Hi all, New here, so hi!
I’ve just bought my CTC printer and got it all running and producing decent prints. I do have a problem, however. As soon as I press the print button, all the axes shift. The X/Y shift to the top front and the Z moves all the way to the bottom. This is just before the heating stage. The Z axis sounds like it’s trying to go down too far, and makes a loud clunking sound for 2-3 seconds.
I’m using replicatorG. Any ideas? I’m struggling to get my head around it.
Thanks in advance.
Hi, the head/platform alignment seems ok, mine does that too - and then after heating up, the platform rises to meet the head and the printing starts.
The clunking sound you’re getting is indeed not normal and in my view, could be related to the following reasons:
- some material leftover or some other physical object stuck between the platform and the end of the elevator screw, which would prevent the platform from lowering all the way down
- the platform is indeed being told to go lower than the physical limit of the printing area - in this case, you could check the gcode files being generated with ReplicatorG - which version is it by the way, where did you download it from?
- do you print directly from ReplicatorG or do you use other software/process to execute the jobs on the printer?
- also, to narrow it down only to ReplicatorG generated gcodes, if you try to print the examples pre-included in the SD Card, does it also happen? If so, then it’s not ReplicatorG related and possibly some calibration routine needs to be re-executed…?
Try to use Makerbot Software at first an see if your problem is gone. This might be some problem of your printer settings. Maybe you selected the wrong printer.
Picking up on MasterFX’s comment, the settings I have on my ReplicatorG 0040 for my CTC-3D are:
Machine > Machine Type (Driver) > The Replicator Dual
Have you leveled the plate?
