help-with-3dprinting

[empty sedge]

the two i3 mk3s at my hackerspace don't regularly jam

we've used hatchbox PLA, atomic PLA and PETG, dikole PLA (cheap 3kg garbage), and overture PETG and PLA

[lapis flame]

sphereinabox, have you done any upgrades to either of your mk3s?

[empty sedge]

@lapis flame eh, not really. I have a different spool holder, a camera mount on the x-motor, and octoprint with ldap and cura in octoprint on a pi 4 for each

I have both textured and smooth pei sheets because printing PETG on the smooth sheet can tear chunks off

[lapis flame]

I will likely be using PLA exclusively to make parts for my electronic projects. So you have not had to do any heatbreak, extruder gear, etc. upgrades?

[empty sedge]

one of them was upgraded to the mk3s extruder from the mk3 extruder

@lapis flame nope, still the original drive gears. We've replaced the hot side once or twice after part came off bed and completely encapsulated nozzle because of printing PETG with PLA profile

[lapis flame]

Any significant downside that you can see with the mini vs. MK3? At half the price, there must be something missing from the forumla.

[empty sedge]

bowden makes printing flexible materials a lot more difficult and the mini doesn't have a good filament sensor by default

[karmic brook]

Smaller build volume too

[empty sedge]

unfortunately the prusa lead time is pretty long also

[lapis flame]

Thankfully I am not in a rush so I am still researching. The mini has the option of adding a filament sensor for $20, wonder if that is necessary?

Thanks for the info so far. I will be back in an hour

[empty sedge]

if it's just you running the printer you can look at the spool and the amount of filament prusa slic3r says is needed to see if you have enough

at my hackerspace I can't make people submitting prints check the spools so the filament sensor is a must-have

[humble hull]

what does the filament sensor sense?

unrelatedly, I think cooling is the remaining issue with my machine - there seem to be plenty of aftermarket designs for repositioning the fans or ducting the air to a more useful location, though

[karmic brook]

I think it simply senses whether there's a physical object in the place where the filament is supposed to be (it replaces an earlier optical sensor that didn't work well with clear filament)

[empty sedge]

yeah, it's largely acting the same way a micro switch does just with some different parts to get there

[karmic brook]

The current implementation is a simple lever with a flag that passes through an opto-interrupter sensor.

[empty sedge]

yeah, with a ball bearing riding on the filament and a pair of magnets as the spring

[lapis flame]

I suppose that the sensor would be helpful for an overnight print

Thanks for all your input so far. I will likely op for the mini for a faster out of the box experience

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Black Panther Helmet #3DPrinting #adafruit

[gusty sorrel]

is there a list of printers that you all would suggest? Considering it's my first printer, budget friendly with good enough print quality is what I'm looking for

[karmic brook]

Scroll back, it's a common topic of discussion here

[gusty sorrel]

@karmic brook cool, I go back further lol

[blazing barn]

Could anyone recommend a decent 3d printer for me?

in the sub $1k range

is the Prusa i3 still the one to get?

oh god, that was literally just asked a few posts ago

goes and hides in a corner, ashamed of himself

[full sand]

whats the deal with printers that have 2x Z-axis motors anyways?

[karmic brook]

It's one way to have separate drive on each end of the Z axis gantry to maintain parallelism while in motion, without using gears/chains/belts.

[full sand]

is it somehow superior to belt systems?

you would think its more costly to have two motors and screws instead of a belt and pulley

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted 3D Hangouts – Synths, Fairy Wings and Helmets

[karmic brook]

I'm no expert, but offhand I can think of two advantages for separate Z motors. One is the unit can align the Z axis for you by adjusting the motors independently. Another is that two motors have more torque than just one.

[empty sedge]

Eh, my hackerspace had an old mendel with a single z motor a belt driving two leadscrews. Nowdays it's probably cheaper and easier to build a z axis with two leadscrew motors. A second motor isn't really more expensive than an additional leadscrew, bearings, closed loop belt, and pulleys.

[humble hull]

pffffft it's not that often that you get to SEE the moment of disastrous failure 90% into a multi-hour print

and here I thought I'd never use up this giant spool of PLA

definitely need to enable z hop

usually I just come back to a spagetti mess and helplessly wonder what happened

Basic plausibility test succeeded

now to refine the shape nad size of the links, and then see about pulleys and muscle wire

[iron remnant]

I mean, you knew this was going to be a real tale.

[humble hull]

8/10 classic

I'm getting some stringies despite reducing the retraction - I might have to do a temp tower to see if it's retraction or temperature

[iron remnant]

So.... heated debate later?

[humble hull]

[iron remnant]

I really really want to know how the puppers react to you being able to wag your tail back.

[humble hull]

aww that would be so adorable

[edgy steeple]

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/fusion-360/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Fusion-360-Free-License-Changes.html

[humble hull]

Whoa.

Tempted.

I'd assume it was garbage for that price, but a professional maker friend of mine adores his

And that's a heck of a sale

[karmic brook]

The wash and cure companion unit is $129 now too, so you could get both for $300.

[elder oxide]

I’d get a resin printer but I have small kids and no safe place to put the printer

[karmic brook]

I'm somewhat tempted too, but have a windowless basement so no easy way to vent the fumes.

[elder oxide]

Yeah, and you need a place to recycle the rinse water

Since it’s illegal to dump it

Well, it’s illegal in a lot of places

I suppose you could by a denaturing agent but I think you need a hazmat license for those kinds of chemicals

It’s been a while since I took a hazmat course

[humble hull]

They sell a nontoxic plant based resin too, which presumably wouldn't have those concerns

Not sure if the wash and cure would be worth it, but I'll have to check it out

[elder oxide]

They sell a nontoxic plant based resin too, which presumably wouldn't have those concerns
@humble hull the SDS’s still suggests proper recycling channels even for plant based resin

[humble hull]

Huh

Good to know

[elder oxide]

Safety Data Sheets

A lot of times you just cure left over resin (even that in rinse water) before disposal

[humble hull]

makes sense

not sure I'm going to make neough things for a wash and cure unit to be worthwhile, but I'll pick up a UV nail curing thingy

[iron remnant]

I guess it's really reisn-ating with you then

[humble hull]

[humble hull]

Funky loops on the corner. What do?

[empty sedge]

if that's the only object you're printing and you have z-hop turned on you have a retraction problem

[humble hull]

I printed another small cube at the same time, a few inches away

I should lower the retraction, I assume?

Let me check if I had z hop for this one

[empty sedge]

you may need longer retraction or have another issue

what is your printer? what extruder and hotend? what retraction are you using now? what kind of filament? what temps are you printing at?

[humble hull]

ender 5 pro, metal hotend, standard extruder. 4mm retraction, and I've gotten the same problem regardless of filament

printing at 210, which might be excessive, but the metal hotend docs claim that it needs the temp increased by 5-10C

[empty sedge]

PLA at 210 is fine

4mm retraction seems like a lot to me, must be bowden

[humble hull]

yes

[empty sedge]

I've never needed that long on bowden but I guess my machines have been built better

what is your retraction speed?

oh, that's a long bowden tube

[humble hull]

2400 mm/min

waitaminute

that's sliced for a .4 nozzle

I'm using a .5 nozzle

that can't possibly be helping

facepalm

[empty sedge]

that wouldn't cause those string/blobs but would cause the beads to not be the correct shape when they stack up

the top surface texture should be better when the nozzle diameter is correct

does the teflon go all the way to the hot zone?

[humble hull]

not with this hotend design

[obtuse quail]

Hello. I'm making a LACK enclosure, and I want to add a camera to it for timelapses and streaming. For whatever reason, I want the lighting of this enclosure to be addressable for the purposes of white balance and for adding colored effects to make the timelapse or streaming video a bit more interesting.

Which would work better for lighting up an enclosure? Dotstar LEDs or Neopixel LEDs? I've read the Dotstar page and while the differences between them make sense, the topic of "how bright can these things get" is glossed over. Is there a difference in how bright NeoPixel LEDs vs Dotstar LEDs can get?

[empty sedge]

@obtuse quail looks like they're both 18W for 60 LEDs

[obtuse quail]

So it wouldn't make that much of a difference?

[empty sedge]

if you want it brighter, add more LEDs

[obtuse quail]

OK. That helps. Thank you!

[empty sedge]

that's for the 5050 package

[obtuse quail]

There's other packages? I was looking at this one: https://www.adafruit.com/product/2837?length=2

[empty sedge]

yeah there's the 2mm package

the one you linked is the 5050 package (5x5mm)

[karmic brook]

There are other packages (a few sizes, as well as side-emitting ones). The RGBW ones are somewhat brighter than the RGB ones (4 LEDs instead of 3).

[empty sedge]

@obtuse quail it sounds like the dotstar (apa102) are able to control their intensity more finely when dim and also have a higher PWM frequency which might be a better option taking photos with

[obtuse quail]

I was leaning in that direction to begin with. The fact that I wouldn't need to use special pins on the Raspberry Pi with the Octoprint server (used for taking photos + keeping track of statistics) would be a plus to using Dotstar LEDs.

[karmic brook]

The timing insensitivity is handy too on platforms like the Pi where the CPU is multitasking.

[iron remnant]

I really really wish they made Dotstar LEDs with RGBW. :/

[empty sedge]

hue uses 3 different LED packages for RGBW to get RGB, cold white, and warm white

[obtuse quail]

Since the one controlling the lighting is a Raspberry Pi (OctoPrint ftw), the fact that I can just connect the strip to whichever GPIO pins it needs is a plus. I was planning on using the approach used in the Roll-up Video Light (https://learn.adafruit.com/roll-up-video-light), where I have alternating strips right next to each other to provide light.

My current issue is that Adafruit is the only one that sells Dotstar LEDs... and they're sold out unless I buy way, way, WAY more than what I'll ever need.

[empty sedge]

@obtuse quail adafruit is the only one that calls them "dotstar". Sparkfun does sell APA102 boards and strips too. Looks like you'll need a 5v arduino or level shifter

your linked guide uses a 5v pro trinket

[obtuse quail]

Yeah, I'm going to get a level shifter to transfer from 3.3v --> 5v logic. I'd like the Pi to be the one giving instructions, because then Octoprint can do anything it wants (adjust lighting, trigger effects, etc) between layers.

Will that require higher current draw, however?

[empty sedge]

the current draw is going to depend on how many lights you have

[obtuse quail]

I was talking about the CLK and DATA lines requiring 5V. The 5V and GND lines are going to be receiving power from an external jack that's not connected to the Pi at all.

[empty sedge]

the signals won't be enough power to worry about. power the 5v side of your level shifter from the same 5v you're using on the LED strips

[obtuse quail]

Nice.

I know this is more of an electronics question instead of a "how 2 3D print" question, but I really appreciate y'all offering advice!

[cunning oyster]

Has anyone created 3D models for any of the Adafruit boards? I have an idea for a project that would fuse leather working and electronics. I need a plastic model of some boards for the leather forming.

A PyPoetal model would be fantastic

[empty sedge]

@cunning oyster if just the PCB is fine yes

[cunning oyster]

...with components

[empty sedge]

the connectors and components aren't always modeled

@cunning oyster https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CAD_Parts/tree/master/4465 PyPortal Pynt

[cunning oyster]

Thanks !

[serene quest]

I'm getting warping on a 20mm calibration cube, when I have a bl touch that I just finished tuning perfectly, and the warping only happens in one corner. What makes it worse is I just bought a ultrastik pei coated steel bed which I'm using so I'm pretty sure its not the bed, I'm printing PLA at 200-50C

Just finished drying my PLA in the oven overnight too

It was very wet before and was popping

It's fine now

Anyone know what could be the issue?

[empty sedge]

does the fan blow on that one corner?

[serene quest]

fan is off until 3rd layer but I ended up fixing it

[humble hull]

what was the problem?

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Samus Aran Helmet - Metroid #adafruit #timelapse #3dprinting

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted RGB Matrix Pixel Sand #adafruit #3dprinting

[lethal relic]

Good Morning Everyone,

Just found out Autodesk products can be free for a year with a valid University email. You can get some free CAD software or even 3D animation tools. Sign up here to get a variety of software packages.

Go to the following link and click get products and there will be a second link for educators and students.

https://www.autodesk.com/education/home

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted 3D Hangouts – Matrix Portal, MIDI Feather and Metroid Helmet

[kind coral]

HI, im new to 3d printing. I recentli got an ender 3d. What software is recommended to make gcodr files for the printer?

[empty sedge]

@kind coral prusa slicer probably

Lots of people use Cura also but I stopped when they broke all my configurations

[kind coral]

Ive heard about fusion 360, is that good for gcode files?

[empty sedge]

Eh sorta. Gcode is the path the printer follows. Normally you’d make a model in fusion or blender or openscad or tinkercad, export stl, then load the stl in prusa slicer or Cura to convert to the movements for your specific machine

Fusion also has a gcode converter built in as of this year but it doesn’t have profiles built in well tuned for Ender 3

[kind coral]

Ohh so i make the model in lets say tinkercad, then what do i do to get it into gcode?

[empty sedge]

Export stl, load the stl into cura or prusa slicer, and set the part orientation, and print options, then export gcode to print

[kind coral]

Pretty simple, thanks

[empty sedge]

I'm sure you can find instructions online for how to do that

here's one I found on youtube. 3mf is another 3d model format that's newer and facier than STL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fez6fpEFMR4

[kind coral]

Yeah definantly, thanks for all the help man

[undone nymph]

I feel so oldschool. I have still a e3d v5 hotend.

which btw doesn't hold temperature after exchanging heating. Loose screws?

I did not find my allen key to check

[empty sedge]

@undone nymph I also have a machine with ed3v5. There's an allen screw holding the cartridge in place but that'd have to be quite visibly falling out to cause the temps to drop

[undone nymph]

Well, I found some instructions which say I should tighten the scrrwd when it is warm

[serene quest]

Does anyone know why there is these blobs at the bottom of cylinders? Printing pla at 210-50C on a heavily modded ender 3

[empty sedge]

@serene quest it could be a lot of things. temperature, retraction, extruder slipping, or part cooling. Small towers
with a lot of retracts are a common problem for bowden machines to get tuned well

[stuck cargo]

Getting pretty intense strings on these types of areas.

Current settings:
Wipe distance: 0.4mm
Retraction: 8mm @ 55mm/s
Z hop: 0.4mm @ 5mm/s

(Ender 3)

Any advice?

[empty sedge]

@stuck cargo try with 25mm/sec retraction speed and also try without z hop. To test faster, try with the #12 part on https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2755063/files

1. current settings 55mm/sec retraction speed, .04 @5 z-hop
2. 55mm/sec retraction speed, no z-hop
3. 25mm/sec retraction speed, 0.4 @5 z-hop
4. 25mm/sec retraction speed, no z-hop

[stuck cargo]

wipe distance & reducing z hop fixed it!

[stuck cargo]

https://streamable.com/o91aex

made my first print timelapse ever, despite having this printer for a long time!

[tight flower]

Hello! I'm designing/remixing a new X carriage of my own. I'm trying to put the fan duct but I don't really know how low it should be positioned. I drew line from the fan duct exhaust walls. Should I make it lower?

[empty sedge]

that's probably fine but I'd make it so the bottom end of the duct is at least 1mm, maybe 2mm above the nozzle

you might also find the duct ends up cooling the nozzle too much

that said, that's either a giant heater block or a tiny part cooling fan or the fan isn't pictured above

this duct has a shield below the nozzle so the 5015 blower doesn't cool the nozzle too much. https://cad.onshape.com/documents/41c3b12e742c4d2f9961aa9b/w/31453eda78b442e38c3c81aa/e/5aa8b5f7616e46e3a144d8ac

this one copies the 3 holes in the i3 mk3s duct

[tight flower]

that's probably fine but I'd make it so the bottom end of the duct is at least 1mm, maybe 2mm above the nozzle
@empty sedge Oops, I totally forgot about clearance for printed parts. I was quite concerned about the fan cooling down the tip of the nozzle and causing the filament to come out a bit solidified. But now I that I think about it, brass conducts heat pretty well and should be fine I guess. So a little bit of air on the nozzle should be okay right?

[empty sedge]

try it

[karmic brook]

I had some "thermal runaway" issues with too much cooling air on the nozzle. This can be addressed by modulating the fan speed, a silicone "sock" on the nozzle for heat retention, or adjusting the fan duct geometry to direct the airflow as needed.

[tight flower]

So errors from too much cooling air on the nozzle is a thing. Learned something new. I do have a silicone sock on but it covers only the heatblock and not the nozzle.
I'm gonna go ahead and do some experiment with different positions of the fan duct. Thanks.

[empty sedge]

yeah, I've had the nozzle temp drop over 20C because of the part cooling fan overpowering it before

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Dr. Doom #adafruit #Timelapse #3DPrinting

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted 3D Hangouts – MIDI Melodies, Matrix Parrots and Doom Helmet

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted MIDI Melody Maker #CircuitPython

[tight flower]

Could somebody who has some experience with fusion 360 and 3d modeling please help me out on this design I'm doing?
I'm trying fill up this gap highlighted in green in the screenshot but don't know which tool to use or which face to extrude. basically I need to extrude that empty chamber but not the red air vent.

Here's a photo without the green fill on the empty chamber

If i just extrude the right inner wall, it goes through the red air vent body. I just want the extrude tool to exclude that body. Is there a way to do this?

[karmic brook]

I'm not entirely clear on which parts you want to fill and which parts you don't, but you might be able to extrude the bottom of the air vent.

[tight flower]

It extrudes through the air vent even if I extrude from the bottom, because the airvent bends outwards at the top. I tried using the combine tool to cut the air vent body out of the extrude but no luck

[humble hull]

does it have a boolean difference tool?

or can you build a solid by copying the surfaces of the vent and the chamber and capping the ends?

I don't use Fusion 360 but those are the approaches I'd take in the software I use

[tight flower]

I ended up extruding it through the air vent, drawing 2 profiles at ends of the airvent and loft-cutting them. It's not the most efficient way but it worked

[karmic brook]

Cool, I was curious what approach might work there

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Fusion 360 Tutorial – Draft for Support Free 3D Prints

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Demon Horn Skull with Hallowing eyes #adafruit #timelapse #3dprinting

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted QT Py Lego Mount #adafruit

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted 3D Hangouts – QTPy, Eyes and Skulls

[silent veldt]

I'm going to start asking for help here again soon.

Because the Anycubic Photon I got on crazy sale finally appeared.

[humble hull]

mine just got here too!

[iron remnant]

One might say that the both of you have a solution in search of a problem.

[tight cove]

it goes round the whole part

Is it because the 3d model wasnt triangulated?

[empty sedge]

"elephants foot" is because your first layer was too low @tight cove https://support.3dverkstan.se/article/23-a-visual-ultimaker-troubleshooting-guide#elephant

[tight cove]

not the elephants foot

the ring around both parts in the middle

[empty sedge]

does that line up with your solid top fill layers? Your extruder is probably putting out too much plastic causing it to buldge also out the side

[tight cove]

i think so

[empty sedge]

or otherwise, it could be that your z axis didn't move enough on those layers

[smoky summit]

Anyone use a viki2 lcd with marlin 2.0? Trying to get it working with a Re-ARM board. I can get it to display but it causes a kill command and I can't communicate it over USB when the LCD is enabled. When it's disabled printer works fine over USB.

[empty sedge]

my only viki 2 is dead

[finite verge]

Anyone here use Atomic Filament PETG? I’ve been using it for years, but this latest spool of white PETG is wayyyy different than the other 5-6 spools of white I’ve been through. Can’t get it to print well at all. This batch is from around August/September 2020

[empty sedge]

I'm using gray atomic petg from maybe june and not having trouble. Does your new spool have any smell?

[finite verge]

Yeah, new spool smells, my other 20+ rolls of AF PETG across 12 different colors don’t smell

The raw filament is also not glossy anymore, more matte color.

Going to ping their support, but wanted to also ping the community to see if it’s widespread or just my bad luck

[empty sedge]

did you buy petg pro instead of petg? though neither should smell

[finite verge]

PETG Pro is what I always get, looks like.

[empty sedge]

yeah I got it wrong. they have another blend of some plastics with a higher printing temp but I'm not finding it right now

I think contacting their support is the right idea though

[finite verge]

You can see the difference in gloss, hot pink AF PETG in the back. No specular sheen on white at all

Also new stuff has different temp range listed, old stuff was 230-245, new is 235-245, though that could be just adjusted guidance

Anyway...thanks for the chat and data point 👍

[empty sedge]

petg shouldn't smell either. if it smells like burning plastic it's probably ABS

[finite verge]

Yeah it smells more like PLA, kind of that sickly sweet antifreeze smell

Not heavy but detectable. Never smelled anything with previous spools

[empty sedge]

petg shouldn't smell sweet either. maybe that's high temp PLA

[finite verge]

Could be

[unique pendant]

Did you dry it? Atomic is my go to. I’ve had plenty of wet filament right out of the package from basically every brand. Less often from Atomic, but they’re not immune. @finite verge

I have noticed a faint sweet smell from Atomic and Snolabs PETG lately. Not from the extruder tho’ just pretty much from the spool. I wonder if they have to put a little of that corn-derived resin in the mix for some colors?

Anyone looking for a super precise 3d printer, Project R3D just introduced their latest printer at VERRF and are selling it $400 off regular price. https://www.projectr3d.com/shop/daedalus

I primarily use a RailCore2 300ZL which this printer used as its design starting point. The prints are superb. I’m in no way connected to the designers/company by the way. Just throwing this out there in case anyone is in need of an awesome printer like I was last year.

[tall flame]

any suggestions on alternatives to Fusion 360 for Linux? I used to use Fusion but I can't get it to install anymore.

[knotty laurel]

Not a ton of options on Linux... FreeCAD? I didn't think Fusion had ever worked on Linux, though...

[tall flame]

I vaguely remember running it under Wine

[knotty laurel]

Oh, Wine, gotcha...

[karmic brook]

I use OpenSCAD, but it's not the same thing. It's similar in that it's a parametric modeler, but you have to explain to it in code how to build the model from the parameters. For some people, that's fine, for others, it's not. I ended up using both Fusion and OpenSCAD, each where its particular mode of working fits my current project.

[knotty laurel]

I'd love to have something in the middle... like OpenSCAD but with a real-time interactive visualization engine, or like Fusion but with first-class editable scripting for the models it creates...

[tall flame]

I'm checking freeCad but seems likes it's going to take a while to go through the learning curve :/

I like the more visual approach of Fusion. I usually don't have a clear mental image when designing things so the visual, iterative approach works best for me.

It's a shame Autocad seems to actively prevent people from running it on VM/Linux

[empty sedge]

after using onshape, freecad seems like quite a hassle.

[unique pendant]

Yeah, I have a friend who's going all in with freecad right now after the F360 update. He says it's not so bad after going through these tutorials. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxa9m2nC6N924jFUOYRECQUMm9xl4_jUI

[empty sedge]

the restrictions on only having one "face" to a sketch, the lack of sketch trim tool (so I can turn a rectangle overlapping a circle into lines and arc), and the way that constraints are needlessly more complicated is just the stuff I ran into today

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted 3D Hangouts – Tombstones, Eyes and LEDs

[crude kettle]

HD printing

[sullen zinc]

On the compostability of PLA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Gh-3PQhiE

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Among Us AirPod Case #adafruit

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Fusion 360 Tutorial – Sketching with Constraints

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Tombstone Matrix Portal #adafruit #3dprinting

[serene quest]

when I'm loading filament into my Bowden, there is a huge amount of resistance when pushing it though the hotend, is this a bad sign?

I'm also have a ton of stringing issues

[empty sedge]

@serene quest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCxO17XZtw

[serene quest]

just did that

it's better

I have an ultistik pei steel sheet and I'm getting really bad warping with pla at 60c and I just cleaned it with hot water and soap

it sticks really well in the middle but the edges peel up

every single thing I do seems to cause a different problem

its leveled

[empty sedge]

some heated beds are warmer in the center vs at the edges

but also you might try another brand of filament

[serene quest]

the whole part is in the center I was talking about the edges of the part

I'm using stronghero3d which is recommended by a lot of people and I've seen great results with it on the same bed I have at 205c and 60c, but at 205 I get layer separation so I have to raise to 210 and before 60 worked for me but now its lifting

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted 3D Hangouts – Glowing Faces, LEDs and Claws#adafruit

[empty sedge]

I hope new z screws make my layers more consistent

or else I will rebuild the entire z axis to be more rigid

[inland sage]

Anyone care to share slicing tips for printing something like this horn here in Semiflex/Flexfil 98A? I"m currently honing in on better settings but still having some blobbing and curling on the more hanging parts of it.

[karmic brook]

I might print it in two halves

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Madame Leota #3DPrinting #Timelaspe #adafruit

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted HalloWing M4 Tombstone

[livid tangle]

Can someone tell me how I might clear up a constant issue. I have an e3d v6 hotend that keeps clogging. It's hard to get past the fiest layer without a clog. Any thoughts?

[empty sedge]

@livid tangle there's a few things it could be

• no fan on the heatsink, or broken fan
• some thermal connection between heater block and heatsink (like a big blob of plastic, or the heater block is assembled touching the heatsink)
• a gap between the nozzle and the heat break inside the heater block threads. the nozzle shouldn't bottom out on the heater block, there should be about a 0.5-1mm gap. it should bottom out on the threads inside so the heat break and nozzle seal against each other

[livid tangle]

@empty sedge thanks for this. I checked the PTFE, it was not flush to the heat break. I have noticed, too, that the heat block will turn ever so slightly. Is there a way to tighten it to the heatsink so it doesn’t move?

[empty sedge]

@livid tangle after assembling the nozzle/heat break and getting them finger tight when cold, you're supposed to heat up the block to the max temp and then tighten like 1 inch pound the nozzle again

if it's loose at the heatsink you should just need to thread that in more

if it's loose where the heatsink mounts in your printer, you can shim that interface with tape. I've used kapton tape for that but electrical tape works too

[karmic brook]

Note that the nozzle should abut the heatbreak within the heat block, it can take some fiddling to get the heatbreak to the right position for this to happen when the nozzle is tightened.

[livid tangle]

The nozzle is secure against the heatbreak with about a 1mm gap between nozzle and heat block. The heat break has about a 2mm gape between the heat block and heat sink. The heat sink will come loose where the heat break enters the heat sink. Do I need to tighten the heat sink while everything is hot?

[empty sedge]

no, the heatsink shouldn't get warm enough to need to be tightened again when hot

[livid tangle]

That's what I thought.

[brave mica]

Howdy folks! I'm looking for a direct drive upgrade for my CR-10 V2 that won't break the bank since I may only need it for so long.

I finally got my Hemera installed and have discovered that it's...troublesome. It seemingly randomly starts skipping and not feeding filament. I think it's skipping steps but I'm unsure. If I look into the extruder section while it's happening, I can see the large gear moving back and forth in place, just a few mm. It's inconsistent; Sometimes I can squirt out filament at ludicrous speed, and others I can't.

So, I'm going to deal with E3D to get it fixed because I'm not alone in having similar issues. With that in mind I would really like to get my printer operational again ASAP so I can work on Halloween projects, so any advice would be helpful. I'm probably going to put the stock extruder/hot end on for now, but any help or suggestions would be appreciated

[livid tangle]

I am having thermal runaway on e1. What is e1 referencing? I am using Ramps 1.4, so I assume e1 is either related to the T0 or T1 connection. Or it's related to the D8, D9, or D10 connectors. D9 is my print cooling fan, I think D10 is my Bed and the extruder is on D8. I might have D8 and D10 mixed up right now since I can't look to verify at the moment,I know the connections are correct, though.

I did change the extruder thermister, the results are the same. Could the heater cartridge be messed up?

I plan to run a PID auto tune tonight. Is there anything else I can check. Oh and I did check the resistance in the old thermister, it seems to be fine as it reads at 100k ohms.

I wonder though, could I need to make am edit in the firmware to use the e3d hotend and thermister (upgrading from a stock anet a8 build.)

[empty sedge]

@livid tangle weird, you should be getting min temp error on E1 if you don't have a second hotend thermistor plugged in, not thermal runaway

@livid tangle if you have only one extruder your configuration.h #define extruders line should say 1

if you're really getting thermal runaway that means that it's trying to heat something, but the temp isn't going up

[livid tangle]

I just look in Octoprint, the error reference E0

And I noticed the graph for E0 dropped about 15 degrees pretty quickly.

So, I am wondering if E1 is incorrectly set in the configurations.h

[empty sedge]

so you could have no power (say your 12V supply shut off and your pi is powering the arduino), your cooling fan could be cooling the hotend too much, you tripped the PTC, the thermistor or heater fell out of the hotend

[livid tangle]

#define extruders is set to 1

[empty sedge]

ok, read what else I wrote above

[livid tangle]

I wonder if it's the cooling fan. I think the duct is blowing more on the heat block than around the nozzle.

what is the ptc?

Heater and thermistor are secure

[empty sedge]

it's the big rectangular orange things on the RAMPS that get hot

next to the power connectors

[livid tangle]

Oh the polyfuse?

[empty sedge]

yeah

if you pull enough current they get super hot and stop conducting

[livid tangle]

ok.

[empty sedge]

I've never tripped one with a hotend before though, just with a heated bed

[livid tangle]

Ok.

Well, I plan to place an 80mm fan over the board.

[empty sedge]

yeah, I needed a fan blowing on my ramps board on one printer for it to work reliably

my other printer with ramps doesn't have that problem

[livid tangle]

Yeah, I've read that it just depends.

Is there any way to be notified of the fuse tripping?

like can I wire an LED On = tripped off = all is good?

[empty sedge]

yes but it will be the other way around

[livid tangle]

ok

[empty sedge]

the two + inputs go through the polyfuse, then directly to the positive terminals. the 5A input at the corner of the board goes to D8+
the 11A one goes to both D9+ and D10+

so if you had an LED with the correct series resistor for your voltage between D8+ and your 0V
and another between D9+ and your 0V
and if either LED turns off when the power is on then you've tripped the polyfuse

or if stuff stops going and you touch the polyfuse and it's burning hot that's what happened

[livid tangle]

Both good to know, I will crunch the math for the resister and solder up a test LED. And, well, in the meantime I will test with fingers.

[inland sage]

I have this model sliced in simplify and for some reason it doesn't want to fill in. Those thin gaps are supposed to be solid and I can't seem to get them to fill in using Simplify slicr. It fills in fine for some reason on the Prusa Slicr and Cura, but simplify is making it open on the top and hollow between outer perimeters. Any thoughts?

[empty sedge]

@inland sage what version of s3d?

@inland sage on the advanced tab, under thin wall behavior set to "allow single extrusion walls" and "allow single extrusion fill"

[inland sage]

Ok I’ll try that👌🏽 thanks

[livid tangle]

Thank you for all the help. I checked thermistor connections and it looked like one to the bed was breaking off from the crimp. So I repaired that wire and did not have any thermal runaway errors. I successfully completed a print.

Thanks again for the advice.

[orchid fable]

Hello .. I'm trying to figure out why the first layer is so bad .. is it a temperature issue or the bed level issue? I have done mesh bed-leveling multiple times 😕

[empty sedge]

looks like wanhao. what kind of plastic?

[orchid fable]

@empty sedge It is a Wanhao Duplicator i3 v2 😀 .. it's the overture black 1.75mm PLA

[empty sedge]

huh, I've had good results with overture petg

[orchid fable]

I've never tried petg .. want to get pla working reliably before trying other materials 🙂

[empty sedge]

what temp is your bed? what's your first layer height and print speed? I'm assumig you're on a 0.4 nozzle still

[orchid fable]

I kept the bed temp to 50C (I have an enclosure around the printer).. Nozzle temp at 205C..Primary Layer Height is 0.200mm with first layer height to 90% and speed at 25% (default printing speed 60.0mm/s)

these are settings from Simplify3D

[empty sedge]

weird

I tend to do thicker layers for first layer if possible (keeping it under 75% of nozzle diameter). So 0.3mm first layer even if normal layer height is 0.2

so 90% of normal layer height sounds like a recipie for pain especially when printing 0.1mm layers

15mm/sec is about right

50C hasn't been warm enough for PLA bed for me. I do 60 or 65. That's not your problem here

I also sometimes cheat by turning up the first layer extrusion width. like 2x or 2.5x if the extruder can keep up

I think 205c nozzle might be low for wanhao. Give 215C a try

also clean the print surface with isopropyl alcohol when cold. fingerprints will make your parts stick less

of those I think the nozzle temp will make the biggest difference. PLA beads should look glossy compared to the matte yours look

[orchid fable]

Thanks @empty sedge .. I've always kept the default first layer height .. didn't realize I should try higher value .. I'll up the temps on the nozzle and bed .. increasing the width might make it difficult to fit parts together so I will do that last

[orchid fable]

@empty sedge thank you so much for your recommendations. The bottom layer came out amazing and everything remained stuck on the bed 🙂

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Fusion 360 Tutorial – Diffusion with Black LED Acrylic

[rough marlin]

I dowloaded this app on my phone that let me scan my head and i wanted to print it but i'm new to fusion360 and i don't know how to make this a full head, how do i make this work?

also, a lot of videos on youtube are telling me to go to the mesh menu, but i dont seem to have one

[undone nymph]

hi, just in case one remembers me: I told ya, my printer was unable to hold the heat

I realized, that my heating was a 24V variant instead of a 12V one. That really explains, why it took ages to heat up and why it was unable to maintain the heat

I had about 13W instead of 40W

[ornate raven]

Printing some PLA Wood Filament. Changed nozzle to 0.5 and upped temp on nozzle to 205 on Ender 3 Pro with glass bed. Top of a barrel printed quite well at 60mm/s. Printing the barrel now.

I was very encouraged with my nozzle. When I removed the 0.3 one there was no filament on the seating face. Previously when changing nozzles, the seating surface had some filament on it.

[ornate raven]

Well, that was a bust. three quarters through the barrel the nozzle clogged. I had left it going so well...

[unique pendant]

@rough marlin Meshmixer might be a better choice than Fusion360 for that application.

@ornate raven The smallest nozzle I've ever had success with for wood filament was 0.6 mm. Is there a particular reason you want to use wood filament? There might be a better material choice for your application.

[ornate raven]

@unique pendant I'm doing a whiskey barrel and the texture is perfect as well as the stainability. The screw on top went perfect. The barrel itself clogged about 65% complete. That's when I realized I hadn't changed the nozzle size in my cura settings. Since I plugged nozzle and bordon tube, I changed to a .6 nozzle and new tube. Next barrel went very well. Odd though that the lid went so well. Ah well, live and learn. Thanks for the feedback.

[unique pendant]

The fibers in the woodfill PLA are of variable size and sometimes a big one gets stuck. The first time I printed with it I had a 0.4 nozzle and it got all the way through an 8 hour print until 1/2 of the last layer when in finally clogged! 😄

[rough marlin]

thanks @unique pendant

[deft raven]

Does anyone have a Gorilla Maker 3D printer that could help me get some settings working on it?

[empty sedge]

@deft raven I doubt it but I expect the settings would be pretty similar to a prusa i3

well, with a larger nozzle it looks like

[deft raven]

Well my issue is it only accepts one file system type for the flash drive and we lost the one that had the information on it so I can’t remember how the flash drive has to be formatted.

[empty sedge]

I don't see any usb drive on the youtube videos yet, but the one I see with a viki mini LCD uses a micro SD card that you'd format fat32

[deft raven]

@empty sedge I figured it out through trial and error. It has to be formatted as FAT and MBR

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Layer by Layer – PMS Air Quality Sensors

[orchid fable]

Hi, is it normal to apply a lot of force to take parts off a Buildtak like surface (I have the Overture build surface)? I had a PrintBrite surface before and that released part so easily. I just had to pick it up 🙂 It feels like have to apply a lot of force relatively speaking. No harm on the build surface, I'm just worried about messing up the bedleveling

[empty sedge]

@orchid fable yes. that's part of why builtak and others recommend you find the first layer height by starting too high because that also helps you get it stuck down reasonably well

I have a frosting spreader I use. Usually I can lift a corner then I slide it between the part and the print surface to try to un-stick a little at a time. Don't do this towards your other hand with a knife or putty scraper or you can slip and get some terrible cutts

[orchid fable]

@empty sedge Should I start the z height in Marlin firmware to a higher value and then tune it towards 0 as the first layer is printing?

[empty sedge]

I don't know what your firmware uses as a z offset

[orchid fable]

I've just flashed Marlin to my Wanhao i3 so still learning all the terminology there .. I'll experiment with that and see what happens

[acoustic spire]

Silly question perhaps: are filament dust filters worth using? I just pondered this after cold pulling all sorts of yackage out of my nozzle

[acoustic spire]

Welp I have some issue to tackle... Currently using a somewhat suspicious all-metal hotend from eBay on an ender 3. It seems like it goofs up on longer prints. I've ordered some other parts to try switching it out later, but anything I should try for now? The nozzle isn't clogged, but it just jams up, haven't caught it in the act to tell if the extruder skips or grinds when it gets constipated

[unique pendant]

@acoustic spire Best filament cleaner ever. Binder clip with 100% cotton blue towel.

@acoustic spire re: your print above. Yeah, if it's not clogged, then it's not pushing the filament properly. I've learned that getting off-label printer parts (especially critical parts like extruders) just ends up being a waste of money in the long run, tho ymmv.

[acoustic spire]

Extruder is a really nice one, it's an improvement over the plastic stock ender3 extruder, I'm just suspicious of the hotend parts. I did order the stuff needed to restore the stock configuration

I bought the printer used and it had..... strangeness

[unique pendant]

Friends with Ender3's and others swear by the Micro Swiss upgrade. One of the best extruder/hotends made. https://tiny-machines-3d.myshopify.com/products/micro-swiss-direct-drive-extruder-for-creality-cr-10-ender-printers

[acoustic spire]

Ha I have those same clips lying around thanks to a Monoprice Mini Delta (hence the delta effector w/ e3d v6 mount I was trying to print...)

[unique pendant]

I found them in our junk drawer 😄

[acoustic spire]

Oh that looks nice! I have a direct kit on it now but it's an earlier take on it and uses the stock hotend

And that weird metal fan shroud

[karmic brook]

Heh, I also have the same clips, also for a Mini Delta

[acoustic spire]

That poor mini delta is a drool demon. Bad temperature regulation issues... I suspect it's something with the heat block or thermistor

I'm working on getting that up to where it's reliable

[unique pendant]

@acoustic spire can you post a pic of your current extruder/hotend? Maybe I'll have an idea... it does occasionally happen 😆

[acoustic spire]

I'll probably take it apart this evening, but it's one of these clones

No idea if the heat break is titanium but it certainly doesn't mesh with the sink like the Micro Swiss does

[unique pendant]

Do you have PTFE tube going down into your hotend?

If so, that has to be very precisely cut without any play or you can get erratic results that could look like what you got if bad enough.

[acoustic spire]

No. I know what you mean though-- if you get a gap in that setup it tends to get jammed up.

[unique pendant]

FYI, I use Micro Swiss pretty much exclusively for all my heat breaks. They have never given me any trouble (unlike stuff I've gotten on Amazon). Tho' I've been very interested in trying out the new Copperhead reprap heatbreak in my V6 machines. I didn't understand them at first, but you don't have to get all the Copperhead parts, you can just get the heatbreak (which is the best part) and drop it in your standard V6 as it is already.

Expensive tho'. But I haven't had to replace a Micro Swiss heatbreak after 1000s of printing hours, not once, so definitely worth it.

[acoustic spire]

Neat. Yeah, that should work fine on any e3d v6 block and heatsink from the looks of it.... though I like the looks of their heat block

I learned the hard way a couple years ago that the heat block makes a big difference lol

https://www.kg4cyx.net/heat-block-nonsense/

this guy

[unique pendant]

It's copper. I've been using the V6 copper blocks and I really can't tell if it makes a difference during printing, but it does take longer to cool off so it's likely to be more stable in temp during printing. A lot heavier, that's for sure.

[acoustic spire]

Yeah. That should avoid the weird little ringing you get as it comes up to temp and stabilizes there too

Which really isn't a big deal as it's usually done ringing about as you're still priming the nozzle

What is that craziness on the Mosquito Magnum I wonder... Looks like their take on the Volcano hotend

[unique pendant]

Yeah, it's their take on the Volcano. Advantages of it, tho', are it's no bigger than the regular Mosquito (similar in length to V6, a little shorter) and you can do cold nozzle changes. I know several people with the Mosquito, and a few with the Magnums and they love them. I have a standard Mosquito, but I was one of the people who could never get PLA to work right in it. I just upgraded it with the second generation redesigned heatbreak and heatsink, but nowhere to put it right now. It's supposed to handle PLA as well as the higher temp stuff nicely.

One friend of mine has been using the liquid mosquito for several weeks now and he absolutely loves it.

All those Mosquitos, tho', are so crazy expensive. I really like my V6s so no real reason to go that way. If I was printing more exotic materials I might look more into it.

I guess that's why I'm interested in that Copperhead heatbreak for V6 😁

[acoustic spire]

Neat. Thanks :3

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Batman Cowl #3dprinting #adafruit #timelapse

[livid tangle]

Thinking about getting or making a filament dryer. What are your thoughts and experiences?

[karmic brook]

Made one, seems to work fine

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted BLE Servo Claw #halloween #adafruit #3DPrinting

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted 3D Hangouts – Servo Claw, Air Sensing and MagSafe

[ornate raven]

Yep, built one.

[rancid canopy]

hi all, i am trying to design a valve to auto regulate the outside air coming into my campervan based on the co2 level in my van. I am thinking of making a wedge style gate valve (or if anyone has any better ideas), and also not sure what motor to use, servo or stepper (it needs to be quiet since it will turn on and off while im sleeping) any suggestions?

[karmic brook]

Most actuators are somewhat noisy, and may be ineffective in still air. Perhaps a blower instead? The ones from CPAP machines are quiet, as they're designed to by used by sleeping people.

[rancid canopy]

a blower? not sure what you mean by that

[karmic brook]

A device for moving air.

[rancid canopy]

ohh, im just trying to make a valve

not move air 🙂

i have a fan assembly that will be doing the moving

sorry my initial description probably was a bit convoluted in that sense

[karmic brook]

I understood your original description, just didn't know a fan was already present. You may be able to accomplish your goal by modulating the fan instead of moving a valve/cover.

[unique pendant]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgW0KoguXc&feature=youtu.be

[humble hull]

oh neat

[serene dome]

@rancid canopy What would win on cool factor is a version of a Tesla valve. You'd need an actuator similar to a butterfly valve to move a dimension though, assuming by valve you need one-way air flow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suIAo0EYwOE

Or better yet, a regulated fan placed at 90 degrees to the exit would produce a Bournuli effect and pull a varying amount of air. On the practical side, controlling a variable speed fan extractor would work the same.

[rancid canopy]

@serene dome thats pretty neat, like a fluid diode

[serene dome]

Yep. Yet like I say, if using circuits a variable speed fan extractor would be less moving parts and hassle.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2668591

[acoustic spire]

Ok so apparently the result of a heat block sock falling off is... too hilarious to even be mad about it

[humble hull]

Oh? I once forgot to put the sock back on and nothing failed hilariously... I want to hear the story!

[karmic brook]

It can sometimes be worse if the sock stays on...

[iron remnant]

Either way, it can really sock to have it happen to you.

[acoustic spire]

Haha so I figured it out, the nozzle had gotten loose and plastic drooled into it from on top of the block

GLOOP

[karmic brook]

Ouch.

[acoustic spire]

Heehee. All happy now

[brave mica]

I'm just dropping in to say that after beating my face against Marlin for neigh on two aeons, I started looking into Klipper by way of the Voron folks and let me say, klipper does a lot of stuff right.

I'd highly recommend checking it out if you haven't. It's well documented, mainly via the docs dir on their github repo, well designed, easy to configure and reconfigure, and it comes with a free pony too

[unique pendant]

Combined 3D printing, magnets, and a submarine! https://www.kjmagnetics.com/blog.asp?p=red-october

[ornate raven]

3D Cad on the Raspberry Pi 4, any suggestions?

[empty sedge]

onshape?

except you probably want free.I haven't tried solvespace or freeCAD on pi 4

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Kobayashi Cube #adafruit #Timelapse #3dprinting

[pearl prairie]

How do I figure out what screw size is appropriate for a module? The datasheet says the hole has a diam of 0.1, but I don't know what unit that is, or what that translates to in a 3d design for using with inserts

[karmic brook]

0.1mm sounds unlikely, so I'm guessing it's 0.1 inches. There are plenty of references (Machinery's Handbook and others) that give clearance hole sizes for various screws.

[sage flame]

i have a problem that drive me crazy my printer extrude when i load filament but no mather what file i use or if the print has just start or is finishing no filament comme out

when printing

the motor use to move the filament move like in normal but weirdly the filament goes slowly in the opposite

direction

[karmic brook]

Hard to tell what's going on in that dizzying video. Almost looks like the axis and extruder motor leads are swapped.

[sage flame]

when i load the filament everything normal

[sage flame]

after 6hours of trying to repair it it rework with no reason

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted IOT Air Quality Monitor

[dawn terrace]

My Fusion360 trial has expired and right now I am thinking of alternatives to it.

My son is using Solidworks at school so i'd like him to practice also at home. Is it worth it to purchase a student license?

Are there any free alternatives?

[empty sedge]

@dawn terrace FreeCAD can do the same kind of things but really doesn't have the same polish
There's also Solvespace which I haven't tried

student solidworks is meant for non-commercial use

[dawn terrace]

I don't plan to use my 3d prints or cad drawings in any comercial way.... The only problem I have is that they don't allow the same license on multiple pcs. Like my pc and my son pc

Or at least we will have to go through the license transfer process form one pc to another whenever one of use wants to use it

[unique pendant]

Students can also get a Fusion360 educational license.

[lilac patio]

@dawn terrace you could get the hobbyist license for free

[dawn terrace]

where is that?

how do i get it?

[shy kelp]

Hi

Which 3D printer should I get for better value? Creative Ender 3, V2 or Pro?

I plan to buy one of this and I would like to hear some advise

[lucid fiber]

I have the pro

From what I've heard the differences are very little

The only reason I got the pro was because it was on sale at microcenter but I don't think theres a difference in quality

If it means anything I love this thing

[shy kelp]

I see

[torn salmon]

I'd recommend the Ender3 base model to anyone.

There's tons of mods you can do to it.

And it's cheap. About $150.

It's also extendable with the Ender Extender kit (though you overpay for the kit; it's way cheaper to buy the aluminum extrusions and the z screw yourself)

My ender 3 setup is a base ender 3 with a micro swiss direct drive all metal hot end to do flexible filaments, and the other mod I have is the SKR mini with silent drivers.

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Layer by Layer – Arrange Woodworking Projects

[unique pendant]

@shy kelp Depends on what you mean by value. Can you define what you’re looking for in terms of how large you want to print and how high you want your print quality to be?

Oh wait, I just saw you’ve already narrowed it down. nvm.

[empty sedge]

I'm going to continue saying the prusa i3 mk3s is a reliable workhorse. auto bed leveling and spring steel sheet are seriously life changing
I have two at my hackerspace and if we were running stock creality machines I'd have to fix the print surface or nozzle every week in ways I don't have to with the prusa

[shy kelp]

@shy kelp Depends on what you mean by value. Can you define what you’re looking for in terms of how large you want to print and how high you want your print quality to be?
@unique pendant I am looking reliable and upgradeable printer without spending too much.

This is the one that I plan to buy. After doing some research, I think Ender 3 fit my requirement

What about this brand, is this 3D printer reliable?

[plucky depot]

@shy kelp I have the Ender 3 and it is amazing!

Amazing value, easily upgradable and the quality of the prints for the price of the printer is great

[shy kelp]

I see

[austere temple]

does anyone know where and how I can hire a designer to design a 3d print for a project of mine?

[unique pendant]

Well @shy kelp, reliable, then, is the key. In my experience, based on 3 Enders, one Prusa, one Raptor, one Xinkebot, and two RailCores, Enders are at the bottom of reliability, and Railcores are at the top. Prusas are near, though, and for the money, are a great value. Railcores have the best prints than any of them, but Prusa is not far behind, and the Prusa is great to learn on as well. Enders are great to start on, but if you’re like most, you’ll soon be wanting upgrades to the point where you should have just bought a Prusa in the first place. Up to you, though, it’s more of how you want to spread spending over time.

[shy kelp]

I see

Thanks for your advice

I will take note and make better decision

What about cloned Prusa i3?

Should I buy it or avoid it?

[knotty laurel]

@austere temple I used Upwork to find a freelancer for that sort of job, and had pretty good results. There's also Fiverr on the less-professional end.

[unique pendant]

@shy kelp There are pluses and minuses. 3D printing is not that different than other industries in that the saying "you get what you pay for" applies. That being said, if your goal is to learn how 3D printers work, and you have the time to take things apart and fix them, a clone will suffice. However, you will end up replacing failed parts and will eventually spend about as much or more than the genuine article costs. You will also learn that it's just not worth replacing the same parts over and over again with cloned parts. It took me about 2 years of futzing around with clones until I swore them off completely. But I may be a special case... I'd rather be printing than repairing, adjusting, and tuning, so there's that. I enjoy a good capable 3D printer that will do it what I tell it when I tell it. But I also enjoy taking clones apart and fixing/upgrading them. Maybe it would be ideal to get the genuine Prusa AND a clone for the most fun! 😂

[karmic brook]

What hotends do you have in the Railcores? E3D, Mosquito, or something else?

[austere temple]

@knotty laurel thanks mate

[unique pendant]

@karmic brook I have E3D V6's on my RailCores, but I have a Mosquito waiting for the RailCore Mini when the kit comes out.

[empty sedge]

@shy kelp I think you're better off with a creality than a prusa clone. If you have any questions about the creality someone will have answered them already, where with a prusa clone you're more on your own

[unique pendant]

That's a great point ^^^

[karmic brook]

Thanks for the info!

[empty sedge]

also prusa i3 clones have a huge variety. the super cheap ones are garbage

[shy kelp]

I see

I think I stick with Creality first.

Thanks for your advice

[elder oxide]

Creality is a great entry machine

And honestly, I like them better than prusa

and much more so than Fusion printers

makerbots are okay

[shy kelp]

Can anyone confirm this is a room temp related fail?

the layers that seem shifted were printed over night

(2 day print)

it was half way done when this happened

[unique pendant]

kind of out of focus. can you be specific about what the fail is?

[shy kelp]

those layers should be smooth

but it appears shifted

[unique pendant]

Are they actually shifted? I actually haven't seen a fail like that before. 🤷‍♂️

[shy kelp]

on the other side it appears they aren't shifted

its sooo weird

oh wait the support is covering it

yeah its just shifted somehow

maybe something is slipping??

lots of odd spaggehti and gloobs

[unique pendant]

Possibly. Check all your nuts/bolts and tighten them. Also possible the nozzle could have caught on a glob and caused the shifts.

They look like gradual shifts tho', which is the weird part. Usually a shift will happen all at once.

Was it stuck to the build plate OK?

[shy kelp]

yeah i had it at 75 C and it was real stuck on there even after i turned it off

[unique pendant]

You don't happen to have a cat that likes to lay down close to the printer do you?

[shy kelp]

im doing some googling and its gotta be a belt problem

lol no

its in a basement

[empty sedge]

I think it's not an XY problem because they wouldn't stay as aligned if it was losing steps in x or y

[shy kelp]

it was kinda chilly in there so thats what lead me to think it was temp related

then its gotta be my Z axis right?

[unique pendant]

More likely a pulley (loose set screw) problem than a belt problem, but could be loose belts.

[empty sedge]

it could be the Z axis binding, the spool pulling up on the extruder then jumping, or something temperature related if your bed moves that much as the temperature fluctuates

[shy kelp]

yeah that sounds like the cause tbh

[empty sedge]

if it's bed temp related then I'd expect to see big like 5-10C swings because only 1C shouldn't move things that much

[shy kelp]

its weird cause the base of the print showed no signs of fluctuation

it was on there solid

so thats why i thought it may have been the extruder

the gloobs and spagehti the Z axis slipping possibility more possible i think

[unique pendant]

What's the material?

[shy kelp]

pla

extruder was at 205 C

[unique pendant]

That's far enough away from the bed that it will be near room temp. 75 is really too hot for PLA.

(bed temp)

[shy kelp]

so 60 would be fine then?

[unique pendant]

Yeah, 60 is good. You're only trying to get it to stick. Bed temps should be near the glass transition temperature for your material. Tho' PLA can stick to room temp beds, I've never tried it 🐔

I doubt the bed temp was the problem with your fail tho'.

[shy kelp]

yeah me too, it just shows no signs of moving

no elephant foots either

[unique pendant]

Usually the cold ambient temp fail is lifting off the bed.🤷‍♂️

[shy kelp]

ah ok

whats also interesting is that i noticed the same layers seemed to have failed on another print i did a few days ago

so its definetly gotta be the Z axis

thanks all for helping me troubleshoot

[unique pendant]

Sure. Looks like there's a lot of youtubes on how to fix Z-axis binding on the Ender3. That's some seriously big artifact for Z-axis binding alone tho.

[shy kelp]

ooo ill look into that too

thanks!!!

[unique pendant]

@shy kelp if you are in the USA, Tiny Machines assembles all their Enders and makes sure they’re working correctly before sending to you. No extra charge.

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Flexible iPhone 12 Pro Max Case #3DPrinting #Timelapse #adafruit

[shadow dagger]

That's a theft prevention feature, not a bug

no one will steal it because they will be too grossed out

THAT is a bug

[shy kelp]

@unique pendant Sure, I will take note with your advise. Thank you

[signal finch]

What does this mean... Too high or low?

[unique pendant]

If that's a first layer, your extruding too much and you're not close enough to the bed.

[empty sedge]

@signal finch I can’t tell. Usually I look at the bottom. When you’re too low the lines on the bottom will alternate in width being wide/narrow/wide/narrow or too far and they’re all wide. When they’re all the same width but touching everywhere you are there

From the photo that looks too low to me but it’s hard to tell

[unique pendant]

So, edges not sticking = not close enough. But, extrusion lines are touching, therefore extruding too much. This assumes you properly cleaned your PEI. So, there’s many factors here. Maybe share your settings?

[empty sedge]

I'm not sure that's the case. I found that the corners can curl during that test when my nozzle is too low. Unfortunately I can't test easily today to be sure

[signal finch]

Thank you

[empty sedge]

still looks too low to me

[empty sedge]

@signal finch check out the image below "have a look at the nozzle"
https://help.prusa3d.com/en/article/first-layer-calibration_112364

[signal finch]

Maybe I didn't install the nozzle correctly

[empty sedge]

@signal finch why do you think that?

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted Raspberry Pi Machine Learning Camera #adafruit #3DPrinting #RaspberryPi

[empty sedge]

@signal finch I'm trying that on my printer now, but with petg. It has taken me a while because I don't have a proper prusa machine that can use the stock firmware at home

Here's my current z calibration about right, as viewed from the bottom with macro lens

this one is 0.050mm lower and the beads are so squished together you can't see them. It's still not sticking probably because my petg is wet

this is 100 microns lower than the first picture and the buckling is even worse. you can't see the individual beads either

perfect! This is 0.025mm higher (less negative offset) than the first photo. again this is a photo of the bottom of the first layer calibration

good luck @signal finch you're pretty close

[signal finch]

I know. I had the printer working previously but I think the nozzle is in the wrong spot - or there's a flow issue. It's hard to tell.

My room is extremely cold so that might be the issue too

Not using a fan for most of my petg

I got my aqi sensor working tonight instead of doing more on this.

[unique pendant]

@signal finch have you calibrated your e-steps?

[unique pendant]

This morning’s first layer. Try to get something like this. Good squish, lines together, no blobs. I’ve never heard of looking at the underside to determine correct squish. Does that work better?

If you look at the far left of the image, you'll see there's a little too much squish. The edges of the lines curl up just a little. I babystepped the nozzle up by 0.02 mm and then it was about right. Still maybe just a little too much squish, but OK.

[violet needle]

Adafruit Industries posted 3D Hangouts – Air Quality, BrainCraft and iPhone12 Cases

[signal finch]

No I haven't , XYZ

Belt test was off a bit

Just did another layer calibration

What a mess.. ambient temp is 10 c

Just took off the nozzle to clean

I probably have the nozzle touching the heating block

I3 mk3s fwiw

[empty sedge]

having the nozzle bottom out on the heater block can leave a gap between the heat break and nozzle which would cause retraction trouble and if your block can wiggle than it might cause more issues. the prusa and e3d build instructions suggest about 1mm between nozzle hex and heater block, then once assembled heat up to 280C and tighten it again, but don't torque down on it too hard. I think they say something like 3 inch pounds

but you should be able to clean the PEI with isopropyl alcohol when cold and get the first layer test to print well

that said, I haven't tried petg when in a 50f room

on the first layer it shouldn't matter: the whole bed will be the same temp

[unique pendant]

^^^ agreed. Here's one of my favorite tutorials on nozzle/heatbreak relationship -- Step 5 shows it well. https://e3d-online.dozuki.com/Guide/V6+Assembly/6

[sullen zinc]

Hi all. Recent mk3s acquisition. What improvements should I print? Already have or working on: octoprint/pi mount, camera mount, lower profile spool holder. seems like a filament guide would not be a bad addition. Looking at this one: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3512031

[empty sedge]

that's probably ok for a filament guide

I have a ps3 eyetoy mounted to the x motor. I should probably put that on thingiverse

i3 mk3s spool holder, guide, camera mount

[sullen zinc]

IPA in the nalgene, or what?

[empty sedge]

no, just water in that one. that was printing face shields at home

I moved the spool to the side so it's in frame for the top down camera we have so hackerspace members can see the remaining filament

probably easier to just take the current picture from there

[sullen zinc]

oh nice idea

[empty sedge]

close up camera

top down camera for both printers

[balmy cradle]

Hi! Does anyone know the name of this style of enclosure?

I can’t find it on any of the box generator websites

[blazing barn]

I should be getting my i3 MK3S kit this week.

[empty sedge]

@balmy cradle looks laser cut, slot and tab. It wouldn't take very long to draw up yourself

[balmy cradle]

@empty sedge thanks so much! Seems like there’s infinite resources for t-slot, flat and fingered but nothing for this slot and tab! Maybe I’ll have better luck now that I have the actual term to search for 🙂

[balmy cradle]

Hrmm still not finding any matches - anyone know of a good tutorial for designing one of these enclosures?

[empty sedge]

@balmy cradle https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Build-your-Everything-Really-Really-Fast/#step2
also https://fab.cba.mit.edu/content/tools/omax_waterjet/tnuts.html

here's a 3d printer I designed with lasercut t-nut slots and tabs https://cad.onshape.com/documents/41c3b12e742c4d2f9961aa9b/w/31453eda78b442e38c3c81aa/e/978accfb881f477f9a1b51fc

because the tabs are modeled the same size as the slots the only clearance comes from the laser kerf

[balmy cradle]

Thanks so much!! Really appreciate that

[real gyro]

Having some problems with warping on a PLA print and need a little help. I'm fairly new to 3D printing and have an Ender 5 Pro, pretty much stock. I do have a TH3D EZFlex Textured plate on it. I do have my printer working pretty well and fairly well dialed in (used Teaching Techs Calibration github site (https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html) & video on YouTube).

I'm working on a project using an Adafruit RGB Matrix Display 4mm (with an Adafruit Matrix Portal M4) and found these mounts on Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4462509) that were posted by Adafruit and part of a Fruit Slot Machine. I grabbed the left & right foot holders and modified the STL files in TinkerCAD to add some parts that I needed for my project.

I'm using CURA 4.6.2 and have been using Yousu PLA+ filament from Amazon and it's been printing pretty well at 210C with the bed at 60C. This model is long & narrow, so I figured I was going to have some issues. My first print warped pretty badly (#1-3). I researched warping with PLA and saw that slowing printing speed, reducing printing temp, and printing with a brim can help. So I went from 80 mm/s to 60 mm/s, dropped to 205C and added a brim. Second run was a bit better but still got had some warping.

What else can I try?

[lilac patio]

@real gyro your part fan should be off for the first couple layers and make sure there's no drafts on the print

[empty sedge]

@real gyro you can also try different bed temperatures. I've found for some PLA spools I need to bump to 65C from my normal of 60.

but yes, brim or raft also help a lot. brim will print faster and looks like it'd be easier to clean off that part

[serene fractal]

@real gyro If your Ender 5 pro is like my Ender 5 plus, the "energy saving" mode is on by default. Turn that off. It turns off the bed heater too soon. Also, use a Brim or a Raft under build plate adhesion.

[real gyro]

Part fan is off for first 3 layers.

[low cairn]

@real gyro can also try a skirt instead of brim. Not too much more waste, but it helped me quite a bit. Of course, the first step I would take would be bed leveling. I don't know about the ender 5, but the ender 3 has a common problem with warped beds. If that is the case, you can't really level it ever. Mesh bed leveling would be the next step here if you do have a warped bed. But, try everything else first. I got too excited when I got mine and upgraded a lot at once then could not get it to print and there were so many variables to eliminate. Take it slow!

[unique pendant]

If none of that works, try vision miner nano adhesive. It’s expensive, but just works. I use a foam brush to spread it on the build plate.

[ornate raven]

@real gyro I have similar issues, 60 print speed is probably too fast. That's as fast as I have ever printed anything but I find 40 - 50 works best. MY rule of thumb - larger the surface area lower the speed.

[sullen zinc]

prusa i3 mk3s, prusament pla, using recommended temperatures and cooling. I'm getting layer separation like this. Ambient is about 19-20C. On my prior printer I was not used to seeing printing problems like this except in ABS.... any advice?

my (limited) ABS experience makes me think it's TOO MUCH cooling (fan speed is 100% in prusaslicer for prusament pla) but I haven't had this with PLA before. But usually I'm more like 25°C ambient PLUS my old printer had an enclosed build volume so it was probably more like 28-30 in there.

mmm layer height is .3mm which is pretty aggressive, some website suggests it can cause this problem too

[empty sedge]

.3mm layers are fine. I haven't seen that happen with PLA before

[unique pendant]

You can increase the temperature. It seems there's no shine to the print, suggesting your temp is too low. Just because you tell it to heat up to 220 C, doesn't mean it actually does. You may need to PID tune if the temperatures seem way off.

[sullen zinc]

nozzle temperature +10 degrees didn't cure the problem but the next print (same part) came out somewhat better, 2 smaller delaminated areas instead of 4+ larger ones. Still no shine/gloss on this prusament pla at 225°C, finish is indistinguishable from 215°C.

[lilac patio]

My personal experience with Prusament is that you have to print it hotter then other PLA but 225C should be fine

[unique pendant]

Delamination can also be caused by too much cooling fan. However, given that you're still not shiny at 225 I'm a little suspicious that you need to do another PID tune. PLA should be pretty shiny at 225.

[karmic brook]

PID won't help if the thermistor calibration is off

[unique pendant]

True, there are many variables. @sullen zinc Did you replace your heater or thermistor with one different from the stock model? If so, you may need to load the correct values in your firmware.

[sullen zinc]

No, this is a new prusa mk3s preassembled, stock everything

[unique pendant]

And what did you say the temp was in the room where it is?

Still, It's weird that the PLA isn't shiny.

[sullen zinc]

about 19°C according to various thermometers

so not insanely cold but a bit cooler than what I find comfortable

[unique pendant]

That should be OK. The S3D troubleshooting guide only suggests 2 solutions: https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/layer-separation-and-splitting/

Either layer height is too high or the extruder temperature is too low.

[sullen zinc]

Printed this (random brand petg) and happy with the result 🙂

I also printed one more of the trouble print in the same PLA but reduced fan to 60% and increased temperature another 5°C and changed the orientation (so at least 3 things different 🤬 great for narrowing down a problem) ... and no splits.

prusaslicer seemed to use 250C for PETG which seems high to me (compared to my previous printer) but what do I know 🙉

(and I really appreciate all the helpful remarks here; sometimes I start with a chat instead of a search because it feels like the sheer volume of contradictory info is too big to navigate .. and also I'm just lazy)

[karmic brook]

Sometimes you'll get contradictory info in a chat too, but have the opportunity to ask why

[shy kelp]

Is there any guide website about type of filament besides all3dp in specific way?

[unique pendant]

https://www.matterhackers.com/3d-printer-filament-compare

[shy kelp]

Ok. Thanks

[turbid falcon]

I’m new to 3D printing I just got a Creality CR10 V3 and was just wondering why sometimes I hear a pop in the extruded like maybe an air pocket in the filament?

[karmic brook]

Could be the filament has absorbed water and it's boiling, or it could be the extruder skipping

[fading viper]

are there any existing 3D files for some bracket pieces that can be used two connect 2 of the 64x32 RGB matrices together to make a double sized one?

[dull gulch]

@real gyro I saw your posting above about first layer adhesion/warping issues printing PLA on a textured PEI build plate. I had similar issues after finally getting a textured build plate for my Prusa Mk3. Reading the Prusa forums, I found others having similar issues. A Prusa employee pointed out that the textured plate does really well for filaments like PETG and flex, but he recommended smooth PEI for PLA filament. I've followed that advice and have had much better luck with PLA adhesion. Others in the Prusa forums say that PLA sticks fine on their textured plates, the plate just needs to be cleaned well. They suggest Dawn dish soap and water for cleaning. Also, making sure your Z (first layer) calibration is good helps.

[empty sedge]

yes PLA sticks better to the "smooth" PEI than textured

[signal finch]

hello - i am soliciting feedback from others on the print quality of my benchy. i am vision impared, so it can be tricky for me to tell sometimes

Using petg on i3 mk3s

[empty sedge]

@signal finch do you have a filament dryer?

[signal finch]

yessir

used on the filament during printing at 50

in addition to drying it the night before

[empty sedge]

weird, that's not the results I would expect. it's not as bad as some wet petg I've received that bubbled but still the outer perimiters should be more consistent than that

[signal finch]

i've been having problems, not sure what the issue has been. before this print it was too much sticking to the nozzle. i can do a 1st layer if you want to see that

[empty sedge]

your first layer wouldn't tell me much

[signal finch]

temp towers?

i've been having problems for a while and trying to figure out what to do

XYZ calibration, temp calibration

[empty sedge]

it's probably not a software or slicer change

do you have another spool to try?

otherwise: check for binding in the axes, check your belt tension (belts should remain flat, but make a low note when plucked), see if the hotend is mounted rigidly or if it can wiggle

starts printing benchy with 0.2mm quality PETG preset

also check that the smooth rods don't wiggle in their mounts and their mounts don't move

[signal finch]

Thank you I'll try to go over those

[signal finch]

I tightened stuff, should I do xyz calibration again?

Trying with a sock on the hotend

[empty sedge]

it shouldn't change anything if you do the xyz calibration again

I've found a hotend sock causes the fan duct to melt

[signal finch]

the sock didn't help, it came off mid run

i'm trying to do a small print now, and then will try with another material

i think the x axis is too tight, it's making a noise going left to right

[empty sedge]

you should be getting results at least this good

[unique pendant]

@signal finch I agree with @empty sedge totally. That benchy you posted is classic for wet filament (put it in a filament dryer for a good 12 hours), and on top of that, you have a cooling issue (e.g. your nozzle temp is too high and/or your cooling is inadequate). Look how shiny and droopy the lines are, which is a dead giveaway for that.

[signal finch]

Hrm. I had it in a dryer for 12 hours. I'll try another today

Thank you for the feedback

[unique pendant]

Well, just because it's classic, doesn't mean that's actually the problem. Check on those temps and cooling fan then.

Good luck and keep us updated! 😉

[drowsy hawk]

currently building a heater mod for my elegoo mars pro with the help from someone on here, if i can get it perfected ill probably make more and sale some

it will have almost no EMI

and wont interfere with motor/print

[drowsy hawk]

here is the board
it will have heating coils going across at the top
and a fan attached to it
the whole thing fits inside a mint can
and runs off a 5v phone charger
it will be connected to a feather board, that you can program and tell it to stay at a certain temp
and its connected to a thermistor
also almost no EMI will be emitted
everything is grounded really well and the can helps too

thanks @magic bone for helping me with this project

🙂

[magic bone]

You're welcome. To clarify "almost no emi" its just in a metal case (Adafruit Gum container) and the switching power is a lot less compared to the other setup I was shown. Will be curious to hear how well it works

I can also see a few more issues we need to iron out

[drowsy hawk]

updated board

[inland sage]

Printing these funny t-rex chicken arms. Curious How I might be able to get this overhanging portion to interact with the support material in a way that would end with a smoother finish. Printing in PLA. I'm thinking there could be more contact between the support & the object. I was looking at this XY separation %. Wondering if More (50%) or less (25%) might give me more contact between the two?

[signal finch]

Was using a 0.8 mm nozzle with 0.4 settings 🤦‍♂️

[turbid falcon]

I just got my first 3D printer can someone take a look at my test print? Seems good to me but maybe could be better with a better eye

[drowsy hawk]

more on the printer heat mod

the blue print for the casing

made a cavity under the heat part to keep plastic away from the hot tin can, and we can even add some kind of insulation , maybe thermal paste or etc inside the cavity

[turbid falcon]

What's this mean for my print

[drowsy hawk]

sorry if im posting in wrong channel

[karmic brook]

Not the wrong channel, heater mods are relevant here

[lilac patio]

looks like a pretty standard z-seam

[drowsy hawk]

thanks

re consideing having/making the printed casing cover the whole tin can

not sure tho

[magic bone]

@drowsy hawk I think I might test it first 😉 melted plastic all over the place isnt very fun

[drowsy hawk]

Good idea lol

[cloud halo]

Question for the upcoming holiday shopping season -- any expected sales on good quality 1.75mm PLA? I'm getting into 3D printing more, and I've just about exhausted the spools I've gotten so far.

[empty sedge]

The "tree ring" pattern on the side?

[turbid falcon]

I’m not sure. It’s the line going up the side of the hull about 3/4 of the way

[empty sedge]

that line is the seam where the outer perimiter starts or ends. in prusa slicer the seam can be random, nearest (default), aligned, or rear. sometimes the default of "aligned" puts the seam in a big line like that. If you're going to sand the part I find the rear option better so your extra sanding effort is focused somewhere you can choose not whatever the slicer decides with the other options.

[turbid falcon]

Ah okay thanks

I’m having a really rough time with the bed leveling here. I’m convinced that my bed isn’t level. I have the bed heated to 45c and nozzle to 205c. Every corner has clearance but it scrapes in the middle....

[empty sedge]

What printer? Maybe your bed isn't flat, your rails aren't straight, or you're on a delta that's calibrated wrong

[turbid falcon]

Creality CR10 V3

Should I be leveling my bed while hot or cool? I had it working the first night but now I can’t even get a single layer to print!

[empty sedge]

if it moves a lot when hot then level it while hot and heat it up maybe 10-20m before starting your prints

[karmic brook]

I first wondered if you were asking about the seam, or the text on the bottom

[empty sedge]

see if there's something pressing up on the center bottom of the bed

[turbid falcon]

The first successful print I did leveled the bed when cold

[sullen zinc]

I wonder why prusaslicer does multiple layers of "skirt". Perhaps I don't understand the purpose of adding a skirt. Formerly, I used ultimaker cura by default and I never saw it build the skirt more than one layer tall.

[karmic brook]

I've used "brim" and "raft", "skirt" is a new one on me

[sullen zinc]

It's some extra material laid out at a short distance from the model, not touching

On my older printer it seemed to help ensure the plastic was flowing by the time it started on the main part (though the prime blob of prusaslicer takes care of that) but other than that I'm not actually sure what it's good for

When you enable skirts in Cura, your printer will initiate your prints with a line around the main part. This initial line has a few benefits. It acts as a sort of material purge, ensuring that the filament is flowing well and that no stray extrusions stick to the first layer. Additionally, it helps you to check that the bed is leveled properly and the Z-offset is well adjusted.

[karmic brook]

Ah, Prusaslicer seems to do a single strand surrounding the print automatically, hadn't seen multiple passes or layers

[sullen zinc]

this one's about 3 layers tall, looks like

aha the prusa docs tell all:

One layer tall skirts can be difficult to remove from the print bed. Prusa profiles typically use 3 layers tall skirt for this reason.

[karmic brook]

Ah, interesting. I wonder if this is a new feature or a different config than mine

[sullen zinc]

I'm using 2.3.0-alpha3 but that snippet is from the stable-version docs

[unique pendant]

@cloud halo What country are you in?

[cloud halo]

United states @unique pendant

[unique pendant]

@cloud halo Best quality filament in the USA is typically Atomic, Snolabs, and Protopasta. Atomic and Protopasta are made in USA, Snolabs in China, but for a USA company, shipping from USA warehouse. They do occasionally have sales, but not too often. Protopasta is puttiing a different class of filament on 20% off sale each week this season. This week is Carbon Fiber HTPLA and the code is 2020week4. Might periodically check their websites to see. I have heard good things about Filamentone and about Greengate3D (Billie Ruben works with them), but I have not tried those filaments from the USA. Perhaps others can chime in on their quality.

[turbid falcon]

Hi. Is it possible my issue could be coming from moisture in my PLA?

I am totally totally noob 3D printer... did basic setup and hit print... got this beautiful print

Except now a few days later I can’t even print a single line before everything gums up, nothing sticks, nothing comes out, it’s a stringy mess. Horrible.

Maybe issue is from moisture? I left the PLA out

[unique pendant]

Yes, moisture is the number 1 cause of printing problems. Do you have a filament dryer/

?

[empty sedge]

I doubt it's moisture messing up your PLA

@turbid falcon could it be a blob of plastic between the end of the bowden tube and the nozzle? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCxO17XZtw

[turbid falcon]

I think I have a different version, does it still apply?

[empty sedge]

I don't know, I haven't seen one of those taken apart

you can check your filament gears aren't clogged and nozzle tip is clean though

[turbid falcon]

If I can manually extrude, is that a good sign?

[empty sedge]

sure, it means your hotend isn't clogged

[turbid falcon]

Also my base plate is clearly not flat. I can level it with paper on each corner just fine. But as I move from one end to the other or anywhere in the middle, it scrapes.

[unique pendant]

If the only difference between today and a few days ago, and if you live in a humid environment... https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2669646

[turbid falcon]

The little plastic wheel that retracts the filament is also making this horrendous grinding sound every time it retracts the filament

[unique pendant]

As far as you plate not being flat, sometimes the clips cause the plate to bend. You can bend the clips more open by forcing them to open on the edge of a counter or table so they don't clip so hard, and then check the flatness again. I only print on FR4 on all of my printers, and I use double-sided Kapton tape to hold them in place. Much flatter solution than any glass I've ever used.

Regarding the retraction/grinding sound, your extruder tension may be too high. That can deform the filament and simulate a clog as well since the filament needs to be round to go all the way through to the nozzle.

of course, these are only a few ideas and I could be wrong. If you haven't done that Creality extruder mod, better do it sooner than later. I spent over an hour unclogging one of our maker space Enders because it didn't get the mod yet (I put the mod in yesterday afterwards of course) 😄

[chrome badger]

Thanks for the extruder mod. I had my first partial clog yesterday and couldn't figure out why my prints were all goofy.

[turbid falcon]

I just cleaned out all the extruder gears and the main feed line tube thing

Looked pretty clean

I'm starting g to think the filament has gone bad

Also, undoing the clamps seems to make my bed more level

Still nothing coming out and what does come out doesnt stick and is spaghetti

[unique pendant]

So, nothing coming out when running a print, but it comes out when you manually push it through? Double check that extruder gear tension. If it's too tight, it could act that way.

[turbid falcon]

I mean some comes out but it's super thin, instantly curls, and doesnt stick to anything

But I know everything is clear

[turbid falcon]

I tried some filament that the printer came with. It's much better

I think I'm dealing with moisture issues then

[turbid falcon]

How we looking here?

[unique pendant]

Looks pretty good to me, as long as you're printing 1 layer of 2 lines, 3 perimeters each! 😄

[turbid falcon]

Sweet. Between taking those clamps off a little bit and using some of the PLA that the printer came with, it’s doing good prints again. I tried with my black PLA and everything broke again. I think that is the issue

[cloud halo]

Thanks @unique pendant, I'll check them out

[sullen zinc]

Let's do this .. the ~1/8 size test print turned out well

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1356547/files remains one of my favorite models

[acoustic spire]

Wow.

You can vase mode that thing? Excuse me while I pour tea on my brain to extinguish the fire

[mellow snow]

Hey folks! do you know if exists a 3D print material with a density of 0.19 gr/cm^3 ???
👍 thank you

[empty sedge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tmgzwgi2UI

[empty sedge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtYaaBtm3XQ

[lilac patio]

That foaming tpu looks really cool

I'd probably get a spool if it wasn't nearly $80 per kg just to experiment with it

[turbid falcon]

Well I’m packaging up this CR10 and sending it back to Amazon.

Unbelievable I spend 550$ on a printer only for the bed to be warped. Ridiculous.

Can anyone point me to a company that doesn’t ship defective products?

[unique pendant]

Tiny Machines in the USA unpacks, examines, tunes, upgrades, and tests all the printers they sell before packing them back up and sending to you, and it’s the same price as from the factory. I won’t buy a Chinese printer from anywhere else.

[unique pendant]

Just got this Cyber Monday big sale in my email, speaking of Tiny Machines: https://www.tinymachines3d.com/pages/bfcm

[ember narwhal]

Looking into getting my first 3d printer and I'm torn between FDM or SLA. I love tinkering and such so I'm looking at an Ender 5 Pro so far, but I'm wondering if an SLA printer would be better for getting started. I'm mostly going to be building custom cases for various microcontrollers but also plan to make simple toys and D&D minis. Have barely looked into SLA printers yet so I'm not sure what's comparable to the Ender 5 Pro for features etc.

[magic bone]

@ember narwhal FDM is the usual starting technology, its much easier, SLA is great for high quality prints, or if you want to do something like make speakers

[empty sedge]

SLA needs a lot more cleaning and safety equipment (gloves, ventilation sometimes, special treatment of uncured resin) but is definitely a better option for d&d minis

for larger parts, like raspberry pi or arduino cases FDM is fine. I think if you keep designing parts you might end up with both

[ember narwhal]

Yeah it's looking like I'll start with the Ender 5 Pro and eventually add an SLA printer once I'm more comfortable with things.

Appreciate the guidance!

[acoustic spire]

Anyone familiar with the Ubis ceramic hotend? I just ran into a nice heat creep clog and can't figure out how to get it out.

This thing is. Uh. Different. I'm not sure how to get the heat break out of it or anything and searching it just reveals people having issues with the tubular heater breaking

[magic bone]

That is probably the sort of thing I would ask the maker of the nozzle, but since its ceramic I would have high hopes of recovery

[empty sedge]

printrbot isn't around any more and I don't think you can disassemble the ubis and put it back together again

well, checking it seems old printrbot is dead and brook is working on a new printrbot but there isn't anything new yet

[high prairie]

hey guys I recently got an ender 3 pro and finished building it but I tried out the dog test print but it started printing strangely and ended up printing on the edge. If anyone could help with this I would greatly appreciate it.

[acoustic spire]

I'm tempted since that thing's ceramic to just clamp it upside down and cook it with the heat gun until offending PLA just drops out the top

I've had no luck trying to unscrew the heat break from it

[empty sedge]

Check your belt isn't too lose and that the pulley setscrews are secure

[turbid dawn]

Hi All, I'm looking for a model I saw posted a couple years ago...somewhere. Thought I'd see if anyone remembers this. Someone on Thingiverse or maybe Hackaday posted a giant 3D printed Mk7(ish) extruder model they used for teaching/instruction. Does anyone remember this? Thought I'd see if it's still out there before I try to re-invent the wheel.

[shy kelp]

I have a da Vinci Jr. 1.0 pro, and it has recently clogged up REALLY BAD. The filament went up into the interior of the nozzle. This is the second time this has happened to me. Can anyone help me out?

[magic bone]

+1 sphereinabox, you are having a belt issue

[magic bone]

With which part?

[shy kelp]

The nozzle

[magic bone]

Like, help unclogging it, or help not clogging it again?

[sullen zinc]

A few weeks ago I asked for help with my 3D prints that were delaminating. I was printing with PLA settings. Eventually I set that spool of material aside in disgust, and went back to some rolls of PETG I knew were working for me. Last night, while lying awake, I said to myself: what if I was mistaken and that was PETG. Well, this morning I looked. It's a spool of PETG. So no surprise it wasn't printing well with PLA temperatures. I feel very silly for all my anguish and frustration.

🤦

[blissful marlin]

Does anyone here have experience with 'waterproofing' SLS prints?

[river cipher]

Ive never done it, but I would think a dip in lacquer, or a vacuum impregnating resin like cactus juice would work

the latter requiring your part to withstand curing temperatures

[magic bone]

Has anyone used ceramic SLA resin before? I was warching a video with someone making rocket nozzles and might be a good reason to get into sla

[unique pendant]

@turbid dawn Here's a hotend, haven't seen an extruder tho'. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3691405

[turbid dawn]

@unique pendant you know there a good chance I was remembering wrong. That looks like what I was remembering. Thanks!

[unkempt hare]

Hey folks! Has anyone used hypercube or hypercube evolution? I’m wondering what should I choose between these two.

I want to make a single z-axis one

But can’t choose between these two

[unkempt hare]

Also 214x214mm bed

[empty sedge]

@unkempt hare Voron seems to be getting more enthusiasm than those two

[unkempt hare]

Can you share the link to the project?

And also is it cheap to build?

[empty sedge]

no, it's more expensive

https://vorondesign.com/voron2.4

[unkempt hare]

I have anycubic kossel, which doesn’t print for some reason, so I want to rebuild it into something simpler

So that’s why I’m choosing between hypercube and HEVO

Like, rebuild as cheap as possible

[empty sedge]

what problems are you having with your kossel?

[unkempt siren]

Hi All. I got ender 3 v2 and there is no material coming out of nozzle at all. Temp and other settings are fine. Really annoying me for few days. Sometimes a blob might come out but mostly none.

[pearl tendon]

I would make sure it isn't clogged. If its not clogged I would check the extruder to make sure its actually pushing the filament forward. The Ender 3's come with a cheap feeder assembly arm that cracks easily. A year ago I got an Ender 3 Pro and it cracked within a week of use. I upgraded that to a metal version of the same extruder.

So far after a few days with my Ender 3V2 it has held up, but I am going to upgrade it to a MicroSwiss Direct Drive soon, and hope it will hold on until I get that.

[lean reef]

Hello everyone :) newb question. I've never printed more than 1 object at once. What are the benefits (aside from time) of printing multiples? Any tips? I have an ultimaker 3. Thanks !

[empty sedge]

it's actually slower to print more than one object at a time

that said, if you're printing something small (say 1x2 inches or smaller) makes sense to print more than one just to slow down enough to get enough cooling

[unkempt siren]

Thanks. I strongly believe I need to update the extruder. I have absolutely zero clogging as I totally opened and disassembled the whole hot end assembly and all things are fine but extruder is terrible sometimes and starts to CHEW on the filament. So disappointing to see brand new machine having such an issue.

[ember narwhal]

How much tinkering is really needed for something like the Ender 5 Pro? Am I looking at days of fiddling before being able to print something solid? Weeks?

Trying to decide on pulling the trigger on that one now or wait 2-3 months for a Prusa mini

I don't mind tinkering but I'm hoping it's not quite weeks of work

[elder oxide]

@ember narwhal aside from assembly, ender 5 pro basically prints right out of the box

A buddy of mine has one and said it’s super straight forward

[ember narwhal]

Ooh, good to know

Any recommended guides or books for getting started on modeling stuff? I'm planning to primarily print things like custom cases for Feathers etc but have zero experience with 3D modeling software and am expecting to need to learn a ton.

[alpine stag]

I would recommend downloading fusion 360 and looking tutorials up on YouTube
@ember narwhal

[knotty laurel]

"Fusion 360 for Makers" is a decent book for getting started if you prefer printed resources.

[karmic brook]

I wish I had known about that. I've had a time searching for written information.

[brave mica]

@ember narwhal I previously chose a CR10 over a Mk3 and I regret not waiting. My experience might not be representative, but I've had lots of issues with my CR10. Between the original price and upgrades I've made, I've spent well over the price of a Prusa. Not all of the upgrades may have been strictly necessary but I'm only now feeling like I trust it with 10+ hour prints

[ember narwhal]

Most of my prints should be pretty small and simple for a good while so I'm not super worried about longer ones

[arctic inlet]

https://www.youtube.com/c/TylerBeckofTECHESPRESSO/videos and https://www.youtube.com/c/ProductDesignOnline/videos

[real gyro]

Any advice on printing & post processing metal filaments like Proto-Pasta Iron, Steel, Copper and Brass infused filaments? I understand the basics, looking for more detailed info. I print with an Ender 5 Pro with 4.2.2 board and 2208s using TH3D UFW 2 (V.2.12b). I'm a stained glass artist and an EE, so have a lot of the bases covered. Have done lots of work with Sculpt-Nouveau products for patina work.

Reviewed the Ruiz Brothers article on 'How to Polish copperFill & bronzeFill Filament' posted several years back (https://learn.adafruit.com/copperfill-filament) which has some decent info but it's pretty dated. Also have a lot of questions about what they presented. Wondering if anyone has any updated info.

Also reviewed a bunch of YT videos, like Joel Tellings (3D Printing Nerd) "3D Printing with Metal Composites and adding a Patina and Oxidation!" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD7ZDh9Xfs8&t=551s and Matterhackers "How To: Post Process Metal PLA // Filament Guide" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsMMEzDFfjY. But, again, these are a couple years old and at least Joel's approach is pretty sporadic. You can see my recent comment on Joel's video at the top.

As usual, everyone was all over this filament when it first came out but coverage has really dropped to close to nothing. Really looking for anyone who is still working with it and can share any ideas and tips. Thanks.

[turbid falcon]

what first layer height do u guys print at?

[empty sedge]

0.2 or 0.3

[turbid falcon]

do you carry that through the rest of the print?

[empty sedge]

not intentionally, but only because it's not worth the time to print 0.15 or 0.1mm layers

oh, on my printer with the larger 0.6mm nozzle I print 0.4 first layer and 0.3 the rest

[turbid falcon]

i am pretty new to 3d printing, been dealing with a lot of problems and solving them

basically i finally got my bed level, extruder calibrated, and bltouch working right

found that i was able to print, after a lot of fine Z-adjustment, 0.12mm first layer

but is this unrealistic? it was really finnicky to get it working, and prints are taking hours

[thin breach]

is what realistic?
what tolerance are you aiming for?

[empty sedge]

having a thicker first layer means your bed leveling doesn't have to be as perfect

[turbid falcon]

well i guess im just trying to see what the limits of the machine even are

and i think im quite close, i was wondering how standard printing at 0.12mm initial height is

i should also mention my printer is creality cr10 v3 and printing PLA 210c 60c bed

[hasty nest]

I have an ender 3 and am looking to make some upgrades. online Im seeing some conflicting opinions and info, is the glass bed or magnetic bed better for adhesion? Also can they be used together? or only only by themselves, im not really clear. plz ping me with any answers. thanks

[thin breach]

i prefer glass

the less that can move the better, imo

the magnetic bed has to stick to something. that something is going to prevent you from printing directly on the glass.

[empty sedge]

printing directly on the glass is a good way to pull shards out of it

[thin breach]

?!!

[hasty nest]

so whats the point of the glass if you cant print on it?

[empty sedge]

if you print something large, directly on glass (without hairspray, glue, pet tape, kapton, etc) the plastic can pull chips out

[thin breach]

should say what u r printing, maybe it matters

[unique pendant]

FR4

[empty sedge]

I've pulled shards out of glass with PLA. it tends to happen when your first layer is too low, which on a shared hackerspace printer like I've worked on is going to happen

now the space printers are i3 mk3s with spring steel sheets and I don't have that problem as much, but petg on the smooth PEI sheet did pull chunks of the PEI off

[hasty nest]

so then theres no point of getting a glass bed? go with the magnetic?

[unique pendant]

I use FR4 exclusively now. With nano adhesive. Glass is not flat enough, and it’s messy.

[hasty nest]

FR4?

[empty sedge]

I haven't used the creality magnetic bed but the prusa one works well

[unique pendant]

FR4 is the light green plate in the picture I posted above. I’ll find a link...

https://www.amazon.com/410-410mm-Mamorubot-Platform-Polypropylene-Adhesive/dp/B07JH4MMKL

[hasty nest]

thanks, ill look into it

[thin breach]

bed flatness can be measured, heat it up and probe around so you have a point of comparison and know how close you are to level

then you will have something to base your "is it flat enough" comparisons

with a glass bed i found differential thermal expansion made a big difference (ender 3)
as i recall the magnetic bed was worse in that regard, but maybe i didn't know what i was doing at that time

[unique pendant]

@hasty nest If you'd like to go the FR4 route, I stick it to the bed with double-sided Kapton tape. Works well. Filament sticks like crazy when hot, and you could blow the parts off with a burst of compressed air when cool. Though PLA will stick without any help, I use Nano Adhesive for "insurance" which has never let me down. Magigoo works pretty well, but I have had corner lift on very large parts with Magigoo, never with Nano Adhesive. It's really expensive, but I've saved the extra cost many times over by not having failed prints and lost time, and a little goes a long way.

[slow patio]

I am a beginner to 3D printing , i wanted to ask whether i can go with new version WOL 3D ender 3 V2 ? Is it worth the price ?

[brave maple]

How does this happen? I’ve been working on my first layer because it was under extruding and my print isn’t sticking to the raft anymore. I have been changing the z offset for the under extruding problem

[vast talon]

guys can I feed 12V to a RAMPS 1.4 and at the same time plug the atmega to the USB for serial debuging or sketch upload?

seems trivial but I got problems by doing so

[unique pendant]

@brave maple You are correct that your print isn't sticking to the raft, of course. Take a look at your gcode preview in your slicer and see if it's leaving a gap between your raft and your model. I think you may need to start at the beginning for your first layer underextrusion problem. Proper extrusion has nothing to do with changing Z-offset, as you may know, but it has everything to do with proper e-steps (extruder steps). Changing probe Z-offset has everything to do with good squish on your first layer.

First thing: Did you calibrate your e-steps?
Next thing: Did you set probe offset by sliding a piece of paper under your (clean) nozzle with a hot bed and hot nozzle?

You may find this guide helpful since there is no one solution for every problem, but rather a bunch of possibilities. https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/

As an aside: You really shouldn't need to print a raft for a model like that. Rafts are very rarely used for situations in which you have a model that only has a few points of contact to the bed, and/or has a particularly difficult cooling problem (e.g. sphere).

[brave maple]

Thanks! I'm going to check out the guide and take a look at the estep setting. I don't think I've measured how much it's extruding before so that could be an issue

[empty sedge]

It should work. Some knockoff arduino mega 2560 boards have the wrong reset circuits and are troubesome to upload a sketch to

[vast talon]

now, I have some boards that wont powerup the RAMPs LCD when they're not connected to the computer at the same time
just like the arduino mega board regulator went bad
this way only powering up via usb
makes any sense?

mine are knockoff.....

[empty sedge]

weird, I never had trouble with the arduino linear regulator going bad

(with 12V in)

[vast talon]

yeah... it only happened a couple times

but im pretty sure it was after It was on 12V and then I plugged in the USB for debugging

I could smell something burn, really subtle

subtle (is that a word?)

[empty sedge]

there's supposed to be a diode so that the 5V in your computer doesn't fight with the 5V from the regulator on board

[vast talon]

https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,613161

[vast talon]

I was worried about it

maybe the display consumed more current than the regulator could deliver?

probably with a wrong backlight trimmer position?

[empty sedge]

a couple LEDs for the backlight shouldn't make much of a difference

[vast talon]

what could be the cause they are going bad?

really bad counterfeit parts?

[empty sedge]

yeah pretty much

[vast talon]

right, ty!

[empty sedge]

anyway, if you want to keep using that hardware you can keep it powered over USB from your computer or pi and probably just bend the VIN pin so it doesn't plug in to the arduino

https://content.arduino.cc/assets/Pinout-Mega2560rev3_latest.pdf

[silent veldt]

Have people here tried 3D printing keycaps?

CherryMX compatible or otherwise.

The problem I'm considering is, how to get hexagonal keycaps to make a hexagonal keyboard.

A keyboard with hexagonal keys.

[iron remnant]

@silent veldt I have this bookmarked: https://github.com/rsheldiii/KeyV2

I haven't tried it, but it sounds like a fun project to try for the hex of it.

[silent veldt]

@iron remnant yeah I would definitely want to print the hex out of that. Thank you!

[hasty torrent]

Hello, I'm trying to connect my printer using pronterface and that is what I get. It's stuck to that line. My baudrate is set to the highest, I already tried changing the com number and changing the speed on device manager. I also tried using a different usb port

[empty sedge]

looks like you have the right baudrate

why do you think it's stuck?

[hasty torrent]

I have no idea, honestly. I'm new to 3d printing. I want it connected because I'm trying to calibrate my esteps and this video I'm following uses pronterface to do that

[empty sedge]

@hasty torrent you were successfully connected it looks like from that screenshot

[hasty torrent]

@empty sedge i get this

[unique pendant]

@hasty torrent Can you change E-steps through the LCD panel?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/letsprint3d.net/how-to-calibrate-the-extruder-steps-ender-3-5-cr-10/amp/

[hasty torrent]

I was able to resolve it by using repetier instead of pronterface :)

[shy kelp]

Hi, which one should I choose as my first 3D printer to buy? Anycubic i3 Mega or Creavity Ender 3 V2?

[empty sedge]

@shy kelp the ender is very popular, but I think the prusa i3 mk3s+ is worth the extra money for the included auto bed leveling, spring steel print sheet, reliable dual-drive extruder, lost step detection and recovery that make it MUCH more of a reliable workhorse printer

[elder oxide]

Idk, auto bed leveling isn’t all that great. Lost step detection can be compensated for with Octoprint, and recovery as well.

Prusa is a bit overpriced IMO

[forest wyvern]

I would second @empty sedge opinion, and if the MK3S+ is too expensive go with the Mini+ (the plus is the new and improved one from just about a month ago). I have had my MK3S for a little over 2 years and have run ~80 kgs of filament through it with almost 0 problem besides user oversight. I owned two other printers and the Prusa wins hands down. Your millage may vary, but if I had to by another printer, it would be a Prusa.

[empty sedge]

@shy kelp on the creality machines I see a lot of people needing this easy fix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCxO17XZtw

[unique pendant]

@shy kelp In addition to my own printers, I'm in charge of a bunch of printers at our maker space including Ender 3s, Prusa, Gmax clones, and Railcores. I have learned that it really depends on what "relationship" you want with your first printer. For a first printer, choosing between Ender and Prusa is probably a good starting point. Save larger and coreXY printers for later. If you want to learn all the different parts of the printer and how they function together, you can learn a lot with an Ender 3 because you will find that you need to do a bunch of upgrading. You will have lots of downtime while you're trying to figure out why you're not getting results as nice as others you see online. If you'd rather spend more time learning how to print, the Prusa is a better choice. It already comes with excellent parts and shouldn't need any upgrading. Your downtime will be a lot less, but you may not get a lot of hands-on teardowns and rebuilds like you would with the Ender. When you weigh in downtime and money spent together after a year or so, they're both pretty equal in cost. The Prusa Mini, as mentioned above, is a really great choice in those terms because it's cheap, and has quality parts. (also you'll find that 90-95% of prints most people make will fit in its build volume). If you decide to go with Ender, Tiny Machines is hands-down the best source for Chinese printers in the USA since they assemble, inspect, and upgrade every printer, then box it back up to send to you, and there's no extra cost. They also have top-notch unlimited support afterwards.

This is just my opinion, of course. What's the best first printer is an age-old question. Most important is to avoid junk and get a printer that has a lot of users so you can ask questions. 😁

[shy kelp]

I see.

I think I will get Ender V2 first, I will choose Prusa i3 as my new printer if I need it.

What about Anycubic i3, is it a good printer?

[karmic brook]

I went a similar route and started with an inexpensive printer (Monoprice Mini Delta) but quickly got frustrated with its limitations and bought a Prusa. Other than the stepped heatbreak (now replaced with a smooth bore titanium one), I've been happy with the Prusa.

[unique pendant]

I am not familiar with the Anycubic personally, but I am always worried about fire hazards when it comes to the cheap printers. They often have very dangerous wiring on the power and control boards. Unless you are always going to be sitting next to the printer while it's printing (nobody does) it's just not worth putting the safety of you and your family at risk.

[brave mica]

I'm inclined to believe that if you factor in the irreplaceable time spent debugging and futzing with less reliable printers and you actually put a reasonable price on that time (how much/hr do you make at work?) that the Prusa printers are somewhere between a fair price and a bargin.

[elder oxide]

Honestly, ender 3 pro has been great

Auto level Has been more of a pain for me in my experience with printers that have had it, including Prusa

Overall, given the printers I’ve used... prusa is overpriced. Others have different experiences which is fine. It works for some

[brave mica]

fair enough

[elder oxide]

Most importantly people have to use what’s the best use of their time and interest

I admit that the Ender 3/3 pro are not for the faint of heart. But they really open a lot of doors into understanding printers, get you acquainted with it on a more hands on level. Plus the customizable nature of them really makes them the hackers 3d printer.

[thin breach]

Agree. If you see the time you spend as a way to learn something interesting, the Ender 3 sure gives inspiration. If you’ve got something else you want to make, then think about it longer.

[short crag]

Can the ender 3 pro print with petg

[elder oxide]

@short crag yes, but you need a different nozzle than is stock

[short crag]

Which one plz

[elder oxide]

Or nevermind

Apparently you can print with brass

[short crag]

Ok

Thx

[elder oxide]

👍🏻

[short crag]

How do you set the. Pramiters on the printer and in cura of petg

[elder oxide]

You probably need to build or download a profile for it

[short crag]

What temps

[vital mica]

I use 220extruder and 75 bed for petg here.

Most mfg's print recommended on the spool.

[pearl tendon]

I print PETG with my two of my Ender printers. One has the stock hotend with the Capricorn PFTE. THe other has the MicroSwiss all-metal hotend. Both print PETG quite well.

If you do have the stock hotend I would make sure to swap out the white PFTE tubing for some of the blue Capricorn tubing before doing high temp prints. The stock PFTE tube will burn when it gets to higher temps (I think around 250C if I remember right).

As for PETG temp. Lately most of what I've been printing seems to like temps of 235C-240C. But I have also printed some other brands that are best at 225C and other best at 245C. I usually use print a temp tower, but try to set my final temp to the manufacturers recommended temp if possible.

For a profile I think I just copied the PLA profile and started changing things as needed. Or maybe I just started using the generic PETG profile in CURA. I can't remember I've had bad luck with downloaded profiles so I've been wary of them.

[ember narwhal]

What's the best way to remove a print from the bed? I printed a Feather case and it warped a bit when I was pulling it off the bed.

[ember narwhal]

I guess I should probably print those things with a raft or something

[limpid trail]

It should not be a struggle, I have a bed that I can bend so it pops off

If you are using smth like ABS that actually sits on the bed, it will be hard to take off, so a knife or smth might be needed

[empty sedge]

@ember narwhal let the bed cool down before removing your parts. For PLA, remove them around 40C or cooler. At 60C or so the part may still be soft on the bed and will remain bent when you peel it off