1 Topic by fattiereturns

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Topic: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

I've searched up and down, can't find any help.

I've been printing mountain topography lately, and inevitably it finishes in a peak..... shock horror.

Tending to get a blob at the peak, using 12 secs min layer time, 4mm/s min print speed. This is with bronzefill but seems to be a problem with lots of filaments. What's the general advice? I'm happy to get pointed to a link, I couldn't think what other keyword to use than 'peak' but got no joy....

Thanks folks

2 Reply by DePartedPrinter

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Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

picture?

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3 Reply by IronMan

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Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

Cooling fan...the hotend is spending too much time at "the Peaks"...

SD2 - Stock - Enclosure - Heated Bed - Glass Plate - Auto Fire Extinguisher
Ord Bot Hadron - RAMPS 1.4 - Bulldog XL - E3D v6 - 10" x 10" PCB Heated Build w/SSR - Glass Plate
Thanks for All of Your Help!

4 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

IronMan wrote:

Cooling fan...the hotend is spending too much time at "the Peaks"...

Bingo.

Filastruder - the robust, inexpensive filament extruder
E3Dv6 All Metal Hotend - the premier 3D printing hotend

5 Reply by fattiereturns

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Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

so keep the fan on and don't allow the print speed to drop too low? 10-12 mm/s kinda speed?

thanks guys

6 Reply by IronMan

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Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

Run your normal print speed; on my SD2 I run about 60-70mm / sec

SD2 - Stock - Enclosure - Heated Bed - Glass Plate - Auto Fire Extinguisher
Ord Bot Hadron - RAMPS 1.4 - Bulldog XL - E3D v6 - 10" x 10" PCB Heated Build w/SSR - Glass Plate
Thanks for All of Your Help!

7 Reply by mdrVB6

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Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

I'm not sure how bronze fill compares to the PLA and ABS that I have printed but I just set my speeds to very low and I get good small peaks on the rare occasion that I have them.  When setting your filament cooling, you want a larger number than 12 for minimum layer time.  If you pick something more like 45 seconds, that will slow the hot end down more.  Remember, you are telling it to spend AT LEAST that amount of time on each layer, so the larger the value, the slower your hot end will move.  This is better than slowing down all your speeds because you probably don't need it to move slow at the base of your mountain.  I have no nozzle cooling fan, I have never seen the need as I hate printing PLA.

SD4 w/ RUMBA, E3D Volcano, all bearings, glass bed

8 Reply by IanJohnson

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Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

If you don't have a gcode controlled fan on the nozzle, you can also include another object that is as tall as the peak, like a box or cylinder.  Then the peak has time to cool while the dummy object gets printed.  That might not be as good a solution with expensive filament like bronzefill.  I think Slic3r or Repetier has the ability to insert some custom gcode in between layers.  You could see if you can insert a pause or delay of some kind between layers, but you would need a way to do it only in the layers that include the peak, or else you will slow down the entire print.  Skeinforge had the option of orbiting, where the extruder would fly around for awhile letting the layer cool, but that also tended to make it ooze over everything.

9 Reply by fattiereturns

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Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

Thanks again for the help folks, much appreciated.

I think the orbiting might be an option, the bronzefill is amazing to work with and bumps / threads will be easy to get rid of. I've been having trouble with Slicer recently, it fails to complete writing of the g-code. Have seen of others with similar issues but not looked into a fix yet.

Here are two pictures, 1st and second. the part sanded pic is the 1st try, which blobbed out (8mm/s min print speed) but it over-blobbed if you like, so I was able to file down. (not finished yet). The second, layer height down to .17 (from .21) and it under-blobbed, so I can't really complete it.

**I'm not allowed to post pics for some reason, off to check help pages...!