1 Topic by wgenik

  • wgenik
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Topic: Troubleshoot print quality?

Hello, I'm new to 3D printing and just got my DaVinci 1.0 last week.  I'm using FW 1.1.J and XYZ 1.1.30.16 as I plan on resetting my filament and using refilled ABS from Seacans.ca.  Currently I'm tring to get everything fine-tuned for better quality of prints.

Initially, I had some decent print quality but a major "circles not round" issue.  This was helped by tightening belts and shimming the Y-axis pulleys, but still isn't perfect.

Since that calibration, a more pressing issue has arose.  Suddenty my prints are much more "rough" and not very solid.  I'll post some example pictures and hopefully someone can make some suggestions!

I've tried different bed-levelling techniques and am currently sitting with a "calibration" of about 035,035,025 = 040 setting.  I've tried having the calibration in the 200 range and 100 range, nothing seems to improve my quality.

1st image shows demo prints and test models, I'm happy with the overall quality of them in terms of adhesion and "solid-ness" but circles aren't accurate etc.

2nd image shows what I've tried printing after correcting for the "circles not round", much better circles but something got screwed up and quality is crap now!

3rd image is reprinting currently, as you can see there's all kinds of roughness etc.

Any ideas and suggestions for a DaVinci newb?

Warren

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2 Reply by denk

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Re: Troubleshoot print quality?

Hi, try to increase the filling of the parts to more than 15% and increase the layer thickness. :-)

3 Reply by boxcarmib

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Re: Troubleshoot print quality?

seacans.ca? that seems to be a supply firm for shipping containers! smile

Given that you're using a stock machine/configuration and currently using XYZ filament my guess is that you're experiencing the first symptoms of connector failure for your extruder heater. As detailed in a number of other posts in this forum it is a common problem for the DaVinci 1.0 and is remedied by swapping out the connector that joins the extruder heater to the wiring harness.

Is your extruder making clacking noises? That's a definite indicator of extruder not maintaining temp.

As for circle roundness, it sounds as if you've undertaken most of the initial steps to reducing oval prints... it might help if you could provide a top view picture of a print so we can see how much out of alignment your circles are.

4 Reply by wgenik

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Re: Troubleshoot print quality?

Lol oops seacans.com (but it's a Canadian company)

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes I'll try increasing the layer height and fill, I think I was using the "excellent" preset for that most recent print.

Attached is an image of a recent circle test, pretty much straight down.

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5 Reply by boxcarmib

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Re: Troubleshoot print quality?

The picture indicates to me that your x/y carriage is not square and that you'll need to straighten it out.
There's a number of posts on this forum about how to accomplish that, but basically it involves loosening the bearing holder for the x carriage enough so that you can move the cogs of the timing belt over the gear in better alignment and then tightening everything up.