Flashforge 3D Creator forum.

[Geoff]

Hi all, I own a Flashforge and had same problems with the original filament as well. Using 3rd party filament now instead. Original filament was leaving a gooey resin-like residue that would stick to everything and smelled like soldering rosin.

Geoff,
You can get the brass tip only for under $10, or get it customly machined for a similar price. Look for a workshop that does lathe and milling work and show them the element, they should measure it and make it just alike. If you're buying online, check for nozzle diameter, external screw diameter, and internal diameter, where the PTFE tube goes into.
Same with the teflon tube that goes in in the stainless steel tube, if it's burnt you can buy it on eBay, just measure the diameter and length.

If you can't find those things online drop me a PM.

Flashforge is a Chinese company, they kind of are like that. They will do everything to support the customers, but never EVER admit any mistakes on their side. Love it or leave it I guess. Still, I love my Flashforge a lot, it's a brilliant construction, in my opinion it has the best price/quality ratio, and I've worked on a few machines, both repraps and makerbot-style.

If any of you have problems with one of the heads hitting the model, they may not be levelled properly. Loosen one of them by untightening a small screw on the aluminum they go into, and push it up/down to level it, using levelled build plate for reference.

Nah, they do admit mistakes, like I mean the filament was not really something they could deny, so I can't comment on other things other people may have experienced, but they did come good in the end and replace it, sure the new roll was a nightmare, but the filament itself was OK, and even though I had to fix a billion filament jams on the reel, I eventually got through most of it.

Yeah the heads hitting the model, there is a thread here for, pretty common prob for the dual head machines - something I need to adjust for constantly due to an extremely warped aluminium heat bed (but it's always been a bit wonky) pain in the butt sometimes.

I know the nozzles are cheap, but I am a stubborn person. I don't know maybe it was the way I was brought up, the nozzles are so cheap, they could have sent me one simply for the trouble of proving their filament was faulty, and not only faulty, but machine breaking faulty. Now I am at the point where I literally bought a different machine last week, so we're way beyond a free sympathy nozzle.

Was it a one off? who knows, but this wasn't any ordinary filament.... this was the filament from hell...

im3age.jpg









Having already spent money on a new dual extruder my reluctance to buy even a nozzle shouldn't seem all that odd, plus now I have a new Jhead which looks like an awesome extruder, is it better? i'll find out soon.

[basfud]

Now I am at the point where I literally bought a different machine last week, so we're way beyond a free sympathy nozzle.

Whoa, cool! Talk about overkill ;D

Which printer did you get?

[Geoff]

Whoa, cool! Talk about overkill ;D

Which printer did you get?

Im building a prusa i3 and a kossel mini, with the hopes that one of them is easier than the other to turn into a gigantic 3D printer. I want to make an industrial size printer for as little money as possible, all without conning a million people on kickstarter.

[basfud]

Geoff,
Hehe, yeah, conning on kickstarter... weren't they about to take away the moderation completely? This will breed some nice scams X)

Sounds like a cool plan. Do you consider using a large diameter nozzle on it, or the standard 0.4?
Good luck with the build, if you'll start a construction thread I'll gladly chip in.

[Geoff]

Geoff,
Hehe, yeah, conning on kickstarter... weren't they about to take away the moderation completely? This will breed some nice scams X)

Sounds like a cool plan. Do you consider using a large diameter nozzle on it, or the standard 0.4?
Good luck with the build, if you'll start a construction thread I'll gladly chip in.

I think I will probably go with 0.5mm nozzle, since if I am printing gigantic things,0.2mm really is good enough for me

I really am starting to loathe kickstarters. I wish kickstarter was around when I was 10 years old...

"Hey everyone, I have this great idea of a movie i had a dream of I need a million dollars and it's going to be AWESOME"

Director ME!
Producer ME!!!
PLot - TBA
Script -TBA
Actors TBA...."


You know how it goes... I just didn't see the point of trying to get hundreds of thousands of dollars off people to make a printer, when like all these kids, they have not even slightly researched what it will cost them over all, and it's all just a big experiment to them. If I am going to sell a 3D printer, it will be made on my time and money, not other people.

It won't be "Oh when it's finished, it will cost"..

No, it will be "Here it is, it costs X amount. " I would rather have a bottom line first.

I have been hardcore looking at suppliers for the individual components and one thing is certain, if you are going to build a 3D printer and sell it, you really need to make as much of it yourself as you can. (And I am talking to the point of making your own drivers, custom made mega board and get stock ramps board, or larger.

Also, I will be doing a tear down video soon to show people how they can salvage most of the parts for their 3D printer in an old laser photocopier or printer. The average photocopier has more than you need inside it.. optical sensors, stepper motors, rods, belts... its all there.

[Chief Geek]

First and foremost, thank you Geoff for this post. With so many numbers to remember this acted as a awesome quick reference guide for me over the last couple days and while it was not my only source of information that helped me learn and remedy my issues it was certainly the most useful single piece that made a world of difference for me.

I only ready the first couple pages so please forgive me if this was already covered but as a new owner I got the privileged of troubleshooting all the typical fresh from the box issues plus several less common ones. With the obnoxious amount of time trying to adjust the build plate due to issues with a loose belt I spent my first night irritated until 2AM. I then spent the next day researching and with the help of your article and several other I was able to stop at the hardware store and continue home with a solid attack plan.

Busted front panel- Not sure what to do about this, too large to print a new one obviously. It's only a small crack about 4-5 inches but it's irritating to look at. I'll ignore it until I get around to figuring out how to enclose the entire box.

Damaged X axis belt- Has a slice through it but still functional. I need to order new one and I imagine with your stellar reviews of the makers I'll go through them.

X belt extremely loose- This belt had astonishing amount of sag in it. My prints were so far off that a round cylinder shape such as a vase looked like stack of cards pushed over. Each layer off by over an inch. This, being something extremely simple, should be something covered. 1. Remove right side panel. 2. Loosen, do not remove, the 4 allen head screws on stepper motor enough where the stepper can move with some pressure. 3.Pull the stepper outward toward the side (away from belt) to adjust the tension then tighten a couple screws back to test the tension. 4.Readjust if needed. Once satisfied snug up all 4 screws and replace the side. Then scratch your head in amazement when you realize it took longer to remove the side panel than it did to adjust and re-secure the stepper.

With all my printer problems I printed several beautiful pieces of abstract art (balls of plastic string) so I bought some glass panes, painters tape, and scraper from Lowes (hardware store). The glass they sell in 12x9" pieces and cut for free so I was able to buy 2 pieces cut into a total of 4 for only $5. That's hard to beat and worth trying before moving onto some of the pricier options. Plus buying local is something I prefer.
The knobs to level with are simply awful and the replacement with M3 wing-nuts is tempting but in the spirit of 3d printing I found these knobs on thingiverse (link below) that I hope will make my life easier but may for for the metal anyways.

With a few hours of work playing around and testing I was able to make a decent print last night. The glass works great but I had to install a shim and since my printer wasn't functional yet I just used some hot melt and a small peg to act as a shunt for now. I made my wife a simple heart thing off of thingiverse, I figured she deserved the first print since she tolerates so many of my hobbies with little more than an occasional eye roll. It came out very good considering the night before I was printing balls of string.

I don't completely understand the offsets and other more complicated settings in all the menus. I think this is where my final solution lays as my printer doesn't print centered. The calibration of the nozzles is good, just it's not centering right. It wants to print to the back and left of the print area, I'd guess it's off about 0.5-1.0 inch in each direction. There are just so many offsets that I haven't got time in my two days of owning the printer to tackle this given all my other issues. Any advice would be appreciated.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:212750

[Apoctolistic]

My Eng. class got a Flashforge 3D Printer creator Duel Extrusion. When we print something it first makes a mesh base then prints on top. This is the problem because when its done we cant fully remove this mesh which causes our prints to be messed up. And when we try to use some force to pull it off the rest of the print breaks. Is this normal or are we doing something wrong? I found this entire forum very helpful, so i figure yall could help me with this.

[curious aardvark]

sounds like you're using replicatorg.

Use makerware instead. It makes a really smooth raft top and things come off a lot easier.

Geoff printed stuff without rafts - so far I haven't managed to do that.
But the makerware rafts are okay. and don't mess up the prints like the replicatorg ones do. Only printed one thing from that program and knew I'd never try another from it :-)

[lucidpsykosis]

I tried using the raft on Makerbot, and it was damn-near molded to the part...destroyed my printed trying to get it off. I pretty much only use PET+ now, and don't need a raft, just purple Elmers glue and everything sticks great. Its taken me for forever to find something that works.

[roykirk]

I tried using the raft on Makerbot, and it was damn-near molded to the part...destroyed my printed trying to get it off. I pretty much only use PET+ now, and don't need a raft, just purple Elmers glue and everything sticks great. Its taken me for forever to find something that works.

It always amazes me how different people's experiences can be. That's what makes it tough for people having problems to fix things just based on recommendations from others. There's always some tweaking you've got to do on your own. I think it was our resident expert Geoff that noted in another thread that he's never been able to print PLA on blue tape without heating the bed (correct me if I'm wrong on that, Geoff). But then there's a Makerbot page I read that said you should never print PLA on blue tape with a heated bed because it won't stick.

One of the few things I like about Makerware is that its raft is actually really easy for me to pop off. My experience is usually that once my bed and print cools, the model will pop right off the raft. Replicator G, however, has given me several rafts that have welded so tightly to the model that I had to throw the entire thing out. The first raft I ever used with Rep G was actually responsible for tearing off nearly half of my Kapton tape on my old Creator. Rafts are buggers no matter what though.

I just finished some interesting reading about this PET you spoke about. I have to admit I'd never heard of it, but I'm one of those kinds of people that will stick with what works (PLA at the moment) until it no longer works. It's a shame it's double the cost of PLA, but I may store that option away in the back of my head for future experimenting.