SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — to raft or not to raft?

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2013-02-27T15:23:50Z

Mando I don't use raft anymore, you'll find once you get dialed in you won't need it. Did you perform the calibration steps on the wiki.solidoodle.com website?

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2013-02-27T03:04:34Z

Can you guys pls uplaod a pic of your favorite Raft settings?

thanks...

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2012-11-15T21:52:57Z

You can always wait for the parts to cool off. We don't seem to have much problem scraping the parts off in the shop.

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2012-11-09T15:56:34Z

I have been using a $0.39 nylon "thrifty trowel" to pry my parts off of the bed. The nylon makes it less likely that I will damage the kapton. I found the trowel at the local hardware store

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2012-11-09T06:30:51Z

I seem to have to realign my bed after every second or so print. I seem to be able to get the prints to stick so well when I pull them off I screw the bed alignment too.

Brad, which pliers did you print off?

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2012-11-07T18:22:13Z

BTW, I only run Slic3r...

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2012-11-07T18:20:03Z

I've had to run some very small, circular parts with no flat base on which to orient them onto the bed, so I just "model in" my own raft base just tangent to the part...about .3mm thick; or use the assembly function in CAD to set multiple parts on it if need be. Works great, but I do end up with a little nub that I need to cut and file smooth.

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2012-08-29T21:06:14Z

Mine was binding in Y axis and wouldn't move and I had a cracked carriage on the LH y-axis. Were it not for my automation design background I would have had to send it back. Parts have been replaced and calibrated and it works like a charm. For the price I'm willing to put in a little effort. I'm just appreciative that they have been able to bring the price point down to where I can have one running on my kitchen table. Still amazed and I have nothing bad to say about them.

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2012-08-29T20:59:08Z

s1 wrote:

Cmetzel:
Thanks for the pix of your prints. Were you able to make prints with the Solidoodle right out of the box or did you have to tweak any of the machine parts or software? I am trying to understand if we can use this to just make parts, or if it requires a lot of 'hand holding'. I do not have experience in this area and just want to print parts.

When I got mine, I unpacked it from the box, plugged it in, installed filament, heated it up, and printed with no calibration or anything. Still printing great with no adjustments.

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2012-08-29T19:51:07Z

In an ideal world you can just print straight from the box, however you may need to adjust the bed height depending on how your first layer lays down. Read through the posts on this forum, and read through some of the information about Skeinforge and Pronterface and you should be fine. If you have any issues let us know and I'm sure someone will help out.

Loading the software was the hardest part for me because I missed a download..

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2012-08-29T16:38:22Z

Cmetzel:

Thanks for the pix of your prints. Were you able to make prints with the Solidoodle right out of the box or did you have to tweak any of the machine parts or software? I am trying to understand if we can use this to just make parts, or if it requires a lot of 'hand holding'. I do not have experience in this area and just want to print parts.

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2012-08-26T01:31:39Z

Not too much to show so far, just playing around. I bought the s/d (do we have an accepted abbreviation yet?) to prototype some ideas that I've had so I don't have to send them out and get non disclosures, so I can't show you some of them but here's the warmups and some stuff you may recognize from thingiverse. Messed up the whistle when I tried to break the pea free the whole thing came off the bed. So far it's a blast.

Do you have a post with some of your favorite parts so far?

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2012-08-26T00:00:55Z

Good to hear!

Please post some pics of your prints, Id love to see them.

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2012-08-25T23:56:27Z

Worked great Brad, thanks

Re: to raft or not to raft?

2012-08-25T20:26:42Z

For smaller objects I use 80C, for larger ones with more bed contact I use 110C.