1 Topic by Brutalsnowman

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Topic: Fine Tuning My Prints

Friends and 3D printing demigods,

I have been fine tuning and upgrading my Solidoodle 4 for quite some time, and over all I'm super happy with the prints I'm getting from it now. Thanks to Print-It and their amazing customer service and my E3d hot end and new heatbed my prints have come a long way.

That said I still have a pretty big warping issue. With my new heat bed I have tried temps everywhere from 95c to 115c. With a brim it seem any prints that take sub 10 hours have minimal warping. Anything above that a raft is required to limit warping. Are you guys seeing the same things? is there anything else I might be able to change to help this? I have walked through this amazing guide https://www.simplify3d.com/support/prin … g/#warping and I am using a head bed, I don't have a cooling fan, I did take the top off of my printer due to my filament kept falling off of my spool when I was feeding it from behind (if anyone has and recommendations on how to fix that I would be more than happy to put the top back on). If rafts is the solution I'm cool with that, but I know you all have printed way more than I have so I wanted to check smile

http://soliforum.com/i/?HJ1I3xF.jpg

Another issue I'm noticing recently is I'm getting little clumps of filament that will stick up and and the extruder will run over it and burn it. This will cause a little black spot in the print. It normally happens on the lower levels of the print but after the raft. Kinda odd has anyone else experienced this? The black spot can be seen here.

http://soliforum.com/i/?1xROfw4.png

Last question for now. I believe my sidewalls look pretty solid. But I think I'm getting a little z-wobble. Looking at my prints so far and the one below do you believe that this hack/mod would help my prints? http://www.soliforum.com/topic/2727/fix … -consumer/ or would you have any additional recommendations for me?

http://soliforum.com/i/?MvgJ1pr.jpg

I can't thank you guys enough for all of your help! If any additional pictures or information would be helpful please let me know!

Thanks smile

2 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Fine Tuning My Prints

You need a full enclosure that the temp can be kept fairly warm in that the printer is in. Or fully enclose the print area of the printer. You want the printing area temp to stay stable and warm to help minimize warping.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

3 Reply by Brutalsnowman

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Re: Fine Tuning My Prints

carl_m1968 wrote:

You need a full enclosure that the temp can be kept fairly warm in that the printer is in. Or fully enclose the print area of the printer. You want the printing area temp to stay stable and warm to help minimize warping.

Thanks for the feedback Carl. Do you have any recommendations for preventing the filament from slipping off the spool and tangling ? I have tried a number of things from thingiverse, but none of them have been optimal.

4 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Fine Tuning My Prints

Brutalsnowman wrote:
carl_m1968 wrote:

You need a full enclosure that the temp can be kept fairly warm in that the printer is in. Or fully enclose the print area of the printer. You want the printing area temp to stay stable and warm to help minimize warping.

Thanks for the feedback Carl. Do you have any recommendations for preventing the filament from slipping off the spool and tangling ? I have tried a number of things from thingiverse, but none of them have been optimal.

The spool needs to be kept under slight tension so it cannot free spin. The filament naturally wants to unwind but if the spool is kept under slight tension it can't.

My printer sets on a shelf in a recessed area in my place that is just the width of a shower rod. I hang my spools above the printer in that rod and let the top of the spool just touch the top of the recessed area. Seems the printer gets less misfeeds or slipping with an overhead feed as well. No guide tubes needed.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

5 Reply by Brutalsnowman

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Re: Fine Tuning My Prints

Just a few updates (thanks a ton Carl for the above info):

I recently backed a few 3D printer related kickstarters and they both arrived around the same time. I also took Carl's advice and fully enclosed my SD4 again.

PrintDry Filament Dryer: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/73 … ment-dryer

I have used this to "dry" a few spools. I live in a pretty dry place to start so I'm not sure how much that has helped my prints yet, but there is another plus side! using the printdry as a guide to ensure the fiament doesn't come off the spool has been working perfectly.

The second kickstarter was the LokBuild build surface: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/st … ld-surface

So far moving from a glass print bed to lok I have had AMAZING success! a quick clean and a bed adjust and re-level due to the removal of the glass and I have been able to print 3 different 10-15 hour prints with 0 warp.

http://soliforum.com/i/?UWGsGzU.jpg

http://soliforum.com/i/?hDUNafF.jpg

6 Reply by AZERATE

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Re: Fine Tuning My Prints

I'm glad you found success. I was supposed to be a beta tester for PrintDry, but they never sent me my unit, so keep us posted on how it works for you.

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!

7 Reply by heartless

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Re: Fine Tuning My Prints

not to knock the success you have had, but I did want to point something out to you that will cause you warping issues - even with your new build surface... the aluminum plate of your bed is warping. It isn't terrible, yet, but it will continue to warp as time goes on, and I believe that this is a big part of your warping issues.

I added the red line in Photoshop, drawn as one continuous line from corner to corner - note how the center of the plate is higher than the outer edges...

http://soliforum.com/i/?8nuZXrB.jpg

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1

8 Reply by AZERATE

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Re: Fine Tuning My Prints

Great catch, Heartless! The pic kinda has a walleye vision thing going on in the center, so last night I was focusing more on the X rods.

OP- When you get ready to swap your aluminum bed, I would recommend reaching out to Kronikabuse to salvage your Hale bed. He has done so several times and I keep nagging him to post a walkthrough, but he's lazy tongue
I recommend using 3M 77 spray adhesive, but I am unsure what he used.

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!

9 Reply by heartless

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Re: Fine Tuning My Prints

AZERATE wrote:

Great catch, Heartless! The pic kinda has a walleye vision thing going on in the center, so last night I was focusing more on the X rods.

OP- When you get ready to swap your aluminum bed, I would recommend reaching out to Kronikabuse to salvage your Hale bed. He has done so several times and I keep nagging him to post a walkthrough, but he's lazy tongue
I recommend using 3M 77 spray adhesive, but I am unsure what he used.

I could see it even without drawing the line... but then again, I tend to see things like that, LOL. My #2 has the same problem right now, and getting worse...

I guess we both need to kick Kronikabuse in the backside & get him to write that walk-through on removing the Hale... I need to get the one off of #2 so I can fix the warped bed... tongue I keep putting it off...

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1

10 Reply by Brutalsnowman

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Re: Fine Tuning My Prints

I't hard for me to see the warp in person. I'm wondering if that is distortion from me taking the picture through the plexi window? Here is a new picture with the door open. Looking back I should have opened the door in the first place to avoid any possible distortion, but I wasn't expecting anyone to look at that haha. Thank you all so much for the help and feedback smile

http://soliforum.com/i/?c8vTNyT.jpg

http://soliforum.com/i/?RRjePRy.jpg

11 Reply by heartless

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Re: Fine Tuning My Prints

Ok, maybe not as bad as originally thought, but yes, there is a slight warp to it

http://soliforum.com/i/?D56n3fy.jpg

if in doubt, place a straight edge on it flat to one edge. This is my #2 SD4 - obviously a bit more warped than yours is, but the ruler really shows how far out it really is...

http://soliforum.com/i/?dX55ytW.jpg

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1