Sunday Print Challenge #1 - runs until Tuesday!

Hi everybody!

It's Sunday so how about a little print challenge? The idea here is to print a small object (2g of filament, 15 minutes print on my Prusa i3 Twelvepro) with the best possible quality in the shortest time, so your skills in adjusting the slicer and printer parameters are paramount - and of course how well your printer was assembled and how well it prints.

Today's print challenge object is a 40mm honeycomb fan guard [www.thingiverse.com] , which you can probably put to good use after printing and proudly showing everybody your latest masterpiece. The STL file can be downloaded from Thingiverse : [www.thingiverse.com] . Here is what it looks like:



Here is a frame capture from a video I made while printing, sorry for the low quality:



And here is a screenshot of OctoPrint, showing the amount of time it took on my Prusa i3, including the heating time: a little less than 17 minutes.



(the above images are clickable for a larger version)

Participants get to vote on the Challenge winner and the winner gets to choose the object for the next Sunday Challenge!

A tip for participants: this little honeycomb fan guard is trickier to print well than it looks. The first layer is critical and so are the retraction settings.

YouTube video of the print: [www.youtube.com] (skip to 2:50 if you are curious about what I mean when I say that retraction settings are critical here).

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2015 04:43PM by AndrewBCN.

Here's my attempt, printed on my short fat Kossel with a 0.4mm nozzle and 0.25mm layer height.



Print time from cold (23C) was 14min 23s. I increased the speed to 150% after the first layer, which is conservative as I often go as high as 250% on this machine. The print time shown by DuetWebControl includes the warm-up time. Looks like the extrusion factor is a little too high because the top surface is not as good as I would like.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2015 10:11AM by dc42.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Congratulations! You are the first to answer the challenge! Nice going there!

Not quite as nice looking as yours though. What slicer did you use?

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Quote
dc42
Not quite as nice looking as yours though. What slicer did you use?

Good question!
I used Cura, it's my "go to" slicer, it has less options than Slic3r but usually does a good job.

OK, let's add one rule to this Challenge: the winner has to share her/his ultra-secret slicer settings!

And one more rule: participants can submit more than one print. (2g per print won't break the bank)

J-Head 0.5mm, PLA 220°, Bed 60°
1st: Cura 0.25mm layer height, 7min
2nd: CraftWare 0.2mm layer height, 8min



not very beautiful, but fast

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2015 12:37PM by rammsteini.

Wow, that is fast!

The honeycomb grid came out slightly better in the CraftWare sliced print, but of the two Cura did a better job for the frame, imho.

E3D V6 hotend, 0.4 mm nozzle
1.75 mm PLA

The one in the left had layer height 0.05 mm.

fanguard_40x40x2.gcode, 73795 lines
390.21mm of filament used in this print
The print goes:
- from -21.39 mm to 21.39 mm in X and is 42.78 mm wide
- from -21.39 mm to 21.39 mm in Y and is 42.78 mm deep
- from 0.00 mm to 2.02 mm in Z and is 2.02 mm high
Estimated duration: 40 layers, 0:56:24
Print started at: 22:31:25
Print ended at: 23:26:18 and took 0:54:52

The one in the right had layer height 0.25 mm.
fanguard_40x40x2_0.25mm.gcode, 15041 lines
415.36mm of filament used in this print
The print goes:
- from -22.00 mm to 22.00 mm in X and is 44.00 mm wide
- from -22.00 mm to 22.00 mm in Y and is 44.00 mm deep
- from 0.00 mm to 2.12 mm in Z and is 2.12 mm high
Estimated duration: 8 layers, 0:10:51
Print started at: 23:55:07
Print ended at: 00:07:07 and took 0:12:00





Below is the retraction setting in Slic3r v1.1.7 I use.
Length: 2 mm
Lift Z: 0.4 mm
Speed: 30 mm/s
Extra length on restart: 0 mm
Minium travel after retraction: 2 mm
Retract on layer change: On
Wipe while retracting: On

How to reduce tiny hairs? I haven't managed it yet.

The trick, I have found, is to use a SLOWER retraction speed. Mine is 25mm/s retraction on my mini-massive gearbox bowden extruder.

Here is mine for the day

Slicing Software Slic3r
Layer Height 0.2 mm
Took total of 7:34

Another try, although it's already monday ...

Same Cura settings as above, but only 95% flow and fan powered to 100% at second layer

@ rammsteini

Clearly much improved over the previous prints!

@ everybody

I propose that submissions be accepted until Tuesday midnight, on Wednesday participants vote, and that gives the winner of this challenge from Thursday up until Sunday morning to think about the next Challenge.

Right now I am fascinated by the variety of results from completely different machines, and how each participant is tuning the print. To be honest I didn't think the delta's could reach the level of print quality that some of you have been attaining, but I am happy to be proved wrong! Hehe for the next challenge I hope I'll be able to enter prints from both the Prusa i3 and the Delta Steel...

Where are the CoreXY candidates?

Mendel90 E3dv6
PLA extruder 230 bed 65
Skeinforge 0.2mm layer 11m 19s



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2015 04:10PM by Ralph.Hilton.

Ord bot hadron
nozzle 0.4mm
layer: 0.25mm
infill 20%, perimeters 40mm/s
took 0:10:24

@ Ralph : very, very nice one! Good ol' Mendel90 proving (if need be) it's still a good machine there!

@ ledjo: also a very nice one, but there was an accident apparently on the right edge of the honeycomb grid?

I have uploaded an edited video of my print to YouTube: [www.youtube.com] in case you are curious.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2015 04:46PM by AndrewBCN.

yes a little small little accident

Speed tests:
top .35 layers 7m 0s
left .4 layers 4m 56s
right .45 layers 4m 29s
All with 0.6 nozzle

Here we go for a coreXY with a cheap chinese 0.4mm nozzle, airtripper bowden extruder with 800mm tube ABS

Quick and dirty

Bit slower, still dirty


Warm up time is about 12min for bed and 2 min for nozzle.

I'm still in the state of tuning the printer. Am I over extruding? How's my retraction?

-a

@ Alan Richard

Thanks for providing a CoreXY sample!

Imho the perimeter frame looks very good, but the honeycomb grid shows exactly the same problem as some other participants are having with their print, which I believe is a combination of extrusion and retraction settings that need more optimal tuning for this particular print.

My suggestion (but please note that I have very little experience with Bowden extruders): try decreasing the number of E-steps/mm (to feed less material) by 1~2%, and set a retraction length around 3.5mm and retraction speed around 55mm/s.

Thanks for the tips Andrew - I'll try those out. I'll maybe squeeze another submission in before midnight.

Quite a tricky little test really. I didn't realise how clean your print was before I tried printing it myself.

Is that not your Bowden in the vid? You say you have little experieince. Or are you new to it?

You think decrease Esteps for extrusion? Not decrease flow rate in slicing?


-a

Hi Alan,

Quote
alan richard
Thanks for the tips Andrew - I'll try those out. I'll maybe squeeze another submission in before midnight.

Take your time, voting takes place tomorrow.

Quote
alan richard
Quite a tricky little test really. I didn't realise how clean your print was before I tried printing it myself.
Is that not your Bowden in the vid? You say you have little experieince. Or are you new to it?

Yes, it's my Bowden setup in the video, and it's actually my fifth print on that Prusa i3. I have just finished building it!
Also before that I had never used a Bowden setup, all my other P3Steel's use a standard Greg's Wade's Geared Extruder.
Beginner's luck, probably.

Quote
alan richard
You think decrease Esteps for extrusion? Not decrease flow rate in slicing?
-a

I believe all three parameters amount to the same thing, which is to make the printer extrude less material along the same path:
1 - decrease flow rate in slicing.
2 - increase filament diameter in slicing (but keep same diameter filament in reality).
3 - decrease e-steps/mm. this one you can do in real time using the printer's LCD controller (at least in Marlin).

Another CoreXY sample.

Heatbed warm up 5min, print time 10min (with simplify3d). ABS, jHead 0.4 Nozzle, 0.3mm layers, 1st layer 40% speed, approx 700mm bowden @80mm/s retract.

Slicer - Left: Simplify3D. Right: KISSlicer.

@ sdavi

Awesome job, specially the one sliced with Simplify 3D.

We are Wednesday, so please vote following these few simple rules:

- One vote per participant in the Challenge.
- You can't vote for yourself, nor for the organizer of the Challenge of the week.
- The printed parts are to be judged on print quality first, and time to print second.
- You can vote for any entry here in this thread or in the identical thread in the French Users Group (check it out, there are some nice prints there too).
- Vote is open i.e. you cast your vote by posting it here in this thread.

Many thanks to all those who participated in this first Sunday Print Challenge!  

BTW vote counting will take place tomorrow (Thursday), and the winner will not only be entitled to the respect and admiration of RepRappers worldwide, but will also be in charge of finding us the next pièce de résistance for the next Sunday Print Challenge #2!

Please cast your votes today! Thanks again.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2015 04:35AM by AndrewBCN.

rammsteini gets my vote - excellent print!

Some fine results from all entries . . .

Crispest honeycomb would be AndrewBCN. Shame I can't vote for him.

Super fast results from Mr Hilton there. That 0.6 really chucks out the plastic.

Also Rammsteini - fast and tight. Shame about that slight gap between the circle and the square (Is that a reference to the band Rammstein? - I've seen them a couple of times - Crazy guys)

Sharp flat top layer from ledjo - shame about that stray blob in the honeycomb, that lost you the gold medal. (Was that a first attempt? - Your settings are well sorted)

Fastest overall inc. warm up - would that be dc42?

It's a tough call but Sdavi gets my vote - part nepotism, being a fellow ABS squirting core-exy but also for combination of speed and finish.

-a

My vote for Ralph.Hilton's first one, hexagons came out nice and tidy.

sdavi's Simplify3D sample has my vote, although I think the first layer has a bit too much material (or is a little bit too thin)

Hi everybody,
Sorry I didn't tally the votes before, I was a little bit busy yesterday.

But here are the results!

In the General thread:

1st: sdavi (ABS 15 minutes) gets two votes

2nd and 3rd: Ralph and rammsteini get one vote each.

In the French thread:

Biostrike (PLA 8min34s): four votes

Ultim - Yoann: one vote

Ledjo: one vote.

Here is an image (edited as best as I could) summarizing the results for this first Challenge:



My warmest congratulations to all the participants who really have done an excellent job, without exception. I hope you had fun with this Challenge and will participate in the next one too!



I am contacting Biostrike now to see what he wants to propose for the next challenge.

Cheers all,
Andrew