Steves new build project. Sept 2015

[Stevolution]

Couldn't see it for looking. Thanks all.
Ad making time....

[Stevolution]

Does anyone actually know of a fix for the Slic3r issue with Mattercontrol?
I have not had a chance to try Slic3r (within Mattercontrol), as it will not place the print item in the print area when you select it. It up in the air and way off centre.

I am sure you can use Slic3r as a stand alone program, but I don't know how to set that all up.

My second question..... ABS juice. How do you guys use it?
My UHU + Kapton tape solution is just way too hit 'n' miss. I knocked up some ABS juice, but it simply dries on the hot bed and doesn't seem to help adhesion at all.

I tried putting a thin coat on when cold, then warming it up.... nope. So I tried adding it once nearly up to temp (eye watering fumes).... nope.

I really do need to get this printing more effectively. Its just so temperamental (but I now believe that is what 3d printing actually is).

I have set a date of 30th November. If I can't start getting usable prints out of it by then, its gotta go. Its taking up far too much time and I have many other projects that are getting left behind

Edit..... I just noticed my bed temp dropping? Coated with ABS juice and trying a print and the temp has dropped from the start temp of 100 deg to 94 deg in a few minutes. The hot bed LED is on?
What now

[Stevolution]

Cancelled the print (for the 1000th time) and investigated the hot bed issue. Nothing appears to be wrong.

Told it to hit 120 deg and it did so without issue (tea towel over the hotbed), then held the temp fine.
Removed the tea towel and it dropped slightly (as expected), but then continued to drop - even though the LED was constantly on.
Dropped 10 deg in 3 minutes. Even drops if you shroud the entire printer in a towel (to prevent drafts.... which I don't think are the issue)

The print I just cancelled..... it dropped from 100 deg to 79 deg in 3 minutes. Not seen it do that before.

How can it climb to the required temp without issue, but then fail to hold it once it gets there?

Something is wrong... its just falling constantly now

[Xenocrates]

There is a difference in the properties of the heated bed depend on what's on it. The tea towel is very much an insulator. You might also have some amount of pulsing at a frequency too high for humans (or the LED) to register, due to PID control, which would cause the temp to drop. Not to mention that it has environmentally gotten colder in the northern hemisphere in the past few weeks/months/days, and so you're fighting heat loss to the atmosphere more than usual. I might suggest putting a largish incandescent bulb inside a box enclosing the print area (but not the base), or perhaps aiming a space heater at it (this will cause drafts, but it could help more than it hurts). I've had similar issues with my printer, although that is because I do not yet have heating in the enclosure, and the temperature of the shop as a whole is ~12C. There is also the possibility of printing at a lower bed temp (I've never gone above 100C with ABS), although you may have had adhesion issues at those temps. Alternatively, keep that room warmer, either with more space heaters, staying in it more of the day, turning up the furnace, or putting more equipment in there (AMD based computers are great at making heat)

[Stevolution]

I just ran the bed calibration again (M303 P1 S100) and entered the results into EEprom.
Seems to be holding better now. I am printing in the Dining room, so the temp is pretty set at 19 deg (thermometer on the wall in front of me). No idea what has changed.

How often do you need to recalibrate the thermistors then? Didn't think it was that often.

Certainly not wasting any more money building a heated enclosure until I start getting some results. I have already cancelled my filament 'stock' order until further notice.

See if that was the issue. One night, I might actually print something higher than 5 layers

[RocketMagnet]

I rarely have adherence issues with ABS and never with PLA (opposite in fact with PLA I cant get the things off easily at the end).
Took me a bit of experimentation to get my ABS technique right but essentially for me its a really good coat of the Elmers glue while cold (nice opaque layer) then heat up to 90 DegC .. that's what I always use for ABS. If your Z Height is wrong then you'll have great difficulty getting it to stick.. so if it's not sticking with ABS juice my guess would be that.

The only time i'll really have issues is with very low part to bed contact surface areas, but I don't actually because I look and know it will be problematic so for these i'll add a brim to increase the area of the contact patch or reorient the part if possible... absolute worse case i'll use a raft but after many hundreds of prints I've use a raft twice I think. Small contact patch tall items are the worst and lots of tiny parts, e.g. a tall thin rod printed end down is an example of the worst I can think of... that would cause other issues even with ABS.. not enough cooling time between layers.

I recall earlier you said that once you got your printer dialled in you'll be away... well I bought a pre built Orion and it still took several months to get myself dialled in. TBH there is no black art it's all logical stepwise trouble shooting so don't get disheartened it just takes some time and there is always plenty of help on here as we've all been there many times

As for your issue I've done some mods to the software that displays the Heater and Nozzle power outputs to the display LCD which could help trouble shoot..
http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=6989
http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php ... 4&start=25

Easiest method to monitor it would be to run Repertier Host instead of matter control as it's got temp and power output logging trending built in.
You can see examples in the second thread link above.

Personally I had loads of fun, yes some frustrations but I learned a fair bit of electronics, Arduino coding, how to solder properly so now a year in it's simply a tool I know how to use. Yes I get the odd issue but nothing I can't fix now.

[Stevolution]

Thanks Rocket

It is a frustrating affair ... I have to say. I have all these lovely designs here to print and I have yet to really print anything I can say was successful.
Checked Z height... fine. Tonights printing was aborted due to the falling temp of the bed for no apparent reason.
Will have to try again tomorrow night.

Tonights did look like it was going to adhere. I pasted on quite a thick ABS juice mix while it was hot.. stank of Acetone, but the print did seem to take (until the hot bed temp issue)

I will check out your links. Thanks for those.

I don't really understand it all enough yet to pull away from Mattercontrol.

[RocketMagnet]

Personally I just run my bed @ 90 DegC for ABS.

Never had the need to use ABS Juice but if it's Acetone based then your just boiling it off essentially immediately @ 100.. I certainly wouldn't be splashing acetone onto a hot surface... sounds a bit dangerous to me.

I personally had some weird behaviour (Z height errors and temperature control issues) in Mattercontrol so still just use repetier host with slicer and cura, I do try it out from time to time as the bed levelling is a great feature. Repetier it's not a glossy front end as MC but it's got better control IMO but as a result a bit less user friendly yet seems to fit my logic a bit better.

I'd give repetier host and slicer a test to see if it's MC setup that's causing your bed issues.
Template profiles for slicer are here:
http://seemecnc.com/pages/downloads

Essentially you open repetier host and point it to your slicer install directory and copy in the profiles... The old version in the above link also (E.g. V1) of the manual shows Repetier Host and slicer setup. Worth a quick test to rule out MC.

[Stevolution]

Recalibrating the bed PID values seems to have fixed the issue. No idea what caused that

edit....

First print stuck well with ABS juice.... followings 3 failed I just don't get it.

Surprised you can print ABS straight onto a hot bed with no adhesive of any kind Rocket. I literally don't know what to try next.

[RocketMagnet]

No bed @ 90 + Elmers glue pasted on cold.

I was just talking about I only use 90 DegC and not 100 DegC as you were.. I find 90 is enough.

Potentially your building up a layer of adhesive compensating for too high a Z height but it's in the manual exactly how to calibrate Z height so probably not.
Clearly it's part dependant but really surprised you having issues with ABS Juice.. so what are you trying to print?

[Stevolution]

ABS juice seems to be the best so far... but still fails every so often.
Just printing various stuff I have either drawn myself, or downloaded.... nothing really difficult.

I wanted to print the housing for my laser 'print release' auto stop button tonight, but I am just too tired to waste time on it at the moment. I think I am going to step away from it for a while.

I had 3 goes at printing an access card holder last night. Each one failed for a different reason. Bought 2x holders on Ebay for £2 in the end. Makes printing them pointless.

[Stevolution]

Hi all

I have (with a heavy heart), decided that I think the printer is going... I just don't have the time to put into this hobby.

I have spent a fortune building this amazing bit of kit (£1500), but I am just not getting enough time to get any use out of it.

Anyone is interested in this barely used (3 days printing time) beauty, then make an offer.
I will put a proper ad in the for sale section tonight.

Edit... Oh so that is how you 3d print. You put the thing away for a month and when the frustration has died down... try yet again