Tell me how you do it.

I finally have my I3x kit built and working correctly. But the actual process of printing im still very green. I was just wondering if you guys could comment on what your process is for a few of my questions?
Right or wrong, i just want to know what you do that works for you.

The heat bed: When do you turn it on and for how long. Mine only seems to work manually.
Extruder: Have you ever ran out of plastic and had to add more in the middle of a print? whats the process for this?
Extruder2: do you do anything to prep the extruder before a print? , how about before you shut down the machine?

Thanks

Do you have to turn on the bed manually because it waits forever otherwise? Likely you need to increase the bed PID `P` value of the bed, M304 P,(and M301 for hot end) M503 prints the settings and M500 saves them into eeprom.(otherwise the settings are gone after reset) It should just go to the temperature you indicate.

Btw even though just starting it does work fine for me, i do often manually set the bed temperature just so it is closer to ready, when i actually have the gcode ready.

I dont do anything to prep the hot end, just the skirts to prime it.(but slic3r does that) Likely something still something off if you need to do that. (I have a bowden setup, my approach to switching filament doesnt work, and tbh i dont know how to 'keep the current E position but extrude/retract anyway')

Note that my software 'workflow' isnt good enough imo yet.. But for me something along the line of MPD seems best, but thats a whole story. octoprint doesnt seem to do it the way i am thinking about.. but admit i havent looked well enough!

If you haven't specified a bed temperature in slic3r (e.g. if you have it set to 0) the G-code it generates will not turn on the bed.

I've also added custom post-print G-code to turn off the bed (since I usually leave it to run unattended).

Look at the G-code in pronterface (File / Edit; cancel to exit without making changes). Among your first few lines of G-code should be something like:

G21 ; set units to millimeters
M190 S115 ; wait for bed temperature to be reached
M104 S230 ; set temperature

These first few lines are commented by slic3r to make it fairly obvious what's going on.

Do you have the M190 S115 line?

Can you use pronterface / printrun to set the bed temperature? If so, you probably don't have the right slic3r settings. There are a lot of settings and it can be a bit baffling at first to go through all of them, but mostly the default settings should work (other than what you need to set the right temperature for the filament you're using).

i turn on bed, set temperature, then slicing the part, and i check box in slic3r START PRINT WHEN SLICER FINISH

preheat extruder(1 min or less for abs), i clean it with extruding 5-10 mm material, and then i zero z axis to prevent oozing, thats it, this is done when slicer doing its job.

when done with printing im leaving power on so that vent on e3d hotend cools down hotend to room temperature(few mins), and then i shut it system down.

As far as running out of plastic, if you don't notice that you're low or out until it's gone, you're probably better off restarting the print. If you are there watching & your extruder is well aligned, you can start a new spool at the end of the old. Just press the start of the new filament against the end of the old. Provided they have the same melting characteristics, you should be fine.

I used to prime my extruder by extruding 5mm before the print, but now I have Slic3r making 3 loops of a skirt. That gives enough time to run out any dead space, adhere, and adjust the Z position if my crappy Radioshack switches weren't accurate.

I also have Slic3r setting the bed temp, then the extruder, making the skirt, the part, and shutting off the extruder and bed. In theory it's one click from cold start to peeling the part off.