New 12" user and I am LOST!

[Chadd]

I may be going about it wrong but in the short time I have been printing the best indicator of temp is to print something that is thin wall with no infill 1-2 layers thick then break it and check for layer adhesion. It shouldn't just break clean when you pull it apart. I have to print ABS @245 to 250 to get good layer adhesion, I have tried all the way down to like 225. A good part to test this on would be the clips for the corner of the bed that I sent you, if they are too cold they will split apart when you try to clip them on the corners of your bed. Here is where I got the STL file for those

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:575489/#files

The gcode I sent you was for four of the small radius clips and I believe I had to run them at 250° for good adhesion. I also included the STL file for it.

Another common suggestion I get is that my print settings are too hot. Not sure how people can tell this (Shiny parts). I am printing the above at 215 degrees. Not sure as that seems low to me. I did shoot it with a non contact thermometer and it read low. Significantly lower than 214. I know this is a surface temp and not an internal temp but if I were printing too high I would think the external temp would have been hotter than 180.

Has anyone else temped their hotends? It would be nice to have something to compare it to. My thought is that the black from Colin is just a shiny material. What are some other brands to try out?

[tsteever]

Getting closer. I printed the box and the top is "fuller" but oddly not flat. It is within about .1 or so. Not sure what causes it. My inexperience says perhaps part of the print cooling weird. Maybe the auto bed level is goofy? I'm gonna put the non ABL firmware on and reprint to see if it changes things.

Here re is the print. What do you think? Top layer on the most recent Slic3r is much improved.

Top layer is much better


Not perfectly flat


Kinda bulges in parts and sags in others.

[Chadd]

That looks quite a bit better than what you had before.

Getting closer. I printed the box and the top is "fuller" but oddly not flat. It is within about .1 or so. Not sure what causes it. My inexperience says perhaps part of the print cooling weird. Maybe the auto bed level is goofy? I'm gonna put the non ABL firmware on and reprint to see if it changes things.

Here re is the print. What do you think? Top layer on the most recent Slic3r is much improved.
\Top layer is much better


Not perfectly flat


Kinda bulges in parts and sags in others.

[pichuete]

I suggest that you check the following things to see if it improves your prints.

1) reduce the infill perimeter overlap a bit.
2) make a thin wall calibration assuming you did your e-steps already fine tune your extrusion adjusting the extrution multiplier.
3) maker sure your filament is rolling smoothly. ( the provided stock spool holder is awful).

4) try to level you bed as good as you can even though you have abl. You can use G29 n3 T V4 to see your bed topography if you are using the enhanced version.

Also I noticed that your corners are curling up its seams that you are probably a extruding a bit to hot. In my case I have noticed that I need to lower the temp a bit for black abs. (235c)

You are in the right direction at this point little changes will get you there.

I have 2 month with My printer and I'm still playing with the settings. .... I'm still not satisfied with the quality.

[tsteever]

Thanks all, yes it is getting there. I did do the single wall calibration and e steps setting. I have lowered the temp even more. At this point I am doubting the thermister calibration as I am at 200 and still curling the edges and getting ooze.

Does it help to print the external perimeters first?

how hard is it to upgrade to the enhanced version? I really want to do that but haven't a clue what is involved.

[tsteever]

I do not see a setting in slic3r to adjust the infill perimeter overlap. Where is this setting located?

[pichuete]

yeah if you are printing ABS at 200C something related with the thermistor settings can be possibly off . make sure you have the Type 1 thermistor under the thermal settings on the configuration.h File .
#define TEMP_SENSOR_0 1
#define TEMP_SENSOR_1 0
#define TEMP_SENSOR_2 0
#define TEMP_SENSOR_BED 1

also you can try replacing the thermistortables.h File on your firmware for the stock file .if that doesn't help .

Printing with external perimeters first can help getting better outline quality in some situations (straight walls) but i personally dont like it for parts that have overhangs , sometimes if the angle is to high you can end printing on air or can reduce layer adhesion.

also observe if this is happening in all corners or only in layer change or end loops. i have been trying to reduce this blobs playing with the retraction settings and Coast end (distance that the nozzle will stop extruding prior to the end of a loop). a good start can be from 1 mm to 1.80mm at 15mm/s - 20/mms for the retraction. and coast end at 2 mm

Regarding the Roxy's enhancements im running the following firmware .its not the latest but it has the enhancements already implemented . you just need to adjust the settings for your particular configuration . also you can find more info here: http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...ed-G29-command

here's the repo for Marlin firmware fork for MakerFarm i3v w/ auto bed level & Roxy's enhancements
https://github.com/beckdac/Marlin

[tsteever]

https://github.com/beckdac/Marlin[/URL]

there are a lot of words there I don't understand. What is a repo? What is a fork?

[pichuete]

Repo = Repository Fork i guess is because is configured to work with makefarms printers the main settings are already set for makerfarm printers

Also my bad English doesn't help

[tsteever]

So I can just upload that and it should be configured for my Makerfarm printer? Also, can you direct me to the infill overlap setting? i cannot find it in slic3r.