Cruddy prints

[cvoinescu]

@blah59 has a valid point. What we see is certainly a symptom of plastic not cooling down sufficiently, but there may be too much plastic too.

@brnrd: I'm suggesting very gentle cooling, not a powerful fan at full blast, in combination with slowing down.

[Turbo442]

Cosmicray,

I tried to find the stl file you used but couldnt seem to locate it.

Could you post a link, I will print it and post my settings.

[cozmicray]

I am doing better

Good Bad and Ugly ordbot Hadron ABS attemps

Nautilus gear 46m on ordbot

But printerd axles for Nautilus machine had to be lopped off
and replaced with turned aluminum axles

Nautilus gears

I did attempt 4 of the little stepped items
3 of the 4 got knocked off

Still trying

Tnx
Ray

[cozmicray]

Trying to print some new Hardron parts
Bed -- Blue Painters tape over glass

This is PLA

PLA print of y motor mount

PLA_settings_2-8-13.txt

Slic3r settings

(3.03 KiB) Downloaded 992 times

Can someone give me some Slic3r / repetier settings to try to attempt this print

Tnx
Ray

[bdring]

What extruder are you using?

First, it looks like the Z could be zero a little lower. Even if it does not stick it should smoosh down a little.

[enmity]

Trying to print some new Hardron parts
Bed -- Blue Painters tape over glass

This is PLA

PLA_print.jpg

PLA_settings_2-8-13.txt

Can someone give me some Slic3r / repetier settings to try to attempt this print

Tnx
Ray

I had that exact problem with mine when I first tried to print something, my problem was both thermistors on the extruder and the hotbed. The thermistors were purchased on ebay and were the correct ones according to the ebay description but in reality they wern't. The thermistor table selected was way off even though the software was reading 230c in reality it was 190c. Hotbed was completly opposite reading 100c in reality it was way up there the board discolored and was pretty much ruined. I sucked it up and purchased the correct ones from digikey at 4 bucks a piece plus 12 bucks shipping but all my problems were corrected.

[cozmicray]

mBot Mk 7 extruder calibrated for filiment feed rate and diameter.

The Bed was leveled and zero set before the print with a heated bed / extruder.
It is the width of a piece of paper above the blue tape /glass.

The bed has a contact thermistor taped on and the extruder temp has been tested
and the temperatures are good. What should be Temperatures for PLA???

[gyrogearloose]

I have no suggestion for the lifting, but the horrible melting at the top happened to me too, with PLA, when the previous layers did not have time to solidify. It's worse on layers that take less time to print. Skeinforge has the option to increase the layer time to a set minimum, exactly for this reason. It has two choices: slow down so that the layer takes at least that minimum time to extrude, or it do the layer at normal speed then circle around it, waiting for the time to elapse ("orbit"). "Slow down" doesn't really work for me: with the hot nozzle so close, the previous layers remain molten; and my nozzle doesn't extrude cleanly at very low speed. "Orbit" works much better. A fan blowing on the work helps tremendously; PLA requires vigorous cooling, ABS only a little. With the fan on, I found that a minimum layer time of 10 seconds is plenty for PLA to solidify. (I don't have much experience with ABS yet.)

My experience is that you definitely need a ducted fan to blow over the nozzle to stop the melting of small cross sections. If you slice with Kisslicer, you can specify to run the fan for loops only (ABS) or all the time (PLA). You can also specify a minimum layer time which will prevent heat buildup and filament not hardening also.

[SystemsGuy]

So I agree, having a fan helps with PLA, but I never use it on the first layer. I do use slow down on rapid completed layers, but that's not your problem. Some thoughts -

1] Try a bit higher than 205 for the first layer. Most pla isn't horrible sensitive, you can run it out hot. I'd try 210 as a next step.
2] "Zero is Zero". I've never understood why people suggest setting the print head a paper width off the surface - other than the fact I guess it's easier to measure. I set my Z home a zero above the bed.
3] 200% width increase on the first layer is a bit extreme.
4] If you have a test dial, it's pretty easy to mount on the ordbot to tram your bed.
5] On blue painters tape, I print hot on the first layer, and don't heat the bed at all. If I print on boro, I heat the bed to 70c for the first layer, and drop to 55c for the rest.
6] Any grease on your build surface is pla repellent - so make sure it's cleaned and degreased. I use 99% isopropyl alcohol to wipe the tape before a print.


I don't really "squash" the first layer with PLA, but I do extrude it hotter and slower than the rest of the layers.

I've attached my slic3r config - this is my "medium" quality sorta config, and I'd consider my Ordbot now pretty well dialed in. The speeds require accurate acceleration and jerk configuration in your firmware.

[cozmicray]

Using Systemguy's config for PLA
New PLA --- new supplier, new color

Sticking better but not all the time
Maybe I'm expecting too much?

still looks crappy to me?

Silver PLA prints 1

Silver PLA 2