tommyph1208

There was just recently a question in here very similar to this (no offence, just info ) https://ultimaker.com/en/community/20322-is-it-ok-to-turn-off-heated-bed-after-a-number-of-layers-have-been-printed

Consider posting some more info about the print model itself, eg. also a screenshot from Cura, this will help people give you more solid advice. As an example, if at all possible, rounding off the corners of the object helps reduce warping.

Mocking up the exterior of the house as a new model is you best bet... Depending on the complexity of the model and your skills with 3d modelling, this is no trivial task. as previously mentioned, architectural models are not really made for 3d printing... If you can approximate/simplify the outside of the building as a new mesh in your 3d modelling program of choice, you can get a watertight, print optimized model that will look somewhat like the architects but print much nicer.

As @Labern says, its very likely that your print will pop off the print bed if you turn off the heat during printing. As far as energy goes I don't think you have to worry too much... The bed itself I think is only around 100W and has fairly good thermal properties, thus it isn't actually on all the time... It will run on-off cycles to keep the temp around your setting. To reduce the sagging effect often seen in the bottom of prints (known as Elephants foot), you can reduce your bed temp a bit, and see if you still can get adhesion and no warping (this will also lower energy cost... but again, it really isn't that much) If you get problems with adhesion, but still want to reduce elephants foot, try printing the first few layers at your normal temp, and then reduce bed temp a bit from layers 2-3 and up (you can use Curas "Tweak at Z" plugin for these things) ...Again, don't reduce it too much, or you'll ruin the print.

Seems like you got it sorted and already had some nice input from other users... I use PVA glue solution as well and have been a big endorser of it whenever the adhesion questions came up, so I thought I would chip in as well. For solution strength I think 1:8 is way too much glue, as you said, put more water in... To my experience it will still work fine, even with something like 1:15. I heat up the bed and apply a thin layer with a sponge, let water vaporize, and good to go. Most smaller prints snaps right off once bed reaches room temp. For large prints I will throw the entire warm glass plate and print into the freezer... Prints will usually have popped off by themselves when I come back later. And yes... simply applying brute force violence to a stuck print (especially one that is still luke warm), WILL chip your glass plate... Ask me how I know :(

Washing a print in a dedicated sink with rubber gloves and proper protective wear dosn't sell the product very well now does it? Better to let the buyers of this plastic toy find that out for themselves right?

Whoah... What a nightmare... I agree with the others here, this is sadly as close to impossible to print as you can get. If the main purpose for you guys getting into 3d printing, is to print models like these examples, someone didn't do their homework properly before buying an UM (or any fff/fdm type printer for that matter) to do the job. Maybe with a SLA or SLS type printer... Maybe

I am a big fan of your thoughts about hiding away the stepper motors... Them sticking out, on the outside of the printer, is my main reason for not doing a direct-drive setup... Regarding your design, you would probably want to use something like a herringbone gear to avoid any play in the gears when turning direction... I would still be afraid that the gears could be quite noisy when printing at speed, maybe you can compare with some similar setups like the Tantillus:

With a standard 200 steps/revolution stepper motor and the normal 1/8 microstepping for z, a single step would mean a 0.005 mm. vertical movement... How much higher resolution do you want?

I don't think there is any definitive answer for this, but there are some things you can do to help yourself. 1. Have a nicely calibrated machine: Making sure round features come out round, printed dimensions are as close to the design as possible, etc. will help you a lot in terms of finding a design where the "click feature" is there, right out of the printer. 2. Find a good filament and stick with it: Filaments vary a lot... Quality is one side of this (needless to say, you don't want crappy quality when trying to do nice prints), but also just the characteristics of filament will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, color to color, etc. so using the exact same filament every time, will help you get the same desired effect every time. 3. Find some good settings (for your chosen filament), and stick with them: Settings like speed, layer heights, print temperature, cooling settings, etc. can all have small effects on print surface and that can have an effect on how well your "click feature" works. Finding some settings that gives you the surface finish you want and sticking with those same settings for your various designs, is one less variable to consider when evaluating small design changes. Once you have these things in place, you will be able to figure out exactly how large a hole is needed for this and that size of tap, etc. and can work this knowledge into your future designs.

This is almost always an issue with a loose pulley that slips on its axis while printing. Grab a hex key and tighten all the llittle grub screws on your pulleys (don't strip them!) If you want to make sure your problem is fixed you can mark where the grub screw positions are on the axis with a magic marker, then check to see if the marks are still aligned with the screws after a print.

This is probably one of your belts rubbing against the side of a puley, should be fixable by realigning the pulley.

I use PVA wood glue dissolved in water... I apply it to a glass plate on top of my alu-heatbed (don't know if you have a heatbed), and warm the bed to make the water vaporize. This leaves a very thin and even layer of "glue-film"... It works really well for me with PLA, havn't tried ABS yet.

They are the same as on the UMO right? As ultiarjan says, they are m3 bolts... I bought a ton of them for no money on ebay (shipped from China)

My crossflow setup exposes the heatblock and nozzle to ALOT of air... So I bought some ceramic "tape" (its more like cloth), and wrapped it around the heatblock with some kapton tape to hold it in place... Works like a charm!

I was super confused about the whole inverting too in the beginning... The setting you need will, in the end, depend on a number of things: Are you running a geared or direct drive feeder? How did you turn the engine plug in the board? (turning it 180 degrees will reverse the motor) Which stick did you end up using on each axis? (silent stepstick interpret the step signals differently than eg. A4988, so motors will run in the other direction)... Once you have swapped enough things around enogh times, you kind of loose track of what the setting should be... However, no harm is done by setting it wrong (your extruder will just run backwards)... Just try a setting, heat your hotend and try extuding some cm. of filament and look at what happens... If its running the wrong way, either change the invert setting in firmware or turn the motor cable 180 degrees.

I don't really know... I never looked much into it. My personal view on dual extrusion (and this is my own and not to be considered general in any way), is that the complications currently outweigh the benefits.

Im assuming the support material in question is HIPS, which would be able to go in the same block/nozzle as ABS (they print at about the same temperatures and are similar in characteristics), PLA and HIPS in the same heatblock/nozzle would be out of the question with the "two in - one out" approach...

Did not try any of those, only regular v6, which imo are of a great quality. Some things to consider: - With the proper dual head you will get a bit bulkier print head, a bit smaller print area and possibly slower movement. It is also the more expensive approach with two of everything (heaters, thermistors, heat blocks, wires, etc). On the plus side you have the flexibility of running widely different temps. on each head, which would be a requirement for different material characteristics... - The "two in, one out" approach is the cheaper and slightly simpler solution... Less components = less things to go wrong. It would typically limit you to print with the same type of material on both feed lines, since you cannot adjust temperature for these individually...

Great you got it working When you say the heatsinks you ordered were too high, do you mean to fit under whatever cooling fan mount thingy you have sitting over your electronics? Im asking to make sure you put everything in correctly... Sticks should go in with "component side" facing down, and the heatsink installed on the little thermal pad on the back (now facing up). I myself have two Fractal Design - Silent Series 40mm. fans cooling my electronics... It's a Rumba board and the fans are centered over the stepsticks... I have never had a problem with cooling with that setup, so I think you will be fine too

1.6V for vref sounds very high... You should start at around 0.8V and move upwards slowly, testing motor strength between each adjust.... Arent your motors and sticks getting crazy hot with the 1.6V setting? You also mention having recently switched to GT2 pulleys... For good measure, double check that all pulley screws are tightned properly... You can check for slip by marking the grub screw position on your axis with a magic marker... after a print where your shifting layers have occured, check the marks to see if they are still aligned with the screws.

Got my SSS today but ... I´m such an idiot... I ordered 4 of them but have 2 extruders beside XYZ... so one too less... DAMN... Next issue: one of them came with a damaged ESD packaging... so we´ll see if I have to claim it or not... :( Just leave the z-axis with a a4988 or whatever is in there now... You CAN get the machine to home the z-axis more quietly with a SilentStepStick, but that is about it... The effect while printing is negligible at most... regarding the ESD packaging, I would be surprised if it has caused any sort of damage to your stick (that is assuming whatever damaged the packaging didn't ALSO damage the stick...), I have never taken much care with any of the numerous stepsticks I have lying around, and never saw any faults related to that...

I was about to point this out as well...

As Sander says it looks very much like a loose pulley (the little grub screw in the pulley not being tight enough against the axis rod so it slips when trying to do fast moves) A very easy thing to do, to test this is, is to go over all the pulleys and mark the grub-screw location on the axis rod with a magic marker... Now do a print where your issue will show... then look at all your marks... are they still aligned with the grub-screw positions?

Isn't it also missing the thermal transfer pad (what do you call those), or is it just painted over? I cant tell from the pics...