The prints are looking much better. I’m printing a small herringbone gear right now. I’m using PLA, so I doubt I’ll be using it on the machine, but it seemed like a good part to practice on, and I can test fit the teeth with the factory large herringbone to verify how it came out. It’s just finishing the cylindrical part, and it’s looking very nice. The surface looks good, the center hole and nut retainer cavity look great. I can just see the foundation for the teeth starting to form. That’s looking good as well.
I think they should change the calibration OHAI to 40mm/min, or something down in that range. It’s made a world of difference to me.
Thanks again for all your help on this. I may play around with the other techniques for further fine-tuning the e-steps.
In the mean time, does anyone know an easy way to change the default filament diameter in the Cura Quickprint profiles? The school does not switch filaments very often. They tend to use one roll until it’s used up. Most of the kids would just be using the quickprint profiles. It would be nice to set the diameter when we put a new roll on and leave it until we put the next roll on (or until a periodic check revealed a diameter change within the roll). As it is, we have to change to “Full Settings” and set the diameter. If someone switches back to quickprint, they’ve lost the diameter setting.
Thank, Kmanley57. I’ll take a look at that. Sounds like something the teacher or I can handle.
It would be really nice to have a diameter parameter box when using the Quickprint view. Perhaps one that would use a default value if left blank or set to 0, but the user could override.
It’s just anything to do with the extruder. Nozzle diameter, flow % (100), filament diameter, use normal printing speeds. Extrusion width should be set to about 1.2 x the nozzle diameter. I use .15 to .2 layer height, 20% infill and 4 (.2 layer ht) to 5 (.15 layer ht) top and bottom surface layers. I print a thin rectangle, maybe 40x40x2mm. Then I adjust esteps until the infill is just touching each pass without gaps (under extrusion) on the final top layer surface and no overlap either (over extrusion). Don’t judge esteps by the bottom layer because that is impacted by bed level and nozzle to bed clearance at z=0. If you get the top surface printing perfectly, you can tell when you have a problem with the first layer due to bed level or nozzle clearance because it will print perfectly too if you get those variables correct and esteps is right.
Also don’t worry about blobs near the end of travels as far as esteps is concerned (although as you get esteps more correct those will get smaller). You ultimately can get rid of those using coasting (I use .3mm coasting in S3D and it’s perfect on the Taz 5).
Can’t seem to find those files on a Mac - the directory structure is different. The other option would be to save my own profile (somehow missed that command on the menu). I’ve done that, but it would be much more “kid proof” if I could make that saved profile show up as a quickprint option.
Thanks. That did it. I think it will be a big help. There are some students who will be very conscientious about checking. Others will likely just hit the print button and go.
I’m curious - if they’ll be sticking with the same filament and the same vendor, are the quality vendors fairly consistent from spool to spool, or is this something that will need to be adjusted each time they change spools? (We’re still on our first roll of filament - probably about half way through it.)
I stick with the same brand, in hopes that the filament is consistent from spool to spool. My ABS of choice is eSUN, which coincidently gets rebranded often. There’s also a slight variation in setting from color to color. After proper calibration of esteps, I like to vary the extrusion multiplier / flow rate (depending on which slicer you’re using) to esnsure the proper amount of filament is extruding…
In any case, 3D printing isn’t truly everyday consumer ready. Machines will go out of calibration, filament quality will require adjustment of extrusion settings. To get really good results, its examining the print afterwards and tweaking settings to get the second print of the same object better.
Thanks, I figured there would be some variability. We’ll eventually get them to th epoint where they can check and set the filament diameter (I’ll probably give some of the students micrometer lessons - I find filament easier to measure with a micrometer than a caliper, however, their caliper does either inch or metric, while their micrometer is non-digital and in inch markings). They are just not there yet. Still learning the basics of starting a print going.
Hmm… lessons on a micrometer or vernier calipers would be a good skillset. But I suspect that the machine should print nicely once its dialed in. Mention to the school to buy filament in bulk rolls of 5kg… versus the normal 2.2kg. It should extend the life of the current settings on the printer.
Instruct the teacher on how to check a 20x20 calibration cube to ensure the printer is printing accurately. Then perform the calibration check every couple of weeks. On that note, make sure they use a consistent set of calipers or micrometer…
Right now they only own one micrometer and one 6" caliper (I gave both to them). I have another caliper on order. Good point about consistency of the tool they use, though I suspect the big difference initially is going to be in who is wielding the tool, rather than the tool itself.