Printing for 17h - safe?

[kempton 0]

So,

I got my Ultimaker last tuesday, got it locked and loaded. Found a setting pretty quick, using Netfabb (ultra setting) + Merlin v2 + RepG for printing, as Netfabb does not connect to the Ultimaker.

I am a sucker for high quality prints, and currently working on making a master for a bottle I am later going to cast in silicone. This video(

 

) shows the speed im using, painfully slow, I KNOW, but i don't quite know, and don't quite dare to speed it up. The print on the video has been going on for 1h, gaining 8mm in height. The final bottle is a good 140mm, which will take a good 17h (!!!) to complete. WOW! I will probably slice it in two and later re-assemble it, but still, its a long time.

Is this really safe? I gotta sleep at some point, and i don't want it to overheat and start burning up, with me next to it.

How long the other Ultimakerists using for prints? I presume some of you let it stay overnight. What is the WORST CASE SCENARIO?

Regards,

William

[Daid 306]

People have run their ultimaker for more then 20 hours. It won't overheat, or instantly catch fire. If it's build properly that is, and you don't add explosives

The worst case scenario is an extruder jam. Which means the extruder drive will have grind down the filament by the next morning, and, worst of all, your print will have failed.

I think you can double that speed with ease. Your limiting factor with the print you showed in the film is the amount of cooling the previous layer gets when you put the next on top.

Also, if you are printing from RepG. I recommend you switch to something more stable like PrintRun or SendG. RepG has been known to ruin long print sessions.

PS. It never hurts to have smoke detectors, just to be sure.

[kempton 0]

So, i'll convince my girlfriend that its not so bad, that its almost totally safe, and that the noise is not annoying at all, while pointing at the smoke detector directly over it. Cool.

Ok, so downloaded Printrun (a.k.a. pronter? is that the same?) for my mac, and trying out a simple circular shape. Is there any way of speeding it up as it works, or do i have to start it over again?

- William

[cyclone 0]

I agree with Daid,

I've done many overnight prints, with no problems. Over heating will only happen if the temp sensor goes out and I believe the firmware has code in it to shut down if temp ever reads "0." Since it is unlikely that you are printing in a snow bank or freezer the assumption would be that the temp sensor became disconnected.

The only thing I'd watch for is if the printer successfully turns off the heater at the end of a print. Which if the code your are generating works once it should generally work.

So that said, I have had a runaway heater on my makerbot, (repG UI problem where I typed in 220 for a temp and it kept the "0" that was in the box so it came out 2200)

But so the hot end metal part melted out of the insulator and was hanging from the heater and temp sensor wires. Fun times.

If it makes you feel better keep a fire extinguisher nearby, pref one for electrical situations.

I also agree with the Printrun SendG comment. RepG and Netfabb tend to crap out on long prints, and RepG wont even load really long gcode files.

[Daid 306]

PrintRun is also called "Pronterface" sometimes (or Pronterface is the printing interface in the PrintRun package)

It can do "live tuning" but it doesn't have an special interface for it. You can do speed tuning with the "M220" command. If you send a "M220 S200" it will run at 200% speed. So you can create some custom buttons with "50% speed" "75% speed" "100% speed" "150% speed" "200% speed". I have plans to add a tuning window to Pronterface, but it's one of the many plans I have. So don't wait up for it.

[kempton 0]

Tried writing "M220 S70" in the interface on the right column, but nothing happened while it was working. Is it supposed to?

So, I'll write it in the gcode, but where do i put it? Posting the first part of my gcode here:

 

M106M109 G21G90G28G92 X0.0000 Y0.0000 Z0.0000 E0.0000G1 E0.0000M107G1 X0.0000 Y200.0000 Z0.0000 F10800.0000 G1 X0.0000 Y200.0000 Z4.9800 F1200.0000 G1 X0.0000 Y200.0000 Z5.0000 F1200.0000 M109 S185.0000G1 X0.0000 Y200.0000 Z9.9800 F1200.0000 G1 X0.0000 Y200.0000 Z10.0000 F1200.0000 M109 S190.0000(begin region 1)M106(begin layer 1 at 0.040)G1 X92.2800 Y95.0500 Z10.0000 F10500.0000 E0.0000 G1 X93.7245 Y93.4073 Z10.0000 F10500.0000 E0.0000 

 

[IRobertI 520]

Just wanted to say regarding the temp probe; while screwing my printer head back together last night (for the 4th time that day hehe) I got careless and managed to squeeze the wires under one of the screws. The heater was still on as I had to keep the head hot to take it apart and put it back together again. After screwing down that fateful screw I stopped for a bit to read a forum thread (thinking that leaving the head hot would be fine as it was mostly empty) but all of a sudden I saw smoke rising...

Turns out that the probe reported something like 30C in that semi-shorted condition and the heater just kept heating indefinitely. Luckily I was sitting right next to it so it never got the chance to go too far. Of course this was entirely my own fault but it might be worth keeping in mind.

[Daid 306]

Tried writing "M220 S70" in the interface on the right column, but nothing happened while it was working. Is it supposed to?

Mmm... yes, but it might take a while, because the commands are buffered. If you change the speed you should hear the difference, because a difference in speed make a different sound.

Maybe Printrun doesn't send commands from the right column while it's printing. I haven't really tested that yet.

Also, which firmware version are you using? M220 S** should work in Marlin. But I'm not 100% sure if it works in Spinter or 5D.

[kempton 0]

Using Marlin v2. Tried with v3 on RepG but it wont update the firmware. (Neither did compiling it from arduino program itself)

So, just put on another print, tried writing in M220 S200 first, then again after the print started, but does not seem to make difference.

- william

[kempton 0]

Ok,

went through some posts in the "Marlin" category, and installed the latest Marlin. This was the issue. Now it works.

Workin' smoothly at 200%. Whats the speed record around here?

[Daid 306]

I've printed at 160mm/s but that required a high temperature and doesn't produce perfect results. I'm unsure how fast the defaults are so not sure how much % faster this is.

The limit seems to be in how much filament you can push trough the nozzle, not really the speed of the head. So if you use smaller layers you can go faster

[mr_seeker 0]

I tried 240mm/s (800%) with an experimental ultimaker (one from the protolab) and used skeinforge 35 with failsafe settings. Didnt print the nicest prints at all, but it was fast as hell (was literally shocked). At one moment I even slowed it down because I got afraid it would shake everything from the table.

Hint for those that try to do the same: Start slow, get a hand on the powerswitch, and slowly speed up. When it goes terribly wrong, you can quickly press the button.

If you know that normal 3d printers print at a maximum of 32mm/s, and the ultimaker team got speeds upto 500mm/s with their machine, you know how fast an ultimaker can become.

[ddurant 0]

...it was fast as hell (was literally shocked)..

LOL.. I remember that moment for me, where I was thinking very seriously about slapping the power switch. The machine stayed happy though, so I let it print.

Coming from a makerbot, an ultimaker is quite a trip..

[mr_seeker 0]

Coming from a makerbot, an ultimaker is quite a trip..

I came from the BfB rapman... I would say that one was a 1000 bucks down the drain actually. Its sitting here using the space, half-broken because I didnt want to print replacement parts for it. I am afraid that if I transport it somewhere, it would break apart :S If someone knows a good use for it, please tell me.

[Daid 306]

Coming from a makerbot, an ultimaker is quite a trip..

I came from the BfB rapman... I would say that one was a 1000 bucks down the drain actually. Its sitting here using the space, half-broken because I didnt want to print replacement parts for it. I am afraid that if I transport it somewhere, it would break apart :S If someone knows a good use for it, please tell me.

Use the parts to build a 2nd ultimaker. The motors, rods and electronics should be good. You could also use the parts for an eggbot or an CnC mill. Or sell the parts.

[mr_seeker 0]

Coming from a makerbot, an ultimaker is quite a trip..

I came from the BfB rapman... I would say that one was a 1000 bucks down the drain actually. Its sitting here using the space, half-broken because I didnt want to print replacement parts for it. I am afraid that if I transport it somewhere, it would break apart :S If someone knows a good use for it, please tell me.

Use the parts to build a 2nd ultimaker. The motors, rods and electronics should be good. You could also use the parts for an eggbot or an CnC mill. Or sell the parts.

Actually have an eggbot lying around. Pretty funny stuff, especially when its eastern or when the chickens are laying eggs.

I am thinking about building an ultimaker clone (since the stepper motors are bigger). I wish I had some free tinkering time...

[kempton 0]

I came from manually cutting pieces of plastic foam with a bandsaw and sanding it down with paper, to THIS! Now i can go and have a beer, watch some tv and sleep while the ultimaker does it for me. (trusting that the machine does not burn down my girlfriend's apartment)

[mr_seeker 0]

trusting that the machine does not burn down my girlfriend's apartment

That would be very uncommon. In fact, if that happens you would be the first to know