Jump to content

Printing in the air


carinac

Recommended Posts

Posted · Printing in the air

Hi,

I used to print very good, flat on the atform.

I struggle with a stretched bracelet (with text on it), which didn't work out and changed the shell and top/bottom and temperature (to 210 instead of 220).

Suddenly my UM started to print in the air.

Anybody knows how to correct this?

Thanks a lot, and enjoy the lovely wheather for those in the Netherlands.

Carina

 

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing in the air

    Maybe post a short video?

    It sounds like maybe a problem where the Z axis goes either in the wrong direction, only one direction, or maybe goes in the opposite direction it is supposed to? Could be DIR signal which determines which way steppers move or a Z endstop issue (when endstop signal is stuck the machine only goes one direction).

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing in the air

    Hi,

    Thanks a lot for the quick respond. I have done some actions, like first run wizard and bed leveling and replaced the tape. After that it didn't print in the air anymore. But for some reason I cannot level the right front bolt, it is higher then the bed and the bed doesn't want to lift.

    I want to upload a picture, but ... don't see any attachment possibility. I also made a video, same problem. My media is empty, but how can I fill it?

    Thanks in advance,

    Carina

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing in the air

    Well a 3 legged stool is more stable than a 4 legged stool. Same problem with 4 point levelling. The two nearer screws to this one are probably pulling down too hard for this screw to touch the bed.

    Try pushing up on the bed here - you will probably see the far coner go down like this one.

    Levelling takes practice. Here are my notes for levelling UM Original:

    How to level:

    leveling here is defined as setting the Z height and also leveling. It's one procedure that does both at once.

    Optionally heat up the nozzle to 180C because a cold nozzle shrinks and you will be setting the bed to the wrong height. Make sure tip of nozzle doesn't have any plastic on it or you may level to the wrong height. I usually prefer to level with a cold nozzle but if you want extra accuracy then use hot nozzle. If you have a heated bed that should also be warm for the same reason.

    Home the z axis only. If you must home all 3 then you need to disable the steppers once it's done so you can move the print head by hand. Move the head as close as possible to each of the 4 screws in turn. Once at a screw tighten the screw and then slip a piece of paper between the nozzle and the print bed. Make sure the paper slides very freeley. Then loosen the screw until the paper gets slightly stuck. You want the paper to easily be able to slide in and out under the nozzle with one hand pushing the paper. If the paper gets stuck it's probably too tight under there. While levelling try rocking the bed across both opposite diagonals to see if one of the screws isn't touching the bed and to see if the bed is "hung up" or stuck on the threads of a screw instead of on the screw head.

    Repeat this procedure for the other 3 screws. Then go back to the first screw and repeat on all 4 screws again. Then repeat on all 4 screws again. Then again. It may take you 20 minutes to do this the first time but the second time you do this it should take much less time because you are both better at it, faster at it, and because there isn't much to adjust the second time.

    Note that the act of putting the screwdriver in the head can apply weight to the bed and change the height. You have to be careful to put as little weight as possible when testing with the paper.

    If you leveled with a cold nozzle you are done. If you leveled with a hot nozzle you should then loosen the 4 screws 1/8 of a turn to compensate for the thickness of the paper.

    Once done leveling rotate the z screw by hand to keep the nozzle off your bed. This makes it less likely to damage your bed surface and gives the nozzle room to leak.

    On a new ultimaker repeat this procedure before every print (at least every hour) because the print bed can move/droop like a new guitar string. After many months the droop slows down.

     

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing in the air

    Also - in your video - I heard a strange noise. It sounded maybe like you had retraction going on. Something is wrong with your slicing of your bracelet. It should print the bracelet/stretchlet in one continuous movement. It shouldn't stop and go back. Even with lettering, the lettering should be on the side - not the bottom. So I am confused. In other words it should print the entire bottom layer in much less time than your video.

    Where did you get the bracelet? Thingiverse? Can you post a link? bracelets are tricky - you have to play with a few special settings in Cura. You might need "combine everything type A" in advanced settings, also turn off "bottom" and "top" and set infill to 0%. Also set shell thickness to .4mm so it does it in one pass. This is an example of a bracelet that works well:

    http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:50748/#files

    (I like the curvy inner edge against my wrist - sharp corners against my wrist are bad)

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing in the air

    Here are my stretchlet settings. I've printed hundreds with this slicer setting:

     


    ;CURA_PROFILE_STRING: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

    Save the above string as A SINGLE LINE OF TEXT into a file called "bracelet settings.gcode" Then from Cura do "load profile from gcode..." and navigate to this file.

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing in the air

    As I can't upload a scad file (...) here is the code

    //inner radius of the bracelet in mm

    inner_radius = 28; //[15:150]

    //outer radius of the bracelet in mm

    outer_radius = 33; //[15:150]

    //length of the bracelet in mm

    length = 15; // [5:60]

    //diameter of your 3d printer nozzle in mm

    nozzle = 0.5;

    //number of sections on bracelets

    sections = 17; //[15:60]

    //text to put on bracelet

    text = "MAMA LOVES FAY";

    //view text as holes?

    holes = "no"; // [yes, no]

    //text thickness as amount of nozzle

    text_thickness = 5; //[2:6]

    use <MCAD/fonts.scad>

    module test(){

    echo("test");

    }

    baseheight = 0.8;

    r1 = inner_radius;

    r1a = r1*1.01; //I added this

    r2 = outer_radius;

    r2a = r2*0.99; //I added this

    n = sections;

    gapin = 3*nozzle; //I changed this

    gapout = 5*nozzle; //I changed this

    alpha = 2*PI/sections;

    alpha_1 = alpha - gapin/r1a; //I changed this

    beta = 2*PI/sections;

    beta_1 = alpha - gapout/r2a; //I changed this

    alpha_2 = gapin/r1a; //I changed this

    beta_2 = gapout/r2a; //I changed this

    alpha_3 = nozzle/r1a; //I changed this

    beta_3 = nozzle/r2a; //I changed this

    fudge = 0.01;

    //process the text, we have beta_1 for the symbol, use beta_2 for border!

    thisFont=8bit_polyfont();

    x_shift=thisFont[0][0];

    y_shift=thisFont[0][1];

    theseIndicies=search(text,thisFont[2],1,1);

    wordlength = (len(theseIndicies));

    factorygap = 1;

    scale_x = (beta_1-beta_2) * r2 / x_shift;

    scale_y = (length - factorygap*gapout) / y_shift;

    thicknessword = text_thickness * nozzle;

    // Create the Text

    module alltext() {

    for( j=[0:(len(theseIndicies)-1)] )

    rotate([0, 0, (3/2*beta_2 + (beta_1-beta_2)/2 + j* beta)*180/PI])

    translate([r2 -1.5* nozzle, -(beta_1-beta_2) * r2 /2 , factorygap/2*gapout])

    rotate([90,0,90])

    {

    scale([scale_x,scale_y,1]){

    linear_extrude(height=thicknessword)

    polygon(points=thisFont[2][theseIndicies[j]][6][0],paths=thisFont[2][theseIndicies[j]][6][1]);

    }

    }

    }

    module innerholes() {

    union() {

    for (i = [0:n-1]){

    rotate([0,0,(-alpha_1/2 + i* alpha)*180/PI])

    translate([r1,0,0])

    cube(size=[3*nozzle,gapin, 3*length], center=true);

    }

    }

    }

    module spikes() {

    linear_extrude(height=length) { union(){

    for (i = [0:n-1]){

    polygon(points = [ [r1a*cos((-alpha_1/2 + i* alpha-alpha_2/2)*180/PI),

    r1a*sin((-alpha_1/2 + i* alpha-alpha_2/2)*180/PI)],

    [r2a*cos((2*beta_2/2 + (i-1)* beta)*180/PI),

    r2a*sin((2*beta_2/2 + (i-1)* beta)*180/PI)],

    [r2a*cos((2*beta_2/2 + (i-1)* beta-beta_3)*180/PI),

    r2a*sin((2*beta_2/2 + (i-1)* beta-beta_3)*180/PI)],

    [r1a*cos((-alpha_1/2 + i* alpha-alpha_2/2-alpha_3)*180/PI),

    r1a*sin((-alpha_1/2 + i* alpha-alpha_2/2-alpha_3)*180/PI)]

    ],

    paths = [ [0,1,2,3]]);

    }

    }}

    linear_extrude(height=length) { union(){

    for (i = [0:n-1]){

    polygon(points = [ [r1a*cos((-alpha_1/2 + i* alpha+alpha_2/2+alpha_3)*180/PI),

    r1a*sin((-alpha_1/2 + i* alpha+alpha_2/2+alpha_3)*180/PI)],

    [r2a*cos(((i)* beta+beta_3)*180/PI),

    r2a*sin(( (i)* beta+beta_3)*180/PI)],

    [r2a*cos(( (i)* beta)*180/PI),

    r2a*sin(( (i)* beta)*180/PI)],

    [r1a*cos((-alpha_1/2 + i* alpha+alpha_2/2)*180/PI),

    r1a*sin((-alpha_1/2 + i* alpha+alpha_2/2)*180/PI)]

    ],

    paths = [ [0,1,2,3]]);

    }

    }}

    }

    module outerholes() {

    union() {

    for (i = [0:n-1]){

    rotate([0,0,(beta_2/2 + i* beta)*180/PI])

    translate([r2-nozzle,0,0])

    cube(size=[3*nozzle, gapout, 3*length], center=true);

    }

    }

    }

    module outercirc(){

    difference(){

    cylinder(h=length, r=r2, $fn=100);

    translate([0,0,-fudge]) cylinder(h=length+2*fudge, r=r2-nozzle, $fn=100);

    outerholes();

    }

    }

    module innercirc(){

    difference(){

    cylinder(h=length, r=r1+nozzle, $fn=100);

    translate([0,0,-fudge]) cylinder(h=length+2*fudge, r=r1, $fn=100);

    innerholes();

    }

    }

    module baseform(){

    union(){

    outercirc();

    innercirc();

    spikes();

    }

    }

    rotate([0,0,-90])

    if (holes == "yes") {

    difference(){

    baseform();

    alltext();

    }

    } else {

    union(){

    baseform();

    alltext();

    }

    }

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing in the air

    Okay. I converted your scad file to an stl. It says "moma loves fay" on it. It took a minute or two to run. When I first sliced it in cura it came out just like yours - hundreds of non-extruding moves - missing sections. A complete mess. Here's a photo:

    A

    So then I tried "expert settings, fix horrible, type B" and it got MUCH better. I then set shell to .4, fill density to 0%, unchecked infill top and iinfill bottom and it looks great now - no blue lines:

    B

     

    It now prints in 17 minutes instead of 29 minutes (at print speed 60 layer height .2). And it's well a bracelet instead of a series of unconnected walls.

     

    I think if you had used the settings I posted above it would have worked, but "type B" was the secret sauce to get it to work.

     

    added later: Note that the blue lines are non-extruding - that's just air. More than one or two blue lines is a problem for a bracelet/stretchlet.

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing in the air

    YES! If you were here, I would kiss you :-P Thanks a lot!

    I have a few questions though.

    In what cases do I have to use this fix horrible type B? The help function was not very clear.

    And I don't understand a clue how it can be so good with fill density 0.0! Why not top/bottom?

    I did printspeed 100 by the way (let the UM work a bit harder :-)).

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing in the air

    I'd rather a hug than a kiss, but thanks.

    I don't really understand any of those fix horrible settings. Daid (cura author) has explained them several times but he thinks of polygons in a given slice yet we think of 3d objects.

    Anyway, that bracelet has an outer and an inner wall which is normally good for 3d printing but your requested shell thickness is .4mm yet the wall was .39mm in places and .41mm in places and it makes for a mess when printing it out - the .39mm walls were being ignored as too narrow for a .4mm nozzle.

    So we tell Cura that it is a solid part and that double wall is a fluke and ignore the inner wall, The "combine everything" helps us make it into one solid part - a bracelet without a place to put your hand through.

    Then we tell cura not to print: top, bottom, infill. That way it is now back to a hollow bracelet.

    As far as why you need to check 3 of the 4 checkboxes in fix horrible - I really don't know. I just started trying all 11 combinations at random until it worked (One might think there are 15 combinations but Daid told me that checking both "A" and "B" does the same thing as checking only one of them (I forget which one)).

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Create an account or sign in to comment

    You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create an account

    Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now
    • Our picks

      • Introducing Universal Cura Projects in the UltiMaker Cura 5.7 beta
        Strap in for the first Cura release of 2024! This 5.7 beta release brings new material profiles as well as cloud printing for Method series printers, and introduces a powerful new way of sharing print settings using printer-agnostic project files! Also, if you want to download the cute dinosaur card holder featured below, it was specially designed for this release and can be found on Thingiverse! 
          • Like
        • 10 replies
      • S-Line Firmware 8.3.0 was released Nov. 20th on the "Latest" firmware branch.
        (Sorry, was out of office when this released)

        This update is for...
        All UltiMaker S series  
        New features
         
        Temperature status. During print preparation, the temperatures of the print cores and build plate will be shown on the display. This gives a better indication of the progress and remaining wait time. Save log files in paused state. It is now possible to save the printer's log files to USB if the currently active print job is paused. Previously, the Dump logs to USB option was only enabled if the printer was in idle state. Confirm print removal via Digital Factory. If the printer is connected to the Digital Factory, it is now possible to confirm the removal of a previous print job via the Digital Factory interface. This is useful in situations where the build plate is clear, but the operator forgot to select Confirm removal on the printer’s display. Visit this page for more information about this feature.
          • Like
        • 0 replies
    ×
    ×
    • Create New...