Random 3D printing chatter

Soldato
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Got some prints done and calibration cube.
Does everything look ok to you guys?

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Soldato
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The 19.87 looks a bit off (nearly twice the next highest error) when compared to how good the other axes are.
Maybe a little something going on under the front of the top paw and possibly a bit of banding in the upright walls but probably either the pic or me being picky (we're grossly over-represented in the perfectionist and OCD stakes on here!). Generally looks good to me from here though.
 
Soldato
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Cool, looking forwards for replacement build plate to arrive then will get back into full swing with builds lol.
Still impressed with this as my first printer, can learn the ropes and get through mistakes without loosing tons of cash.
 
Soldato
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I've not noticed any difference there but logically there could well be. Definitely some difference between brands and even colours within brands when it comes to settings (or just whether you get acceptable results or not - yellow PETG seems a particular pain) so it seems reasonable to assume that could also extend to bed adhesion.
I hate having to use glue or hairspray so I was running a glass bed on the Ender 5 Pro (slightly higher bed temp, very slow first layer and be careful of support as it goes too fast to directly stick) and that worked fine as long as I was patient enough to wait for it to cool before trying to remove. There are a couple of chunks out of it where it stuck too well.
The textured PEI bed on the X1C is good provided you want a textured surface. I picked up a Light-year 3D G10 (aka Garolite) bed and that seems very good. Not as shiny a finish as the glass because it's roughed up slightly for adhesion but good enough and sticks well.
 
Soldato
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You could resort to glue stick (or fancy liquid/spray glues) or hairspray. I find it a hassle and try hard to avoid it as it's a pain but with a removable plate and a water-soluable glue, you can wash it under the tap.
 
Associate
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When I had bed adhesion issues I think it was partly down to running the bed temp at 60C. Dropped it to 50C and with a good clean and not had issues.

It can also be down to Z height as well...use the fine tuning to drop it just a tad so that the first layer is a bit more squished into the bed. The bed levelling will then even things out after a number of layers.
 
Soldato
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I usually found that higher on the bed temp helped...but I think mine under-reported and also with the slab of glass on the top, it needed a bit more. The cleaning is a good call though and reminds me of something. I was originally using only IPA to clean the bed and if I remember correctly it was when I was trying to print PLA after I'd been printing PETG that I had adhesion issues. I cleaned the bed with a drop of Fairy liquid and rinsed it off and it was much better....so much so that's when I lost a chunk out of the surface after a print!
 
Soldato
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I got much better bed adhesion this time by changing raft base line spacing from 1.6 to 0.8. Sticks way better now and castle printed without breaking away from the bed.
I dont have heated bed, just normal flexible magnet bed with masking tape on it.
 
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I dont have heated bed, just normal flexible magnet bed with masking tape on it.
Ah, that makes more sense then. We'll stop telling you to try different bed temps then! :D
Probably worth trying a glue stick/liquid/spray then. Hairspray is supposed to work quite well and fairly even, if you have it available to try.
 
Soldato
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Ah, that makes more sense then. We'll stop telling you to try different bed temps then! :D
Probably worth trying a glue stick/liquid/spray then. Hairspray is supposed to work quite well and fairly even, if you have it available to try.
Do i put hairspray on the masking tape or do i take the tape off and then apply it direct to the magnetic bed?
 
Soldato
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Usually direct to the bed instead of the tape. Some residue remains after a print so you may not need to apply it every time. After a few, you'd need to clean it off and start fresh - and that's where the water-soluable glues are better as they just wash off under a tap. My plate wasn't removeable when I was doing that (the glass welded itself to the magnetic bed) so I couldn't do that and I found IPA would do it but it was a bit of a hassle.
 
Soldato
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That's good to know. Iv got 2 magnetic bed plates now so can easily use one and wash the other and rotate them.
Will look into this hair spray once the masking tape has worn itself out
 
Soldato
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Gaarrrgh! Just lost a hotend :mad: Clogged with Ziro PLA-CF (which had been printing really beautifully), cleared it and got a successful print. That gave me the spool adapters (cardboard spool no worky in changer :rolleyes: ) so I could try the new roll of PETG-CF. Jammed solid and it merrily kept printing nothing with the extruder skipping away. Got it cleared so I thought but couldn't get a decent flow through it (by hand) even of straight PETG. Managed some cold pulls but it just didn't seem to want to live. Not sure if it's heat-creeped and welded to the tube above the heatbreak but it's not playing. New nozzle/heatbreak/heatsink combo and it's printing but this stuff oozes something horrible (I see some retraction tuning in the near future) and didn't really stick to the G10 bed that well either. Textured PEI bed and it's going but the first layer of support had a big blob in it where the head sat still for no massively good reason before starting.
Why is it that just when you think you've got it all cracked, the rules change?!
 
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