exxos blog - random goings on

[PhilC]

Actually yes it could. Try preheating the bed for a few mins. I found on mine that there could be a food 5 degrees difference on initial warm up. Also the bed might warp a little when warm?

[exxos]

Actually yes it could. Try preheating the bed for a few mins. I found on mine that there could be a food 5 degrees difference on initial warm up. Also the bed might warp a little when warm?

I am not convinced the bed is perfectly flat across the surface.. But even so, 60c seems to be doing the trick so far...

It is possible the bed temperature might not be consistent across the area as well..

[exxos]

This one worked perfectly...

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Will dump these settings here in case I mess it up the future

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[rubber_jonnie]

These are the ones set in Cura right now. I often print at 0.1 layer height, unless I need something quickly, so my print speeds etc are based on quality rather than speed.

Layer Height 0.1
Initial Layer Height 0.2
Line Width 0.4
Wall thickness 0.4 (also print at 0.8 at times depending on what its used for)
Wall Line count 2 (also print at 4 at times as above)
Top / Bottom thickness 0.6
Top and bottom layers 6
Top/Bottom Pattern: Lines
Ironing off
Horizontal expansion 0
Infill Density 50 (depends on use again, as I repair items for the wife nursery, so have to make them stronger and kid proof)
Infill Pattern Octet (cos I like the pattern )
Printing Temperature 200 (will depend on printer and material obviously)
Build plate temperature 60 (as above)
Flow 100%
Retraction Enabled
Retraction speed 40mm/s
Print Speed 60mm/s
Infil Speed 60mm/s
Outer Wall Speed 30mm/s
Inner Wall Speed 60mm/s
Top/Bottomg Speed 30mm/s
Initial Layer Speed 30mm/s
Print cooling enables
Fan speed 100%
Support enabled / everywhere / 50 degrees
Build plate adhesion Type Skirt (This helps me to check the bed is level before it starts wasting material on the main body of the print.

Other things: I use a glass textured heated bed and have stronger springs in the height adjuster for the bed. Also an Aluminium extruder feed mechanism. And the printer is an Ender 3. Only other thing I plan to do with it is to install stepper vibration dampers. Not for noise reduction as some do but to help in reducing backlash etc.

Out of interest I set up a Cura profile with these settings, and the top half of my PSU case comes out at 15 hours plus! I think theres room to find a compromise there

[PhilC]

Definitely. I haven't printed anything that size yet, so would tweak the settings to speed it up a bit.

BTW, tried printing with PETG yesterday, quality was good but hot to get it to stick to the bed a little better.

[rubber_jonnie]

Definitely. I haven't printed anything that size yet, so would tweak the settings to speed it up a bit.

BTW, tried printing with PETG yesterday, quality was good but hot to get it to stick to the bed a little better.

I've also considered PETG, it seems to produce interesting prints, any pics of your results?

[PhilC]

I stopped the print early on as I wanted to do a material comparison. It is very flexible but needs better bed adhesion. Apparently if you use a glass bed like I do, you are supposed to apply hair spray to it BUT then you risk it not coming off. So i will get some of the blue tape and try it.

Will post pics when I do.

[rubber_jonnie]

I use the blue tape on my bed, I buy it in packs that are square and the size of my bed, and if I keep the bed temp @60c then adhesion is fine.

Because of the type of bed levelling sensor type I have, a glass plate is not feasible.

I do find if the bed has cooled before I get to removing large jobs, it's a lot harder to get the job off, but I have three plastic spatulas that I can use to slide under it to lift it off.

[kludge]

PETG has almost all of the benefits of ABS, but from my experience it’s much easier to print with. Doesn’t warp as bad, and is not as toxic. Unless you need the extra temperature tolerance or the acetone smoothing properties of ABS, I would go for PETG.

The major downside of PETG is that it’s quite stringy, so you might have to play around a bit with the filament retraction settings to get it to behave.

...but my memory might be a bit cloudy. My printer has been out of commission for a year and I haven’t gotten around to fixing it

[exxos]

My re-cap kits have gone out of stock again So went on the hunt for the 4700uF caps...

As mentioned before, I have started bulk buying stuff, as Farnell have become terrible at stocking items over the past couple of years..

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