Skeinforge just dumps plastic out

Just started using skeinforge as a slicer, looking for greater detail than slic3r can make. Slices fine, but when the build begins to run, it just dumps out way too much plastic making a gooey mess. I can actually watch the line feed in at a rate of probably a couple of meters per minute.

I just calibrated skeinforge, as shown on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3iXnLo0kYs). but it still is just pouring out the plastic.

I don't have a problem with slic3r doing this.

Any ideas?

Try putting an extruder axis reset at the beginning of your gcode - G92 E0. This will reset that axis back to the 0 position which is usually what you want at the start of a new job. By default, skeinforge does not do this. I had a similar problem where it retracted an enormous amount at print start. The G92 fixed it for me.

Thanks, I have surgery today but I'll try it when I get back.

gwfami

Didn't work. Still spits out large amounts of plastic.

Could you post the first 100 or so lines of your G Code?

gwfami Wrote:
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> I just calibrated skeinforge, as shown on youtube
> (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3iXnLo0kYs). but
> it still is just pouring out the plastic.

Could you please tell us *how* you calibrated Skeinforge? don't want to see a video to know that and then can't try answering to your question…

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François

Certainly,
I went in, calculated the e offset, setup the carve and other parameters, entered the filament volume, and a few other minor things. I left most of the parameters alone.

Here's the first few lines of the g code. It's for a ring mustache (mustache ring?) from thingiverse called mo ring. Something simple to start with, I thought.

g code created by skeinforge.

G90
G21
M103
M105
M106
M140 S95.0
M141 S30.0
M142 S0.0
M113 S1.0
M108 S42.6
G1 X71.177 Y60.573 Z0.16 F60.0
G1 F798.0
G1 E0.0
G1 F60.0
M101
G1 X72.844 Y59.362 Z0.16 F384.0 E1.6179
G1 X75.184 Y58.32 Z0.16 F384.0 E3.6283
G1 X77.689 Y57.788 Z0.16 F384.0 E5.6388
G1 X80.249 Y57.788 Z0.16 F384.0 E7.6491
G1 X82.754 Y58.32 Z0.16 F384.0 E9.6596
G1 X85.094 Y59.362 Z0.16 F384.0 E11.67
G1 X87.165 Y60.867 Z0.16 F384.0 E13.6804
G1 X88.879 Y62.77 Z0.16 F384.0 E15.6909
G1 X90.159 Y64.988 Z0.16 F384.0 E17.7013
G1 X90.951 Y67.424 Z0.16 F384.0 E19.7118
G1 X91.218 Y69.97 Z0.16 F384.0 E21.7222
G1 X90.951 Y72.517 Z0.16 F384.0 E23.7326
G1 X90.159 Y74.953 Z0.16 F384.0 E25.743
G1 X88.879 Y77.17 Z0.16 F384.0 E27.7534
G1 X87.165 Y79.073 Z0.16 F384.0 E29.7639
G1 X86.784 Y79.35 Z0.16 F384.0 E30.1336
G1 X87.148 Y80.266 Z0.16 F384.0 E30.9075
G1 X89.156 Y80.082 Z0.16 F384.0 E32.4904
G1 X95.102 Y81.334 Z0.16 F384.0 E37.2606
G1 X97.398 Y83.397 Z0.16 F384.0 E39.6841
G1 X99.225 Y85.795 Z0.16 F384.0 E42.0507
G1 X100.072 Y88.527 Z0.16 F384.0 E44.2962
G1 X98.38 Y86.684 Z0.16 F384.0 E46.2604
G1 X96.403 Y85.658 Z0.16 F384.0 E48.0088
G1 X94.893 Y85.603 Z0.16 F384.0 E49.1955
G1 X90.568 Y86.521 Z0.16 F384.0 E52.6662
G1 X83.88 Y88.851 Z0.16 F384.0 E58.2264
G1 X83.008 Y89.037 Z0.16 F384.0 E58.9259
G1 X82.13 Y89.037 Z0.16 F384.0 E59.6159
G1 X81.27 Y88.854 Z0.16 F384.0 E60.3059
G1 X80.467 Y88.496 Z0.16 F384.0 E60.996
G1 X79.756 Y87.98 Z0.16 F384.0 E61.6859
G1 X78.969 Y87.106 Z0.16 F384.0 E62.6092
G1 X78.182 Y87.98 Z0.16 F384.0 E63.5323
G1 X77.471 Y88.496 Z0.16 F384.0 E64.2223
G1 X76.668 Y88.854 Z0.16 F384.0 E64.9124
G1 X75.808 Y89.037 Z0.16 F384.0 E65.6024
G1 X74.93 Y89.037 Z0.16 F384.0 E66.2924
G1 X74.058 Y88.851 Z0.16 F384.0 E66.9919
G1 X67.37 Y86.521 Z0.16 F384.0 E72.5522
G1 X63.045 Y85.603 Z0.16 F384.0 E76.0228
G1 X61.535 Y85.658 Z0.16 F384.0 E77.2095
G1 X59.558 Y86.684 Z0.16 F384.0 E78.958
G1 X57.866 Y88.527 Z0.16 F384.0 E80.9221
G1 X58.713 Y85.795 Z0.16 F384.0 E83.1676
G1 X60.54 Y83.397 Z0.16 F384.0 E85.5342
G1 X62.836 Y81.334 Z0.16 F384.0 E87.9577
G1 X68.782 Y80.082 Z0.16 F384.0 E92.728
G1 X71.054 Y80.29 Z0.16 F384.0 E94.5193
G1 X71.222 Y79.4 Z0.16 F384.0 E95.2308
G1 X70.773 Y79.073 Z0.16 F384.0 E95.6666
G1 X69.059 Y77.17 Z0.16 F384.0 E97.677
G1 X67.779 Y74.953 Z0.16 F384.0 E99.6875
G1 X66.987 Y72.517 Z0.16 F384.0 E101.6979
G1 X66.72 Y69.97 Z0.16 F384.0 E103.7083
G1 X66.987 Y67.424 Z0.16 F384.0 E105.7187
G1 X67.779 Y64.988 Z0.16 F384.0 E107.7291
G1 X69.059 Y62.77 Z0.16 F384.0 E109.7396
G1 X70.722 Y60.924 Z0.16 F384.0 E111.6903
G1 F798.0
G1 E111.6903
G1 F384.0
M103

Perhaps you set the filament diameter wrongly on the dimension tab. Should be the size of your filament going in. The E values look more like the amount of filament coming out.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

The only thing I noticed here is that you don't have the G92 E0. If you do manual extrusion prior to starting the print, you first E movement (G1 E0) could be meters away from where you left it. I know you said you tried it, and it might not be your problem, but I think it's a good idea to add it to your start code.

The E numbers you have seem very high - so the problem is in the slicer, not the printer - it's just doing what its told.

I checked the filament value, it's set at the correct size, 1.53 mm.

What could cause the high E numbers?

On the speed tab you must set all flow rates to the same value as the corresponding feed rate. Perhaps you have slowed down the first layer speed but kept the flow rate high.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

checked the flow rates, nothing looked off. I did notice in the g-code that the E values kept incrementing, never decrementing. Is that normal?

If you use absolute E values then yes they increase as they are the total extruded so far. If you select relative E values on the Dimension tab then they are proportional to the XY distance moved.

If you send absolute E gcode to firmware configured for relative E it extrudes ever increasing amounts of plastic. However your E values are far too big anyway. They increase at a rate similar to the distance traveled whereas the filament should be fed into the extruder much more slowly that it comes out.

Since skeinforge is known to work correctly you must have some setting wrong. AFAIK the only things that affect it are on the Speed tab and the Dimension tab. When feed rate and flow rate are set the same Skienforge works out the volume of plastic needed for the specified layer height and filament width. It then uses the filament diameter to work out how far to feed it for a given XY move.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Yes - I agree with nophead here. It is a skeinforge setting. The slicer determines the volume of plastic it needs and works backward using the layer height and width/height ratio to calculate the amount to extrude.

I would think that these two parameters are the ones you need to check. I think at least one of them appears in two places for different situations. I'm not at my PC now to give you more definite answers.

Progress!!
I triple checked the speed and dimensions tab and didn't see anything that might have caused the problem. What I did do, however, was to change the filament packing ratio from .4 to 1.5 (dimension tab).

Here's what it did.
ratio = 0.4 - really squishy, lots of plastic gobs, print head like a John Deere tracked tractor plow through plastic.
ratio = 1.0 - not as squishy, not as much plastic ooze, print head not like a hand plow through plastic.
ratio = 1.5 - no squishies, no plastic ooze, print head now not plowing at all.

I'll keep you up to date, the test print is supposed to take another 2 + hours to finish.

Thanks for your help.

ok, bad news. It started getting splotchy when creating the legs of the critter test printed. Worked fine for the base. Any other ideas?

Perhaps if someone could send me their skeinforge setting file I could get a better understanding of what I should do.

Filament packing ratio should be 1 for the plastic you calibrated the E steps per mm with and slightly different for softer or harder plastics that feed at a slightly different rate. It should never be as high as 1.4 or as low as 0.4.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]