john-seaton

Please disregard, I found the problem.

I recently started printing with colorfabb_xt red and when I ran into this issue I decided to print it in normal colorfabb red. At this point I didn't know what was causing this. I've had my colorfabb settings dialed in for some time so I was surprised to see this in that filament as well. I don't use tweak at z so and the fan comes on at 1mm (50% for XT and 100% for PLA). I print the XT at 245 and the PLA at 200. The place where it start messing up is different for each print. the XT had tiny fuzz all over it almost like hair. I suspect the printer but I need help figuring this one out. Thanks John

I received this response from support about the acceptable tolerances. Hope that helps anyone else wondering what the acceptable tolerances is. For us non-engineering peeps, that means the total deviation can be .175mm for the 8mm rods and .14mm for the 6mm rods. Not sure how you get a .02mm layer height with those specs but ok. I don't usually go bellow .1mm but even then i would think you would want better than .05mm.

The results are in. I setup a spot to measure the rods with my dial gauge and the results are pretty bad. Of the 8mm rods 2 were .003" (0.0762mm) off, one was .004" (0.1016mm) off, and one was .006" (0.1524mm) off. Of the two 6mm rods one was less than .001 (0.0254mm) off and one was .008" (0.2032mm) off. I'm pretty sure these were damaged in shipping.

Apparently I didn't have the 6mm shafts in my cart so I started looking for those but the BOM says CF53 steel which is apparently 1050 in US standards. Any idea if 52100 Bearing Steel (hardened) and chrome plated would be better or worse?

Thanks for the reply. The problem is that I have bent rods in my printer and these new rods are the warranty replacements. Seeing these bent as well I was curious what the acceptable tolerances were to see if maybe these were bent in shipping. These were just rolling around in the box when I opened it so it's possible. I was going to get them from Misumi before I found out they would be replaced under warranty. Before I do order a set though I want to get these measured with my dial gauge and see how bad they are bent. Rolling them against each other was just my initial test to see how strait they were. Today I'm going to go source some parts so I can get some better readings with my dial gauge. I guess from there I'll either report back to support that they arrived bent or just order a set from Misumi. Thanks John

Anyone know what the straightness tolerances are for the print head and x/y linear shafts? For the print head shafts I can put the two side by side and rotate one and see a gap forming between the two and then go away. What's an acceptable amount of defection in the rods before it affects the print? Are there any tips for straitening them? Thanks John

I have one printed in yellow that I never used if your interested.

nevermind.

yes, the screenshot is the layer view in Cura. The problem is that it does not print the insides of the letters and numbers on the first layer. It doesn't start till the second layer and that gives it a weak bond to the build plate.

Anyone have an idea why the printer would print something different than what Cura shows should be printing? Inside the letters, logo, and numbers are all missing

Here is where I wish I knew C++ better and could help. BTW, thanks Daid for all the hard work you have put into this.

Yes I do software development for a living for a global corporation and yes that is the story of my life where I work. I was not aware of it being open source but I'm guessing it wasn't written in .net and probably c++ so I wouldn't be able to offer much assistance there.

Look, I'm not just some Joe Shmoe throwing around the multithreading keyword without understanding what it is I'm asking. I understand that multithreading with linear tasks is a challenging problem to solve but I also am of the opinion that we as developers should make every effort to make good use of the hardware available to us. IMO Performance is Key and as developers we shouldn't settle for just good enough. Suporting multiple CPUs/cores should be a foundation of every application and the best places to implement it and avoid it should be considered early on in the design. Some of the responses on here just make it seem like multithreading is either an after thought or just disregarded all together. Ok, I'll get off my soap box now and finish with this. I would like to see supporting multiple CPUs/cores implemented in the future where it makes sense and provides an enhancement to the user experience.

I know multithreading can't solve every problem and isn't always the best answer but that's not what we're talking about here. Cura doesn't take advantage of multithreading where it can (besides the seperation of the UI and the engine which goes without saying) and that is my only complaint. No offense intended but I don't think it is a poor focus. I too am a software developer so I'm not just speaking out of my butt here.

Wish I could help make it happen but I'm a .net guy so probably not going to be much help here.

What about when you have multiple models on the build plate you slice them in separate CPUs/cores? Does it do this already? If not maybe that would be a good start.

Of course that won't work but you can build sections of the sky scraper and then put the sections together. Kinda like farming out the work to different companies to build different sections so that those sections are being built in parallel and then you put each section together in order. I know linear stuff is a harder problem to solve but it can be done. I know this because I've done it myself. (not trying to brag just saying it is possible)

I'm currently printing the Cyborg Beast hand for a relative. Awesome site, Awesome cause.

Daid, I am a Software Engineer and I am surprised that Cura does not support multiple CPUs. There is a reason why people like me are surprised that Cura doesn't support multiple cores/CPUs and that is because with today's technology multiple CPUs/cores are a standard and software developed today should be developed to support this. It's not a matter of it not being possible to do so why not?

thanks!

Oh yeah I've got that puppy downloaded. Just need a break from orders to get it made and installed. If I even get a break I've got a list of upgrades to print lol

Yeah, I'm sure someone else with my printer could probably make it print that. I still need some more practice first. I print most of my stuff at 180 now. I have my doubts of the accuracy of the temp sensor though. There is nothing to hold the temp sensor to the heater block so I think there is a little air pocket around the sensor and that it is falsely reporting the temp. IMO the sensor needs something to help transform the heat from the block to the sensor.

Yeah, that whole keeping it level on the build plate is why I added the raft, not sure if that did any good or not but it came off easy enough. The support structure wasn't much of a match for my pliers either lol. The piece was functional but if the guy was asking for .02 layer height (which this was not) then I doubt he was going to be happy with just functional lol Anyway, I gave it some solid attempts before i told him I was not going to be able to get the results he wanted. He said he would re-design it and send me a different set of sizes to try. All that aside, I still want to learn how to successfully print tiny objects and one thought I had was to reduce the filament flow percentage. My thinking was that if I'm printing that fine of a layer it doesn't need to push that much filament. This of course was based on an assumption that the filament extruder moved the filament at a constant speed no matter the layer height you are printing. Feel free to correct/enlighten me. Thanks John

The set screw on the heater block on my UM2 did not hold either the heater or temp sensor in place. Now you have my curiosity peaked.