Can you please critique these prints?

[CVRIV]

Awesome advice. I already rounded the bracket. I also decreased the size of the holes so that they are more like pilot holes instead. I can easily drill them out later.

Would it be better to enable suppurt everywhere or just design the supports myself?

[ralphzoontjens]

Great, if you use the supports they will also work for the holes.
The zigzag option in Cura with 12-15% covering is best for easy breakaway.
I would design supports only for very specific cases like hollow sections. Craftprint also allows for custom tree-like support structures.
Sometimes you do want to print two parts at a time or add a small tower the same height of your print to allow cooling between layers and wipe the nozzle clean.

[curious aardvark]

I don't mess with the extrusion multiplier.
leave it at 1 (100%)

Printing too slow can have it's own problems. And fast travel speed is not a good idea either.
what are you printing with abs or pla ?

I do most of my printing with pla at 210c and 65mm/s print speed. With travel moves also at 65. Keeping the print head moving at the same speed removes the shake and spikes you get with sudden travel accelerations.

If I'm printing a little slower - say 50mm/s - then I'll often drop the temperature down to 200.
I also usually print at 0.3mm layer height. I'll go down to 0.2 for stuff that needs more layers for under hangs or overhangs or vertical curves.

The idea is to balance the viscosity of the filament and the speed it can flow, while maintaining a fast setting.
I have print area cooling fan on all the time.

I did mess about with retraction setting a short while ago. And eventually went back to simplify3d's default. Which are 1.8mm distance at 40mm/s speed.
Gives me the cleanest prints with the least amount of stringing (none, essentially).

I think people get over complicated and once you start messing about with things that didn't need to be messed with, it's a slippery slope.

[CVRIV]

Thanks for the info!

Ok so I have to balance the viscosity and speed of the print. I've been printing with a layer height of 0.2 lately. I'll try 0.3 now.

Also, I have my retraction distance set to 1mm and a speed of 70mm/s. So far so good. No stringing.

Im still having issues with some of the layers. At some point it seems that the extruder is starving. I think its my thermister. I know my thermister is bad and needs to be replaced, because last night while trying to print i started getting a min_temp error while the thermister is connected, which tells me the resistance of the thermister is going infinitely high. I checked the resistance of it while at room temp and it was about 10kohms higher than other two brand new ones i have. So i first have to replace that than try again.

[ralphzoontjens]

I am having to replace thermistors as well. I have just the bare thermistor so am going to need to insulate it. A lot of materials degrade at that temperature, also it needs to conduct the heat, I am thinking of using cotton even though that also degrades, or aluminum foil.. does anyone know what the best material for this is?

[CVRIV]

I was actaully thinking about using silver based thermal paste or just some kind of thermal paste. Cram some in the thermister hole and then push the thermister in the hole.

[ralphzoontjens]

I found that people use fiberglass insulators. However I am now using some PTFE (teflon) tube, affixed the thermistor with CA glue and an M2 screw on the other end holds it into the heating block, fits like a glove.

On a sidenote, a fiberglass print bed is superior to everything else I have come across. It needs no adhesive or tape because of its rough structure.

[CVRIV]

I dont have anything holding my thermister in at the moment. Im thinking im not going to worry about it now. I really really really want to build my own custom 3D printer now that I have spent some time with them. These printers I have now will just be my whatever printers i guess. Ill use to them to print all the custom parts for the new machine. Ill make sure to plan out the new machine very well.

[curious aardvark]

what printer are you using - been through the thread and it's not been mentioned anywhere.

Also filament type and printing temps.