I got me 3D printer, awesome!

Just take it slow and if the instructions are good you should be fine, just make sure the end stops are working correctly and that the hotels doesn't crash into the bed.

And have fun :).

J.
 
Well it went well last night. 1st print after about 40% lost its stick onto the plate so did it again and worked perfect. Then printed the benchy and it worked great too. Very impressed with the quality. These were done using the included PLA.
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y3mDBIB4eCvd0Ya4rcoLXq0BuiA9ZaKymoxYgp1apIQgGiOqrgtqLZtYvPmab_BV6-JGZEvGbr89MfXOA9Qq3DEOpoL_m-Rm3p4B7MvYAz4Kg5ISsnx12GfV_LgOTXvCginQTbva6682F3mUVnFUBe0eCOHP4J8Ul7n4tp6LFwRg1o

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When I tried to use some new PLA this morning I couldnt get it to stick to the surface and then had to leave for work so will be relevelling tonight + trying different temps + trying hairspray.
I feel this is the beginning of a great hobby.

Edit: thanks for the advice. The instructions didnt tell me to remove the tape from the end stops.

Also what pla you guys using?
 
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PEI bed and nothing else, except 55 degrees C.

I just started using the Hobbyking PLA and it works a treat, it's rather cheap too. Slightly less strong colouring but my Benchy came out as well as the PLA direct from prusa3d.com.

My stainless steel nozzle is sitting here waiting to be fitted :D.
 
Cheers for the tips guys was out most of last night, I did manage to get a couple of prints done but then this morning I had the same issues though with the pla just not sticking at all. I think ill have to keep experimenting with the temps and bed levelling. I tried glue stick and hair spray but neither had much luck to get the first layer to stick down to the buildtak.

Also set up a spare Pi (model B) with octopi + bought a ps3 move camera from CEX for £3 which work great together so I can keep an eye on it while Im not there.
 
Do you have live z adjust on it? The prusa3d has useful calibration gcode to use with it. Basically prints a few singles height lines and you adjust z as it goes until it is low enough to adhere.

Hopefully it's just that. I have mesh bed calibration too but that's on a recent firmware for mine so maybe not on others.
 
Griffo said:
Do you have live z adjust on it? The prusa3d has useful calibration gcode to use with it. Basically prints a few singles height lines and you adjust z as it goes until it is low enough to adhere.

Hopefully it's just that. I have mesh bed calibration too but that's on a recent firmware for mine so maybe not on others.
Click to expand...

Not sure what that is, but I got a delivery of a free sample from rigid of some pla and printed a charmander and have something else going now and they pretty much went perfect without changing anything so Ill try the other PLA after but I think now that my bed is level and maybe just the temps for the other PLA need tweaking. Or maybe Rigids pla is just more forgiving?
 
I found Rigid's PLA to come out a lot thicker, doesn't need much in the way of nozzle temp (180-185). Might want to make sure your E steps are properly calibrated too.
 
So ive been playing with the settings for this pla and have now got it printing quite well to start with but after an hour (or 3) the raft becomes unstuck from the bed. Im heating bed to 30 degrees with glue stick. Love just watching it do its thing on octoprint.
 
Technically you don't need a heated bed with PLA, but that really depends on the model, when I use PLA I have the bed set to 60°c.

J.
 
I'm at 55 degrees for bed with my PLA. Both prusa3d and hobbyking stuff. At three hours in my beginner thoughts are that your bed perhaps isn't level. That's what did for me.
 
well after a month with my CTC Bizer, I'm a lot more knowledgeable but have no decent prints lol.

Compared to the quality of the wanhao i3 prints above its severely lacking and has had no end of issues.

1. The instructions said to load the left extruder only if using a single head, this had the bonus of the right nozzle being slightly lower and smashing into the print as it crossed which was amazing. Solved this by lowering the hotend assembly which was fine until problem 2.

2. Clogging! I suppose most of you would expect more than 2 prints (about 3 hours total printing) before a nozzle clog, well not with this beauty! Hence me going to forums, finding out the stock filament guides arent worth the plastic they're made from and ordering a new spring loaded filament guide and a set of new hotends to attempt to clear the clogging issue for good. Issue 3 arises.

3. It doesn't fit! Well the filament guide does, just, but the hotend is about 5-6mm too long for the bed height adjustment. I think I've got around that by winding the bed fully down and raising the extruder fully up. The result? A resounding crunch as the nozzle buries itself into the glass print bed. Now that the print bed is in a thousand pieces its probably time to order a new one. Problem 4.

4. I didn't get far enough through the calibration, let alone into a print to find problem 4, I took the extruder barrel into work and shortened it by approx 8mm to allow me to clear the new print bed. That was easy and the cal was carried out fine. 10 mins into a print I notice that the hotend has a huge blob of plastic on it, as the nozzle doesn't seal properly. Tried tightening it up a few times to no effect, replaced with original barrel and nozzle after cleaning them out.

And low and behold it works again!!!! SORT OF. I replaced the blue tape rubbish with a build tak cover, its great, its so good I cant separate my prints from it lol. Oh and 89% of the way through a build the printer disconnected itself and couldnt resume (at approx 45 minute mark). I'm led to believe this is a common USB issue so might try from SD card next to see if that works.

Its been a stressful 4 weeks and I definitely wouldn't recommend the bizer to anybody.
 
Not used one, but you did tighten up the new nozzle AFTER it was up to temp? Doing it cold will only go so far, so once its up to 200deg odd, then tighten it again.
 
Hi all.

I want to get a budget 3D printer just to play around with. I have looked around but there's just waaaaay too much choices. Originally I was going to go for the Prusa i3 because the community seems to be the biggest? But then it seems to need a lot of fiddling around which I haven't really got the time for.

I'd really appreciate if anyone can suggest a starting point for a noob. There's just too much info right now and every machine is very different.

Thanks.
 
I got the wanhao duplicator i3. Good combination of not being completely DIY, but also have some nice features. Its not too pricey and there is a decent enough community. I wish I had more time to use it, hopefully in the new year.

But things may have changed, I got mine about a year ago. There might be some new players in the field.
 
chef-borjan said:
I got the wanhao duplicator i3. Good combination of not being completely DIY, but also have some nice features. Its not too pricey and there is a decent enough community. I wish I had more time to use it, hopefully in the new year.

But things may have changed, I got mine about a year ago. There might be some new players in the field.
Click to expand...

After reading your post, I began doing a bit of research on this Wanhao i3.

Can I ask where did you buy it from? And some say it's pretty difficult to use - is this true?
 
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