Just as the hot end reaches the corner of the print an increasing growling sound appears to be coming from the x axis motor. Also the pla balls and comes up from the bed. This happened on two consecutive prints in the same place. Using the hq config from lulzbot.
Is that a skirt that is supposed to be around the whole part?
It looks like the program (your part + your skirt offset) is larger than the print area of the machine. I suspect the X axis is trying to go past the max travel and basically is jamming, and stalling the motor (that grinding sound your hear, is the stepper motor stalling).
These machines do not have a MAX travel limit switch (only a home/min travel limit), so if it is commanded in G-code to go to X 50,000mm or something, it will try to go that far, even though the machine cannot physically go that far.
You’r part might be just a little too large. or you need to bring your skirt offset distance much closer, or even turn it off. Your picture cuts off the bottom, but perhaps the part can be moved down some, or maybe rotated a few degrees to fit diagonally.
Yes the skirt is suppose to go all the way around and there is room at the bottom. How do you move a print? I assumed the software would automatically center the print.
as an aside, the printer has issues towards the edges: uneven bed temp and after a few hours of printing one edge was no longer flat with a pronounced dip between corners (no room for expansion?) I plan on binder clipping another piece of glass to the bed, would you recommend this?
btw, thank you for all your mods, documenting and sharing, gives me some hope : )
In repetier host, you can simply drag the model file to where you want it with your mouse. You can also rotate it any degree you want, on any axis.
if you are using pronterface, I am not sure if you can do that…I suggest trying repetier host out. it is MUCH more user friendly and integrates seamlessly with Slic3r.
Variable bed temperature at the edges will always be a problem. another piece of glass will not help, in fact it will porbably make it worse.
insulating the edge of the glass may help some. I know you can get pieces of foam to wrap around pipes at the hardware store. you might be able to cut this up and use it…you might even be able to print an insulating edge piece.
But even with insulation, it will never be the same temp at the edges. I always try to stay at least 1 inch from the edge with my prints, but with large parts, that may not be possible.
make sure you are using some sort of enclosure…trap as much heat as you can.
Yes, I’m using pronterface, will definitely try repetier host
as I’m quickly learning, there is a difference between print area and effective build area. Thanks for steering me clear of the extra sheet of glass, thought it might even things out.
as I’m printing pla, trapping heat will probably exacerbate issues I’m trying to resolve. I’ll look into insulating the edges when bigger problems have been solved, until then, stay away from the edges.
thanks again for your time saving input
Thank you so much for this recommendation, far better in every respect than pronterface. The only thing I see missing is the Slic3r configure within Repetier doesn’t have the “open vase” option. That and the default Z speed is too fast.