[QUOTE=Lapsus;47072575][t]http://i.imgur.com/i7RyuJj.jpg[/t]
I managed to get about 3/4 of the way to fixing up my hotend when my lighter caught fire, so progress seems to be halted until tomorrow.
If I can't manage to get this stupid hexagon to stop jamming on pla, I'm going to need to buy a new hotend. Does anyone have any suggestions for a nice all-metal one, or alternatively, one that's really damn hard to jam?[/QUOTE]
Are you keeping the transition zone as small as possible? The reason for jamming is often that the filament is too soft too far up and squishes out to the side in an area that's already too cool. Surprizingly, adding more cooling to the hotend and lowering the temperature to just slightly above where it extrudes is the solution. It allows heat to travel less up the filament and ensures that it only heats up and becomes soft right as it enters the hotend.
[QUOTE=HiddenMyst;47083249]Are you keeping the transition zone as small as possible? The reason for jamming is often that the filament is too soft too far up and squishes out to the side in an area that's already too cool. Surprisingly, adding more cooling to the hotend and lowering the temperature to just slightly above where it extrudes is the solution. It allows heat to travel less up the filament and ensures that it only heats up and becomes soft right as it enters the hotend.[/QUOTE]
Unfortunately, the hexagon really doesn't have any sort of adjustable transition zone, but on the other hand, a teardown, cleaning, and minor adjustments seem to have solved my issues with the hotend anyways.
As far as I can tell, the problem was that I was just following directions without knowing the reasons behind some of them when I built the printer, and I'd managed to leave a tiny gap between the end of the tube and the back of the nozzle during initial assembly, leading to plastic leaking all over the place and a small disc of plastic to form between the two while attached to the filament, eventually leading to a solid jam.
I ended up fixing it by ensuring that the end of the tube was further into the heater block, leaving a tiny gap between the aluminum block and the flat back of the nozzle when tightened down all the way to ensure a good seal.
Aside from impossible objects, I've also added a couple fan ducts to allow me to add a cooling fan to help with bridging and overhangs while not interfering with the cooling for the hotend. I was using a 120mm fan off to the side before now, but the bed and hotend would struggle to get up to temperature.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/zN482zG.jpg[/t]
[url=http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:641891]Here[/url]'s the fan shroud, and [url=http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:547580]here[/url]'s the penrose triangle from before.
What would you guys suggest for drying a roll of PLA filament? I've got this one roll hanging on my printer for [I]months[/I] now, open to the environment. Could "wet" filament be a cause for PLA not sticking to my flat (and heated) glass bed?
Depends on how moist your place is.
The "standard" method is to cut the amount of filament you need then put in in the oven at like 120°C for an hour or so.
[editline]6th February 2015[/editline]
I've had a spool of PLA sitting in my printer for the past five months since I moved out of my parents, planning on moving my printer this week, but I definitely plan on binning the spool.
Not because of moisture issues, but because every time I use that spool it jams my printer. Its a shame, it was a great grey-green translucent color.
Ok, after a two hours work, interspersed with lunch and dinner: PLA clog is gone, ran 400mm of ABS through the hot end to clear any gunk from it.
Now to perform a test print with green ABS!
Digging out that clog took a two exacto knife blades, a screw driver and a pair of needle nose pliers.
[editline]10th February 2015[/editline]
Woops, need to recalibrate the bed height, just printed a load of plastic into the air.
I'm kinda looking into getting a 3D printer, does anyone know any really cheap and good quality ones for beginners to buy?
[quote]really cheap and good quality[/quote]
Choose one or the other? :v:
As far as a first printer goes, I've got a [url=http://www.makerfarm.com/index.php/3d-printer-kits/prusa-8-i3v-kit-v-slot-extrusion.html]Makerfarm i3v[/url] and it's pretty damn awesome, and was really quite easy to build and get printing with, though as with any 3d printer, you're going to have to put some work in to get good results out.
I also hear good things about the [url=http://printrbot.com/]Printrbot[/url] line of printers, but I don't really have any experience with them.
Pro tip: Orange masking tape is nowhere near as good as blue painters tape.
yay, I've tried printing with a different, smoother kind of tape which seems to stick well enough but not so badly that the tape merges with the PLA like the stuff that I used before.
It works better than glass for me, as it has no issues with small things like circles for screw holes, which would never stop lifting up for me straight onto glass.
I got some Ninjaflex and I'm just printing my go-to test print, the non-celtic remix of the celtic skull. I haven't changed any settings yet, just used the recommended heat settings and halved my feedrate but it's looking alright. I think I need to bump the retraction a bunch but I won't bother with that because I have a bunch of software changes for my workflow (I'm going wireless with Astroprint soon).
Printed the first part of my new [URL="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:420204"]hotend fan duct setup[/URL]. In general the print is pretty good, except for the bridging which is probably mostly due to the current set up not cooling so well (hence me printing a new one!)
[t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43645231/photos/electro/printer/2015-02-16 23.04.49.jpg[/t]
the cooling fan is positioned in such a way, that it blows air straight underneath the bridge to the right of the hole for the fan and only onto the top surface of the bridge on the left while it is printing. As you can see the quality difference is huge. the new duct I assume should atleast equalize the quality on all sides.
[t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43645231/photos/electro/printer/2015-02-16 23.04.38.jpg[/t]
this clear orange PLA in combination with my shitty camera makes it look quite different. the biggest change is in how visible all the strings are
Fuck yeah new e3d v6!
Fuck yeah new Z probe!
[t]http://i.imgur.com/ginUBcD.jpg[/t]
Fuck!
[t]http://i.imgur.com/GTRduuE.jpg[/t]
I never printed a E3D mount that I was satisfied with, that's why I'm still using the standard Solidoodle head.
I'm just using the mount that came with my Hexagon hotend. I heard from a few places that the e3d hotends were really short, but it's longer than the one I used to have on there!
Also, Video!
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHqzSm_uyz8[/media]
So Im gonna try and get good at a particular 3D modelling program. I asked before (about free software) and got a lot of people suggesting Blender, but Ive also been looking at alternatives. Is there any sort of consensus on TinkerCAD? Good/bad?
As far as I can tell, Blender seems to have a bit more of a broad focus for modelling and animating, so it's very technical, whereas TinkerCAD seems specifically geared towards CAD stuff, and seems simpler. Am I off base here?
Out of interest, what slicing software does everyone use? I'm looking specifically for the feature "heat bed for first x layers at y temperature, heat bed at z for all layers afterwards".
Slic3r doesn't offer that feature.
Last time I checked it does?
[editline]7th March 2015[/editline]
It's under filament settings.
That only let's me specify the temp for the first layer.
aw shit didn't see that
honestly i'd just go export the gcode and do it by hand, find the M140 and the M141 commands, change where they are in the code.
Hi guys, I don't know much about 3D printing but would 1/32 scale toy soldiers be something that you could feasibly print?
[url=http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?262,481357]I made a thread on the reprap forums[/url] about my air-printing issues, but I figured I might as well ask for input here too. Any suggestions?
So it turns out using a tea candle under an aluminum bed makes for an excellent heated bed if you're on a student's budget.
[QUOTE=Lapsus;47286316][url=http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?262,481357]I made a thread on the reprap forums[/url] about my air-printing issues, but I figured I might as well ask for input here too. Any suggestions?[/QUOTE]
What layer height and stuff are you printing at? For .1mm height and stuff, I have to drop my extruder almost touching the bed just to get the first layer to stick.
Side note: How do you guys handle printing small objects? The heat from the extruder tends to make my prints just a soggy blob. Is there a way to have the extruder raise ~15mm and hold for a bit between each layer?
[QUOTE=ramirez!;47290324]So it turns out using a tea candle under an aluminum bed makes for an excellent heated bed if you're on a student's budget.[/QUOTE]
If you're on a Student's budget, how the hell did you get a 3D Printer?
Making shutter shades at 1:30 in the morning isnt normal
But on 3D printing it is.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/wCbzwhZ.jpg[/t]
3D printing. Not even once.
So I just started with a BuMat Black ABS spool.
Width is 1.96+-1 mm, so its fairly out of spec for a 1.75mm head.
Still prints nicely, did the [url=http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:151081]low-poly bunny[/url] at 30%, the ears didn't turn out well due to the comparatively large overhang but I expected that.
[editline]22nd March 2015[/editline]
Kinda looks like a zombie ate it.
Looking through this thread makes me wonder why I haven't bought a 3D printer yet
These things are really expensive, which is why I haven't got one.
You should get one.
[QUOTE=RoboChimp;47377382]These things are really expensive, which is why I haven't got one.[/QUOTE]
So build one. You can do so for pretty cheap if you have even basic tools. It won't be the prettiest, best model out there, but it'll work enough for you to make parts for a more precise one down the line. That's what I plan on doing, anyway.
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3D printer thread - what have you been printing?
