Advise on printing the Yoda Bust from Thinkiverse

[c9158183 0]

Dear all

I am new to the 3D printing world. I finished building my Ultimaker about two weeks ago and had successfully printed the 0.5mm-thin-wall and 20mm-box objects with Cura 12.08. I then challenged the Yoda Bust (

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:10650

) scaled to 2/3 of its original and sliced by Cura with 'High Quality Print' then printed with PrintRun.

I encountered printing problem (as in first attached photo) on the chin part which started as an standalone printing area in Layer View screen in PrintRun (circled red in second attached photo). I believed there was no material beneath to support and hold the chin in place hence caused the printing problem.

May I know from your experience on how to cope with this standalone printing area without support from the base? Should the 'Print Support Structure' function in Cura be used but I watched so many videos in web on successful print of this bust without support from the base. Or should I edit the GCode to remove the standalone printing areas for the chin until it is a part of the head?

Your advice is very much appreciated.

Chris

[Daid 306]

Most people post-process the yoda after printing, with a knife.

[alaris2 1]

that's good old fashioned post-processing for you.

I'm not sure scaling isn't part of the reason you're having problems - you may create additional overhangs etc.

but what are you going to do with a yoda bust anyway? there's lots more awesome things to print

[c9158183 0]

Most people post-process the yoda after printing, with a knife.

Daid, thank you for your advice! Those videos made me think I can print the bust without support structure. I will get some tools for the post-processing and print the bust again

 

that's good old fashioned post-processing for you.

I'm not sure scaling isn't part of the reason you're having problems - you may create additional overhangs etc.

but what are you going to do with a Yoda bust anyway? there's lots more awesome things to print

Alaris2, the concerned overhangs also exist when the original object was sliced in Cura and ReplicatorG. I am a SW fans since childhood and I wish to impress my relatives and friends on 3D Printing with a nicely printed Yoda bust. Any suggestions on nice objects around for the purpose?

[alaris2 1]

well if you're wanting to impress people, I found the skull gear from thingiverse to be a good talking point. it's quite easy to print, but people can interact with it, which they like.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:27388

there are plenty of similar items - actually thingiverse is getting quite full of things worthy of printing these days (also some rubbish of course)

[c9158183 0]

well if you're wanting to impress people, I found the skull gear from thingiverse to be a good talking point. it's quite easy to print, but people can interact with it, which they like.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:27388

there are plenty of similar items - actually thingiverse is getting quite full of things worthy of printing these days (also some rubbish of course)

alaris2, thank you for the suggestion and I will give it a try

[c9158183 0]

I was able to print the overhanging chin with 'Print Support Structure' enabled in Cura. However at about the nose level the printed layers started to deflected to its left (circled in red in photo) and then subsequent layers were printed on the support structure on the right of the bust (circled in yellow in photo). Attached is a front view of the bust with the support structures.

Any hints on what can cause the above issues and how can I solve them? Also I noticed that the printing quality was good at the beginning but started to get rough and layers being more visible as the printing continue. Any reason for this and how can I maintain constant quality throughout the whole printing?

A million thanks :>

[SandervG 1,521]

I have printed the yoda-bust without support, so i don't think it is necessary..

At what speed/temperature are you printing?

Looking at the last picture i would say your temperature is a bit too high.

As a tip, i know it is a little bit silly, and perhaps as a SW-fan a slap in the face, but i always find this funny:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:27687

About the deflecting, have you checked all your pulleys? are they tight?

Are your small timing belts tight?

(i must say, the deflecting is hard to see on the picture).

[c9158183 0]

I have printed the yoda-bust without support, so i don't think it is necessary..

At what speed/temperature are you printing?

 

The speed and temperature should be as below. It should be the defaults of Cura on 'High Quality Print' using PLA.

print_speed = 50

print_temperature = 210

Should I switch to a lower speed and temperature and any recommended speed+temp pairs to ensure quality printing with PLA? Also, should I constantly check the print head temperature in PrintRun throughout the printing?

 

About the deflecting, have you checked all your pulleys? are they tight?

Are your small timing belts tight?

(i must say, the deflecting is hard to see on the picture).

I will double check the tightness of the all pulleys and tension of all belts. Attached below is the Yoda bust object side-by-side with my printed one. The part circled in blue seems disappeared and in fact the printed layers are deflected to the right of the printed bust, causing the part circled in red to be more than enough.

I recalled below issues during the printing of the bust after around 30 minutes of printing. I wonder if these two issues have caused the decline in printing quality in prolonged printing. An ABS Fix Kit was included in my Ultimaker kit but I was advised to skip using it and now I am considering to extrude the ABS to fix the below leakages. One question is how can I remove the accumulated PLA (esp those in b)) and proceed with the ABS extrusion?

a) brown sludge started to formed around the gap between the nozzle and the aluminum heater block as circled red in below photo. This sludge slipped down the nozzle, touched down on the printed surface and pushed aside by the moving nozzle.

b) melted PLA accumulated around the gap between the aluminum heater block and the peek insulator as circled blue in below photo. The longer the printing the more PLA is accumulated.

[msurunner 2]

Are you running a hybrid nozzle setup? If so, you will probably have to tighten things up a couple times as you heat and cool the hot end to get a good mesh between the brass pieces or you'll get leakage in the areas you are seeing.