1 Topic by haakongaarder

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Topic: A few questions from new user about a few small issues

Hi, first time poster here. I want to thank this community for helping me calibrate and set up my printer. I'm quite new at this, but I've done a lot of 3d modelling.
I'm running a solidoodle 4 with a glass bed and hairspray, and it's going very well. But there are a few little problems, I could not find answers to by searching the forum:

1. Sometimes, mostly at the beginning of printing, I get burned plastic, some of my white filament comes out brown. My extruder temp is 215. How do I fix this? Lower extruder temperature?

2. I'm printing many small objects at the same time(and I want to keep doing it that way). Sometimes when the extruder travels from object to object, it touches other objects while travelling, sometimes this is enough to knock them loose from the platform. Can I make it lift itself over existing objects? Or travel around them? Or do I need to slow it down? I do not want to increase the distance between extruder and platform, as the prints look good now.

3. I use Repetier host and slice with Slic3r. I'm printing many small objects that are collected into one .stl file. They look fine in the object view, but last time I tried Slic3r seemed to "forget" to slice some objects, and left out parts of larger objects. I could see this in the gcode preview on screen. What can I do? Is there an upper limit of detail or something?

thanks!

2 Reply by Accessdenied

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Re: A few questions from new user about a few small issues

haakongaarder wrote:

1. Sometimes, mostly at the beginning of printing, I get burned plastic, some of my white filament comes out brown. My extruder temp is 215. How do I fix this? Lower extruder temperature?

2. I'm printing many small objects at the same time(and I want to keep doing it that way). Sometimes when the extruder travels from object to object, it touches other objects while travelling, sometimes this is enough to knock them loose from the platform. Can I make it lift itself over existing objects? Or travel around them? Or do I need to slow it down? I do not want to increase the distance between extruder and platform, as the prints look good now.

1. I print ABS at 195-200C with my SD2. I don't think it needs higher temperature.
2. Lever your bed, also don't use too fast travel speed.

3 Reply by haakongaarder

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Re: A few questions from new user about a few small issues

Accessdenied wrote:
haakongaarder wrote:

1. Sometimes, mostly at the beginning of printing, I get burned plastic, some of my white filament comes out brown. My extruder temp is 215. How do I fix this? Lower extruder temperature?

2. I'm printing many small objects at the same time(and I want to keep doing it that way). Sometimes when the extruder travels from object to object, it touches other objects while travelling, sometimes this is enough to knock them loose from the platform. Can I make it lift itself over existing objects? Or travel around them? Or do I need to slow it down? I do not want to increase the distance between extruder and platform, as the prints look good now.

1. I print ABS at 195-200C with my SD2. I don't think it needs higher temperature.
2. Lever your bed, also don't use too fast travel speed.

1. Really? The default setting for the Solidoodle and the soliwiki says 215C. The slic3r manual says ABS should be extruded at 215-250C. I'm scared of cold extrusions, don't want to clog it.
2. It seems to be as level as I can get it. I'm going to test the "lift" setting in slic3r now, hopefully it does what I want.

4 Reply by Tomek (edited by Tomek 2014-03-25 14:35:09)

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Re: A few questions from new user about a few small issues

Clogged nozzle is more usually contamination more than just a cold nozzle.  Very few ABS mixes want >240C,  the only one I can think of is Afinia's premium type, but I think that's not just ABS (I had trouble melting it with acetone. Maybe ABS-PC? IDK.)


I usually go for 220-230, but I have an e3d which properly measures the temp. I dont know if the newer solidoodles still measure under-temp. If so the 200C suggestion is roughly 220-230 "real" temp.

5 Reply by elmoret

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Re: A few questions from new user about a few small issues

Tomek wrote:

Clogged nozzle is more usually contamination more than just a cold nozzle.  Very few ABS mixes want >240C,  the only one I can think of is Afinia's premium type, but I think that's not just ABS (I had trouble melting it with acetone. Maybe ABS-PC? IDK.)


I usually go for 220-230, but I have an e3d which properly measures the temp. I dont know if the newer solidoodles still measure under-temp. If so the 200C suggestion is roughly 220-230 "real" temp.

Yes, it is ABS-PC.

Old Solidoodles: 200C = 230C on most other hotends
New Solidoodles: 215C = 230C on most other hotends.

Of course, because of Solidoodle's piss-poor version control no one knows where the line is between the two.

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6 Reply by wire10ga

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Re: A few questions from new user about a few small issues

1. Also make sure you head it not setting idle when hot. Let your bed get up to temp 1st then turn on print head heater.

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7 Reply by 3d-oodler

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Re: A few questions from new user about a few small issues

1. You might want to dump some plastic at the beginning of the job, see:
http://www.soliforum.com/post/32251/#p32251

2. You might want to add z-lift retraction in slic3r

8 Reply by IronMan

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Re: A few questions from new user about a few small issues

haakongaarder wrote:

3. I use Repetier host and slice with Slic3r. I'm printing many small objects that are collected into one .stl file. They look fine in the object view, but last time I tried Slic3r seemed to "forget" to slice some objects, and left out parts of larger objects. I could see this in the gcode preview on screen. What can I do? Is there an upper limit of detail or something?

thanks!

See if your CAD program can process .stl files into separate files and then load them individually...I have had good luck with this.

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9 Reply by haakongaarder (edited by haakongaarder 2014-03-26 01:26:11)

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Re: A few questions from new user about a few small issues

3d-oodler wrote:

1. You might want to dump some plastic at the beginning of the job, see:

2. You might want to add z-lift retraction in slic3r

Already dumping som early plastic by using a skirt, works nicely.

Added z lift already, it stopped that problem, but created a new one as the lift movement literally lifted the pieces off the bed. I solved this by adding a little more brim and increasing bed temp slightly. Unfortunately the lift movement causes slight deformations to the print, because it moves very quickly. Does anyone know how to control the speed of the lift movement separately?

wire10ga wrote:

1. Also make sure you head it not setting idle when hot. Let your bed get up to temp 1st then turn on print head heater.

hmm okay, I'll try that. The extruder usually stays heated for 10-15 minutes before it gets to print. Is the solidoodle really so lame that I can't have it heated that long?

Tomek wrote:
Clogged nozzle is more usually contamination more than just a cold nozzle.  Very few ABS mixes want >240C,  the only one I can think of is Afinia's premium type, but I think that's not just ABS (I had trouble melting it with acetone. Maybe ABS-PC? IDK.)

I usually go for 220-230, but I have an e3d which properly measures the temp. I dont know if the newer solidoodles still measure under-temp. If so the 200C suggestion is roughly 220-230 "real" temp.
Yes, it is ABS-PC.
Old Solidoodles: 200C = 230C on most other hotends
New Solidoodles: 215C = 230C on most other hotends.
Of course, because of Solidoodle's piss-poor version control no one knows where the line is between the two.

Thanks for the info guys! Printed just as fine at 210C with my form futura 1.75mm ABS, even though the product page on Imakr says it's melting point is at 235-256C. The filament comes out quite liquid. So should I go even further down in temperature maybe, to reduce the burning? Or is there another more likely cause for it?

IronMan wrote:

See if your CAD program can process .stl files into separate files and then load them individually...I have had good luck with this.

I've had trouble with slicing 2 stl files in one job. Tried combining the geometry from both stl files in one  stl file, this did not solve the problem. Tried slicing the .stl files one at a time, that worked, but is not ideal for what I need to do, I want to print as much as possible in one job. I have not tried splitting the geometry pieces into even smaller Stl files, and slicing them together, will make a quick test tomorrow. So far it seems Sli3r does not like getting stls with lots of separate pieces..

10 Reply by 3d-oodler (edited by 3d-oodler 2014-03-26 05:43:42)

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Re: A few questions from new user about a few small issues

haakongaarder wrote:

Does anyone know how to control the speed of the lift movement separately?

It's right below the Life Z mm value:

http://manual.slic3r.org/expertmode/retraction_settings.png

11 Reply by haakongaarder

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Re: A few questions from new user about a few small issues

3d-oodler wrote:
haakongaarder wrote:

Does anyone know how to control the speed of the lift movement separately?

It's right below the Life Z mm value:

Hi! Thanks for the effort, but I believe that is the speed for retraction, not the lift itself. When you hover the mouse over it it says "The speed of retractions. Only applies to the extruder motor" I tried reducing it yesterday with no noticeable result for the lift, so I increased it back up, as I do want the filament to retract quickly to reduce deformation. In fact I think I'll try increasing that speed to reduce deformation from the lift. I also suspect that I have too much flow, will try tinkering with that.