysis below is based on old patches that worked in a version of Marlin in 2015, and translated to the latest version of Marlin of the 1.1.x branch. This is 1.1.9; this is the last version of the 1.1.x branch, all new development takes place in branch bugfix-2.0.x (dated May 2019).*
---
The reported patches are compatible with an earlier version of Marlin Firmware (a version from 2015). Clearly this doesn't work anymore, but that should not be a problem, if it worked then it should work now provided we configure it correctly. The display you have requires U8GLIB\_SSD1306, so the U8GLIB library need to be installed in your Arduino IDE!
Let's follow this installation guide for the older version as an example.
First, from patch 1 it becomes clear that you'll need to define that you are using a display that is identified by its name/type, you should uncomment the following line in your configuration.h in the section:
```
//=============================================================================
//======================== LCD / Controller Selection =========================
//======================== (Character-based LCDs) =========================
//=============================================================================
```
```
//#define MKS_12864OLED_SSD1306 // Uses the SSD1306 controller
```
to:
```
#define MKS_12864OLED_SSD1306 // Uses the SSD1306 controller
```
as you are using the SSD1306 controller according to this reference.
That is about the only thing you add in the `configuration.h` file! You only activate the name of the controller type (as in defining a constant) so that it is caught in other source or header files to do/trigger something.
With this change, you automatically activated the rest of patch as that is implemented in Conditionals\_LCD.h!
Next, we need to address patch 2. This is addressed in ultralcd\_impl\_DOGM.h; here you will find:
```
#elif ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED_SSD1306)
// MKS 128x64 (SSD1306) OLED I2C LCD
U8GLIB_SSD1306_128X64 u8g(DOGLCD_SCK, DOGLCD_MOSI, DOGLCD_CS, DOGLCD_A0); // 8 stripes
//U8GLIB_SSD1306_128X64_2X u8g(DOGLCD_SCK, DOGLCD_MOSI, DOGLCD_CS, DOGLCD_A0); // 4 stripes
```
which clearly differs from the patch:
```
U8GLIB_SSD1306_128X64 u8g(23, 17, 16, 25); // SW SPI Com: SCK = 23, MOSI = 17, CS = 16, A0 = 25
```
as such that it uses numbers instead of constants. So we need to define these constants first. These constants are defined by the board you are using, more specifically the pin layout.
Looking at the pin layout of your RAMPS board:
```
#if ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED) || ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED_SSD1306)
#define LCD_PINS_DC 25 // Set as output on init
#define LCD_PINS_RS 27 // Pull low for 1s to init
// DOGM SPI LCD Support
#define DOGLCD_CS 16
#define DOGLCD_MOSI 17
#define DOGLCD_SCK 23
#define DOGLCD_A0 LCD_PINS_DC
```
you'll find that the pins are correctly configured with the fore mentioned:
```
U8GLIB_SSD1306_128X64 u8g(DOGLCD_SCK, DOGLCD_MOSI, DOGLCD_CS, DOGLCD_A0); // 8 stripes
```
We move on to patch 3. This patch deals with the reset/initialization of the OLED display. This is also already taken care of in ultralcd\_impl\_DOGM.h:
```
#if PIN_EXISTS(LCD_RESET)
OUT_WRITE(LCD_RESET_PIN, LOW); // perform a clean hardware reset
_delay_ms(5);
OUT_WRITE(LCD_RESET_PIN, HIGH);
_delay_ms(5); // delay to allow the display to initalize
#endif
```
Next to patch 4, in pins\_RAMPS.h you see that pin 25 and 27 are correctly defined (apart from the name LCD\_PINS\_RS**T**, now without **T**, but that is fine!):
```
#if ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED) || ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED_SSD1306)
#define LCD_PINS_DC 25 // Set as output on init
#define LCD_PINS_RS 27 // Pull low for 1s to init
```
The only difference is that pins
```
#define LCD_PINS_D5
#define LCD_PINS_D6
```
are not set to -1, so to be consistent, you should change pins\_RAMPS.h to:
```
#if ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED) || ENABLED(MKS_12864OLED_SSD1306)
#define LCD_PINS_DC 25 // Set as output on init
#define LCD_PINS_RS 27 // Pull low for 1s to init
// DOGM SPI LCD Support
#define DOGLCD_CS 16
#define DOGLCD_MOSI 17
#define DOGLCD_SCK 23
#define DOGLCD_A0 LCD_PINS_DC
#define LCD_PINS_D5 -1
#define LCD_PINS_D6 -1
#else
#define LCD_PINS_RS 16
#define LCD_PINS_ENABLE 17
#define LCD_PINS_D4 23
#define LCD_PINS_D5 25
#define LCD_PINS_D6 27
#endif
```
A conclusion from the analysis above is that you enable the display in your configuration file and add the 2 values of -1 for D5 and D6, but I don't think they cause problems if they're not initialized to -1. Be sure that the cables are connected correctly. Some modules have reported upside down connectors.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: marlin, troubleshooting, reprap, full-graphic-smart-controller
--- |
thread-9865 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9865 | Uniform squishy infill | 2019-05-06T11:11:55.830 | # Question
Title: Uniform squishy infill
I try to print a stamp with flexible filaments. The problem I encounter is that the filament is flexible, but not soft. This leads to small differences in height to parts of the stamp not working.
One solution would be to add a small 'cushion' to add some squishyness to the stamp. I designed the stamp and the 'cushion' but now the question arises: "Which infill will provide the best uniform squishyness (in one axis)?"
I did a test with cubic infill of Cura, and although it becomes quite squishy, some parts are squishier than other parts of the block.
TLDR; Trying to print a squishy cube, where in one axis all areas of the cube have the same squishyness.
# Answer
As the rubber stamp needs to be soft in one axis for the whole area, you could use an infill that causes the same softness in all directions, but is sliced as such that the stamp experiences the same softness. Alternatively you can use the specific infill types for flexibility, but beware of the orientation:
* Concentric
* Cross
* Cross 3D
**First**, to get the same softness in each direction you need to use an infill pattern that has similar/uniform properties (isotropic) in all dimensions.
It is suggested to look into the infill type called "*gyroid*" (see question What are the advantages of gyroid infill?).
This type of infill is described as:
> Gyroid infill is one of the strongest infill types for a given weight, has isotropic properties, and prints relatively fast with reduced material use and a fully connected part interior.
**Second**, since the stamp has relief, slicing the part may cause different infill height. You could look into Different infill in the same part to e.g. get a solid infill for under the relief to get a uniform infill for the "cushion".
> 5 votes
# Answer
Sinusoidal infill provides great squishiness in the infill direction, but you'll still have the problem that where the infill meets the perimeter wall, it'll be less squishy than where the perimeter wall isn't touching any infill. You can reduce this effect by using a stiffer filament for that wall (if you can print with multiple filaments), by adding more perimeters, and by reducing the gap between infills (i.e. increasing the infill density). You can even explicitly design an extra-thick wall on the face that takes the pressure (the engraved face of the stamp), and then a section behind that with the squishy infill.
TBH, I'm not sure that flexible filament is really what you need for a stamp. Soft materials are commonly used for traditional stamp-making more because they're easy to etch than because the stamping works better that way. Print-making uses wooden or metal plates (the equivalent to the stamp) and produces better, more repeatable images than rubber stamps. When you're printing a stamp, you don't need to etch it, so the softness of rubber isn't an advantage for you. My outsider recommendation would be to try using a normal, rigid filament, and sand the surface to the smoothness you need. If you print with the stamp face on the bed, and your first-layer quality is really good on a smooth build plate, you can probably get better results without sanding.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: slicing, infill, flexible
--- |
thread-9891 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9891 | How to start cycle by using push button | 2019-05-09T07:10:00.360 | # Question
Title: How to start cycle by using push button
Can any one help me out that how to start a cycle by just using a push button.
Note: Using Marlin firmware, Arduino Mega, Ramps 1.4
I haven't tried altering the Marlin code (as I am new to coding), I was just thinking of adopting this feature as it will be very easy for CNC DIY maker using Marlin code to run a cycle in a loop.
# Answer
Unless you know the structure of the Marlin firmware pretty well, are good at coding (in C/C++), and are familiar with programming microcontrollers, then I wouldn't attempt to do this, IMHO. Adding new features can cause a number of issues elsewhere in the code and need rigourous planning and testing as well as discussion with the Marlin community.
You *could* however make a request (i.e. raise an issue) to the Marlin community on Github, however, I would seriously suggest posting to the Marlin forum, on RepRap, first, as random suggestions and issues raised on Github aren't really appreciated, without checking on the forum first...
If you really want to get into coding, then I would suggest buying an Arduino Uno and some components and messing about with those first, as well as visiting our excellent Arduino Q&A site on StackExchange as well as the Arduino forums.
> 1 votes
# Answer
Don't go modifying Marlin to do this unless you're using a 32 bit µC.
You're better off controlling Marlin with OctoPrint and writing/finding a module that allows you to kick off a print when a key is pressed on a connected keyboard or pendant.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: marlin
--- |
thread-9771 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9771 | Pronterface not connecting ERROR: A device attached to the system is not functioning | 2019-04-24T19:20:24.317 | # Question
Title: 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?
# Answer
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".
> 1 votes
---
Tags: ramps-1.4, pronterface
--- |
thread-9885 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9885 | What is acceptable voltage drop from PSU to controller? | 2019-05-08T18:10:04.783 | # Question
Title: What is acceptable voltage drop from PSU to controller?
My voltage at the controller at max load is ~11.4 V (heated bed + motors + hotend). Is this normal?
I'm measuring 11.8 V at the PSU, so 0.4 V -\> 5 W lost in the wires.
I have a pretty beefy ~2 mm diameter copper wire that's ~1 m long. Its area is 2.5 mm<sup>2</sup>. The diameter with shielding is 3.5 mm.
Could there be a bad connection somewhere?
Checked the wire is warm to touch, so looks like it's actually the cause. Is this normal? Should I go for even bigger wires?
# Answer
> 2 votes
Regardless of how the voltage is lowered, you aren't delivering the power to the heating elements that they are designed to deliver. For a resistive heater, the power scales with the square of the voltage.
Delivering 11.4 V to the heaters will result in the power being $11.4^2/12.0^2 = 0.9025$ or 90 % of the intended power.
There are two things you could do to increase the power at the heaters.
1. Your voltage is starting out low, which you may be able to increase at the power supply to 12.0 V.
2. The voltage drop in the 1-meter cables can be reduced by using shorter cables or larger cross-sectional area conductors. 13 gauge is not a very heavy wire for low-voltage high-current DC. I would suggest 10 gauge, and would prefer 8 gauge.
The logic in the controller board should be fine as you are now. Controller boards include regulators that being the nominal 12 V down to the 5 V or 3.3 V required by the digital logic. These will automatically adjust for changes in the 12 V supply.
To actually answer your question, the permitted voltage drop is application dependent. As a rule, though, I would suggest that the voltage on the pins of the controller should be 12 ± 5 %, or from 12.6 V to 11.4 V. The voltage you measured should be acceptable if it is the true minimum voltage.
# Answer
> 0 votes
Per this website it matches the expectations. Using 13AWG =~ 2.5 mm^2, 18amps, 12volts, 6feet = 2meters (1m back and forth).
Results in 0.4v drop.
---
Tags: wiring
--- |
thread-9898 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9898 | How to effectively eliminate stringing in 3D print | 2019-05-11T10:40:11.417 | # Question
Title: How to effectively eliminate stringing in 3D print
I'm having this stringing problem that happens when the machine moves and when it's not supposed to print that I still haven't effectively solved. I will try exemplify with the following image.
We can see it leaves some prints when it's not supposed to.
I know we can try to solve it with the retraction properties, but is there a way to calculate the right levels of it?
How do you guys do it?
My setup is:
* Ender3 printer
* Ultimaker Cura sw
* BQ filament
Info about this particular filament, from store.bq.com
**DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT**
* Weight - 1 kg
* Filament diameter - 1.75 mm
* Coil size (diameter x width) - 175 x 77 mm
* Spool axle diameter - 44 mm
* Enclosure - 187 x 187 x 83 mm
**MATERIAL**
* Composition - 100% PLA (Polylactic acid).
**PRINTING FEATURES**
* Optimum printing temperature - 205 ºC
* Printing temperature range - 200-220 ºC
# Answer
**Note:** The image in the question was changed after the question was asked. This answer is out-of-date with respect to how the question has changed; I'll update it when more information is available.
---
These don't look like strings, which I'd define as material deposited outside of the model, but rather damage done by moving the hotend through already-printed material without retracting. In Cura, this is called "retraction combing", and it defaults to "all", which is way too aggressive and visibly harms the surface finish. Switching it to "noskin" or even "infill" only will make this go away and greatly improve your print quality, at the cost of some speed. The cost can be severe in worst case with certain kinds of fine detail, but usually "noskin" is cheap and suffices.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: ultimaker-cura, 3d-models, troubleshooting, creality-ender-3
--- |
thread-9902 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9902 | Strange banding on first layer/skin | 2019-05-11T18:10:32.357 | # Question
Title: Strange banding on first layer/skin
I've been printing for a while with a Creality CR-10S with Colorfabb black PETG economy and all was good. Until today, where on a large, flat print (30x10cm - a small drawer) I can't manage to get a smooth first (or second) layer no matter how hard I try. I tried so far:
* calibrating the extruder
* setting different temperatures (range 230-240 suggested by the manufacture is 235-250)
* slowing down the print (I usually print skin at 80mm/s, I tried this one down to 40mm/s)
* installing a brand new nozzle
* levelling the bed
The print starts fine but then, randomly, some bands that look like under extrusion appear:
Here's a second example of the first layer - I've ripped it off the plate but as you can see the first 50% of it was fine. The problem appeared later in the process.
The extruder "clicks", the filament stalls and it's clear that the nozzle is not extruding plastic fast enough. What can it be?
All other prints are fine, but I have to say this is the only one that has such a large horizontal surface.
# Answer
> 2 votes
i'd say your extruder driver and/or motor is overheated - really
according to your description - when you've printed other things it was fine but this is the first with such big "flat" area
usually extruder motor works for some time then stops and starts and so on and again so it has some time when driver cools down but here it runs constantly for relatively long time
this overheats the driver and/or motor then is starts to clicks as there is not enough current delivered to the motor
what can you do?
* try to take the cover off
* check the driver temperature (use electronic thermometer as it can be even 100C)
* try to cool it with some kind of fan while running the same printout
if the diagnosis is fine - you are at home and now you know what to do ;)
the one described as E is the one to check and cool down
---
Tags: print-quality, extrusion, creality-cr-10
--- |
thread-9912 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9912 | What is the functional difference between an e3D-Style nozzle, Makerbot MK8 and M6 Chinesium Nozzles? | 2019-05-13T13:57:16.847 | # Question
Title: What is the functional difference between an e3D-Style nozzle, Makerbot MK8 and M6 Chinesium Nozzles?
There is pretty much an ecosystem of two Nozzle designs out there that share the M6 thread on the coupler to the Heating block:
* the e3D "snub nose" or "shouldered" design.
* the "Chinesium" nozzle that is often claimed to be some "MK8" or "MK10" without naming what item of which manufacturer is actually iterated there.
+ They seem to be derived from the Makerbot MK8 Hotend which uses M6 threading and not the MK10, as that uses M7 threading.
**What differentiates the two and can one swap one for the other?**
# Answer
> 7 votes
## Differentiation
The main differences between the e3D-Nozzle family and the "simple" Nozzle are the *wrench size*, *body length* and *thread length* of the nozzle. In fact, I have come across 2 different "Chinese" styles of nozzle, a "big" and a "small" one.
## Comparison
For comparison, take a look at this photo, where I aligned the lower ends of the bodies to line up under the wrench needed to handle them.
In words, left to right:
* Chinese Big M6 Nozzle - Aka "Creality Mk8"
+ size 8 metric wrench, 4 mm M6x1 thread length, 1 mm clearance, extends a minimum of 8 mm from the heater block
* Chinese Small M6 Nozzle
+ size 7 metric wrench, 4 mm M6x1 thread length, 1 mm clearance, extends a minimum of 8 mm from the heater block
* e3D v6 normal (aka NOT volcano etc)
+ size 7 metric wrench, 6 mm M6x1 thread length, 2 mm clearance, extends a minimum of 5 mm from the heater block
To differentiate from Makerbot nozzles:
* Makerbot Mk6
+ size unspecified wrench, 7 mm M6x1 thread + clearance, extends a minimum of 5.5 mm from the heater block, 12.5 mm overall.
* Makerbot Mk7
+ size 1/4 inch imperial wrench (6.36 mm), 5 mm M6x1 thread + clearance, extends a minimum of 8 mm from the heater block.
* Makerbot Mk8
+ size 7 mm metric wrench, otherwise as Mk7 - making this *almost* identical to Creality Mk8 but for no specified clearance between thread and head
* Makerbot Mk10
+ size 9 mm metric wrench, 4.5 mm M7x1 thread, 1.5 mm clearing + dia 7.5 mm shelf, extends a minimum of 7 mm from the heater block
## Replaceability
### Chinese big to Chinese small nozzles in either hotend
Due to the dimensions, one can easily swap the big and small Chinese nozzles for one another. They are virtually interchangeable but differ in the wear patterns.
### Chinese nozzles in e3D Hotend
The 3 mm shorter snout and deeper butting with the heatbreak of the e3D nozzle in its designed hotend make it hard to swap a Chinese nozzle into an e3D setup: neither does the thread allow to screw the nozzle in the right length sometimes, it also extends much further. To accommodate, the whole heater block has to be screwed about 3 mm more onto the heatbreak, then the nozzle gets screwed in. The result is equal in overall length.
### Makerbot Mk7/Mk8 to Chinese Nozzles
But for the different wrench, those generally will fit, but
###e3D Nozzle in Chinese Hotend However, the long thread of the e3D Nozzle allows it to be mounted in a hotend designed to hold a Chinese nozzle without trouble - the 3 mm of difference in the body are used for a longer thread and clearance between thread and body, resulting in the same overall length without changing the mounting position of the heater block on the heatbreak.
## Internals
Stefan of CNC-Kitchen recently tortured a couple of nozzles for science and investigating wear and tear (video). He found out a couple of differences on the internals:
* The Chinese nozzle had a non-straight pattern on the inside
* The angle in the feeding cone is 60° in an e3D and 90° in the Chinese sample
## Conclusion
The Chinese Style nozzles can be interchanged for one another. an e3D style nozzle with standard length (aka not-volcano) can be swapped in for any Chinese Style nozzle. A Chinese Style nozzle needs to have the heater block shifted if mounted into an e3D hotend.
---
Tags: nozzle, e3d, knowledgebase
--- |
thread-9914 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9914 | 3d printer set up | 2019-05-13T14:44:58.110 | # Question
Title: 3d printer set up
I am not very used to 3D printers and I just bought my first 3D printer today (Creality3D Ender 3). But I am unable to assemble it. The 3D printer doesn't contain instruction on how to built it which I found very weird. I searched a couple of things on the Internet and I found this website, but after some steps I couldn't read it , I didn't understand what I was reading.
# Answer
The website you looked at is for an entirely different printer and in general.
**Your instructions are in a PDF file on the mini-SD card that came with the printer.** The official Ender 3 support site is https://creality3d.cn/download/produktdatei\_c0002 and it also contains the Official Assembly Instructions (to me, the lower right corner). An alternate setup instruction is in a PDF distributed by Sain Smart.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: printer-building, creality-ender-3
--- |
thread-9918 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9918 | How does this Martian habitat 3D printer built for NASA work? | 2019-05-13T16:31:52.817 | # Question
Title: How does this Martian habitat 3D printer built for NASA work?
The ArchDaily article AI SpaceFactory Wins NASA's 3D-Printed Mars Habitat Challenge shows a working 3D printing apparatus using an unusual material containing
> basalt fiber extracted from Marian rock (simulant) and renewable plant-based bioplastic.
The photo below shows part of the printer. Is this printer just leaving a slurry to dry, or does the mixture somehow catalyze or harden spontaneously? I'm also wondering what the (looks like) twelve black hoses are around the central nozzle.
# Answer
Let's start with the general design look and feel: This printer contains a robotic arm with a toolhead, pretty similar to a welding robot, and probably is controlled with a similar CAM software.
Picture by Robotics.org
## Tool head
The really interesting part here is the tool head. So let's look at it and try to reverse engineer the use of some parts by how they are placed and what one can see about them, together with the information given by OP.
### Black pipes
There's a bundle of 12 black pipes that go from the main body to the print head, ending at the side of some distance disk. To me, these look suspiciously like a system to deliver an airstream, so most likely some sort of cooling system. This is further supported by the huge fans at the base of the machine, pumping air into the flexible pipe.
### Silver Tank
The first picture shows a silver tank with the label V7 (version 7?) or VT (as in Virginia Tech) or something similar on it. This is connected via a grey hose to the base of the printer. The mounting of it over the extruder hints, that this is a hopper, most likely holding the print material in pelletized or powder form, and that it is fed via the grey hose. From the information given in the question, it might be some sort of PLA (synthesized from cornstarch) or other bioplastic using the *Martian* dust as a filler material. From here, the print material falls into the central column...
### Central Column
...which goes down through the distance disk into the thick nozzle, so it must be the extruder and heater combo. At its top, there is a large stepper motor in Z orientation, which hints that inside of the matte grey tube is an arbor, pressing down the melting pellets past a heating element into the nozzle below.
### Print material and further information
The last picture shows proudly "Autodesk" on the side of the printer. Autodesk has an own article about printing in space from August 2018, where Nathan Golino of the NASA owned GMRO states this:
> Abrasion has been an issue with the 3D printer we use. It’s very rough on the feed screw and the barrel and nozzle as the material is extruded through the system.
This confirms the general makeup akin to a pellet-style extruder.
> Combining a small amount of waste plastic with crushed rock known as regolith can form an additive construction material that’s stronger than concrete. (on a picture caption)
>
> The material we’ve been using in our additive-construction experiments is regolith mixed with waste polymers. You can get polymers in the form of astronaut trash and shipping containers, or you can synthesize polymers. You can use that as a binder for regolith, with a relatively low ratio of polymer to regolith, to make a construction material pretty similar to Portland cement in compression and 20 times stronger in tensile strength.
"Waste polymer" could be anything from ABS to PETG, from ASA over PC to PLA, but it seems that the plastic-to-regolith mix is on the high regolith side. It seems that it behaves more like a plastic than concrete, hardening/solidifying from a molten paste to its hard concrete as it cools.
As an interesting extra tidbit: Golino also states, that the mars-printers are at the moment on level 2 to 3, where 0 is "general concept" and 9 "ready to fly", so in early development.
Further reading into the background of the project - a design competition in 2015 - hinted, that the software for the arm might even be Autodesk PowerMill.
Looking back at the question if that is V7 or VT on the printer's hopper, an article with the same dome printed in OP's question popped up: Virginia Tech had been part of the crews that were taken to the finals of the aforementioned design competition and was part of the finals. They worked with the AI Space Factory team, which came out winning. In a related article, the printer OP showed us can be seen from a different angle and stripped of the cooling pipes and with a different, longer extruder. It tells us a little more about the work distribution of the teams and participants:
> Large format vessel printed by AI SpaceFactory in the Autodesk BUILD Space for the construction phase of the competition. The tooling was developed in collaboration with Virginia Tech and Autodesk.
The main company behind it, AI SpaceFactory, showed a different version - the one without cooling pipes - in motion on a YouTube video on April 10th 2019 and the performance of the air-cooled version during the competition finals on May 3rd 2019 (warning, 10 hours of 3D printing galore!) At 9:52:12 we also start to learn what that disk is in picture 1: It is the endcap of the structure which sadly fell through the hole due to navigation issues.
In the following shorter and commented video, we see that the printer also contains some sort of gripper to place the window frames and skylight just as well as the load bearing test performed after the print. Apparently, the material they use is engineered to a point where it can be reused after regrinding it to dust again.
> 10 votes
---
Tags: print-material, part-identification, autodesk, concrete-printers
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thread-9867 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9867 | BLTouch wiring and pin assignments | 2019-05-06T17:36:25.173 | # Question
Title: BLTouch wiring and pin assignments
I’m in the process of installing a BLTouch on a Velleman Vertex K8400. The board doesn’t have a dedicated servo pin, so I’ll assign one. No problem there.
The board only has a Z-min pin, so it’s my understanding that I’m supposed to unplug my Z-min cable and plug the BLTouch into the Z-min port.
My question is: "Can't I assign another unused pin as a Z-max, plug the BLTouch into that, adjust the firmware, and leave the existing Z-min sensor plugged in?"
Upon further review, I probably shouldn't have said Z-max, and will be more specific.
This is a Mega 2560 board with 2 available PWM pins. Anything wrong with this setup?
Pins.h:
```
#define SERVO_0_PIN 15 //PH3 (PWM)
#define Z_MIN_PROBE_PIN 16 //PH4 (PWM)
```
Configuration.h:
```
=======Z Probe Option=======
#define Z_MIN_PROBE_ENDSTOP
#define BLTOUCH
```
I want be able to keep my Z-min sensor plugged in as a backup to prevent a bed crash just in case the BL touch doesn't trigger. From what I see this should work as long as I make sure the BLTouch triggers before the Z-min. Any issues that anyone can see?
# Answer
> 4 votes
***Note****: The question has changed after posting this answer. This answer answered the previous question, but is now out-of-date with respect to how the question has changed; I'll update it later, as it is possible what is asked now.*
---
You can change the Z-min and the Z-max pin assignment in Marlin Firmware in the `pins_<boardname>.h` file, you basically exchange the Z-min and the Z-max. Note that the switch connected to the old Z-min port now becomes a Z-max sensor if you enable that in the firmware; you should therefore remove it (the actual switch) from the minimum Z position.
---
To enable a BLTouch sensor you require 2 pins free on the microprocessor. One registers the signal of the trigger, the other triggers the servo to stow/deploy the sensor.
You can connect the white/black to the Z-min signal (Z-min pin) and ground of the Z-min connector (or if pins are swapped in the firmware to the Z-max). The other wires need to be connected to +5 V (red), ground (brown) and orange/yellow to a free analog pin (PWM pin):
> BLTouch can be operated in the following condition.
> \- One I/O for control (PWM or Software PWM)
> \- One I/O for Zmin (Z Probe)
> \- GND and +5 V power
The PWM pin should be defined in your `pins_<boardname>.h` file, e.g.:
```
#define SERVO0_PIN 5 // RUMBA board
```
or
```
#define SERVO0_PIN 27 // ANET board
```
The Z-max signal pin is no PWM pin for the servo.
# Answer
> 2 votes
After studying the Marlin code, I found the answer I was looking for.
If I have a spare PWM pin, I can assign it to anything I want. So the best solution is to define the pin as a `Z_MIN_PROBE` and then in `Configuration.h` in the Bltouch settings
```
#define Z_MIN_PROBE_ENDSTOP
```
rather than
```
#define Z_MIN_ENDSTOP_USES
```
---
Tags: marlin, firmware, bltouch
--- |
thread-9927 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9927 | precise transformation using meshmixer | 2019-05-13T23:18:44.857 | # Question
Title: precise transformation using meshmixer
I am trying to do some edits on an STL file. I am trying to use meshmixer for this. I am essentially trying to move a hole in the following picture and widen the hole on the bottom of the part. I was playing around with meshmixer and it seems that it can do this by sculpting rather than precise measures. I would appreciate comments if my observation is correct and if so, what other STL editor would you suggest to do these edits. Thanks!
# Answer
> 2 votes
It's possible to close over a hole using Meshmixer. I've done exactly that recently, although the "hole" was a depression, the process would be the same. As you've discovered, Meshmixer can be considered somewhat imprecise.
Fusion 360 will import the model you wish to modify. You would then turn off edit history, convert the model to BREP, then perform the edits you require.
Once you are satisfied with the results, it's an easy matter to export the model as an STL file.
I've summarized the steps, which are almost as easy as my description. You'd have to combine Google-Fu with the summary for the detailed portions, but it's something I've done in the past.
Fusion 360 is free for hobbyists, renewable each year. There are many YouTube tutorials and text-referenced solutions for the steps required to accomplish your edit.
Some will consider Blender to be an alternative method and I agree that it's a viable option, but it's not quite as intuitive as Fusion 360 and was more challenging for me to embrace.
---
Tags: stl, meshmixer
--- |
thread-9842 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9842 | Power OctoPi from printer | 2019-05-03T20:25:15.183 | # Question
Title: Power OctoPi from printer
I'm wondering if there is some trick to power my OctoPi with the power supply of my 3D printer. I'm using an Geeetech I3 Pro W.
The power supply itself should be able, but the output is as far as I'm aware of 3.3 volts. Not my desired 5 V for USB, it would be a shame if I really would need to buy a new power supply when I have a strong one actually running. My current power supply causes a lot of "Under-voltage detected!" warnings.
After thinking a little about the specs, there are cigarette lighter adapter for cars they use 12 V. Has anyone experience with using that on his printer?
# Answer
What you are looking for is called a "buck converter" or a "step down module". These literally cost about half a buck/Euro a piece. These converters convert a high voltage into a low voltage, the better ones are able to draw 2 to 3 Amps, which is required for stable operation of the Raspberry Pi.
If you have an old computer power supply of a decent brand (probably not as you refer to a kit/assembled printer, but added for completeness), you can even use the standby 5 V line out and switch the power supply on using a relay to short the green wire of the PSU to ground. This is how I use it on one of my printers.
Note to power the Raspberry Pi through the micro USB port, to not bypass safety features.
> 5 votes
# Answer
Where are you plugging in the USB power to the Pi? If you are back powering it from the data connection, you will bypass the fuses and potentially ruin your Pi or worse. Look at this wiki under the power section:
> Back-Powering; (powering the Raspberry Pi from a USB hub through the uplink/data port, single cable) Back powering is possible on the Raspberry Pi, but not advisable. Revision 1.0 boards have to be modified to back power, this is due to the 140 mA "polyfuses" that are installed in the USB port circuit. Revision 1.1 boards do not need modifications to back-power, they have replaced the polyfuses with 0 ohm resistors in their place. Revision 2.0 boards do not need modification, they have neither resistors nor polyfuses. It is advised that short (12" (.3 meter) or less) USB cables be used for back-powering a Raspberry Pi. Cable resistance plus connector resistance can quickly reduce operating voltages below the proper range (5.25 V to 4.75 V). But do note that if you do not power the Raspberry Pi in the "official manner", that is through its micro-USB port, but use any alternative way (such as through the GPIO header, the test points TP1 and TP2), but also by back-powering it, you are actually bypassing the Raspberry Pi's input polyfuse protection device! This can have extreme consequences if ever you manage to put more than 6 V on the Raspberry Pi, even for a very short period. As this causes the overvoltage device D17 on the Raspberry Pi to trigger and short the 5 V supply! Without the polyfuse limiting the current through D17, it will burn out, probably melting the Raspberry Pi's enclosure with it, (if you have any) and possibly causing a fire-hazard. It will probably also create a permanent short of the 5 V supply! So be warned, and if you use back power make sure your hub or its PSU has a fuse to prevent this from happening. If not, add your own fuse.
As far as powering the Pi through a 12 V to 5 V converter this will work as long as the current is rated above what the Pi will use, preferably a lot higher. You will also have to consider how this option will cut the power abruptly when you switch the printer off and the Pi will not boot down properly.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Thank you guys for your help. I ended up with a suggested "Step Down Power Module" which works fine for me. I connected that module directly with the power supply of the printer with a blade connector. The first startup showed me a couple of low voltage warnings, but the second start worked fine without any warnings. I didn't know how the UI looks like without the warning on the top.
So I avoided that fancy and risky back powering since I power it now as intended. Now I have one power supply less which is great out of my opinion.
> 0 votes
# Answer
I’ve been using a buck converter for quite awhile with no problems. However just as importantly as proper voltage and amperage is using a good cable. I had my step down properly set, but was still getting low voltage warnings until I switched to a thicker cable.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: prusa-i3, octoprint, power-supply, geeetech
--- |
thread-8665 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/8665 | Which nozzle should I buy for Anycubic i3 Mega? | 2019-04-12T06:52:05.117 | # Question
Title: Which nozzle should I buy for Anycubic i3 Mega?
I'd like to buy a new nozzle for my Anycubic i3 Mega because it's not precise enough - it fails to print small details like 1 mm eyebrows.
Currently it has a 0.4 mm nozzle and I'd like to buy a better one but I don't know how to choose one which is compatible with this printer.
If you have any advice, please let me know.
# Answer
> 5 votes
According to Anycubic this printer uses the E3D V5 type hotend as can be seen from the linked video of the AnyCubic Mega:
The brass nozzle you see is fully compatible with the E3D v6 nozzle and can be found on those typical auction and Chinese websites by looking for "E3D nozzle". They are also available from E3D directly, the designer/creator of the E3D hotend family, and other specialized manufacturers like the Olsson Ruby. These nozzles have a short nozzle (snout) and are screwed into the heater block with M6 threads.<sup>1)</sup>
The smaller the diameter, the smaller the filament traces and the higher the print detail resolution. Note that a smaller diameter causes thinner walls for the same amount of (vertical) walls and may require additional perimeters to get similar strength and rigidity. The maximum layer thickness also decreases, as prints with a layer height above 75 % of the nozzle diameter have very poor quality. As an example, a 0.25 mm nozzle should not print layers thicker than $0.75 \times 0.25\text{ mm} = 0.19\text{ mm}$.
As such printing with smaller nozzle diameters increases print time. Also note that a smaller diameter requires more force to push the filament through and *could* use some extra temperature to make the filament more fluid or reduction of the print speed.
Just buy some spare nozzles of different nozzle diameter and experiment what works best for you.
<sup>1)</sup> \- *The other popular style of M6 threaded nozzles has a long body and long taper (often referred to as MK8 nozzle; they come in two different shapes). While these might work, they extend from the heater block considerably further and might need readjustment of the heater block due to their shorter threaded area (as explained here): <br>*
# Answer
> 0 votes
We select nozzles depending on what project we want to,do and it must match with the hot end as well.
---
Tags: nozzle, anycubic-i3-mega
--- |
thread-9932 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9932 | Is iron oxide a suitable material for use in SLS/SLM 3d printing? | 2019-05-14T09:59:03.603 | # Question
Title: Is iron oxide a suitable material for use in SLS/SLM 3d printing?
I recently asked a question in the space section of stackexchange as to if Martian soil, with its decent iron oxide content, could be mined (with magnets) for its iron oxide and the iron oxide used as building material for an SLS/SLM 3d printer.
Is this possible? The final result doesn't have to be pure iron, I'm just looking to see if iron oxide is a suitable building material for a SLS/SLM 3d printer.
# Answer
> 2 votes
First of all, let's start with the basics:
## Iron oxide aka rust
The University of Illinois hosts a "Ask the Van", where the question "is rust magnetic" has been asked, and I will quote from Tom J. and Mike W.:
> There are several different oxides of iron, with different fractions of oxygen. They are Fe0, Fe2O3, and Fe3O4. Rust consists mostly of Fe2O3, with additional water molecules attached. There are several forms of Fe2O3, and a common mineral composed of Fe2O3 is called hematite, which is a shiny-blackish mineral. Hematite is not ferromagnetic, but it does still respond to a magnetic field and will be attracted to the poles of a permanent magnet.\[...\] FeO is also not ferromagnetic, but it is pulled about twice as much as Fe2O3 towards the poles of a magnet. Magnetite, Fe3O4, is ferromagnetic, and is about 1/4 as strong as pure iron.
In a followup answer by Mike W., it gets more explicit:
> Rust (a collection of some iron oxides) is virtually non-magnetic, unlike plain iron or most types of steel.
This means pretty much, that unlike pure iron, you can't pick up (most) rust particles with a magnet. From all that we know about the Martian soil, we know for sure that it has a very fine grain, so the particles in itself are tiny. This again hints that any exposed iron on Mars has been thoroughly rusted through over the last million years, leaving only non-magnetic rust dust on the surface - dust that is not suitable to be mined with magnets.
We have an analysis of the chemical composition of Mars from some landers, hinting that Martian regolith indeed is colored from its high content of iron in various bonds. So, what we do with that data? We create Maritan regolith simulant, which has been checked back against the findings of the probes. And low and behold: there is not a single percentile of iron in either the findings or the probes or the regolith simulants. Just about 16-18 % rust.
## Regolith for SLS?
Now, we have regolith with a somewhat even distribution of rust in it. And we have a stimulant that can be acquired from Huston. To my knowledge, it has not yet been tested for SLM, but it has been used in powder based extruders, as explored in How does this Martian habitat 3D printer built for NASA work?
With the lack of testing and the relatively low iron oxide content, I am hesitant to say that it will work to print in the usual way. However, with the addition of some polymer, one could create a fast regolith-plastic compound that shows similar behavior to concrete. This material could be made suitable for 3D printing in SLS machines. Another idea might be to go from SLM (selective laser melting) to the older SLS (selective laser sintering) or even simple sintering, in which a compound is pretty much "baked" into shape without fully melting it. We understand well how to sinter materials we have trouble with melting otherwise, and one of the prime examples is tungsten carbide.
## Conclusion
While I see problems with mining iron from Martian regolith without a chemical refining process or refining it akin to iron sand, I don't see how martian regolith can't be refined into a suitable SLM or SLS material by addition of some kind of polymer or a thermal and mechanical process to achieve sinterable material. Instead of a polymer, a pure metal (magnesium or aluminium) could be added as a binder too. With the availability of regolith simulant for research, it only takes a research group that is interested in researching the suitability of this material for such applications.
---
Tags: sls, slm
--- |
thread-9911 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9911 | TMC2130 External VM RAMPS 1.4 | 2019-05-13T13:40:58.857 | # Question
Title: TMC2130 External VM RAMPS 1.4
I'm attempting to replace my DRV8825's with TMC2130's on a Prusa i3 rework clone, 12 V RAMPS 1.4, motor currents have been accounted for. Since they don't work as well with 12 V than with higher voltages, I bought a 10-50 V, 10 A DC-DC converter to power the drivers (and steppers). On the RAMPS this is done simply by taking the VM pin out and soldering it on the other side to draw power from an external source.
It is stated everywhere that VM should be powered BEFORE VIO. Would it be valid to switch on a relay with the DC-DC converter and connect the VIO pin to RAMPS 5 V through it? Is it enough having both sources turn on at roughly the same time? I haven't found any indication on how much time there should be in between (or if there needs to be any).
Please tell me your own experience if you have attempted something similar, or any alternatives (aside from buying a new board, because I'll eventually build a CoreXY or something else) that may be valid.
# Answer
First of all, I'm not talking on a first-hand experience: I don't own a RAMPS based printer. If I were you and wish to be 100 % sure the setup you are describing doesn't blow up in my face I would use a spare pin on the Mega to drive the relay which, in turn, drive the 24 V source line. In terms of delay I would use a couple of seconds after power on: enough time to have the bootscreen completes and all the pins being set as per firmware configuration.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: ramps-1.4, tmc2130
--- |
thread-9904 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9904 | Stuck filament in the extruder of Infitary M508 | 2019-05-12T14:27:38.080 | # Question
Title: Stuck filament in the extruder of Infitary M508
**Model:** Infitary M508
**Details:** The filament is stuck in the extruder preheated for PLA (the filament is PLA 1.75 white). The extruder's motor works and the filament is in the hole of the extruder (not somewhere else). I took the fan covering the motor apart, to show what is inside, so you might see it on the attached image:
You might also see this video for details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8rYGhuYWvc
I'm able to pull the filament out, when I uncouple the motor's gear, but it doesn't go through the extruder when I push it in.
What can I do to fix this? Thanks!
P.S. It's the first start of the printer.
# Answer
Unfortunately you're going to have to tear the extruder head apart and clean the nozzle. There are kits like the following (found on Amazon - No affiliation):
This will give you everything you need to clear the nozzle. The only other solution is to replace the nozzle and extruder tube. The filament is stuck in either or both of these parts.
(As an aside ... a wise person \< *cough* \> @0scar \< *cough* \> once told me I should keep extras of these parts, as well as the thermister and heating elements on hand. Treat them as disposable parts ... once they're dead, just replace them.)
What you need to figure out though, is why it clogged in the first place. More than likely you tried to extrude filament before the nozzle was up to temperature. If your readout said it was good, then you need to get a no-touch thermometer and check the nozzle for the proper temperature prior to printing to ensure it's all good.
> 4 votes
# Answer
The hot end can clog in two places.
1. Heat distortion can cause the filament above the nozzle, at the level of the cooling fins, to melt, expand and prevent further passage.
2. The nozzle itself may be clogged by impurities.
There are two methods available, depending on the type of clogging.
1. If the hot end is blocked at the level of the cooling fins, a so-called "Atomic Pull" helps. This is also a convenient method of changing filaments. The hot end is heated to approx. 90°C and the filament is pulled out of the hot end with a bold jerk. The filament does not melt completely and remains tough. Thus the complete plastic is pulled out of the hot end.
2. If the nozzle is clogged, an "Atomic Pull" only helps to a limited extent. To clean a nozzle, the hot end should be removed from the holder and the heating block unscrewed. You need a gas burner. With the gas burner the brass nozzle is heated until the plastic is completely carbonized. Wait until it has cooled down and reassemble the hotend.
Post-cleaning advice: Be sure that the hotend is cooled enough that no heat can creep up the hotend and melt the plastic before it enters the heat block. Without sufficient cooling clogging pre-nozzle is very likely.
> 5 votes
---
Tags: filament, extruder, motor, alunar-m508
--- |
thread-11 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/11 | How do I give 3D-printed parts in PLA a shiny smooth finish? | 2016-01-12T19:07:53.343 | # Question
Title: How do I give 3D-printed parts in PLA a shiny smooth finish?
The surfaces of my printed parts using PLA plastic look rough and uneven.
Would changing filament to a better one make any difference?
If not, what kind of methods can I use to achieve a smoother finish for my for 3D-printed objects?
# Answer
PLA parts can be finished with a coat of epoxy like XTC-3D from Smooth-On. This will smooth out the part and give it a pretty nice shine.
I've also had a fair amount of success sanding prints, giving them a coat of automotive filler primer, and using glossy spray paint.
You can also get great results with an acetone vapor finish if you're willing to switch to ABS. Though that will require a heated bed and can be a bit more finicky to work with than PLA.
> 51 votes
# Answer
Acetone vaporing is a great way to smooth ABS prints. For PLA, however, acetone smoothing does not work. An article about smoothing PLA says:
> This is a pity, since PLA is much easier to work with than ABS. We found some solutions for smoothing PLA, but most involve rather dangerous-sounding chemicals such as Tetrahydrofuran and Dichloromethane. The one exception we found is Ethyl Acetate which seems to give good results and is (relatively) safe.
Other article mentioned MEK Substitute, which is Ethyl Acetate as well. You could also try some kind of polisher manufactured for 3D print results, such as XTC-3D. Here is a real photo of XTC-3D on PLA:
Ultimaker also suggests using chloroform for smoothing PLA prints.
If your parts are really uneven, it might be a symptom of something bad going on with your print(er), you might want to read Taxonomy of Z axis artifacts in extrusion-based 3d printing.
> The most recognizeable cause of this problem is Z-wobble. It is caused by the misalignment of layers in a repeating pattern with a period equal to the Z thread pitch (technically the lead, but this is the same as the pitch unless you are using a multi-start thread), and was a famous problem of the original Makebot, the CupcakeCNC.
> 32 votes
# Answer
It takes quite an effort to make PLA shiny, and it's not as simple as ABS and acetone.
You have to sand down the print with sandpaper with different grit sizes (start with grit P100, then P240, P400, P600, P1500 and P2000).
To make the shining result you have to polish the print with plastic finish compound. Alternatively you can apply XTC-3D Print Coating.
See these posts:
> 10 votes
# Answer
Your two easiest options are dipping your print in acetone or giving it an acetone vapor bath. Note this process generally only works with **ABS** not **PLA**, with the exception of some brands. There are many articles online where you can learn more about the process.
Aside from finishing, you will generally get a smoother looking end result by **lowering the layer thickness**, and **removing any hysteresis/wobble** in your print head making sure it's well calibrated.
> 6 votes
# Answer
Make sure your printer is properly calibrated and that there are no jams as this can cause blobs or other defects on the object. Printing at a higher resolution would also make the object smoother, as there would also be less difference between each layer.
The filament that you are using could be a cause for the rough look as well. Make sure you play around with the temperature to find the right range for a specific brand of filament. I have noticed different brands tend to print better at different temperatures, and if it too low could cause flow issues.
Also leaving PLA out in the air tends to have it absorb moisture which is also no good. If you are not going to use it for a while put the filament back in a resealable bag with a desiccant to help keep moisture out.
If you don't want to see the printed layers you could also try melting the surface again with a heat gun to smooth out the object. *Be careful not to overheat the object*, because could you could discoloring or cause drooping.
> 4 votes
# Answer
It is called **Acetone Finishing**
Basically the 3D printed part stays in acetone vapor and the outer shell turns to smooth surface. I have heard that it works better with ABS.
This article shows how *with videos*:
> -1 votes
# Answer
So we know what doesn't work but what does work (but not well) is alcohol! Only isopropyl alcohol 90% (and up) will work! Also at Walmart you can get stuff called *Goo Gone* or even better is *Oops!*
What you're doing is melting the plastic chemically. Since PLA is made from corn (more or less) the same chemicals won't work on this kind of bio plastic that PLA is. ABS is an oil based product so that's why acetone works.
I use those two mentioned products because they are made to remove glues and waxes and don't immediately evaporate so it has time to do its job and dissolve the plastic. Alcohol will evaporate, especially with less water content, and I absolutely positively don't want anyone doing this in a bedroom or kitchen especially do not do it without ventilation! The vapors are flammable and will build up fast at room temp and takes little to set off and it's just bad!
With alcohol I dip and soak the parts till I see them looking kind of soft like having a skin or depending on the PLA used silky. I print hotter than recommended with hot bed little to no fan and more feed because what happens is it gets denser past a certain temp and will look like its messing up and not print right like its clogged or not being fed fast enough and it's *true* but if you increase the feed rate to say 108 or 115 it compensates for the shrinkage and you get the same fill.
Now that being said your going to get smoother prints because it becomes like watery but with faster speed and or little fan snaps it in place but the hot bed will keep it from getting too hard for the next pass of the hot end and new layer so the next layer wont go on a cold surface and can easily get squished and fused to the last layer and now two 0.15 mm layers act like three but denser and smoother.
Then with the Oops! chemical or alcohol I just take what's left of the imperfections off. I take a dustless cloth and apply the solution onto it and wiping in the same direction with very little pressure till it feels like the cloth is getting stuck or its biting then I leave it alone for 15 seconds and wash it off by dunking it in a bucket of cold soapy water then rinse with fresh water and repeat if necessary. It's best if you use string to hold or suspend the parts because it's easy to leave prints behind.
Also even better (and I don't offer this because any liquid when atomized can be flammable - besides water) is to use spray bottles instead and lightly spray the same process on and dip-and-dunk to take it off - instead of wiping and risking leaving prints with marks on the finished parts.
There is sanding. Lots of sanding is another way to smooth parts.
I also tried conformal coating my parts which works but gets messy when trying to apply over a pre applied coat.
Then there's body filler or if you use paint I recommend either automotive paint with filler primer or a paint in the automotive section specifically for plastic and vinyl or heavy thick paints but not latex but lacquer paint that is heavy and fills in imperfections but lays flat when dried! There are Lexan paints for RC and model plastics but need primer.
But your best bet is make sure that your printer is running 100 % print in as fine detail with no bigger than 0.4 mm nozzle and make sure your slicer profile is setup to work perfectly with how your machine works like your stepper numbers and everything because all that matters first and foremost your first layer determines the rest of the print! Level bed and clean level surface! New nozzle every few dozen prints makes a difference unless you get a high end tip!
Keeping your Bowden tube fresh also makes a big difference! Get yourself feeler gauges and use them to level your bed instead of paper and it will be exact every time! And print the same speed and make as few adjustments as possible through the whole print and it will come out uniform. Taller prints if you need hot bed add heat as the print gets taller or nozzle temp because the print will lose heat as it gets higher up and won't print the same as the bottom layers.
I hope this helps or was the answers you were looking for! I was just passing through and hate useless answers that done have anything to do with the question asked! People like to just talk I guess.
> -1 votes
# Answer
For a cheap method to smooth out your prints, you can use clear nail polish. It will act as a resin-like coat.
> -1 votes
# Answer
I suggest using XTC-3D since your prints are small also you can add some UVO pigments in. It's difficult to use in large prints because has small working time. Anyway here is a print I did for a friend:
This now dead link shows more images and say how it is done.
> -3 votes
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Tags: filament, pla, post-processing, surface
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thread-9899 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9899 | Where did Marlin get its name? | 2019-05-11T13:42:51.217 | # Question
Title: Where did Marlin get its name?
Does anyone know how the developers of Marlin decided to name it that?
# Answer
As far as I know Erik van der Zalm started Marlin. He is from the Netherlands and Zalm translates to "salmon". One of the design goals of Marlin was to make it faster than the other firmware available at that time. And a marlin is a very fast swimming fish.
Some firmwares developed after Marlin also joined this fish theme: Sailfish, Minnow, ...
> 6 votes
# Answer
Yes, it probably is totally off-topic, but fun too, so I'll try to get an answer in, before the question gets closed.
The best place to ask would be the Firmware - Marlin forum, on RepRap.org.
The question is there now, Why was it named Marlin? and I'll update this answer, if/when I get a response...
> 1 votes
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Tags: marlin, terminology, history
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thread-743 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/743 | How to build the extruder motor holder for the Kossel Mini | 2016-03-13T18:11:03.847 | # Question
Title: How to build the extruder motor holder for the Kossel Mini
I'm building a Kossel Mini, and I'm stuck on the extruder motor holder.
My Kossel came without instructions, I was given a set of instructions by a friend (the "Kossel Build Guide" by Blomker industries). I also found some instructions on the net. However, my components are different from those in the build guides.
The question is how these components fit together.
I'm pretty certain the stepper motor should be connected to the big black components (labeled (1) and (4) in the picture). The 4 holes in these components correspond to openings in the stepper motor; and the stepper motors for the vertical carriages, were connected in a similar way to their respective holders.
The round thing, second from the left on the bottom, (labeled (2) in the picture) presumably goes on the axis of the stepper motor. Once again, a similar procedure was needed for the motors that will move the vertical carriages.
The screws on the right, labeled (3), are 1 cm long and 3 mm wide.
The other screws are 2 cm long and 3 mm wide.
The stepper motor is a Wantai Stepper Motor Model 42BYGHW811 .
I have e-mailed the company where I bought my kit and am awaiting their answer. Meanwhile I'm hoping to get some advice here.
Apparently the usual stepper motor for a Kossel Mini is Nema 17. Searching on "42BYGHW811" I mostly find datasheets. Using "Nema 17 mount" or "Nema 17 mounting screws" as search terms, I find a lot of images with a component like (1). But nothing on how this and the other components should be put together for the motor holder for an extruder for the Kossel Mini.
# Answer
> 6 votes
Have a look at the image provided in this seller's part description. it probably says more than my words could (which would also only rely on images - your parts just looked like I saw them somewhere before).
3D printer parts right hand Bowden Extruder kit set no motor compact extruder aluminum alloy for
# Answer
> 2 votes
The extruder is an MK8 derivative, *I think*.
After a *lot* of searching, the closest that I could find (with an assembly diagram) is this product which has more or less the same parts as yours (apart from the small black bolt and sleeve - used as the axis - which you don't have): \[Improved Version\] YOTINO Right Hand MK8 Remote Bowden Extruder Accessories 1.75mm/3mm Filament All Metal Remote Extruder Frame Block for Reprap 3D Printer Kossel Prusa.
These are the parts:
>
This is the assembly process:
>
This is the completed extruder:
>
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Also, whilst this is not the same beast, this link shows a detailed assembly which could prove useful as a cross reference: RepRapWiki - Extruder assembly
In addition, w.r.t the Blomker guide, there are a number of versions of the same guide that I've come across in the past:
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Tags: extruder, motor, kossel
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thread-9915 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9915 | What makes an extruder right handed? | 2019-05-13T15:15:41.143 | # Question
Title: What makes an extruder right handed?
I have been looking to buy a new extruder. One of the options I have seen comes in "right handed" and "left handed". What does this mean? How can I tell what my current extruder is, so I get the right replacement?
# Answer
> 5 votes
The short answer to identify what extruder type you have is the **rotation of the extruder gear**.
CCW rotation to extrude = right-handed extruder
Detailed explanation is below.
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In addition to the other answers, the right-handed designation comes from math and pysics convention that has become a well known mnemonic in engineering practice:
or in its physics coat,
> **The Right Hand Rule**: Figure (a) shows a disk is rotating counterclockwise when viewed from above. Figure (b) shows the right-hand rule. The direction of angular velocity ω size and angular momentum L are defined to be the direction in which the thumb of your right hand points when you curl your fingers in the direction of the disk’s rotation as shown. <sub>reference</sub>
In a right-handed extruder,
you place your thumb of your right hand in the direction of the shaft (so pointing it towards yourself in the image of the extruder above) to see that rotation in the direction of your curved fingers leads to extrusion of filament (in counterclockwise direction).
For a mirrored extruder they call it left-handed extruder.
# Answer
> 4 votes
This is an example of a right handed extruder setup:
And this is an example of a left handed extruder setup:
I believe that you can can choose whatever one you favor. With the right handed setup, you will be pushing down the red part with your right hand when inserting filament. With the left handed setup, you will be doing the same thing but then with your left hand. Personally, I favor the right handed setup (my right hand is my dominant and stronger hand). But, you should be able to choose whatever one you like! Be sure to check it will work with your printer though (extruder holder & hotend).
# Answer
> 4 votes
when thinking about righ-handed extruder or left-handed extruder it's good to know that there is no magic or any other science rule behind this naming convention. it's just an arbitrary explanation which can be unfortunately misleading. in fact there is visual explanation of this left / right handed name and it doesn't have anything to any "the right handed rule" mentioned in other answers.
it's just this
no physics... no magnetism... no induction... no vectors and no formulas
the other answers present pictures of LH and RH extruders which are of course fine but be careful - there are universal extruders which can be both L or R handed.
like this one
as this extruder has fully fixed filament path and there is no restriction which direction the filament should go - there is no way to describe it arbitrarily
it is left-handed when it works as left-handed and it is RH when it works as RH
# Answer
> 3 votes
It usually doesn't matter whether you get a right-handed or left-handed one. The reason the two different variations exist is because some people use a dual extruder setup. If you have two extruders it is convenient to have them be mirror images of each other (as this makes them easier to install in use with the filament release lever pointing out to the side). If you have only a single extruder, it doesn't really matter, unless there are other construction restraints.
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Tags: extruder, bowden, replacement-parts
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thread-5522 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/5522 | Simplify3D and Davinci mini | 2018-02-20T22:49:31.387 | # Question
Title: Simplify3D and Davinci mini
**Simplify3D** is listing the **XYZprinting Davinci mini** as a compatible printer for their software. I would never buy such expensive software in combination with this printer if I didn't already think of buying a better printer.
Can anybody confirm compatibility with 'out of the box' configuration and up to date firmware?
# Answer
XYZPrinting printers use a .3w file format vs GCode on all opensource printer designs. I have used Simplify3D since the first month I obtained my Da Vinci Pro 3 in 1 which also has WiFi enabled.
Simplify3D does not connect very well to my Da Vinci WiFi so a 25ft ActiveUSB extension makes the connection for uploading and monitoring the progress of the print.
All the XYZPrinting Da Vinci series are available on the printer configuration wizard if not then sending a request to Simplify3D will obtain a response with the printer configuration file.
> 2 votes
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Tags: software, simplify3d
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thread-9947 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/9947 | Heater cartridge with 7.2 ohms - 12 or 24 V? | 2019-05-15T10:13:13.997 | # Question
Title: Heater cartridge with 7.2 ohms - 12 or 24 V?
I have a heater cartridge here that measures 7.2 Ω.
* At 12 V that would amount to 20 W
* At 24 V that would amount to 80 W
The cartridge itself is 2 cm long
Could it handle both voltages or is this clearly an under-powered 12 V cartridge?
# Answer
> 3 votes
e3D Heater Cartridges are documented to be around 4.8 Ω for 12 V & 30 W, 3.6 Ω for 12 V & 40 W, 19.2 Ω for 24 V 30 W and 14.4 Ω for 24 V 40 W.
7.2 Ω is a value quite far away from these values - about double of what the 12 V versions are listed and about a third/half of a 24 V heater cartridge. So it is not a cartridge that is similar to those. I have contacted e3D about updating the specs of their High Precision Heater Cartridges to include the nominal resistances to get more references, but that information is pending.
However, we don't need that. A variant of **Ohm's law** can help us estimate what this cartridge could be: **P**ower is the square of Voltage (**U**) divided by **R**esistance.
$P=\frac {U^2} R = \frac {144\ \text V^2}{7.2\ \Omega} = 20\ \text W$
$P=\frac {U^2} R = \frac {576\ \text V^2}{7.2\ \Omega} = 80\ \text W$
Mounted in a 12 V Machine this should act work at 20 W, in a 24 V it would work at 80 W. It does not say, however, if it is designed to get powered with 12 V or 24 V. It doesn't help, that both types exist: I was able to find 12 V 20 W heater cartridges just as well as 24 V 80 W heater cartridges. If it is an underpowered 20 W one and mounted in a 24 V machine, you risk burning it though, but not the other way round.
To differentiate what exactly you have, a photo of the heater cartridge would be needed - it should bear at least a marking of what it's nominal wattage or voltage is.
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Tags: heat-management
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