3D Printing - A useful thread

[Crusoe]

22 hours ago, rwillett said:

There are a couple of things that you need to get right every time. 

 

1. Bed levelling. This gives you the foundations of the print. Get this wrong anf your print won't stay put and you're wasting your time. I used a sheet of 80g paper. Not a business card or a thing too thick. The nozzle should just catch on the paper. Not jam the paper, just catch it. also this needs to be across the whole bed or at least the area you are printing. 

 

2. First temp layer. Do a temperature tower. Download a temperature tower for PLA and print it to work out the correct temp. I assume you use PLA as your first filament as that's easiest. Ignore PETG and other filaments for the moment. 

 

3. Clean the bed with isopropyl alcohol. Is the neo a magnetic mat? Or a glass bed? 

 

If these don't work post pics of what the output looks like. 

 

Rob

Cheers. I managed to get the bed level (it's glass - carborundum I think the spec calls it) and when I got the z-axis offset correct, it printed well.

[rwillett]

13 hours ago, itu said:

Some years ago when I dove into metal AM (additive manufacturing), went to an international meeting. This is short, but full of interesting details.

 

control-approach-chemical-safety-of-3d-printing-at-workplaces.pdf 344.43 kB · 2 downloads

 

Thanks for this. The nano particles made me think. I may invest in an enclosure and extractor. Not 100% certain what I would extract to though....

[rwillett]

1 hour ago, Crusoe said:

Cheers. I managed to get the bed level (it's glass - carborundum I think the spec calls it) and when I got the z-axis offset correct, it printed well.

It's worth checking the brass nozzle every week or so for tightness. As it heats and cools it can come loose. This is more of a problem with different metal Nozzles but still happens with brass. 

 

I use a square that I print to adjust the z offset. It's on the SD card I leave in the Prusa. It prints a 100mmx100mm square, one layer thick. Really allows you to get the z offset spot on. I'm away until the new year but will dig out the details when I'm back. The z axis offset is key as you've found out. 

 

Rob 

[Dad3353]

In my early days of 3d printing, I had issues with either items slipping, or becoming so stuck as to impossible to remove at end of print. I tried several remedies, including glass or mirror bed, hair lacquer and more, but the problems were solved by the use of this magnetic bed mat. I have had no issues at all since using this mat, so I recommend it heartily. Inexpensive, I clip mine to the moving bed with tiny bulldog clips. If you get slippage or adherence issues, it might be worth a try..? ...

 

Amazon : Magnetic 3d Printing bed mat...

 

[rwillett]

This magnetic mat is similar to the mag mat on some of the Ender 3s. It works really well on PLA but I found PETG stuck so well it ripped. The magnetic steel satin ones from Prusa get around this but at a cost. I went through 7-8 mats before I moved to the Prusa. 

 

I would recommend everybody start with PLA and get used to that before moving to anything else. 

 

Keep it simple. 

 

Rob

 

 

[rwillett]

I've just taken delivery of a Prusa MK4 to replace one of my MK3S+ 3D printers.

 

 

A quick heads up in case anybody is thinking of buying one. I've done a load of test printing and there's good and bad.

 

The good is the speed and the quality. It's so much faster than a MK3S+, nearly twice as fast on some pieces. The quality also looks very good indeed. There are new things such as Input Shaping that I haven't got my head around yet, but I'll learn.

 

The bad is that Prusa appear to have deliberately crippled Octoprint to work with it. Octoprint acts as a print server, normally runs on something a Raspberry Pi and provides a fabulous wealth of plugins for users such as emails when the print is finished or when filament needs changing. Octoprint can also drive the front panel of a MK3S+ so you can see how long is left and other usefyk stuff. Prusa doesn't support the specific gcode for that, so the front panel on Mk4 looks very simplistic (see above). It was supported so I think Prusa is pushing towards Prusalink, they can forget that as I'll simply reuse an old tablet for the display and ignore the front panel.

 

There also appears to be a long running issue over the filament sensor not working properly. It detects the filament is out but sometimes doesn't recognise the replacement filament and keeps saying put it in. I had it twice when I tested it but not actually reoccurred for the last 8-10 tests I then did. I'll keep an eye on that. Very, very dissapointing from Prusa.  The ticket on it started 6/7/2023 and its still not resolved.

 

Just had anotehr look at a test print and it is very, very good with Input Shaping.

.

[SamIAm]

7 minutes ago, rwillett said:

I've just taken delivery of a Prusa MK4 to replace one of my MK3S+ 3D printers..

That improvement in speed and quality sounds awesome!  Well jel 💚. And auto-magic first layer levelling ... OMG!

Crippling Octoprint interaction ... insane!  I wonder how long before someone releases a firmware with those bits added back in (Assuming it is possible at a hardware level)

How very un-Prusa like to have almost a year with such a fundamental issue like the sensor!

 

Sam x

 

 

[rwillett]

The auto leveling works very well. The setup consists of tapping the cold nozzle with your finger tip and that was it. It only checks the bed level for the area being printed as well. So that's nice.

 

There already is a replacement firmware that might address the display issue and lack of code. I thought I'd wait at least 24 hours after getting before I hacked the firmware around  😊

 

It looks like the filament sensor is a big issue for a lot of people. It's been reported on the Prusa Original XL. They start at twice the price of a MK4 and go up a lot more  depending on number of print heads. They are enormous though. I'm struggling to understand why it's such a problem but clearly Prusa haven't solved it.

 

Rob

 

 

Edited June 8 by rwillett

[rwillett]

 

 

here's how quick it is. No idea how to reformat it in the thread so it's smaller. I downsized it to 480pts on my Mac but not sure how to make it tiny here.

 

Rob

[tauzero]

That's impressively rapid.

[Jackroadkill]

Thanks Rob, I'm considering one of these myself.  I'm a proper Luddite and am just about getting to grips with an ancient Geeetech job.  I have a question, if you don't mind answering it - what do you mean by Octoprint being a "print server"? 

[SamIAm]

14 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

Thanks Rob, I'm considering one of these myself.  I'm a proper Luddite and am just about getting to grips with an ancient Geeetech job.  I have a question, if you don't mind answering it - what do you mean by Octoprint being a "print server"? 

Generally a 'print server' is a device that sits between a computer that generates a print job and a printer.  It allows the source computer to fire off something to print and then the print server is what interacts with the printer to get the job done; it can also provide status on the print job(s) (you can queue multiple jobs).  You will often find print servers for network shared printers. 

 

Octoprint performs this job for 3D printers, it has a rich set of features for monitoring print status ... and also some very cool plugins to facilitate bed levelling, web camera display, time lapse photography, etc; all accessed via a web interface.

 

Sam x

Edited June 8 by SamIAm

[nilorius]

How about 3D scanning ?

[Jackroadkill]

47 minutes ago, SamIAm said:

Generally a 'print server' is a device that sits between a computer that generates a print job and a printer.  It allows the source computer to fire off something to print and then the print server is what interacts with the printer to get the job done; it can also provide status on the print job(s) (you can queue multiple jobs).  You will often find print servers for network shared printers. 

 

Octoprint performs this job for 3D printers, it has a rich set of features for monitoring print status ... and also some very cool plugins to facilitate bed levelling, web camera display, time lapse photography, etc; all accessed via a web interface.

 

Sam x

 

Thanks Sam; so far I'm still using an SD card!

[Dad3353]

3 hours ago, rwillett said:

... not sure how to make it tiny here...

 

Convert to mp4..?

 

Edited June 8 by Dad3353

[rwillett]

1 hour ago, tauzero said:

That's impressively rapid.

It is very quick. Just printed at 0.1mm layer, best it can do and the quality is very, very good indeed. This Input Shaping is quick and good. Still need to play and explore the limits. 

[rwillett]

1 hour ago, nilorius said:

How about 3D scanning ?

I have a 3d scanner but not set it up yet. It was  Kickstarter from last year. It's on the list but making a bass took priority 

[rwillett]

33 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

Thanks Sam; so far I'm still using an SD card!

If you can, get an Octoprint server setup. A cheap PI 3 is more than adequate. Saves a lot of time and makes a massive difference. @SamIAm is spot in with her description. First thing I did after unpacking the printer and before I even plugged it in was to setup a Raspberry Pi as an Octoprint server. 

[SamIAm]

3 minutes ago, rwillett said:

If you can, get an Octoprint server setup. A cheap PI 3 is more than adequate. Saves a lot of time and makes a massive difference.

Could not agree more!

Sam x

 

[tauzero]

Something to be aware of when setting up an Octoprint server (or anything connecting to the USB port) is that some motherboards on some Creality 3D printers put about 20V onto the 5V line. You need to check this before connecting anything, and if it's the case, modify a USB lead by cutting the 5V line before using it to connect.

[Dad3353]

My Alfawise U20 printer is driven by Octoprint through a very modest Raspberry Pi, connected by RJ45 to my Livebox. This enables me to watch a print in progress from my armchair, through a little webcam, also plugged into the Pi. I's very practical, as there's a flight of stairs to climb from our 'salon' to the 'den'; every effort saved is appreciated by my slovenly legs. It works very well as a system; I call up the Pi on my Chrome browser and watch. It's saved my bacon on several occasions when the printer started 'bird-nesting' for whatever reason. 

[Islander]

I'll be watching this thread with interest...

 

I got a Creality Ender 3 v3 se in February and for a cheapish entry level printer I have to say I'm very impressed with it.  It has an automatic levelling system that also takes care of the Z offset as well and takes a lot of the tedious setup stuff out of the equation.  I've not designed anything as yet but I'm looking at either FreeCad or Fusion 360 for modelling.  Most of my immediate needs were on Thingiverse and the other print sites.

 

It's addictive lol

[tauzero]

1 hour ago, Islander said:

I'll be watching this thread with interest...

 

I got a Creality Ender 3 v3 se in February and for a cheapish entry level printer I have to say I'm very impressed with it.  It has an automatic levelling system that also takes care of the Z offset as well and takes a lot of the tedious setup stuff out of the equation.  I've not designed anything as yet but I'm looking at either FreeCad or Fusion 360 for modelling.  Most of my immediate needs were on Thingiverse and the other print sites.

 

It's addictive lol

 

That's the one that I have, that has the problem with the 20V or so on the 5V line. It's not a problem with all of them AIUI, I just happen to have one of the dodgy ones.

[Islander]

8 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

That's the one that I have, that has the problem with the 20V or so on the 5V line. It's not a problem with all of them AIUI, I just happen to have one of the dodgy ones.

Thanks, that's useful to know.  Does yours have the magnetic textured pei plate?  I know some of the earlier ones didn't which makes me wonder if there was an update to the basic model, but I'll be sure to check the 5V line if I decide to customise it or use a print server.

[rwillett]

16 hours ago, tauzero said:

Something to be aware of when setting up an Octoprint server (or anything connecting to the USB port) is that some motherboards on some Creality 3D printers put about 20V onto the 5V line. You need to check this before connecting anything, and if it's the case, modify a USB lead by cutting the 5V line before using it to connect.

Didn't know that. That could  be an expensive mistake to make