I got me 3D printer, awesome!

meandu229 · 26 Aug 2016 at 12:42

wywywywy said:
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?

I have this printer too, Got from rainforest when it was on sale. I found that it was quite a bit of trial and error but got it going quite well.
Be aware you may have to take it apart (easy to do) for blockages and such though.

The new version of the wanhao looks really good but the price difference I dont think is worth it.

wywywywy · 26 Aug 2016 at 13:21

Thanks I think I'm gonna give the Wanhao thing a go in the next few weeks.

Worst case I sell it on to recover some cost but at least I would have tried what I've always wanted to try!

wywywywy · 31 Aug 2016 at 14:51

Ok bought a Wanhao i3, picking up tomorrow!!

Thanks for the suggestion.

Will post pics as soon as I can get it to work.

Methanoid · 1 Sep 2016 at 12:24

Anyone able to hook me up with somewhere to get some 3D printing done in UK. Got some Thingiverse stuff I want printing but for £5 print they want £20+ for delivery.

Uncle Petey · 1 Sep 2016 at 12:36

Tried 3d hubs?

Methanoid · 1 Sep 2016 at 12:50

Uncle Petey said:
Tried 3d hubs?

Thanks, never heard of them but found a well rated and cheap place in Scotland. I can see I will be printing a few bits now

meandu229 · 1 Sep 2016 at 14:29

Methanoid said:
Anyone able to hook me up with somewhere to get some 3D printing done in UK. Got some Thingiverse stuff I want printing but for £5 print they want £20+ for delivery.

Quite a few thingiverse things get put on the bay. What are you wanting printing? You could try finding a hack space around you see if they can help. I know the nearest one to me has 2 3d printers.

Methanoid · 1 Sep 2016 at 14:32

Brackets for microserver.. the Scottish place seems a fair price.. under £10 inc delivery

meandu229 · 1 Sep 2016 at 16:40

Methanoid said:
Brackets for microserver.. the Scottish place seems a fair price.. under £10 inc delivery

Nice I could do with some of them, Id off to print some for you but my 3d printer is out of action at the moment and no idea when ill get time to rebuild, could be today could be 2 weeks

wywywywy · 4 Sep 2016 at 18:25

This Wanhao i3 is taking me forever to get right. I still haven't managed to print the 3Dbenchy yet! All my attempts so far have failed.

When I got it all the screws were loose, and I have since tightened everything up, but the bed levelling is very difficult... anyone got any tips please?

Also with regards to the paper trick for levelling, how much drag is there supposed to be?

Thanks.

deuse · 4 Sep 2016 at 20:35

wywywywy said:
This Wanhao i3 is taking me forever to get right. I still haven't managed to print the 3Dbenchy yet! All my attempts so far have failed.

When I got it all the screws were loose, and I have since tightened everything up, but the bed levelling is very difficult... anyone got any tips please?

Also with regards to the paper trick for levelling, how much drag is there supposed to be?

Thanks.

So its just about catching the paper. Unload the filament(if you have any loaded) bring both the bed and hot
end to the right temperature before trying to level the bed.

wywywywy · 5 Sep 2016 at 01:52

Many thanks!!!!! I've managed to print the 3Dbenchy now!

I didn't know that it needs to be hot to level the bed. It has a massive difference in the height of the bed between hot and cold. So thanks for the help.

So now at least it finishes printing rather than failing half way through, but the quality is poor. I think the problem maybe when it rides along the Y axis? Because the X axis lines seem to be smoother?

Now that I can print the 3Dbenchy, I'm trying to print the fan mod and the Z brace mod out, but they are failing

It seems to me that there's a bit of excess leakage from the extruder during the first layer, which fused to the already printed lines dragging them along the bed... if that makes sense?

wywywywy · 5 Sep 2016 at 02:04

Forgot to attach an image.

deuse · 5 Sep 2016 at 07:33

wywywywy said:
Many thanks!!!!! I've managed to print the 3Dbenchy now!

I didn't know that it needs to be hot to level the bed. It has a massive difference in the height of the bed between hot and cold. So thanks for the help.

So now at least it finishes printing rather than failing half way through, but the quality is poor. I think the problem maybe when it rides along the Y axis? Because the X axis lines seem to be smoother?

Now that I can print the 3Dbenchy, I'm trying to print the fan mod and the Z brace mod out, but they are failing It seems to me that there's a bit of excess leakage from the extruder during the first layer, which fused to the already printed lines dragging them along the bed... if that makes sense?

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=29949316&postcount=571

meandu229 · 5 Sep 2016 at 09:27

Did you try and print out the hand from the included SD card as that has all the settings dialled into it for the wanhao.

bulb66 · 5 Sep 2016 at 19:08

Hey peeps,

A new kickstarter for you to back, LokBuild print surface, think buildtak but cheaper

.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/steelmans/lokbuild-3d-print-build-surface

J.

wywywywy · 6 Sep 2016 at 00:32

meandu229 said:
Did you try and print out the hand from the included SD card as that has all the settings dialled into it for the wanhao.

Just printed it out and OMG everything is so smooth and the quality is so high! Even the bridge where the index finger is is also perfect!

How do I get the settings from the gcode out into CURA? I've tried importing it but it says "Failed to import. File is not a zip file." which doesn't really make sense.

Tried reinstalling CURA too but it's the same. Looking online people say only CURA generated gcode can be imported?

Before I print it though I followed the instructions in the wiki and did the "offset fan mod" and also reduced the acceleration and jerk in the control unit. Don't know if that made a difference as well.

meandu229 · 6 Sep 2016 at 12:11

wywywywy said:
Just printed it out and OMG everything is so smooth and the quality is so high! Even the bridge where the index finger is is also perfect!

How do I get the settings from the gcode out into CURA? I've tried importing it but it says "Failed to import. File is not a zip file." which doesn't really make sense.

Tried reinstalling CURA too but it's the same. Looking online people say only CURA generated gcode can be imported?

Before I print it though I followed the instructions in the wiki and did the "offset fan mod" and also reduced the acceleration and jerk in the control unit. Don't know if that made a difference as well.

Well at least you know the printer works well.
Im a noobie so take everything with pince of salt but.
GCODE is literally GO TO XYZ and drop m amount of plastic and rinse and repeat so you cant really get "settings" back from the instructions.
Are you using the "wanhao edition" of cura? As I believe that has the printer profile already in it.

"http://www.wanhao3dprinter.com/Down/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=56"

If not try setting something like

My settings are:
Layer height: 0.2mm
Speed: 70mm/s
Travel speed: 170mm/s
Nozzle temp: 215
Bed temp: 60
Retraction: 2mm
Retraction speed: 60mm/s

wywywywy · 6 Sep 2016 at 12:38

Thanks those are the settings that I used in CURA, but the prints are nowhere near as nice as the OK HAND gcode from Wanhao. I noticed that the OK HAND has very different settings, e.g. the speed is much lower, and temps are also lower, etc.

Also for some reasons in my CURA I can't set the Retraction speed to 60mm/s any more. It goes red when it goes over 25mm/s. Either CURA is really buggy or I'm really stupid, probably the latter.

Another thing... unfortunately the thermistor seems to be playing up this morning, showing the DEF error

Probably just a loose connection but I'll have to check.

I also found that some screws are still not tight enough. I'm going to wait for my allen key set to arrive then disassemble the whole thing and tighten everything up.

meandu229 · 6 Sep 2016 at 12:44

wywywywy said:
Thanks those are the settings that I used in CURA, but the prints are nowhere near as nice as the OK HAND gcode from Wanhao. I noticed that the OK HAND has very different settings, e.g. the speed is much lower, and temps are also lower, etc.

Also for some reasons in my CURA I can't set the Retraction speed to 60mm/s any more. It goes red when it goes over 25mm/s. Either CURA is really buggy or I'm really stupid, probably the latter.

Another thing... unfortunately the thermistor seems to be playing up this morning, showing the DEF error Probably just a loose connection but I'll have to check.

I also found that some screws are still not tight enough. I'm going to wait for my allen key set to arrive then disassemble the whole thing and tighten everything up.

Are you using the PLA that came with it. I seem to remember that being ~1 95degrees to use that. Maybe thats your issue. Different PLAs need different temps to work well.
Hopefully the termistor is just a bad connection it will show both as def if one of them is out for some reason. Did you not get an allen key set with it?