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[mendells 55]

I got good results (don't you think?)...so....so far, so good

 

Your prints look pretty good but we are printing very small parts and I'm really picky .

I'd be willing to bet your prints would improve if you switched to a color (the darker colors specifically seems to work well for us). I'll print off a part in white and one in a color and post it here later.

[LePaul 321]

I understand your point. I really got great results with ColorFabb's Dutch Orange and part of my thought about staying with it. Then each part could be filled, sanded and painted for this Star Wars 7 Blaster Project. But I saw others had good results just printing in the colors needed (white, black & silver). Fingers crossed these prints continue to come out nicely!

[the_schire 3]

I printed the statue at 220, but I don't have time to print anything else until tomorrow afternoon. That being said, I'm pretty happy with the results using default settings, but that's really only my first real print with the material.

[LePaul 321]

I started another thread but am having a lot of underextrusion all 30 mm/sec and low temp of 200 I think I need to go up to the higher temp you did. How fast did you print?

[the_schire 3]

I've been having some success at 60mm/s, starting at 220 and then backing down to 215.

[the_schire 3]

Small update, the bit of luck I had at 220 was a fluke, now I'm trying 215 from the get go. I have noticed that the filament jams frequently, getting bent at the end of the bowden tube.

I'm going to try turning the temperature down to 210 if the print I'm running right now fails after a first layer at 215.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Guest

[LePaul 321]

I don't have jams , just underextrusion.....I'll try a print tonight on a warmer temp and see how that goes

[the_schire 3]

215 went pretty well for a CSGO Karambit I printed, but it did take a lot of trial and error to finally get it working. I think a lower temperature will be needed.

Also, I noticed that I have to have the extruder push some filament through the nozzle or it won't feed when I actually try to print. It doesn't matter if it was just printing 15 seconds ago, it needs to push a few mm's for it to feed right.

[LePaul 321]

I added more pre-extrusion in the start gcode (from 3mm to 9mm) and that helped a lot.

215C didn't work any better. I am really stumped on how to get a good print in white. I have a large project to do in white!

[the_schire 3]

Yeah it's been a little inconsistent in whether or not it will work, but when it works, it does so beautifully.

How do you change that pre-extrusion setting?

[LePaul 321]

I was wary of touching the gcode but it is commented on nicely in this view

I initially made it 15mm and that was a LOT ...but it worked! I found 9 mm to be the right amount for my machine.

[the_schire 3]

I think I found my problem with inconsistency, bed leveling. I was positioning the corners of the bed too close to the nozzle causing pressure to build and force the filament to jam, blocking flow. I leveled my bed with a piece of paper to get the .1mm right and The print is going first try.

[LePaul 321]

There certainly is an art to it. I find if the paper can slide through, but with a bit of friction, that's about right. I found if the nozzle was pressing into the paper, that's a bit too low.

My bed upgrade kit arrived last week, I am looking forward to installing that soon and having the 3-point method the U2's have

[the_schire 3]

So I've been having a bit of trouble with prints that require a lot of retraction at one time, usually with more than just a little bit of support. When it retracts a lot, the material is getting ground up in my extruder. I've been using the default of 40mm/s and 4.5mm. What retraction settings are you using?

[LePaul 321]

I've had good look going to 4.7    

I put it back to 4.5 recently, not seeing much difference

But can't hurt to try

Edited November 3, 2015 by Guest

[the_schire 3]

What about speed? I think it's the speed that's causing the grinding.

[LePaul 321]

I'd have to ask the group, like @SanderVG

I know GR5 continues to advise slower and hotter, so I have been going with 215C and 40 mm/sec. But again, every filament is a bit different on the sweet spot for temperature

[SandervG 1,521]

I quickly read through the post and first I wanted to say that when you think you are underextruding cranking up the temperature is not always the solution.

It can be a 'quick fix', but can result in other problems later. What happens is that while the rate at which it is being extruded remains the same, there is more heath and the heath will travel up through the filament making a larger area softer and will continue to do so.

This can result that the entire hot end (brass tube) can be filled with melted filament.

When going cooler again, this filament which is on the inside of the tube won't melt all the way probably and your path will be more narrow than it is suppose to be.

Potentially the heath can also crawl up into the top of the bowden tube.

When there is some slack/movement in the bowden tube while retracting, it can crawl in the opening and cause a blob.

When this happens it can't go back or forth anymore and you have to remove the bowden tube and cut off the first string of filament.

In our latest (and first) Schooling blog we wrote about how to secure the bowden tube.

It is aimed at the Ultimaker 2, but the concept remains the same.

What can happen when you have a lot of retraction is that the movement, friction plus heath of the motor can deform or soften the filament.

Instead of changing the settings in the firmware, I would first look into your extruder.

Is the bolt clean or does it have a lot of residu?

Is it not too tight?

Can the delrin wheel still rotate freely?

Are there no obstacles in your printhead-area?

Yes.. there is some art to it Good luck!

[the_schire 3]

I quickly read through the post and first I wanted to say that when you think you are underextruding cranking up the temperature is not always the solution.

It can be a 'quick fix', but can result in other problems later. What happens is that while the rate at which it is being extruded remains the same, there is more heath and the heath will travel up through the filament making a larger area softer and will continue to do so.

This can result that the entire hot end (brass tube) can be filled with melted filament.

When going cooler again, this filament which is on the inside of the tube won't melt all the way probably and your path will be more narrow than it is suppose to be.

Potentially the heath can also crawl up into the top of the bowden tube.

When there is some slack/movement in the bowden tube while retracting, it can crawl in the opening and cause a blob.

When this happens it can't go back or forth anymore and you have to remove the bowden tube and cut off the first string of filament.

In our latest (and first) Schooling blog we wrote about how to secure the bowden tube.

It is aimed at the Ultimaker 2, but the concept remains the same.

What can happen when you have a lot of retraction is that the movement, friction plus heath of the motor can deform or soften the filament.

Instead of changing the settings in the firmware, I would first look into your extruder.

Is the bolt clean or does it have a lot of residu?

Is it not too tight?

Can the delrin wheel still rotate freely?

Are there no obstacles in your printhead-area?

Yes.. there is some art to it ;)Good luck!

 

Yeah, I had my suspicions that heat was traveling up the filament causing it to get a little mangled and block flow. About the extruder, I'm pretty sure I'm doing something wrong, but it's been working pretty well. the delrin "U" shaped piece that goes over the other delrin pieces is flaring out where it comes in contact with the two locking nuts. I noticed it does this no matter how tight the tension screw is because that spring is so tense. While I haven't double checked in a while, I'm fairly confident that the little delrin wheel can spin freely. Lastly, I have to position the retention arm on the extruder at its lowest position and crank the screw down as tight as possible or he bolt won't grab the filament. Perhaps that's due to my settings, but I'm not sure. I'll double check everything and experiments with the positioning of the arm tomorrow evening when I have time.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Guest