Noob seeks advice from veterans...

[jmateus]

Hi Folks

I purchased a DaVinci 1.0 on sale as my starter machine. It's pretty neat, and I'm using it to test some stuff at work.

I'm suspecting the machine might have too low a resolution for fine work, but I thought maybe someone here could give some advice. I'm trying to make a drill adapter that is a standard hexagonal on one side, and a pentagon on the opposite side. The problem is that when I print the item vertically the corners of the pentagon are round and the product come out looking like a giant mess of plastic or irregular shape.

I tried printing it horizontally, but of course it has trouble with the upward sloping sides of the hex.

I may try printing it in two halves next and gluing them together, but I'm wondering if I'm just doing something wrong. I tried setting it to SLOW print speed and setting the layers to 0.1 without results.

Any ideas on improving print quality?

[Marm]

Below .2 you get some weird results with the davinci. I never go less than .2. And I've never really noticed a difference in print speed.

What's your infill? Wall thickness? Supports?

Not sure what your actually trying to print. Post up your STL. I'll see what it looks like.

[jmateus]

Below .2 you get some weird results with the davinci. I never go less than .2. And I've never really noticed a difference in print speed.

What's your infill? Wall thickness? Supports?

Not sure what your actually trying to print. Post up your STL. I'll see what it looks like.

The model is attached.

I printed with MEDIUM density (30%) and supports = YES. Shells = Normal.

super_snicket-jarv (19).stl

[postmahomeson]

i got a vital question in order to properly give you a assessment i need to know the below (you can do it in a private message if you like wether of its me or not)

Desnity is equal to
Mass divided by volume a common metric example is grams per ml , then it order to get a idea from there if i know the prints total volume
However despite these restriction you are probbly trying to think of the infill which is the percentage of material
Property differences such as durablity , and its fluid machanics and lots of other things including the density as well as thickness
But in my positon what material would he approprate
for example for example a slingshot would be a different need than lets say a longbow.
I respect the beginners but i just wanted to give you the calculation source in order to give you a proper awnser

[richardphat]

Such small object I tend to deny any request from teachers or students. Usually such small object will have serious issue when you print them, as the efficiency of the print must be nuked. There's no way you can print such small object in a mainstream way, the layers just doesn't have the time to cooldown and you will probably get disgusting result. It is harder to make a serious fan cooling setup as you have an enclosure, you'll probably need to slow it down by a lot to make it decent. When I mean a lot, I do mean it.

And define what is slow for you (in mm/s) because I dont think everyone has the same value in mind, and what you think probably is too fast.

Also 3D printers with plastic filament are not the best technology to print this kind of small object.

[Marm]

i got a vital question in order to properly give you a assessment i need to know the below (you can do it in a private message if you like wether of its me or not)

Desnity is equal to
Mass divided by volume a common metric example is grams per ml , then it order to get a idea from there if i know the prints total volume
However despite these restriction you are probbly trying to think of the infill which is the percentage of material
Property differences such as durablity , and its fluid machanics and lots of other things including the density as well as thickness
But in my positon what material would he approprate
for example for example a slingshot would be a different need than lets say a longbow.
I respect the beginners but i just wanted to give you the calculation source in order to give you a proper awnser

The XYZware expresses Infill as density, incorrectly, but it does. So it's not his error, but the company's.

[Marm]

Eyeballing your design, it looks like your pentagon is not regular, but 2 sides are longer. I haven't measured, so it could just be an optical illusion

That is very small. I'd say on the edge of doable (with accuracy) for the davinci. If I'm printing anything that small, I'm assuming the dimensions may not be exact and try to design to make it... flexible in application. If that makes any sense.

Try this though. Thinnest walls you can go (Heck, thickest might work well too, try both), .2 layer, 100% infill (or whatever the max is), slow speed. It's small enough that the grid produced by a low infill % might end up skipping a few layers, and weaken the structure. It's so small that even if you got 25% infill on every layer, it's probably more than 50% given the volume you're trying to fill. I really haven't noticed a difference with print speed, but as small as this is, it can't hurt. Try it at normal too to see if that actually makes a difference.

Try those settings. If you are still having issues, I've found that for thin, tall objects, the davinci does not let the previous layer bond enough before starting a new one, sometimes leading to 'smearing', which can compound into an ugly mess. Create a hollow cylinder just big enough that the object can fit inside, maybe even a bit bigger if it needs more time. Make the wall thickness just big enough that the slicer (XYZware) renders it as solid, I think .2mm thickness works for me (?), a little trial and error will be needed. Good thing is, you won't print until you get a good slice. The cylinder will add material to each layer, giving the main print more time to cool and settle. Yes, the cylinder is wasted material, but it can be recycled. I've had good success printing tall thin objects using this technique.

[jmateus]

If you are still having issues, I've found that for thin, tall objects, the davinci does not let the previous layer bond enough before starting a new one, sometimes leading to 'smearing', which can compound into an ugly mess. Create a hollow cylinder just big enough that the object can fit inside, maybe even a bit bigger if it needs more time. Make the wall thickness just big enough that the slicer (XYZware) renders it as solid, I think .2mm thickness works for me (?), a little trial and error will be needed. Good thing is, you won't print until you get a good slice. The cylinder will add material to each layer, giving the main print more time to cool and settle. Yes, the cylinder is wasted material, but it can be recycled. I've had good success printing tall thin objects using this technique.

I'm going to try this tonight - thanks!

[abomb60]

Do yourself a huge favor and load new firmware on your Da Vinci (it is actually pretty easy). I was getting decent prints with mine stock but loading Repetier firmware and getting rid of the horrific stock XYZWare made a huge difference. My advice is to flash it and use better printing software (Repetier, Mattercontrol, etc). Also look online and get some test print files and print them until they are perfect. The Da Vinci 1.0 is a capable little printer if you know how to tweak it and get it to work well. After firmware and hotend upgrade (E3D V6) I am getting awesome results with everything from PLA to Ninjaflex. Also I've found with mine that these things love to screw up the print bed calibration. If I even think about scraping something off the print bed with too much force it gets out of whack. Calibrate the bed often. I've been using 0.05 and 0.10 feeler gauges with the manual leveling feature in Repetier firmware and it works well (E3D V6 hotend mod removes the autoleveling probe). I use Mattercontrol so after I manually calibrate to 0.05mm with the feeler gauges at all 3 points I run Mattercontrols auto bed leveling and that's been working well. Almost all of my printing issues have been resolved by leveling the bed. Just remember to adjust your Z offset once the bed is leveled.