3D Printer yet?

[xrunner]

Grabbed the new Marlin version 2.0.6. Transferring my config settings into the new config files.

Didn't compile right yet. Wish me luck ...

 

[HobGoblyn]

I have to say, when I spent 50 odd days with my ender 3 pro, I was getting a little disillusioned, thinking I was on a road to nowhere.

Since returning it and getting the CR10  v2, it has never needed levelling past the first time.   Even when I tilted it, placed it on it's side etc to trace the wiring, when I put it back upright and did a level test, nothing needed adjusting it was all perfectly in place.   

I read facebook posts of people having problem after problem, others say they've never had problems, I''m convinced there's simply some badly made printers out there.

I've had my first failure on my CR10 v2 today, a print taking up all 300mm of the bed, the corners lifted.  Bed was only 50 degrees, I suspect the heat doesn't get to the edges so hopefully increasing bed temp will fix it.

Had similar problems with the Tornado; waiting an extra 15 minutes after bed came up to temp for it to equalize across the entire surface (confirmed it took this long with infra-thermometer) and added ~2-3mm brim around the print fixed it. You can also set it so the brim stops just before the print; just set it one line's worth. With the squish, this makes it hair thin so it still holds, but peels off the part easier.

Don't preheat your hotend; let the gcode handle that.

I also have no compunctions about using hairspray if a large print fails and tries to fuck with my head; IMO, if it works, it's not a crutch.

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

Can’t put brim around it as it’s the width of the bed.

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

Hairspray and turn the bed temp up a bit?

[xrunner]

Well I finally beat it (2.0.6) into submission. It finally compiled and left me a .bin file that worked. Eh - it did have a few yellow accentuated grumblings of a few items it reported that didn't sit well with the compiler, but apparently they didn't matter much. 

It's printing out one of the N scale containers for my model railroad now - looks perfectly fine. 

[mnementh]

Hairspray and turn the bed temp up a bit?

Yup... and/or mod the size of the build plate in your slicer to get every mm your printer is capable of. I also had 2 iterations of the Tornado in Cura; one with a custom bed size that went from front to back BETWEEN the 4 protruding screws to get me 362mm (every bit of travel I could squeak out of my Y-rail) out of the Y-axis.

mnem
 

[xrunner]

I had the Creality glass bed, and I didn't think it was that great as far as parts sticking to it. Last year I wanted to get a different glass bed to try. I ordered one like this -

Mystery Glass bed

NOTE: At least those are the same set of pictures as the one I bought. I can't say for sure because there is no brand name on it or on the box it came in. It's a mystery maker.

But, what I wanted to say was, it's performance is FAR better than the Creality bed as far as parts sticking. I've looked at the surfaces of the two and they are not the same prepared surface. The Creality bed is "shiny" and this one isn't. I can't say more than that because I have no objective way to compare them other than printing on them.

But as I said - the unlabelled bed has been working extremely well for me for a year - no parts sticking issues.

[CatalinaWOW]

I'm with mnemonth on this.  I have a Creality Glass bed and adhesion varies widely with material and part geometry.  A single bed temperature and rim/raft setting doesn't work for all parts.  In some cases I get spagetti, in others I have to use a hammer and chisel to remove the parts.  You just have to dial in what that part wants.  The most difficult ones I have dealt with are tall, slender parts.  Think lamp post or screwdriver.  Of course I could lay them on their side and print with support, but I actually want the best surface finish possible.  A large raft works here.

Hair spray and glue stick are useful tools in this journey.

[mnementh]

I had the Creality glass bed, and I didn't think it was that great as far as parts sticking to it. Last year I wanted to get a different glass bed to try. I ordered one like this -

Mystery Glass bed

NOTE: At least those are the same set of pictures as the one I bought. I can't say for sure because there is no brand name on it or on the box it came in. It's a mystery maker.

But, what I wanted to say was, it's performance is FAR better than the Creality bed as far as parts sticking. I've looked at the surfaces of the two and they are not the same prepared surface. The Creality bed is "shiny" and this one isn't. I can't say more than that because I have no objective way to compare them other than printing on them.

But as I said - the unlabelled bed has been working extremely well for me for a year - no parts sticking issues.

I have the same one, I think on my Diggro Alpha right now; ordered from a Canadian CReality-Authorized reseller. It has bee pretty craptacular in general; the surface is wavy AS FUCK. There are multiple areas where it goes from baseline to 0.2-0.3 mm proud (maybe more; I'm just guessing based on first-layer squish) over a travel of 40-60mm. I thought I was getting genuine UltraBase when I bought it; they had oodles of UB listings and this was THE ONE SINGLE generic on the site.

What I don't get is WHY... even HOW they manage such shitty QC on these. I have a packet of 12" mirror tiles from Home Despot on my Tornado that literally cost a buck apiece... not only do they manage to be ~0.1mm or less true across the entire surface, they manage that across every tile in the box. I literally do not have to relevel even after changing the tile 3 or 4 times.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Well I finally beat it (2.0.6) into submission. It finally compiled and left me a .bin file that worked. Eh - it did have a few yellow accentuated grumblings of a few items it reported that didn't sit well with the compiler, but apparently they didn't matter much. 

It's printing out one of the N scale containers for my model railroad now - looks perfectly fine. 

Thanks for taking one for the team on this one, x. 

I think I'll just linger on known-working builds of 1.9.x until my CR6-SE arrives. 

On that front... CREALITY slipped up and actually posted LIVE a listing on their AliEx store for the CR6-SE, showing a delivery date with their usual 10-20 days. Shockingly, their Facebork page lit up like Global Thermonuclear War... again. 

mnem
These motherfuckers just do not even THINK like we do...

[Flump]

I have had my ender3 for a couple of years and tried many different build surfaces and the one I have had most success with is a sheet of smooth borosilicate glass
with a sheet of PEI stuck to the top of it, using this combination I have never had a first layer fail to stick and I have printed over 200 face shield headbands on it and countless of other random prints.
Every now and then I lightly scrub the surface over with a light to medium sanding block and wipe it down with IPA regularly.

Getting prints off was troublesome at first because they stick so well but I know the knack to it now and can get them off instantly as soon as
it finishes printing every time with no drama or damage to print or bed.

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

I use the shiny glass that came with it, and hairspray. Perfect!

[xrunner]

Well I finally beat it (2.0.6) into submission. It finally compiled and left me a .bin file that worked. Eh - it did have a few yellow accentuated grumblings of a few items it reported that didn't sit well with the compiler, but apparently they didn't matter much. 

It's printing out one of the N scale containers for my model railroad now - looks perfectly fine. 

Thanks for taking one for the team on this one, x. 

I think I'll just linger on known-working builds of 1.9.x until my CR6-SE arrives. 

But you're missing so much fun! Think of the sense of accomplishment you will have if when you succeed! 

As far as the build surface, so many people have had so many different experiences with the optional solutions. Seems an area ripe for research for a unified "this is the Final Solution" build plate surface.

[Monkeh]

Seems an area ripe for research for a unified "this is the Final Solution" build plate surface.

A sheet of spring steel with some good PEI on it. Works for all commoner materials.

[mnementh]

Yeah; as long as you have mesh leveling. Which just trades bottom surface imperfections for those generated by constantly moving the Y-axis, and adds Ifni-knows-how-much wear & tear on rollers & cheap-ass leadscrews already known to be pretty loosey-goosey.

mnem
I just can't WAIT till mine gets here!!! 

[Monkeh]

Yeah; as long as you have mesh leveling. Which just trades bottom surface imperfections for those generated by constantly moving the Y-axis, and adds Ifni-knows-how-much wear & tear on rollers & cheap-ass leadscrews already known to be pretty loosey-goosey.

mnem
I just can't WAIT till mine gets here!!! 

Or, y'know, you could put it on a decently flat bed to begin with

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

This is the shape of one of my beds:

[mnementh]

Yeah; as long as you have mesh leveling. Which just trades bottom surface imperfections for those generated by constantly moving the Y-axis, and adds Ifni-knows-how-much wear & tear on rollers & cheap-ass leadscrews already known to be pretty loosey-goosey.

mnem
I just can't WAIT till mine gets here!!! 

Or, y'know, you could put it on a decently flat bed to begin with

Which is not reasonable to expect from a flex build plate. If there's one thing hardened ferrous metal loves to do, it's move when heat is applied.

mnem
Especially if there's a chance of whacking you in the face. 

[Monkeh]

Or, y'know, you could put it on a decently flat bed to begin with

Which is not reasonable to expect from a flex build plate. If there's one thing hardened ferrous metal loves to do, it's move when heat is applied.

You don't expect it from the flex plate - you expect it from the surface full of high power magnets on which you stick the plate. It works.

[mnementh]

I find that highly suspect.    So many opportunities for random crap to find its way between layers; adding magnets just enhances the attraction to crud. Also, most magnetic materials deteriorate with exposure to heat. Seems like an awful lot of caveats just to not have to wait 5-10 minutes.

I've never had problems getting stuff off of plain glass; all I ever had to do was wait for it to cool and the part usually just pops off.  Guess I just don't care, as I'm not doing it for profit.

mnem
 

[HobGoblyn]

I still haven't had to level the bed at all since my last post   At this rate, I think I'll leave my BLTouch off for now.

Got some ERYONE black PLA off of Amazon, I read mixed reviews but mainly good.  I've had more problems getting the settings right for this than for the cheap no name  stuff I was using.

Not going to attempt to put photos in line, will put them all at the end.

There's two temp towers.  First with combing on, second with combing off, second was much much better.  The PLA says it's temp range is 200 to 220, but the temp tower was best at about 185.

Then I tried playing with retraction settings. Printed a load of 5 min tests at various speeds and length, not only did they all string, they also pulled away at the top quite a bit.  I read an article somewhere on the net where someone had similar problems and they put 0.2mm in both the  "outer wall wipe distance" and the  "Infill Wipe distance". This improved things considerably , I've attached two string tests, one with wipe, one with the same retraction settings but without wipe.

I still had to increase travel speed from 150 to 200 to get reasonable results.

I then did another ton of tests, the best I could find was Retraction distance 5, Retraction speed 40, travel speed 200 (and the 0.2mm on the wipes).  OK not too much hassle to do, but surely I must be doing this the hard way? Surely most people don't end up printing about 50 string tests 

Going back to my previous post, I've attached a bed temp photo.  With the bed at 60, it's 60 right until the last few mm at the back where it drops to 57c.  However at the front, it drops right down to 32 degrees at the edge and the middle of the E on the word Creality is only 37
 (sorry the 37 doesn't show up very well in red in the photo).  The left hand edge of the bed is almost as bad as the front while the right hand edge is similar to the back.   

[mnementh]

mnem
 

[xrunner]

YouTube tutorials?

But I thought ...

[HobGoblyn]

Trouble with YouTube 3D printer tutorials and Facebook is that few agree with one another.  I originally turned on the combing as suggested by one site, yet on Facebook I was advised to turn it off (which did help for this roll of filament).

[Nominal Animal]

YouTube tutorials?  But I thought ...

I ain't catching that flak twice! 

But I am still building my own enclosed quiet printer with air filtration.  Right now, I'm struggling whether to use two 8mm rods, or two 2020 alu profiles, for the y-axis (bed).  I like the rods, because then I can use Igus polymer bushes (in LM8UU carriers) for lower noise, but am not sure how precise the alignment (parallelism) has to be.  The 2020 profile can be shimmed; the round optical shafts not so much.  The key supports will be heavy but rigid, out of 1.5mm-2mm wall thickness steel square tubing.

The obvious solution would be to machine a square holder plate (like an SHF08, but square) with set screws on all four sides of the shaft, for one end of one shaft – much like a four-jaw chuck –, but I don't have a machine shop.

[xrunner]

I ain't catching that flak twice! 

LOL.

Trouble with YouTube 3D printer tutorials and Facebook is that few agree with one another.  I originally turned on the combing as suggested by one site, yet on Facebook I was advised to turn it off (which did help for this roll of filament).

LOL yea that does seem to happen. 

Been playing with some bed leveling lately. Seems a little persnickety for some reason - initial lines not sticking here and there.

I played with the "Bed Z" adjustment in the bed leveling menu for a while. I swear I had tried it at some point in the past but it didn't seem to do anything. Maybe the latest firmware fixed it.

You can add +z.zzz for a larger gap and -z.zzz for smaller gap. In other words it moves the whole mesh Zero reference up or down. It took up just enough Z with -0.020 that the prints started squishing just like I wanted on the first layer. Check it out if you ever need it.