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Re: stepper motor calibration - 8 years ago

I usually don't really bother with the current setting, I make the axis move back and forth through gcode at the max speed I intend to use. Since this usually is below the physical capabilities I can turn the pots down until I loose steps and then just back higher until all runs fine. No motor gets hot, not driver gets hot.

by Downunder35m - General Mendel Topics

Re: stepper motor calibration - 8 years ago

I would not bother with too much current as the motors have little work to do when turning the threaded rod. Let it go up and down at a fast speed and only if you miss steps go over the default setting.

by Downunder35m - General Mendel Topics

Re: Clearance between printing lines. - 8 years ago

You're welcome! Just play around with the slicing settings for gap fill and perimeters - if you see a gap in the preview then you will have one in the print as well. Often it also helps for smaller things to use a lower layer height so the width can be increased to match but of course only within the physical limits of the nozzle diameter.

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: Clearance between printing lines. - 8 years ago

It is sometimes a problem to get the settings right, especially for perimeters. Consider this as an example: If you have a wall thickness of 2.2mm and an extrusion width of 0.4mm the slicer has to find a way to get the primeter lines within these specs. 4 times 0.4 is 2mm, so the missing 0.2mm need to be gap fill unless the slicer can produce slightly thicker extrusions here. It can be even worse

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: Insulating hotend to contain radiation heat? - 8 years ago

It does not matter what is written in your link as it won't address the physical issues and realities - a badly designed hotend is crap not matter if it is insulated or not - a good hotend does not require any insulation to produce good and reliable prints. If that would not be true all hotends would be insulated and not just the crappy ones There are people still printing with totally outdated

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: parameters to improve the look of my printed object - 8 years ago

To be honest your print does not look like anything was calibrated properly, at least not the extrusion parameters. I would start with some of the readily available testobject on Thiniverse and other sites to test and confirm all is set up properly before printing something of actual use.

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: printer goes crazy during print. - 8 years ago

Silcer in combination with the host software can produce some unwanted side effects every now and then. If the above is of no help try a different version of Slic3r or just change the layer height slightly to check for changes. For me these "hickups" usually happen when the printer is running very slow, so a slight increase in speed could be considered too.

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: Opinions on Upgrades - 8 years ago

I just printed some pointy cones in PLA and have them sit on little discs, same principle like used on high end speaker boxes of proper size. Not olny kills it vibrations but also the transfered noise which otherwise would go directly onto the surface of whatever the printer stands on. But IMHO the best solution is to prevent unwanted vibrations right at the source. Adding simple cork pads betwee

by Downunder35m - General Mendel Topics

Re: Insulating hotend to contain radiation heat? - 8 years ago

Here we go agin with the old discussion about insulating a hotend.... 1. If the heater cartridge is the right size and working properly it makes no difference at all if you insulate or not - only weak heaters and badly designed hotend require it. 2. Where is the heat actually escaping to ? Right! The higher the speed the more heat is lost to the filament melting - again if the heater is too weak

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: parameters to improve the look of my printed object - 8 years ago

I assume you already calibrated the machine, like steps, extrusion parameters and such? There is no point in changing any settings on a machine that is not calibrated to perform to specs

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: 3D Stuffmakers Mendal gen 2 - 8 years ago

Sound pretty much like my review from over 3 years ago. Stuffmaker is a company that should be forced to close as they have neither working products nor a working support. Give us your money and after that piss off it their way of doing business. That is the price when you copy the cheapest solutions available on the market and combine them with electrconics that will never be checked or calibrat

by Downunder35m - General Mendel Topics

Re: Poor top layer quality - 8 years ago

When printing with the 0.3mm nozzle and onyl a slight infill I realised that the first top solid infill is more like bridging than normal printing. With the 0.7mm nozzle there simply is no such problem as the layers are much thicker. Just to get a solid and clean top surface I need at least 5 solid layers to get a smooth finnish, if the infill is below 25% I need up to 7 layers. I does help a lot

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: 3d Stuffmaker Mega Prusa problems - 8 years ago

If there is a firmware limit then there is little you can do throught the slicer. But usually there really is no need for a very fast z-axis movement as it only happens between layers.

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: BullDog XL and E3D v6 jam! - 8 years ago

When I experimented with recycling plastic for my printer I learned two things quite quickly: a) It is next to impossible to re-use any PLA as it becomes far too brittle. b) Even with the best extruder at hand you need fine screens to filter out the contaminents from the plastic. is a bit hard when it comes to fine nozzles as at least I was struggling to ensure the plastic going in would be stil

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: 1.75mm filament force on bowden hotend - 8 years ago

One massive problem with bowden systems is that the tube is not really suitable for the filament. Take the ones for 3mm filament as an example, most are 4mm in diameter, some go even higher to use the cheap 10mm connectors. If there is a lot of play it means the filament can start to twist inside the tube resulting in a lot of force required to move it. IMHO the best option is to abandone the PTF

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: 3d Stuffmaker Mega Prusa problems - 8 years ago

Second command, the G1 move get's the head home, delete or comment it and the head stays in place where the print ended.

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: Newbie looking for hobby, possibly more - 8 years ago

Obviously on top as otherwise you would just burn the paint off the underside.

by Downunder35m - Laser Cutter Working Group

Re: Newbie looking for hobby, possibly more - 8 years ago

QuoteVDX ... I've engraved glass with a 445nm@2W-diode too - sprayed the surface with black paint and engraved the paint -- while evaporating the paint, the temperature in the spot is enough to melt the surface under the coating ... otherwise the 445nm-light will simply shine through the glass .. Nice one

by Downunder35m - Laser Cutter Working Group

Re: Newbie looking for hobby, possibly more - 8 years ago

You are looking at an investmet of about 1000-4000$ depending on what manufacurer you choose. Basic 40W CO2 laser, plus rotary attachment or motorised rollers. Flat glass can be done with a 500$ chinese knock-off. Depending on what you actually want to etch it might be faster, cheaper and easier to use stencils and these nice acid mixes. Will give you much finer details too as the glass is actual

by Downunder35m - Laser Cutter Working Group

Re: Layers and skipping - 8 years ago

The max layer thickness for a 0.4mm nozzle would be a theoretical 0.32mm. But this also depends on who wide the extusion is. I would not really bother to print above 0.25mm layer height with a .4 nozzle. Do a simple test cube with 0.2mm layer height and adjust the print tepm down every 10 layers, starting from 220° and ending at around 160°C. That way you can see where the temp starts to cause pr

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: 3d Stuffmaker Mega Prusa problems - 8 years ago

The only difference is that the above is for a bowden system while the other is a direct drive - if you want to print stuff like PETG or Flex filament a direct drive is the way to go.

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: 3d Stuffmaker Mega Prusa problems - 8 years ago

The hotend seems to be the same that I am using just for 1.75mm, works reliable after some minor fixes. Some sanding and polishing on the inside is required unless you get one that has a teflon liner installed. If so then this liner should not through the heatbreak, just for the cold end. For the complete one I can't give much as I don't know how well it is designed and how the drive teeth look.

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: blobby and stringy - 8 years ago

You are not extruding properly, possibly due to the temp being too low. You should see a lot of chewed filament in your extruder too as this amount of underextrusion should leave visble evidence, unless your extruder is slipping (grub screw, bad hobbed bolt....).

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: 3d Stuffmaker Mega Prusa problems - 8 years ago

For that it should be fine. Keep in mind that if you can stand the hassles that you can simply replace the actual nozzle on the hotend with a different diameter. If a cleanup is required for filament type change it makes no real difference time wise anyway.

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: Layers and skipping - 8 years ago

There is limit for the layer height as well as for the extrusion width based on the actual nozzle diameter. There are calculators available for this but 0,3mm layer height is already bad enough for a 0.4mm nozzle, 0.2 - 0.25 is good, lower better. If you need thicker layers user a bigger nozzle.

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: 3d Stuffmaker Mega Prusa problems - 8 years ago

That totally depends on what you want to print and what level of detail you require - plus of course how much time you are willing to allocate on a print. For example simple construction parts don't really need less than 0.7mm. A finely detailed statue or lithopane however benefits from finer nozzles. All I can say is that 0.4mm is still a bit forgiving when it comes to print settings, 0.3mm real

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: 3d Stuffmaker Mega Prusa problems - 8 years ago

The only real issue with Stuffmaker is that they stuff up the hardware so it is basically only usable for PLA. If you get a decent extruder and maybe a normal firmware like standard Marlin or Repetier they are quite usable machines. Sure there are some basic design flaws but they are similar to other machines following the same frame concept. I replaced hotend(s), extruder and firmware and print

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: Layers and skipping - 8 years ago

0.4mm nozlle and 0.2mm layer height seems to be about right IMHO. For tiny nozzles you really need a well calibrated extrusion, 5 % off here can already mean a ruined print. And what a larger layers? You mean bigger in size than you chess piece or thicker layers?

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: 3d Stuffmaker Mega Prusa problems - 8 years ago

I would not like to use these long nozzles, the shorter ones are better as they won't cool down so much. Something like this. See the difference in tip length? But unless you buy a really quality one be prepared for some manual labour. The heatbreak needs to be sanded and polished and if you don't use a teflon liner in the coldend you need to polish it too. Similar story for gaps, for example if

by Downunder35m - Printing

Re: 3d Stuffmaker Mega Prusa problems - 8 years ago

These hotends were already totally outdated when I got my printer years ago. Only useable for PLA and due to the poor design they love to block up as there is not enough cooling for longer prints. Depending on your carrier mount almost all good hotends will fit.

by Downunder35m - Printing