1st post, I just recently purchased the printer and its being shipped to the house. So I’m super excited and just browsing a bit I caught on some neat things such as the plastic nut adapter that prevents abrasions to the electrical wires. Any other tips/upgrades I need to know for my first time printing? I’m fluent using Autodesk on campus but at home I’m limited to using 123D from Autodesk too since I have some background with it plus its free. So I hope I won’t run into issues with it.
Tip 1: The golden rule for the FFCP is to ALWAYS remember to LEVEL your Build Plate. When you wake up in the morning and turn it on, before you have your first pot of coffee, before you start any print, level your build plate. You will save more prints that way than any other… plus you won’t damage you build plate by having your head plow into it and scratch it all up or worse.
Tip 2: Blue painters tape and glue stick for PLA printing, 190-210 extrusion temp, only up to 60 bed temp (you can leave the bed off.) Blue Tape and ABS Slurry (a mix of ABS scrap filament and acetone) for ABS, 220ish extrusion temp, 110 bed temp ENCLOSED with a constant and even heat (also keep the printer in a well ventilated area since ABS produced more fumes than PLA when melted.) With a glass build plate use aerosol hairspay (like aquanet) for PLA and Slurry of ABS, nothing else changes.
Tip 3: Ask lots of questions.
Required Upgrades: Three upgrades you should use (all found easily on thingiverse) are Active Cooling Duct for your print heads (best for PLA printing but I have used it for maintaining air flow within the enclosure for ABS and it helps;) a filament tube holder (moves the filament out from the machine body, helps reduce tension on the filament;) and an extruder cable support clip of some kind. If you are going to get a glass build plate for your bed a shim and edge clips are nice to print out before you install the plate so when you go to use it you can keep your printhead for smashing into the plate and breaking it.
Just to append what I already added is this. I am a terrible self promoter, but I started my own blog about 3d printing a little bit ago. I made a page that can be useful to you (since I wrote it as the page I wish I’d had when I started.) It’s my “useful links” page, it has links to several things on it but the links for Modeling and Slicing are worth looking at → Useful Links | Fabricating Reality: A Blog 2
Of special interest to you would be OpenScad and Blender for modeling and then Slic3r for Slicers… I still need to add GPX and install info for it too. I plan on getting to that soon.
Awesome, just downloaded it. Now playing with the software, I’ve noticed that I needed a print utility Mesh Mixer or Print Studio. Is that required? Or can I just send the STL files directly to the FF printer? I downloaded Mesh Mixer just in case.
So basically the only software I should be tinkering with now is Autodesk 360(STL files) and ReplicatorG(Gcode, like the printers language)? So I don’t need Mesh Mixer unless I’m needing to refine or repair the prints correct?
Use the glue stick on the tape to improve adhesion of you bottom layer or raft to the print bed.
I use an IKEA table for mine, so it should hold up. Vibrations is only an issue when the head as to move back and forth a lot over a short range, i.e. really fine details or short sections on a print. if you plan your models right it won’t be much of an issue. If you get a lot of shaking you will likely as not fail the print anyway as the head can be thrown off (I’ve seen as much a 10mm shift before from it.)
Brands are a bit touchier. So filaments are harder or easier to get depending on your location. ColorFabb is good as is Proto-Pasta (though somewhat specialized.) My suggestion is to try out a variety of brands. I have had some good luck with eSun’s PLA.
As to Slicing, ReplicatorG is very basic but a nice one to start will. You can print gcode over USB but I wouldn’t. USB is slow and on long prints if your PC loses power, freezes, flutters, or goes to sleep and stops sending info of the USB the print fails. If the USB communications lag the print fails, basically any print longer than 15 minutes should be done with an SD card instead. RepicatorG has a way to save the gcode to x3g onto an SD card, (GPX lets you do this with Slic3r and other slicing programs, you will head a lot about Simplify3d but learn RepicatorG first it will help you trouble shot other slicers later.) x3g is the printer’s native command language and the FFCP comes with 2 or 4 gig SD card with several files including installation and set up instructions in PDF, you can use this card for printing x3g files as well.
