I’ve owned a wanhao duplicator i3 (original) for about half a year now, I stopped using it because it it never gave good results. I decided that I am going to fix it… but I need your help.
first of all, my extruder needs to be switched out. Any suggestions on a new one?
second, nothing sticks to the bed. I’ve tried new and old fillament I’ve used glue sticks. Nothing works.
Last of all when it does print, it does a good job but after about 50 layers of printing it jumps about 2cm to the right and starts printing in mid air. I updated cura, didn’t work.
I had to drastically reduce the first layer speed to get it to stick. Somewhere around 10-15 mm/s I believe. I also always use a raft to make sure it starts off well - price of material is worth the time I save. Also had a lot of problems in the beginning because of this!
How can the firmware be reflashed without a boot loader? I would do mine i3 V2 in a heartbeat to try and get rid of the jittery Y motor and resulting ringing issue I’ve been fighting
I’ve not done it myself. But I believe you can reflash/upgrade through the usb port. I’d have to look further into it. I’d start on the wanha website, they are quite helpful
instead of using 2.1 use 15.04, or use matterhackers slicer, all give a link thro USB, if you run Repetier you can input code while you print, there are loads of choices. I think the new v2s although dirt cheap arnt best quality out of the box but with appropriate mods can be stunning. definatly go for glass or borasalite table as ali one nearly always twisted or badly bowed when shipppped. make sure glass used is FLOATED this will give you the best flatness. I never use a raft now as I print mostly in ABS. it causes too much warping. keep a “dirty” bed of leftover hairspray, occasionally moisten with acetone and scramled to make a spreadable slurry. Why does ur extruder need changing, normally its a part of it that can fail. play about with your machine more, it will give you the confidence to know what works well and what dosent, and above all, watch check track, the machine when printing. don’t just expect to put the filament in and the code and come back 3 hours later gto a perfect print. practice makes perfect. know what you need and why you need it before jumping on the bandwagon of modding just for the sake of it. if you really need hands on help and are willing to pay for my time I operate manufacturing courses to teach as little or as much as you need for your expectations by webinar. don’t give up with the i3, it a brilliant learning tool. XXX
Use glass, and upgrade to a heated bed if it does not have one already. I have a i3 kit from china, and although it has been a PIA at times, it has been a great learning tool. The best I have found for part adhesion is hairspray with the heated bed, sometimes it is actually difficult to remove parts. But I would take this over loose parts. Mine would have shifted layer issues, but mine was in the “y” axis. My shifted layers issue was caused by bad belt tension, I was using a clothespin spring as a tensioner and when the bed would move quickly it would cause it “spring” back and throw the layers off. Just don’t give up, there are a lot of people out there that have been through what you are going through.
I got mine way back, just after the V1 first came out, and while I never had any serious problems with it, I did perform a few upgrades that greatly increased the reliability and accuracy of the machine:
First, get some way to drive it over USB - Octoprint is an amazing choice if you want this to be headless, but if not, then suggestion #2 -
Simplify3D. It’s still the superior slicer, IMO, and includes a lot of features and keeps you from beating yourself up wondering what the printer is doing. You can at least trust that your slicer isn’t screwing you over with this one.
As for physical mods - everyone is right about a glass bed. Get a sheet of silicone thermal pad (cheap on ebay), just a couple mil thick. cut it into 1"/2.5mm squares and use them as the substrate for your glass.
Move the endstop up to the second set of holes if you have them, or print a riser before you install the glass (cleaned masking tape and PLA is a pretty fool-proof combo on the bare build plate).
Level it with the wingnuts, then print adjusters an install those along with the extra nuts and washers - this greatly improves the stability of your leveling adjustment.
Check all the drive gears and make sure the setscrews are appropriately tight. A good bite is all that is necessary, so don’t overdo it. A dab of blue loctite doesn’t hurt here.
Finally, make sure you are leveling the Z axis on a regular basis - it should be checked every time you level the bed, which for me is after every 8-10 hours of use, give or take.
That alone should get you cranking out very acceptable prints at a decent speed. If you want to go faster, that’s also possible. You should do the first two things here anyway, as they will improve your print quality, but become essential once you push the printer faster.
First, use this guide to adjust your jerk and acceleration settings:
Also, install the upgraded extruder gear if you don’t have that already (later ones came with this I think):
Next, you can install the Z-braces from Thingiverse - these massively increase rigidity.
You will want those braces to handle the speed you’ll get after installing this, the all-metal hotend from MicroSwiss:
This enables easily printing at 7200mm/min or more with good quality filament and the rigidity mods described.
You probably also want to swap your X-axis bearing blocks with a block carrying a LM8LUU like this:
The last thing that will take you to the next level is a PEI sheet for your bed - I adhered mine to the glass with two-sided 3M thermal tape, and I print everything on this bed - ABS, PLA, PETG, all stick perfectly to it and remove with a reasonable amount of force, no sprays, tape, slurry, or glue necessary. I like it because all I have to do is wipe it clean with alcohol or acetone, and I get perfectly glass-smooth-bottom prints every time. You can actually get it in a kit now, which is convenient:
Unless you have a slicing problem or actual broken hardware, which is rare, these mods should get you printing fast with any standard material. All together it’s a list of upgrades that will run you nearly the cost of the printer itself, but it easily makes it competitive with much more expensive machines. The key is calibration, calibration, calibration. If you’re not checking and setting everything up correctly, you will never get good prints out of anything, whether $200 or $2000. Once you get everything dialed in level and square, it only requires occasional minor adjustment and lubrication.
