Print Quality Issues
Posted by kb9ysc
|
Print Quality Issues November 14, 2012 10:36PM |
Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 2 |
Hello,
Forgive me if this is the wrong place for this..
I have a Mendel (original) that my brother put together. I've been fine-tuning it since he brought it over. When I first got it, I had some issues with the frame coming loose (tightened them up), bed leveing, etc. One of the z-axis bolts got loose, and caused the head not to raise up enough while it was printing. I have since tightened the bolt that was loose.
Recently I've been having an issue for which I am not sure what the resolution is. I suspect some sort of calibration issue. Normally I have an intuition with what is happening, and a way to fix it, but with this, I'm not quite sure I am grasping what the problem actually is. I'm hoping to show some pictures of what I've printed and find out possible sources of error.
I first noticed it with a phone tray that I designed and built (Photos 1 and 2). the main body seems okay, but the risers didn't work right. When it printed it looked very similar to the slipping z axis bolt issue, except that the bolt on the z-axis was tight. All four corners of the tray had the same issue. The plastic appeared to have flowed above the extruder nozzle. I may or may not have had the bed completely level for the tray, but I've since corrected that issue.
I've noticed that at the end of prints, the head appears to be dragging through the print. I figured I needed to do some calibration of the printer. I've tried to start with the calibrations on [www.reprap.org]. The first thing I tried was the layer height calibration. I printed out the test print several times (Photo 3) with several different values for the layer height. I think I varied it from .4 mm to .45 mm. At .45 mm (ish), the wall fell over, so I thought it was a bit too far that way. (sorry, I didn't include that one in the photo).
The next one I tried was the infill width over thickness (next calibration after the layer height calibration) and came up with the box in Photo 4. While the top seems to be relatively flat (and even maybe a little concave), the sides bulge out. This tells me that there is too much material that is being placed in the print. I suspect that it is related to the issue above of the extruder nozzle dragging through the finished layers.
I am using PLA, using pronterface with slic3r installed. If there is more information that would help diagnose what's happening, let me know and I'll provide it (setting values, photos, etc).
Oh, and lastly, Thanks for any input you may be able to provide!
Forgive me if this is the wrong place for this..
I have a Mendel (original) that my brother put together. I've been fine-tuning it since he brought it over. When I first got it, I had some issues with the frame coming loose (tightened them up), bed leveing, etc. One of the z-axis bolts got loose, and caused the head not to raise up enough while it was printing. I have since tightened the bolt that was loose.
Recently I've been having an issue for which I am not sure what the resolution is. I suspect some sort of calibration issue. Normally I have an intuition with what is happening, and a way to fix it, but with this, I'm not quite sure I am grasping what the problem actually is. I'm hoping to show some pictures of what I've printed and find out possible sources of error.
I first noticed it with a phone tray that I designed and built (Photos 1 and 2). the main body seems okay, but the risers didn't work right. When it printed it looked very similar to the slipping z axis bolt issue, except that the bolt on the z-axis was tight. All four corners of the tray had the same issue. The plastic appeared to have flowed above the extruder nozzle. I may or may not have had the bed completely level for the tray, but I've since corrected that issue.
I've noticed that at the end of prints, the head appears to be dragging through the print. I figured I needed to do some calibration of the printer. I've tried to start with the calibrations on [www.reprap.org]. The first thing I tried was the layer height calibration. I printed out the test print several times (Photo 3) with several different values for the layer height. I think I varied it from .4 mm to .45 mm. At .45 mm (ish), the wall fell over, so I thought it was a bit too far that way. (sorry, I didn't include that one in the photo).
The next one I tried was the infill width over thickness (next calibration after the layer height calibration) and came up with the box in Photo 4. While the top seems to be relatively flat (and even maybe a little concave), the sides bulge out. This tells me that there is too much material that is being placed in the print. I suspect that it is related to the issue above of the extruder nozzle dragging through the finished layers.
I am using PLA, using pronterface with slic3r installed. If there is more information that would help diagnose what's happening, let me know and I'll provide it (setting values, photos, etc).
Oh, and lastly, Thanks for any input you may be able to provide!
|
Re: Print Quality Issues November 15, 2012 02:43AM |
Registered: 14 years ago Posts: 60 |
|
Re: Print Quality Issues November 15, 2012 10:55PM |
Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 2 |
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.