Matter Hackers Build Series PLA - Profile

I have a Mini 2, I have been using filament from Lulzbot because the printer profiles are built in and I am way new to 3D printing and not much of a 3D nerd. The Matter Hackers Build Series seems to be good filament from a bit I have seen on the internet. Has some colors I would like to use for printing small handouts to give to kids at boating safety events, and the cost is a bit lower. I called Matter Hackers Support and they said to the effect “no problem” etc. and that maybe someone could help but that they did not seem to have a Mini 2 setup for testing.

I have figured out that all PLA is not the same.

How do I find a good profile? I look at the 100++ settings in Cura and get confused, I don’t want to spend days and many KG of filament testing and making adjustments that I have not a clue what they are.

Can someone help or point me in a good direction to find help, not really sure where other forums are, did find one but it was on Facebook and you needed to be a member which I refuse to do.

Thanks much in advance

https://www.matterhackers.com/store/c/mh-build-series-pla

In reality, there are usually only a couple of changes needed to modify a profile for a new brand of the same type of filament. The biggest one is probably the default temperature. I have found that even within the same brand of the same type, I may have to make small adjustments when switching from one color to the next.

I would print a small test object using one or two of CuraLE’s PLA material profiles and start with the one that looked the best.

If you find you need to change the default printing temps, be sure to look at the wiping and probing temps as well. Chances are these will need to be adjusted in the same direction as the other printing temps to help ensure good cleaning and probing prior to prints.

Thanks, I have ordered a couple of rolls for testing and such

Any advice on a good part to print for testing?

I have seen some differences between colors once in a while, but don’t have enough knowledge to know if it is the filament, printer or just normal variations

Is it possible to easily print out the filament profile? Might make keeping track of changes easier.

I did look at the estimated times to print 3DBenchy for Verbatim (1:11) & PolyLite PLA (1:28) so might be more than just a temperature difference between the two - - so makes me a bit nervous about the Matter Hackers filament, but guess I shall see

thanks

I got the test reels of filament in, printed some test pieces using the PLA Verbatim and PolyLite profiles, both sets of prints looked nice and about the same to my tired eyes. I decided to go with the Verbatim profile as it prints a bit quicker and slightly lower temperature.

I did as Lulzbot support about this and they said that PLA was more forgiving in the profiles than most filaments.

So far so good, but the Gold color is a bit translucent and the fill lines are visible through the hull’s of the models, but does not look objectionable to me.

Thanks

Writing down your profiles and what you’ve changed is definitely a good idea, especially with so many variables and combinations of all the settings. Some things you can do to speed up printing are: increase your layer height, increase your initial layer height(don’t go more than 85% your nozzle’s width), lower your infill’s density percentage, increase your infill line width(only really noticeable in large prints), toggle on the Use adaptive layers. This last one is a little tricky(there’s 3 settings you can adjust) but can make a huge difference. Basically it will adjust your layer height at different positions in your model, most useful when you’re printing something with a curve on the vertical axis. Hover your mouse over the text box and read the description, adjust the values and then click on the prepare button to see your estimated print time (if you that auto calculation feature turned off, which I do). Also, when using the Adaptive Layers option change your view to the Layer View, there you will see the scale of your layers, mostly it will vary between your selected Layer Height and your Initial Layer Height, however, dependent on the values you set the smallest layer height can be greater or even smaller than your selected layer height. Plus in the Layer View you can slide the layer adjuster and see the various layer heights and where they’re at in your model (or at least by approximation of how accurate you interpret the sliding color scale). The very first layer should be the height of the value of your Initial Layer Heght.

@ JoeBowler300 Thanks much for the suggestions, I will need to digest them a bit as I am way new to this 3D printing thing, and have not been very adventurous in settings. Yes when I change anything I make serious notes so I can get back to the start point. Many years on the factory floor taught me that, very good habit

I have also found out that not all colors in the same family act the same, two of the translucent colors (not marketed as translucent) have different strengths than the solid colors, being quite a bit weaker in bending making the Christmas lighthouse ornament not very rugged while the solid color was quie a bit stronger with the top loop for hanging.

The Lime Green Matter Hackers Build series seems to be OK, did my testing on it and looked good. So printed maybe 100 little toys (3D Benchys & a 2 1/4 inch tall lighthouse) - then I switched to their Gold colored and Magenta colors, the prints looked fine but turns out the 100+ prints are not, the stack on Benchy breaks off easily, dropped the Lighthouse and the top broke off, turns out that the main section is easy to crack apart, not good for giving out to small kids. The Gold and Magenta are somewhat translucent.

My bad for not testing every color I guess. But so far I have several hundred little useless toys, or lots of junk and wasted time and about 1KG of stuff not even for recycle as they are too small for pickup

I am using the stock Lulzbot profile for Verbatim PLA, the extruder temp is 205 C and the Bed Plate is 60 C.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

That different colors in the same series print so different was a surprise.

Thanks Stan. The grub was grewat and provided by our very own Lakwood Culinary Program. Kudos to their crew, they always do such an amazing job.