My Prusa i3v 10" Build === Photos, Comments & Questions

[jtice]

I did the Esteps calibration today, told it to extrud 100mm and it was only off by 0.66mm
I thought that seemed pretty good, but made the proper adjustment anyway.
Printing out a train whistle now as a test,
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:77183
Then I think I will print a mount for a second cooling fan for when I do PLA.
I am thinking about printing this one and seeing if I can mount if on the side of the extruder.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:351280

[dacb]

My advice: before you leave ABS, print a couple fan shrouds for your hot end and a whole new extruder set (maybe do the gears in PLA).

[jtice]

Printing a fan shroud now, since I figure I will need that for PLA.
Just did the train whistle in ABS, was fine till about 80% then one end lifted off the bed about 2 to 3mm
I just let it keep printing, it pressed it down on that side as it ran over it,
it certainly wasnt as nice of a print from that point on, but it at least finished and its a working whistle.

What are the main things I should do to prevent that?
I used a bit more hair spray on this shroud print, will see how it does, though its a smaller piece, shouldnt have as much of an issue.

Next I will be printing some spare extruder parts.

[dacb]

I went through this also. Here are some of the things I found that helped:
1. In Cura, use a brim. Slic3r may have a similar option, but I abandoned it before I found one.
2. Bed temperature 110C. I tried higher and lower and settled here. YMMV depending on your spool of ABS. Mine was glow in the dark green from MakerFarm.
3. Clean glass with acetone/ABS slurry spread over it. Clean the glass well with acetone, isopropyl (high proof), or some other solvent. Take a glass jar and your failed ABS prints, tailings, trimming, etc. and put them in there with acetone. You want a thick slurry. Some people call this ABS juice. The ABS will dissolve in the acetone. Spread the slurry over your bed (I used paper towels, my fingers, spatulas, etc. and found they all work if you leave a thin layer behind) and preheat it. The acetone evaporates (don't inhale) and you are left with a very thin layer of ABS all over your bed. If you are auto bed leveling, be careful not to make the layer too thick or it will bork your print. This acts like an uber brim and helps pieces not warp. When you remove the piece, leave any dried out slurry behind and spread some new slurry around. Once every half dozen prints or so, clean the glass with acetone and start over. I loved printing with ABS, but the smell was too much for my wife and kids.

This meant I had to trim all of my ABS pieces (remove the brim), but they stuck to the glass, did not warp, and had a nice glossy finish against the glass.

[jtice]

Thanks alot for the input.

Brim, yep that looks like a great solution, I would rather have to trim and clean up parts rather than have them lift and fail.
I am running 90C on the bed now, I will up that to 100C and try that, and start using brim, if thats not enough I will try the slurry.
The hair spray has stuck really really well, except that whistle.
But, that was the largest part I have done, so it was effected more.

[dacb]

Then I think I will print a mount for a second cooling fan for when I do PLA.
I am thinking about printing this one and seeing if I can mount if on the side of the extruder.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:351280

The Print Cooling Fan System for MakerFarm Prusa i3 and i3v was designed to work with this hex cooling shroud: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:335613 . Clough42 did some excellent work with these and the auto bed leveling setup I run and recommend: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:335632

If you are going to keep the stock shroud, you can try getting the funnel to mount at the correct position by tuning the parameters of these:
* http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:464868
* http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:463758

[jtice]

That is the fan shroud I just printed, it was really hard to get off the bed. 90F with hair spray.
Its not bad, but you can see some rough areas on it, I still need to figure out the cause of that.

I uploaded pics of the shroud and the whistle I did.
The first layer of the whistle turned out excellent, just a shame it ended up lifting.
http://jtice.smugmug.com/3D-Printing...ints/i-HQvg3Nv

I think I will go ahead and add that extruder setup that Clough42 did, people seem to like it, and it will work with that fan well.
Though I did like the idea of putting a fan on the side so i could see the extruder better.
But, I need to look into that auto leveling setup, Does it really work that well?
Do you just basically manually level the bed once to get it pretty close, then just run auto leveling each time you print from then on?
So far, leveling is by far the PITA of all this. Seems to change from print to print alot.
I also think leveling it with the bed heated helps, I think it effects it just enough to matter.

[gmay3]

jtice, in addition to the brim which is definitely necessary on some prints, try to lower your z endstop a little and make sure that first layer is squashing slightly on the glass to get a little better adhesion. This is something to try if you are finding that all of your prints are lifting off the bed.

As far as the brim goes a little goes a long way. Just making it's width 2mm made for a successful print after a couple failed prints without it.

Good work on calibrating the input extrusion by calibrating the esteps! I think you should definitely do the second step on the calibration thread which has you calibrate the output of the extrusion by printing a solid block of plastic and checking if the top is perfectly flat or not.

[jtice]

The whistle that I printed actually had my best first layer yet, it was smashed down really good, the bottom of the whistle is really smooth.
Yet, it still lifted. But as I said, it was by far my largest print so far.
Everything I am printing is sticking to the glass REALLY well. The fan shroud was pretty difficult to get loose, even after I let the bed cool a bit.
I just need to let it cool a bit more, Im too excited and want to handle the print!

I will look through the calibration thread more and do what else it says.
Also going to look into this auto leveling alot more, that seems like it would be well worth it.
I can get the bed level, thats not a huge deal, its the Z stop thats tough, and I even have the new Z endstop bracket installed.
I actually use it to get the bed close, then use the bed adjustments to get it Really close. (I have a spring on the home corner as well)

Added photos of the fan shroud, it came out pretty good, few odd rough places here and there.
The bracket came out really nice though (not pictured)
http://jtice.smugmug.com/3D-Printing...ints/i-wCv85q5

Thanks again for all the help guys, couldnt do it without it!

[AbuMaia]

I had trouble with parts lifting even when using a brim and ABS juice. I recently saw some people talking about using an Elmers glue stick, and having one on hand from doing papercraft, I tried it. I don't think I'll be using anything else from now on. I get the best adhesion ever with the glue stick than with hairspray, tape, or ABS juice. It is a little nerve-wracking hearing the part pop off the glass as it cools, it sounds as if the glass has broken (which did happen to me once during a print when I used blue tape, hairspray and ABS juice at the same time).