New Taz 5 owner questions etc

General Hardware
1

Good afternoon folks.

First things first. I just got my taz 5 yesterday. Got over a few initial hurdles and am now in the midst of a 31 hour print for a customer.
All things point to good stuff.

A few things i want to discuss.

  1. I plan on buying additional extruders. 1 for modification to handle 1.75mm filament (i have some aluminum + ptfe tubing to use). That seems like a no brainer, given the fact that I have 25 spools of 1.75mm

  2. Do any of you run small nozzles like .25 or .35 on your hex hot ends? do you see a considerable increase in quality of the print? That may be something I explore as well.

  3. Does it make sense to have a separate extruder for different filament types? Ive heard some folks will never mix PLA and ABS, but ive never had an issue. Obviously i wont run PLA and Carbon fiber in the same nozzle, but you get the point.

  4. ABL - I desperately want to find a good solution for auto bed leveling. Does a nice, elegant solution exist for the taz ? I have ABL on my 12x12x12 prusa i3v and i cant begin to tell you how in love with it i am. I never have to level my bed. EVER. More than that, i never have to think about it. I start my print, and i know it will be good.

  5. Wipe pad/ script - I love the taz mini wiping pad. I will search thingiverse for one in a bit, but is that something folks do a fair amount of? It seems with ooze, etc it would be a smart thing to do.

  6. Other upgrades? - I definately like to tinker and get the most out of my printers (i have 4 now). What other upgrades or fun things should I be looking to do with my taz 5? so far im completely enamored with it.

thanks

2

  1. There is generally an increase in quality at corners and curved layer transitions. I can make a 0.5mm print almost as good as a .35mm by going with a very fine layer height, but you have to have your extrusion and filliment sizes dialed in very very well to get good results consistently. Any over or under extrusion, any bed level “too close” issues, and high resolution with smaller nozzles will sometimes look worse.

  2. Different material temperatures can confuse people at first. Some people start with ABS, can’t get it to stick to the bed due to lifting, then go to PLA Without managing to get all the ABS out of the bore. When they try to print PLA at a lower temperature, the higher temperature of the ABS still there causes it to act like a plug. I believe that right there is the root cause of at least half of the “my extruder is clogged” messages you see in forums. As long as you do a good purge at the higher temperature material when changing you should be fine. Now certain specialty materials should be kept separate. Carbon fiber or wood filaments will eat a nozzle very quickly, and probably warrant their own hot end.

  3. People have adapted the Mini bed leveling to the Taz, there are also several other inductive bed leveling solutions out there. Check the Taz modifications thread for a link to several of them: https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/comprehensive-list-of-taz-modifications/1971/1 I myself am also working on a bed leveling setup using an Aluminum heat bed as a target. Project Lancewood, which may someday become the Taz 6 next February shows a factory mini style bed leveling system. If you have access to CNC, you could cut one of those bed mounting plates as well.

  4. I’m working on an adaptor to add one of these to the stock Taz bed, but I haven’t got around to creating it yet.

  5. Check out the modifications list. I’d recommend looking at the various openrail modifications, but I may be biased. The development forum is another good section to check out.

Welcome to the Taz club!

3

I find with my Taz 5 once its leveled and on a solid surface it stays pretty level. Wiping. Buy some Scotch brite pads the green kind at the supermarket works fine, wipe nozzle as needed.
The Auto Leveling on the Mini is nice, but a time waster.