schafe

Oops, I chose the wrong file to upload. There is a missing face on that one.

Lots of trail and error, mostly error at first. The chip/break should not make a difference.

Getting no response to my question about a key for the colors Cura uses in layer view here comes part 2. I am having a small problem getting Cura to print a part for my C-130. I thought knowing exactly what each color represented might help me figure it out. I used Blender for the design of the part. Blender has several analysis tools for 3D prints and says everything is ok. After designing and successfully printing several parts I can now say that I have a pretty good understanding of the process. My highly experienced eyes do not detect a problem. I don't know if Cura is confused or I am. In the middle of the screen of the first picture you see 2 red lines that represent the exterior moves of the head. Note the yellow towards the top which represents infill. Also note you can see the light blue of the build plate between the 2 red lines. The entire thing should be filled in, thus the problem. It isn't a huge problem, but one that makes me curious. I plan on filling the gap with glue or epoxy. Picture 2 is of the same area, layer 98, from a slightly different angle . Note you can still barely see the light blue of the build plate between the 2 red lines. There is also green?? infill present. Picture 3 is layer 99. For some reason Cura has decided to start the infill now. Picture 4 shows the result when I flipped the part 180 degrees. It is a little hard to tell, but the infill has stopped before it should. For anyone interested, here is the .stl file. https://www.youmagine.com/designs/c-130-fuse-sections--2#!design-documents I tried to upload the .obj but I guess youmagine does not support .objs. When you load the object into Cura it will be oriented so that the problem area starts at layer 1 and continues through 99. The problem area is on the right of the build plate when viewed from straight on.

Have I missed it or is there no place that tells what each color is when viewing a part in layer view?

I like the new option of selecting what type of filament is present when making a change. The order of this process seems incorrect to me. The filament type selection is the last step in the process. I think it should be the step after the existing filament is removed from the printer to allow the nozzle to get to the proper temp.

Sorry Daid. Same result with the new version. The printer power cycles and after a few seconds the same error message appears. It did install a new driver. I read and reread gr5's instructions. I finally used the serial port and baud rate in Cura that I used to get Pronterface to connect. Success. I'm pretty sure it was COM11 @ 115200. Why does everything have to be so hard??

Tried and tried several different ways. Always got the same error message: "Failed to write firmware. 'Timeout'" Ideas?? I am using a PC that is 7 or 8 years old with Vista.

The topic of a "rewind/restart" function has come up to salvage prints that fail due to blocked nozzles or running out of filament. I recently discovered one more reason to have this option: power blips. Iowa wind storm. Power blipped for less than the blink of an eye. Printer froze where it was and welded the nozzle in place. It was hour 19 out of 20. BLARP!! My PC has now sacrificed its battery back up to prevent this in the future.

Yep. I am hoping it will fly. We'll see in a couple of months.

I just found out you can print pictures. Its amazing what you learn when you read the manual.

That explains it. When I tried this the printer power cycles then I get an "update failed message - timeout." Or something like that.

I thought I could figure this out, but I can't. I do know step 1 - connect UM2 to PC via USB cable.

Oh yes, the filament on the floor only results in a marginal level of contentment for my machine.

Nice product placement in photos. Its really neat when you design something and it fits the way you thought it would.

I might just finish it for this summer! The clowns love it!

Sorry, I was "away" for a few days. You miss a few days you miss a lot. The printbl filament I was using was cherry red. I was printing a C-130 section programmed in Cura at 4.8mm3/sec at 230C. Speaking of the printbl filament, they use cardboard cylinders and cardboard sides which are held together by plastic inserts that are pressed into the cylinder. Nice and recycleable. Problem is the plastic inserts can work loose over time. Of course this happened when I started an 8 hour print before work. When the plastic insert comes loose it allows the cardboard sides to fall away and no longer hold the filament on the cylinder/spool. When this happens the filament explodes off of the spool and becomes a tangled mess. This results in a knot that eventually gets drawn up to the feeder. Eventually, the knot jams and the filament stops. The printer keeps going along completely unaware of the mess hanging below. 8 hours gone. I had an almost full spool of filament that was an unuseable tangled mess. I decided to unspool the entire thing and wind it up again. This was a very bad idea. I was dealing with a very large slinky that hated me and refused to wind up again. I ended up winding up the filament until it twisted into a mess and then cut it off. I untangled the mess and wound again, several times. I will have to use the amount of filament required and make sure I have that amount before I start a print. In other news, I tried geeks feeder design. It did not help.

Is this a correct intrepretation and rewrite? "A small gap here, compared to no gap, makes it easier to remove the support but makes the print a bit uglier."

I recently visited my parents who are 84 years old. The topic of my 3D printer came up. They had no idea what I was describing to them so I showed them the youtube video where the orange halloween jack-o-lantern was being printed. Still nothing. That video is in real-time so you can't really notice that anything is happening. I should have shown them something else. They wanted to know what the waffle shape inside had to do with a pumpkin. "It's the support structure." Nothing. What will the technology be when I am 84 years old, about 40 years from now, that I can't even comprehend what I am seeing? In other news, my printer is now skipping with the printbl PLA at 4.8mm3/sec. I'll have to see if someone has declared victory in the feeder design contest.

Yep, very helpful people.

Hey, you are the first person I have noticed from South America! I don't pay much attention to the described leveling process. I always print with brim. As the first few laps of the print are being made I adjust the screws on the fly to get an even layer all around. It doesn't make too much of a difference for the smaller items I print, but many of my prints cover almost the entire build plate.

I have not experimented with this much, but the description for the support distance z seems backwards to me. It says "A small gap here makes it easier to remove the support but makes the print a bit uglier." In my world it seems that changing from the default of .15 to .25 would create a bigger gap between the support and the intended layer. I thought this was a typo, but I just upgraded Cura and the description is the same. What am I missing?

Here is the rear. I used 2 small screw eyes for the guides.

Hola nerdmigos!! Behold my glorious cylinders: It seems my printer is a picky eater. These cylinders, all 10s, were printed from brand new spools of sapphire and cherry red PLA bought from printbl.com. Hopefully the performance won't get worse as these spools get used up. I hit the jackpot, won the progressive, the car and the trip to Fiji!! Other than the change in filament, I think unscrewing the nozzle helped the most. I measured the gap between the teflon and the silver cylinder with the perimeter holes with a feeler gauge. It is .026 inches or .660mm. For the rest of my setup I have a small O ring under each of the 4 head screws, but I really don't think that does any good. The spool is below the printer hung on a section of pipe. I used small screw eyes to align the filament with the feeder hole. (Picture coming soon.) My power supply is still black side up. I'll try flipping it over in the future. No wait, I'm done printing cylinders - really. No more experiments.

You beat me to it. I just signed on to say I noticed the copper grease is on the bed bolts and is likely not heat transfer paste, which is usually pretty expensive.

You guys are enablers. I just recieved the PLA from printbl.com. A guy just has to know what that stuff will do.