1 Topic by edditive

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Topic: Convert Your Solidoodle Into an Up! in 3 Steps

I've spent a good week since getting my Press pulling my hair out, modifying, reading this forum, modifying again, and sharing all of these experiences on my blog edditive[dot]com. Thanks to all on this forum for sharing!

Having used the Up! series of printers for a number of years, I thought I'd share how I've managed to finally get some consistent results from my Press, by converting it to be like a giant Up! Plus 2. This is of course in addition to the numerous posts already on this forum about what to change/look out for when you first go to use the Press.


1. Avoid the mess of glues and sprays - much of the success of the Up! 3D printers is that they use a perforated PCB as the printing plate. I bought 2 perforated boards from Jaycar and cut them to fit on top of the existing glass plate. A bit of masking tape is all that's needed to secure them in place. Just make sure they're completely flat, shiny side up. Image posted below.

2. After watching all my early prints fail on the Press, I realised the other element the Up! printers combine with the perforated board is a good 'raft' base (automatically generated for the Up!), creating a solid lock into the perforations and evening out any issues in bed level before you get to your product. This is not a feature available in SoliPrint, so I actually model my own 0.5mm thick raft in CAD. While this is a bit more complicated if you're printing downloaded models, it's relatively quick to add using the freely available MeshLab or similar STL editing software. However if it's your own design, it should only take 30 seconds to add this detail before exporting to an STL. Pictured below is the raft after peeling away from a design, along with a time lapse showing the print on top of the raft.

3. Change the nozzle temperature and printing speeds. The Up! Plus 2 prints ABS plastic at 260 degrees, while the default for the Press is only 215 degrees. This is too low to properly melt ABS and let it flow. At the moment I'm using 240 degrees with good results, and also slow the printing speeds so that there is less shaking and opportunity for error. A screengrab of my settings are below.


I realise many people are having success using a variety of other hacks/fixes/additions which you can find on this forum, but this is my own twist on improving the Solidoodle Press. If it helps just one person, I'm happy!

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2 Reply by android78

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Re: Convert Your Solidoodle Into an Up! in 3 Steps

To me, the main advantage to the Up! printers is the software.  They seem to have got the Peelable raft working successfully and automatically generated by their software.  They will also create rafts to fit the base of the object so, if you're printing a sphere, you will get a dome raft under the bottom of it.  There are options in RH to try and replicate this, but I've not had much luck getting that to work and remain peelable.
One other thing to point out is the filament the Up uses is not the same ABS as it has a higher melting temperature.  I actually bought some of the up filament to try and it gets very poor layer adhesion until you increase the temperature to above 250C , whereas the standard filament (and the solidoodle spool) will get reasonable adhesion above about 230 (the default of 215 is a horrible, stringy mess).
Good idea with the perfboards.  I'm going to try some non-perf fiberglass boards with roughened surface and see if that works.

3 Reply by edditive

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Re: Convert Your Solidoodle Into an Up! in 3 Steps

Thanks for the suggestion about the fiberglass boards @android78, let me know if you have any success. I agree about the Up! printers, they have really nailed the 'plug 'n' play' aspect of 3D printing.

I'm finding that the Press doesn't do a great job of filling in the horizontal surfaces of a print (ie. parallel to the plate. Anyone else having this issue?). While this is poor when it comes to model quality, it actually makes peeling away the self-created 'raft' quite easy. And of course any other mess can easily be cut away with a knife, exploiting the layer weaknesses of FDM technology. Glad I'm not the only one raising printing temperatures!

4 Reply by cptskippy

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Re: Convert Your Solidoodle Into an Up! in 3 Steps

edditive wrote:

Glad I'm not the only one raising printing temperatures!


v1.0 of SoliPrint had the temp at 250c and I routinely raise it to 260c.  The speculation as to why they lowered the temp so much in subsequent versions is that heat build up during long prints causes the filament to warp and jam in the extruder.

5 Reply by TruFord93

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Re: Convert Your Solidoodle Into an Up! in 3 Steps

Would you be willing to share your raft? Iam new to 3D printing and would like to see how you made yours. I have also found changing the temps and speed to be very effective. 215c wont get you anywhere

~TruFord

6 Reply by selkess

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Re: Convert Your Solidoodle Into an Up! in 3 Steps

the press have 230 as max temp how can you have 260 temp.
I needed higher temp because of clogg and i had 240 after my heater catridge melted inwards in the brass end on right side
you should check yours also
My heater still heats but how is it broken ?
.

7 Reply by android78

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Re: Convert Your Solidoodle Into an Up! in 3 Steps

selkess wrote:

the press have 230 as max temp how can you have 260 temp.
I needed higher temp because of clogg and i had 240 after my heater catridge melted inwards in the brass end on right side
you should check yours also
My heater still heats but how is it broken ?
.

Use RH

8 Reply by edditive

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Re: Convert Your Solidoodle Into an Up! in 3 Steps

TruFord93 wrote:

Would you be willing to share your raft? Iam new to 3D printing and would like to see how you made yours. I have also found changing the temps and speed to be very effective. 215c wont get you anywhere

~TruFord

The raft is just a 0.5mm thick rectangle I create in CAD and add to a file before saving it out as an STL. The raft needs to be suitably sized for your product, so is difficult to share on its own. If you want to try it yourself I'd recommend adding this feature to your design (in whatever CAD modelling tool you're using) then saving out to STL. If you're simply printing downloaded STL's (from Thingiverse or similar) it's a bit more difficult - you will need to use a tool like MeshLab to edit the file. You can have success printing on the perforated PCB without the raft, I've just found the raft really improves my success rate.

9 Reply by edditive

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Re: Convert Your Solidoodle Into an Up! in 3 Steps

cptskippy wrote:
edditive wrote:

Glad I'm not the only one raising printing temperatures!


v1.0 of SoliPrint had the temp at 250c and I routinely raise it to 260c.  The speculation as to why they lowered the temp so much in subsequent versions is that heat build up during long prints causes the filament to warp and jam in the extruder.

Sounds like a catch 22 - can't print ABS at 215 degrees, but if you raise the temperature you risk killing your printer...

10 Reply by EnderV

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Re: Convert Your Solidoodle Into an Up! in 3 Steps

Can someone share more about the dangers of raising the temperature to 250? my prints look absolutely awful unless I get the temperature up there.

11 Reply by navarisun

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Re: Convert Your Solidoodle Into an Up! in 3 Steps

how can you raise it to 240 c, mine is solidoodle workbench and after doing this it keep giving error


Printer stopped deu to errors. Fix the error and use M999 to restart!. (Temperature is reset. Set it before restarting)

12 Reply by selkess

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Re: Convert Your Solidoodle Into an Up! in 3 Steps

cptskippy wrote:
edditive wrote:

Glad I'm not the only one raising printing temperatures!


v1.0 of SoliPrint had the temp at 250c and I routinely raise it to 260c.  The speculation as to why they lowered the temp so much in subsequent versions is that heat build up during long prints causes the filament to warp and jam in the extruder.


because i trued 247 and my heater catridge melted on the right side edge
the press has maxtemp off 230 only