1 Topic by madkow007

  • madkow007
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Topic: Solidoodle 4 print head question = help?

Hi all
I'm a newbie to the world of 3d printing and have a question or 2
Picked up used doodle 4 - why you ask? it's hard to say - the price was right.
I knew it would have some issues and it did {z axis home stop was broke, bed is warped, needed lubing and so on, wife and I like to tinker}
Got it up to par [bed still warped] and started printing something and it went well for the first few prints
I picked up a roll of PLA, thought I bought ABS but it seems to work ok, running a bed temp of 85 and nozzle temp 185, feedrate 100
and flowrate 100. (this is only day 2 so I'm not sure what I'm doing... lol)
The print head seemed to move up and down a lot at the fill in part of the print and I thought it must need to do that at that point
of the print and the prints came out good.
Now as I have gotten into the roll a bit it's starting to jump around even more and the filament is pulling the print head back
away from the work piece when it moves forward leaving stringy's across it. (like it's popping a wheely)
I put a bolt on the top of it with double sided tape and that helped some.
I can see there is an adjustment on it and it looks like it's set to as wide a gap as possible. 

So my questions are
1. is that gap to wide?
2. do my feed and flow rates look good?
3. am I having fun yet?

Just like the good old days with computers (dos and windows 3.x) NOW WHATS WRONG WITH IT??  lol
Thanks for any help you can offer

SD4 with Lawsy carriages, Rumba board, & new 12v PSU, E3D v6, mirror bed plate, X motor fan.
Stock SD4
Prusa i3 kit, spring loaded extruder upgrade, Y axis belt tensioner

2 Reply by knowack

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Re: Solidoodle 4 print head question = help?

I have an SD4, and feel like I have it dialed in very well.

Have you done the calibration procedures yet?  If not, search on this site for the thread. 

For your extrusion ratios to be accurate, you'll need to ensure your extrusion steps are set, then measure the filament.  From there you can adjust the ratio.  For example, most of my 1.75mm filament averages out to 1.72mm in actual diameter.  My ratios vary from .88 to .92, varying with each color.  (I'm guessing that the colorant affects the properties of the filament)

For ABS temperatures, I use 210 extruder and 95 bed.  Depending on bridges and overhangs, I may go down to 205 and 90 after the first layer.  During the holidays, I was playing around with temps quite a bit, so I could print some spherical Christmas ornaments without using support.  As I worked my way down to 185 extruder temp, I wasn't consistently melting the ABS filament adequately, and ran into extrusions problems (especially at .3mm layers).  If memory serves, I used PLA temps of 190 extruder and 60 bed.

Your print head shouldn't move up and down like that.  It sounds like your print head may be loose in the back.  Ensure that the teflon block is tight enough against the rear rail.  Also make sure that there's not too much 'rolling resistance' when the extruder stepper motor is pulling on the filament. 

1. Not sure what adjustment you're talking about
2. Pretty close, may want to experiment a bit for your specific machine
3. Yes, you just don't know it yet

Once you get your SD4 adjusted, you'll be able to get some excellent prints.

3 Reply by Tin Falcon

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Re: Solidoodle 4 print head question = help?

Hi all
I'm a newbie to the world of 3d printing and have a question or 2
Picked up used doodle 4 - why you ask? it's hard to say - the price was right.

I did the same about 6 months ago. Not a bad machine and yes will do decent prints.

I picked up a roll of PLA, thought I bought ABS but it seems to work ok, running a bed temp of 85 and nozzle temp 185, feedrate 100
and flowrate 100. (this is only day 2 so I'm not sure what I'm doing... lol)

I feel your pain been there.  bed temp you can knock down to  60 c or even 55c extruder temp you may want to bump up a bit depending on how things look. and far as the flow and feed . these are manual settings.  so they let you adjust on the fly for more or less feed and speed . the real settings are in the firmware and slicer software. and there are about 4 places with settings that can  adjust your flow rate. and a couple that will adjust speed . and speed can be set for various operations. Ie perimeters infill etc.
I tend to kind of hand feed the filament to make sure there is no tension on the extruder.
there are manuals on line for Repteir Host and Slic3r  they should give you some guidance.
slic3r gives lots of control but there is a lot to learn. 3d printing is fun but it takes time patience and perseverance.

tin

Soliddoodle 4 stock w glass bed------Folger Tech Prusa 2020 upgraded to and titan /aero extruder mirror bed
FT5 with titan/ E3D Aero------MP mini select w glass bed
MP Utimate maker pro-W bondtech extruder
Marlin/Repetier Host/ Slic3r and Cura

4 Reply by madkow007

  • madkow007
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Re: Solidoodle 4 print head question = help?

Thanks for the help so far....getting the right settings put into the software did wonders (like I said...only day 2....lol)
Now for the bouncing up and down part of it...i'll have to get a few more post to put up a pic...it must move close to
half an inch...any thoughts on that?

SD4 with Lawsy carriages, Rumba board, & new 12v PSU, E3D v6, mirror bed plate, X motor fan.
Stock SD4
Prusa i3 kit, spring loaded extruder upgrade, Y axis belt tensioner

5 Reply by madkow007

  • madkow007
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Re: Solidoodle 4 print head question = help?

posting so I can post some pics lol

SD4 with Lawsy carriages, Rumba board, & new 12v PSU, E3D v6, mirror bed plate, X motor fan.
Stock SD4
Prusa i3 kit, spring loaded extruder upgrade, Y axis belt tensioner

6 Reply by madkow007

  • madkow007
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Re: Solidoodle 4 print head question = help?

posting to raze my post count

SD4 with Lawsy carriages, Rumba board, & new 12v PSU, E3D v6, mirror bed plate, X motor fan.
Stock SD4
Prusa i3 kit, spring loaded extruder upgrade, Y axis belt tensioner

7 Reply by wardjr

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Re: Solidoodle 4 print head question = help?

Only 6 more to go wink

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

wardjr's Website

8 Reply by madkow007

  • madkow007
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Re: Solidoodle 4 print head question = help?

and now only 5 more to go! smile

SD4 with Lawsy carriages, Rumba board, & new 12v PSU, E3D v6, mirror bed plate, X motor fan.
Stock SD4
Prusa i3 kit, spring loaded extruder upgrade, Y axis belt tensioner

9 Reply by madkow007

  • madkow007
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Re: Solidoodle 4 print head question = help?

I did make an adjustment on the back of the print head - moved the lower block up, and realigned the bed - that seems to have helped a lot! it isn't doing wheelies anymore. lol

SD4 with Lawsy carriages, Rumba board, & new 12v PSU, E3D v6, mirror bed plate, X motor fan.
Stock SD4
Prusa i3 kit, spring loaded extruder upgrade, Y axis belt tensioner

10 Reply by wardjr

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Re: Solidoodle 4 print head question = help?

Yep, you don't want that flopping around.

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

wardjr's Website

11 Reply by madkow007

  • madkow007
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Re: Solidoodle 4 print head question = help?

printer has been working much better since making the adjustment on the back of the print head.
also found the right side (y axis?) was a little on the loose side as well, so snugged that up too...

definitely a learning process with these things! LOL especially when you buy used...

have had some pretty good success using the PLA... but I really want to try ABS and have discovered a new problem... will start a new thread on that issue tho...after doing some more searching/reading...

SD4 with Lawsy carriages, Rumba board, & new 12v PSU, E3D v6, mirror bed plate, X motor fan.
Stock SD4
Prusa i3 kit, spring loaded extruder upgrade, Y axis belt tensioner

12 Reply by madkow007

  • madkow007
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Re: Solidoodle 4 print head question = help?

just to update this with pictures of what I was trying to describe - now that I have enough posts to do so. smile

you can see how much movement there was in the printhead when I got this printer... adjusted the lower white block up to remove the slop and no more problems - there anyway... lol

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SD4 with Lawsy carriages, Rumba board, & new 12v PSU, E3D v6, mirror bed plate, X motor fan.
Stock SD4
Prusa i3 kit, spring loaded extruder upgrade, Y axis belt tensioner