1 Topic by Personalias

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Topic: Longest print duration your printer will handle

I just got a DaVinci. I once printed an eighteen hour job on a Robo. I got allot of heat from the lab monitor, but in the end she let me do it and it worked out just fine. That is until I tried it a second time about a month later. It got six hours into the print before I woke up from a nap and realized it stooped spitting out filament.

I ask, what is the longest print job you would attempt on a DaVinci 1.0? I recently bought one second hand with 109 hours on it for $250. I am prototyping a product I would like to test the market with. I could print about a hundred units with 4 full rolls of xyz filament.

I have not hacked my printer. I've put 20 hours on it since I bought it. I can fit 24 units on a print bed. It will take 31 hours and 232 meters of filament at .4 resolution, fast speed, thin walls, 5% fill and no supports or raft. I'll likely only print 12 units at a time because I've read that the rolls spool up before the cartridge can spit out the full 240m. I've also read the extrudes are fragile.

What do you think? Would you print 15 hours straight? What the longest successful print you've had?

Thank you in advance,
Personalias

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2 Reply by mark.burton

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

longest print I have done so far is a 18 hour print.

Had to do it twice as it ran out of filament on the last hour ( I was asleep so didn't notice).

I don't like printing though when I'm not nearby. I am always worried when machines are running unattended that something might happen.

3 Reply by n2ri

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

lots can go wrong even lube and cleaning needed. it will print til something quits on it. better be nearby when it does too.

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4 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

I have done a 28 hour print with no problems.

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 Personalias

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

mark.burton wrote:

longest print I have done so far is a 18 hour print.

Had to do it twice as it ran out of filament on the last hour ( I was asleep so didn't notice).

I don't like printing though when I'm not nearby. I am always worried when machines are running unattended that something might happen.

Mark, Did the filament issue occur on an xyz? If so, when does your cartridge run out. Is it at the end of the 240M / 600G cartridge? About how much remained in the cartridge when it ran out?

Da Vinci 1.0 fully stock.

"I am not myself to myself." -OOO

6 Reply by Personalias

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

carl_m1968 wrote:

I have done a 28 hour print with no problems.

Carl, was that before or after you moded the xyz beyond recognition? I have a raspberry pie sitting around and may mod mine when I get inspired enough to try something beyond the current firmware limits.

Da Vinci 1.0 fully stock.

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7 Reply by Personalias

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

n2ri wrote:

lots can go wrong even lube and cleaning needed. it will print til something quits on it. better be nearby when it does too.

N2ri, what sort of preventative maintenance would you perform on your machine before, say, a 15 hour print job. If you were to repeat the print job once every twenty four hours what would your maintenance schedule look like?

Da Vinci 1.0 fully stock.

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8 Reply by Telemachus

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

Running an octoprint Server makes life much easier. You can monitor with a webcam during the entire print, and can stop the print remotely if needed.  The longest print I have done is 12 hours, and my problem is once I get over about 6 inches tall, I get random fluctuations in my x axis

Da Vinci 1.0a.  Repetier 0.92.  E3D V6.  Titan Extruder.  Sllic3r.  Octoprint on Raspberry Pi B+.

9 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

The nozzle on a Da Vinci is .4 that means that printing a .4 layer height would lead to failure due to poor layer adhesion. You should never print at or greater than your nozzle diameter. The largest layer you could do is .38 and it may still have issues. With a .4 nozzle I would never go higher than .32. As for the time I printed, that was after mods. In my opinion the 1.0 and 1.0A are failures and issues just waiting to happen without extensive mods and changes.the over driving of the motors alone will result in them failing way before they should.

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.

10 Reply by BlankMan

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

My longest was 102 hours. A 36 hour one finished on Monday. Did a 12 hour yesterday. Am currently 14 hours in to one it said would take 60 hours. Got a bunch I need to do that are said to be in the 70 hour range.

I have no qualms doing long prints.

Actually had been thinking about getting another Pro. Probably will now get a Pro 3 in 1 when it's available.

11 Reply by Personalias

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

Telemachus wrote:

Running an octoprint Server makes life much easier. You can monitor with a webcam during the entire print, and can stop the print remotely if needed.  The longest print I have done is 12 hours, and my problem is once I get over about 6 inches tall, I get random fluctuations in my x axis

Thank you Telemachus. I'm going to go ahead and set up the octoprint server soon. I can't think of a better excuse to open up a raspberry pi.

Da Vinci 1.0 fully stock.

"I am not myself to myself." -OOO

12 Reply by Personalias

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

BlankMan wrote:

My longest was 102 hours. A 36 hour one finished on Monday. Did a 12 hour yesterday. Am currently 14 hours in to one it said would take 60 hours. Got a bunch I need to do that are said to be in the 70 hour range.

I have no qualms doing long prints.

Actually had been thinking about getting another Pro. Probably will now get a Pro 3 in 1 when it's available.

Woah!!! Thanks BlankMan. I couldn't imagine doing a 5 day print, but I'm really impressed. Do you take any extra precautions to prevent print failure or damage to the printer itself?

Da Vinci 1.0 fully stock.

"I am not myself to myself." -OOO

13 Reply by Personalias

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

carl_m1968 wrote:

The nozzle on a Da Vinci is .4 that means that printing a .4 layer height would lead to failure due to poor layer adhesion. You should never print at or greater than your nozzle diameter. The largest layer you could do is .38 and it may still have issues. With a .4 nozzle I would never go higher than .32. As for the time I printed, that was after mods. In my opinion the 1.0 and 1.0A are failures and issues just waiting to happen without extensive mods and changes.the over driving of the motors alone will result in them failing way before they should.

Great advise Carl. I've been printing at .4 for a couple test runs now and I've had some curling at the bottom of prints, but nothing too drastic yet. Most of the curling occurred when I switched glue brands from Uhu to the Hobby Lobby store brand glue stick. They didn't have the Uhu.

I haven't hacked the firmware and have only used XYZWare's (V2.1.6.5) .4 layer height setting. Perhaps it accounts for the nozzle diameter setting, but I'm not sure. I will definitely keep this advise in mind if I choose to hack it.

Da Vinci 1.0 fully stock.

"I am not myself to myself." -OOO

14 Reply by BlankMan

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

I pretty much clean my print head before every print at least externally so there's less potential for filament to build up if something goes awry. I also keep a close eye on it. If it  starts having problems early on, usually due to supports or something with the design I'll abort, make a correction and restart because if it starts going south it usually ain't gonna get better.

It took a while to get there, experimenting with temps and layer height and fill etc. but now these long prints will successfully finish unless I abort them.

I had one failure over the weekend, filament came off the spool and wrapped around the holder then the feed servo cut it in two.

Ironically it was making my new spool holder I designed to prevent things like that from happening... LOL

15 Reply by Personalias

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

BlankMan wrote:

Ironically it was making my new spool holder I designed to prevent things like that from happening... LOL

Go figure, lol. Thank for the tips.

Da Vinci 1.0 fully stock.

"I am not myself to myself." -OOO

16 Reply by Kronikabuse

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

What do you do about the chance of the printer catching fire?

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17 Reply by mark.burton

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

The cart will run out when the eprom in the cart reads 0 left although you can get times that a print will not start due to it telling you there isn't enough material on the cart.   Even if you do have enough filament left on the eprom to complete a print but its "low" you can have it not allow a print to start.  example I had a car that said I had 5 meters left the print I was making was going to take 1/2 a meter but I couldn't print it due to the cart being low.

I did have several carts "run" out but when I checked inside the carts there was still a lot of plastic left in them so that is one of the reasons I moved to repetier.


the 18 hour print was on repetier. At that point I was not using the xyz carts. I had also put in the e3d v6 and do not have the filament sensor used since I print with a lot of clear plastics and the sensor doesn't work well with that. (not to mention its a pain to make it fit with the mods I have.)

18 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

Kronikabuse wrote:

What do you do about the chance of the printer catching fire?


My current printer is all metal so there is not much to catch fire. If you are worried about the circuit boards then you should worry about every piece of electronics in your home because they all have one..

I know there are some 3d printers that have caught fire. I however think those are units that have had mods done to them and poor mods at that. Either bad or poor connections or under rated wire. I have been printing since 2009 and have left my printer running while at work or sleeping in the next room for years..

I am not saying this is right or safe, I am simply saying you decide what you want to do.. I will continue to do what I have since 2009. I trust my mods and I trust the printer I currently have..

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.

19 Reply by Kronikabuse

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

Not trying to pick carl. I run over night all the time and know the risks. I just like to hear how other people deal with the possibilty

Sd4 #9080 with a glass bed. E3d chimera duel extruder. Paste extruder , duet wifi.
Lawsy carriages. linear bearings. Y axis direct drive, Kinect scanner
SD4#8188 glass bed, lawsly carriages, E3d v6, octoprint http://www.ustream.tv/channel/hotrod96z28
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20 Reply by AZERATE

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

Stepping out of the room for 10 minutes is enough to engulf the room.

All my printers are of metal build, but many filament types go up like a house of matches. As far as sleeping with it, I will admit I've nodded off on a few prints, I'm not proud of it and I've always woken up thinking "Oh, thank (add preferred deity)". These machines  need to be seen as tools, not toys.
Please, everyone, be safe.

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21 Reply by Personalias

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

Kronikabuse wrote:

What do you do about the chance of the printer catching fire?

Kronikabuse, I honestly never considered the chance of the printer catching fire. It crossed my mind briefly when I replaced the fire extinguisher in my boat recently, but I never seriously considered it. I suppose it wont hurt to leave the expired fire extinguisher nearby the printer if it is running for an extended duration.

The only way I could see a 3D printer more at risk to catch fire than another electronic device with a heating element is if the print messed up so bad and was left monitored for so long that the plastic ended up in a big glob around the extrude and the printer continued to run.   

I guess it's possible there is a statistically higher risk of the printer catching fire.

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"I am not myself to myself." -OOO

22 Reply by AZERATE

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

To quote a Soliforum user...

Skyminer wrote:

Just printing away as always, then smoke detectors go off, run downstairs and the printer is a ball of flame. Everyone got out ok, but lost one pet. House is a write off.

I know that this isn't typical, but please be careful.

http://i1295.photobucket.com/albums/b634/skyminer71/House%20Fire/IMG_1259_zps950e6e59.jpg

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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!

23 Reply by Personalias

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

^^^^ Damn, point taken.

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"I am not myself to myself." -OOO

24 Reply by BlankMan (edited by BlankMan 2016-02-25 06:39:31)

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

Dang. Now you got me concerned. But...

I worked for a Fortune 100 industrial electronics corporation and oversaw UL testing for some products. That included doing destructive testing to the point of things blowing up in the presence of UL Inspectors or at UL's Northbrook IL testing location. UL did not care what blew up as long as it was contained and didn't care how much damage the item sustained. What they did care about was that it did not catch fire outside of its enclosure, what ever that enclosure was.

If those constraints were not met it was not UL listed. My 1.0 Pro has the UL listing on it along with CE (European) and a bunch of others. I'm betting kit and homemade or modified printers don't have the luxury of having those tests and certification being done on them, that is the risk. And if you modify one that does and something happens well the onus is on you.

If the fire depicted in that picture was caused by a listed unmodified printer then I would think there would be legal liabilities involved.

If catching fire is a concern buying a listed mainstream consumer grade printer may be the way to go. Now that I'm aware of this I'm glad I did.

25 Reply by BlankMan

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Re: Longest print duration your printer will handle

Oh and I installed a camera in my Pro that I check in on when away to see that all is well. Granted something could still happen but it does give me a bit of piece of mind.

Here's a snapshot of what's currently building:

http://www.curtronics.com/XYZPrinting/images/Build-20160225-0016382681.jpg