FlashForge Creator Pro 2016

[rhbruning]

Hello,

1) Did you try screwing in both nozzles until they truly stopped against the aluminum heater blocks (with amber Kapton tape). The aluminum heater blocks should both bottom out in the larger common aluminum mounting block. The aluminum mounting block should be parallel to the linear bearings/stainless bars - this is not adjustable without shims. It is also possible that the whole print head isn’t seated correctly in its carriage - this is installed by the customer.

2) Check out https://all3dp.com/1/common-3d-printing-problems-troubleshooting-3d-printer-issues/ or Google “common 3d printing problems” You likely are over extruding, your extrusion temperature is too high or if using PLA, your are not cooling it effectively.

3) For ABS, try some “ABS Juice” on your blue print bed - it almost works too well so be careful removing parts. For PLA try some Kapton tape or blue tape on the bed. Rough up the tape with some light sand paper and remove the dust with a damp cloth.

You’ll figure it out and good luck!

[bryanGo]

hey Andre i hope all is well… the nozzles actually screw in there. like a nut. perhaps you can unscrew or screw one of the other to the same level should do the trick. also, i ditched that blue pad it comes with and i bought a fleks3d and a glue stick. i rarely have a problem with my prints not sticking… unless its nylon. still to this point in time, i havent figured that one out !

best regards -Bryan

[Jason_Fritton]

You absolutely can’t just unscrew like a nut. The nozzle must be fully seated to the thermal barrier tube.

Flashforge ships their nozzles fully seated to the hot block. This is wrong. You need to unscrew the nozzle about 1/2 turn and then tighten the thermal tube against the nozzle, then after heating, again tighten nozzle. The nozzle will hang down a little lower after this so lower the bed some by tightening the leveling screws.

[Jason_Fritton]

You do not want to bottom out the heaters into the aluminum cooling block. For one, the top of the thermal tube wont go up that far without hitting the plastic extruder mechanism. You also want a gap to avoid heating the bar too much. Normal height of the hot ends is about even with where the bevel ends on the thermal tube to the cooling block/bar…

[Jason_Fritton]

There are other benefits to this setup past not having to gall up your thermal tubes with a set screw. Eventually this makes the hot end impossible to get out of the cooling bar. There is better heat transfer from the thermal tube to the cooling block since there are more metal to metal points of contact. The heatsink setup is far better and easier to disassemble.

[RogerDS]

Hello Andre,

1. Try to loosen the nozzle that is too high, or tighten the nozzle that is too low.

2. You can adjust the temperature using the menu features. Look through the manual for instructions.

3. If you use a new “Blue Print Pad” on the print bed that should make the prints stick.

Fry’s Electronics sells them in 8" X 10". for $9.

If not, try using some glue from a glue stick. Micheal’s Crafts has them.

Another idea that worked for me, is to use a sponge and clean the “Blue Pad”. Use it wet, while the print bed is hot.

Sometimes I use the green scratcher on the back of a sponge, if yours has that; and scratch the “Blue Print Pad”.

Kind regards

[a74171]

Hello, 3rd issue,clean the bed with alcohol and rise the bed temperature to 80°C. Worked for me…(in PLA)

[Jason_Fritton]

That is not correct advice to “loosen” or “tighten” a nozzle to correct height. You must move the complete hot end up or down to change height. The hot end is under extreme heat and pressure and any leakage will blow the plastic past the threads or out the top of the hot block.

[Sutcha]

Hey everyone, thank you so much for your answers! Really appreciate that!

Another issue that I observed recently:

4. Is not giving me very correct measurements, and in case if I print a tube it comes oval. 1 mm off.

[RogerDS]

Yes, you can shim up the not end with a piece of foil, but that moves the whole assembly and does not cure the real problem. We did that on a Flash Forge - Creator Pro, and it worked but also caused other problems. So, you “not correct advice. . .” is also not exact. You could have been a bit more diplomatic about your suggestion. Your statement is a bit harsh and rude.

You know

[Jason_Fritton]

Shimming the whole block is totally different than unscrewing a nozzle.

[Zoozorocks]

I’m having a problem where my bed is not heat up at all it says is it 115° but it’s like Stonecoal can someone please help me

[hahanfry]

4. If u tryto make a circular thing, but you get an oval means that x or y are not exactly at 90 degrees. My machine does the same: I make 2 squares one inside the other, but moving one square it doesnt fit inside the other. Thats because They are not square.

[RogerDS]

Yes, but one of the extruders was loose. I don’t think it is suppose to be loose. When it was tightened the hot-ends were almost even.

[Sutcha]

Yeah but I am wondering if its because of the belts not being tight enough or too tight?, and how is it possible that the xy are not square? if the machine has the exact place to put them in?

[wirlybird]

You are the one being rude. His advice is correct. To change the height of the nozzle in relation to the other nozzle you have to loosen the barrel where it attaches to the cooling bar and slide the entire hot end assembly up or down. Loosening or tightening the nozzle itself is absolutely the wrong thing to do and will only lead to problems with extrusion.

[Mark_Ingle]

Hello I am not familiar with the FlashForge but I would like to offer the following:

1. I am pretty sure the nozzles need to be at the same height…I would call support to work with someone on adjustments.

2. If you are getting a melted look it might be worthwhile to look at your extrusion rate and temperature. In my experience when I have a melted look it is due to over-extrusion and I correct it by adjusting the multiplier in the slicing software.

3. The first layer of a print is very critical to the success of a complete print. Particularly with PLA, as the plastic cools it also shrinks. So stickiness is important to keep corners and the entire first layer secured to the print bed. First make sure your nozzle height at layer 0 (zero) can pass the paper test. There is not much tolerance allowed for variance in layer 0 nozzle height. For my printer, any change in room temperature (+/-10 degrees) requires a nozzle height adjustment. Also if I jar or bump my printer/bed I will need to a paper test and adjust. Sometimes you can also increase the first layer height for the filament and also add a brim in the slicing software. If I have a long print with corner (~2-3 hours) I will always add a brim of 3mm. Hope this helps!!

[JADL26]

I own a CTC 3d printer (Makerbot Replicator clone like the FFCP) and when i got it i experienced the same problems that you seem to be experiencing.

1. For some reason, the manufacturers of replicator clones think that the buyer is only going to use 1 nozzle and ship their printers with the primary nozzle lower to reduce the chance of the other one catching on your print. To solve this, you have to remove the fans and heatsinks and undo the grub-screws holding the heatbreaks into the block that the fans screw into. now you can manually level the nozzles, re-tighten the grub screws and put everything back together

2. The melted look is a result of the temperature being too high. In Makerbot desktop, and therefore probably Flashprint, the default nozzle temp is 230 for PLA which is much too high. The temperature range for PLA is 180-220C but 195-205 is usually a good range to stick with. I do not print with ABS much because of the smell so cant recommend temperatures, but there are loads of guides that should give you an idea about the printing temperatures. With PLA, the FFCP’s lack of a print cooling fan will likely result in reduced detail along with other print artifacts. I recommend adding one to greatly improve print quality, Active Cooling Fan Duct v2 for Replicator 1 / Duplicator 4 / FlashForge / CTC by thruit00 - Thingiverse, however you do have to solder an extra MOSFET to the motherboard so you might want to wait until you are more experienced.

3.The print not sticking to the bed could be a result of many things but a few of the main causes i have come across are:

The bed temperature - When printing PLA on blue tape, you want an unheated bed because heating blue tape reduces adhesion between PLA and the tape. If that doesn’t work you may want to try other build surfaces such as a sheet of PEI instead of tape or a sheet of glass clamped to the bed which is what i have done.

The first layer height - If the bed is not properly leveled, using lower layer heights can result in the print not sticking to the bed. I have solved this by switching to a slicer that allows you to set a separate first layer height.

I have switched to using Slic3r as my slicer and since then my prints have been much better. I put this upgrade off for a while because i thought that messing arround with GPX (The post-processing tool that converts .gcode into the .x3g used by makerbotes and their clones) would be complicated. I found this video, Getting Started with the FlashForge Creator X - Slic3r on Mac OS X (3D Universe) - YouTube, and by following it and using a bit of common sense i had slic3r working within an hour. The great thing with slicers like slic3r is that they allow you to change a few things at the start, and adjust more and more as you become more experienced.

Sorry if this answer is a little long but I wanted to give you all of the information that i wish i had to sort out the issues with my printer when i got it just under a year ago.

Hope this helps

Jamie

[3ddrucker]

I am also using Fleks3D. You do not need glue - not with PLA, not with ABS.

1.) Install clamps to press the Fleks3D down when heating the bed to 100 (ABS) oder about 50 (PLA). PLA also works unheated. Without clamps, the Fleks3D bed will come up on the left and the right side.

2.) Use sandpaper once in a while to make the surface sticky again. Use it in circular motion. The surface will become more opaque with this again while removing leavings from prints before.

[trigger99]

too hot i have a ctc makerbot clone with a homemade enclosure and i print abs at 205c with a fan on for small things and 210c for big and the bad at 100c to 110c and abs juice is amazing and for pla lower the bed to 40c to 50c and use a fan blowing at the nozzles works for me but you may have to tweak it