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  1. #21
    Well, I just purchased my Flashforge Creator Pro. I decided to go with the well established brand name where I know I can get tech support, online advice and replacement parts. That's worth the extra money to me.
    Thanks to all of you who offered your advice, and wish me luck!

  2. #22
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    good machines.
    Looking at the extruder setup, I can only see print area ducting on the left nozzle. So you might want to think about fitting one of these:
    http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:537918

  3. #23
    Thanks, CA!

  4. #24
    So??? How is it going? I've never used one personally, but have heard good things about the Creator Pro all the time. A lot of "prints great right out of the box" type comments.

    Have you set it up? First print done yet? Learning all you can?

  5. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by BoozeKashi View Post
    So??? How is it going? I've never used one personally, but have heard good things about the Creator Pro all the time. A lot of "prints great right out of the box" type comments.

    Have you set it up? First print done yet? Learning all you can?
    Thanks for asking, BoozeKashi! I received the machine last Thursday, but didn't get to do my first test print until yesterday - just a 1 1/2" X 3/4" box that's included as a test object, in ABS. It was fascinating to watch - first just to see the process but also because the Creator Pro puts on quite a show It glows purple when heating, blue when printing, there's a red light on the bed that blinks for reasons that are mysterious to me, and it makes various assorted boops and beeps.

    My first print had some "ringing" - wavy patterns on the sides that Simplify 3D's troubleshooting guides says are caused by vibrations. There's settings I can change but I think the problem is what I have the machine set on - I put rubber pads under the stand's legs to try to cut down noise transmission through the floor, but I think they allowed the whole stand to vibrate too much. And now I know the noise is not that bad - and neither is the smell. I'm trying to improve the base before I do my next test.

    I still have work to do in Blender before I can test one of my own designs - that will be the real test of whether I can get the detail I'm after. And I'm going to buy Simplify 3D today or tomorrow - I haven't even bothered installing Flashprint. But I am relieved that the machine made it from China and seems to work!

    I'll keep ya posted.

    ETA:I meant to mention that the Creator Pro now ships with Buildtak on the bed, and two extra sheets of it. No Kaptan tape, no blue tape. Adhesion of ABS to the Buildtak was excellent - almost too good. I had a really hard time getting the piece off the bed. I had to let it cool almost to room temperature, then I ended up dousing the piece and the bed around it with isopropyl alcohol. It gets cold as it evaporates, and that helped the piece pop off.
    Last edited by Jeff B; 04-24-2017 at 02:01 PM.

  6. #26
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    yeah my only experience with builtak was with a piece I was given by polymaker to print their polycarbonate on. The test rint is still attached, ripped the bumpy surface off.
    I asked polymaker about it and they said they'd had the same problem. But they still give people buildtak for polycarbonate ?????

    I wasn't impressed. Get printbite :-)

  7. #27
    It's interesting you mention that. FLUX just sent us all a Buildtak build plate as part of an upgrade kit for the original Delta to bring it to equivalency with the Delta+ But they took a different route, since the printer already has a metal build plate, they attached the Buildtak to a magnetic sheet that is about 2mm thick. When you want to print you slap the mag sheet on the plate and print, sticks like mad just like you both said, but then removing the print is super easy. Since it's a magnetic sheet, just take it off the plate and it can flex and the print pops right off.

    In the case where you have Buildtak pre-applied and the bed doesn't come out easily or flex, another trick is to use a can of compressed air. The 'Air Dusters' that you find in Office Depot, Office Max, etc. for cleaning keyboards. The trick is to hold the can upside down and give the print a VERY QUICK spray at the base. The propellant used in those sprays evaporates and freezes at room temp, so that quick blast will super chill your part and make it a lot easier to remove.

  8. #28
    So far the Buildtak is working very well for me. But I'm presently printing my biggest piece yet - we'll see how much trouble I have getting it off the bed.

    But I'm using ABS, not polycarbonate.

    Boozekashi, I love the idea of the magnetic backing. I've been toying with the idea of trying magnets on my bed, but I was worried the magnetic field might somehow interfere with the machine.

    The compressed air idea is also interesting. I have been using a wipe-down of isopropyl alcohol the achieve the same cooling effect. But recently I haven't even had to do that.

    Overall report - it took 6 tries, but I have successfully printed my first N scale building with all the surface detail I need. Shingle patterns, siding grooves, doors, windows, even hinges on a barn door. It's really rather amazing.

    My big tradeoff to get this quality has been print speed. At the default speed I was getting lots of "ringing" (aka "ghosting", so I'm told) - vertical bands in vertical surfaces following anywhere where the printer had to make some hard turn. They were bad enough in areas to make the print unacceptable. I fist tried moving the printer to a more stable surface - made no difference at all. I then tried tightening the belts and lubricating - made no difference at all. I then reduced the print speed to 80% of default - then around 60% - at 50% the problem went away enough to be acceptable. 1800 mm/min. Increased the print time from around 2 hours 10 minutes to around 3 1/2 hours - but it is what it is. I guess.

    The one thing I haven't tried is to to change the acceleration values in Sailfish. Frankly, I'm scared to play with the firmware. I'm afraid I'll screw thing up. Sp far I haven't even attached the printer to my computer or even installed Flashprint - I'm using Simplify3D.

    As for Simplify3D - I am not 100% impressed. I had some issues with the preview making it look like my shingle patterns would come out hollow, when in fact it printed fine. I also had a problem yesterday when I tried to manually add supports to a bridged area on a small piece - it wouldn't let me do it, and seemed to have trouble representing the geometry of that piece, although it sliced and printed fine. (I did get sag in the bridged areas and had to trim them with an Xacto knife).

    But hey - learning curve and all that.

    So at this point, I definitely think I made the right choice to use 3D printing for this project. I'm getting a level of detail that would be an utter pain in the ass to accomplish in any other way I'm aware of. Let's hope things continue to go well and the machine remains reliable - I still have a long way to go!

  9. #29
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    one thing you learn about slicing programs - never use preset options :-)

    They are based on manufacturers published printspeed figures, which are just total bollocks.

    Yes, technically your printer can print at 100mm/s (change speeds to mm/s it's much much easier to visualise - not sure what use mm/min is to anyone.)
    But you will find that the maximum is around 60-70mm/s. The sweet spot is usually around 40-50mm/s for speed versus quality.
    What layer height are you printing at ?

    We did tell you it wasn't fast :-)

    To up your printspeed you generally need to increase printing temp as well. Which reduces printing artifacts.

    Glad to hear you're getting enough detail and it's working out for you :-)

  10. #30
    CA, I printed at 100 micron resolution. The piece I'm doing now I set to print at 200 microns for most of it, then change to 100 microns when it got to the top detailed surfaces. (I've learned how to do multiple processes in Simplify ) It seems to be working out.

    I'll keep the higher temp advice in mind if I really need to up my speed? How much? Just a few degrees? And that reduces ringing/ghosting?

    Thanks! I'll keep ya posted.

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