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’
It’s the hardest thing I have had to do thus far… I am not going to lie it’s a bitch. I had to pull both side panels off, remove all the rods etc, clean them and remove the flipping glue they used to keep the plastic shitty pulleys in place also taking them off is a bit of an art don’t mess up the rods in the process. I used a pair of pliers a bit of muscle to try and pull them strait off the rods without bending or gouging the rods.
After that, you just need to install and re-align all the belts etc… I took it apart another two times due to leaning prints but after some careful tweaking to get everything super smooth it now works perfectly!
Also, aside from the clogging issues my prints look significantly better compared to the original extruder setup etc that came with this printer.
Also, it’s super stealth now!!! The bushings and bearing replacements have made it beyond quiet! It’s not the same printer, I have replaced a great deal of parts or made my own replacements.
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?
