Failing prints...

So, I have just spent the whole day trying to set-up my Sunhokey Prusa i3 and I'm getting tired of making a mess!

I am very new to 3d printing but trying to learn... But, it's not going to plan...

When I was doing the 10mm cubes for set-up, the first one looked aweful! then I reduced the layer height from .4mm to .2mm and then to .1mm, the cubes look great now.... well.... better... ;-)

Anyway... as the cubes were looking ok, I thought I would go for and actual print and see how it went.
It seems it's all gone wrong.... the ring around the print doesn't stick and the first layer is full of missing bits... holes...???

Can anyone point me straight???

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2015 05:00AM by KillerDave.

Could you provide picture to your problems?

Quote
sarf2k4
Could you provide picture to your problems?

Sorry, here you go....

I set the bed using the paper technique and spent quite some time doing so... What I did notice was after the test cubes, the gap closed up quite a bit... maybe even to nothing???

Any ideas please???

Apparently not enough plastic going out of the nozzle. Calibrate your printer. Start with E-steps and infill. Slow down printing speed and check z-axis (move 100 mm and check that it was really 100 mm).

Quote
printman
Apparently not enough plastic going out of the nozzle. Calibrate your printer. Start with E-steps and infill. Slow down printing speed and check z-axis (move 100 mm and check that it was really 100 mm).

That look correct! I backed out the filament and put a paint pen mark at 105 - 115, I then marked that as accurately as I could using a vernier at 110mm I set it to extrude 100 mm and from the bottom of the extruder, I still had 23mm (only extruded 87mm!)

So... Can you tell me where the command line is??? what tab is it in and how far down??? I can't find it???

Many thanks,

David.

Hi David

You'll find the calibration guide here :
http://reprap.org/wiki/Calibration

Personally, after I got the correct feed number, I just added it in to the gcode that is automatically added by Slic3r before the print is sliced :

In my case, I use :

Repetier > Slicer > Config > Printer Settings > Costom G-code > Start G-code :

G28 ; home all axes
G1 Z6 F5000 ; lift nozzle
M92 E515  ; sets the feed rate for the extruder
G1 Y20 F5000

The instructions that I followed from my build guide were :

Extruder calibration is exceptionally important in order to achieve high quality prints!

The calibration affects how much plastic the printer lays down; too little and the part is weak, too much and the part will be deformed. The hobbed bolt on your machine is unique and has its own exact diameter dependant on manufacturing tolerances, thus you will need to perform an exact calibration of the extruder. Also note that when you switch plastic types such as from ABS to PLA etc, you will need to re-calibrate your extruder as the densities of the different plastics will cause the teeth of the hobbed bolt to bite into different depths leading to different effective diameters of the hobbed bolt.


1. Find your current E steps value: go to this line in the configuration.h file “#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {80,80,4000,445}” The E steps value is the value in BOLD yours may be different to the one here.

2. Heat up the hotend to the required temp of your plastic and feed in some filament.

3. Using the extruder body as a reference point, mark the filament at 60mm.

4. Tell the printer to feed 60mm of filament (In the Manual Control tab of Repetier-Host set speed to 100mm/min to be safe).

5. Measure the distance from the extruder body to the mark you made. It will be over 60mm if it moved too little, under if it moved too far.

6. Calculate the new E steps value: new_e_steps = old_e_steps * (60 / distance_actually_moved)

7. Set this value in your firmware in the same place you read it from. Disconnect the printer from Repetier_Host. Reflash the board with Arduino then return to step 2 and repeat until your E steps value precisely yields the commanded amount of plastic.

8. ALTERNATIVELY (advanced) Marlin supports M92 Ennn command to set this value temporarily, without disconnecting Repetier-Host or reflashing simply enter M92 Ennn where nnn is your new E steps value into the G-Code text-box. Now return to step 2. When you are done calibrating you must reflash as described in step 7 in order to permanently store the new value through power cycles.

Hi Dave,

Thanks for that... I found the line and this is what I have....

#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {80.5,80.5,400.0*1.015,83*1.002}
I'm guessing that the numbers are in X, Y, Z and E?

So... if I change the 83*1.002 to something like 62.25?
or did I just get my maths wrong???? Lol...

***EDIT***

It's ok... I figured it out... almost there, I just need to tweak it a little!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2015 05:44PM by KillerDave.

Ok, now I have another issue!
Have a look at this video ^^^
I seem to have print material "leaking" out from everywhere!