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Mar 2015

I wanted to share some of the optimized settings we use for printing. The first print we will discuss is the Marvin. He is the robot needed to determine your printer configuration, and your experience. With CTC we made it easy.

Lets start off saying there are NO MODS on our printers for these prints. The print settings below should generally work for everyone. Some hotter climates may need to adjust temps down.

We used Makerware with only the Standard and High presets. Makerware Firmware 7.5.

ABS:

  • 110C Build plate
  • 230-235C Extruder
  • 55-100% Infill (100% always Recommended)
  • No Raft
  • Blue Painters Tape
  • Level Build Plate!
  • Enclosure helpful on large prints

PLA:

  • 60C Build Plate
  • 200-205C Extruder
  • Blue Painters Tape
  • No raft
  • Fan on at 5th layer and up for large prints
  • Level Build Plate
  • 50-100% Infill



When printing in .05-.10mm resolutions, use a head speed of 50-60mm at Maximum. Less will yield better results, and a travel speed of 100-120

We use Blue Painters Tape on the build plate. When leveling the plate, you keep a single piece of paper under the nozzle the entire time. It should have SOME resistance. It should not be hard to pull or push the paper through.

Be advised, don’t remove the paper from under the nozzle until the leveling is complete. You wont be able to put the paper back under the nozzle if pulled with the painters tape applied.

-CTC

  • created

    Mar '15
  • last reply

    Jul '16
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It’s nice to see a manufacture here, giving advice on how to get good prints. Any advice on how to get warranty service from sellers, who claimed to be ctc, and now don’t answer emails?

I’ve just stopped trying to get a hold of them and just got the parts on eBay. The thermocouples go out around 200+ hours due to heating and cooling. I have over 2000 hrs on both my ctcs and that’s the biggest issue I’ve had with the printers. What are your issues?

6 months later
10 months later

Hi, I bought a CTC Dual recently to act as a backup to my MakerBot Replicator 2. I have lots of experience with this - I set up the Service & Support function for MakerBot UK.

I found that out of the box, the CTC did not work at all, both extruders would simply click when trying to print the supplied PLA at any temperature.

I could only get it to print anything at all by upgrading with: Spring-Loaded Extruder CTC Replicator Dual fit by LightbeamZ - Thingiverse 25 - a non destructivemodification that is exactly the same as MakerBot encourage for the Replicator - so I don’t expect this will be a warranty issue.

Now, I am printing items in ABS, and I have discovered that in order to get anything to stick and not warp significantly, I have had to increase the temperature of the nozzle to 270 and the bed to 140. I strongly doubt that these are true temperatures, as the filament will barely extrude at 235.

Are there any suggestions for checking the calibration of the temperature reporting?

I have the 7.2 firmware which reports the machine as The Creator, and am using MakerBot Desktop 3.9.2.