1 Topic by Ironsight

  • Ironsight
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  • Registered: 2014-12-21
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Topic: Small Figurine Print Problems

Hello everyone,

I'm planning to start a big project and need to dial in my print settings to achieve the desired results. I aim to extract models from a video game and scale them proportionally to make chess pieces. I've more or less figured out how to extract the models from the game and am now attempting to print them.


I'm starting with the most simple model which is about 4 cm tall and 2.5 cm wide. (Creep28.PNG)


I'm slicing the model with Kisslicer to print in ABS (190 C, 20 mm/s) with my stock SD4 with glass bed (110 C). Since I'm printing the whole model in one piece there is a lot of support material. (Creep28sliced.PNG).


I've printed two version so far, one at 0.2mm and the other at 0.1mm. (Creep.2mm.jpg and Creep.1mm.jpg)


The problem I am having is that there are blobs of filament all over the model. I'm not sure if they are a product of the slicing itself, but I'm sure I can improve my print settings. While printing I've noticed in small areas the part moved around as if it were rubbery. I hypothesize that the ABS doesn't have enough time to cool (I don't have a fan).

Apart from that I believe my seam hiding (Depth 0.3, Gap 1.0), retraction (Prime 3mm, Suck 3mm, Wipe 2mm, Speed 30 mm/s, Min Jump 1mm, Trigger 2mm) could use adjustment.


I have recently realized I've been using a 0.42mm extrusion width, when I should be using 0.48 but I don't think that will solve my problems. I would appreciate any help or input on how to get better quality prints.


Let me know if there is any other data you might need to help assist, and feel free to be brutally honest if my settings are bad; I'm new to 3d printing and wish to improve my print quality as fast as possible.


Thank you for your help,

Ironsight

Post's attachments

Creep.1mm.jpg
Creep.1mm.jpg 1.31 mb, file has never been downloaded. 

Creep.2mm.jpg 1.24 mb, file has never been downloaded. 

Creep28.PNG
Creep28.PNG 33.94 kb, file has never been downloaded. 

Creep28Sliced.PNG
Creep28Sliced.PNG 48.95 kb, file has never been downloaded. 

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SD4 with Lawsy Carriages, Flanged bearings + Y-Drive Pillow Block, Adjustable Y-Idlers, Z-axis Ballscrew. Printing ABS on ceramic tile w/ hairspray.

Future Plans: GT2 Belts/Pulleys, E3D lite6

2 Reply by pirvan

  • pirvan
  • pirvan
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Re: Small Figurine Print Problems

I think the problem is that the piece is so small, the print head spends too much time over it and it melts the small features. 

Here are two things you can try.

  • Add a fan to your extruder to cool the filament as it prints.

  • Add a prime pillar.  That is usually some "sacrificial" piece designed to take the head off your main model, and give the filamen time to cool

.

http://www.soliforum.com/misc.php?action=pun_attachment&item=7444

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To print or, 3D print, that is the question...
SD3 printer w/too many mods,  Printrbot Simple Maker Ed.,  FormLabs Form 1+
AnyCubic Photon, Shining 3D EinScan-S & Atlas 3D scanners...
...and too much time on my hands.

3 Reply by redbarret (edited by redbarret 2015-01-18 19:45:53)

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Re: Small Figurine Print Problems

Blobbing can be caused by partial clog, or overextrusion, or humidity.
What pirvan said is also very possible.
This happened to me when I tried printing at 50 micron layer height. Some parts of the model the hotend was staying too long and decomposing the plastic. I use natural color ABS and those blobby parts had grey and brown marks.
If you have white colored filament, perhaps you can try printing with it instead and look for discolorations there.

I see you have a stock Solidoodle 4 like me. I haven't been able to find a fan duct for SD4 to try adding a fan cooling for such things. I'd use the left fan on the SD4 since it seems to work fine without it.

Solidoodle 4

4 Reply by knowack

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Re: Small Figurine Print Problems

redbarret wrote:

Blobbing can be caused by partial clog, or overextrusion, or humidity.
What pirvan said is also very possible.
This happened to me when I tried printing at 50 micron layer height. Some parts of the model the hotend was staying too long and decomposing the plastic. I use natural color ABS and those blobby parts had grey and brown marks.
If you have white colored filament, perhaps you can try printing with it instead and look for discolorations there.

I see you have a stock Solidoodle 4 like me. I haven't been able to find a fan duct for SD4 to try adding a fan cooling for such things. I'd use the left fan on the SD4 since it seems to work fine without it.

There's a fan mount and duct assembly for the SD4 on Solidoodles.  That's what I use.

5 Reply by redbarret

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Re: Small Figurine Print Problems

You mean this? http://solidoodles.com/models/view/385
Hadn't seen it, nice.
Well worth trying that then.

You use it for PLA? How good is it? Any chance of the tip melting from being too close to the nozzle?
Does it hit the door window when the extruder moves all the way to the front?
I might edit it to attach it from the left side instead if so.

Solidoodle 4

6 Reply by Ironsight (edited by Ironsight 2015-01-19 01:32:43)

  • Ironsight
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Re: Small Figurine Print Problems

pirvan wrote:

I think the problem is that the piece is so small, the print head spends too much time over it and it melts the small features. 

Here are two things you can try.

  • Add a fan to your extruder to cool the filament as it prints.

  • Add a prime pillar.  That is usually some "sacrificial" piece designed to take the head off your main model, and give the filamen time to cool

I think you're right about the print head spending too much time over the print. Instead of using a prime pillar I'll try printing both sets of pawns (good and bad) at the same time. Hopefully I can kill two birds with one stone. I'm not looking to add a fan anytime soon, but it sounds like I might have to.

redbarret wrote:

Blobbing can be caused by partial clog, or overextrusion, or humidity.
What pirvan said is also very possible.
This happened to me when I tried printing at 50 micron layer height. Some parts of the model the hotend was staying too long and decomposing the plastic. I use natural color ABS and those blobby parts had grey and brown marks.
If you have white colored filament, perhaps you can try printing with it instead and look for discolorations there.
I see you have a stock Solidoodle 4 like me. I haven't been able to find a fan duct for SD4 to try adding a fan cooling for such things. I'd use the left fan on the SD4 since it seems to work fine without it.

I took your advice and used a guitar e string to clean out the nozzle a bit, I also took off the cold end and dusted off all the little filament bits. I'll see if it helps on my next print. I don't have any other colour besides black, I'll remember this information about discolouration for future reference though.

I'll probably attempt another print tomorrow, thanks for the help!

SD4 with Lawsy Carriages, Flanged bearings + Y-Drive Pillow Block, Adjustable Y-Idlers, Z-axis Ballscrew. Printing ABS on ceramic tile w/ hairspray.

Future Plans: GT2 Belts/Pulleys, E3D lite6

7 Reply by pirvan

  • pirvan
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Re: Small Figurine Print Problems

Ironsight wrote:

I think you're right about the print head spending too much time over the print. Instead of using a prime pillar I'll try printing both sets of pawns (good and bad) at the same time. Hopefully I can kill two birds with one stone. I'm not looking to add a fan anytime soon, but it sounds like I might have to.

Printing multiple pieces should achieve the same goal, in theory, however, if the amount of time spent on each piece is small, as it usually happens as you get to the top of a print, and the areas being printed get smaller, it might not help. 

What you need is some piece (a pillar in this case) that has a constant print time, (i.e it doesn't change geometry as it builds upwards).  This way, the print head will always spend "X" number of seconds printing the pillar and giving the rest of the print time to cool off.

To print or, 3D print, that is the question...
SD3 printer w/too many mods,  Printrbot Simple Maker Ed.,  FormLabs Form 1+
AnyCubic Photon, Shining 3D EinScan-S & Atlas 3D scanners...
...and too much time on my hands.

8 Reply by Ironsight (edited by Ironsight 2015-01-22 00:10:57)

  • Ironsight
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Re: Small Figurine Print Problems

pirvan wrote:

Printing multiple pieces should achieve the same goal, in theory, however, if the amount of time spent on each piece is small, as it usually happens as you get to the top of a print, and the areas being printed get smaller, it might not help. 

What you need is some piece (a pillar in this case) that has a constant print time, (i.e it doesn't change geometry as it builds upwards).  This way, the print head will always spend "X" number of seconds printing the pillar and giving the rest of the print time to cool off.

Printed a new set last night and had WAY better results. I'm glad I used the prime pillar in combination with second pawn, the results compared to last time are night and day.

A few other changes; ABS temp up to 205, Seam Depth to 0.2 and Gap to 0.2, moved seam location.

Another thing I did was modify the model(Still learning how to use blender) to make parts thicker.

Right now I think the printer is working great, and that the resulting quality issues are mostly due to the models themselves. Check out the results attached.

Btw the spikes printed on the D pawn, but were really fragile so I just ripped em off. Gonna have to make them a lot thicker or just turn them into studs.

The parts for my upgrades should be coming in the mail soon so I'll take a break from printing and work on preparing the other models. Thanks again for the help I really appreciate it.

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D 0.2mm.jpg 1.8 mb, file has never been downloaded. 

R 0.2mm.jpg
R 0.2mm.jpg 1.66 mb, file has never been downloaded. 

R and D 0.2mm.jpg 1.73 mb, file has never been downloaded. 

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SD4 with Lawsy Carriages, Flanged bearings + Y-Drive Pillow Block, Adjustable Y-Idlers, Z-axis Ballscrew. Printing ABS on ceramic tile w/ hairspray.

Future Plans: GT2 Belts/Pulleys, E3D lite6

9 Reply by redbarret (edited by redbarret 2015-01-24 22:14:35)

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Re: Small Figurine Print Problems

I thought I had seen an option in Slic3r somewhere for setting "minimum layer time", but I can't find it anymore. Seems possible, it would just need to retract, move the hotend away and come back and extrude after some time. Maybe I'm mistaken.
But searching again I found this:
http://i.imgur.com/mRlIRcx.png

Okay, that's a weird feature to me, can anyone explain how that is useful?
I mean I understand that technically the next layer will get printed later in time if the current layer is printed slower. But if you achieve that next layer printing delay by slowing down the print speed of the current layer, aren't you just going to overheat and have melting issues with your current layer because the hotend stays in the same area longer now?

Maybe these options are the problem? Slic3r is telling to print too slow because the current  layer printing time is too short?

Solidoodle 4