SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — Good prints/ failed prints

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (LdyMox) — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 18:54:26 +0000

Over all during the last year plus. I would say I get about a 20% failure rate for various reasons. I just come to expect failed prints every few prints.

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (Gordym) — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 17:46:37 +0000

I've had my printer for quite a while now. I was one of the first batch of SD2s released. Like the others posting here, my first number of prints were not totally successful. Some complete failures. I save most of my prints, even the failed ones just because their failures look spectacular enough to call them art. In the past six months, I have been designing prototype parts for projects I've been working on and they have all printed completely. Some worked while others did not due to poor measuring and other design flaws. As far as printing goes, all have printed. I maintain my printer regularly but found that my bed does not fluctuate much and needs little adjusting.

I use the standard heated print bed with Kapton tape. I do not print on glass like many people here simply because I do not have problems with the standard bed. I've replaced the hot end once with another standard Solidoodle hot end. I do not keep the cover on and do not have issues with heat escaping the unit. My prints stick well to my bed and I do not print with a brim. It took a while to get my printer adjusted to print like this but the time was well worth it.

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (browner87) — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 17:29:03 +0000

First 3 months of ownership - not a single good print. Power supply wouldn't heat the bed, everythign peeled in 60-120 seconds.

Next 2 months - Small prints worked, still peeled pretty bad though

Last 4-6 weeks - Not a single failed print. Got the right combination of temps, speeds, layer heights, small brim, and using an ABS/acetone slurry to prep the kapton tape on my glass bed that is properly leveled.

tl;dr - heat glass bed, kapton tape, acetone slurry, and small brim. Prints stick and no other problems out of the box.

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (ggunners) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 15:57:00 +0000

Many of my prints are designs by others. Some of those designs are not really conducive to having a successful print if success means the print looks like the .STL model before slicing.

If success means the print finished, it would increase the success ratio.

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (ronsii) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 06:01:08 +0000

Like Ward says it depends on a lot of variables....

Since most of the prototypes I print do not use support but probably should I get about 5-10 percent failure rate, in my regular prints(things I print more than 10 of... usually mechanically related) it is probably less than 1 percent failure rate.

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (grob) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 05:41:30 +0000

wardjr wrote:

At this point I find that the only time I end up with a failed print is when I rush to get it going.

In design, slicing, or warm-up. Trouble is I do this all the time!

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (wardjr) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 04:16:10 +0000

I usually throw them into a container with some acetone. Needless to say I don't ever need to make ABS slurry

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (Ggalisky) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 04:05:24 +0000

Oh never mind the last comment. Any ways I would define and old print as something that didn't print the way you wanted, or you didn't want it any more. You end up throwing away your old prototypes right?

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (wardjr) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 04:02:24 +0000

Ggalisky wrote:

Not that I would know anything about your old prints.

I'm still confused... Is there a question that I'm missing?

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (Ggalisky) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 03:31:40 +0000

Not that I would know anything about your old prints.

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (elmoret) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 03:28:49 +0000

Over the last 500 prints, I've had 30 failures, give or take. Most of those come from running out of filament mid-print and botching the changeover.

It helps that 99% of those prints have been the same gcode.

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (wardjr) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 02:47:30 +0000

What do you mean by "old prints"? I do a lot of prototyping so I throw a lot away.

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (Ggalisky) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 02:43:56 +0000

Just curious do you keep any of your old prints? Also thanks for the printer advice I'm am going to need it.

Re: Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (wardjr) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 02:39:30 +0000

That's a very loaded question that heavily depends on so many variables.
Inexperience will lead to about 50% failures
Poor calibration will get you about 30% failures
So you end up at about a 20% chance of success.
Don't freat as both of these things can be fixed.
It takes a while to truely understand all the components of a successful print.
At this point I find that the only time I end up with a failed print is when I rush to get it going.
Taking time to review your profiles for each particular print job and then reviewing the G-code output can save a lot of failed prints.
So the short answer is that it really depends on the user and the printer. At this point I would guess that about 95% of my prints are successful. The failures breakdown like this... 4% I screwed up and the remaining 1% is from something breaking on the printer.

Good prints/ failed prints

null@example.com (Ggalisky) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 02:16:01 +0000

What is the average ratio for good prints to bad prints in your experiences?