Quote Originally Posted by Firepower View Post
I got some Kapton Tape and the ABS temperature is 245 degrees and 90 degrees on my Cocoon Printer (Wanhao Duplicator i3) http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...mm_x_33m_.html

I just printed the following orange skirt for the quadcopter but only got 2.7mm/.11inch and the ABS curled up at the ends and came unstuck.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1223867

I have printed it in PLA and it worked great.

Anyone know what I am doing wrong?

If you don't have anything to check the temperature of your bed and nozzle with, other than what came with your printer (I assume thermistors), I suggest that you purchase a digital multimeter with thermocouple measurement capabilities.

I purchased an Extech M36 Auto-ranging Multimeter, which came complete with a Type K themocouple, good for -20 to +750 deg C. Cost was about $40, and the non-auto-ranging version would have been even less. First thing I did was check the readings with the thermocouple submerged in a pan of boiling water (100 Deg C.) on the kitchen stove. I found the readings with the thermocouple and digital meter to be dead on.

Then I began checking my thermistors and the readings I get with nozzle and bed temperatures against the thermocouple readings and found some interesting things as I progressed.

I had purchased extra ones from the start, figuring they are cheap and a good item to have on hand. I found readings differed as much as 20 Deg C. (37 Deg F) from the thermocouple. Also, I made the mistake of using some of the Silver heat transfer paste that came with my printer kit on a thermistor in the hot head, and the resistance went from 100K to almost a dead short. These thermistors are not hermetically sealed and the paste had apparently shorted out the thermistor.

I no longer use any heat transfer paste on thermisiors. Now I check my thermistors against the thermocouple method before installing a new one, and my results have been much better. The adhesion is so good that often I need to knock off the finished models from the Kapton film with a light blow from a solid object at the end of a run.

I suggest that anyone doing 3D printing check their temperatures to make sure they are getting what they expect. This can save a lot of time and headaches in the long run.

I began by printing ABS, and have no experience with PLA. Using a delta style printer I built from a kit, with heated aluminum bed with Kapton film as the interface between the bed and the part.