1 Topic by monitron

  • monitron
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Topic: My mostly positive Press experience

Hi all,

I'd like to share notes from my mostly successful first week with the Press. I hope this doesn't come off as gloating, and I'm in no way in favor of letting Solidoodle off the hook for the Press' design flaws and the embarrassing software. But maybe the contents of this post will help someone. This is my first 3D printer, btw, though I've been admiring them from afar for some time.

My Press was part of the second batch to ship, and arrived here in Maryland on Tuesday. It came with some "natural" ABS and a rather depressing-looking test print. It doesn't seem to have any of the issues anyone here has talked about except for the completely boneheaded design flaw where the wire loom gets in the way of the carriage movement. The information on this forum saved me from disaster by allowing me to just hold the wiring out of the way while the axes are homed, then keep the lid propped open during printing. I imagine that I will have to come up with a real solution before I print anything big enough to use the leftmost quarter of the bed...

Soliprint is truly useless. The copy of Repetier-Host I downloaded from Solidoodle is also suboptimal since it's old and missing a profile for the Press. I downloaded my own Repetier-Host and configured it with Start G-Code from this forum (to make sure homing happens in the right order) plus Slic3r settings using Soliprint's as a starting point, then tweaked manually. Repetier-Host has worked extremely well and would be light years ahead of Soliprint even if the latter weren't dangerously buggy. For instance, the ability to preview the tool path before printing has saved me hours and meters of filament.

Print quality has generally been great (see a photo, attached, of some of the things we've printed). Results at 0.3mm layer height exhibit some moire but are totally reasonable in terms of resolution, strength, etc. I had one instance of an axis skip, or something, resulting in a jump to the left and concomitant spaghetti. Prints have stuck to the bed pretty well in nearly all cases using Extra Super Hold Aqua-Net.

My one problem is that sustained overhangs are curling upwards, eventually piling up and colliding with the nozzle. I've been avoiding that by reorienting, cutting and supporting prints to avoid more than mild overhangs. If anyone has any ideas about this, I'd love to hear about them.

One happy discovery: Micro Center sells a ridiculously cheap brand of ABS by the name "Toner." I saw 1kg spools for <$20 and had to pick a few up because, what do I have to lose? I started printing with the silver color yesterday and not only are the results perfect, but the spools fit the "proprietary" holder on the top of the Press! They're too tall so the top cover doesn't close, but as I can never keep the thing closed anyway...

So, did Solidoodle succeed in producing a consumer printer? NO. Not even close. But mine, at least, with some minor fiddling and help from this amazing forum, has been good to me so far.

Thanks for reading!

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2 Reply by n2ri

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

cool!
2 notes. dont spray hairspray inside printer as it gums all moving parts including fans. and Microcenters filament is often marked down to $15 a spool.

hope Sam makes things right on his prized printers not as fabulous as he stated. but history says not likely. kinda like Bill Gates with just sell a new version of bugs. ;^P

Solidoodle 2 with Deluxe kit cover & glass bed with heater. and 2nd board SD2 used not 3rd and alum platform not installed yet still wood. also need cooling fan installed to board. use Repetier Host couple vers. Slic3r also have all free ware STL programs

3 Reply by AZERATE

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

monitron wrote:

So, did Solidoodle succeed in producing a consumer printer? NO. Not even close. But mine, at least, with some minor fiddling and help from this amazing forum, has been good to me so far.

This is the nature of 3D printing. Even an Ultimaker will require tweaking. The Press isn't necessarily a bad printer...you are simply blazing the trail for new users on a new product. With that said, I am happy for you and your prints look great!

Printit Mason and Printit Horizon printers
Multiple SD2s- Bulldog XL, E3D v5/v6/Lite6, Volcano, Hobb Goblin, Titan, .9 motor, Lawsy carriages, direct Y drive, fishing line...the list goes on
Filawinder and Filastruder #1870.....worth every penny!

4 Reply by bibulb

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

monitron wrote:

Hi all,
The copy of Repetier-Host I downloaded from Solidoodle is also suboptimal since it's old and missing a profile for the Press.

Just out of curiosity, are you using a Mac? I noticed that the Solidoodle-specific Repetier-Host that they offer for the Mac is about a year and a half old now, while the PC version has been updated with Press settings. (And when I asked Solidoodle about it, they sent me a link to Soliprint. Thanks, guys.)

5 Reply by Robny

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

This is a very encouraging report, thanks for sharing your experience.

I haven't received my Press yet and I was beginning to get a little nervous with the initial reports, but this gives me some encouragement. 

Thanks again

6 Reply by monitron

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

bibulb wrote:

Just out of curiosity, are you using a Mac? I noticed that the Solidoodle-specific Repetier-Host that they offer for the Mac is about a year and a half old now, while the PC version has been updated with Press settings. (And when I asked Solidoodle about it, they sent me a link to Soliprint. Thanks, guys.)

Yup, this was on a Mac. Thanks for pointing this out. Unfortunately, unless I'm missing something, even the official Repetier-Host for Mac is noticeably behind the Windows one. So, for now, I'm hosting my printer on a Windows box. No big deal, once I fixed the GPU issue that was crashing that machine every few hours yikes

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7 Reply by trayracing

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

monitron wrote:

Hi all,
...

My one problem is that sustained overhangs are curling upwards, eventually piling up and colliding with the nozzle. I've been avoiding that by reorienting, cutting and supporting prints to avoid more than mild overhangs. If anyone has any ideas about this, I'd love to hear about them.

I've had that problem too to the point where the print head would eventually dislodge the print, even with a brim. It's worse with the inlcuded ABS than with the "Toner Plastics" brand filament and I was able to get past the curl using the Toner Plastic filament.  (The fist picture is shooting across the top of the part to show the warping, the second is just to give a better idea of what was printing.

Ultimately I added some flashing to the model to hold down the warping area.

Perhaps it may not be the Solidoodle filament itself but moisture in it. My filament came in the printer, unsealed, with a small dessicant packet optimistically included to ward off a few weeks of moisture on the Pacific ocean. Since ABS is hygroscopic, and moisture can somtimes cause warping (more famously in nylon), my filament is in the oven right now. I was worried I might slump the spool, but Solidoodle support suggests "You can put your spool in the oven on on the lowest temp like 150-200F for a short period of time". If you do, use a thermometer to check the oven temp - some ovens can be very inaccurate.

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8 Reply by monitron

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

n2ri wrote:

cool!
2 notes. dont spray hairspray inside printer as it gums all moving parts including fans. and Microcenters filament is often marked down to $15 a spool.

Thanks on both parts. Luckily I did enough reading here ahead of time to know the bed was removable and to make sure I do so before spraying my Aqua-Net smile

AZERATE wrote:

This is the nature of 3D printing. Even an Ultimaker will require tweaking. The Press isn't necessarily a bad printer...you are simply blazing the trail for new users on a new product. With that said, I am happy for you and your prints look great!

Thanks so much smile hoping my good luck continues and that I keep learning to make them even better.

Robny wrote:

This is a very encouraging report, thanks for sharing your experience.

Happy to help...that's exactly what I was going for. I felt exactly the same way before mine arrived. I figured most people who don't  have an issue aren't going to post, so it looks pretty bleak on the forums. On the other hand, all the complaints (and solutions) here helped me avoid a number of pitfalls which would otherwise have probably made me very unhappy with the Press. Good luck with yours, and let me know if you want my Repetier-Host/Slic3r configs!

trayracing wrote:

I've had that problem too to the point where the print head would eventually dislodge the print, even with a brim. It's worse with the inlcuded ABS than with the "Toner Plastics" brand filament and I was able to get past the curl using the Toner Plastic filament.

Thanks for posting the images; your overhang issue looks very similar to mine including curled-up top edges and goopy bottom edges. I'd be interested to hear if the time in the oven helps. Unfortunately I think my silver Toner ABS seems to exhibit the same problem, but I haven't tested it thoroughly. I'll try it tomorrow using a model that failed before on the Solidoodle ABS. It would be great if the issue was just filament-related!

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9 Reply by Robny

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

monitron wrote:

Good luck with yours, and let me know if you want my Repetier-Host/Slic3r configs!

Thank you
That would be very helpful, I'm doing the same as you, a lot of reading and gathering information from other peoples experience and hoping I can share my own findings when it arrives, although I'm somewhat of a newb.  Your settings are obviously working great and it would be a great starting point to begin with.

Thanks again, this is a great community
Rob

10 Reply by Fredjikrang

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

I would also be interested to see your Repeater-Host configs!

11 Reply by j3ffa2z

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

+1 one on the configs. I would prefer to host the machine on my Mac vs. old Windows laptop. I'm stuck with Soliprint on the Mac though sad

12 Reply by Fredjikrang

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

Same here.

13 Reply by trayracing

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

I would also be interested in the configs. And oddly enough, also if you have them for the SD2.  I would like to try and configure photoshop to run the Press. (They have a config for the SD2, so it should be close and the SD2/Press deltas would make it easier.)

Wait - Photoshop? Yeah. They've been adding 3D printing features over the last few releases. You can't create models with it, but they apparently put a lot of effort into slicing, intelligent supports and driving printers. (Also for adding image textures to models, which is more for Shapeways than FDM.) Love to see what it can do.

14 Reply by trayracing

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

monitron wrote:
trayracing wrote:

I've had that problem too to the point where the print head would eventually dislodge the print, even with a brim. It's worse with the inlcuded ABS than with the "Toner Plastics" brand filament and I was able to get past the curl using the Toner Plastic filament.

Thanks for posting the images; your overhang issue looks very similar to mine including curled-up top edges and goopy bottom edges. I'd be interested to hear if the time in the oven helps. Unfortunately I think my silver Toner ABS seems to exhibit the same problem, but I haven't tested it thoroughly. I'll try it tomorrow using a model that failed before on the Solidoodle ABS. It would be great if the issue was just filament-related!

After the oven, the SD ABS filament behaved better and printed like the Toner Plastics filament. Still some warping, (it's ABS after all) but the extruder didn't knock the print off. 

To dry the ABS, I did 30 mins with the oven on, then turned off the oven and left it in for 30 mins.

15 Reply by sandcub1971

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Re: My mostly positive Press experience

Maybe I missed it but what was your extruder and bed temps?
Thanks