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

[Geoff]

wel one thing I can say - you'll get better results with the same material in different colours than different materials.

Given that pla sticks to cold beds and abs to hot beds - don't mix the two. No matter what settings you use one or the other won't stick !

Not necessarily, I have PLA that does require a heated bed, no less than 75c for some. I've never really needed more than 2 shells either, even on hollow models.

[underwoodle]

I got my first printern, the Flashforge Creator Dual Extruder and I have been tinkering a bit with (got scared shitless every time it made a new noise!)

Same here. New since this past Friday.

[Dargonfly]

Same here. New since this past Friday.

Congratulations on the purchase! If you'd like you can share your results.
I'm still learning a lot, going to do some different Marvin tests with different settings to find the best quality next week.

[34Ford]

Well after a week I finally got to play with the new printer and my first print. This turned out better than I thought for no experience and default ReplicatorG settings.

[Dargonfly]

Well after a week I finally got to play with the new printer and my first print. This turned out better than I thought for no experience and default ReplicatorG settings.

That one looks a lot better then my first cube! How is the top surface? Does it have dents?
Also; how is the bottom surface without the raft?

I'm still trying to figure out if I should start using ReplicatorG or stick with Makerbot software.

[34Ford]

That one looks a lot better then my first cube! How is the top surface? Does it have dents?
Also; how is the bottom surface without the raft?

I'm still trying to figure out if I should start using ReplicatorG or stick with Makerbot software.

It had very small droops in the top. Here is a tripod knob I did just now. Much stronger than the original.

Bottoms have the same texture that the 3M tape has.

[curious aardvark]

if for no other reason I prefer makerware - NOT the new desktop version (that really sucks) - it slices about 30 times faster than rep g.
Also the whole interface is pretty good. Okay you've got no layer control. But so far I've been happy printing from a raft.
It has the advantage of giving about 99% perfect prints.
I do have a small variety of plastic blobs and a trunkless LS elephant. But, they are pretty rare. I normally just hit print from sd card, wait till it's got the raft going witjout any sticky-up bits, and then just leave her to her own devices.

I'll keep trying to use slic3r/gcode/gpx combo. But probably have to upgrade firmware first - and that's proving a bit tricky :-)

I keep hoping that given the increasing number of FF and other brand makerbot clones, that someone, somewhere will adapt or produce some alternative software to run the machines. But in the meantime, just being able to hit: 'print' and confidently go do something else - has it's merits :-)

[Dargonfly]

Ok, update time:

Because I want to start on printing some some organically shaped models soon I'd thought the perfect test case would be a ball.
I modeled a ball (globe) of 20[mm] in diameter, but was unable to print it correctly:
I tried different amount of walls, speed, temperature, external fans, but nothing worked...

What kept happening was that the entire edge crawled inwards/upward the whole time.. so 1/3 in it would start printing outside of the ball because it had already crawled inwards too much.

Has anybody ever printed a successful ball and if so, can you tell me with what settings? This is really frustrating me - even though my final model doesn't have such a complex overhang, I would still like to be able to print this ball!

[curious aardvark]

what did you model it in ?
sounds like the issue was with the model itself.

here's a 40mm diameter flat based sphere I just knocked up in openscad. Should print without any issues. 3 shells and 0% fill will give you a nice hollow sphere :-)
40mm sphere.stl

You can easily resize it in makerware - just remember after resizing to hit the 'On Platform' from the Move options.
Amazing how many problems that prevents

[Dargonfly]

what did you model it in ?
sounds like the issue was with the model itself.

here's a 40mm diameter flat based sphere I just knocked up in openscad. Should print without any issues. 3 shells and 0% fill will give you a nice hollow sphere :-)
40mm sphere.stl

You can easily resize it in makerware - just remember after resizing to hit the 'On Platform' from the Move options.
Amazing how many problems that prevents

I modeled it in SolidWorks, hasn't given any error as far as I know. The problem is that my edges keep curling up probably due too much heat, but I can't seam to reduce it any further.

Can you give me the exact settings (speed, temp, etc.) that you would use to print this in? (either PLA or ABS or both, currently I'm happy with getting my sphere printed in any material.)