Good afternoon Lulzbot users.
We bought a Taz 6 to print fit and function fixtures to check brackets we fabricate. We use Cura as our slicing software and when printing using polylite PLA, the printer has performed fantastic. We received our printer 2 weeks ago and have already used over 2kg of PLA.
I am in the process of making a few spare parts before I turn the printer over to our fixture team and ordered the preferred ABS Chroma Strand to make the spare herringbone gears and extruder parts I felt may be suspect in the case of an accident.
Our Lulzbot Taz 6 is open to office air. With the PLA, this has not caused any issues. However, this was disastrous as our prints warped causing a crash and the blowing of one of the quick acting fuses for the servos on the Rambo board.
After cleaning up and replacing the fuse, I fabricated a cardboard box to cover the unit and act as a heat box to keep the ABS from being effected by air drafts. I use this technique on my own personal Davinci 1.0A and it helped when printing ABS. Is the heat box required/recommended when printing ABS?
I am using the easy settings in Cura on standard moder with Chroma Strand 1800 selected. Extruder temp is 245 and bed is 80. I have used a glue stick on the bed as well.
Any suggestions to what I need to do? I am printing the (4) corner posts for the clear acrylic cover from Printed Solid.com I still need to print the other spare parts as well. Looking for suggestions to print as well as the parts on the machine are.
Thanks,
Archie Adamisin
Burlington, KY
For ABS an enclosure is pretty much a must almost always. You might get away with some small quick printing parts without it on a hot day but otherwise it’s needed.
Your not just keeping a draft out but you are creating a heated chamber that heats the air inside from the bed and hotend. It is important to be sure the electronics can breath cool outside air though so you don’t overheat the board. On my TAZ 4 I built a heated chamber and have the end of the control box sitting with a hole in the chamber so the cooling fan draws in cooler air from outside and helps cool the board. The TAZ 6 has a different design but you need to let the electronics get cool air somehow. I now some people have built nice heated enclosures and mounted the whole electronics box on the outside of it.
If you are using the 1800 profile you are using the wrong one. You want the ABS profile, and the default infill settings are not dense enough to print functional parts with.
yep, use an ABS profile.
Ideally, use the factory .gcode to the parts so you get factory equivalent strength in the parts.
Here’s the file for the large herringbone gear for printing with ABS on a TAZ 6. Just load the .gcode into Cura or onto the SD card and print. http://devel.lulzbot.com/TAZ/Olive/production_parts/printed_parts/herringbone_large_gear_blk/taz6/
I can’t find a pre-sliced .gcode file for the small herringbone gear for printing on the TAZ 6. Maybe support could post one if it exists?
If you slice it yourself, here’s the setting from the .gcode file sliced for the Mini- you can open .gcode files in a text editor to see for yourself
Layer height: 0.35
Walls: 1
Fill: 70
Nozzle: 250
Bed: 110