Print accuracy

I have a V2 Linear Prusa Kit from MakerFarm and have
been printing for a couple of weeks. The only major
problem I had was that I bought the cheapest PLA and
learned the hard way that anything over about 3.07mm
filament would not go through my extruder; therefore
I now only use filament specified as 2.9mm +- 0.1mm.
I use a heated bed with a piece of ordinary glass,
clean it with windex and have had zero problems. Things
stick to the glass and come right off after it cools.

Printing pretty good except I still have a question.

Shrinkage, I print a 150mm test strip and after
cooling it shrinks up to about 148.2mm. How to
you accommodate shrinkage etc. when you need accurate
prints, especially inside dimensions? If I change
the xy step calculation, then it means changing firmware
between abs and pla etc.?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

That is a tasty burger!


If you know the specific amount of shrinkage you are getting, convert it to a %, and scale your stl to compensate? Just a thought. Your shrinkage will be different in different axis I assume so this won't be a perfect fix.


Also, are you sure while it's printing that it is actually the size it should be? Maybe it's already a little small while it's printing, which is a symptom of incorrect steps/mm.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2013 02:25PM by xclusive585.