1 Topic by XGenesis

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Topic: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

Hello new world!

I am now a new owner of a solidoodle 2 (expert) & a rookie to the world of 3D printing!
Many months waiting for it to arrive and was surprised to see it at my door yesterday!

I have ripped it open, setup all the software and ready to give this baby a test run however I am running into problems sad

Following the HowTo guide, i have tried printing the mini solidoodle printer as my first print. Following the instructions I have ran the following settings....
Heater: 200c
Bed: 90c & 95c

Both attempts had the corners lifting and the whole base coming off the bed and flying with the extruder...

Searching google, stumbled across the wiki guide (wiki.solidoodle.com/gettingstarted) & attempted to print the thumbscrew.
Heater: 200c
Bed: 100c (start 15min after temp hit)
Unfortunately that popped off the bed and went flying with the extruder once more sad

I will try to calibrate the extruder using the paper method (looks like allen keys & will have to puncture the tape) but was hoping if anyone could provide some suggestions on how to get the ball rolling!

Thanks for your help!

Regards
Patrick

2 Reply by lawsy

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

Puncture the tape. It sees like it will be a drama but it isn't.

Print out a dial indicator mount when you can but use a piece of paper in the meantime to get everything level.

lawsy's Website

3 Reply by Rondavouz

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

Welcome!

You can use pliers on the screws to adjust from below without harming the kapton. Works the same way as the thumbscrews.

4 Reply by XGenesis

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

Thanks for the quick responses. Managed to find a small vice grip and did the paper test.

Ran the print again and the base lifted off the bed once again....

Im thinking I should adjust the z-tab a bit closer to the extruder?

Thanks for the help

5 Reply by Rondavouz (edited by Rondavouz 2013-01-30 09:29:54)

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

Yes, and also if you have some acetone clean the bed with that, it can make parts stick almost too god though.

Have a look at Ians superb site to see what the first layer should look like:
http://solidoodletips.wordpress.com/201 … st-layers/

6 Reply by XGenesis

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

Rondavouz wrote:

Yes, and also if you have some acetone clean the bed with that, it can make parts stick almost too god though.

Have a look at Ians superb site to see what the first layer should look like:
solidoodletips.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/first-layers/

Thanks for the link, will keep tweeking the z-tab till it sticks down!

Also great idea about the acetone, might give it a wipe if z-tab doesnt fix it!

Im assuming solidoodle would have done a test print before shipping so it must be okay. Probably got bumped during shipment to Australia and something has gone funny!

Will keep calibrating away.

Thanks very much for all your help people!

7 Reply by lawsy

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

Hairspray is also your friend. A quick spray to leave a thin film works wonders.

lawsy's Website

8 Reply by XGenesis

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

Here is my current pain sad
youtu.be/fmLtUIfQmRU

(why cant i post videos/links?)

9 Reply by cmetzel (edited by cmetzel 2013-01-30 16:18:03)

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

The z adjustment looks good now.  My guess is that either your bed wasnt fully heated when you started the printing or you're in a cold area of the house where your printer is.  Wipe down the bed with acetone or even hand sanitizer like I do, and spray a little hairspray in that area to help with sticking.  One other thing I want to caution you about as you said above 15 minutes before the bed heated up.  Make sure you don't leave the extruder hot for more than a few minutes when you're not printing.  This can cause plastic to burn in the extruder tip and cause clogging.  It's very common in new users and you dont want to have to learn to clear clogs if you dont have to.

One last thing on the lifting, if you have a case, put it on.  If you dont cut some plexiglass down or even cardboard to keep the build environment warm, it really does help a lot. 

Don't worry we'll get you printing like a pro in no time.  Welcome.

10 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

cmetzel wrote:

The z adjustment looks good now.  My guess is that either your bed wasnt fully heated when you started the printing or you're in a cold area of the house where your printer is.  Wipe down the bed with acetone or even hand sanitizer like I do, and spray a little hairspray in that area to help with sticking.  One other thing I want to caution you about as you said above 15 minutes before the bed heated up.  Make sure you don't leave the extruder hot for more than a few minutes when you're not printing.  This can cause plastic to burn in the extruder tip and cause clogging.  It's very common in new users and you dont want to have to learn to clwar clogs if you dont have to.

One last thing on the lifting, if you have a case, put it on.  If you dont cut some plexiglass down or even cardboard to keep the build environment warm, it really does help a lot. 

Don't worry we'll get you printing like a pro in no time.  Welcome.

moving to the repair forum.

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

11 Reply by ronsii

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

XGenesis wrote:

Here is my current pain sad
youtu.be/fmLtUIfQmRU

(why cant i post videos/links?)


Looks like it came off the bed pretty easy... kinda like the bed is not clean(use acetone), also you're probably over extruding just a bit.
extruder calibration vid. --->https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZGdMc2ebPo

Btw. you need 5 posts to post links smile

12 Reply by XGenesis

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

cmetzel wrote:

The z adjustment looks good now.  My guess is that either your bed wasnt fully heated when you started the printing or you're in a cold area of the house where your printer is.  Wipe down the bed with acetone or even hand sanitizer like I do, and spray a little hairspray in that area to help with sticking.  One other thing I want to caution you about as you said above 15 minutes before the bed heated up.  Make sure you don't leave the extruder hot for more than a few minutes when you're not printing.  This can cause plastic to burn in the extruder tip and cause clogging.  It's very common in new users and you dont want to have to learn to clear clogs if you dont have to.

One last thing on the lifting, if you have a case, put it on.  If you dont cut some plexiglass down or even cardboard to keep the build environment warm, it really does help a lot. 

Don't worry we'll get you printing like a pro in no time.  Welcome.

Thanks a lot for the help. Unfortunately I have made sure that the bed had warmed up to 100c and maintained temperature for 10-15minutes before printing.

I had a feeling it wouldnt be good leaving nozzle on and hence only turn on the heating once bed has fully warmed up. Thanks for confirming my paranoia!

I purchased the S2 with heated bed & full enclosure to control temps but still giving me troubles
(only to realise it was $100 less than the s3 >_< but didnt want to go back of the order queue haha )

I think the next option will be to wipe down the bed as I have had no trouble at all removing any prints.

I managed to finally print a mini solidoodle but did notice the raft lifting on the edges of the print. Luckily it didnt come loose.

ronsii wrote:
XGenesis wrote:

Here is my current pain sad
youtu.be/fmLtUIfQmRU

(why cant i post videos/links?)


Looks like it came off the bed pretty easy... kinda like the bed is not clean(use acetone), also you're probably over extruding just a bit.
extruder calibration vid. --->youtube.com/watch?v=JZGdMc2ebPo

Btw. you need 5 posts to post links smile

Prints pop off very easily, even at 90c I can pop it off (with the raft) by hand with no residue. Its a brand new unit so not sure why the bed would not be clean..either way will give it a wipe down.

Re; over extruding; i think this may be the case as the mini solidoodle print has excessive strings/tailing. Will read up first, before i shout for help!

Thanks for all your help smile

13 Reply by ronsii

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

XGenesis wrote:

Prints pop off very easily, even at 90c I can pop it off (with the raft) by hand with no residue. Its a brand new unit so not sure why the bed would not be clean..either way will give it a wipe down.

Re; over extruding; i think this may be the case as the mini solidoodle print has excessive strings/tailing. Will read up first, before i shout for help!

Thanks for all your help smile

Sounds like there might be something on there, it doesn't take much handling to get oils from your skin to affect the bed and I don't know the procedures SD has when installing/cleaning/packing the bed??? so even though it may look clean it's the invisible traces left behind that will get you... case in point, I run a manufacturing company and we finish metal items with an oxidizer... well we started having problems with uneven splotches on quite a bit of the product... turns out one of the workers handling the items was using a hand cleaner with lanolin in it and not wearing gloves all the time when handling out product...the lanolin in the hand cleaner made a pretty good inhibitor for our colorant smile

Hard to tell on the overextruding from the video... once you get the basic areas working right then it's time to start zeroing everything else in, when it's doing some solid fill in layers if it starts to really 'plow' a lot of plastic around then it's definetly overextruding smile and if it plows too much this could cause other problems... knocking loose models, missing steps, etc... but your print looks like it came loose way too easy... should be sticking better from the setting you said.

14 Reply by XGenesis (edited by XGenesis 2013-01-31 09:04:52)

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

ronsii wrote:
XGenesis wrote:

Prints pop off very easily, even at 90c I can pop it off (with the raft) by hand with no residue. Its a brand new unit so not sure why the bed would not be clean..either way will give it a wipe down.

Re; over extruding; i think this may be the case as the mini solidoodle print has excessive strings/tailing. Will read up first, before i shout for help!

Thanks for all your help smile

Sounds like there might be something on there, it doesn't take much handling to get oils from your skin to affect the bed and I don't know the procedures SD has when installing/cleaning/packing the bed??? so even though it may look clean it's the invisible traces left behind that will get you... case in point, I run a manufacturing company and we finish metal items with an oxidizer... well we started having problems with uneven splotches on quite a bit of the product... turns out one of the workers handling the items was using a hand cleaner with lanolin in it and not wearing gloves all the time when handling out product...the lanolin in the hand cleaner made a pretty good inhibitor for our colorant smile

Hard to tell on the overextruding from the video... once you get the basic areas working right then it's time to start zeroing everything else in, when it's doing some solid fill in layers if it starts to really 'plow' a lot of plastic around then it's definetly overextruding smile and if it plows too much this could cause other problems... knocking loose models, missing steps, etc... but your print looks like it came loose way too easy... should be sticking better from the setting you said.

Thanks for the tips, i will have to clean the bed.

I have tried to do a print with no raft, as you can see in the video, it looks very smudged and the nozzle pushes the plastic around. If i lift the z-tab screw, the first layer gets pulled off the bed. As you can see at end of video, with bed at 95deg, I can easily pull it off... Im guessing this shouldnt happen? haha

15 Reply by XGenesis (edited by XGenesis 2013-01-31 12:19:38)

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

ronsii wrote:
XGenesis wrote:

Here is my current pain sad
youtu.be/fmLtUIfQmRU

(why cant i post videos/links?)


Looks like it came off the bed pretty easy... kinda like the bed is not clean(use acetone), also you're probably over extruding just a bit.
extruder calibration vid. --->https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZGdMc2ebPo

Btw. you need 5 posts to post links smile

Decided to do an extruder calibration, however as it was extruding 100mm it started to skip/slip?

EDIT: all good, pulled out enough abs from the roll so it wouldnt drag from the roll. would cause it to skip. It was over extruding by 20.88mm, got it perfect to the mm now smile

16 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

XGenesis wrote:
ronsii wrote:
XGenesis wrote:

Here is my current pain sad
youtu.be/fmLtUIfQmRU

(why cant i post videos/links?)


Looks like it came off the bed pretty easy... kinda like the bed is not clean(use acetone), also you're probably over extruding just a bit.
extruder calibration vid. --->https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZGdMc2ebPo

Btw. you need 5 posts to post links smile

Decided to do an extruder calibration, however as it was extruding 100mm it started to skip/slip?

EDIT: all good, pulled out enough abs from the roll so it wouldnt drag from the roll. would cause it to skip. It was over extruding by 20.88mm, got it perfect to the mm now smile

Glad everything is resolved!

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

17 Reply by caswal

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

Hey XGenesis, where in Australia are you?

Lead Programmer & Co-Owner of Camshaft Software - Creators of Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game

caswal's Website

18 Reply by bahstrike

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Re: Trouble with Solidoodle prints (first time)

I was gonna say that looks REAL fast for 1st layer..  smile