Happy with your Flashforge?

[curious aardvark]

love the printer. Whenever a print works it works perfectly.

Hate the makerbot software. Just zero layer control and oh, so many other things it won't do.

My problems are simply getting things to stick to anything without a raft. Not sure if it's me or the software.
for the vast majority of prints - rafts are just not suitable as removing prints from them can be nigh on impossible.

What annoys me is the raft prints nice and slow with slightly extra extrusion. But the makwerware software doesn't give me any options to set the same settings for my first layers without raft.

It's extremely annoying.
I know the printer will print at 15cms - I accidentally set it on that for a large cone (the only things I've succesfully printed and removed from a raft). But in order to get anything to stick to anything without a raft, I have to use really really slow print settings and cross my fingers.

So yep - thoroughly recommend the printer (got a creator x dual head) but just a shame they ripped off makerbot and not ultimaker. As cura is the software I really want to use.

I'll get there :-)

Here's what the machine can do when you get lucky. 0.2mm z resolution, 40mms speed.

pillshape_800x524.jpg

An almost perfect heartbox.

heartshape_578x600.jpg

This is how it came out of the printer. No stringing, perfect bridging. Just a slight curl at the point of the heart. I had to cut about 3 mm to release the central hinge. But otherwise about as good as you could hope for.

open_578x600.jpg

I haven't managed to get anything to stick to kapton since.
That said I haven't really had much time to sit down and seriously tune the beast. But just knowing if I can get the first couple layers to stick to the print bed, I can print anything - no matter how complex - is a real comfort. Great printer, lousy software. But I'm working on that :-)

[Geoff]

love the printer. Whenever a print works it works perfectly.

Hate the makerbot software. Just zero layer control.

My problems are simply getting thing to stick to anything without a raft. Not sure if it's me or the software.
for the vast majority of prints - rafts are just not suitable as removing prints from them can be night on impossible.

What annoys me is the raft prints nice and slow with slightly extra extrusion. But the makwerware software doesn't give me any options to set the same settings for my first layers without raft.

It's extremely annoying.
I know the printer will print at 15cms - I accidentally set it on that for a large cone (the only things I've succesfully printed and removed from a raft). But in order to get anything to stick to anything without a raft I have to use really really slow print settings and cross my fingers.

So yep - thoroughtly recommend the printer (got a creator x dual head) but just a shame they ripped off makerbot and not ultimaker. As cura is the software I really want to use.

I'll get there :-)

here's what the machine can do when you get lucky. 0.2mm z resolution, 40mms speed.

pillshape_800x524.jpg

An almost perfect heartbox.

heartshape_578x600.jpg

This is how it came out of the printer. No stringing, perfect bridging. Just a slight curl at the point of the heart. I had to cut about 3 mm to release the central hinge. But otherwise about as good as you could hope for.

open_578x600.jpg

I haven't managed to get anything to stick to kapton since.
That said I haven't really had much time to sit down and seriously tune the beast. But just jnowing if I can get the first couple layers to stick to the print bed I can print anything - no matter how complex is a real comfort. Great printer, lousy software. But I'm working on that :-)

The kapton is just a low level setting, I have the nozzle practically scraping the plate when I do raftless, but that example heart box?? man I struggled to print that and get my printer right, but its a good calibration test thats for sure!

As for makerware, you can adjust the settings for the raft etc with a profile editor

http://nothinglabs.blogspot.com.au/2...e-profile.html

I hear you with cura, pisses me off, looks nice, works great but can't talk to my machine.

[curious aardvark]

yeah I've looked breifly at proftweak. Will probably do the job.
Just been busy since I've had the machine. Keep hoping for a dead period. You know, like the 3 months before I got the machine :-)

But that heart box - I believe the second thing I ever printed - just says: get your end right and I'll print anything at all :-)

I had a gyro thing heading for a perfect print as well - but head got blocked halfway through lol

So yeah, printer is a great bit of kit. heavy duty motors and bars. Love the control panel and screen and I print 90% from sd card.

I've made 3 glass printbeds - so I'll calibrate a bit finer and try blue tape, kapton on glass and abs glue and mess with proftweak and hopefully hit on a solution that works for me most - if not all - of the time.

But none of my issues are the printers fault.

Oh yeah goeff - did you say I need m3 wingnuts ? So far only been able to go down as low as m4 in the hardware shops I've looked in.
Blisters on forefinger and thumb from adjusting hot. hopefully the glass plates will let me calibrate cold.
When i get wingnuts I'll probably print big plastic knobs to fit over them just to make things really easy and less painful to calibrate hot :-)

[Geoff]

yeah I've looked breifly at proftweak. Will probably do the job.
Just been busy since I've had the machine. Keep hoping for a dead period. You know, like the 3 months before I got the machine :-)

But that heart box - I believe the second thing I ever printed - just says: get your end right and I'll print anything at all :-)

I had a gyro thing heading for a perfect print as well - but head got blocked halfway through lol

So yeah, printer is a great bit of it. heavy duty motors and bars. Love the control panel and screen and I print 90% from sd card

I've made 3 glass printbeds - so I'll calibrate a bit finer and try blue tape, kapton on glass and abs glue and mess with proftweak and hopefully hit on a solution that works for me most - if not all - of the time.

But none of my issues are the printers fault.

Oh yeah goeff - did you say I need m3 wingnuts ? So far only been able to go down as low as m4 in the hardware shops I've looked in.
Blisters on forefinger and thumb from adjusting hot. hopefully the glass plates will let me calibrate cold.
When i get wingnuts I'll probably print big plastic knobs to fit over them just to make things really easy and less painful to calibrate hot :-)

Not sure mate, what did I say the wingnuts were for lol?

[basfud]

My problems are simply getting things to stick to anything without a raft. Not sure if it's me or the software.
for the vast majority of prints - rafts are just not suitable as removing prints from them can be nigh on impossible.

I never print with rafts and no issues with model unsticking, but then again, I never use pure Kapton

I use either office glue like UHU Stick or dissolved PVA. For ABS (which I slowly abandon in favor of taulmann nylon) I use ABS juice and re-calibrate the bed on 110degC temperature (cause it warps more at those temps).

The only problems I get is the models sticking to the bed too well But you can use lighter butane refills to get them off (temperature shock) or pry them off with a snap-off knife (that works brilliant most of the time). You also get a perfect glossy surface on the bed side of the print.

[Geoff]

I never print with rafts and no issues with model unsticking, but then again, I never use pure Kapton

I use either office glue like UHU Stick or dissolved PVA. For ABS (which I slowly abandon in favor of taulmann nylon) I use ABS juice and re-calibrate the bed on 110degC temperature (cause it warps more at those temps).

The only problems I get is the models sticking to the bed too well But you can use lighter butane refills to get them off (temperature shock) or pry them off with a snap-off knife (that works brilliant most of the time). You also get a perfect glossy surface on the bed side of the print.

It's funny, I printed raftless for 8 hours yesterday after fixing my flashforge with some band aids, on 1 layer of kapton (single sided) and no glue or spray.

All I ever need to do is mess with printing temps and it solves the issue. All my filament is different, its always down to settings for me and the only exception I find is the wood.

[curious aardvark]

adjusting the bed on calibration.

It's in your first couple of posts in the stickied thread.
I've got some m4's I might try.
Just can't find anyone stocking m3's, weird.

[curious aardvark]

keep trying without raft. Just won't stick.

And getting araft off a model after a long print can be nigh on impossible - just fuses soild.

I haven't tried at really low speeds yet, but can't see any other way of printing raftless than with layer control. And I just haven't got it.
Or printing the entire part at 10mms - and I really don't want to spend all day waiting for a small lidless box to print, that I could knock out in 20 minutes with a raft.

So geoff - if the filament doesn't stick, do you put the temp up or down ? And how does that effect the rest of the print, particularly on things that need really fine tolearances ?
Although if you've never got the heart box to work - I guess that maybe answers the question.

[Bobby Lin]

I love Flashforge printer. It has the best extruder in printing ABS and PLA and it is a really great printer to experiment with when you're still starting on 3d Printing. I used Flashforge as my startup printer when I was still a beginner in 3d Printing.

[Bobby Lin]

So far I am happy with FlashForge. It's the first printer I used when I started to venture 3d printing and it became my buddy ever since. So I think this printer have some sentimental value to me and I am satisfied with its features and capabilities as well.