Pause a Print

[DanielHolmSweden 15]

To print a model can take some time and it could be very noisy when you live in a Studio like I do. I decide to test first cool down the nozzle and the plate, when cooled down I turn off the fan and LED light. My plan is to adjust back the settings tomorrow and continue from where I paused. Is this possible?

What happen if there is a power cut when printing? Is all the work wasted?

In Spain it happen even if not very often like in old days.

 

/ Daniel

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @DanielHolmSweden, welcome to our community! 

So if I understand it correctly, you try to pause your print for a longer period of time (let's say during the night), and you want to continue the next day when you leave for work again?

 

It kinda depends on what filament you use. If you use PLA you have a higher chance of success, since that doesn't deform/shrink as much as for example ABS when it cools down. When the material shrinks while your print is paused, and it restarts, the last layer you printed will have moved and you will see seem on your final print. In a bad scenario, it will have changed so much your new layer won't adhere to it properly and your print will fail. 

 

I would advise against turning off your heated bed. If you lose heat, you lose adhesion and your print will get detached from the buildplate. When there is a powercut, your Ultimaker will probably reset and indeed have to start over. 

[DanielHolmSweden 15]

Hi, @SandervG and everybody:) I tried do the way I explained and with the model I at this moment do and most often are the case its not any problem at all, and yes its PLA I use. model I doing is houses with big "footprints"  Now I restarted it and it worked but because of other circumstances I had to restart the printing.

I found a problem in the filament coils that they have been rolled up in a way that the filament got stucked! There should be a sensor that notice that the material doesn't feed instead of continue print empty and therefore loose track!

I also noticed that after PLA have been unpacked it ages, loose its flexibility and easier get stuck.

Now I restarted with a new fresh roll.

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @DanielHolmSweden, what printer are you using?

The Ultimaker S5 has a filament flow sensor which detects just that. But as a user you can also reduce the chance of this happening with how you unpack your filament and how you store it. Make sure you hold on to the end of the string and don't let it uncoil. 

[DanielHolmSweden 15]

I use Ultimaker 2, lets see if I upgrade one day. I bought more to be able to understand how to create the files more than do the actual print.