Random 3D printing chatter

Soldato
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One of my TMC2209's let the smoke out the other night. Second time this has happened. Any ideas? SKR 1.3 board, ample cooling with heatsinks and a 40mm Noctua fan. Stepper motor current is all set correctly.

I'm hoping it's just a bad batch. Got another set coming from from Aliexpress.
 
Soldato
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I think it depends how hard you're pushing it and for how long. I manually mill steel without any coolant most of the time since on a small mill it's more of a pain. A carbide endmill can handle the heat and the right feeds and speeds should send a lot of the heat into the chip. If I were to do coolant it would be mist at most and a lot of the time I'd go air only so it moves the chips out the way but doesn't fill the air (newer mists are better here so I'm told). I'd need a compressor to do it though.....and the space to put one!
 
Associate
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My Octopi installation just worked (thankfully) but I don't use WiFi - just USB to printer and the pi wired to my ethernet hub. Have a MS USB webcam connected too. I hate trying to troubleshoot pi issues lol!

The CR-6 SE is producing brilliant results. Pictures can't capture what you see by eye turning the part over in your hands but this test print was just about perfect - including bridging and overhang to 80deg. No stringing at all (was worried about that using a bowden extruder, but it's not an issue here). I used Creality's version of Cura and default settings. I use S3D with the Sidewinder X1.


 
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Ordered the the Creality CR-6 SE for a good cheap price...
It better print TPU or in in the poo.

Congrats :) TPU won't be a problem, but that said there are many flexible filaments with some being much softer than others. You may need to tweak the retraction distance (set to 5mm by default in Creality Cura, I'd push it to 7mm if that causes blobbing and stringing. Print very slow to start with (20mm/sec) and increase speed as you gain experience with that particular type of filament. YMMV...

After assembly check ALL screws/bolts for tightness - not just the ones you install during the process of putting it together. They can work loose during transport (ask me how I know lol)
 
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Update.

Cr-6 SE arrived on Thursday, all I can say is wow what a printer for the price, huge upgrade from my 6+ year old Wanhao duplicator.

This is so easy to use, level the bed via the menu and you're good, simple as that.

TPU first prints with it for a new quad.

m9m75klh.jpg

I'm just using the Creality Slicer that it came with.

Shipped to my home from Germany (4 days from order to my door) I paid £262.73 all in.
 
Associate
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Update.

Cr-6 SE arrived on Thursday, all I can say is wow what a printer for the price, huge upgrade from my 6+ year old Wanhao duplicator.

This is so easy to use, level the bed via the menu and you're good, simple as that.

TPU first prints with it for a new quad.



I'm just using the Creality Slicer that it came with.

Shipped to my home from Germany (4 days from order to my door) I paid £262.73 all in.

What struck me is how quiet it was compared to my old Wanhao 4S :)

I printed something much more frivolous - the Millenium Falcon lol. Took 20 hours and 2 attempts because the first one fell over when I tried to print it on its end with a tiny footprint on the bed :)
Printed without any supports...





 
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Soldato
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Cool! I trust it has a removable lid and the traditional hidden smuggling compartment! :D

Kinda jealous of the CR6 to be honest. Sounds like it would have had a lot of the things I had to mod mine for - mainly the silent fans and actually fitting in the space I have for it without having to build it apse about face! I just printed some new LED strip holders - I spotted the strip moving back and forth slightly with the Y axis...and it dawned on me that the belt runs in the groove I'd clipped into. New place is on the inside of the front rail and I've lifted it and tilted it up more so it lights up the start of the print. I really must get round to printing something that isn't for the printer itself!
 
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Yes very quiet running for sure, Chris you were right on checking the bolts....Main hotbed carriage need adjustment way to lose, I was expecting the hex adjusters for the running wheels to be on each side ? they were both on the power switch side, alloy bed under the glass all the bolts were loose, belts were to tight. Spent some time building and getting things just right, it works spot on and prints lovely.

I hear the On/off switch needs replacing or bypassing, have you replaced yours Chris?

Falcon looks great :), reminded me I need more filament choice.
 
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Yes very quiet running for sure, Chris you were right on checking the bolts....Main hotbed carriage need adjustment way to lose, I was expecting the hex adjusters for the running wheels to be on each side ? they were both on the power switch side, alloy bed under the glass all the bolts were loose, belts were to tight. Spent some time building and getting things just right, it works spot on and prints lovely.

I hear the On/off switch needs replacing or bypassing, have you replaced yours Chris?

Falcon looks great :), reminded me I need more filament choice.

Hex adjusters are only on one side for all axes I think that's normal for these designs (my Sidewinder is the same). I haven't heard about the on/off switch directly just someone mentioned it in a chat somewhere that I can't recall lol. Maybe I should check that out. What you do have to watch for (and this is also an issue with many other printers) is that even when switched off at the mains the LCD will still draw power from the USB connection if it is left plugged in. You will actually see it's still illuminated with the printer switched off. This situation can toast the USB port on your PC and at the other end the cable plug on the printer may overheat as well. There are a variety of ways around this - using a modified cable (cut the power line just leaving the data lines), or a simple add-on adapter that fits between cable plug and socket on the printer which effectively does the same thing, and easiest (but most prone to user error) just make sure to unplug it if not using the printer for some time. It's fine if the printer itself is left powered up as the LCD then gets its power from elsewhere.

I've been ordering single spools of a variety of cheap filaments hoping to find something I can use without spending a fortune on premium stuff. TBH I've not had a bad experience yet (recently I mean) but have in the past using my old Wanhao 4S where some were just awful. I'll post my list eventually :)

Oh, and the model was printed using MKOEM silver Silky Shiny PLA filament from Amazon.
 
Soldato
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List of good/bad/ugly would be useful. I'm currently running some Geetech filament and it's not hideous but it does have a massive tendancy to shatter before, during and after being pushed through the tube!
 
Soldato
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Solihull-Florida
Update.

Cr-6 SE arrived on Thursday, all I can say is wow what a printer for the price, huge upgrade from my 6+ year old Wanhao duplicator.

This is so easy to use, level the bed via the menu and you're good, simple as that.

TPU first prints with it for a new quad.

m9m75klh.jpg

I'm just using the Creality Slicer that it came with.

Shipped to my home from Germany (4 days from order to my door) I paid £262.73 all in.


Is that from the kickstarter?

I was looking to get back in to 3D printing with that printer.
But the people on kickstarter are not to happy.

Where did you buy it from? can't find one that cheap.
 
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Soldato
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Started a large print yesterday. PLA, my default settings. Yeah, 9 hours later it had printed about 5mm of plinth so I had a closer look at the model. Plinth had been designed as 10mm thick. My default settings are an 15% Auxetic infill.....which is strong but complicated and wiggly - or "slow", as it turns out. This is Fusion 360 as a slicer, by the way. Now we're 21 hours in and starting on the part that actually matters! :rolleyes: Ah well, you live you learn....well, sometimes!

I thought I'd reduced dribbling by setting the retract length to 6mm up from the default of 0.5mm. However, it seems that what it does is retract 6mm at 30mm/s and then as it moves to the next location, it feeds that back again.....and starts dribbling. There is the possibility the filament snaps in the tube since the Geetech filament I'm using seems to be very prone to shatter. Assuming it's not just a filament selection issue, what should I be doing to try to counter this? Retract further?
 
Associate
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Is that from the kickstarter?

I was looking to get back in to 3D printing with that printer.
But the people on kickstarter are not to happy.

Where did you buy it from? can't find one that cheap.

No not from Kickstarter, guys are still waiting for them there.

You need to sign up to Tomtop, as a new user you will get a 60$ discount on the 6SE.
Go to new user offers its in there.
 
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Started a large print yesterday. PLA, my default settings. Yeah, 9 hours later it had printed about 5mm of plinth so I had a closer look at the model. Plinth had been designed as 10mm thick. My default settings are an 15% Auxetic infill.....which is strong but complicated and wiggly - or "slow", as it turns out. This is Fusion 360 as a slicer, by the way. Now we're 21 hours in and starting on the part that actually matters! :rolleyes: Ah well, you live you learn....well, sometimes!

I thought I'd reduced dribbling by setting the retract length to 6mm up from the default of 0.5mm. However, it seems that what it does is retract 6mm at 30mm/s and then as it moves to the next location, it feeds that back again.....and starts dribbling. There is the possibility the filament snaps in the tube since the Geetech filament I'm using seems to be very prone to shatter. Assuming it's not just a filament selection issue, what should I be doing to try to counter this? Retract further?

If it's that brittle I'd say try a new spool of filament! How old is it? Some of my very old spools (some 6 years old) I left in a dehydrator for 24hrs and they mostly print well now. A black PLA by Rigid.Ink is still quite brittle but it's still printing ok now and I'll just use it up ASAP. My cheapo dehydrator cost about the same as a decent spool of filament (<£30) and it's not much good - it won't reach the temperature you set on the dial. Supposed to go up to 70degC max but actually won't go higher than 50degC without partially blocking the exhaust slots (hence a lower airflow). Supposed to have 250watts power but I very much doubt that. Still, does the job - just about. Might not work for nylon but haven't tried that yet.

Only other adjustments you can play with are speed of retraction and Z-hop, but honestly I would just try new filament first.
 
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