Initial Issues with the SD Press & How to Fix Them. (Page 3 of 4)

Yes, you still have to use 1.0 if you want to use calibration.

I got the tip from someone in a norwegian forum, so i thank him:)
He said it's something that were normal back in the old days.

Hi, thanks to everyone on this forum, after days of messing around pulling my hair out I have finally got a print off the Press. Just thought I'd also throw in my 'steps to printing success' based on the main things I've done to make it happen

1. Use an elastic band to secure the cord to the extruder head out of the way – as suggested and explained in the first post.

2. When installing SoliPrint, you will need to manually install drivers if you are using Windows 8.1. Download from Solidoodle Support.

3. Don’t bother printing onto the glass plate without some sort of adhesive – water soluble glue, hair spray, tape, acetone + ABS mixture… it’s up to you. I’m trying perforated PCB’s at the moment, but don’t want to claim them successful or not without much more printing (although so far so good).

4. When you start a print, be at the ready to manually pop the auto-calibration tool up and down – it’s better to be safe than sorry! I posted some videos caught when this failed to happen on Youtube, just search for Solidoodle Press Nozzle Collision' and 'Solidoodle Press Auto Level Collision.'
   
5. Don’t rely on what you see on screen in SoliPrint – while you might move your model to a certain location, it will still always print in the center of the plate unless you move it within the Slic3r Options menu. You can also only print 1 STL file at a time (seriously? Come on Solidoodle).
   
6. Try the Slic3r settings in my attached image – these are the settings from my first successful print. Perhaps the main one is the nozzle temperature as I feel the default 215 degrees is simply too low for ABS plastic – the Up! Plus 2 uses 260 degrees, possibly allowing the plastic to flow more smoothly. I think somewhere in between (230 degrees) is a good middle ground, at least to begin with. Also I have slowed the printing speeds down to give the plastic a good chance to adhere – at full speed things are really moving fast and shaking around.

Mine was initially bent left and I bent it right but I still had a rubber band holding it up just in case.

Finally got a chance to look at this again -- work's been eating all my time.

When I calibrate, the values jump to 5.  Even if I manually set them to 0, and yes, I hit the "Set Offset" button.  Multiple times.  It doesn't matter -- the moment I hit the "start calibration" button, the values jump back to 5.  The multi-point bed probing goes fine, but as soon as the print starts, the extruder goes 2mm through the bed.  I can't use the check boxes, b/c I need to make a 2mm change at minimum, and the check boxes only go to 0.05mm. 

I've attached a screenshot of the screen just after finishing the "probe" part of the Z-axis calibration -- I had to kill the Press before it smashed the extruder into the bed again.

Yes, G29 will level the bed. BTW, with RH or pretty much another other software, you'll want to make zoffset physically correct. The usual route to improving adhesion is to extrude a little extra plastic on the first layer. The SP z tool instead, has you make the first layer shorter than the slicer knows about.

ISSUE:  A knocking/thumping sound is coming from the extruder stepper. 
CAUSE:  This is because the grub/set screw on the hobbed gear can be loose.
FIX: Check that it is aligned with the flat part of the shaft & tighten it with a 1.5mm wrench.  If you move the wires on the left (where the probe is) you can access it through the heat sink fins.  If it is missing, Solidoodle confirmed that it is an m3 x 3 set screw.

maybe im wrong, and would love a picture if someone could provide one.  but i see no way in hell to get access to the set screw that holds the gear on the stepper motor shaft.

Edit.

Im an asshole and forgot that people refer to Allen keys as Allen wrenches, thus my confusion. Lol. Thanks for the advice.

Ugh I pretty much give up on this SOLIDOODLE press. Every time I try to print ANYTHING the nozzle keeps hitting the boundaries of the X axis and the Y axis. I don't know what to do anymore. It makes a concerning noise that's obviously throwing the calibration off. None of the slicer settings have been modified. Using the stock version of SoliPrint.

It seems that the printer thinks the head is somewhere that it's not. Help.

I can't stress enough:

BUY Simplify3D.  The Press hardware is pretty great and for the price, it's a steal.

What you're experiencing are software problems easily solved with either S3D (if you're willing to shell out the coin) or learning RH/G-code.  It's a matter of what's important to you: your time/energy/frustration or a bit of money?

Once I gave up on SoliPrint, I was able to get great prints from my Press with S3D.  If you can get over having to shell out $150 for the software, you'll be incredibly happy with your machine.  I had already purchased S3D for my MakerBot, so the decision had already been made a long-time ago.

S3D is superior to every piece of 3D printing software I've used.  And it got my significantly better prints off my Replicator than I thought was even possible.  Nearly everyone I've shown the software has gone and bought it afterwards.

If anyone has it and a Press, I'd love to see it all work together

this gentlemen speaks the truth, and im on of those "everyones hes shown the software to".  really a no brainer, ESPECIALLY if you think this will not be your last 3d printer, its not like the software is only model specific that youre purchasing.

I BELIEVE, but I may be wrong and/or the thread may have been really old, I read somewhere if you email them they will set you up with a trial.