Question about what I need to provide before I ask my question

Hello,


In the past I've received minimal help when I've asked questions about my second hand Folger Tech RepRap 2020 Prusa i3. I'm not sure if it is because I've posted too little or too much information or the tone of the question/writing or something else.

On the side of providing information about my slicer settings, I don't know how much info is too much. I realize the program I'm using is important but I'm sure about other settings to share.

I've provided my printer. second hand Folger Tech RepRap 2020 Prusa i3 without fans to blow on the print. I'm currently working on a set up.

I've provided my filament. Inlan White PLA

I've provided my hotend. E3Dv6.

I've provided pictures of my first print.

I'm going to be providing picture the printer itself soon.

I'm aware I haven't asked my question yet but if I keep getting the same level of response I have been I don't know if I'm going to be able to resolve this on my own.

Lastly if I've missed any other key information above please let me know. I'm hoping this post will prevent me from making more unnecessary post because of missing or unclear information about my situation.

Thanks in advance for any advice or help offer.

if your printing pla the fan is a defo what speed are you printing? what type of extruder have you got? what temps are you printing at? start with the extruder is it been calibrated?

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Check my rubbish blog for my prusa i3

up and running
[3dimetech.blogspot.co.uk]

I agree that your part looks to be under-extruded. Why are you extruding at 85-90% and not at 100%? The only time I would do that would be if I measured the filament and found it to be *much* too fat. If the measured filament is 1.72mm, the correct factor would be (1.75*1.75)/(1.72*1.72) = 103%

In your thread title, put some relevant information. Don't say "Help!" or "My printer doesn't work" or "What's wrong with my print?". Say something like "Underextruded? print failure", showing that you have actually attempted to diagnose it yourself.

Try to fix it yourself first! You should be looking at asking questions in a forum as a last resort when you've run out of ideas. From my point of view, I'm not going to spend *my* time solving *your* problem, if you haven't already expended some effort yourself. Search the forum and skim through existing threads to see if there's something similar there already; there aren't many unique problems, and lots of solutions have already been posted. If you've posted a vague, frequently asked question that's already been answered many times, I wouldn't reply. This way you'll learn yourself what's important, and ultimately ask less questions, and the forum won't bloat up with a hundred variations of the same question and answer. In your post, list the things you've tried.

Make it easy to answer your question. Include the information in your post directly, rather than in the link from your post.Why should I click through to your blog? No-one searching the forum would be able to see what the original question was either.

Think about what you're asking. For example

Quote

A friend of mine said he'd print the parts at cost but I want to make sure he can do it. I figure if his printer can do it might reduce some of the costs.

. (a) It's not a question. (b) No-one here could possibly know how good your friend's printer is. I'm not going to get into a long-winded discussion where you (or your friend even) tells me "It's quite a good printer really, although he hasn't used it for 3 years" and then somehow assess his printing skills. *You* are in a much better position than me to make those kinds of judgments.

I don't know if your previous help requests were in the right forum (this one is).

Probably the most Important thing to mention is your hot-end temperature... if that's not right, everything else is irrelevant.

.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2017 09:20PM by chris33.

---

Check my rubbish blog for my prusa i3

up and running
[3dimetech.blogspot.co.uk]

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chris33
if your printing pla the fan is a defo what speed are you printing? what type of extruder have you got? what temps are you printing at? start with the extruder is it been calibrated?

100% but My current fan seem to have stopped working. I'm going to add this and this since I've heard centrifugal fan are better for this application. I have a direct extruder similar to this but with the larger wheel on the side. I don't have a link for it since it came with the printer which I purchased second hand. I've been printer the pla at 205 since that is the temp that was recommended to me.

I'm not sure how to calibrate the extruder. Are you talking about making sure when I push 15mm through the extruder it actually pushed 15mm through or something else? if you talking about something else a link would be greatly appreciated.

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frankvdh
I agree that your part looks to be under-extruded. Why are you extruding at 85-90% and not at 100%? The only time I would do that would be if I measured the filament and found it to be *much* too fat. If the measured filament is 1.72mm, the correct factor would be (1.75*1.75)/(1.72*1.72) = 103%

Can you explain where this math comes from? I'm not familiar with 3d printer more so designing for the printer itself.

Also thanks for the help with how to narrow my post someone is likely to answer my question. As far as searching the forums here and elsewhere, Do you have a recommendation of what to use if the internal search stinks and the site doesn't allow google to index them so I can't use the qualifier of "site" in the search?

Another issue I've run into is I can't figure out how to narrow down the description of my issue for search purposes. i.e. after searching and reading I feel like I'm getting to many results not related to the question I'm trying to get answered.

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The3rdIcon

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frankvdh
I agree that your part looks to be under-extruded. Why are you extruding at 85-90% and not at 100%? The only time I would do that would be if I measured the filament and found it to be *much* too fat. If the measured filament is 1.72mm, the correct factor would be (1.75*1.75)/(1.72*1.72) = 103%

Can you explain where this math comes from? I'm not familiar with 3d printer more so designing for the printer itself.

Volume extruded is cross-sectional area * height. The cross-sectional area of filament is (assuming it's circular) is PI*r^2. Cross-sectional area of 1.72mm filament = Pi*1.72/2*1.72/2 Cross-sectional area of ideal 1.75mm filament = Pi*1.75/2*1.75/2 So, if you want to extrude the equivalent of 100 "steps" of 1.75mm filament, but you only have 1.72mm filament, you need to extrude (Pi/4*1.75*1.75)/(Pi/4*1.72*1.72) *100 = [Pi/4 cancels out] (1.75*1.75)/(1.72*1.72) * 100 = 103 steps. The "flow rate" is exactly that; the correction factor from your actual filament to the ideal 1.75mm filament diameter, expressed as a percentage.

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Also thanks for the help with how to narrow my post someone is likely to answer my question. As far as searching the forums here and elsewhere, Do you have a recommendation of what to use if the internal search stinks and the site doesn't allow google to index them so I can't use the qualifier of "site" in the search?

Another issue I've run into is I can't figure out how to narrow down the description of my issue for search purposes. i.e. after searching and reading I feel like I'm getting to many results not related to the question I'm trying to get answered.

Sorry, can't help you there. If the search fails to find anything useful, I just browse through the forum list looking for thread titles which look like they might relate to what I'm looking for. Sometimes reading a few articles roughly related to your question will yield other useful keywords to include in the search.

I don't have any experience with PLA, so I usually skip PLA issues when it comes to speed & temperature. But from everything I've read, you absolutely need a part cooling fan when printing PLA.

And regarding your previous questions about your i3: I can't find any of these, can you pls provide some links?