How fast can your smartrap print?

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duranza
Or you can do what MeIT has done and re-direct some airflow to the print

It's just that celljeffe's fan is only 40mm so it looks like it's just big enough to blow on the cold end.

I'm having some level of success on my setup but I believe the best would be a dual fan setup. One dedicated for cold end and a ducted one for the print because as you will discover, you will need cooling only on some parts of the print. I have yet to see someone do this on smartrap though.

Quote
MelT

Quote
duranza
Or you can do what MeIT has done and re-direct some airflow to the print

It's just that celljeffe's fan is only 40mm so it looks like it's just big enough to blow on the cold end.

I'm having some level of success on my setup but I believe the best would be a dual fan setup. One dedicated for cold end and a ducted one for the print because as you will discover, you will need cooling only on some parts of the print. I have yet to see someone do this on smartrap though.

I will take a photo tomorrow of one of my machines that has a separate fan for cooling the print. I can move it where I like and it is still automatic.
I can also use it on other printers if I need because it just plugs into the RAMPS board. (I added flying leads from the auto fan connection on RAMPS)

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[regpye.com.au]
"Experience is the mother of all knowledge." --Leonardo da Vinci

I just went out and checked on my printer in the workshop, it is doing a pretty big print and I am using for the first time the latest version of Cura that came out today.
I must say I am very happy with it, the prints seem much better and also faster too.
I am using my same settings as the earlier version, so they have done something in the software that has improved it a lot.

Here is my start code;

;Print time: {print_time}
;Filament used: {filament_amount}m {filament_weight}g
;Filament cost: {filament_cost}
;M190 S{print_bed_temperature} ;Uncomment to add your own bed temperature line
;M109 S{print_temperature} ;Uncomment to add your own temperature line
G21 ;metric values
G90 ;absolute positioning
M107 ;start with the fan off
G92 ;zero all axis
G1 Z20.0 F{travel_speed} ;move the platform down 15mm
G28 ;home all axis
G29 ;auto bed leveling probes
G92 E0 ;reset extruder
G1 X5 Y5 ;almost home X and Y axis
G1 Z0.5 ;move nozzle to print height
G1 E40 X70 F600 ;extrude some filament in a short line to prime the nozzle.
G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length again
G1 F{travel_speed}
;Put printing message on LCD screen
M117 Printing...

Here is my end code;

M104 S0 ;hotend heater off
M140 S0 ;heated bed heater off (if you have it)
G91 ;relative positioning
G1 E-5 F300 ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressure
G1 Z+0.5 E-10 ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even more
M117 finished... ;message on LCD screen
G28 X5 Y5 ;move X/Y to min endstops, so the head is out of the way
G1 Y245 F2000 ;move to front
M300 S300 P1000 ;sound when finished
M300 S200 P1000 ;sound when finished
M300 S400 P1000 ;sound when finished
M84 ;all steppers off
G90 ;absolute positioning






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2014 08:22AM by regpye.

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[regpye.com.au]
"Experience is the mother of all knowledge." --Leonardo da Vinci

Quote
MelT
It's just that celljeffe's fan is only 40mm so it looks like it's just big enough to blow on the cold end.

I'm having some level of success on my setup but I believe the best would be a dual fan setup. One dedicated for cold end and a ducted one for the print because as you will discover, you will need cooling only on some parts of the print. I have yet to see someone do this on smartrap though.

Yes. Experiments have shown that I definitely need a constant fan on the cold end to reduce filament jams after multiple extrusion/retraction cycles. So, a second fan blowing on the bed under Slic3r control would be a great addition. I took some measurements and there is *just* enough room to fit a second horizontal fan *behind* the hot-end mount between the hot end and the X-motor at the home position. A 30-deg sloped fan mount turned into an easy addition to my servo-less x-end! Printing now.

Happy 4th!

Yes i also noticed the new speed that came with the Cura 14.7 update t hought it was me overlooking some settings hehe.

In my case the higher layers now tend to crimp more (a cylinder comes out slightly conical) Am I printing to hot?

The overall result has improved a lot. Thanks Cura!

I'm going to add your Start and End codes too Reg, clever details. :-)

Is there a reason why M82 (set extruder to absolute) is removed?
I noticed that Cura this also added in the default

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2014 03:24PM by BackEMF.

Quote
BackEMF
Yes i also noticed the new speed that came with the Cura 14.7 update t hought it was me overlooking some settings hehe.

In my case the higher layers now tend to crimp more (a cylinder comes out slightly conical) Am I printing to hot?

The overall result has improved a lot. Thanks Cura!

I'm going to add your Start and End codes too Reg, clever details. :-)

Is there a reason why M82 (set extruder to absolute) is removed?
I noticed that Cura this also added in the default

I must have over looked that, but after doing prints all last night I am not sure that it is needed. Prints came out perfect.
I will add it and finish off printing today and compare the results.

Edit: Seems like it is set by default.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2014 06:44PM by regpye.

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[regpye.com.au]
"Experience is the mother of all knowledge." --Leonardo da Vinci

Quote
CellJeffe
Hmm. I switch over to all rack-and-pinion last night (and a 0.4.9 update!) and decided to do some speed tests using the speed multiplier of Repetier (base settings Perimeters: 30mm/s, Infills: 40mm/s). Speed was not the problem. The printer could easily go 150% to 200% faster than the base settings. After some sleuthing, I determined that cooling was the main problem with increased speed!
[attachment 35891 IMG_1666.JPG]
Both of these were printed at 150% speed at the indicated temperatures. The both did quite well on the bottom layers, but as it gets to the top of the pyramid, there was just not enough time for a layer to cool before the next layer goes on. Results: slurring of the smaller layers.

I always have a fan running on my J-head to cool down the barrel. It is usually not a problem since I have mostly been printing multi-part plates with large layers. But small objects are obviously a problem. Time to think about adding more fans to cool the print as well. Any pointers to a good ducted fan design that might work well with my servoless J-head mount?

[attachment 35892 IMG_1667.JPG]

My servoless hotend

Have a look at this video to give you some ideas on how a fan could be mounted on a SmartRap.
I will do some design work when I get time so it will fit mine.

Video

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[regpye.com.au]
"Experience is the mother of all knowledge." --Leonardo da Vinci

I added the M82 as previously talked about and did another print. I didn't see any difference at all, so I am assuming that M82 is set in the slicing software (Cura) by default.
Anyway, I like the better finish on both top and bottom layers, and the extra speed that it seems to print at. The corner finishes are better too.

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[regpye.com.au]
"Experience is the mother of all knowledge." --Leonardo da Vinci

I'm kinda missing the speed improvement in the latest cura but the initial layer line width setting is a welcome addition.
I hope they can add a feature to slow down when printing bridges.

What a difference a fan makes! I added a bed fan mount to my servoless j-head. So far, the prints are much improved! I was having some Z-axis issues with cables snagging, so will not post photos of the resulting 5-mm steps yet. Suffice it to say that my bridges are now perfect, as are the top layers!

I was correct that there was enough room behind the x-end for a bed fan. It took a couple of iterations to get the fit right. I updated my thingiverse page with the new x-end mount for the bed fan.

I just need to clean up the cabling mess now that my design has stabilized!

PS: If anyone is interested, I tacked some "deskewing" code to the bed leveling matrix. My printed SmartRap upgrades had a tilt on one axis, resulting in a skew between X and Y in its resulting prints. Nothing a good-old-fashioned transformation matrix couldn't handle, though.

Quote
regpye
Have a look at this video to give you some ideas on how a fan could be mounted on a SmartRap.
I will do some design work when I get time so it will fit mine.

Thanks, regpye, but I was well into my redesign before I saw that. I'm quite happy so far with this simple fan mount - it works well enough so far without a duct. Though I have to thank you again after stealing your ideas of the long lever arm and short bowden tube retainer for the servoless lever.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2014 10:11AM by CellJeffe.

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CellJeffe


Thanks, regpye, but I was well into my redesign before I saw that. I'm quite happy so far with this simple fan mount - it works well enough so far without a duct. Though I have to thank you again after stealing your ideas of the long lever arm and short bowden tube retainer for the servoless lever.

Yes I noticed that you followed my idea and used a similar design. Works well doesn't it?
My new design works even better, however I am short of time to finish off the next printer that will be using an even upgraded version of that one.
When I get it all finished I will post the files for others to use if they want.

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[regpye.com.au]
"Experience is the mother of all knowledge." --Leonardo da Vinci

Quote
regpye
Yes I noticed that you followed my idea and used a similar design. Works well doesn't it?
When I get it all finished I will post the files for others to use if they want.

Yes indeed, it works well! The only thing I added to the concept was to make 4 thin, protruding ribs between the mount and lever arm. They keep the two parts at a fixed distance during rotation, but with a much smaller surface area and less friction than a long, flat surfaces. I also made all of the contact points (including the bowden tube) radial with respect to the pinned joint. I am not sure if it matters for the ribs, but radial arcs definitely smoothed motion against the bowden tube retainer as compared to a tube strictly perpendicular to the lever arm.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2014 11:45AM by CellJeffe.

Finally, I was able to try a PLA filament that flows well even at just 210 degrees! It's only this gray (or silver) filament that is different from the rest.

With this filament, I can go 100mm/s easy. Maybe there's something about the pigment that causes is to melt easily.

Too bad I only have 150grams of it left