cloakfiend
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Posts posted by cloakfiend
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Note to MOD, the last few pages of this thread have vanished.....
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Tell me about it, half of my post were wiped off, and basically it is now crippled. Going back to the old forum would be nice. This whole latest message thing is not working for me. Navigating this forum has become ridiculous.
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@cloakfiend: that's a lot of conditions
Yeah but its worth it in the end. ill post up some pics to show you. You basically remove all of the layer the lines, and only soften the details a touch...its only two conditions good pla or one that contains PHA or other impurities, and to print it at high rez with a nicely calibrated UM that is. Thats it.
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If only the first layer is the problem then the problem is not the plastic. Try heating the nozzle to 260 and the bed to 90, then when its at temp, quickly go to the menu and move material to make sure there are no gaps in the nozzle, and goto press print menu. the printer should already be drippping PLA due to the heat if not then its still blocked. with everything at heat and the material just been pushed through you should be good to go. worked for me just now. make sure your nozzle is very close to the glass but not touching.
Just to let you know my best temp for successful pulls is around the 85C mark. i find if it goes down to 70 its too cold and 90 is too drippy still. and my glass bed is most certainly not level and i think i may have even slightly bent my bars when i was first doing atomic pulls, but it still makes a perfect base.
could be the glue your using also. i have very good luck with an ultra thin layer of pritt stik power. (not the regular one)
How did you bent your bars when doing the atomic method? Just to know how to prevent it in the furture.
I did not leave the head in the corner, and putting pressure on the head when it is in the middle of a bar could bend it. Like Ultiarjan says below, do your atomic pulls when the head is in one of the corners, because you can put more pressure on the bars there when you are pushing filament through.
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Reminds me of the "special enclosure" on kickstarter to smooth finish prints, using acetone... "It works great with ABS, and less with PLA but we are confident that we will find how to optimize the parameters to make it work with PLA too" (after we got your money).
Acetone smooths PLA great, you just have to find a particular PLA filament. Colorfabb works, you just need to print at at 0.06 though. But then you get no lines, but keep most if not all the detials. The Aectone just takes a bit longer to work and needs to get dipped rather then vapour, but it does work.
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They look great! a good buy defo! im now experimenting with metal coatings.....
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I think placing your filament spool lower is a lot easier, and less wasteful, than cutting it to length every time... Here's a simple example (look in the pictures) https://www.youmagine.com/designs/ultimaker2-spool-connector
And you could get a digital caliper to check the filament diameter on a few different spots.
Yep, looks great, but ill need to print it and get metal bits. when now i just measure and cut. little bit of waste, but i dont mind, better than the waste i get off grinding at the moment, and perfect prints with 0 risk of tangling (which was my main problem) not only the friction of the filament coming out. When my spools are new and full, the brittle ones untangle a bit, and if youre not careful, or even if you are they can tangle and ruin a long print. I still dont know how to overcome this. Its happened only once fully to me, but the little snags even ruin the perfect alignment of the layers.
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If only the first layer is the problem then the problem is not the plastic. Try heating the nozzle to 260 and the bed to 90, then when its at temp, quickly go to the menu and move material to make sure there are no gaps in the nozzle, and goto press print menu. the printer should already be drippping PLA due to the heat if not then its still blocked. with everything at heat and the material just been pushed through you should be good to go. worked for me just now. make sure your nozzle is very close to the glass but not touching.
Just to let you know my best temp for successful pulls is around the 85C mark. i find if it goes down to 70 its too cold and 90 is too drippy still. and my glass bed is most certainly not level and i think i may have even slightly bent my bars when i was first doing atomic pulls, but it still makes a perfect base.
could be the glue your using also. i have very good luck with an ultra thin layer of pritt stik power. (not the regular one)
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No problem! rapid lite looks like it can do some good stuff, but im concentrating on fine quality and have now finally acheived it (apart from overhangs, lol). My last few posts didn't seem to make it, but the acetone wash on your model looks amazing and pretty much perfect. Ill re-post a pic when i get back. just ordered some funky paints so gonna have some fun with that. i now figured out how to achieve perfect layer alignment with the ultimaker 2 so i get perfect stepping on layer height without those annoying offset lines. ended up taking the filament off the roll. the feeder is not strong enough to pull the roll in my opinion, or it just gets tangled too often for my liking which must cause those tiny changes in amount of filament pulled in.
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I had this problem tons before, but just make sure your bed is level as people have been saying and its better to haev teh nozzle closer than further, and for 35mm/s 0.06mm layer height i have the first few layers at 210 before i turn it durn to 205 for the rest.
What you might want to try is the atomic nozzle check with white, so you can really see if youve cleaned the nozzle as it might seem clear from the shape but is still dirty. In my experience when you use colourd filament to atomic pull you cant always see the tiny bits that show up easily on white.
Also i have just started to simple cut the filament i need off the roll and balance it at the back to achieve perfect layers and less retarded clicking at the start. there are many factors, but good glue, heat and minimal resistance with the filament is the way to go.
works for me....
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I also seem to have this problem, but on a much smaller scale and only really on text and things i've extruded quickly in Maya. I have a feeling my polys were too stretched out, but ill try doing it again after tessellating the polys.I think i also had an issue in max with text, but not other solid edges so it may be how you have also exported or built it.
It may also to be to do with the scale you have modelled it at and then the shell settings, even though i was printing solid infill and still had the same issues.
I'll post an example later but i left my phone at home, but printing at 0.2 made the problem less visible. at 0.1 i could peel the rim off which was annoying, but i just printed hotter and it seemed to help.
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Hi @cloakfiend
I'll try to create a script tonight to convert most images. As HTML is not allowed in the new forum we'll have to translate those to BBcode since the old imported topics contain HTML.
Thanks a lot! I always wondered ho9w to post images without html here. Can videos be embedded also? not too bothered about that though.
Will post new prints soon.....
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Damn all my picture links are broken... will have to fix those!
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Lol, I hear all sorts of weird and wonderful noises but they tend to stop after a while, i oiled my bars with sewing oil which greatly helped (i think?), and my bars look quite similar, i'll let it die before i change them or untill the quality of print reduces, i wont worry about it. I print non stop long high rez jobs as well, ive been wondering how long before stuff starts failing as well!
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Well as luck would have it, Ultimaker have now discontinued their blue that i am so fond of, so after this batch ive got, and some green which also seems to be unavailable, thats it, back to colorfabb, which takes a longer to acetone bath but hopefully will yield just as good results but in my experience i had subtle layer separation with colorfabb and acetone, oh well more tests to carry out! lol.
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Damn thats a shame, its all ive been using lately, worked great with acetone too.
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OK for the people who are still skeptical that acetone does nothing to PLA ive printed the same model from above again same settings same UM blue PLA (that is now discontinued) and dipped half of it in acetone and left the other just to see what it would look like and then sprayed it with primer, i cant believe i haven't done thjis before! now you can see exactly how much detail is lost to acetone (not that much! ) and decide how long you will dip for, these are 25 seconds in acetone tests i've been doing in case you wandered. A bunch of same photos with different lighting conditions to see everything.
Now to be honest i heard the feeder clicking a bit at the start of the print which means it needs a clean, so the results may not have been as perfect as i wanted, but still, the difference is clear. I rest my case, lol.
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you can scratch some of it off, but no way just wipe it off. its not so simple, as the curing process runs for a few days still. you can tell its finished when the model is hard. the white even came through the paint so i doubt you can wipe if of easily. and OK you are supposed to see that those lines are now practically gone, and the surface is smooth without ANY sanding (apart from the very tip where the printer finished). Some fine details are softer (but not lost) but maybe if i got an air can and sprayed out the buildup of the acetone which settles to create that white residue in the grooves, then it might keep a bit more fine details, but to tell you the truth i think its good enough even for someone as picky as i am. I doubt any FDM printer could do much better for the price, but would love to be proved wrong. Even the vein on the side of the temple is cleary visible!
first head is 50mm on Z and second is 30mm both printed with same setting as before 0.06 UMblue. i think i may have overdone the spraying but seeing as this is just a test i dont mind. i already printed another one for a half dip half not spray test ill post later .
and just for research i though id show you the back did not look perfect, but seeing as this would be something i would normally sand, i dont mind, as it would only take less than a minute to do. I've also deliberately lit it as harshly as i could to show you all the hidden details.
Just realised the white bleaching even came through the paint so i think it might be a good idea to blow it off and not leave it on as excess when you are dipping.
P.S. big model took 6Hrs to print and the little was like 1.5 Hrs. I'd also give it a scrub before spraying to try and minimize the white residue coming through.
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By calibrating, i just mean making sure the printer is in the best shape it can be i.e. no blocked nozzle and being well oiled up.... i always use the basic settings only to print, so don't fiddle around any settings. its good out the box.
The printer works great with 0.06 as well as 0.1 but the overhangs tend to look better at 0.1 as the layers arent so thin and dont suffer as much from the heat of the nozzle.
Im sure i could play with it and experiment and improve it but ive had enough of experimentation and just print useful stuff now rather than having an army of test prints on my desk..
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Just the bottom, lol!
Think of the acetone as improving your PLA models quality in general rather than destroying it. Softening the details a bit, but making the layers smooth together in a much more controlled way that the acetone vapour bath does to ABS. With PLA and acetone you dont get a melted mess as a result... if you want a melted look, stick to abs and acetone vapour. i'll post what the sprayed model looks like soon, its just drying. Its not perfect but its the best you'll get with minimal effort in my experience. no messing around with vapour and heating and it smooths everything evenly, even the top and bottom (if you suspend it that is!). Even after layers of paint you will have way more detail in the PLA print compared to the ABS vapoured one.
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Works ok with OBJs, maybe try that until its fixed for DAEs
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I print with everything default even the fans and only change the layer height nozzle temp and, so i didn't check, probably 60 or something, but i found that the glue is way more important than the bed temp as people without heated beds can print with PLA no problem. I never used that weird blue tape neither as with my prittstik power i dont re-apply for up to 20-30 prints which is obviously better for lazy people like myself. Also the height at which the printer starts the first layer is the most important as that is when the glue stuff needs to work, then you walk away for a few hours and pray you dont get any jams...
I always align the bed screws on the fly as that is the time when you know your good to leave it to print or not.
Its a bit of a time rush thing, but get used to the way you need to turn the screws to tighten or loosen them againt the nozzle, and as soon as you start the print and it draws that outline thing, that is the time you need to calibrate the bed (make sure your nozzle is properly clean). Assuming you've put the glue on right and its the right glue (not the bumpy one), once it starts drawing after its little pile of extrusion at the start get ready to turn the screws. if you don't see it sticking them your nozzle is too far away so turn the nearest screw counter clockwise, then keep looking at the thickness of that first layer and make sure its as even as you can get it.
you only need to do this every now and then, or in your case if its not sticking. i never recalibrate even after removing the entire glass tray and putting it back, but if you need to its just a few turns here and there.
Its hard to explain how to apply the glue. ive heard people use hair spray, but i cant see that lasting nearly as long as glue, but i guess its up to you, there are no rules here. I just bought loads of glues until i found one that layed on smooth and not lumpy like the regular pritt stik and other paper glues. its all abount the right texture of the glue and an even application of it on the glass plate, not bumpy cos you dont want it going in your nozzle.
Hope ive helped a bit, here are some random pics that may/may not be useful to you. dont be afraid to experiment. Ive taken my UM2 apart and dropped bits here and there and have had all sorts of issues due to messing around with it (which is why i got it originally) , but with a little TLC repairs and rebuilds its as good as new, and i havet replaced anything on it.
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Ok here is my 50mm Z axis head test. much like the smaller 30mm one in using the same settings, 210C temp 35mm speed 0.06 Z and UM Blue PLA, 1.2mm shell no infill. And the same 25s in acetone dip.(i.e. fully submerged)
Here are the visuals of what goes on after you dip it so you see how lovely it smooths it. pay close attention to the shadows and curved areas as well as the smoothness of the flat areas, and remeber im deliberately not doing any sanding to show you how little is needed after the dip, if any.
This entire process took around 15-20mins BTW. I think it slows down after and may settle a touch more, but nothing you will visibly notice. UM Blue at 0.06 + Acetone is awesome...
and some angled shots
and the bottom looks like this...
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I regularly do 30-50 Hr prints, and my main problem used to be jams, but now that i do atomic pulls with white pla, i can see when my nozzle is truly clean as opposed to having the right shape when pulling it out of the nozzle. but my main problem is the plastic tangling itself on the reel, if its new then sometimes it relaxes too much after it first unwinds, and some of the plastic goes over itself and tightens and this leads to layers getting skipped or the classic printing nothing, and then printing in thin air.
1. make sure you have a clean nozzle, (really clean)
2. Try and measure out how much material you will need and either cut it off the reel, and arrange it nearby so it doenst get tangled, (but i never do this, i just cross my fingers and try to make sure the material is not getting tangled but theres much much you can do to stop this especially if you are not around when its getting jammed.
Thats it. good luck.
Ive never restarted a print, and wouldn't recommend it especially if you are a beginner.
All you would really need is a resume from sd card option and the lower head to unfinished layer option, other than that the other stuff is irrelevant in my opinion. As you are generally gonna get a weird layer there unless the height and posinion is identical to where it left off. If you cant pull these long prints off, then i would just print things smaller or lower res. bitty prints are a real dirty fix.
Post your latest print!
in What have you made
Posted · Edited by Guest
Some of my latest playing with catch123, a photo of a mate. I've recently started going ultra cheap on my use of plastic, but the ultimaker seems to cope nicely even near flat surfaces with a shell of only 0.8 mm this was only 4M of plastic. which was nice.
Cool to shine lights through it too! i got lazy with cleaning up the model from maya and deleted some polys near the eye by mistake, and forgot to add them back! not sure how people export partial objects from catch but i find its a bit tricky to give it shell thickness exporting directly from catch as the normals are insane when you extrude them out on the inner side. I normally use 3DSMAX shell inwards which creates a waaaay more messy polygon arrangement but doesn't spike out insanely but extrudes easily and cleanly with no spiking like maya which does leave things smooth (apart from the spikes).
Colorfabb red 0.06mm 35mm/s 208C supports everywhere infill 0