Yay, ultimaking!

[madwinter 0]

Hi everyone,

I just finished building my ultimaker kit 2 days ago and was eager to start printing. After testing around and virtually no tweaking i went ahead and started the first long print, the owl from thingiverse. I created a simple timelaps of the build:

There were only slight slips, and little stringy drops on the steep feathers. I printed in white pla, 220*C, about 100mm/s. also on the back left the fill does not completly reach the outline while it does everywhere else. I also get a criss cross pattern instead of a smooth surface on the fully filled layer( except on the edges, there its very smooth)

Maybe someone has a hint on how i can improve it even further?

All in all i'm very happy and impressed with the machine. Go ultimaker!

[illuminarti 18]

Welcome to the Forum, and to the world of Ultimaker! That's a really nice first print. Well done!

The infill not totally touching the perimeters is probably due to what is known as 'backlash'. The most likely cause is that your short belts from one or both X-Y motors isn't quite tight enough. Loosen the screws, and press the motor down firmly, and then retighten the screws.

The criss-cross pattern on the solid layers is due to under-extrusion. This is could be some or all of for several reasons:

1) You specified a filament diameter that was a little bit wider than your actual filament in your slicer program, so that it thought it was getting more plastic than it really was;

2) Your steps-per-e calibration might be a little bit off (search on here for details of how to set that correctly)

3) The extruder might be under-extruding a little on long fast stretches like the infill, because the print speed is a little high, compared to what the extruder can sustain (I explain that here: http://www.extrudable.me/2013/04/18/exploring-extrusion-variability-and-limits/ but that might be more detail than you want right now).

4) Depending on the wall thickness you used in Cura (if you used Cura) you might get wrongly spaced infill lines.

5) You might just be printing a little too fast; what layer height and nozzle/wall width did you use?

To reduce the drooping on the edges, you need to slow down the print a little, and make sure that the lower layer has had time to solidify. Setting a longer minimum layer time in your slicer may help a little. Also, setting a slower print speed for the perimeter (as you can do in some slicers, but not Cura) may also help.

Basically, the art of 3D printing is figuring out how best to balance the needs of the different parts of a print to get an acceptable level of quality, without slowing down the print excessively. We can always do better, in terms of quality, but it may be more than we need, and it may be at the cost of excessively slow print times. The key is to remember that there isn't one 'perfect' setting, and that every object is different.

All-in-all though, this looks like a really nice print. I wouldn't worry too much about what look to be fairly minor issues with the finished product!

 

[ian 32]

welcome to ultimaker ! :-)

Fantastic first print... the only thing i noticed and its nothing to do with your side at all. after a while the bottom corners of your great print curl up and later, they even pull up the blue tape from the bed.

In models like this, people wont notice it so much for for anything more accurate... mmmmm... not so great.

just as a helpful tip on your next big print... try using a wide RAFT...5mm around your model (Cura setting) and then when you print it, print it slowly carefully and make sure the print head is nice and close to the print head, so the raft comes out a little flattened... then for me, i always print the first few layers without cooling and then when every thing is ticky boo, turn on the cooler at 150 and leave the ultimaker to print its magic....

once again... welcome :-)

Ian

 

[madwinter 0]

Welcome to the Forum, and to the world of Ultimaker! That's a really nice first print. Well done!

The infill not totally touching the perimeters is probably due to what is known as 'backlash'. The most likely cause is that your short belts from one or both X-Y motors isn't quite tight enough. Loosen the screws, and press the motor down firmly, and then retighten the screws.

The criss-cross pattern on the solid layers is due to under-extrusion. This is could be some or all of for several reasons:

1) You specified a filament diameter that was a little bit wider than your actual filament in your slicer program, so that it thought it was getting more plastic than it really was;

2) Your steps-per-e calibration might be a little bit off (search on here for details of how to set that correctly)

3) The extruder might be under-extruding a little on long fast stretches like the infill, because the print speed is a little high, compared to what the extruder can sustain (I explain that here: http://www.extrudable.me/2013/04/18/exploring-extrusion-variability-and-limits/ but that might be more detail than you want right now).

4) Depending on the wall thickness you used in Cura (if you used Cura) you might get wrongly spaced infill lines.

5) You might just be printing a little too fast; what layer height and nozzle/wall width did you use?

To reduce the drooping on the edges, you need to slow down the print a little, and make sure that the lower layer has had time to solidify. Setting a longer minimum layer time in your slicer may help a little. Also, setting a slower print speed for the perimeter (as you can do in some slicers, but not Cura) may also help.

Basically, the art of 3D printing is figuring out how best to balance the needs of the different parts of a print to get an acceptable level of quality, without slowing down the print excessively. We can always do better, in terms of quality, but it may be more than we need, and it may be at the cost of excessively slow print times. The key is to remember that there isn't one 'perfect' setting, and that every object is different.

All-in-all though, this looks like a really nice print. I wouldn't worry too much about what look to be fairly minor issues with the finished product!

 

Thanks for all the tips!

To answer your points:

1) I experimented a little with the settings for filament diameter. I started with the 2.89 default ( Cura ) value, went down and up a little but it did not seem to make much of a difference. I also measured the filament, it was betwen 2.9 and 3 mm.

2) I'll research that when I get home.

3) Thats probably it. I noticed that on the corners it gets really smooth, when the head switches direction and has to speed up again. I'll try to print the first few layers with a much lower speed next time.

4) I noticed that the infill gets quite "choppy" with low infill values. Maybe wall thickness is the cause?

5) I used 0.1 layer height, I left the nozzle size on the default value (0.4mm). Wall thickness is also default, 0.8 mm

Again, thanks for all your tips!

 

[madwinter 0]

welcome to ultimaker ! :smile:

Fantastic first print... the only thing i noticed and its nothing to do with your side at all. after a while the bottom corners of your great print curl up and later, they even pull up the blue tape from the bed.

In models like this, people wont notice it so much for for anything more accurate... mmmmm... not so great.

just as a helpful tip on your next big print... try using a wide RAFT...5mm around your model (Cura setting) and then when you print it, print it slowly carefully and make sure the print head is nice and close to the print head, so the raft comes out a little flattened... then for me, i always print the first few layers without cooling and then when every thing is ticky boo, turn on the cooler at 150 and leave the ultimaker to print its magic....

once again... welcome :smile:

Ian

 

Yeah, I definitely noticed the warping as well. A friend of mine just closed the front and sides with carton, to keep the temperatur up inside which is supposed to work quite well.

I want to play around with the fan as well. I don't really like the idea of the raft, it never seems to peel of nicely and I really like the smooth finish of the under side too much

 

[madwinter 0]

 

I was able to greatly improve my results by changing the height between nozzle and bed. Before I had it quite loose, last evening I made it "paper tight" ( Piece of paper under the nozzle, so that it takes some force to move the paper ). Now the surface finish is pretty optimal, but it got a lot harder to remove it from the bed as well.

On the left its paper-tight, while the right are my first try's. The case on the left also had supports added as well.

I also tried out the project planner for the left case, it worked beautiful.

( Btw. disabling the head fan got rid of the all the curling for the raspberry case, I printed it quite slow anyway )

 

[jensleander 0]

Hi madwinter.

I know this is an old thread but I will give it a try.

That iPhone case is really looking nice! Which settings have you used?

Very nice results you have there by the way! Big thumbs up!

Thanks in advance

[madwinter 0]

Hi Jens,

I always use .1 mm layer height for the final prints. I think the most important thing is the bed leveling, you want it paper tight (meaning if you put a piece of paper between the nozzle and the bed you need some force to pull it out, so the plastic is spread a little by the nose itself. It gives the best finish in my opinion. Apart from that I use mostly default values. The other thing is the print speed, the slower, the better the result in most cases. I normally set it to 50-100 mm/s, and then use the knob on the printer to tune it up or down depending on how it looks.

Cheers,

Mad