Press - questions from beginner (Page 1 of 2)

It doesn't connect to the computer until I turn it on.  I just got it to heat by turning it off, restarting the software, and turning it back on.  Must have been a glitch somewhere.

Question #2 - how do I lower the bed all the way?

I ran the z-offset calibration per the setup/getting started page and when it finished it left the bed up at the top of the unit, perhaps an inch below the extruder.  There's not room to get in there to see "which line looks the best" let alone clean the bed off.  Speaking of which, I assume there's some sort of coating on the glass to make it sticky? Any tricks to cleaning the bed, and does that coating need to be redone?  Like I said, very new at this.

You can move the printer axises from the Tools -> Printer Setting screen. There's sliders that you drag the direction you want it to move and let go, and it moves the motor for that axis in the direction you want.

Not the most intuitive of interfaces, but it does work.

Hopefully we can get a bit of a thread going for us clueless noobs.   I suspect there's a ton of tips and tricks out there that people who have been doing this for a while take for granted.

I just tried to print my first object - just a 10mm cube from thingiverse.  Didn't turn out so well.  I stopped the print about 1/3 of the way through when I saw it wasn't working correctly, the misplacement is towards the front of the printer if that matters.  Here's the object I used and a pic of my deformed result.  I'm not allowed to post links yet apparently but you can just copypaste these.

thingiverse.com/thing:253861

i.imgur.com/gBedHB6.jpg

Any ideas?

if spraying glass do not do this with it in the printer or moving parts will gum up fast

I've been using an ABS / Acetone mix to keep the prints on the bed on the Lulzbot I use at work. It seems to do well so far...

Post a picture and maybe we can come up with some ideas.

Your belts are loose. That is what we call a step skip, in other words, the motors didn't move the Y axis when they should have, and now the printer no longer knows where it is. Tighten up the belts a bit.

i don't own one so I don't know. analyze the system and see what's going on. I know the press uses closed-loop belts, so there is probably a tensioner at either the front, or rear, of the printer. If you take detailed pictures of the drive system, I might be able to spot where it is. Take pictures that clearly show where each belt goes. There should be a total of 4 belts on your machine, unless they designed the Y axis differently than previous models.

I don't see anything that specifically stands out, odds are I just don't know what I'm looking for yet.  There are four belts, one on the X, one on the Z and two on the Y.  I went ahead and ran the 0.1mm print again with the top open to see if I could spot anything slipping, and this time it completed without error.  Comparing the 0.3mm cube with the 0.1mm cube, the former is more accurate - the sides are smoother on the 0.1 but the 0.3 cube is a more perfect shape.  The 0.1 has sort of a divot along two of the vertical corners, where it has sort of a reverse corner, stair-step effect.

Going to try to print it using the other software, the Repetier-Host version, to see if I get any better results.  I noticed that the RH software also allows you to configure speeds, the soliprint software seems to jerk the head very rapidly during non-printing sections, I wonder if that might cause the slipping?

In the RH software, "Speed for non-print moves" is set to 130mm/s.  Should I change it?

I googled calibrating the extruder, is this link accurate?  http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to- … /?ALLSTEPS Or do you have a better one?

For the belts, I took a bunch of pictures, but I don't know what you need to see so if it's not in this bunch let me know and I can take more.

http://imgur.com/a/pY1Lx

I'm gonna make this thing work right, just needs some tweaking, and I need some of that there edumacating.