Just got my Flashforge Creator Dual and here are my first prints

[Dargonfly]

Yep, that was exactly the same problem I had: too much heat remained in the piece which allows it to warp. Which gives Marvin a 'lumpy' ass.
Printing two, like you did, already helped me a lot too, but I don't always want to print two, so I got that duct (get the one without holes, or you'll have to tape it), get a fan that moves a lot of air, solder it to the Flashforge or to a 12V adapter and you're good to go!

[Dargonfly]

Another update:

Printed a Marvin in PLA (with all fans full speed!)


Here it is being printed. The Duct Tape is because 1) I screwed the screw too hard.. thus cracking the part. 2) I screwed another screw too hard... (this time the fan screw..) so Duct tape to the rescue
Lights are nice



Here is the Marvin evolution!
Still some burned 'eyebrows' ,, and the overhanging 'hanger' part isn't perfect.... but it's getting better! It's evolving!



Ok, I am happy with these tests. Going to print out some little figurines now and do some testing with supports!

[curious aardvark]

Ducts printed and fitted.
Oldish processor fan fitted - just need to figure out some wiring and power now and I'm ready to try that sphere again !

***

Holes ? (oh yeah wondered what they were for).

Tape ? Nah a little bit of abs raft and some acetone. Holes - what holes !

Don't do soldering - but that's never stopped me before :-)

I cracked one of the screw holes as well - little bit of acetone and it's good as new.

But I have now run out of spare m3 nuts. Guess i'll hae to find some on amazon for whatever needs modding next :-)

[Dargonfly]

Ducts printed and fitted.
Oldish processor fan fitted - just need to figure out some wiring and power now and I'm ready to try that sphere again !

***

Holes ? (oh yeah wondered what they were for).

Tape ? Nah a little bit of abs raft and some acetone. Holes - what holes !

Don't do soldering - but that's never stopped me before :-)

I cracked one of the screw holes as well - little bit of acetone and it's good as new.

But I have now run out of spare m3 nuts. Guess i'll hae to find some on amazon for whatever needs modding next :-)

I need to get some acetone too! Trying the acetone vapor chamber is also on my 3D-printing-to-do-list.

I also ran out of screws / nuts so I just took some from the enclosure of the Flashforge in places that didn't hold that much...
need to buy replacements soon before the whole thing shakes apart!

EDIT: Looking forward to your results for the air duct in place!

[curious aardvark]

well looking at the extruder motors - I figure I can tap their plug for power. Couple of things to check first, but don't see any problems. Fan shouldn't draw sufficient power to effect the motor. Plus it would mean I don't have to add any extra or trailing wires.

I'll have a play this evening. Love the way the whole cooling assembly just clips in. That little add on bracket makes all the difference :-)

[Geoff]

nice work, I can't run any sort of fans like that and ironically I have the same machine, those fans would make my ABS prints cool down too fast and shrink while printing..

I print in ABS mainly tho on the flashforge, so I don't get that goopy last few layers like the PLA does, the kossel has no heated bed so it's pretty straight.. I hate how makerware and replicator G inherently slow down at those last couple of layers and its like NO... lol don't hover the nozzle there.. go faster!...

I will print the 3D hubs thingo tomorrow and post my prints here, i've been printing kossel parts for 2 days solid on 3 machines and my ears are ringing literally.. I just want a quiet night tonight

[Dargonfly]

nice work, I can't run any sort of fans like that and ironically I have the same machine, those fans would make my ABS prints cool down too fast and shrink while printing..

I print in ABS mainly tho on the flashforge, so I don't get that goopy last few layers like the PLA does, the kossel has no heated bed so it's pretty straight.. I hate how makerware and replicator G inherently slow down at those last couple of layers and its like NO... lol don't hover the nozzle there.. go faster!...

I will print the 3D hubs thingo tomorrow and post my prints here, i've been printing kossel parts for 2 days solid on 3 machines and my ears are ringing literally.. I just want a quiet night tonight

I believe it has a lot to do with the climate.. but it could also simply be some combination of user+material+software.
My philosophy regarding 3D printing is: "if it works... it works!"

I look forward to your print! ..and yeah, I get what you mean by ringing ears.. all the noises these things make, as if I'm working in a factory!

[curious aardvark]

Actually I was thinking cooling the abs down really quickly would probably stop it warping quite as much.
If every layer goes down at the same cool temp - then you won't get that gradual temperature gradient that causes the warping - because it's already been shrunk.
It's a theory :-)

And it's the first few layers of abs on any curved surface or printing very small items that are my issue the fan should sort.

The level bed seems to have sorted abs warping. Well i haven't had any since I got it.

Also thinking it'll help with the stringing I get with the nylon 618. And maybe reduce warping on that as well. Particularly as it prints on a cool bed.

Soon as I get it hooked up to some juice - I'll let you know :-)

ps. what's a 3dhubs thingo ?

[curious aardvark]

That buildtak stuff is quite expensive - how durable does it feel ?
IE: how long will it last before holes appear. And is it soft or firm. Is it going to just lift if something warps ?

[Dargonfly]

I look forward to what you can do with the Nylon.

That buildtak stuff is quite expensive - how durable does it feel ?
IE: how long will it last before holes appear. And is it soft or firm. Is it going to just lift if something warps ?

As a disclaimer: I only have the Buildtak surfaces for a week now and ran about 10-20 prints on them of small sizes in either PLA or ABS. (So not THAT much experience with it....)
Having said that; for me it's a good build surface.
It is a few mm thick, and feels really durable. The bottom is super sticky (difficult to align correctly to your aluminum plate because it sticks immediately. The top is some sort of 'matte finished flexible hard plastic'.

The top gives me really good stick with ABS, and 'ok' stick with PLA (but I solved this by applying just a little bit of glue before each print!) - and the top gives a really nice smooth surface to the print; my first layers are better then what they were on kapton or blue tape (DO NOTE that I was less experienced when I used those other surfaces; so maybe I just did it wrong.)

Regarding durability; if you have to 'scrape' your part off (had this problem at the start with ABS that was sticking too well) then you see that the surface becomes a bit smoother at that point, but after good leveling it sticks good now, but is still easy to remove.
Also; I had the extruder head (when it's 230 degrees!) hit the Buildtak surface a few times; this creates a small dent in the surface (no through holes - probably not possible due to few mm thickness, but who knows?) , but doesn't break the surface and it doesn't seem to have any effect on my print quality (yet).

Hope this helps you/gives you an idea of what it is.