I am the proud owner of a Wanhao Duplicator, hope that is OK in these forums. I have lots and lots of questions but the first one that is really puzzling me has to do with the makerbot software.
For some reason when I start a print the printer will draw a horizontal line at the front of the printbed. My guess was this line is for calibrating. The problem is that when it is done drawing this line (it ends in the bottom left corner) it will fully lower and raise the printbed. Because it does this, it has to take the nozzle off the bed and cause filament (PLA) to leak. After coming down the platform will not immediately take the filament and a ball will be formed causing lots of errors.
I am printing on glass with PLA and a temp of 230. The bed is heated at 70c wit the glass on top. To fix this I need to put the printer at 10% speed and use a rag to clean the nozzle.
Hello, I think the reason for this is: PLA prints at about 180, ABS prints at 230 (or less.) This would cause the PLA to become almost liquid- and then it will ooze. Also, normally only ABS uses a heated bed. I think you looked at the temperature sheet for ABS instead of PLA.
All makerbot software had a similar start code with the printed line, and yes the Makerbot 3.7 is a bit different, and it’s weird how it drops and raises the platform after the line. However I did find that dropping and raising it like that gets cleans the nozzle of leaking plastic. The reason you are having trouble is because your printbed is too high or too low. Then it doesn’t matter what the printer does before it starts, it will just ball up into a mess. Put your printer in home axis mode and move the print head around with a piece of paper under it. Raise the print bed until it grips the paper but you can still slide it. You want it close enough so that there is some resistance in the paper moving but you can still slide it. Print on a piece of glass with hairspray on it. Give it a light even coat before you begin the print/preheat. Watch the nozzle when it prints, it should be as close as possible to the print bed without it blocking the nozzle. I find that when I’m having trouble it’s easier for me to fine tune the bed height while it’s actually printing during the first layer. This way I can watch if any of the printed lines are not sticking or curling up due to the nozzle not being close enough. Your first layer should smush on the glass and be pretty flat.
Use unscented extra hold hairspray. I use aquanet. Your print bed is too hot at 70c, and that heatt will creep up into the printed part and make it too hot. Hairspray will eliminate your need to even have it on in the first place. Remember heat is PLA’s enemy. It works and if it’s still not sticking it’s only one of two things; print bed is too low, or you didn’t put the hairspray on right.
230c is insanely hot. For PLA it should be around 190-205, with some PLA even lower.
The new Makerbot 3.7 prints a line, drops the bed very fast, then raises it very fast, and then starts printing. The previous versions just print a line then start the print without the extra lowrider hydraulics procedure.
Thank you for your reply. I am also curious about Simplify3d. I have found a version online that I test with but the results were poor. At the start of the print the nozzle extruded a great amount of filament on the plate (not even moving the extruder) which resulted in a big blog on the nozzle. I had to stop the print.
Can you share some of your settings for PLA and ABS? Which multiplier and so forth.
Thanks, I’m happy to see you confirm this ‘feature’. I’ll try to find a previous version as you say. I hope it will help me with my first layer troubles.
Hello PrimeME 3D, thanks very much for this. I’ll be sure to send an e-mail for some technical expertise. Great company right there!
This printer was bought from 3dPrima but i’ll be more than happy to take my business anywhere else if the service and support is good. I have a lot of plans with my printer and a lot to learn
Will test this out and see if my adhesion improves. Features like this should in my opinion be controllable, especially when it is a new version feature.
Hi, that’s interesting. Can you help me get set up with Cura? Is Cura better than MakerWare? I thought the software wasn’t compatible with ‘sailfish’? So far I have tried: ReplicatorG, MakerWare, Simplify3d.
Yesterday I had a few succesful prints using PLA at 190c and 0c for the bed. Some people say that the bed should be around ~50 / ~70c, others say you don’t need a heated bed for PLA. Could you elobarate on the advantages of heating for PLA?
It just helps with the first layers sticking to the glass, if you have adhesion problems. If not, and it’s sticking well, you can keep it off, however I think that with long prints it could potentially unstick, but probably not if you use hairspray (I’m going to have to test this). I guess lower heat is better though.
But I know for certain that I have a harder time removing the part if have the bed at a hotter temp. Also if it’s sticking, but not super super strong you run the risk of the nozzle moving the part when it’s half way done, especially if your edges are curling up from too much heat or if you are over-extruding the the nozzle hits the part. But that’s gonna be a crap print anyway. If it doesn’t unstick you should probably keep it off since you don’t have enough cooling as it is. I always have mine at 50-55c even though it might work without the heat but I do it anyway just because I have PTSD (Printer-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and I don’t want anything to go wrong. My symptoms are slowly disappearing now though, since it never jams anymore.
Hi mine does the exact same thing. I believe it is because of the minimum layer time thing. Try changing that to 0.5 seconds in the custom settings. It has only started happening in the latest makerware 8.5 ( i think or whatever it is).
