Originally Posted by
bernarddt
Thanks Richard! This is very serious advice. I can just think that printing a surface of 20x20cm will have more reduction in temperature by the time the second pass comes over, so that the plastic would have cooled to much to bond. Now just imagine 40x40cm... 4x the roundtrip time!
Now I realise why the printers are so small. And that commercial ones are even smaller, because they want very good results, so they can't afford a warped print just because there end-users are normally less technical. If a RepRap printer warps, the end-user would just blame himself for doing something wrong.
Do you think that only an enclosure would be enough? So that the heated bed would produce enough heat to keep the inside temperatures warm. Or would one need extra heat?
Does someone also know if the heated bed stays on the whole time, or only during the first pass...
My mind is just going crazy... so with any 3D printer, does the firmware make provision for when it prints something smaller and each pass is quickly followed, to reduce the printing temperature, and when printing something large, that the printing temperature is higher. This will be a layer by layer thing to calculate as printed objects can reduce or enlarge in size. You can also print faster and slower, but the printer head can have a "to low" upper speed to be able to keep up. Or it can produce non matching layers if each is printed at different speeds...