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Dec 2016
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Jan 2017
Jan 2017
Curtis_Newton
Dec '16

Hi,

I tried to make a glass bed +tape on my flashforge creator pro

and I thought this would go slick, well not really

- the glass was not at the right dimensions, apparently Flashforge does not seem to find relevant to display the right dimensions on their web sites and prefer rounded values (in inches, come on middle age is over already)

- the glass (+tape) is 4mm thick, but the printer head pushed real hard on it with almost no possibility to correct it with the 3 leveling knobs

did anyone had the issue ?

thanks

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    Dec '16

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    Jan '17
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wirlybird
Dec '16

There is more to it than just plopping the glass on. A little research would have shown that at a minimum a shim is required for the Z axis to give it the proper spacing.

Plus methods of adhesion assistance people have found to work well for different materials.

A lot of manufacturers will state dimensions in overall inches such as 9" X 6" then also in exact mm which could be the plate size or the actual usable build size.

Also, depending on where the glass comes from it can easily be off some. I have four pieces for my printers and they are not exactly the same dimensions as the bed. One piece is an 1/8" larger in both dimensions than advertised. It has no effect on usability.

All of these clones have the same basic bed dimension so it is again no real mystery.

Curtis_Newton
Dec '16

I thought it was just about puting the glass on and tighting it up

nobody ever mentioned anything about modifying the printer

what I did is put painter tape directly on the blue FF bed, works like a charm

wirlybird
Dec '16

Some find the tape works well for them. Word is that 3M blue is the one to use. Some have said other brands haven’t worked as well but who knows.

Search thingiverse for Flashforge glass bed and you will find plenty of stuff.

This is one of the shims I use. I have modified it for the thickness of my specific glass.

Curtis_Newton
Dec '16

this forum is the worst

I cannot create a new thread for some reason

in my profile I can see my post, but there is no way to click on them to go to the thread page

come on !!! has this been writen by ewoks ?

anyway happy new year, and can someone tell me why in 2017, there is no way to print via usb…people saying 3D printing involves too much data passing through usb, ??? I think usb can handle these files that we store on SD cards just fine, and nothing on earth keeps any chip to write files received from a pc through usb cable to a bloody SD card, and then use it as usual…this is ludicrous…even if it tales ages, at least we would have the choice

can someone en-light me on this ? I really dont want to install octoprint on a bloody raspberry…wich will probably use the usb cable to talk to the printer anyway …wtf ???

jfield
Jan '17

It is quite possible to print via usb and many people do it all the time. USB can definitely handle the data (under normal conditions) that pass through to the printer. Some of the problems that can arise though are: 1.) USB is handled by Windows, and especially Win 10 can do seemingly strange things like shut down USB to save battery usage, or interrupt the data stream as windows does what it considers to be much more important processes. 2.) Again especially WIN 10 wants to do updates that it thinks are much more important than anything else that the computer may be doing at the time, then decide it is time to restart the computer because, hey who would be using there computer at 3am right? (What? you say thats 18hrs into your 20 hr 3d print??)

3.) People want use that 12ft usb cable to plug in their printer that they got from China for 99 cents, it has to be good quality right?

Of course if you can make sure that you fix all these settings in Windows, but you never know for sure!

That being said I do print through usb sometimes, but I have screamed at my screen a couple of times when I see the Win notification saying ‘It looks like Windows can Restart your computer at 3am…’ NNNOOO!! I will be in the middle of a 10hr print!!!

matt009
Jan '17

I’ve been using a custom-cut tempered glass bed. Unfortunately all I could find in tempered glass was 1/8" thick, which meant I also had to replace the springs on the bed to shorter ones, so that the nozzle head wouldn’t hit. I’d say the whole process took less than half an hour (toughest part was removing the sticky stock print bed).

I got the glass from onedayglass.com 3. Specs: tempered, rectangle, 9/18" x 6 1/16", 1/8" thick, clear, seamed edge. As a tip, order two of them. The piece price drops to make it the same cost as ordering one.

I got the springs from McMaster, Item #9657K275.

I’ve had no issues at all printing with this construction, prints stick really well to the bed (some hairspray at times helps them adhere).

Hope this helps.

Colin_85
Jan '17

You need to move the micro switch for the z axis down to compensate for the increased thickness or print a part that raises the z axis stop by 4 mm.

Jeremy_Orange
Jan '17

I run 5mm thick glass on all 4 of mine. No issues, you need the right size glass, measure your bed yourself, and a clip to go on the z axis behind the bed (thingiverse) and clips for the corners again, thingiverse.

Don’t use cheap glass, I know everyone does, but good glass = good experiances!

bawvu97
Jan '17

Mine came with a spacer that triggered the limit switch on my dreamer. I turned on my printer to make sure that the limit switch would trigger and stop the bed from moving up. Once it was in level mode and and had stopped moving I lowered my bed a bit and then slid the glass in. That’s when I restarted the leveling process

Curtis_Newton
Jan '17

indeed

first I believe the usb protocol to be strong enough to handle these cases

and nothing forbids the printer firmware to first load all the data from the pc before starting the print

then the whole data would be stored on the sd card in a temp file for instance, since it’s an arduino, it wont store it in it’s own memory

so usb lags/breakages wont interfere, also the arduino mega is powered by the printer power supply so no power outage would ruin the printing even if usb is down

then the guy from FlashForge confirmed it was not possible to print via usb

their FlashPrint does not do that unless it’s a Dreamer model

and also that a single tap on the usb would stop the printing…wtf…and it cost me 900$

I never encountered such a bad design while it could be way better (no I got no time to reinvent the wheel myself :wink: )

anyway I’ll try with OCTOPRINT, seams like a neat option :slight_smile: but it still uses usb

and happy new year dude :wink:

SOC3D
Jan '17

We print to FFCP’s via USB without issue. One of our creators has a broken SD card slot and we haven’t repaired it yet so we just do all of the prints via USB.

Curtis_Newton
Jan '17

actually I just put TESA white tape on the blue bed and PLA works awesome(with a draft)

no need for that update anymore (so far)

but still good to know

I am also printing tons of upgrades for the filaments guides (dust filters …)

I will replace the black guides by PTFE plastic guides for filaments

and I’ll also try 0.2mm nozzles

Curtis_Newton
Jan '17

the issue here is clearly the height

how come my glass is 4mm thick and it does not work

maybe becos it’s mirror glass , thought it was a better idea than regular glass

also other people tell me a shim is mendatory for that upgrade

Curtis_Newton
Jan '17

what software ? FlashPrint does nnever trigger any usb printing and I had confirmation it was normal with the FFCP

GarthVader
Jan '17

I had to print a shim that was same thickness of glass and put on bed frame work between the rods to trigger the limit switch.

Flash forge creator pro.

Invize
Jan '17

You need to print out a spacer to put at the back around the z-screw. You can find several designs for various glass thickness on Thingiverse.com 4.

cobnut
Jan '17

I print to my FF Pro all the time with USB, using Simplify3D, but I think it’s common to most slicing software. I’d suggest printing via USB is the more common method for consumer 3D printers, with printing via SD card usually being an additional feature. Of course, you have to make sure the software has actually recognised the printer and you’ve selected the right COM port, etc. Octoprint uses USB to communicate as well, so if you can do it via Octoprint, you should be able to do it via the PC directly.

Curtis_Newton
Jan '17

I accidentaly hit the usb cable moving the printer and it indeed canceled the print

nice …f~#king flashforge arduino

wirlybird
Jan '17

Yes, the shim is needed unless you want to move the limit switch which makes no sense to do. I told you this at the start of this thread and so has every one else.

Your3DConcepts
Jan '17

you have to print out a Z spacer and install it in the printer before installing the glass bed check thingiverse they have several