Last minor skeinforge settings to complete calibration.

Hey all
so this weekend i set out with the goal to get as precise as i could with calibrating my prusa.
I have attached a few pics of the fruits of my labors.

Everything is square. There is less then a mm error in measured and predicted values for X and Y.
Z i still have to measure.

Are there any obvious settings i need to change?

The last change i made was to the perimeter ratio because the walls were too thick.
But now i seem to have created a gap between perimeter layers.
Ill have to check me Gcode to make sure its not supposed to do that.

I printed this last night and didnt have a chance to check all this before bed.

I am pretty happy with the results though all in all.

2 last thoughts/questions as a leave here.
How high do you guys have your nozzle on the first layer?
and how high should the nozzle be during the rest of the print.

I know you dont want the curly extrusion and i know that when that happens i am too high or cold.
But my question is really about the rest of the print.
The nozzle should be close but not touching the print?
there have been a few times i have needed to adjust mid print cause the nozzle was being dragged through the print.

Oh wait one more thing.
I looked throughout the weekend for the correct Z settings in firmware for SAE threaded rods and cant seem to find any.
I feel i am close now but i want to double check.
I think its 3200/1.5 now but im at work and cant check.
Thanks all
-E

The walls are very uneven. I'm guessing that your extruder might be slipping. Perhaps your nozzle temperature is too low. Also since you mention that your nozzle is being dragged through the print, check to make sure that it's not loose. It might also be from extruding too much (flow rate too high).

Cool thanks ill try slowing down the flow rate. Double check the temps, do a complete once over and see what happens.
Thanks
-E

Also 3200/1.5 steps per mm is is for a metric 8 mm bolt with 1.5 mm thread pitch. SAE uses 5/16 threaded rod with 18 threads/inch. So z should be 3200/25.4/18 steps per mm.

Thanks brnrd.
I had changed that last night
still a little problem with dragging.
im thinking it has to be my flow rate settings.
Im on the latest skeinforge and have it set to 15.0 for flow and feed.
I read somewhere that the feed and flow should be close
but i have also read that they dont need to be.
I found that having them close and at 15 works pretty well.
I have gone all the way to 30 and 30 and it was good too,
But idk.
Im going to redo the hobbed bolt tonight and have a crack at it again.
Thanks
-E

Hi 420e

I had the same problem with the nozzle dragging across the print somtimes then found this on Thingiverse :

h**p://www.reprapfordummies.net/index.php/softwaresection/44-gcode-generators/49-sfact-homepage

If you scroll down near the bottom of the page it shows how to do a calibration for the packing density, i calibrated mine and haven't had a problem since, apparently a low packing density gives more extrusion so mine was increased from 0.85 to 1.08. The image attached is a solid model i done quickly (60mm/s) on my mendel using 3mm ABS, still have a few problems with skipping a few steps (probably speed issue) but no nozzle scraping at all

Cool man thanks.
Ill have a look at that link and see whats up.
-E