title_body
stringlengths 20
149
| upvoted_answer
stringlengths 32
13.1k
|
|---|---|
Print not coming out good | Based on your description of the print failures, it appears that the problem is not specific to the model. If printing supports is causing parts of the model to "fly off," there may be a temperature problem or a speed problem or a combination of the two. If you have a new filament type, it may be necessary to perform test model prints to ensure you are using good settings for the filament. If you are using old filament, it may be necessary to print test models with no complex shapes to ensure that your filament will still function properly.
You say that "PLA got all over your build plate." This is another indication of a problem not related to the model position or model design or orientation. |
Raft warping (Makerbot Replicator+) | I'm not sure I am reading your post correctly, but if you are doing a batch of small prints, I would recommend to space them enough so as each of them has its own mini-raft, rather than all of them sharing the same large one.
If you are using cura, you can tweak how much the raft goes past the footprint of the part. Unless you are printing very small parts, you don't need that to be a lot.
In general, you should think to a raft as a print in and by itself: the larger it is, the more prone to warping, although the way filament is layered with gaps makes the raft bend and warp a lot less than a regular print of the same size. |
Why does my part-cooling fan cause stringing? | Prior to a move the print cooling fan causes the filament to cool on the outside while the nozzle is still hot, when it then moves it causes a strings to form that will be cooled instantly. This means that the cooling you have is too much and should be reduced.
This printer has a single fan to cool the cold-end and the print through a slot with the same fan. As this fan can be scheduled, it would be recommended to create a dual fan on the carriage where you have a dedicated fan cooling the cold end at a fixed voltage, while the print is cooled by a separate fan that can be scheduled through slicer settings. |
Print circle arcs without supports | This depends on your material, your nozzle diameter, and your layer height. In general, shorter layer thicknesses with wider path widths will give better overhangs. And note that the last bit of each of the larger arcs are nearly horizontal, and I do not expect them to work well without support material.
See the excellent answers at How can I improve the overhang angles my printer can successfully print? |
Is there a G-code for waiting? | The G-code to delay is G4.
G4 P60000 will wait for one minute. The P is in milliseconds. Some firmware also accept a S Parameter that has the seconds. So, if supported, G4 S60 would do the same thing.
The details for this and all other G-codes are documented
here. |
Cantilever snap-fits print axis | Let's look at the general design.... it is a case... so a box of to halves. And we need some kind of connector...
How about splitting the connector into a separate C-shaped piece? That way the connector clip can be printed with the C to the plane, getting maximum durability out of either pice. You just need to print some short overhangs, the clip going around the central box, possibly in dedicated notches. Also, this is easily removable from the outside with a screwdriver. And easily replaceable. Also, both sides could be identical, if designed in the right way.
Or we use a slot in the lower body, and a Y shaped slot in the top, and make the connectors have a flat hook that matches into the lower body (push in from below) then the split top pushes through the top and latches in... This isn't removable from outside easily.
Third alternative: bolts. If the item inside the box - a PCB? - is going to be bolted to the lower case anyway, why not add extra long screws and have the top case be bolted to the lower case with the same screw that holds the PCB in place? Or, just use a pair of additional bolts and nuts on the corners.
Edit: Recently, Angus aka MakersMuse uploaded a video discussing snap-fit connections and how to make them 3D printable with the example of a backpack buckle. |
Unable to export all objects to a STL in AutoCAD | Based on your error messages, it's likely you have created a non-manifold 3D object. As a simple example, let's start with a cube as suggested in your question. To keep things simple, you want to add a cylinder to the cube.
In other programs, one would create a sketch on the surface of that cube and extrude the circle into a cylinder. Because the circle is constructed on the surface, it become an integrated part of the model.
If you had created the cylinder independently, which can be done in AutoCAD and placed it on the surface of the cube, the resulting model would appear to be the same as the one created above.
The placement method may have resulted in the end of the cylinder "penetrating" the surface of the cube. Such a model may generate the face-face error you've received.
The quantity reference you've provided in your question indicates that the problem is contained in more than one intersection.
If you have patience, you can return to the original model and attempt to locate piercings or penetrations and adjust the locations to be joined properly. Selecting a wireframe view may assist you in those efforts.
Another option would be to import your .STL file into a program such as Meshmixer to attempt an automatic repair. Under Analysis/Inspector, errors will appear with flags which can be clicked to perform a repair.
Severe errors in construction, such as the one you describe, are more likely to destroy the model when using this method, however. |
Shell doesn't cover the entire inner wall at some areas | You should increase the top layer thickness according to Ultimaker Cura support:
Top/bottom thickness
With the top/bottom thickness you can set the thickness of the solidly printed top and bottom layers of the print. A higher value ensures all gaps on the top and bottom layers are closed completely. However, this can also increase the print time and amount of filament used.
It is advised to always use a multiple of the layer height for the thickness of the top and bottom. This means, for example, that with a layer height of 0.15 mm, it’s better to set the top/bottom thickness to 0.6 mm rather than 0.7 mm. |
Monoprice Select Mini v2 clogged Boden tube connection | If you are heating your hotend to 60/80, that is WAY too low. PLA should be at 180+ hotend, and if you are using a heated bed, 60-80.
I would try increasing the heat of your hotend, starting at 180 and increasing if it looks like it is underextruding or if you get more clogs. |
Do more retracts lead to extruder jams | Reading your question it's not clear to me if you are referring to filament retraction (which is a configurable setting) or surface recesses which seems what you are referring to when writing:
the nature of the print surface, with lots of retracts
If it is the latter, then the answer is "no". The amount of complexity of the surface of the model does not correlate directly to the possibility of the printer head clogging.
If it is the former, then the answer is "possibly". It is in fact not so much the amount of retracts that affects the likelihood of a clog but rather their speed and lenght. If you retract too quickly and too much filament, you risk to have molten plastic being "sucked" into the cold end, solidify, and act as a glue, blocking the filament in place.
This is especially true for all-metal print heads like titan aero, as plastic sticks a lot better to metal than to PTFE.
However, with a properly calibrated retraction, you shouldn't experience problems regardless of how many times / how often you retract the filament.
In general, it is a common misconception that retraction should work as a plunger, actively sucking in plastic that would otherwise ooze out of the nozzle. However all you need is to just release the pressure within the melting chamber, and in a direct drive (i.e.: non-bowden) extruder, this requires a very minimal retraction.
Finally: what material are you printing in? The picture shows a lot of oozing for being PLA. If you are using a flexible material like nylon or ninjaflex, you should probably just let retraction alone: the hysteresis in such materials is very high, and retraction often does not work predictably. If it is PLA, I would try to increase the movement and retraction speed, and probably lower the temperature 10 or 15 degrees. As for the retraction lenght, I don't own a titan, but I would expect the correct amount to be somewhere between 0.5mm and 2mm. |
Z axis at print is lower than when I home | I found the issue. When the hotend and bed are at temps for PLA everything works fine but at temps for ABS the Z offset would get all messed up. After a bunch of testing I was able to track it down to a single gcode statment G1 Z15.0 F6000
At the higher temps my Z stepper skips steps at that feed rate.
The "Custom FDM printer" machine settings I used for my printer in Cura had that statement in it and so did the cat gcode that was on the card from the factory. I changed the feed rate to 200 and was able to print in ABS.
I was surprised Marlin didn't have a 'limit the feedrate for Z to this number' setting. |
How to optimally make a 3D model of an object using photos? | Usually, the largest variability in 3D imaging is lighting, closely followed by the color scheme. You'll probably want to heed some of the following points:
No colors in the background/stand, keep to shades (unless otherwise specified for scanner)
No gradients. This applies to poor lighting causing a "gradient" light effect
Set the backdrop beyond the range of the scanner if possible (like with Skanect w/ Microsoft Kinect)
Ideally set the backdrop and especially the stand in contrast with the color of the object.
You're right, a typical 3D scanner will have a difficult time with darker colors due to physics. However, there are no rules that say you can't change the color of the object.
In this application, I would suggest just going ahead and spray painting the object and scanning it. Scanning the insole is going to require super tight tolerances in scanning as I'm assuming the insole is naturally worn due to use.
Completely alternatively from 3D scanning, you could try using a 3D touch probe like on a CMM (Coordinate Measuring Machine). It will take longer, but a touch probe doesn't care what color the object is.
Update
The touch probe comment seems to be a hit, so I'll elaborate. My experience with touch probes comes only from manufacturing technology and can be found and in a variety of different machine tools:
Mills
Lathes
CMMs
Vision Systems
"Romer" Arms (aka portable CMM)
You could probably get away with searching for a local machine shop (or job shop) and asking if they have a machine for reverse engineering. The quickest and easiest machine for reverse engineering (in my experience) is a portable CMM, I recommend Googling it.
Alternatively, I've heard of people adding touch probes to their 3D Printers, but I haven't seen it before. In theory, a basic touch probe can easily be achieved by using a momentary switch. If you're good with programming and maybe a bit of Arduino, you could do the following:
Add momentary (normally off) switch to Arduino
Find a way of attaching the switch (below nozzles)
Connect to your 3d printer in your preferred method and preferred programming language. I've used the provided libraries in Python that come with installing MakerWare in order to connect to my MakerBot.
Write your routine to sequentially move the new probe in a grid pattern and then incrementally move the Z up until you get a signal from your Arduino that the momentary has been switched on.
For each trigger, append a simple text file with a new line containing the coordinates.
once complete, you should have a "point cloud" of your insole which, if formatted correctly, will be able to import into CAD software
There are a few file types off the top of my head that can be used including:
.pts
.XYZ
.CSV |
Which 3D printer controller should I use? | Controller boards
Please note (this is not to bash) that RAMPS shields are not the top of the line printer controller boards, investing in a more modern printer board platform (preferably not a clone of a known board), e.g. a 32-bit board might be a better solution.
Any board with at least four stepper drivers should be sufficient (you can use the two Z steppers in parallel or in series), some boards even offer two Z stepper output connectors controlled by a single stepper, e.g.:
No worries if the board doesn't have two Z stepper connectors, you can buy dual stepper breakout boards, e.g. a parallel solution:
Alternatively, an extra stepper driver can drive the extra Z stepper; this requires a board with at least 5 stepper drivers then, the Z2 stepper would then be connected to the E1 extruder driver. The firmware needs to be aware of using 2 stepper drivers, so in Marlin (depending on the version) set Z_DUAL_STEPPER_DRIVERS or assign a value to NUM_Z_STEPPER_DRIVERS .
Anet heatbed
The Anet heatbed is notoriously known for fire accidents/burning caused by the underrated connectors (the connector itself is not rated for 10 A!), also the connector should require proper strain relief. The best solution is to solder the heat bed wires directly to the backside of the connector (which is what I did on my old Anet A8 printer, I used multiple pins soldered together, both the outer 2 pins on either side), an example from the web (downside is that they only used a single pin) shows this principle (with solution for cable/soldering stress relief using a tie-wrap):
A final notice for connecting heatbeds is to use proper cables; silicone cables of proper gauge (silicone wires are very flexible, e.g. AWG 14) should be used. Also, never solder the ends and put them under screw connectors on the printer board, instead, use ferrules or proper sized fork terminal connectors.
MOSFET Band Aid
In case the MOSFETs on your boards are underrated, you can use external MOSFET boards to relieve the shield/printer board from the high currents. Note that the bed requires the most current (about 10 A), for the hotend this will not be required, the current draw is much lower, the onboard MOSFETs are rated for those loads. |
Tips for not burning out my Arduino Mega or catching something on fire when wiring a Prusa i3? | Polarity matters, sometimes. Be especially mindful of the wires from your power supply to the board, as getting those the wrong way around will definitely cause damage. Heated beds and extruders are not polarity sensitive, and can go in either way. Fans are polarized, but will probably survive if you get them backwards - they just won't run. Stepper motors don't care about polarity, flipping the connector around just makes them run backwards.
Take special care with endstops. The endstop connectors have 3 pins (VCC, 5V and signal), endstops with 2 pins are usually connect to GND and signal. Putting a 2-pin endstop across 5V and GND will destroy the 5V regulator.
A common cause of damage is wires not being clamped in their respective terminals properly. The offending wire will arc, melting and destroying the connector. Tighten down screw terminals properly, use proper crimps if you have them. Soldering the ends of wires going into screw terminals is not encouraged, but if you do solder the ends then make sure to check after a while and tighten the screws again.
Put the stepper drivers in the right way around.
For things like the heated bed and wires going to your power supply, use sufficiently thick wires. Especially with the heated bed, a lot of current flows through the wires and flimsy wires will heat up and melt. |
ELEGOO Mars failed prints every time | let's go step by step - and rule out the unlikely sources. Since you get at least some results, UV source and screen seem unlikely. Then you might want to make sure that the resin is ok. Let's try to put a droplet onto a sheet of paper/foil, which you tape down outside in the sun or under a UV light source - if it cures, the resin is ok.
The first real step is to check your bed leveling. Go exactly by the handbook - you might be a tad far from the bed, which leads to sticking to the film.
Then make sure your film is intact. You might need to swap resin vats to do that. in case the film is damaged, you have to swap it. |
RAMPS 1.4, 1.5 or 1.6? | The biggest issue with RAMPS 1.4 (and 1.5) is the power connector is prone to melting/burning, this appears to be fixed on 1.6 with the use of screw terminal blocks. I've used RAMPS 1.4 with both 12v and 24v power supplies and never have had any issues with the fuses or the power connector but mine have only come from Ultimachine or RepRapDiscount. A RAMPS 1.4 with power connectors and fuses replaced with those from a reputable dealer (Digikey, Newark, Allied) will likely be fine, you can even remove the power connector and solder the wires directly to the board if you don't need the ability to unplug them.
Whichever you go with, make sure the screws are tight and never tin the wires going into the power connectors. |
Using extruder motor as 4th axis | Movement of the steppers is controlled by the jerk and acceleration settings. Both are controlled/set in the Marlin configuration file.
/**
* Default Max Acceleration (change/s) change = mm/s
* (Maximum start speed for accelerated moves)
* Override with M201
* X, Y, Z, E0 [, E1[, E2[, E3[, E4]]]]
*/
#define DEFAULT_MAX_ACCELERATION { 3000, 3000, 100, 10000 }
/**
* Default Acceleration (change/s) change = mm/s
* Override with M204
*
* M204 P Acceleration
* M204 R Retract Acceleration
* M204 T Travel Acceleration
*/
#define DEFAULT_ACCELERATION 3000 // X, Y, Z and E acceleration for printing moves
#define DEFAULT_RETRACT_ACCELERATION 3000 // E acceleration for retracts
#define DEFAULT_TRAVEL_ACCELERATION 3000 // X, Y, Z acceleration for travel (non printing) moves
/**
* Default Jerk (mm/s)
* Override with M205 X Y Z E
*
* "Jerk" specifies the minimum speed change that requires acceleration.
* When changing speed and direction, if the difference is less than the
* value set here, it may happen instantaneously.
*/
#define DEFAULT_XJERK 10.0
#define DEFAULT_YJERK 10.0
#define DEFAULT_ZJERK 0.3
#define DEFAULT_EJERK 5.0
/** |
3D Printer does not print whole object | It looks like either the mechanical travel is constrained or, possibly you have the origin of the X-Y plane in the wrong place in Cura. Usually Cura won't even slice if it thinks the object extends past the printable area, so check the display in Cura "Layer View."
If that's OK, then try using the control panel on your printer to manually drive the print head all the way in both X and Y axes. If it doesn't then the commenters are correct thatyou have a mechanical interference somewhere. If it does, then somewhere between Cura and your printer the "soft limit" of maximum excursion is set wrong. I'm not familiar with your printer model, but there should be a control panel command to "zero all axes," and typically the origin is the front left corner of the build plate (facing the printer, so "Stage Right" in theatre coordinates) . |
Kossel accumulates error along Z axis | After some more testing I checked that the problem shows up only on Z tower and is not related with current. Examining the tower I found very dumb mistake. Pulley on the motor didn't have a setscrew! Don't know how could I missed that. The fact that it could somehow run is even more amazing. Thanks @tom-van-der-zanden and @darthpixel for help. It is for sure that such synchronization failure could have been caused by current shortage as well.
UPDATE:
Oh! Y tower pulley doesn't have setscrew as well! But it was running smoothly and in sync with X (which has that screw). Amazing. - UPDATE2. Not really. After closer look only Z tower misses the screw, which explains all.
UPDATE3:
After setting a srew into pulley the problem is completely gone!) |
Sunhokey Prusa i3 axis x, y, z? | X-axis is right-to-left (Carriage motor)
Y-axis is front-to-back (Base/Bed motor)
Z-axis is up-and-down (lead screws)
There are several videos on YouTube.
This playlist seems good. |
Line width changes depending on the direction the print head moves | As pointed at by @Horitsu, the Nozzle was the problem. Its outflowing hole was not perfectly round anymore, leading to a higher extrusion rate in one direction than others.
I exchanged it, and now everything works great again! |
Models are printing with a scratch on the side | The vertical lines you are referring too are the result of ringing or vibration. This is commonly encountered with high print speeds, high acceleration values or if a sudden change in direction takes place.
This can be solved by printing slower, decreasing acceleration values and checking for mechanical issues. E.g. the belts may be too flexible (or contain a tension spring) or there may be a loose part somewhere. |
How to calculate the proper layer height multiples? | that the NEMA17 motor would be using 400 Steps per mm in Z. configuration_adv.h tells that the microsteps on the Z-axis motor are 16.
Easy. There are 400 microsteps in a millimeter, and 16 microsteps in a full step. So, there are 400/16=25 full steps in a millimeter. So a full step is 1/25th of a millimeter, or 0.04 mm. Your layer height should be a multiple of this.
As your leadscrew has a lead of 8 mm (i.e., a full rotation will move the Z-axis by 8 mm), a full step is either 8/200=0.04 mm (for a 1.8 degree stepper) or 8/400=0.02 mm (for a 0.9 degree stepper). So, apparently, you have a 1.8 degree stepper (and this is the most common type of stepper). |
Resume print but no extrusion | The line you added:
G1 E1749.14148
asks the printer to extrude 1.7 meters of filament. The firmware likely has a feature to ignore such excessive requests as bogus. Then, subsequent extrusion amounts are also huge (1.7m+) relative to the current extruder position (0) and also get ignored. What you meant to do was:
G92 E1749.14148
which means "set the logical extruder position for its current physical position to 1749.14148 mm" so that subsequent extruder positioning commands are interpreted relative to that initial position. |
OpenSCAD not rendering polyhedron | Usually when there's an overlap in two objects during a difference action, F6 render will resolve the problem. There's something more than that involved here, as reducing the height of the cube creates a non-manifold object from the difference. user R..'s answer has merit but is not going to solve the problem.
Isolating the cube from the code and exporting the result as an STL allows me to determine that the faces are generated in a manner preventing a proper difference action:
This image from meshmixer shows the faces have inverted normals. The order of the points are critical when describing a polyhedron. From the wiki page for OpenSCAD:
It is arbitrary which point you start with, but all faces must have
points ordered in the same direction . OpenSCAD prefers clockwise when
looking at each face from outside inward. The back is viewed from the
back, the bottom from the bottom, etc. Another way to remember this
ordering requirement is to use the right-hand rule. Using your
right-hand, stick your thumb up and curl your fingers as if giving the
thumbs-up sign, point your thumb into the face, and order the points
in the direction your fingers curl.
EDIT: I reversed some of the points, haphazardly and luckily picked the correct ones:
faces = [
[0, 1, 2], [2, 3, 0], // bottom
[4, 1, 0], [1, 4, 5], // side A
[5, 2, 1], [2, 5, 6], // side B
[6, 3, 2], [3, 6, 7], // side C
[7, 0, 3], [0, 7, 4], // side D
[8, 5, 4], [5, 8, 9], // slope A
[9, 6, 5], [6, 9, 10], // slope B
[10, 7, 6], [7, 10, 11], // slope C
[11, 4, 7], [4, 11, 8], // slope D
[10, 9, 8], [8, 11, 10] // top |
How to obtain high resolution prints in a shorter period of time? | You could experiment with slicing. For example, you might not need high resolution all over the object, but you can speed up some straight parts by using greater layer high there. See a part of Slic3r manual about such thing.
It is also possible to print thicker infill every Nth layer, see Infill optimization in Slic3r.
Other slicers might have those features as well. |
Can I design or remix a model in SketchUp Make and legally share it via Thingiverse, MyMiniFactory or similar? | Again, I'm not a specialist in intellectual property law (or any other sort of lawyer), but I have a different interpretation.
There is a potential difference between the use of the product, and the use of the derivatives of the product. For example, GCC has a restrictive (open) license, but its OK (in some contexts) to use the compiled code in a commercial product.
Generally, you (as creator of a work) will own all of the rights to a work. The supplier of the tools you use does not usually gain any rights to the resulting work.
So long as you don't gain from your use of the tool, it is probably OK for other people to profit from the use. Sharing with non-commercial should be your safest option if you're worried - but be aware that this doesn't prevent people from taking your design to a print service indirectly.
Their license says:
Non-commercial use means that you may not sell, rent, or lease the
output of the Software
This implies that they are not making any claims to restrict how other non-connected persons might use your works. Its specifically talking about use as part of employment, or you making a gain.
I would also note that to me the language in the license does not look to have been drafted with a clear understanding of intent on this issue. |
How to enable EMERGENCY_PARSER in Marlin firmware? | The constant EMERGENCY_PARSER is located in the advanced printer configuration file Marlin/Configuration_adv.h:
// Enable an emergency-command parser to intercept certain commands as they
// enter the serial receive buffer, so they cannot be blocked.
// Currently handles M108, M112, M410
// Does not work on boards using AT90USB (USBCON) processors!
//#define EMERGENCY_PARSER
To enable the EMERGENCY_PARSER, you need to remove the // before #define EMERGENCY_PARSER and recompile the sources.
Normally your printer will execute a command until it is ready to accept a next instruction. Without the EMERGENCY_PARSER set, the printer finishes the instruction that it is executing at the moment, if set, the execution is interrupted and immediately sent and thus not waiting for a clear space in the buffer. |
I can't level my bed any more | The bar where the level is attached is the support cross-bar for the X-axis travel.
It's important this bar be level, but it's even more important the bar be true to the rest of the machine. We call this "leveling" the printer, but really the more accurate term is "tramming". If the bar is level, but the machine sits on an unlevel surface, things are out of sync. This may be the case here.
I did this by unplugging the wire to one motor and modified the z-position so that the other connected side would go up. (Is this the proper way of adjusting the horizontal bar?)
No. The first image in your question shows two threaded vertical rods: one on the left that is exposed, and one on the right that is more hidden (only a small portion is visible between the two "A" labels). These rods control travel in the vertical "z" direction. Each rod has an inline coupler connecting it to the Z-stepper motors. The coupler for the right side is visible just below the square label "A". You adjust the level of the X cross-bar by turning the couplers while the printer is turned off or the motors are otherwise disengaged. This allows you to make finer adjustments for the bar, often without needing to re-home the Z axis.
You can also use this method to correct your immediate problem.
I own a Select Plus, which uses similar construction to your Select V2. When I first got the printer one of my couplers was not adequately secured to the rod. This made for all kinds of difficulty leveling the bed at first, including at one point an issue similar to what you are experiencing.
Re-leveling the X cross-bar is easiest if you are first certain the printer itself is on a level surface. If this is the case, you should be able to use the level in the images to check the cross-bar in the same way you did previously, making adjustments via couplers. But check that surface first. If the surface is not level, you need to adjust the X cross-bar to be parallel to something in the machine other than the bed. While we want the bed to match the rest of the machine, the very fact you can adjust this means it's not guaranteed at any point in time, and so you should use something more structural to compare against.
In this case, you can place the same level across the two steel Y-axis travel bars below the bed, and check where the bubble sits. Then make sure the bubble ends up in exactly the same position for the X cross-bar, regardless of whether or not that's level to the ground. The greater precision you can get here, the better things will be.
I'm gonna add some notes about leveling the beds on these specific printer models.
There are three basic types of leveling:
Manual. You do everything yourself.
Assisted. You still do most things yourself, but the machine will help by moving the head quickly to certain positions for you to check. This is what many machines refer to as "automatic", even though it really isn't.
Automatic. This is where the machine does everything, using lasers to map the bed or some other contact sensor to detect when the head approaches the bed and make it's own adjustments. Often this only uses software to compensate for the bed, and so you still want to get the bed as level as possible first without this option.
The Select V2 and Select Plus only do #2: assisted.
When I was starting out, my research indicated you should generally level your print beds "hot", because heating a print bed will expand it and potentially change the results. This makes sense to me.
However, the instructions included with my Select Plus said nothing about heating the bed, and if followed precisely meant I leveled a cold bed. Additionally, the so-called "automatic" (really: "assisted") leveling tool in the firmware also does not keep the bed heated, meaning if you want to level it hot you must do it entirely manually.
This caused me great difficulty when first starting out getting a good level, because I was trying to do it manually on a hot bed. I finally gave up on that, and started using the assisted tool on a cold bed. To my surprise and relief — and counter to what I've read elsewhere — I've had much better results when doing it cold this way. But this may be some peculiar to these printers, perhaps involving the special mat it uses on the surface of the bed.
I'm also considering this upgrade (Update: I recently installed it, but it's too soon to know if it's helping), to help improve things even further, since there is some curvature in my plate:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B251KBS/
Finally, there's an interesting seesaw effect when working on a square print bed with four adjustment knobs. I have a post about it here:
Leveling a square 3d printer bed with four mounting posts |
Anet A8 X axis drive-gear wobble | There are several possible causes for this. From least to worst:
The part itself is good, but the faceing cover plate is misaligned. No action needed.
The part is mounted in a way that makes it wobble, re-mounting helps.
The part is bad and needs to be replaced.
So, let's see the anatomy of a Timing Belt pulley. They exist in basically 3 general types in the McMaster Carr catalog: One flange, two flanges, no flanges. I am not affiliated with them, but they are pretty much one of the parts vendors in the industry that has almost everything, making them the convenience option. In the mantra, they are the "fast-good" option with the "everything" bonus and that the catalog of parts with 3D is integrated into fusion360. A similar supplier would be RS.
The part OP ordered is the "With One Flange" design, it is 6mm wide, 5mm axle and 16 teeth. The McMaster Carr catalog has two very close matches to OP's part: 3684N11 & 3684N12, about 6$ for a part machined from a solid piece. Why is that relevant?! well, the part OP ordered is not made from a solid piece but at least two parts: the body and one flange plate, as you can see on the product picture - the plate separation I marked with yellow here:
This is where the first error appears: if the flange isn't mounted centered (in poor quality it is rarely) then it appears to wobble but actually doesn't. But the video shows that the axis seems to be straight, while both the front and backside of the pulley wobble in the XY position. This means it is not just the flange that is mis-mounted on the part.
Now, error number 2 is misaligned mounting. In case the bore is good, you can often fix a misalignment by removing the part and mounting it again, more carefully, possibly using some thin shim metal around the axis. In some cases there is a pair of screws already to do this, if not it can help to modify the part with one or two extra alignment screws, allowing to sift the gear's center a slight bit by tensioning the additional screws.
In the case of OP's linked part, the screw that is not radial but protrudes next to the axis is designed to come over the flat of the axis and the other one is to tighten it down.
If the bore for the axis however is really skewed, and even after repeated re-mounting or shimming nothing can be done, a new part is needed. With the measurements of the part, you can order at a lot of online catalogs, the price and quality differ greatly. However, the engineering mantra strikes:
Cheap, Fast, Good. Choose two. |
What is "HDPLA", and why is it so hard to find out more about it? | So, low-teck, old-style investigative work from my side.... I contacted a company selling HDPLA and they got back to me with the following reply.
We created HDPLA as an industrial PLA with special additives. As a result, our so called HDPLA has the advantages of ABS, but prints as easy as regular PLA. HDPLA has high impact, high strength and high heat deflection temperature (hdt). You can also print at high speed (max 140mm/s inhouse tests). HDPLA has is own high strength, but is even more strong after annealing. A heated bed is not necessary (50-60˚C recommended), and you can print with HDPLA with a 3D printer with open structure.
This is strikingly similar to the description of what 3Dprima calls "Prima SELECT PRO":
PrimaSelect™ PLA PRO ist the next generation of high performance PLA for demanding industrial applications. Designed to be able to print fast >120mm/s so you can save on production time. Very high heat resistance (95°C+) after annealing. Excellent mechanical properties combined with a matte surface finish that helps concealing the printed layers for optimum appearance.
While writing this answer I also found a page that escaped my googling until now, sating an additional property of "their" HDPLA: food safety.
With our HD PLA you have many more options. You can use this material in two ways. Choose the one you like best. You can use it as a normal PLA and get prints characterized by a very good adhesion between the layers and high precision. You can also make your prints acquire similar properties to that of ABS – better impact resistance and high temperature resistance. All you need is an oven. Yes, an oven! By annealing our HD PLA in an oven, in accordance with the manual, you will avoid all the inconveniences of printing with ABS, such as unpleasant odour or hazardous fumes. But these are not all the advantages of HD PLA. For the production of this material we have chosen raw materials that are approved for food contact in compliance with the EU directive and FDA regulations. HD PLA is also certified by RoHS.
So, it looks like HDPLA is not the shorthand of a polymer molecule, but rather a trade word indicating that the base PLA has been mixed with additives. Furthermore, the answer I got via mail seems to indicate that "HD" refers to the high Heat Deflection temperature of the filament (the heat deflection temperature is the temperature at which a polymer or plastic sample deforms under a specified load). |
3D Print D&D Miniatures delicate supports | Buckle up, this is going to be rough:
FDM printers are not the best choice for printing figurines in the 25 to 40 mm scale that is typical for wargaming and D&D games. Resolution-wise, that's the area of resin printers.
But there are ways to get some partially decent prints made:
you might want a small nozzle. 0.2 is about the smallest you can do without specialty extruders, so there is our lower limit.
You need to make sure to have a minimum layer time set, especially as the crosssections of figures are often rather slim.
Overhangs can be a pain
You might be better-served printing "meeples" than actual figurines. |
BLTouch error Marlin 2.x (on SKR 1.3) | From a comment can be read that the OP found the solution:
it's fixed : it's because I didn't level the bed once after flashing the firmware, once it has been done the error is no more |
How to 3D print a shopping cart | If you need a real shopping cart, please think about actual requirements.
Carts are sturdy devices, build on very consistent frame, because they are meant to carry heavy loads. The built must be focused on good jonts and durable wheels, otherwise forces from load or streatching would quickly damage the construction. Some parts of frame are normally under strain, and a direction of load forces is not always downwards, therefore frame has to be robust.
Cheap additive manufacturing technologies of standard printers are not suitable to produce objects of this size in one piece. If to follow this idea, one chellange would be to design pieces of the print, which could be connected or glued into a ready cart. 3d prints have tendency to snap along layers of print, therefore frame would need to be carefuly built from parts designed to be printed horizontally, rather than vertically. Construction of wheels carrying the cart with assumed load could be not possible, because load forces could mangle them very quickly.
Only the amount of material needed to print the whole thing could exceed cost of the cart. And the same would be about more expensive printing techniques, like printing of metal. The shopping cart is a good example of thing which is not worth printing (at least in 2021).
BTW: Shopping carts have some plastic parts, and printing these could be indeed possible. I suppose they are only protectors, not a part of cart construction frame.
I would advice to look to get a ready cart. Check locally for used, worn out or reconditioned shopping cart for your project. Maybe even try to rent it somewhere. It would be much easier and quicker then trying to 3d print the cart, even if it is possible to do it within some reduced requirements. |
Top layer and walls have gaps even with 120 % flow (Cura) | You are lowering temperature and increase the flow at the same time - which is contradictory (filament is less runny, but you pump more of it). Though 195 °C seems to be very safe for printing PLA at 40 mm/s. Just doublecheck that when you disable motors, and push filament with hand, it melts quickly and easily goes out. Otherwise you will deal with temperature-related issue.
Outer walls are usually printed slower, and even when underextruded, part of line may appear constant thanks to leaking filament (it has time). Next retraction will cause stop leaking, and the other wall is printed with almost no pressure. Maybe your constant issue with "inner circle" is just a consequence of such moves.
My suggestions:
Did you calibrate the extruder (steps per mm)? - if not yet, do it (it's a basic skill); to quickly check if this could help, try to continue increasing flow by 5% and observe what will happen then, because maybe this is simple underextrusion due to incorrect steps/mm?
Are you sure that extruder motor is not loosing steps? (e.g. too weak motor against the pressure)
Are you sure that filament is not slipping? (e.g. blunt driver's teeth, or too loose idler)
Could you unintentionally enable volumetric extrusion? |
What is a masterspool? | A masterspool is the practice of printing your own spool out of filament, which will then be used to support your filament you purchase without a spool attached. The main idea is to create a reusable spool and create less waste.
(NOTE: I'm in no way affiliated with MatterHackers.com, nor am I an endorser of their products. There is also a version which Village Plastics has created.)
On MatterHackers.com website, they state:
Filament without a spool? Why are we making this? The short answer: because the community wants it. We had enough questions, comments and plenty of tweets asking if we had plans to pick up the Master Spool concept. Seeing the response and interest within the community made it clear to us: we needed to bring this idea to the States. With a joint effort between MatterHackers and Village Plastics, you can now purchase Master Spool refills from within the US.
They are tying to apply the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle mantra to create a cleaner environment for the rest of the world. While they are not the first to create or use a printable spool, they are pretty happy to be pressing forward with the idea of having a reusable spool and selling filament without a spool attached.
MatterHackers go on to state:
What are the benefits of the Master Spool? Not only is there the benefit of reducing plastic waste, using a Master Spool will also reduces shipping costs for new spools, and limits the clutter from amassing of a huge collection of used or empty spools. Rather than throwing away, trying to recycle dozens of spools, or trying to come up with a way to reuse them in some (like the Spool Tool), using the Master Spool means you can use all those filament scraps you have laying around on something useful and have one spool for all of your filament.
As far as where it started, it appears to have originated with this print on Thiniverse created by Dingoboy71. A well known 3D printer named RichRap created the reusable spool which MatterHacker promotes, though they say there are several which will work with their product (Village Plastic says pretty much the same).
If you get excited about saving the planet, then you should be excited about this. If you are a robust printer, going through tons (hopefully not literally) of filament per year, this method will save a lot of waste in the long run.
Realize there are (as of this writ) only limited suppliers of spool-less filament, though I think the trend for this type of product will increase in the future as the idea catches on. I guess time will tell. |
What causes burnt corners? | Looks like overheating and insufficient airflow at the same time.
Try to reduce the temperature of the nozzle by 5-10 °C and increase print part cooling. |
I mistakenly used 90% ethyl alchool to scrape some PLA off my bed; did I ruin it? | First of all, let's look at what kind of bed you have. According to a review, it is a "porous ceramic coated glass surface."
Your bed is fine...
Glass and almost all ceramics are virtually impervious to most liquids, be them alcohol or even most acids unless that acid is hydrofluoric acid. So on a chemical standpoint, your bed is most likely ok, just the alcohol managed to leech some of the coloration or deposit dust in the surface - which is no problem usually. The matte might even just be PLA stuck in the surface, so if this happens if you print in a different area, you know that is not damage per see it's a normal sign of use.
So from that standpoint, I see no problem.
...but there are safety issues with the bed design
Where I see a problem though is the construction of the bed itself: it runs on mains voltage and is heated directly, which can cause all kind of problems, especially breaking off the cable as there is no proper strain relief on the cable! Atop that, the review points out that the bed heats uneven, which can very quickly lead to stress and breaking of the bed.
Because of this construction, I strongly advise to refit a strain relief and use utmost care no to touch the bed during operation. Make sure not to hammer onto it and don't overheat it to prevent thermal cracking. |
What is the next step after measuring the bed levels? | Now that you have leveled the bed you are ready to start printing. To enable leveling for printing, you need to add G-code G29 directly after G28 in your start G-code of your slicer.
The array values you reported are just for information or visualisation of the level of the bed. Although you have ABL you always need to provide a bed that is as level as best as you can, the ABL will take care of the final dents or skewness. |
Flashforge Dreamer not able to read Cura created G-code file | For the Flashforge Creator model an alternative firmware is available; Sailfish. However, Sailfish is not available for the Flashforge Dreamer. As a matter of fact, no alternative firmware is available for the Dreamer as a consequence of the Flashforge Dreamer being closed hardware and closed source.
Not knowing the flavor af firmware (as it is closed source and could well be using a custom firmware build) using Cura to slice models for G-code files gives no guarantee for successful printing.
To be able to use Cura you would have to switch the current board from the Flashforge Dreamer and replace it with a board that accepts Marlin Firmware. Note that there is no default configuration for this pronter available so this requires a little work from you to go through the Marlin configuration file and adjust various constants to make your printer work. [edit: As pointed out below in the comments, in the process you will lose some of the maximum speed the Dreamer is capable of!]
Another option is to buy a license of e.g. Simplify3D (note that I have no affiliation with Simplfy3D!) as they claim to support this printer. There could be other software suites that support your printer. |
Ender 3 V2 Z-axis base value changes for each print | After tightening the screws on the X-axis gantry and doing the bed leveling and test prints again it seems to have gotten better.
Also, while I was under the impression that the V2's heated glass bed should work well without adhesive, I applied a bit of glue stick and now my first print seems to have a perfect first layer.
I may just have been confused because I needed to turn the Z-offset way down to get it to stick in the first place, and then tweaked it upwards to get nice lines, meaning I would have to dial it back down on next test print and so forth. |
Can you recommend professional 3D metal printing books? | This is a free ebook that I have perused briefly which it looks interesting, and it is free (did I say that already?)
3D Printing of metals
Manoj Gupta
ISBN 978-3-03842-591-5 (Pbk);
ISBN 978-3-03842-592-2 (PDF)
Three other books that might be of interest are:
3D Printing with Metals for Design Engineers, Explained
Ann R. Thryft
Downloadable free ebook, but some sort of sign up is required
Additive Manufacturing of Metals: The Technology, Materials, Design and Production,
Yang, L., Hsu, K., Baughman, B., Godfrey, D., Medina, F., Menon, M., Wiener, S.
ISBN 978-3-319-55128-9
Additive Manufacturing of Metals: From Fundamental Technology to Rocket Nozzles, Medical Implants, and Custom Jewelry (Springer Series in Materials Science)
Although, as the title contains a (rather obvious) mis-spelling, it does not bode well for the rest of the book.
John O. Milewski
ISBN-13: 978-3319582047
ISBN-10: 3319582046 |
Post-processing and filaments for weather-proof electronic enclosure | There are already some questions about the choice of filaments for outdoor use:
Which is more durable to sunlight/weather - PLA, ABS or PETG
3d printing for outdoor use: what types of filament are most weather resistant?
PLA use outdoors?
It may very well be that if you print in PETG you won't need any postprocessing.
If you still want to, you could try to paint or spray the outside with some bitumen spray for car underbody.
I think that the only part which actually needs postprocessing is the spot with exposed moving parts.
It's difficult or impossible to find a solution without having an idea of what we are talking about when you say "some moving parts exposed", but in general this is solved first of all by adapting the design so that water wont' be an issue: rain should flow away without getting inside, and spatwater should be reduced so that it will evaporate when rain stops.
If you only have an exposed pin for rotating parts which are inside, you could also pour some wax: it will seal it while allowing movement. The same bitumen spray may help. |
DQ542MA Driver proper settings for NEMA 17 Stepper Motor | It is completely normal for a stepper motor to get hot. Taking this datasheet for example, specifies a 80 °C temperature rise. That is, in an room that is 25 °C ambient temperature, the motors would get up to 105 °C.
To prevent the motors from getting as hot you could further reduce the operating current, but likely the temperature they're running at is normal. |
3D printer out of normal printer (HP PSC 1315) | No, Printers are not good sources
Common printers contain at best one stepper motor in the scanner, and it is usually too weak for use as an X or Y stepper, but for a very slow printer they might be useable, especially if you could source 2 or 4 of the same type.
The main motors in the printer are almost universally DC motors that get their turning signal as a voltage from the main board, which again uses positional information from an encoder strip/disk. Using both of these to make a 3D printer is usually not feasible.
However, they usually have good rails (sadly often of non-standard diameter) and might be salvaged for a decent optical sensor. See also Thomas Sanladerer's video about this. |
Filament spreading apart and stringy on first layer | I would try two things you didn't mention; a bed leveling (this looks a little close) and an e-stepper calibration. The layer looks thin and under-extruded, and two common culprits are the bed height being too close ("oversquishing" the first layer which reduces flow rate and adhesion), and the e-stepper not feeding as much filament as the slicer's asking for (giving you thinner lines than the slicer expected, so they don't adhere to each other or the substrate).
I also see problems with that kapton layer. Totally understandable, the stuff is a major pain to lay down bubble-free, however it's also absolutely necessary to do so to avoid first layer issues. That's not your only problem here but it'll keep being a pain after you have filament feeding sorted out.
Lastly, I'm seeing slicer error; the floor fill is being laid down over the top of the shell layers on the right side of your image. Remember that the wealth of slicer variables in Cura regarding print speeds, flow rate, filament diameter etc ultimately boil down to a single G1 command per line: "move from here to here at this speed extruding this length of filament". So, if the slicer is forgetting where it drew the outline by the time it scripts the floor fill, it's possible it lost the plot on extrusion calculations as well. Alternately, the printer could be the one that lost the plot, either losing track of the steppers or incorrectly interpreting the G-code. Usually you just need to power-cycle the printer, close and reopen Cura and re-slice. Also, if you're printing with a USB cable, try switching to an SD card; there's less to go wrong in the communication between slicer and printer if the slicer tells the printer everything it should do up front.
I'd look into each of these, then try to print a calibration shape, like a 20mm XYZ cube, before going back to the print you had on the plate before. |
Slicer for 32 Bit Operating systems? | The last version of Ultimaker Cura that supported 32-bit Operation Systems was Cura 2.3.1 of 2016, which of course has a lot of items not yet in it and doesn't fit the demand of offering some update at worst from 2018.
32-bit support is starting to fade from the support of projects, as 64-bit makes a lot of things much easier and faster and 32 Bit Windows likewise is pretty much a dead-end branch with Windows 7 Support being discontinued on January 14th, 2020. For example, the Slicer project says on their documentation of the May 2019 4.10 version: "We do not make 32 bit builds available."
Yet there is rescue with the Slic3r-Family!
Slic3r 1.3.0 is open source, available as 32 and 64-bit versions, and was released in November 2018, making it somewhat up to date. You need to customize a lot of settings in it, but it is after all quite a powerful slicer - for which you have to write your own Start Code, define your filament settings and machine.
Repetier Host 2.1.6 is likewise a 32-bit application. It's technically a console with slicing features and uses one of several engines to slice - including the Slic3r and Slic3r Prusa Edition engines, which run on 32-bit. In comparison to Slic3r, I find its UI for placing items a little more user-friendly. It does pull the settings from Slic3r, if you have that installed.
Slic3r Prusa Edition/PrusaSlicer is a derivate of the Slic3r project. 2.2.9 was released in December 2019. It too runs on 32 bit systems. It is, UI-wise, even more comfortable than Repetier Host and is somewhat similar to Ultimaker Cura 4. |
Is 3D printing useful for making everyday objects or is it more for special hobbies? | Have people been using 3D printing to genuinely create a number of needed objects in their homes, and if so, what?
Yes, but in a very limited sense. If there is widespread demand for an item, then it will always be available from stores. This is basics economics: if there is enough demand for something, somebody will step in and provide the supply. The store-bought alternative will almost always be of better quality and relatively cheap.
3D printing can be useful to create a niche part that is needed but not readily available, such as replacement parts for appliances long out of production. This unfortunately takes a lot of time since you need to make a 3D model of the part yourself, which also requires considerable skill.
Some examples of items that I made for my home:
Custom brackets to hang blinds when the store-provided ones did not fit my window.
A special mounting bracket to more easily hang a ceiling light panel.
Replacement wheel for a vacuum cleaner.
Cover plate for a deprecated telecom socket.
Fix for a broken clothes drying rack.
3D printing can also be used to create "trinkets" such as custom vases or similar objects.
I would say 3D printing is a bit like woodworking as a hobby: it is a skill that can be used to make genuinely useful items, but going to IKEA is a perfectly viable alternative.
Or is 3D printing better for special niche interests like art projects, home engineering projects, etc?
It is ideal for this. I do not know of anybody who has a 3D printer specifically for home use. However, there are many hobbyists that use 3D printing for another primary purpose that occasionally find their 3D printers useful around the house. |
Make a nose cone in Fusion 360 | If you have a specific shape in mind and can create a sketch to represent that shape, you are halfway to your goal.
The concept is simple. Create a single line sketch that would represent the desired curve, starting from, in this example, the nose of the cone and traveling to the base. Create only one-half of the nose cone curve and maintain a "standard" axis reference, say, using the Y-axis as the rotation point.
The process is called revolve. Fusion 360 supports this action directly.
In the Sculpt workspace, choose Create Revolve.
Select the profile to revolve.
In the Revolve dialog:
Click Axis and then select the axis to revolve around.
Choose Full or Angle to specify whether the revolution is full or to a specific angle.
For Direction choose One Side, Two Side or Symmetrical.
For Symmetry, choose None or Circular.
The above text is taken directly from the link. The specific web site also includes a Flash video of the steps involved.
If thickness is required for your creation, consider to draw the sketch from the nose to the base, then use Offset or hand sketch in a parallel line that returns to the nose. Ensure the base segment is joined and that the nose segments are open and are aligned to the Y-axis.
As the sketch is revolved, the nose sections will "close" while the base creates the closure necessary to make a solid that is hollow within and open at the bottom.
Use The Google or your preferred search engine with the terms "Fusion 360 Revolve" to find many tutorials and videos with the same information presented in various ways. |
How do I concave an image to create a 3D file for use in a 3D printer? | What you describe, sounds like you want to create a lithophane; a pattern etched or engraved on a thin translucent base material (in your case a bowl) that can only be seen clearly when backlit with a light source behind it. Apparently you want to use it for another purpose.
Special software and or scripts that transform the image to the base material exist. An example is e.g. this sphere which becomes a globe when lit from the inside. Recommending a tool for creating such bowl is a little out of scope as these types of questions become outdated very quickly as technology changes or tools cease to exist. With the provided information you should be able to find software that is able to provide what you want to do. |
How to set the boundaries for BLTouch probing | As explained in this answer it is you that needs to calculate where the head (read sensor) is supposed to go depending on the amount of space you have left on the carriage shafts.
As can be seen from your configuration, your sensor is located on the left front (when facing the machine) at 41 mm left from the nozzle you are requesting the sensor to travel to a position that is outside the bed (35 mm), so you should at least subtract 41 mm from your X bed size.
As you have not posted a bed size, an assumed X bed size of 220 mm would mean that the maximum probing distance for X (i.e. RIGHT_PROBE_BED_POSITION) of 220 - 41 = 179 mm
In your case -41 mm would take it to the edge, so 30 mm extra would make it symmetrical:
#define LEFT_PROBE_BED_POSITION 30
#define RIGHT_PROBE_BED_POSITION (X_BED_SIZE - 41 - 30)
#define FRONT_PROBE_BED_POSITION 30
#define BACK_PROBE_BED_POSITION (Y_BED_SIZE - 5 - 30)
Furthermore, it is way more convenient to set the Z distance between the probe and the nozzle using M851 Zxx.xx (where xx.xx denotes the offset as a negative value) than setting it with Z_PROBE_OFFSET_FROM_EXTRUDER. |
Issues with printing and removing filament residue | I think I know the answer to your first problem.
Check your flow rates and wall thicknesses in the slicer settings. And if messing with some of those settings doesn't fix the problem, it might have to do with your steps per mm which I posted an answer here.
The other two problems I'm not really sure about.
Just wanted to at least get one question cleared. |
Clear coating resin 3D prints | I'd go for the easy option of using a composite setup: Acrylic lacquers themselves are very low reactive and can serve as a foundation before the UV clear coating is applied. The acrylic lacquer itself doesn't change coloration if exposed to sunlight, but the light can still pass and discolor the lithophane.
Your Krylon clearcoat technically is an acrylic paint, but to be used from a rattlecan, other chemicals are added - a whole lot as the MSDS tells us. The list of chemicals besides the paint in that can are Acetone, n-Butyl Acetate, Propane, Butane, Xylene, Ethyl 3-Ethoxypropionate, Cyclohexane, Ethylbenzene,
Bis(pentamethyl-4-piperidyl)sebacate. Three simple chemicals I put in italics - they are very good solvents that easily react with the resin print. Propane and Butane create the pressure in the rattle can, the other four chemicals make up the actual lacquer. I have observed the mix of Acetone, Cyclohexane, and Ethylbentene (with possibly others) softening PLA, so it is totally possible that they react unfavorably with your resin print. As a result, I suggest using a brush or roller to apply acrylic paint from a can (not spraycan!) |
Adhesion problems with masking tape | Masking tape (and blue painter's tape) is coated with a wax-based release agent in order to prevent the tape sticking to itself on the roll. This release agent must be removed with an organic solvent in order to obtain good adhesion. Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol is good for this. Acetone will also work, but it is a much stronger solvent (which is not necessarily a good thing).
For blue painter's tape, rub freshly applied tape with solvent until the blue dye starts coming off. Then give it a quick wipe between prints to remove any fingerprints, etc. |
Specifications of Prusa Mini X-Axis Belt | To be sure you could measure the width and the tooth spacing (pitch). The most probable and used belt in 3D printers is the GT2 6 mm belt. The teeth are spaced 2 mm and the width is 6 mm. |
The first screen of Marlin 2.0 is showing some horizontal lines, appearing to be broken | Something is causing your screen to get signals to display that before your board properly takes it over after 3 seconds. It is an oddly repetitive pattern.
If it is software, you should not see it on a stable stock marlin release with minimal customizations to enable the LCD. Usually nothing else shares pins with the LCD, but please do double check pin assignments.
Beyond software lies a realm of hardware issues:
Issue could be due to bad wiring or wires running in areas where they are picking up noise as the system boots up; LCD ribbons are not particularly noise resistant. I say wiring but it could be anywhere along the circuit, including circuit boards.
There is also some (smaller) chance that your power supply is providing the noise at the initial boot up in which case you may be able to resolve it by adding capacitors to stabilize the DC voltage. Not sure what check you already did of the power supply, but a DC (RMS) reading may not show anything strange on a regular multimeter even if there is a strange AC signal. |
What could be causing this spotty extrusion? | I´ve seen this in my Prusa due two parameters that may vary your results depending on climate if your printer has not a temperature chamber or having a mechanical issue too.
Lack of extrusion is due a cold filament which it can't reach the melting temperature due a fast extrusion feed; I mean in normal conditions we can print @70 mm/s with 195 °C but on wet or colder days is not possible so I need to slow down the speed (feed rate) with 10 % less than normal to get @60 mm/s or less until get a good flow with out modifying the G-code. If I try to print faster on normal conditions I will get the same lack of material due 195 °C is a low temperature (this is an example).
If I set the temperature 200 °C or 210 °C I will get a better flow and also print faster than @80 mm/s (not affected too much on climate on 100 % feed rate).
For first layer I´m using an speed of 40 mm/s to allow a good adhesion and Z height 90 % of layer height (0.22 typically or 0.18).
Mechanical side: The extruder is not feeding all the filament due a missing pression on the traction gear (filament slip). |
Marlin: Why is the extruder stepper jerking? | The setting that makes these small retractions is LIN_ADVANCE.
It is found in Configuration_adv.h and is disabled in the vanilla configuration.
I, on the other hand, is using one of the 46 example configurations that has this feature enabled. It shall be said that most of them them has the value 0 set to this, which means that it has no effect.
To disable the effect of this feature, send G-code M900 K0 to the printer.
More info at marlinfw.org
More info at 3dmakerengineering.com
M900 - If it works, the feature is enabled
Test pattern generator to tune LIN_ADVANCE |
Air printing/jamming midway through raft creation | Your symptom sounds like heat creep might be stopping the extrusion. See if this discussion helps you troubleshoot: Understanding all the ways to avoid heat creep
Note: decreasing speed and increasing temperature makes heat creep worse.
Your picture of filament shows what people with Bowden extruders describe as typical of heat creep. The Bowden tube isolates the filament drive motor from the temperature of the extruder. On well put together Bowden tube extruder, there is no place for softened filament to bunch up. So, heat creep occurs when the melted filament goes up the region of the heat break in the heat sink. Thus, to determine heat creep one needs to ask, "Is the expanded part of the filament extending into the heatsink. |
Best gear STL to print with ABS | This type of gear is known as a "herringbone" gear. A traditional straight-cut gear is strong, but can cause more vibration as each tooth engages and disengages. A helical gear (slanted tooth) reduces that vibration as the tooth engagement is more uniform. However the angle of the teeth causes a sideways force that may be undesired. A herringbone tooth design effectively cancels the sideways forces but gets the uniform tooth engagement.
A search for "herringbone" on Thingiverse comes up with many gears of this type.
Regarding the quality, if you are not happy with the results of your own design, that's OK - gears are shockingly complex, and people make careers of gear design! However, if you have a good CAD model that just isn't printing well, it's not likely a bad STL.
An STL from a different source is likely to have similar quality with the same slicer/printer setup. You might be able to improve print quality of your design by changing settings on your slicer or adjusting your printer. I'd suggest asking a question with your current setup and specific print quality issues. |
Is this re-Arm controller actually 24 V capable? | Given that the capacitor near the input is quite clearly marked 35 V, a 36 V rating seems questionable.
The (buck) regulator used on the (genuine version of the) board is the AOZ1282CI which supports up to 36 V input. This is probably where they got the 36 V rating from, but obviously the 35 V-rated capacitors drop the input voltage down below this.
Schematics for the board are available on the RepRap wiki and show that the input voltage only feeds into the regulator. I see no reason why this board couldn't handle 24 V input, as this is well within the rating of both the regulator and the capacitors. |
Extruder motor making a knocking sound, nozzle is not clogged | A knocking or clicking sound does not imply you have a problem, it implies that you could have a problem; it can be the characteristic of the extruder.
My own designed 2.85 mm filament, 1:4 speed reducing belt driven extruders make clicking sounds while extruding (independent of the layer height), I have verified that no steps are lost and the printer extrudes exactly the requested amount of filament (2.85 mm filament requires a lot more pressure for the same nozzle size, the noise is coming from inside of the metal Bulldog housing, not the stepper adjacent, it is not stepper nor filament skipping noise).
A clicking sound in combination with gears losing position as you describe (or filament skipping back) does mean that the pressure in the nozzle is too big for the extruder to push it through. If the gears loose position, this means that the stepper is not powerful enough to push it through, this means that more current or a more powerful stepper is required (the latter option is due to the design of the extruder not possible). If the filament skips back while the gears are in place the tension/grip to the filament needs to be increased.
In troubleshooting this problem it is best to increase the current to the stepper close to the upper side of the specifications of the stepper and see if the knocking sounds disappear. This should not be a problem for such a priced and tested extruder system, i.e. considering the reputation and quality of E3D this extruder must work out of the box unless you have received damaged components. |
Is cutting the arm off the Z-axis switch a good idea? | While I haven't seen this on a Z axis for a printer personally, there is no reason it wouldn't work, and would improve your repeatability in theory. Removing the arm on the switch is taking away the lever. Going back to simple machine mechanics, the lever gives you a larger range of motion in which the button could be triggered, with the tradeoff that you get a larger target to hit. How much of an improvement depends on the exact switch, where the button is compared to the axis of the switch, and how long the switch is.
My Shapeoko 3 CNC router has a switch for all three end stops that do not have arms, and my Original Prusa i3 mk2 has switches without lever arms on X and Y axis endstops, so there is is no reason it won't work for your i3 Z axis, you just need to make sure you can accurately hit the small button on the switch. |
Cura 2.4 missing "split object into parts" | I don't think this feature was implemented at all with Cura v2.x.
As the developers say on the v2.1 release, "Cura has been completely reengineered".
Finding proper changelog documentation appears to be pretty hard because they have not posted any actual changelogs except the "user friendly viewable" changelogs which only list additions of new features but don't display what everything they changed between each version of their application.
Here is the most complete changelog I could find. I do not see any mention of this feature. https://ultimaker.com/en/products/cura-software/release-notes
Going through the Cura 2 manual or the Cura 2.1 FAQ, also does not mention this feature.
https://ultimaker.com/en/resources/20406-installation-cura-2-1
Furthermore, searching around for version 2 "split objects" lead to forum posts of people suggesting to use some other software to achieve this specific task. If you decide to go this route, I recommend Meshmixer from Autodesk to manipulate your models and then export to STL and import them to Cura either as a whole new position set up or separate model files where you can change them there as you need to (meshmixer allows for object repositioning around a defined build plate so you can just import the whole assembly into cura and then print).
It might also be worth to put in a feature request on the UM forums. |
Brittle resin prints | Many printing resins are inherently brittle.
Brittle is a property of the material - so of the used printing resin.
Look at the first seconds of this video - Punished Props Academy drops an SLA/DLP printed dagger on the ground from about 1 meter and it shatters, despite having been carefully post cured and washed and everything. To mitigate that trouble they did a cast of the item with a different resin.
However, the exact brittle behavior of the print is inherently linked to the exact formulation and thus the exact brand and type of resin used.
Some are less brittle than others - and outright flexible.
You might need to test around, but there are flexible resins. This german essay contains pictures and even a video of a super flexible printing resin. Just an example: One such rubbery resin is Formlabs Flexible 80A, and Matterhackers has a range of different flexible resins. Google does show other brands too by googling "SLA Resin Flexible"
I am not affiliated with Formlabs, Matterhackers, or Techstage.de |
How do I get my Wanhao Duplicator 6 / Maker Ultimate to lower bed at end of print? | In your ending script add the line below and change Z200.0 to your max Z height. This will rapid to the given value using absolute coordinates. I added G90 in case G91 was previously set so it did not do a relative move. I'm not positive if G91 is modal in printer firmwares or not but the G90 should not hurt anything.
G90 G0 Z200.0 |
How should I connect a separated 5 V source to an Arduino connected to a RAMPS board | I would not recommend changing Arduino powering.
You can either do as you say and power Arduino by giving it regulated 5V to Vin, but then the ATMEGA2560 still will be powered through the 5V voltage regulator. The voltage regulator (NCP1117ST50T3G) needs to be supplied with 6.5V to give out regulated 5V. So you will be powering the Arduino with some 4V, which might work, but it will be less reliable. But it is electrically safe.
Second option is to power Arduino through it's 5V pin. That is less safe, because the voltage regulator might have an over output-over-voltage-protection that will to load or short-circuit the 5V until it is 5.000V.
Regarding TMC2209. I have not seen any documentation that has any opinion on what order it shall be powered up and down. |
Incorrect beginning Z movement | Your printer probably has an issue with binding in the lower region (binding means extra friction possibly causing the Z stepper to skip steps). Disconnect the lead screw an manually move the X gantry up and down. If there is binding, you need to find why this happens, with the unfortunate design of the Ender, many people experience issues when the rollers on both posts are not correctly installed. |
Spiral bevel gears in OpenSCAD | I read this question a few months ago, and thought I knew what you wanted. Re-reading it now confuses me a little.
But, I think you may be asking for a large, flat surface with a spiral in it, like the tightening mechanism in a 3-jaw chuck. In effect, are you using the large cylinder as a worm gear to drive four gears which ride on it?
I thought you wanted more general bevel gears, and today I found a package in OpenSCAD that looks quite good. it is found at: https://github.com/dpellegr/PolyGear
If this is the answer you were looking for, great. If not, please comment here and I will delete this answer. |
Which endstops are most precise? | There are some different criteria that we should use to select a switch type:
Precision / repeatability: does the switch trigger at the same place every time? How much spread is there in the trigger position? Do environmental changes or machine setting changes affect the trigger position?
Contact distance: does the switch register with enough clearance to its hard-stop that the homing axis can stop before colliding with something?
Noise-rejection: does the switch ONLY trigger when it is supposed to?
It's important to ask, how much switch precision do we actually need? A typical 3d printer drivetrain using a microstepping stepper motor can only accurately position the moving load within +/- one 1/16th microstep (even if using finer microstepping than that) due to error-inducing effects like friction torque and magnetic detent angle error. That's around +/-0.01mm for most printers. The homing switch only needs to be as precise as the motor's positioning! Nothing is gained by having, say, 0.001mm precision endstops.
This precision of +/-0.01mm is achievable for all types of endstop switches, with proper switch selection and configuration.
Then there are three "standard" switching types in use in consumer/hobbyist 3d printers:
Mechanical switches, typically dual NO/NC limit switches, which either pull up or pull down a signal pin by connecting an electrical circuit when triggered
Optical switches, which use transistors to detect when an obstacle ("flag") is blocking the window between the emitter and sensor
Hall effect switches, which use transistors to detect when a magnetic field exceeds a particular field strength cutoff
Mechanical Switches
Precision/repeatability depends on the switch quality, length of lever arm attached (longer increases contact distance but is worse for precision), and impact speed of the carriage with the switch. It's possible to have a good mechanical switch or a bad mechanical switch. This is typically a reasonable default choice because it is simple and cheap.
A small mechanical switch with a short lever arm (or the lever arm removed) will generally achieve the required +/-0.01mm switching precision. Very cheap switches, high contact speeds, and long lever arms may provide inadequate resolution for Z homing or probing, but will still be adequate for low-precision X and Y homing purposes.
Where mechanical switches tend to cause issues is in noise rejection. Different controller boards use different ways of wiring the switch: some use two wires and only send a signal when triggered. When not triggered, the signal wire is left floating or weakly pulled up by the microcontroller, while attached to a long wire that acts as an antenna to pick up EM noise. It is VERY common for heater or stepper wiring to emit nasty EMR due to the PWM current control. Two-wire endstop cables should always be run away from stepper and heater wiring. Shielding and twisting the conductors is a good idea too.
A more robust approach is to use three-wire switches that actively pull the signal line high or low depending on the switch position. These will tend to reject noise better.
Very cheap mechanical switches may fail within the life of the printer. However, most limit switches are rated for millions of cycles, which is unlikely to occur over any normal printer's lifespan.
Mechanical switches are easy to align and easy to trigger by hand during troubleshooting.
Optical Switches
These rely on a flag blocking a window between a light emitter and a detector. This is non-contact and can be quite reliable, but introduces some challenges. The exact trigger position (and thus precision) may depend on ambient light levels in the room, because the sensor is monitoring for light to decrease below a specific intensity. So it may be very repeatable/precise in the short term but have some drift if the sensor moves in and out of the sun through the day.
Switching tends to be more consistent and reliable if the flag enters the window from the side, rather than the top.
Optical switches will actively pull the signal line high or low, and thus have good electrical noise rejection.
Hall Effect Switches
These measure the intensity of the nearby magnetic field and trigger when it exceeds a certain amount in a certain polarity. This is highly precise/repeatable (better than +/-0.01mm) and extremely resistant to noise and environmental conditions. (Unless your printer is next to something that emits large magnetic fields, anyway.)
The hall switches I've seen have an adjustable trim pot to tune the trigger distance. That's a nice feature when trying to manually calibrate a Delta or a Z-bed for first layer height.
The primary downside to hall switches is that they need a magnet to trigger the switch. This can be difficult to trigger by hand during troubleshooting, and requires attaching a magnet somewhere on the moving carriage. Glue works fine... but don't glue the magnet in place backwards! |
Add a laser module to Reprap Guru Prusa i3 | By connecting to the D9 output header (see RAMPS 1.4 shield schematic below) you only have 2 wires that represent a scheduled load and ground. You actually need to connect the positive (red) lead to the power supply 12 V and the negative (black) lead to the ground. The third wire (usually a different color) needs to be connected to the actual D9 in your example; note that this one is connected to the MOSFET! And as such not readily available, it is far more easy to use an other free pin.
Just use the PWM pin (attached to the MOSFET) of the print cooling fan (that schedules the MOSFET), you can then schedule the laser power with G-code M106, e.g. M106 S127 to select half the power (S255 would be max power). Alternatively, and probably a much better solution is that you can use any free (but exposed) pin of your microprocessor; you can set the value of that pin using G-code M42.
M42 switches a general purpose I/O pin. Use M42 Px Sy to set pin x to value y, when omitting Px the LEDPIN will be used.
The only electrical wiring you need to do is to attach a wire (solder or connect to a header) to bundle that with a power and ground wire and route that to the laser module.
Note that the PWM pins of the Mega are numbered D2 through D13. Also, D44, D45 and D46 are also PWM capable. Checking the RAMPS 1.4 (the board/shield of the Reprap Guru) pinout, you will see that D8, D9 and D10 are used for the MOSFETs (and as such not easily available and would require soldering). E.g. D2 and D3 are used by the X max/min endstops (note that most printers don't use an X-max, so pin D2 may be free on your machine).
For your purpose, any of the following pins can be used: D2, D4-7, D1112-13 and D44-46.
Best option would be the D11 pin (on second thoughts, D4 might be a much better option as the timer associated with PWM on pin D11 is internally used in Marlin for generating interrupts); it has a pin you can connect to the SERVO header pin.
The image shows the location of the pins:
An example to connect a laser module is seen in this image: |
Heated bed - what are the benefits? Why use one? | Heatbeds have two purposes:
Increase surface energy of the print bed to improve bonding strength of the first layer (particularly important when using surfaces like PEI or Kapton)
Keep the bottom few millimeters of the print hot enough to provide a warp-free foundation for the rest of the print.
The bit about surface energy is straightforward. Most materials are stickier when hot than cold. In comparison, pure mechanical-bonding bed surfaces like fibrous painter's tape and perfboard don't particularly benefit from bed heat.
Warping is a bit more complicated. The basic cause of warping is when the previous layer is allowed to cool and thermally contract before the next layer is deposited. When you stick hot, expanded material on top of cold, contracted material, large shear stresses are generated when the fresh material cools and contracts. Those inter-layer shear stresses then accumulate over many layers into large-scale bending stresses that try to lift the edges of the print off the bed.
So, to prevent warping, we should minimize the amount that the previous layer is allowed to cool before the next layer goes down. But we DO need it to cool solid so the print doesn't sag in a mushy mess. This is a balancing act: cooling the plastic solid without over-cooling it. The optimal temperature for the print is right around the glass point of the plastic: this is the temperature at which the plastic becomes fully solid and thermal contraction stresses start to accumulate.
The extruder pumps more heat into the print as it deposits molten plastic and radiates a little bit of heat. So we want to set the heatbed temp a little bit below the glass point to ensure the print is able to cool solid. Now, this gets a bit difficult, because everyone's print bed temperature sensor is different. What matters is bed surface temp. Many people have to set their bed temp quite a bit higher than the actual surface temp. It's just something you have to calibrate via print results. The exact filament glass point (Tg) also depends on the blend.
ABS: Tg is around 105C, optimal bed temp 95C in a warm, low-airflow environment
PLA: Tg is around 55C, optimal bed temp is 55C in a cool, high-airflow environment because PLA holds heat and is slow to cool compared to other filaments
PETG: Tg is around 70C, optimal bed temp is 60-70C with mild airflow
Nylon doesn't really work with these rules because it's semi-crystalline, meaning it "freezes" far above its Tg and thus starts accumulating warping stress at fairly high temps... advice varies wildly, from printing cold to 120C bed
PC: Tg is around 150C, optimal bed temp is 130C
There are other schools of thought, for example printing the first layer onto a surface much hotter than Tg for good adhesion, and then dropping the bed temp to a value somewhat below Tg to allow the print to solidify. That works fine too.
But, with all that said, it's important to understand that the heatbed only keeps the bottom of the print warm. A centimeter up from the build plate, the print is typically much closer to ambient temp than it is to the bed temp. Heated build chambers are thus much more effective for large prints. But heatbeds are still quite effective, because they allow building a strong, warp-free foundation that resists warping stresses induced by the cooler zones higher up in the print. |
Combing and Coasting | If anything, combing and coasting allow to mitigate problems that are printer and filament specific, rather than dependent on particular STL models.
Combing helps - as you imply in your question - with materials prone to oozing (e.g. PETG)
Coasting is particularly good for printers with a bowden extruders and low jerk/retraction speeds. This is because in bowden extruders there is a lot of filament compressed between the teeth of the extruder servo and the nozzle, and that pressure doesn't instantly disappears when the printer stop "pushing" (i.e.: turning the extruder servo).
I believe there are firmware implementations where coasting is also used when approaching sharp corners. This is to mitigate the problem of "blobs" forming there. The mechanics of this are similar to those explained above: the pressure within the extruder cannot be instantly relieved and coasting accounts for that. The only difference being that - because of the micro-scale of the problem - even non-bowden printers are prone to corner blobs.
In my experience (I look forward to other answers to "compare notes") there are very few reasons not to use combing. The only risk with it is that it increases the risk of the nozzle crashing into the print and destroying it. It sound dramatic, but it is in practice it requires everything to work against you: a big blob on the previous layer, the nozzle passing exactly there, poor bed adhesion... for me that has proved problematic only when printing miniatures with a 0.2 mm nozzle and 0.05 mm layer height (on a cheap printer).
There is of course a (usually very small) time penalty in combing, as it typically requires the nozzle to travel longer paths.
In my experience (again: YMMV, I look forward to more answers!) the limitations of coasting are related to the way it is implemented. For example, a given coasting setting may work great for getting rid of oozing, but will create under-extrusion in other parts of the print, as the calculations performed within the firmware may be spot-on for linear motion but inaccurate for corners, or vice-versa.
I believe this is the reason while some popular slicers (like cura) have this setting hidden under "experimental". |
What are the safest temperatures to heat different filaments to? | Polycarbonate is heat-resistant up to ~120C. Above this temperature it will gradually become flexible and may irreversibly bend. It will not generate any toxic fumes all the way up to ignition temperature (630C), because it's fumes are not considered harmful. Note though, that with your temperature limit you may not be able to print with polycarbonate, or only do so at a very low speed.
According to the sheets of commercially available printable plastics, PC has the highest printing temperature and heat resistance among them, seconded by nylon. This refers to the FDM printers only. SLS printers may be able to use other materials, even metals like aluminum or titanium, so if you really wish to get temperature-resistant prints, you may look for workshops that have SLS printers and ask them. |
What are some good safety tips for a 3D printing beginner? | Technically, you should never leave your printer running unattended. Printer fires are rare, but it can happen, especially with cheap printers with poor quality control. Personally, I would just make sure that there is a fire alarm near by, so you'd be alerted if there was a fire.
Also, the fumes concern is valid in the sense that you don't want to sleep in the same room as your 3D printer. The following article points out that if you are spending time in the same room without proper ventilation you'd benefit from potentially using an enclosure with a HEPA filter. Also, the article points out that using PLA may be a safer choice than other materials such as ABS or Polycarbonate when it comes to harmful particles: https://3dinsider.com/3d-printer-fumes/ |
Is there any public and reasonably accurate 3D scan from a Cray-2 computer? | LMGTFY, etc. etc. Depends on the amount of detail you want. A cheap starter: here, or here or irrational fruit |
how to split a 40" model into 5 parts to print seperate | You've got several options:
Generate full-size STL, cut via software later
If you just have an STL, you can use software such as Meshmixer to modify it. In this case, a plain plane cut would suffice.
Modifiy the design file
A better way is to go into the design file (in your case fusion) and modify it there. In your case, it's rather easy:
add a construction plane
choose the right constraints, e.g. an angle to the XZ plane or a distance to the XY plane
choose the model
Edit > split model
choose the construction plane you made
rinse and repeat
If you want to get rid of parts that became superfluous after this, use the remove option, not the delete option, as the later tries to make sure that the object never was made in the workflow. |
No extrusion, but manual extrusion works | I think that you have the incorrect diameter specified (e.g. 2.85 mm instead of 1.75 mm) in your slicer; this also appears from a calculation, see below. Note that you can calculate from extruded volume entering the hotend, or deposited volume. For the first you could calculate the line width of the deposited line and verify that with the settings; from the second you can verify if the volume for the extruded filament equals filament volume based on extruded filament going into the hotend for an assumed line width. Do note that (certainly for first layers!) modifiers may be in place. This is merely to get a ballpark feeling for the chosen filament diameter.
If you look at the first move from:
G0 F3600 X-7.753 Y4.378 Z0.3
to:
G1 F1800 X-8.127 Y3.918 E0.01115
You can calculate the travelled distance $ s = \sqrt{{\Delta X}^2+{\Delta Y}^2} = 0.59\ mm$. Also, from these moves you can see that $0.01115\ mm$ of filament enters the extruder $(E)$.
The deposited volume ($V_{extruded_filament}$) of the printed line equals the cross sectional area $\times$ length of the deposited filament path. Area could be defined as taken from e.g. the Slic3r reference manual to be:
Basically (as we apply conservation of mass) the filament volume $(V_{filament})$ entering the hotend need to be the same as the extruded filament volume $(V_{extruded_filament})$ leaving the nozzle; so $ A_{filament}\times E = A_{extruded\ filament}\times s $.
This latter equation can be solved for $w$ by filling out the known parameters. From this calculation follows that for $1.75\ mm$ filament you get a calculated line width of about $0.22\ mm$, and respectively for $2.85\ mm$ filament you get $0.46\ mm$ line widths.
As the nozzle diameter has not been specified in the question, but most commonly used nozzle diameter often is $0.4\ mm$, and modifiers for the first layer are at play to print thicker lines; you most probably have the have the wrong filament diameter set if you have a $1.75\ mm$ extruder setup. Basically it under-extrudes. |
Partial underextrusion in walls | Localized underextrusion usually means you're oozing material somewhere it wasn't supposed to go. Since you have Marlin 2.0, linear advance might help solve that, and in general right retraction amount is important and turning off combing may be needed (combing over infill allows material to ooze).
Also there are reported bugs in Marlin 2.0 such as https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin/issues/15473 that might be related, though I would think you'd not be using junction deviation since it's supposedly incompatible with deltas. |
Carbon fiber instead of smooth steel rods? | Steel is the best material for a linear rod when you have a fixed cross-section. It will have the least flex of any rod (aside from some exotic metals) of the same size.
Carbon fiber's material properties might seem superior at first sight, but the stiffness is very anisotropic -- it's very stiff along the grain and not very stiff across the grain. So multi-axis stresses like bending aren't necessarily going to perform up to the theoretical specs. Carbon fiber has exceptional stiffness-to-weight ratio, but the stiffness-per-area isn't necessarily superior in this application.
People do occasionally use carbon fiber for linear rods/rails, but only in much larger sizes than 8 mm. Think >25 mm.
And that's really the problem here. 8 mm diameter at 550 mm long is well outside what's reasonable for bending stiffness. Bending deflection increases with the CUBE of length, and this is simply far too long for the size of rod. The general rule of thumb for precision motion applications is length < 25*diameter. That's a conservative rule, but it's the right ballpark. You really shouldn't be going over 200-250 mm or so with an 8 mm rod. |
Can the `render` function be used to speed up rendering? | First a disclaimer: I am far from an expert on the subject, I'm just a regular Joe who happens to use OpenSCAD and have done some experimentation with it. I believe the answer below to be correct, but I will be very grateful if errors or misconceptions were brought to my attention in the comments. :)
I have read that sometimes the function render is useful to speed up overall rendering. Is this correct, or have I misunderstood?
I'm unaware if it is possible to use render() to speed up the "overall rendering", but I'm rather confident that the intended purpose of render() is to simplify the in-memory representation of the model and thus the responsiveness of the preview window, rather than speed-up its final rendering.
How does this work?
In order to understand how this work, one has to understand how Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) works.
The entire premise of CSG is that using boolean operations between primitive solid shapes, it is possible to represent complex shapes.
However, while the human operator may see subtractive operations like difference and intersection as something that makes the model smaller in volume and thus possibly easier to handle, the computer sees each and every operation as adding geometry and complexity to the part, as the following image aptly illustrates:
When manipulating the model in the CAD viewer, OpenSCAD is in the preview mode and all that "invisible geometry" needs to be processed for each adjustment of the viewport. It is easy to reach a level at which the OpenSCAD viewer will become jittery or unresponsive.
What the render() function does, is telling OpenSCAD to compute the mesh resulting from the boolean operations enclosed in the render() call, and use that single mesh instead of the underlying boolean-combined primitives when handling the model in the viewer. Meshes are what is normally used in the render mode of OpenSCAD (F6) rather than in the preview one, but here their advantage is not better visual quality, but the fact that OpenSCAD needs to handle a lot less geometry.
In what circumstances can I apply it?
You can apply it any time you like, really, but it is a trade-off: a model that uses the render() function internally, will take longer to display its initial preview (because generating the mesh is an expensive operation) but it will behave very well in the viewer. Conversely, a large model that does not leverage render() will be jittery to handle in the viewer, but it will render to screen in a fraction of the time. It has to be noted that OpenSCAD make heavy use of caching, so the first preview is the one that will take the longest, while successive ones may be a lot faster.
For reference, the code at the bottom of this answer (which generates the image above) behaved like this:
With render(): 15s for the preview, 1m29s more for the proper rendering (TOTAL: 1m44s).
Without render(): 0s for the preview, 1m45s more for the proper rendering (TOTAL: 1m45s).
I don't know if the fact that the totals resemble each other is a coincidence peculiar to my model or a general rule of thumb (the render() function effectively creating part of the final rendering during preview), but you are free to play with the code and if you find out a pattern, please leave a comment.
In the following code, you may need to increase the grid size to 20x20 if you want to see the difference in responsiveness between vanilla code and render() function.
Also remember to close and reopen OpenSCAD between tests, in order to flush the cache.
$fn = 30;
module shape() {
render() difference() {
sphere();
cylinder(r=0.3, h=3, center=true);
rotate([90, 0, 0]) cylinder(r=0.3, h=3, center=true);
rotate([0, 90, 0]) cylinder(r=0.3, h=3, center=true);
rotate([45, 0, 0]) cylinder(r=0.3, h=3, center=true);
rotate([-45, 0, 0]) cylinder(r=0.3, h=3, center=true);
rotate([0, 45, 0]) cylinder(r=0.3, h=3, center=true);
rotate([0, -45, 0]) cylinder(r=0.3, h=3, center=true);
rotate([90, 0, 45]) cylinder(r=0.3, h=3, center=true);
rotate([90, 0, -45]) cylinder(r=0.3, h=3, center=true);
}
}
module line(x, y) {
translate([x * 2, y, 0]) shape();
if (x > 0) line(x - 1, y);
}
module grid(x, y) {
line(x, y * 2);
if (y > 0) grid(x, y - 1);
}
grid(3, 3); |
Printer extrudes too little filament at beginning and end of extrusion | I think there's a retraction issue(had the same issue). You need to change retraction and check whether there are any improvements. Some times different filament types need slight filament setting calibration. |
Recommend simple software to create calibration print for table leveling | You are probably looking for something like this:
Note this is for large beds (300 x 300 mm), so you would have to X, Y scale this in your slicer.
This is a simple part that is very easily generated with OpenSCAD 3D design software (very good modeller if you are familiar with software coding), but could easily been designed in any other tool.
Another leveling and centering print that is created with OpenSCAD is this, and could be a start for you to create your own design:
Note that the file with the design is located in the "files" section.
Edit:
Some code for OpenSCAD made within 5 minutes (I don't type fast so it could have been faster if I did not use the constants, but if you go OpenSCAD, making parametric designs is almost a must ;) ):
// Set constants as you like
width = 30;
depth = 30;
layer_height = 0.2;
first_layer_height = 0.2;
nr_of_layers = 2;
box_size = 180;
// Calculated parameters
height = first_layer_height + (nr_of_layers - 1) * layer_height;
// Draw the test object
translate([-width/2, -depth/2,0]){
// Draw the center square
cube(size = [width, depth, height], center = false);
// Draw the corner squares
for (x=[-1:2:1]){
for (y=[-1:2:1]){
translate([x * (box_size-width)/2, y * (box_size-depth)/2, 0])
cube(size = [width, depth, height], center = false);
}
}
}
Rendered figure: |
How to make an object hold water | I've found that a double-walled base seems to give better results than trying to make the base very thick. Any imperfections in the print, or cracking caused by removing the print can lead to leaks - but if there is layer/infill/layer, the result seems to turn out better for me.
Vase mode can be effective (although won't be easy to combine with the above unless you slice your model in several parts), and I've had success whilst using 100% vase mode for vases to hold water. This demonstrates that a single wall thickness is sufficient to achieve a watertight print. |
Anet A6 - First time assembled, won't turn on | Welcome to 3d Printing!
as this is a first day of the printer there could be a list of items...
First thing first: disconnect all peripherals, so we can test mainboard.
Before connecting PSU we can connect mainboard via usb and see if it starts (I will probably use a power bank in that case to avoid burning USB (worse case scenario)).
Then you can use cura or another host program to connect to the printer and validate firmware. If the printer is not recognized we can reflash the firmware using provided app or ArduinoIDE .
If all looks good we can check PSU.
please check output voltage from power supply unit (shall be 12V) (on the terminals, there is a small voltage regulator on the lefthand side)
then double check polarity
connect power to mainboard
check if we have same voltage on mainboard terminals
then check if we have 12v on the fan terminal (40 * 10 fan shall run all the time on the hotend)
if that is done and we have power provided to the mainboard then we need to check for 5V that powers the arduino mega2560 (that could indicate a faulty power regulator)
Select one of the available sockets and measure voltage on VCC and GND pins. If we have 5V then we can connect pheriperials one by one, always switching off PSU and disconnecting USB.
If one of the underlying components is faulty then you will see straight after powering the mainboard.
image source |
Infill failure when printing larger prints | I have seen this a lot with people I have helped out in the past. sally infill or the lack of and weakness in the print is due to an extrusion issue. it looks like you are under extruding. this is why you do not see this in smaller prints. In the larger print you are giving the print head enough time to screw up. You need to look at the tension of the filament on the extruder to make sure it isn't skipping. You also need to do a estep calibration on the extruder. I usually extrude 100mm of filament and measure it to see if it is short. if it is short then it is under extruding and doing a larger print and printing a larger area will reveal short comings in extruder infill. |
Odd dotting when printing a line | I have seen this a lot of times on my tronXY-X1 with an e3d-v6 via Bowden tube. It is not related to retraction but a different settin: Your first layer is set too thin or not leveled to the right height.
Having the first layer too thin, means that with a tiny error, the calculated correct extrusion becomes either a massive overextrusion or a barely sticking underextrusion. For example, the repeatability of the probing is the biggest error source. A well calibrated probing might varry about 0.05 mm between extremes, so would be written as (layer thickness)+-0.025 mm. On a 0.1 mm layer, that is a 25 % over- or underextrusion; overextrusion of that degree is well known to create such ripples.
Setting it to 0.2 mm for the first layer in Cura, Slic3r and PrusaSlic3r (look in your advanced settings!) did eliminate such rippling for me. My understanding is, that the extra distance gives the filament better ability to flow and stick on this first layer. Also, remember to set your line width to ca. 10 % wider than the nozzle - 0.45 mm is my typical setting. |
Z axis stopped part way through print | I found two issues:
While cutting the cables to size, I made the cable for the z-axis too short.
In Cura the y height reset to 100mm rather than the 240mm I had earlier specified. I assume the G-code I used was sliced with the wrong settings. |
Print of fine hole seems to twist | This looks like a shift rather than a twist.
Looking closely at the "+" opening, it doesn't look as much twisted as it looks as if the top and bottom halves are sheared, with the top half shifted slightly right and the bottom shifted slightly left. The horizontal part of the plus seems aligned on the left and right halves.
When you press-fit the keycaps, you will "average" the displacement forces and the keycap will twist.
I am suspicious of a backlash problem in the X axis (left to right). Perhaps the belt isn't tight enough, or some part shifts differently. It could be in the rails, the belt, a loose drive pulley, the hot end being slightly loose on the carriage, or any uncontrolled movement. It could be a high-friction x-axis which causes spring wind-up in the drive system.
I recommend carefully examining the printer for any excess friction or movement, and taking action to fix that first before tweaking the model to compensate for what can not be fixed.
If it is a twist, use more cooling.
If the photos have misled me, and the vertical "+" shaft if actually twisting, you may need to use higher cooling. The drag of the filament as the head traces the perimeter can create a torque on the shaft, and if the plastic is not sufficiently cooled it could be dragged around. I consider this more of a theoretical problem than a real one, and have not yet seen it in practice.
This is a beautiful design
This is a wonderful application of 3D printing. With a multi-material printer it would be tempting to label the keys similar to old-style multi-shot keycaps. |
Sanguinololu 1.3a fan connection | It appears that there isn't an "out-of-the-box" solution to your request, but luck is with you. Someone with your board and objective has posted what appears to be a reasonable modification:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Add-a-Cooling-Fan-to-your-Rep-Rap-Sanguinololu/ |
Online APIs for 3D printing services | There are a few methods to simplify your workflow. Two solutions are outlined below and both feature a documented API you can use to further customize your workflow.
OctoPrint was mentioned by other users. OctoPrint will allow you to configure your printer, print profiles and upload STLs for printing from a web interface. You can configure profiles, slicers and slicer profiles for OctoPrint to use to complete your workflow.
Astroprint offers cloud slicing services in addition to features allowing you to manage printers and print profiles. |
Clogging due to heat creep: buy new cooler or new hotend? | To fight heat creep, you must understand why this is happening.
Heat creeps up the hotend assembly as a result of incorrect settings or hardware setup causing the filament to prematurely soften and swell.
It is important to reduce the heat travelling upwards in the first place rather than fighting the result. Too high print temperatures are an obvious culprit, but also print speed and retraction length are important. These need to be dialed in in perfect harmony.
Even when you buy a complete new hotend or parts for the hotend, incorrect settings may lead to the same results. It is known that all-metal hotends (due to the lacking of a thermal barrier PTFE liner in the heat break shielding the filament of excessive heat input) are more susceptible to encounter heat creep and should generally be avoided by less experienced makers.
Whether or not you should buy new parts depends on the current extruder, your ability to fix it (and the willingness to put in more effort to try) and the knowledge to install new parts and find the correct settings for optimal printing. There is no unambiguous answer to this question. |
Is there a more efficient methods of removing support in a model? | There's a lot that can be done to improve the removability of supports, and much of this is not widely known/published.
One big wrong default in Cura that contributes to problems with support is Limit Support Retractions, which defaults to on. This causes heavy stringing between components of the support structure that should be separate, and poor layer adhesion between layers of the support and between layers of whatever is printed right after the support (!!), making support more brittle and difficult to remove in clean chunks. This setting should be turned off.
I find Enable Support Brim is also useful. Its nominal purpose is to make supports adhere to the bed better, but it also gives them more of a solid bottom so that the structure is rigid and admits snapping off as a chunk.
A nonzero Support Wall Line Count (it's zero by default for zigzag and most support patterns, but one by default for support tree and others) can make chunks of support easier to remove by making them more rigid.
Connect Support Lines (also called zig_zaggify_infill) helps with rigidity too, and with reducing time wasted on retractions once you turn off Limit Support Retractions.
Aside from these less-well-known tunables, the obvious ones are Support Z Distance and Support X/Y Distance, especially Z. You can increase this slightly from the default to make supports easier to remove, but it will hurt the quality of the surface just above the support (making it less flat, more stringy like a bridge). And the biggest one of all is Support Angle. Generally increase it as high as you can go, after doing some test prints to determine the maximum overhang angle you can print without support. This will save material and make it easier to remove what supports remain.
Finally, aside from support options, you want to make sure you don't have underlying print problems causing oozing, bulging, or other dimensional-accuracy/extrusion-accuracy issues. This is because any material that is printed or expands into the wrong place will, if it's adjacent to support material, bond to the support material and make it hard to remove. |
False "Object does not fit into print volume" warning from OctoPrint | That's the purging that Slic3r PE adds, the broad line of filament at the edge of the sheet. That is outside the official print volume, which triggers this error.
The G-Code generated by Slic3r PE at the start of the file contains the following lines:
G1 Y-3.0 F1000.0 ; go outside print area
G92 E0.0
G1 X60.0 E9.0 F1000.0 ; intro line
M73 Q0 S174
M73 P0 R173
G1 X100.0 E12.5 F1000.0 ; intro line
G92 E0.0
You can see that it explicitly goes to -3 on the Y axis, and then extrudes two times on a line along the X axis.
The model size detection is labeled as beta in the settings dialog. It's not very reliable at detecting stuff like this purging line outside the boundaries. |
How can I learn to create models for 3D printing? | The answer to your question is yes, there are tutorials to help you create better models. Unfortunately, the back-story to the answer is beyond the scope of StackExchange.
Don't limit yourself to Blender, especially if you are attempting to create non-organic (engineering-type) models. Blender is great for curves and bulges and bumps (and animation, and so much else) but not so great for parametric modeling. Meshmixer is a useful program, but more organic than engineering.
Consider to search for OpenSCAD, Fusion 360, TinkerCAD, but also use terms such as "parametric 3d modeling software" to find a wider range of solutions to your quest. The above programs are free, there are too many paid programs to list even a small number.
Oh, yeah, stay away from SketchUp for any 3d print modeling. So many failure modes result from models created with that program. |
Nozzle heats up past the setpoint and increases | This is not an easy one to solve, the firmware of the printer should be keeping the printer at a certain temperature depending on the temperature setting and the current value. If the firmware is not able to keep the temperature at the requested level, but goes beyond that level, that could be considered "strange". As it measures the temperature (and reports it on your display) it must know that it is over the limit and thus should not power the hotend.
In this process there are a few possible candidates for you to look at:
Check for a faulty MOSFET (sort of an electronic switch) on your controller board (is it leaking current to the hotend?).
Check and or update the current settings for the PID values (settings for the control loop of the hotend). The PID values control the overshoot of the temperature. E.g. is this is very large overshoot? When incorrectly configured the temperature can get higher, but normally should never increase to infinity, are you sure it keeps rising? The determination of the new values is called PID tuning. Important commands (that need to be send over a USB connected printer with a 3D printer terminal application like Repetier Host, OctoPrint or Pronterface):
The M503 G-code command shows the current settings (somewhere in the heap of all settings).
The M303 G-code command can determine the values.
Reflash the firmware
Replace the printer controller board
You could replace the thermistor and the heater cartridge (just to be sure, most definitely not the problem, but they are really cheap to replace). The thermistor works as it reports the temperature, and the heater element doesn't get powered by itself.
As suggested below the most likely candidate for your problem is the MOSFET. These are pretty easy to replace (depending on your board) or replaceable by an external MOSFET module (if you happen to have one lying around). |
How to carve a hollow cylinder along the curved surface in Fusion 360 | If you want it to be engraved, then sketch out the sound wave on the center plane. When you go to extrude, click "extrude from", and then click "from object". Click on the plane you want to extrude from, and then 2xtrude however for you would like to. Another way to do this would be to project the sketch onto the surface, and then extrude the projection. |
Using auto-bed leveling, do I need to initiate G29 before every print? | No, it is not necessary to call G29 before every print to "auto level the bed" 1) provided that:
the bed surface has not changed (e.g. large load or force has been exerted on the build platform, leveling screws are accidentally adjusted, etc.),
the carriage of the hotend is stable (some printers, e.g. the cantilever type, or single side Z lead screw driven printers are more prone to an unstable or level axis), and
the scanned surface geometry is saved in the controller board memory.
There are several solutions to solve this. You could manually run the G29 command once in a while storing the scanned surface with an M500 command to save the mesh to the EEPROM (memory) of the controller board (this can be done from the printer controller display for Marlin operated printers, an interface like a terminal or a print server application, or from pre-stored .g/G-code files on an SD card). If you use the SD-card, note that it is possible to auto-launch G-code files from the root of the SD-card upon inserting.
Do note to remove the G29 command in the start code of the slicer. The G29 command needs to be replaced with M420 S1 for Marlin firmware operated printers. This command will load the saved mesh at the start of the print from memory. This is especially useful when using a large amount of probing points (e.g. a large bed mesh using a 10 x 10 mesh of 100 probing points, to ensure the mesh is up-to-date, once in a while initiate the scanning sequence to store an updated mesh).
1) Please note that auto-bed leveling might be confusingly indicating that some magic leveling of the build platform/surface itself is taking place (this is also possible in Marlin when there are multiple Z steppers and lead screws used), but, that is not actually what is meant with this phrasing. The process of the auto-bed leveling actually scans the surface of the build surface and compensates the height of the print head/nozzle during a predefined printing height (usually 10 mm, set in the firmware or through G-code: M420 Z10 ; Gradually reduce compensation until Z=10), during this printing process the nozzle gradually be less and less compensated. |
Increasing rigidity of curved, long, thin parts | The flexibility of 3d plastics has a lot to do with the additives manufacturers use. The same base material with additive X may have very different properties than the one with additive Y.
That said, generally speaking PLA is known to be more rigid (and brittle) than ABS, but less strong. So: you have a fair chance at giving it a go with PLA, albeit you my end up with a more delicate object in the end.
There is a well known youtube channel, whose author has performed a lot of quasi-scientific testing on common brands of filament (PLA and not) where you can get an idea of the relative rigidity of the filaments. You can find the table with the results here (look for the "bend test" columns).
However the very firs thing that came to mind when reading your post, is that you could simply swap pins and holes by putting the holding pins on the arm, and the holes on the globe instead. This would allow you to preserve your design and to have longer pins.
Things you could try when it comes to printing (unless you are already doing them):
Print the arm flat so that the layers stretch from pole to pole uninterrupted.
Print with near solid infill (solid infill can be problematic if your extrusion calibration is not perfect), like 95% and cubic infill (for more uniform properties along the full length of the axis.
Finally, you could try to anneal the arm in your kitchen oven. This process works by warming the part until it becomes pliable and then letting it cool very slowly. The end result is that the molecules arrange themselves in a more "crystal-like" way and the part becomes stronger and more rigid. Beware that annealing changes your part dimensions so you should definitively do some experiments with a test cube and find out the direction and percentage of the shrinking before going "all out" on the arm. |
How to repair burnt heat bed connector? | Owning an Anet A8 I confirm that the connectors are not rated for the amount of current that pass through them. You do not need a new bed unless the heat element has burned through (but that is pretty uncommon, it usually is the connector). This burning of the bed connectors is a very well known problem of the Anet A8 printers; these connectors are just not rated for the current and the movement of the bed. It is best not to use a connector at all! And yes, the Anet A8 default printer firmware does not have any build in protection for thermal runaway! It is always advised to immediately flash another firmware, e.g. Marlin firmware.
The best repair is to get some high quality silicone AWG 14/16 wires and solder these directly onto the back of the pins of the connector. Also crimp forks to the other end to connect the wires correctly to the printer board.
What I did was cutting up the connector to leave only the 2 middle pins (for connecting the bed thermistor, which does not use much power) and soldered the red wire to the left 2 pins and the black to the right 2 pins. You can do that at the back side of the socket where the pins make an angle. |