Random 3D printing chatter

If you're printing filaments that are abrasive, a brass or even unhardened steel nozzle won't last that long. Abrasive filaments are anything with carbon fibre (CF), Glass Fibre (GF), wood, glitter....basically anything in them other than plastic.
I believe that you may have to bump the hotend temperature slightly with a hardened nozzle (don't quote me on that!) as it may not conduct the heat quite so well as a brass nozzle.
 
Bump the temps up, and also expect prints to be less.... clean.

Also, I've personally found tat my prints wont stick to the bed well using steel nozzles.
 
I'm new to 3d printing and i purchased a creality ender 3 v2 neo, worked fine on benchy and then started to get problems with other builds the bowden not feeding properly, tightening and loosing the spring and the roller nut worked o.k for a while, when it started playing a few days ago tried adjusting and the roller fell off, look like it cross threaded, (due to pressure ? dunno) went to the creality site, lo and behold they were out of stock, is this a common problem with the bowden? so i purchased 2 different types of dual cog feeders both say that they work on ender 3's, not arrived yet, any advice on feeder tips would be a great help,
 
I can't say I've played with a 3 v2 Neo but I do know that the extruder was the weakest part of the Ender 5 Pro I have. The tension and the grip were both bad. Dual gear ought to be better in theory.
 
Hi Cenedd your theory was spot on, the new extruder arrived today no instructions but it was easy enough to figure out and it works well, just finished printing off a small item without any probs and half way through a second.
less than 9 quid for a good solid working extruder cannot grumble..
 
£9 for both a fix and an upgrade seems like a bargain! Glad it worked :D
That was my issue with Creality is that whilst I told myself I was up for tinkering, upgrading, modifying and improving....it turns out that I had rather limited patience with it and just wanted to get on with it. Went Bambu and can't say I'm unhappy. My next "divorce" will be when the A1 Mini turns up. Might spur me to get the Ender 5 Pro revamped and either sold or rehomed - honestly haven't fired it up since I got the X1C...and that's even when I've had stuff 'queued' to print.
 
Caution: This post contains unfiltered rant!

Just been trying to print some eSun TPE to make some soft rubber feet for a lamp - to stop it sliding off the desk. Now, this stuff is like TPU....but harder....or softer...more difficult! I've not yet been able to tune it well and I thought I'd managed to block a 0.4mm nozzle...which is a pain. So I swapped in a 0.6mm nozzle and got it workable - by workable, I mean that it's small and black so you can't really see how bad it is :rolleyes: So I hit print on the final two feet and start watching YouTube while it prints. Look over and it's merrily printing fresh air a few mm above the last extrusion. I've clogged a 0.6mm nozzle?!
Took it all apart, cleared it all out, ran some PETG through it and we're all good. Load the TPE back in and it just will not grab it. Eventually I figure that I've maybe fouled my extruder gears, give up (pending research on how to fix that) and swap everything back to default as it still seems to feed PETG ok. Packing away and I suddenly notice how thin the filament feels....could it be? Got some calipers on it and this section is....wait for it....1.3mm. I think we may have just found why it won't get pulled through!

Now, bearing in mind that earlier, I'd found this (click for larger) on the spool:



So there's a really bad splice in the filament that, had I not spotted it by complete chance, would have jammed everything up completely. Diameter was 2.8mm.

So yeah, difficult to print, terrible quality control and irresponsibly bad splicing. I don't think I'll be touching another eSun filament again and definitely not their TPE!

Edit: oh, I forgot to mention that it's wibbly on the reel and sticks to itself....so it doesn't unspool easily.
 
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I think I asked whether anyone had played with food storage containers for spool storage. I just stumbled on a print that uses this exact thing and not only proves the concept but also shows which ones to buy for best fit!
You want this project

And I'm not sure I can post a link - although I don't think OCUK would compete with anyone on cereal containers! - you want to search for "Skroam 4PCS Cereal Containers Storage [4L/135.2 oz]" and you should find four of them for £19. You want this type with the three shallow grooves rather than the deeper hand/finger grip as it will take full 1kg spools.

I've printed a first one in PETG (2½ hours) and it fits so I'm printing a plate of three sets in high-speed PLA (2 hours for one, 6 hours for three).

You'll need to stock up on 608ZZ or 608-2RS bearings (usual skateboard bearings) or just use the container for silica and not to print out of.

I've ordered some rectangular hygrometers so I'll let you know tomorrow that they definitely fit - we'll see just how much bridge droop was allowed for in the model!

Oh, don't try printing the STEP files. I'm a big fan of STEP (or preferably f3d) over STL but they're oddly more massive than any other STEP I've come across and an order of magnitude larger than the STLs.
 
What sort of maintenance needs to be done on filament printers? I have a Creality Ender 5 Pro which I've had since the first few months of Lockdown and it's just dawned on me that I've not oiled or greased any moving parts ever. I take it a wee bit of lithium grease on the various wheels won't go amiss?
 
I need some 3D designs printed (making a table size version of Battleships for a party), basically rectangular shot holders (2, 3, 4 and 5 holder). Assume finding an existing design and/or modifying one as I have only found one for a 3 shot holder is the best way to go? If I need to modify myself, would I need a CAD program and would a rectangle with circular cutouts be feasible for someone with no experience? Thank you.
 
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Bluecube said:
What sort of maintenance needs to be done on filament printers? I have a Creality Ender 5 Pro which I've had since the first few months of Lockdown and it's just dawned on me that I've not oiled or greased any moving parts ever. I take it a wee bit of lithium grease on the various wheels won't go amiss?
Click to expand...
I'm far from an authority here but yes, a bit of grease on the lead screws is good. I think the Bambu-supplied grease is a bit thinner than white lithium but generally it comes down to any grease is better than no grease. As long as it isn't too think and slows it down too much basically. You may also want to check the tension of the belts and also the wheels. The wheels can be adjusted - the screw is a cam so turning it brings the wheel closer or further away from the rail. You want it to move freely, not be free spinning (not touching the rail) but not biting so hard it restricts movement of the gantry or grinds away the wheels.
 
doodah said:
I need some 3D designs printed (making a table size version of Battleships for a party), basically rectangular shot holders (2, 3, 4 and 5 holder). Assume finding an existing design and/or modifying one as I have only found one for a 3 shot holder is the best way to go? If I need to modify myself, would I need a CAD program and would a rectangle with circular cutouts be feasible for someone with no experience? Thank you.
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How quick your learning curve is, is very difficult to predict! If you want to model your own or modify someone else's, you'd need a CAD program. Fusion 360 is free for hobby use and there are many YouTube videos on how to get started. OnShape is web-based and I think also free for hobby use. Tinker CAD as well. If you're modifying someone else's design, what format it is in may affect your choice of program. Often people supply STL files (a triangular mesh). Fusion isn't great at working with STLs but it will handle STEP or F3D well. I believe that Tinker CAD is more aimed at STLs but it's not something I've played with myself.
As far as how difficult it is, that depends on how complicated you make it. You could sketch a basic boat shape as seen from above with circles for the shot glass locations and then extrude that upwards to make a block with circular cutouts. You could do that in a couple of minutes but it you want to start adding features or sloping faces, it gets more complicated - not impossibly so though.
 
Cenedd said:
How quick your learning curve is, is very difficult to predict! If you want to model your own or modify someone else's, you'd need a CAD program. Fusion 360 is free for hobby use and there are many YouTube videos on how to get started. OnShape is web-based and I think also free for hobby use. Tinker CAD as well. If you're modifying someone else's design, what format it is in may affect your choice of program. Often people supply STL files (a triangular mesh). Fusion isn't great at working with STLs but it will handle STEP or F3D well. I believe that Tinker CAD is more aimed at STLs but it's not something I've played with myself.
As far as how difficult it is, that depends on how complicated you make it. You could sketch a basic boat shape as seen from above with circles for the shot glass locations and then extrude that upwards to make a block with circular cutouts. You could do that in a couple of minutes but it you want to start adding features or sloping faces, it gets more complicated - not impossibly so though.
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Thank you, really useful to get started/researching. When we've needed some 3D printing at work, dealt with STL files I think. In the interest of time, think I will just go with as basic a design as you can get - differing lengths of a rectangle with circular cutouts (2-5). And then I need to find a printing company, or use the in-house at work.
 
Pretty sure that both JLPCB and PCBWay both do 3D printing (as well as other CAM, SLS, Multi Jet etc) and fairly cheap. Delivery might take a little while though if time is an issue.
 
A1 Mini turned up this morning. Got it printing stuff already. Shhhhh, don't tell my wife...she hasn't noticed yet! Now where do I hide an Ender 5 Pro (that's currently taking up all the floor space) so she'll continue not to notice once she's walked in the office?! :confused:
 
Also got some of their new(-is) PETG-CF to compare against Eryone's PETG-CF that drives me nuts. Dropped it in, it printed a perfect flow dynamics calibration without so much as a dribble, a string or a peel. Moved on to the model, didn't fould the head or dribble everywhere. Got a long way on the print to go yet and it'll be interesting removing the supports I had to use but so far, I can't argue with the results.
 
Cenedd said:
How quick your learning curve is, is very difficult to predict! If you want to model your own or modify someone else's, you'd need a CAD program. Fusion 360 is free for hobby use and there are many YouTube videos on how to get started. OnShape is web-based and I think also free for hobby use. Tinker CAD as well. If you're modifying someone else's design, what format it is in may affect your choice of program. Often people supply STL files (a triangular mesh). Fusion isn't great at working with STLs but it will handle STEP or F3D well. I believe that Tinker CAD is more aimed at STLs but it's not something I've played with myself.
As far as how difficult it is, that depends on how complicated you make it. You could sketch a basic boat shape as seen from above with circles for the shot glass locations and then extrude that upwards to make a block with circular cutouts. You could do that in a couple of minutes but it you want to start adding features or sloping faces, it gets more complicated - not impossibly so though.
Click to expand...
Praise the lord, someone has already done it :D.
 
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