nick-foley
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Posts posted by nick-foley
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Without seeing values you used to print, it's hard to get too specific, but here's the "blob reduction checklist":
- Increase Retraction Speed or Distance
- Increase Travel Speed
- Decrease Temperature
- Upgrade to the latest beta version of Cura which handles retraction movements better.
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Out of curiousity, what do you see as the benefits of enclosing the build environment without also heating it?
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So... here's the thing....
I was at the Makerbot store tonight, thinking about some of these tests and the print quality comparisons. I was astonished with how slowly the machines were printing - it looked to be around 20mm/s! The print profile they were using, however, was the "high quality" in Makerware.... which is supposedly 90mm/s. Hah!
Anyway, that prompted me to download Makerware when I got home and compare some print time estimates in Makerware vs. estimates in Cura vs. known print times on my Ultimaker. The results were pretty clear - When setting up a print with identical print speeds, layer heights, and travel speeds, the Makerware was predicting times which were more than double the actual print times I achieve on an Ultimaker. (Using the latest beta of Cura, in which Daid has supposedly greatly improved the print time estimates, the estimated times were very close to my actual print times).
I'd love for someone who has both an Ultimaker and a Rep 2 to do this comparison with real prints on both machines. (Actually, I now have access to both, come to think of it... Maybe I'll do this test sometime soon.) Either way, I think the Rep 2 is drastically overstating its actual print speeds by a factor two or more. It may achieve those speeds if you're printing long, straight lines, the full length of the bed... but I suspect that the firmware acceleration values are so low that it never gets close to achieving those speeds when printing anything with curvature or even medium length lines.
Anyway, not hating on Makerbot. Just saying that doing a side by side comparison between machines is more complicated than setting the same print parameters. In order to do a proper comparison, a print needs to be done with identical layer height, perimeter thickness, and print completion time. Otherwise the machines are not printing on truly the same quality settings at all.
(Also, just a sidenote - we should all be happy that we get to use Cura as our primary slicer and not Makerware - that thing has a crazy laggy UI and is so painfully slow to slice. Thanks Daid!)
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Probably don't have to be worried about the finish when lasercutting, unless you sought out some lead paint, just for style points. Bet the glue in the plywood is worse, and that gets cut all the time.
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Aircraft Spruce. Cheap, fast shipment in the US, whatever thickness and quality level you want.
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How does it smell??
Amazing. Almost like wood and candy combined. Maybe like roasting a marshmallow over a campfire...
Anyway, Ian - glad you're going to figure this material out. Please post your secrets when you do. I agree that it is the best looking and feeling material I've ever printed with.
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at 20mm/s and layers that thin you should probably be printing 190-195ish.
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This was happening to my fan; I assumed it was mechanical failure. In my case, it turned out to actually be an electromechanical failure - one of the power wires was frayed where it entered the fan. Resoldering brought it back to new. Also oiled it a little.
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If you're going to be printing a lot of stuff that tiny you might want to consider a smaller nozzle.
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Purchased this one on Amazon Prime: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NPEBJM/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I was expecting it to be twice the size (it's about 4") but the output is significant and it is very very quiet. I think the only reason to need two of these (or something larger) is if you absolutely needed full cooling coverage on the entire print bed. It's sort of expensive though, particularly if you consider getting two. Amp rating seems low enough that running two from the stock electronics should be fine.The cord isn't long enough to make it to the main PCB, so I had to wire up my own extension.
Insulation for the heater block/nozzle is essential... the heater cartridge can't keep up without it. I used some silicone-coated fiberglass sleeving (Like this : http://www.mcmaster.com/#6172t15/=pq67jv, but maybe not that same diameter... not sure) around the nozzle and heaterblock. Wrapped it around with a wire. I'm sure almost anything would work though, as long as it won't melt.
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This setup is the bomb, team. Getting really good results. Love the idea of a scoop on the hotend which directs flow around the print better, but who knows if it's even necessary. Working on a new printhead right now which starts to take advantage of some of the potential simplification this direction provides. Eliminating that pesky aluminum plate, for starters...
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Results are looking very good for overhangs in PLA. The crossflow fan I am using is significantly smaller than I thought it would be ( only about 120mm long / 22 cubic meters per hour... small enough that I could fit two if I wanted) but it is still very powerful compared to the stock fan and giving me results that are, at the very least, comparable to the results I was getting with the Tapir Shroud I'd previously been using. They might be better... need to do more prints to confirm. Regardless, this arrangement offers a large number of benefits, as it is also essentially actively cooling for the non-heated parts of the hotend, as well as eliminates much mass/bulk/clutter from the printhead itself. I think this has some interesting ramifications for ideal hotend design.
Pretty psyched.
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We've ordered 3 Ultimakers - didn't charged for the first... or the second... but the third got held up in customs and we definitely got charged for something. I wasn't the one to pay the invoice so don't know exactly what it was.
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It would be nice to be able to name my different machines in Cura - having "Original Ultimaker (1)" and "Original Ultimaker (2)" and Original Ultimaker (3)"... etc... is not very helpful or easy to remember.
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Looks like filament clogging in the hotend related to retraction. What are your retraction values? Are you using a stock hotend? Are you using stock firmware? I would try reducing the retraction distance by half and see if it solves the problem.
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Printbl/Diamond Age is my overall favorite - output quality may be the best (Green, Purple, Silver, Yellow all give me crazy good results) and the filament is extremely forgiving of temperature adjustments - it flows almost the same from 200-240° and with drastic changes in print speed. The Banana Yellow is an incredibly useful material - I honestly don't like the color that much, but it flows far better - and is much less brittle - than any other PLA I have tried. I generally do most of my printing in other colors and at 0.1mm or thinner, but when I need a bunch of large objects - quickly - I switch to the yellow and print with fast, thick layers, still getting excellent part quality.
I'm printing a lot in Ultimachine PLA now too; I like some of the colors better, the cost is a little lower, and shipping is very quick in the US. The output quality can be equally good as the Printbl PLA, but the material is not quite as forgiving when your print settings are incorrect - when you increase speed or layer height, adjusting the temperature to compensate for the higher flow rates is much more important.
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Hi Nick,
The fan is wired like the original, just see post 53 through 55 in this thread. The fan(motor) itself is virtually noiseless, you can hear the breeze but that's not annoying. I will do a short video, if I find the time.
It just works so nicely that I even stopped using brim.
Really good to know. Have you compared the results of overhang quality (in PLA) vs a more traditional fan duct? Or are you printing purely in ABS?
Edit: Ordered this one anyway: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NPEBJM/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . When it arrives, I will post test photos comparing the overhang results in PLA vs. the Tapir Shroud I currently use. Excited about this solution!
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This is so good. How are you powering the fan? I see that most crossflow fans are 12V, but can the main PCB handle the current?
How is the noise?
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Printed some tonight that I got with my order of Colorfabb XT from PrintedSolid (Thanks!)
It was looking absolutely incredible, but then clogged after about two hours of printing; a hard stop of extrusion. It was easy to clean out, but I suspect it would happen again. Settings were 0.1mm layers, 40mm/s speed, 227°, 2.54mm stated filament diameter, flow turned down to 86% to get perfect extrusion.
Do I love the print quality? Yes. Do I want to use a large nozzle every time I want to print in this material? Probably not. Would I buy a spool of it if it were guaranteed to be filtered multiple times through a 0.4mm mesh? Absolutely.
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The kit seems pretty cheap. I'm tempted to go for that.
Would you be extruding PLA? is there a good source for PLA pellets that people know of?
Edit: Just found this - http://store.osprintingllc.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1817
seems pretty cheap.
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Yeah... wow. As an inventor and designer myself, all I have to say is that patents like these are a terrible, stifling thing, and the US patent system is incredibly broken. I guess we need to boycott everything stratasys.
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I can also see counterarguments to some of your stated problems with the 1.75mm,too though - Retraction could conceivably be better with 1.75. Since the 1.75 has a higher surface area to volume ratio, it can be melted faster - which means you can get away with a smaller melt chamber in the hotend for identical performance, which may mean you get better retraction and less oozing
On the other hand, since most filament I've seen is spec'd as +/- 0.05 tolerance on the OD regardless of whether it is 1.75 or 3, it stands to reason that 3mm printers could have more accurate control over extrusion since +/- 0.05mm has less of an impact on total extruded volume when using 3mm filament than it does when using 1.75mm filament.
Would be interesting to see side by side tests. I actually do have identical 1.75mm and 3.0mm hotends (Printrbot UBIS) and I've designed and printed a mount for them on the Ultimaker. I just don't have any free time...
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I replaced the entire brass tube. Printing seemed fine for several months, though I did replace that hotend eventually with something that was closer to stock when I got the parts in hand.
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I've been scheming this for a while, too. What are the benefits you're hearing?
I purchased a hotend for 1.75mm, and would also purchase a smaller bowden from McMaster if I find the motive to make the switch.
Ultimately though my 3mm setup is just printing so well that I haven't found significant reasons to change.
Throw away your short belts - direct drive.
in Third party products & modifications
Posted
I like the idea of that mod... makes it even easier to upgrade! If you have access to McMaster, getting new rod is quite cheap too, though. You can order this rod for $23, cut it in half, and use it for both axes: http://www.mcmaster.com/#6112k15/=ptmuak
Anyway I designed a direct drive motor mounting bracket that doesn't require any modifications to the UM frame, holds both motors with one piece, and is somewhat easier to assemble than other brackets. It should work with this mod, too. I'll post the files shortly.