MakerFarm Prusa i3v 10" - And So It Begins!

Not bad for first prints. Are these with Simplify3D or some other slicer? What are you using for the source of your settings?

First, I assume you're printing with a skirt. Does the skirt always have the zig zag shown in the vase picture? If so, that's a problem. One similar case was due to the x-carriage wheel mounting bolts rubbing on the large gear. The last picture in this post of my build thread highlights what to look for. If the zig zag is unique to the vase, it's just a replication of the bottom layer outer edge of the vase.

After that, I'd suggest posting a picture of how your first layer looks before paying much attention to the rest of the prints. Without seeing the bottom of a print, it looks like there are issues to work through regarding either the amount of nozzle-to-bed clearance or nozzle temperature.

Have you calibrated your extruder? That's just another thing you want to do before spending much time scrutinizing print results.

The rough sides on the vase could be any combination of slightly high on extrusion, not enough retraction, or too high of a hot end temperature.

The small robot can be tough as an initial print. The "underarms" are especially tough since the design leaves them supported. At some point you can add a print cooling system that'll help, but expecting unsupported loops like that to remain perpendicular is always going to be tough without adding support. I personally don't like trying to add support under the arms since it will have to rest on the feet in order to be where the support needs to be. When I'm printing the robot as a test or as a giveaway, I try to be nearby when the underarm starts to print, and slip a putty knife under loose strands to simultaneously prop them up and harden the soft filament.

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Originally Posted by printbus

Not bad for first prints. Are these with Simplify3D or some other slicer? What are you using for the source of your settings?

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I used simplify3d and as for the settings go I left everything default except the build area.

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Originally Posted by printbus

First, I assume you're printing with a skirt. Does the skirt always have the zig zag shown in the vase picture? If so, that's a problem. One similar case was due to the x-carriage wheel mounting bolts rubbing on the large gear. The last picture in this post of my build thread highlights what to look for. If the zig zag is unique to the vase, it's just a replication of the bottom layer outer edge of the vase.

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I will check this maybe that's what is going on. Ill report back

Edit: checked my bolts face the opposite direction they are clear.

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Originally Posted by printbus

After that, I'd suggest posting a picture of how your first layer looks before paying much attention to the rest of the prints. Without seeing the bottom of a print, it looks like there are issues to work through regarding either the amount of nozzle-to-bed clearance or nozzle temperature.

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I will post a picture during my next print for the first layers. I also need to find out what the proper distance is. I am using the default temperatures so this may very well need to be adjusted.

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Originally Posted by printbus

Have you calibrated your extruder? That's just another thing you want to do before spending much time scrutinizing print results.

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No I have not is there a good guide to this somewhere?

Thanks for the feedback Ill look into these!

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Originally Posted by tfast500

I used simplify3d and as for the settings go I left everything default except the build area.

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That's pretty gutsy. You probably have a variation of version 3. I'm still on version 2 for lack of time and motivation to get around to the upgrade. I seem to remember that the default settings on my install were really high on retraction speed. MakerFarm gurus have generally recommended limiting that to 10mm/sec or 15mm/sec. Any higher and the extruder motor skips during retractions.

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I will post a picture during my next print for the first layers. I also need to find out what the proper distance is. I am using the default temperatures so this may very well need to be adjusted.

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To clarify, what I meant by showing the first layer is to photograph the bottom of the print after it is completed and removed from the print bed. That will show how much the first layer is being "squished", which in turn suggests whether the nozzle to bed spacing is right. With hot end and bed at printing temperature, I adjust the gap to the thickness of an adhesive label/sticker that measures 0.20mm thick.

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No I have not is there a good guide to this somewhere?

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Check for the calibration thread in the MakerFarm stickies.[/QUOTE]

Currently I am jammed up I cant get any filament to come out of the hot end and even if I push it by hand nothing budges. I have the hot end turned to 230 to get it to melt but nothing :/

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Originally Posted by tfast500

Currently I am jammed up I cant get any filament to come out of the hot end and even if I push it by hand nothing budges. I have the hot end turned to 230 to get it to melt but nothing :/

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Can you pull the filament out by hand when you have it heated up? One thing you need to make sure of is that your hotend cooling fan is running all the time when the hotend is up to temp. Otherwise you will melt your extruder base and your hotend will become plugged up because the filament melts way to far up in the heat break area.

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... One thing you need to make sure of is that your hotend cooling fan is running all the time when the hotend is up to temp. Otherwise you will melt your extruder base and your hotend will become plugged up because the filament melts way to far up in the heat break area.

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tfast, note that this also applies to shutting the printer off. Don't turn it off while the hot end is still hot. After the heater is shut off, leave the hot end fan running until the hot end temperature is somewhat near ambient temperature before shutting off the printer.

Also note that the e3dv6 hot end is sensitive to the amount of retraction. Multiple people have had similar jamming issues with initial uses of the e3dv6 until they back off on the retraction. IIRC, e3d suggest no more than 1mm retraction length. More than that and you risk pulling too much melted filament out of the hot end heat chamber and into the heat break or hot end heatsink. It'll expand when it cools and can form a plug that jams everything up.

Remember how I warned you that there's a lot of figure out and learn?;)

This was exactly my issue between not powering down properly and not running the cooling fan constantly. I ended up wiring the fan directly to the 12v coming straight from the power supply instead of my Rumba board. I had to disassemble the whole hot end to unclog it and drilled it out of the heat break to free it all out. :/ pain in the arse

Also I am having issues with my prints now that I "actually" am running directly off simplify 3d.

I misinformed you, printbus. I was using the gcode from slic3r that I created awhile back not the gcode from simplify3d like I had said.
I am not sure why but It was using high temps of 230 / 70 and working alot better then what its set now to by default for the pla when printing from simplify3d
Now that I am actually using simplify3d my prints wont even stick to the board its acting weird and cloging... also its set by default to 190 / 60 which sounds correct for pla, but like i said not working at all for my prints

I encourage any lurkers to jump in with their thoughts as well. There's almost always more than one "correct" answer to everything...

Temperatures can vary from machine to machine - the readings aren't very good in an absolute sense. You need to figure out what works well in your combination of variables. For what it is worth, I personally prefer the better surface shine and layer adhesion I get with PLA in the 205 to 215 range. Can't remember when I've printed below that. I have one roll the manufacture recommends printing at 235 I believe. There are blogs, reprap wiki posts and likely threads here that guide you through determining your best temperature for a given filament roll by getting a feel for how the filament manually extrudes as you rotate the extruder gear with motors disabled.

There likely may have been other things to try instead of attacking the hot end with a drill. For example, you could try letting the extruder soak at temperature for some time before trying to extrude. Or, I know I've had a few cases where I get the hot end off the extruder, and warm components up with a hot air gun to help picking material out of the tube with fresh filament, or pushing through the tube with a piece of wire. It'll take less heat to soften up the filament than you think. FWIW, when the filament feels "stuck" in the hot end, I have found I can rarely if ever move the filament by hand. As long as I haven't chewed a notch into the filament, what often works for me is commanding the extruder to move 1mm, maybe another 1mm, maybe 1 more mm. At some point in there it often breaks free.

When I saw the blue tape, I figured you'd be printing on a cold bed. I get phenomenal stick with a cold bed and 3M blue tape swabbed clean with 91% rubbing alcohol. Cleaning it with alcohol seems critical for removing any kind of production wax or finger oils from the tape. After that it should just be a matter of the gap you have between the nozzle and the bed. Most people end up adjusting for the same as the thickness of a piece of paper. You sort of have to develop a feel for how the paper drags when pulling it between the nozzle and the glass. "Some resistance" would be how I usually set mine. Look for the bed leveling wizard built into Simplify3D if you haven't seen it. It takes care of moving the nozzle around your bed for measuring the gap in each corner. Sort of speeds up the process. You'll likely soon be looking for better ways to do the corner height adjustments, or be looking into automatic bed compensation/leveling.

There are a few different threads where people have shared or discussed Simplify3D settings, at least for version 2. I cannot say the settings are the perfect answer to anything, but I do walk through all the version 2 settings I found work well for me as part of this post in my build thread - just scroll down to the section on Simplify3d. I no longer run Marlin, but the Simplfy 3D settings have remained pretty much the same with my new electronics setup. RUNNING SUMMARY OF CONFIGURATION SETTINGS

Awesome thanks for the config settings I will give this a go!

I run PLA at 225° nozzle and 70° bed temps and I use purple glue sick on the glass. I have a Hexagon hotend but I am sure the temps would be similar.

One of the biggest battles I fought early on with my 12" printer was inconsistent Z axis homing, I would have to mess with it sometimes 4 or 5 times before I could get a good first layer on a print. Looking back on it now the Z homing issues I experienced were due to the print bed physically moving during the heat cycle. This was caused by the wooden Y bed itself warping and by the heat bed surface warping up and down as the heat relay turned on and off.

As has been mentioned your first layer needs to be flat and stuck down well, without that good first layer the rest of your print will suffer.