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3D Printing Book?

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bostonman:
I have an Anet A8 and periodically use it for various printing with PLA.

For the most part, I use generic settings, however, I'm wondering if a book/PDF exists that lists settings for various printing with different filament.

I'm thinking maybe something exists that would provide settings for different filaments, different size objects, etc... Does anyone know if something like this exists?

beanflying:
You won't find anything more than 'guidelines or ranges' as machines vary in Temperature the report back to the board and filiments vary by 5-10C in what is good or bad and if you like a stronger print with a bit more heat or a more cosmetic .... So you get a range of maybe 20C for PLA for example.

Start with this one from Tom as a guide to dialing in YOUR printer and beware of A8 fires ;)

Whales:
There too many filaments out there for a single book to make sense.  Every man and his dog has turned some plastic into a filament roll.  Lots of other variables affect what settings you need to use too:

 * Ambient temperature & airflow
 * Moisture content of your filament (eg fresh vs exposed to air for months)
 * Batch number (sometimes the same model & make varies between batches by a notable amount)

The manufacturers of the filament will suggest some settings, but you have tune these to suit your particular problems.  There are simply way too many variables and far too little good solution space to generalise everything into a single solution/guide/suggestion of settings:

 * Extrusion speed
 * Extrusion nozzle material (affects how often filament sticks to it & starts bundling up on it instead of the bed/workpiece)
 * Extrusion nozzle chamfer, shape & size
 * Desired tradeoff of bridging performance + loop reduction VS layer adhesion (temperature)
 * etc

bostonman:

--- Quote ---Start with this one from Tom as a guide to dialing in YOUR printer and beware of A8 fires
--- End quote ---


Think I have this covered. The only fires that I know of are the connector for the hot bed (now fixed with the MOSFET - also using a second MOSFET for the extruder), and the firmware needs updating to monitor the thermistors and turn off the system if they change value.

Oh, and the connector for the hot bed. Mine only has two wires for the heater, however, they are soldered directly to the board (I plan to install four wires - two positive and two ground - soldered directly to the board).

As for a printing book, thanks for the input. I thought maybe something more direct exist that could at least get me close. An example is if I plan to use PLC, from reading, they run hotter and the Anet A8 can't handle it unless the extruder is changed. Thought maybe a list existed that would help with this stuff.

Obviously no one document exists.

Thanks for the feeback

CatalinaWOW:
All of the above is an excellent reason for picking a brand of filament and sticking with it.  It reduces the number of variables you have to deal with though it doesn't eliminate lot variation and filament aging.

I don't endorse any brand, I have found several good ones and believe there are many more I haven't tried.  But I want my 3D printer as a tool to do things, not as a never ending tuning project, so anything that gets me printing more things is a good thing.  Same story for bed materials and adhesion enhancers.  You will find advocates for many things.  In my experience they all work when tuned properly, so figure out how to make what you have work and stick with it.

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