New to 3d printing and having problems

[Ghosty]

i had an absolute ballache the first few weeks nothing i printed would come out right, till i got onto this forum and with the help of Geoff and curious aardvark i now have a working (well still a few kinks i need to iron out) machine, so much so i have had a work collegue offer to pay me to custom make her wedding cake stands (oreo cookies) so yeah....

as for settings, currently using pla

extruder temps are both 195
HPB is 60
speeds are 40 / 70

0.2 layer thickness
10% infill

bed is covered with fresh kapton, and wiped with pure acetone, no issues with sticking or removing now, at first removing was hard as in needed a chisle to remove prints were on there that good,

currently printing out a test oreo, to see how it looks

[error77]

I've definitely tried those settings which makes me think it is the printer or filament.


Yeah this looked like a good forum to join with a lot of helpful and knowledgeable people I was hoping someone would just say "Yes that's a nicknack that needs tweaking in the printer". Which reminds me, I'm printing with the lid off and the door open, it's also winter in England and I'm not a fan of the heat.


Sticking to the plate doesn't seem to be a problem.


Think I need a biscuit now lol.

[devildog125]

when you use the latest software, instead of saying "replicator dual", it should say something like "eeprom". This means that the computer sees the printer. If not then something is up with your mac not seeing the printer. Thats why you can't print over usb.

[Ghosty]

error77 im also in the uk, so tell me about cold, supposed to snow where i am tomorrow, how fun thats gonna be i a brand new car

[error77]

devildog125


Well that's strange, I've just started Makerbot and switched the printer on and Makerbot tells me it's connected to FF Creator Pro with a little USB icon next to it and I can print via USB now. I think it must be the order you turn them on as I've always had the printer on first.


I've just tried with the settings you suggested and no joy, it's still melty at the back. When you say both spools did you mean the same filament in each extruder or both the ABS and PLA?


Ghosty I'm hoping for snow but I have a feeling it's just going to be rain as usual lol. Stay safe if it does snow

[devildog125]

Looking your picture again, it looks like you are getting some over extrusion and thats why it's coming out to a glob especially on the sides. I would try lowing your feed stock multiplier to something like .93 to .97 and see if that works. It should be .93 for PLA and ABS .85....i would make sure your printer is calibrated as well.

[curious aardvark]

the blue filament I got with my printer was utter shite and also abs. It blocked the printhead quite quickly. And even after changing nozzles I still haven't got the right extruder working again properly.
I'd recommend buying some 10 metre samples of different pla's just to find one that works properly.

Can't say more expensive will be better. I've got some £13 white pla and some £18 white pla. Apart from printing at different temps, there's bugger else all to choose between them.

I would recommend polymakr filaments as the best I've used. And they look to be usa based as well. Which is bloody annoying for me :-)

[error77]

I've fiddled about with the feed stock multiplier and set it to both extremes of 0.5 and 1.3 to see what that would do, it didn't seem to help much.


I think I'm going to have to get some new filament and see if that works. Definitely don't want to mess my printhead up trying to get bad filament working.


Thank you all for your help, I'll let you know how it goes when I get some new filament

[DrUsual]

I'm visiting Dublin in a couple of months, Aardvark. Want me to bring you a box of Polymakr?

I like the Hatchbox filaments quite a bit --I haven't had many clogs with those, and I suspect that now that I'm following the "load only" technique it'll be even less frequent.