Tips for improvement ?

Hi all,

So today I've managed to print the "first time android." It was sliced with the new SF settings. In the pictures below I've circled a couple of areas where there seems to be a problem.

One of the problems was that I wanted to do another z home point calibration but the outline of the object was so thin that I couldn't get from the bed without just snapping. It was almost like spider webbing (pic 1). Does this mean there isn't enough room between the hotend end the bed?

Also there are some areas were the top surface seems to be punctured (pic 2) and on the left side of the android face and body there are some blobs of filament (pic 3). On the underside of the android there seems to be some inconsistency of the surface as well. (pic 4)

Any ideas for improvement?

Yea picture 1 looks like the z home point value is too large, so the first layer is coming out too thin. Not sure what's happening with 2 or 3. 4 looks like your bed isn't level, the part with the inconsistencies should be raised a bit so there's more "squish". Just my opinion though, either way congrats on finishing your build!

Thanks BrianC,

Thank you. Yeah I almost forgot that printing that Android sorta concludes the building phase hehe. I'm very glad everything seems to be working and that it's now only a matter of tweaking. I'm now going to change that z value since this indeed seems to be one of the problems.

Nilez, your z home point value is definitely off. I saw the same thing until I got z home dialed in. You can confirm this by activating Bottom in Skeinforge and bumping the altitude up about a half-layer at a time (probably 0.15mm). If the underside of your prints improves after doing this, your z home point needs work. But don't use the Bottom altitude setting to get out of setting the z home point properly. If you do, you'll end up reslicing a lot. It's much easier to keep your bed properly calibrated and keep a library of properly sliced parts.

In your forth picture, the bed looks...something other than level. It could be quite bad. You'll want to level your bed and then determine your z home point.

Also, if the PLA isn't sticking to the bed, try a thin coating of diluted white glue applied with a small paint brush. The glass should be nearly uniformly foggy. That will eliminate another variable. Once you've got everything else dialed in you can spend some time figuring out the optimal bed and nozzle temperature to get the plastic to stick well. (Hint: It changes with the weather.)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2013 10:15PM by Rural.