New to 3D Printing and need some help.

[RobH2]

Agreed. You prints are looking great. Now, get to work... You are definitely ready to roll it looks like.

[BLKKROW]

Now here is a question that has come to my mind. When my printer starts to warm up it pulls the bed to the bottom and brings the extruder to the front/top/left side of the machine. When it does it it makes that weird sound I mentioned earlier.

On the ride side of the machine there is a switch which I can only guess stops moving the extruder once it is pressed. Is there anyway in the gcode to have the extruder move to the front/top/right instead of the left? Also when I generate my gcode from Slic3r it only moves the bed halfway to the bottom not all the way down is there a way to fix that also?

[Geoff]

Now here is a question that has come to my mind. When my printer starts to warm up it pulls the bed to the bottom and brings the extruder to the front/top/left side of the machine. When it does it it makes that weird sound I mentioned earlier.

On the ride side of the machine there is a switch which I can only guess stops moving the extruder once it is pressed. Is there anyway in the gcode to have the extruder move to the front/top/right instead of the left? Also when I generate my gcode from Slic3r it only moves the bed halfway to the bottom not all the way down is there a way to fix that also?

I am pretty sure you can, it's a Home axes reference from memory, if I ever get stuck I always go here

http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code

[Roxy]

Blkkrow: Do you know you get to specify 'custom GCode' in most slicers? If you can use that link Geoff provided to get your machine setup for a print the way you want it (by issuing GCode commands), then you are set to go. What you do is look for the 'custom GCode' spot in your slicer program and say 'Always do this prior to a print' and it will always prefix your part with the stuff you put there.

[BLKKROW]

I am pretty sure you can, it's a Home axes reference from memory, if I ever get stuck I always go here

http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code

Blkkrow: Do you know you get to specify 'custom GCode' in most slicers? If you can use that link Geoff provided to get your machine setup for a print the way you want it (by issuing GCode commands), then you are set to go. What you do is look for the 'custom GCode' spot in your slicer program and say 'Always do this prior to a print' and it will always prefix your part with the stuff you put there.

I did know yoou can modify the gcode, I just wasn't sure where to find it. Thank you for the link!

Last night I attempted my first dual colour print, I have some more settings to tweak to get it to look good. But I have to put that on the back burner as my mother needs a special print for her company.

[Geoff]

I did know yoou can modify the gcode, I just wasn't sure where to find it. Thank you for the link!

Last night I attempted my first dual colour print, I have some more settings to tweak to get it to look good. But I have to put that on the back burner as my mother needs a special print for her company.

Dual colour shouldnt take you too much more tweaking , just run a calibration script if you get the colours slightly offset. The dual colour traffic cone on thingiverse is a really good tester, not too long to print and looks great if it prints well and its easy to see if your calibration is off. The secondary colour, ie the stripes and not the base and tip colour will be shifted slightly to one side. It might look good from one angle, but from another you will see what I mean.

i know the feeling too, I'm stuck printing these little frogs for my mothers friend at her art class...

[BLKKROW]

Dual colour shouldnt take you too much more tweaking , just run a calibration script if you get the colours slightly offset. The dual colour traffic cone on thingiverse is a really good tester, not too long to print and looks great if it prints well and its easy to see if your calibration is off. The secondary colour, ie the stripes and not the base and tip colour will be shifted slightly to one side. It might look good from one angle, but from another you will see what I mean.

i know the feeling too, I'm stuck printing these little frogs for my mothers friend at her art class...

I am suffering through it as I hope the part I am designing and printing for them will help me get a free 3d printer from them.

We shall see soon.

[BLKKROW]

I would some help with my current print.

As you can see in the photo provide I am printing a Saturn V, not a big surprise for a rocket nerd like me.

But the fins are horrid with the recent print, what settings should I look into to fix this? It is printed in the same orientation as pictured.

[3DPBuser]

you can bump down the speed doing a bridge while at the same time reducing the amount extruded. That makes the line being done pull tighter.

Doesn't a tighter bridge need a faster pull?

[RobH2]

This is a timely discussion. I've been printing bridges all day. I just recently purchased Simplify3D and am tweaking it to find the sweet spot for PET+. I did 12 bridge tests today with a custom bridge model that I built. It tests bridges of 5mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, 30mm and 40mm in one print.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:421046

I found that if I slow the print speed down I get a much worse bridge. I had to print at a speed of 200% to get it clean. I also used a fan. You could actually see the filament sag a bit and then pull up and tight as it cooled. The "sag to pull" occurred in about 1/2 second. It was interesting to watch. I got a fairly good 40mm bridge. The 30mm bridge is nearly perfect. Interestingly, the 5mm bridge was the messiest.

BridgeSettings_Sample_01.jpg