Quality issues

[tom10122]

Still skewed a little but not my main concern, My quality is anything but. There is plenty of strands / out of place pieces of plastic and it just doesn't turn out right no matter what I try.My only thought Right now is to fix my y-axis bearing assemblies that are hitting the sides of the printer causing it to jerk around but it doesn't seem like that would cause all my problems. It won't print on the same line it seems. I tried printing Mhackney's wedding bands and they come out all over the place. I have linear bearings on almost everything now and my x-axis slides with no effort . The belt may be a little tight but if I loosen it, it will not move the belt properly(skips over the gear). My y-axis does need some effort to move it but still little. Any other Ideas?

[tom10122]

Come on I need some help

[Polygonhell]

You're probably going to have to post pictures or a better description of how the parts are failing.
If it's skew it can be a number of things
Mechanical issues, usually resulting in the stepper missing a step - you can usually hear this as a click or pop, or feel it if you put your fingers on the motor
Electrical issues, noise in the motor lines, less likely, but make sure low voltage lines are routed away from high voltage ones.
Too little current to the steppers, you don't say if you are using a ramps board or driving off Mach 3
If you're using the Mach3 solution, it can be the optos on the board, I believe there are instructions to bypass them around

[stienman]

If your bearings are hitting while printing, then that could be the reason.

A picture of a failed print would help, and a short video would help even more. Double check your filament temperature as well, if it's too hot it'll sag over the edges of the previous layer like wet spaghetti.

[tom10122]

Okay I will soon, I'm on my linux distro right now for my printer and my camera doesn't work with it, Moved the bearings in so they don't hit and in the process of putting the belt on. I'll get back to you guys soon.

[tom10122]

The y-axis now moves with no effort either, Here's a print afte I moved the bearings. Sadly this is one of my best prints . Am I running too hot still?

[Polygonhell]

You have some obvious backlash, but your going to have to show the print from more angles, and ideally in focus, so it's clear where it's failing.

[tom10122]

Sorry I can't focus. Its a webcam. But I do have some backlash I just don't know how to get rid of it, All my rollers for the belts are as they should and are moving.My y-axis could be a little tighter but that isn't my entire issue

[michaellatif]

What driver are you using? An Arduino based one or parallel port 3 axis board?

[tom10122]

parallel port 4-axis board with jumpered optos

[stienman]

Can you send us an image of the intended model?

Have you tried printing a standard calibration object and followed the calibration steps here: http://reprap.org/wiki/Calibration ?

Unfortunately I can't see if the model is just a blob of blurry plastic, or a bunch of strands falling all over each other. Since I don't know what it's supposed to be I'm not even sure if it has the right shape.

What plastic are you using, and what are the temperatures you're using at the head and the bed? Have you verified that the temperatures are correct with another thermometer?

[tom10122]

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:17630 this is what I was trying to print

[stienman]

Verify your extruder temperature with an external thermometer, and the same with your bed temperature.

[tom10122]

Printing in PLA so no bed

[stienman]

Printing in PLA so no bed

So have you verified your extruder temperature with a second good thermometer?

I found mine was off by over 25 degrees C when I checked with w thermocouple. These thermistors don't seem to be very good.

[tom10122]

it seems fine but I used an IR thermometer , my hot end is in pieces now, I got a bad jam in the nozzle and need some actone to get it out

[Polygonhell]

it seems fine but I used an IR thermometer , my hot end is in pieces now, I got a bad jam in the nozzle and need some actone to get it out

Acetone won't help with PLA, it dissolves the styrene in ABS, but it just causes PLA to become brittle over long periods.
If the jam is in the brass portion, you can use heat to remove it, either a blowtorch or a gas stove, obviously with the brass part seperated from the rest of the nozzle.
If the jam is in the PTFE liner, you either have to drill is out or break it up in some way or replace the liner.
If your printing PLA I would recommend a 40mm fan blowing on the thermal break of the Hotend, it will pretty much eliminate all of the jamming issues.

[tom10122]

Didn't have too m any jams so I didn't have a fan, THis is my first one in the brass nozzle

[johnoly99]

Tom, don't use an IR temp gun. They don't read correctly on the aluminum and brass parts. The best is a cheap multimeter with a thermocouple. IF there's a Walmart close by, check the automotive electrical section, and look for a yellow and black generic meter for around $20 that has a temp probe. That's what I use, and it's as good as any

[tom10122]

Ok I'll look around for one, my hotend threads are stripped so it'll be awhile, my dad has a dye/tap? But we need to go to a relatives house to get it and straiten out the threads. In the mean time I'll try to find a temp probe

[midget214]

One thing I noticed (By accident) is that you could get extremely detailed prints if you reduce your steps per mm by 50%, and scale your model to 200% in slicer.
The print does take double the amount of time, but the results are astonishing. The way I came across this was with my first calibration block prints. For some reason my H1 printed objects 50% smaller than they should be, so I just scaled the model in slicer. I eventually found out it was the steps per mm that was wrong.

[xojins]

I bought this off ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... OC:US:3160

$5.87 with free shipping! It gives me the same readings as my ramps board. Been pretty happy with it.

Only problem is that it's whole numbers only. No decimal places.

[tom10122]

Thanks midget I'll try it , we got the dye tap set today and I'll hopefully be printing by tonight

[tom10122]

threads are all straight now , just need to wire it up P.s anyone know where I can get a bronze hotend setup(mainly to replace the aluminum) since I will more then likley mess it up again

[tom10122]

Kinda big update, Did the hose clamp belt mod and it helped alot, PIcs tomorrow maybe but it still has some(alot) stray pieces of plastic that looks like spaghetti is the best way to explain it, while watching my printer it looked like it would miss where it was printing(maybe have to do with the fact that the ring was curved instead of flat on its perimeter) There is also alot of spaghetti pieces at the "tip" of the ring where attachments hook on to( look on the link awhile back of what I was trying to print and you'll get the idea)