HIPS Cure Med Profile Issues

Just set up my TAZ 3 and I’m having difficulties fixing a few problems.

I printed the 5mm calibration steps and the XY Resonance test. Both prints seem to shift part way up. I made sure the motors were tight as well as the belts. It seems to correlate when the fan turns on.

Material: HIPS
Profile: Cura Medium
Bed Temp: 85
Hotend Temp: 230


https://flic.kr/p/teZyhf

I also can’t seem to get proper bed adhesion without using brim or raft even on small parts like these.


https://flic.kr/p/teZysW

Any suggestions

Hi Ninjanick. Regarding the adhesion problem, it looks like you have a PEI surface. Can I assume that you upgraded your TAZ 3 bed? I was experiencing a similar issue with my TAZ 4 which I also upgraded with PEI surface. I noticed that both the Lulzbot Mini as well as the TAZ 5 (both of which have PEI surfaces) had a recommended temperature of 110 for HIPS whereas the TAZ 3 and 4 are both recommended at 85° as you noted. Unless I’m mistaken the difference in temperature is based upon the differences in the surface. So I increased my bed temperature to 110° which basically eliminated the adhesion problems. Hope this helps you.

As for the other issues, i don’t know what might be causing those issues. Hopefully someone else will have a suggestion.

I didn’t think about increasing bed temps to the TAZ5 spec. I will definitely try that out. I was asking around and it seems that direct connection via USB to a computer could also cause the bulge I’m experiencing. The gist I received was if the main PC sending commands sleeps or interrupts the data stream it could cause the printer to try and recover. I’m going to try printing off the SD card to see if I get the same results. If that works, maybe a dedicated Octoprint server on an RPi would give better results.

I print exclusively through Octoprint now and absolutely love it. Major convenience as well as cool factor. I have mind suspended between the two legs of the print surface with a case that I added legs to. I’ve also got Octoprint controlling a relay to turn on/off the LED lights I added around the frame. I would highly recommend to anyone with a Taz to add LED’s to the frame as it lights prints up like they’re in the spotlight on a stage. Here are a few pics of how I did mine.

The lights are stuck to some foam board i had and i printed 90 degree endcaps to hold them in that position. It’s pretty cool because standing in front of the printer, the lights dont shine in your face at all do you don’t get any glare. I also stuck leds to the underside of the top rails to give added light from above as well.