Happy with your Flashforge?

[Teledog]

Today's tweaks;
The Z-axis lead screw was wobbling at the top (slightly bent lead screw) & there was a definite gap in the upper mount, probably not terribly important, but it bothered me, so I machined a tiny nylon bushing.
No wobble now,.. but still have to beat the slight bend out of the lead screw sometime.
Also, the heater bed wires sometimes fell behind the bed when it was fully down, getting pinched in the process.
Put an ultra weak spring on them to keep them forward/under the bed. (stretched the spring out even more after the pic) Could probably just as easily used a rubber band.
Z drive bushing.jpgheater cable spring.jpg

PS: - Removing "STUCK-ON" ABS from Kapton?..drizzle a little IPA around the edges while warm, pops right off! (Works for old hot melt glue also..doesn't dissolve it, just breaks the bond)
- Kimwipes work for cleaning hot nozzles (Kleenex SUX!..been there, done that!.. gooey/lint mess!) they also work well for lint-free bed cleaning with IPA

[Geoff]

Today's tweaks;
The Z-axis lead screw was wobbling at the top (slightly bent lead screw) & there was a definite gap in the upper mount, probably not terribly important, but it bothered me, so I machined a tiny nylon bushing.
No wobble now,.. but still have to beat the slight bend out of the lead screw sometime.
Also, the heater bed wires sometimes fell behind the bed when it was fully down, getting pinched in the process.
Put an ultra weak spring on them to keep them forward/under the bed. (stretched the spring out even more after the pic) Could probably just as easily used a rubber band.
Z drive bushing.jpgheater cable spring.jpg

PS: - Removing "STUCK-ON" ABS from Kapton?..drizzle a little IPA around the edges while warm, pops right off! (Works for old hot melt glue also..doesn't dissolve it, just breaks the bond)
- Kimwipes work for cleaning hot nozzles (Kleenex SUX!..been there, done that!.. gooey/lint mess!) they also work well for lint-free bed cleaning with IPA

Do you find ABS sticks that hard when it cools down? I've never needed anything to get something off my heatbead, when it cools to around 80c i just knock them off, always have.

[Teledog]

Knocking them off works well with small prints, but I've found with larger (non-raft) prints, it kinda pulls /bubbles/trashes the Kapton.
Tried nylon pot scrapers..sometimes work..great for rafts , but "once in a while" they rip/lift the Kapton on raftless prints.
A quick blast of IPA from a needle tip squeeze bottle (1-2 second wait, perhaps another blast) @~80C or lower {BTW, wait ~20 seconds for old hot-melt glue, it really works well for breaking the bond}
Then push (knock) them off..I hate having to whack them off too hard (AKA: means another leveling/new Kapton)
Still haven't found the perfect solution....

[Geoff]

Knocking them off works well with small prints, but I've found with larger (non-raft) prints, it kinda pulls /bubbles/trashes the Kapton.
Tried nylon pot scrapers..sometimes work..great for rafts , but "once in a while" they rip/lift the Kapton on raftless prints.
A quick blast of IPA from a needle tip squeeze bottle (1-2 second wait, perhaps another blast) @~80C or lower {BTW, wait ~20 seconds for old hot-melt glue, it really works well for breaking the bond}
Then push (knock) them off..I hate having to whack them off too hard (AKA: means another leveling/new Kapton)
Still haven't found the perfect solution....

You are definitely running your heatbead too hot for the plastic you are using then, if youa re trashing or bubbling the kapton , without doubt 1005 I can say your HB is too hot.

I learned that on my Lego printing experiment. You want to print Lego raftless (and big things, Im not talking lego blocks, Im talking entire lego cars on one plate) and I did find that when it was too hot I was killing my kapton tape, then after a week with my printer I figured out that the hotbed setting needs to be set for each filament - and 1 or 2 degrees can make a MASSIVE difference. Generally I have found that unless I am dying to print fast and don't want to wait for the next preheat then sure, i'll knock them off - but you do it quick as in 'SMACK!!!" none of this pulling like a sissy lol, you won't de-level your platform if you do it fast enough.

Or just wait till it cools down - a correctly heated bed for the right plastic won't stick, i'll give you 100 kilograms of plastic guarantee on that one (well maybe not 100.. im probably on my 60th roll - my machine is printing non stop every day except for when i go to bed, I never run it overnight. Just me, Im paranoid.

[Teledog]

Thanks Geoff!
Lowering the temp definitely works! :-)

Making a ton of parts for the InMoov..(BTW, just tested some servos, they LOCK with a loss of/no power..unlike a stepper motor..Aiiieeiii!) ;-)
ie: be careful using a 3 wire servo for your sex toys! ;-) {or perhaps great for a security system??} ;-P
Td

You are definitely running your heatbead too hot for the plastic you are using then, if youa re trashing or bubbling the kapton , without doubt 1005 I can say your HB is too hot.

I learned that on my Lego printing experiment. You want to print Lego raftless (and big things, Im not talking lego blocks, Im talking entire lego cars on one plate) and I did find that when it was too hot I was killing my kapton tape, then after a week with my printer I figured out that the hotbed setting needs to be set for each filament - and 1 or 2 degrees can make a MASSIVE difference. Generally I have found that unless I am dying to print fast and don't want to wait for the next preheat then sure, i'll knock them off - but you do it quick as in 'SMACK!!!" none of this pulling like a sissy lol, you won't de-level your platform if you do it fast enough.

Or just wait till it cools down - a correctly heated bed for the right plastic won't stick, i'll give you 100 kilograms of plastic guarantee on that one (well maybe not 100.. im probably on my 60th roll - my machine is printing non stop every day except for when i go to bed, I never run it overnight. Just me, Im paranoid.

[Geoff]

Thanks Geoff!
Lowering the temp definitely works! :-)

Making a ton of parts for the InMoov..(BTW, just tested some servos, they LOCK with a loss of/no power..unlike a stepper motor..Aiiieeiii!) ;-)
ie: be careful using a 3 wire servo for your sex toys! ;-) {or perhaps great for a security system??} ;-P
Td

argh the the Inmoov, that's like my bucket list project.. it's a tonne of plastic.

I am about oh.. %20 percent through mine? I am doing it at 0.64% scale, I don't think I can do a full size one, so I made the decision to do a small half size human one. so far the hand is working ok, the pins for the fingers need to be replaced with something better but still, it's impressive.

I have ordered a tonne of really powerful metal gear super fast servos from hobbyking for it, they are not meant for robotics (as in they are not shaped for it) but it's an easy adjustment for inmoov sections. The biggest challenge is the big joints that I forsee, the shoulders (when I eventually get to them.. not even at head stage yet) will be tricky, small motors are fine for the fingers and hands but the shoulders will need to be high torque and you want them super fast, and those are not cheap

[basfud]

Geoff,
The Mankati guys are an Ultimaker ripoff, they have issues with delivery and service. I heard bad things about them. Pity, because the printer looks impressive (though haven't seen it IRL).
Personally I'd rather get the original Ultimaker with dual heads. They're are a reliable Dutch company, keep the printer opensource, and they're the guys behind Cura. So the money gets spent in a good way, supporting the community and an awesome printer

Ultimakers have different head construction than Flashforges, and they are blazingly fast, easily over 200mm/s, and layer height printing below 0.07mm. There was a thread for such HQ prints on the Ultimaker's Google Groups. Much more expensive though.

Now, Flashforge.
When you add head fans to the dual-head Creator this machine is a killer. I own a flashforge, and have a lot of experience with repraps, and some with proprietary printers, top range stuff. I printed shittons of stuff on the Flashforge, with shittons of materials. It's not perfect (oscillation interfering with print quality, loud) but I wouldn't change it for any other in the price range.
ATM I fried the head power section apparently and looking for solution, but Flashforge is a real workhorse and I love that printer.

Price/quality ratio is out of the roof imvho.

[Geoff]

Geoff,
The Mankati guys are an Ultimaker ripoff, they have issues with delivery and service. I heard bad things about them. Pity, because the printer looks impressive (though haven't seen it IRL).
Personally I'd rather get the original Ultimaker with dual heads. They're are a reliable Dutch company, keep the printer opensource, and they're the guys behind Cura. So the money gets spent in a good way, supporting the community and an awesome printer

Ultimakers have different head construction than Flashforges, and they are blazingly fast, easily over 200mm/s, and layer height printing below 0.07mm. There was a thread for such HQ prints on the Ultimaker's Google Groups. Much more expensive though.

Now, Flashforge.
When you add head fans to the dual-head Creator this machine is a killer. I own a flashforge, and have a lot of experience with repraps, and some with proprietary printers, top range stuff. I printed shittons of stuff on the Flashforge, with shittons of materials. It's not perfect (oscillation interfering with print quality, loud) but I wouldn't change it for any other in the price range.
ATM I fried the head power section apparently and looking for solution, but Flashforge is a real workhorse and I love that printer.

Price/quality ratio is out of the roof imvho.

The Mantaki failed with the filament feeder, they should have put it closer to the head, even midway would have been sufficient but you try and feed flex filament gripping from the back of the machine, feeding up into a loop down into the extruder... naaah sorry, from what i've read it's a major flaw. It looks like a nice machine but they are very dishonest in their advertising. They will print something, clean it, acetone it, put it on the build plate and take a photo and say it was printed like that, I caught them out 4 times. I was THIS close to buying one.

If I buy a new big fancy machine for $2500, I expect all those issues ironed out. I have heard great things about the Ultimakers and some of the prints from those I have to admit are some of the best I have ever seen come from one of these machines.

Considering flashforges are so cheap now, like you can pick them up cheaper than flashforge sell them for themselves in some cases, it's a pretty safe bet for an entry level machine.

[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.