Have you achieved any really great quality prints?
'most of my upgrades have been to remove movement on the axis/vibrations
Have you managed to make the printer quieter ? That’s the next thing I want to tackle. Have you replaced the bearing? They seem to rattle around like crazy
Im actually really happy with the print quality im able to achieve at the moment
I’ve got a second CTC and noticed the plastic pulleys. My original had the aluminum ones so I’ve purchase the replacements. I want to swap them but It looks like a lot of work. did you have to open all the sides? What’s the easier way to do it.? Thank you in advance for any tips !
That all seems cool - did you see the other talk post about problems after reflashing with sailfish? Might be worth a look.
id look at the extruder tension - can you see a way to adjust? Tighten if possible, this will help reduce the need for the high temps, i think the nozzle is melting the layers around it.
Does the printer have a heated bed?
I dont have the same printer, or filament, and everybody has different settings and advice on this, but I print my Rigid Ink PLA at 65 degrees bed temp and between 200-215 degrees, at 50 mm/s on a 0.4 nozzle.
The other thing to look at is speed. Slower is generally better for quality, slower means lower temps can be used, which means less melting.
Next up, check your firmware’s acceleration and jerk settings. Youtuber Thomas Sanlader did a great job on explaining these in his video ‘tuning speeds’
When I did my firmware upgrade I followed a guide which went over backing up the original values from the printer prior to flashing it and I did all that so I am pretty sure all my values are correct. One thing which I need help with is tuning the heating element PID as Sailfish lacks Autotune…
You did remind me of something however! I am going to poke around the firmware values and see what I can find pertaining to feed rates etc…
How do I go about telling it to extrude a certain length of material? My firmware may be a bit limited compared to come of the more fancy printers but I am working quite hard to make a printer that can hold a candle to a high end one I believe it’s just a matter of time.
So after many trial and error sessions with MakerBot Desktop I decided to purchase Simplify3D which after applying some of the data you provided along with “lowering” my extrusion multiplayer I was actually able to print without clogging!
Using temp of 212c
I am still having a few minor issues however, as evident in the new pictures I attached below. Got any ideas? ( little holes on top minor bulge around waist and just minor little air hole looking spots )
Looking very good - some great overhangs around the eyes - very nearly there!
The few tiny blobs - all aligned to the left, this looks like blobbing on layer change. Bowden extruder? This might be fixed with retraction, try increasing retraction distance and/or retraction speed. Reducing the filament multiplier ever so slightly might also help. Like .98 instead of 1.0, tiny increment.
The tiny air holes, looks like the layers didnt bond properly towards the top. Can you change print speed mid print? Try decreasing speed towards the top of the model. Drop it 10% and see it goes away - if it does, you may need to lower your print speed. Increasing temp a few degrees might also help. Try 215 degrees. Lastly, decreasing layer height should definitey solve it. What layer size was that - 0.2mm? Moving to 0.1mm should solve it. If all else fails, do you have a layer fan already? If its on, turn it off towards the top and see if this improves. Or if its off already try turning it on, or adding one if you dont have one.
Yes, it’s a custom Bowden I printed and I am presently using a retraction distance of 1.0mm so I bumped it up to 1.2. I raised the temp to 215 and I am still running my prints off at 0.2mm until I feel confident that the nozzle clogging issue is gone.
I am running off another test print now using the changes.
Note: Printer it’s self does not allow a speed change mid print… Maybe the software will?
Yep the software should do it somewhere. If not just print slower from the outset.
Your retraction distance reminded me of the E3D troubleshooting page, they recommend 2mm-5mm, and acknowledge its a fuction of bowden tube length, sadly no magic formula. My bowdens 45cm, retraction 2.5mm @ 40 mm/s.
It’s been a little bit I know but I have been hard at work on rectifying the issues. I do believe that I have reached a point where I can say that everything I was having issues with has been solved.
I want to go over a quick summery of what I had to do in the end:
Replaced my whole extruder with a Nema 17 5:1 Planetary Geared Extruder - The NEMA 17 alone did not have enough torque to push the filament through the all metal hot end causing the clogs in the nozzle.
Lowered Printing Temps - 200 - 205c - Using anything higher will cause the PLA to degrade in the nozzle causing, clogs…
Adjusted printing speed better to suit my extrusion rate - 50 - 65 mm/s w/ variable extrusion multipliers
Recalculated the extruder steps per mm for use with the new Bowden Extruder which is SIGNIFICANTLY stronger than the last one. I used the following formula to do so: (Steps_Per_Rev * Microstepping * Gear_Ratio) / (3.14 * Effective_Dia) (Note: more info on my community page)
Replaced my slicing software - Now using Simplify3D and loving it!
I will not be stopping my work on this printer after this little hill I just managed to get over, my goal is to install dual Pv2 Hot Ends and for anyone who might be interested in my work including photos of all of the work from start to finish you may check out my community page here: https://www.facebook.com/xploitninja/ 2
I would really like to thank everyone especially you Sra1, thank you!
