Rafting :-)

[curious aardvark]

so as it turns out things with large flat bases are really easy to peel off rafts.

Who'd have guessed.

So just printed a glass bed holder that fits neatly in the flashforge case and a secret heart box.

The glass holder curved like a bastard, but still printed clean and works :-)
I have adjusted for a slightly heavier duty model, turned 90 degrees on th bed as I don't seem to get curl front to back - just side to side.

But rafting is actually a lot more user friendly than I had first thought.

For now I'm a happy bunny - I can reliably print stuff with flat bases

rafting_800x577.jpg

Today has been a good day for my 3d printing :-)

Stanford bunny - perfect ears.

stanfordbunny_500x600.jpg

[Geoff]

Yeah man, it's a good way to stay safe, especially with smal prints or busts. I never print busts raftless because the bottom is never seen and they usually have a smaller base than the print area, so I always use rafts in that scenario just so I don't stress about it lifting when there is no need to even have it raftless. - I only do raftless on things I am selling that need the shiny surface, quadcopter parts etc - otherwise simply for piece of mind I use a raft. Some filaments come off easier, some don't

I was completely suprised with the flex filament, it comes off the raft easier than any other filament i've ever used, it's like peeling a layer of rubber off that just cuts itself clean off with absolutely no gunk underneath.

If it is any consolation, you are printing that heart box better than I ever could, my printer hates that thing.

[curious aardvark]

really ?
weird. I've done two with no issues whatsoever.
You printing them at .1 or .2 ?
So far I've used .2 for detailed stuff and I think with the box the slightly thicker filament does the bridging better and lays down cleaner lines.
I can't currently see any reason for going as small as .1
The box above was: white abs, .2mm, 60mms print, 100 travel, 120 bed, 230 head, raft on, 2 perimeters, zero infill, left head (cos righty is scheduled for dismantling and cog cleaning at some point in the near future).
I believe it's the white abs that came with the printer.

Everything I printed yesterday went flawlessly - the glass plate holder I printed at .3

The second glass plate holder (actually mk3 as mk 1 had no side stabilisers) had 2mm walls rather than 1mm - and is much much better.

The curling is definitely heat related. As I printed the second one with the long axis front to back as opposed to side to side and there was barely any curl at all.

Also I'm using blue tape with bed at 120.
I'll get my ir thermo on it at some point - but there's definitely a hot spot in line with the power plug that drops off as you move to the sides.

Printed a teeny little bunny just now to demo the printer to a friend - again, perfect - knocked it out in 20 minutes about 2cm tall but again, zero issues.

Also printed the enclosed spinny gear thing yesterday. Now that takes some close tolearances. Spins like a dream.

I pretty much only have the one issue and that's sticking to the plate without a raft.

For the time being rafts and blue tape work well and I'll stick to them (almost a pun) .
Plus the tape is untouched, actually seesm tougher than the kapton. And an absolute doddle to apply.

But the machine itself is just fantastic.
zero stringing, even at 80mms which I printed the first bunny at. There was a fair bit of rattling so I think I'll default to 60 for most things as that's fairly quick but also the machine sounds much happier :-)

I've got a 0.5mm brass nozzle coming, figure for fast crude builds at .4 mm it might help. Dunno, it was a couple of quid and I thought I'd give it a go :-) Plus it might help with the ninja flex by reducing the back pressure, rather than a complete extruder rebuild. We'll see.

But yeah - yesterday a major step forward. I'm now totally confident I can stick a model on for print and it'll work without any issues.

Space shuttle printing at the moment and I'll throw an ls elephant at it later.

The makerware software is still annoying, I'm increasingly aware of how good the slicing is though, just wished I had control over the firt layer without a raft.
Oh well, nothings perfect. And for the time being while I'm still very much in the learning stages - it's doing a decent job.

Nylon (going to be problematic for more than one reason - comes on a spool with a hole too small to fit on the spool holder - what are they thinking ?) , pla, laywood and even ninjaflex still to play with :-)

Not too mention the dual head stuff - I'm really looking forward to all the things that'll let me do.

[Geoff]

Tried that box at every setting, while it prints prefectly, or appears to , all hinges are fused solid, it just will not bend, when I try it just snaps and you waste the whole thing and scoring with a knife I found just leads to splits after a few opens and closes.

re: blue tape easy peasy, I think that's the reason I switched to Blue tape, if you get the 3" tape you can cover a good section of the plate with one strip and it takes a second to put on, as opposed to the krapton which I think we've both lost hair over.

As for spool holders not fitting, I guess you just figured out one of the first upgrades for your printer you need to print! there is a good one on thingiverse for that that hangs off the side of the machine, fits FF and makerbots, just do a search for spool holders and spend the next hour picking your favourite one.

[curious aardvark]

cheers :-)

Also had my first model today that was corrupted. space shuttle on thingiverse. Desperately needs netfabbing. Almost the entire left wing doesn't print. what's more I ran the first layer through again to check - it doesn't even print the raft for that wing.

Haven't got round to netfabbing yet. So picked another shuttle with boosters. Big build so should be a real overnight test.

weird about the box. the rafted one needed a little encouragement, but not enough the break anything. currently printing a lfs elephant with moving legs (hopefully).

[Geoff]

cheers :-)

Also had my first model today that was corrupted. space shuttle on thingiverse. Desperately needs netfabbing. Almost the entire left wing doesn't print. what's more I ran the first layer through again to check - it doesn't even print the raft for that wing.

Haven't got round to netfabbing yet. So picked another shuttle with boosters. Big build so should be a real overnight test.

weird about the box. the rafted one needed a little encouragement, but not enough the break anything. currently printing a lfs elephant with moving legs (hopefully).

I think you will be able to print some remarkable stuff then, your machine sounds like it has really good tolerances, i'd try some bearings too, that's one of the good tests, although i'm yet to see a bearing small enough to be semi-useful for anything, the one I did was the size of my palm.

Haven't printed the Elephant yet, I think I know which one you mean, it got featured.

[curious aardvark]

bearing worked a treat, as did elephant.

Hell as long as I use a raft, whack the bed temp right up there and stick things as close to the hot spot as possible. It all works perfectly.
Which is great. I can play about with bed coatings and settings and when I get frustrated I can just revert to default settings and print something difficult :-)

The shuttle set took 8 hours. I knocked it down to 5cms but at .3.
Almost perfect. just a bit of curl on the shuttle fin. But nothing that can't be ignored.
Printed this one

Biggest print to date - but again each part printed like it was on it's own. I've got a picture in the workshop I'll put up later.

I might redo the shuttle by itself nearer the power plug on the platform. It's for a mate who's space mad. He can put it together and paint it :-)
It was just a wee bit too close to the front of the machine.

But yep, the tolearances are bloody amazing.
Also the retraction is superb. I have not had ANY stringing on anything from day one. No matter what speed I print at - even on the shuttle with 4 parts all printing at once there was no stringing.
One reason I want to be able to disable the wipe guards on dual head prints - I really don't need them. The heads just don't ooze, string or catch.

And while printing stuff you find on thingiverse is fun - making your own stuff from scratch is way more satisfying.

Next project a bird feeder to screw onto platic bottle that you can fill up without removing the bottle every time.
There isn't on thingiverse. So I'll make one :-)

ps. my .5mm nozzle just arrived.
I'll fit it to righty when I clean his cogs. No idea what difference - if any - it'll make. But for £2 worth a try :-)