Hello world

[greyghost]

Just finished building my Rostock Max V2 and have been printing up a storm. I am new to the 3d printing world but I've been researching 3D printers for quite some time. I decided to pull the trigger and get the Rostock. I am so glad I did. I'd seen so many botched 3d prints from all kinds of 3d printers I was worried I'd have to spend days getting my 3d printer to print good prints. Luckily thanks to an awesome machine and setup guides I got some amazing prints right out the gate. Thank you seemecnc team for building such an awesome printer. I've still got a few things to work out but that what the forum is for right? I've attached a few pictures of my first prints and my printer. Let me know what you think.

A few observations and questions:

I started with ABS since everyone says it is a pain to get good prints. I've been pleasantly surprised but I can confirm that in order to get really good prints you have to have an enclosure. That is the next thing I am going to be working on. If any of you have good files for a solid enclosure I'd appreciate it.

I'm using matter control on a mac with the latest version. I like it, but it crashes on me once in a while. It has Matterslice, Slic3r and Cura. So far I like Cura the most. I can't get slic3r to work. it crashes every time I try to print. Any ideas? Do you guys use stock mattercontrol or the seemecnc version?

Matterslice does a good job but I get perimeter gaps and I'm not sure how to fix this. Cura doesn't have this problem. That's partly the reason I use it.

I thought my companion cube turned out great, and so far it does not speak.

[Xenocrates]

Oh boy do we ever have enclosures. I personally re-designed Raymond Ma's enclosure to fit the V2 (He made his for V1's). You can find that here: http://repables.com/r/719/. There are also these covers for a sleeker fit. I am not responsible for them, but appreciate them a lot: http://repables.com/r/732/

Then there are alternatives (I like my work obviously, partially because the parts have a lower footprint making them easier to print without an enclosure, and also most designs want more additional hardware, but mostly because it's mine), that I feel obliged to mention.
http://repables.com/r/447/
http://repables.com/r/176/

Everythings looking good there. Welcome to the forums and happy printing.

[Eaglezsoar]

Hi greyghost and I want to welcome you to the Forum!
The pictures you sent were phenomenal and proves that you did an excellent job in the building of the printer.
You are correct in your determination that each slicer has problems unique to that slicer that's why we run multiple slicers.
You will find one that you turn to the most and it will become your favorite. Don't forget to download the Kisslicer and give it a try.
It is one of the best but the interface is different then most and takes getting used to.
The enclosure recommended by Xenocrates is the one that I also recommend, he did a great job with it.
Happy Printing!

[greyghost]

Xenocrates Thanks for the links to the enclosures. I actually was planning on print the ones you made. I have a makeshift poor mans enclosure that I made from my surround sound speaker cardboard. I also thought that it would be relatively easy to make one with black foamboard. I might just do it just for fun.

Eaglezsoar I downloaded Kisslicer but haven't tried it yet. An insight as to why Cura won't print some stls and others it will? I find that there are some that I've grabbed of of thingverse that it just won't print, but Matterslice will print it just fine.

I graduated myself from the .3 layer height setting and have been playing around with .2 and .1 layer height. I'll be honest I'm impressed how well it does. With the finer resolution I do notice small wavy patterns that I guess are vibrations and such. I've also noticed that the pattern can change after 10 or so mm of layers. It's minimal and hardly noticeable but the cleaner the print the better. If anyone has some recommendations on how best to minimize these that would be great. Also after upgrading to the e3d v6 I'm having some issues with burrs on the finer resolutions. I think this is attributed to the retraction, but I've haven't been able to nail it down.

[Xenocrates]

I would avoid foamboard, because it will melt/catch fire at the temperatures involved very easily if something goes wrong.

As for why models off thingiverse don't always work properly, that is because most models come with holed geometry, and other flaws. I'm not sure if CURA as a standalone has a repair module, or if it's enabled off the bat, but Matterslice does on both counts.

I believe the banding you're noticing is speed dependent, and is a composite artifact from a variety of things, such as bed expansion and contraction (I would add a heatspreader to give you more thermal mass and rigidity to make it less noticeable), slight positioning errors arising from the segmented delta calculations and step rates that the controller is capable off, and filament driver accuracy, but also potentially flexing in the mount for the hotend.