Would someone like to give tips on tweaking? Have had new machine for 2 weeks.

I have my hands on a i3v 12in from makerfarm. Have had it for about 2 weeks. Been doing tweaking this entire time. I'm using Simplify3d.

I've done thin wall test, and 1cm cubes, and such. But I have restarted the process.

What I've done so far.

Calibrate steps on firmware to match real distance traveled with calipers.
Leveled build plate.
Prints stick to first layers well.
Printed a thin wall cube to obtain desired extrusion width to match settings, 0.4, resulting in an extruder multiplier of .75
Printed thin wall towers to obtain visibly looking optimum printing temperature. Resulting in 217 C

With that, I thought I give a shot and print out a Ctrl alt Print from thingiverse.

I used a default print speed of 50mm/sec
X/Y Movment speed 125mm/sec
Temp 217 C
Bed 60C
Retraction Distance 1mm
Retraction Speed 1800mm/min 30mm/sec

http://imgur.com/a/32VOM

Looking at the machine Print, I thought it was moving to fast in the detailed parts. Jumping all over the place in a smale area. I wan't to to get rid of that behavior. Need to take a look at my slicer.

One thing I'd change is the retraction speed. The motors driving the M5 z-rods on the MakerFarm i3v printers can't do better than about 15mm/sec. The MakerFarm Marlin distribution at least to use an extruder DEFAULT_MAX_FEEDRATE of 22mm/sec, so that would have over-ruled the 30mm/sec set in the slicer anyway. 22mm/sec has still been found by multiple people to be too fast.

It looks like there was a layer shift towards the bottom of the print, or was that part of the design? Providing a link to the thingiverse source is always a good idea.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by printbus

One thing I'd change is the retraction speed. The motors driving the M5 z-rods on the MakerFarm i3v printers can't do better than about 15mm/sec. The MakerFarm Marlin distribution at least to use an extruder DEFAULT_MAX_FEEDRATE of 22mm/sec, so that would have over-ruled the 30mm/sec set in the slicer anyway. 22mm/sec has still been found by multiple people to be too fast.

It looks like there was a layer shift towards the bottom of the print, or was that part of the design? Providing a link to the thingiverse source is always a good idea.

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Ok I'm starting a new print. Here is a link to the object in thingiverse if anyone wants to see it. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:704409
I think the shift you refer to are the rafts that I didn't fully remove.

In this print, I removed the unnecessary rafts. I lowered the retraction speed to 15mm/sec. And significantly reduced the outline underspeed to 35% to see how that looks.

Edit: If I still see any strings, I'm going to create 2 towers, with changing retraction speed rates.

Oops. I had my threads crossed. The Z motors and M5 threaded rods have nothing to do with the retraction speed. My testing indicated the extruder motor would top out between 15 and 20mm/sec before it would start to skip.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by printbus

Oops. I had my threads crossed. The Z motors and M5 threaded rods have nothing to do with the retraction speed. My testing indicated the extruder motor would top out between 15 and 20mm/sec before it would start to skip.

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Heh, although for yuks once, I enabled Z lift on retract. (OK..., it was more an act of desperation.) No bien! But it did finally start to warm-up the Z steppers... ;)

Ok, I ran a Ctrl V Print, and I got lots of stringing, and didn't like the detail. On that print I took printbus's advice and loward the retraction speed to 15mm/sec.

So I printed twin towers with lower tempatures, and I ended up with 195c having a nice finish and no stringing.

Then I printed my third Ctrl V Print.
On This one, I lowered the default speed to 3000mm/min, and outline underspeed to 45%
Here are the pictures, its starting to look good.

http://imgur.com/a/UVRKH

Edit: Wan't to point out that my Makerfarm has a problem printing on the Z axis. The temperature fluctuates too much, caused the bottom layers to expand and contract, leaving a patern on the Z axis, as if the nozzle was moving up and down. Problem goes away if I turn off the heat bed. I don't turn it off because my glass is thin, and I don't want to break it removing parts.

Here is an example of the difference I get from leaving the heat bed on, then turning it off.

http://imgur.com/jSqAfm6

What size heat bed do you have (consider providing key printer info in your signature space)? FWIW, a few other MakerFarm owners with large heat beds have reported the heat bed flexes as it turns on and off, and this can lead to the print moving up and down as it does so - here's a thread from the MakerFarm subforum: Bed Heater ON = Bad Print. Bed Heater Off = Good Print.

If this is what is happening in your case, suggestions include going to heavier glass (after all, it's the glass that provides strength to the bed - not the heat bed itself), having the binder clips close to the connection between the corner hardware and the glass (so the glass is relatively firmly attached to the heater at the corners), and perhaps having the corner springs fairly compressed (to minimize the chance that corners are moving as the heat bed cycles on and off).

Is this PLA filament in the picture comparing heat bed on/off? Have you tried adding some print cooling airflow?