1 Topic by ccomito1223

  • ccomito1223
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  • Registered: 2013-11-24
  • Posts: 5

Topic: My success's and failures...

Hi everyone. I thought I'd share with you what works for me and what doesn't. This will be somewhat long I think but maybe it'll help some of you new guys.

First thing I discovered was temperatures and how important they are to what you're trying to do. It needs to be steady. Keep all breezes away or you run the risk of "shocking" your ABS prints. Cold air can cause cracks and other failures in your prints. I found a good temp for me was 205c for the extruder and 210c for the bed. On the other hand, when printing with PLA, I found that 188c was good for the extruder and 85c was good for the bed.

If your're using Slic3r, under speed settings you'll find a "Modifier". Change the first layer modifier to 30-35%. That help to ensure you have a good first layer and it sticks down well. While on the subject of sticking down, another thing to keep in mind that it is absolutely critical to have your bed level. Not level to the ground but level to the extruder. The 3 screws on a Solidoodle 3 are garbage and there should be a better way of adjusting these things. If you don't know what to look for then you can always use the "paper trick". Move your extruder to the 4 corners of the platform all the while adjusting the screws to let a sheet of paper barely fit between the platform and the extruder. Once you get it so that each corner fits somewhat evenly, then make sure your Z adjustment give the first layer squish.

To get your prints to stick to the bed, the best thing I've discover was blue painters tape. I've tried the glass bed, slurry and hairspray tricks but nothing works for me as good as painters tape. It has to be somewhat rough texture though. The smooth frog tape doesn't work. I use 3M #2090 which can be found at any Home Depot.

I still have troubles with extremely large prints but I can spit out smaller ones all day. And to be clear, the large prints I'm referring to are nearly the size of the platform. Things close to the edges are still curling up....

If anyone wants to add to this please do. Hopefully this helps some others get going. 3D printing can be a lot of fun....

Thanks all!

2 Reply by AngersRevenge (edited by AngersRevenge 2013-12-17 16:28:16)

  • AngersRevenge
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  • Registered: 2013-12-17
  • Posts: 7

Re: My success's and failures...

Just got my SD2 about a week ago. I found some very good calibrations websites. wiki.solidoodle.com/solidoodle-1 and solidoodletips.wordpress.com are the ones I used.

I had a hard time trying to find a method to make my prints stick. I tried everything I could find or think of (except painters tape). What I am currently messing with is an ABS slurry. Tip on the slurry, make sure you have enough ABS dissolved in it or else it won't work. On the flip side, if you put too much ABS your prints will get very very good adhesion but become very hard to take off. I'll try the painters tape and see which works best for me. Another thing someone told me over at thingiverse was to try a glue stick, just a regular old Elmer's glue stick. Haven't done this yet but he says it works wonders.

I would highly suggest building an enclosure around your printer. It helps with the drafts the OP is refering to, and help with temp control inside the box. I used some 11"x11" sheets of acrylic and epoxied some magnets on them for the SD2. Hope this helps some of us newer guys.

3 Reply by wardjr

  • wardjr
  • wardjr
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  • Registered: 2013-06-10
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Re: My success's and failures...

AngersRevenge wrote:

Just got my SD2 about a week ago. I found some very good calibrations websites. wiki.solidoodle.com/solidoodle-1 and solidoodletips.wordpress.com are the ones I used.

I had a hard time trying to find a method to make my prints stick. I tried everything I could find or think of (except painters tape). What I am currently messing with is an ABS slurry. Tip on the slurry, make sure you have enough ABS dissolved in it or else it won't work. On the flip side, if you put too much ABS your prints will get very very good adhesion but become very hard to take off. I'll try the painters tape and see which works best for me. Another thing someone told me over at thingiverse was to try a glue stick, just a regular old Elmer's glue stick. Haven't done this yet but he says it works wonders.

I would highly suggest building an enclosure around your printer. It helps with the drafts the OP is refering to, and help with temp control inside the box. I used some 11"x11" sheets of acrylic and epoxied some magnets on them for the SD2. Hope this helps some of us newer guys.

The forum is a sea of information you should just try printing on glass (spray it with aquanet hairspray), dial up the bed heat a bit and squish the first layer a bit more.  Then you can skip all the other stuff you mentioned.
everything you ever needed to know about printing on glass can be found here.
http://www.soliforum.com/topic/160/glass-bed/

Printit Industries Model 8.10 fully enclosed CoreXY, Chamber heat
3-SD3's & a Workbench all fully enclosed, RH-Slic3r Win7pro, E3D V6, Volcano & Cyclops Hot End
SSR/500W AC Heated Glass Bed, Linear bearings on SS rods. Direct Drive Y-axis, BulldogXL
Thanks to all for your contributions

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