I am completely new to 3d printing, i have brought a TAZ4 and upgraded the hot end to the v2c.
i have tried small parts on this printer which i have no issues with however i have this large part and the layers on it keep splitting. making it unusable.
i believe 1 issue may be that the new hot end i received did not have an e-steppes on the rear to enter into the printer / cura this setting was at 833 i have upped it to 850 as that was on the printer documentation but that seems to have made no difference
i have included the gcode, stl, pic and the profile i am currently using could anyone please give me some advice?
coupler.stl (230 KB)
coupler.gcode (12.9 MB)
profile.ini (11 KB)
That is actually a very good result for a first large print in ABS with a printer that isn’t in an enclosure. ABS plastic will tend to split, especially in long thin runs like the location your part is splitting at. You can combat that several ways. To start with, if at all possible, increase the wall thickness. Even an additional half a mm will give you better results. Next, increase the nozzle temperature. Usually you will want to bump your base starting temperature for ABS up to 240 with the new hotend. The old hotend wasn’t able to get much past 235 safely, so it was temperature restricted. ABS will bond much better at 240. After that, if you have room on the bed, you can print with a Skirt layer. adjust the slicer settings so it generates a 1 loop thick skirt (and preferably a matching 5mm brim layer most of the way up the part. That will create a sacrificial wall around the part that will act as a thermal barrier and wind break from the bed motion. It does waste plastic, but it is effective. You can also build a temporary enclosure around your Taz using several turkey roasting bags and some tape. Make sure to leave the control box outside the enclosure (The LCD doesn’t matter, just the main box) . The ultimate fix is to either build an enclosure, or switch to a filament that doesn’t split like ABS tends to. poor interlayer adhesion due to low temperatures, and uneven cooling leading to layer warping due to uneven contraction are the main causes of issues with ABS and all printers regardless of make or model will show similar issues with ABS. You can actually salvage that part with some plastruct plastic weld and some squadron model putty and paint if that will suit your application.
would you be able to recommend a plastic that would work better for large parts, it would also need to be thermally resistant for this as i will be using it for air con exhaust.
My printer did this all the time before, the culprit was bent stock steel rods.
Since then I upgraded my steel rods to aluminum extrusions and my layers are almost perfect.
I don’t have pictures of my prints before the upgrade, but they were just as bad if not worse than yours.
X and Y Axis upgrades courtesy of Piercet
X-Axis upgrade: https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/adding-an-openbuilds-openrail-x-axis-to-a-lulzbot-taz-4-5/1854/1
Y-Axis: https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/adding-an-openbuilds-openrail-y-axis-to-a-taz-3-4-5/2019/1
The Taulman N-vent fillament reportedly works well for that, with a higher base thermal resistance temperature, and it prints more like PLA. I haven’t tried it yet.
With the ABS, try increasing the extruder temp by a few degrees to help the layer adhesion. For eSUN ABS, 243 seems to work well. Turning the fan down or off will help also…
You would also get good results from PETG. Much less shrinkage, which is part of the problem with ABS. PETG has similar properties to ABS.
Here’s a neat table from the Taulman folks: http://taulman3d.com/how-to-choose.html
I am trying PLA for the time being as i am completely new to 3D printing for now, also didn’t help that my extrude was not calibrated correctly.
If the parts deform i will think of PETG, is there an easy way of getting glue sicked parts off PEI if i try this?
