Stark Coma Ox? (Pic Heavy)

[QuantumTitan]

Hello All!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I finished my printer the day before going out of town for thanksgiving and I am very excited to get back to it. I am terrible at naming things, so I have named my printer Stark Coma Ox which is an anagram for "A Rostock Max".

Stark Coma Ox the First

(Please excuse the mess in the background )

So my first print. I'll admit I did not collect the elmer's glue stick mentioned at the beginning of the guide because it did not mention I would be printing in ABS and I figured I'd start with printing PLA. Of course, there was no way I would have a completed 3D printer and not be printing something on it, so I did some research. Some people were having no problem printing directly on to Kapton tape and I had plenty of that. So I put some down and had my first go of printing the fan shroud. You can see in the attached images how that went.

IME Kapton + ABS = Stroodle

I then tried spraying some "extreme hold" hairspray on top of the Kapton tape and setup another print. This time I stopped it only a few seconds into the print because the ABS was visibly not sticking and even getting hung up on the hotend. Finally, I found some decade-old "Ross Stik Washable Glue Stick". It's consistency was more of rubber cement than glue stick, but I smeared that stuff all over the glass bed anyway. Lo and behold, I got my first print out. Stuck so well I had to remove the bed and use ice cubes to cool the plate til the print released.

A sight of relief after an hour and a half of paranoia.

It came out well enough to do it's job, but it definitely has its flaws that I wouldn't want to see in my future prints. I've provided plenty of images, I hope you guys will pick over them and maybe offer up suggestions to get rid of some of the flaws like the spaces in the walls, the unflat base, and the strangeness in the bridges and overhangs.

Spaces in the walls

Unflat Base

Bridge strangeness

Overhang strangeness

Also, my printer dribbles a lot before printing. I sit there and pick the excess extrusions off just before the printer goes into action so its not dragging around extra plastic. Is there anyway of stopping this?

Dribblin'

My first goal is to enclose the work space. It doesn't need to be heated, I'd just like to protect the print from drafts and myself from the smell.

[BenTheRighteous]

Uhh... nice name, I guess...

Your prints resemble my first prints - and I wouldn't consider myself an expert just yet, but I'd attribute what you saw to two things:
1. Slic3r sucks (hollow walls you saw, same with the base)
2. You didn't print with support (overhang and bridge slop)

In my experience any overhang up to 60 degrees prints awesome, but anything past that would require support.

Lastly to combat dribble I just pretty much just preheat the hotend, let it dribble out for a few minutes, then start the print with a generous skirt to get the filament flowing again.

Best of luck with the machine - and heed my ramblings at your own peril...

[Jimustanguitar]

Ben is on it...

Play with your slicer settings until you know them inside and out, and try other slicing programs too. Everybody seems to find one that clicks for them. I'm a Cura guy.

Bridges and overhangs are tricky to get just right. Temperature may vary, sometimes cooling fans are needed, you can tweak slicer settings with speed and flow rate, etc... Support material is another option. I had the best luck with higher than usual temperatures and lots of cooling (which is temperamental with ABS).

Ooze will happen. ABS swells as it heats up, which is also why it likes to curl and avoid sticking. Ooze isn't a problem, it's normal. You can retract in your end GCode and add a little extrude to the start of new prints. Cura does this out of the box, and I use it.

Great looking first prints! Keep the updates coming.

[QuantumTitan]

Thanks guys for the tips. I tried using Cura by using roughly the same settings that I have in Slic3r, but I got strange behaviour. When I'd start the print, the cheapskates home and then descend very slowly. It doesn't wait to heat the bed or the extruder even though in the G-code, the documentation says it should be. Another thing I noted was the LCD screen on the Rostock said "Heating Bed" even though the target temperatures for both the extruder and the bed were 0. I'll have to mess around with it and see if I can't get it to work, but for now I guess I'll stick with Slic3r or maybe try out KISSlicer.

[BenTheRighteous]

When I'd start the print, the cheapskates home and then descend very slowly. It doesn't wait to heat the bed or the extruder even though in the G-code, the documentation says it should be.

The slowness is due to a printer setting in repetier host. Look for "Z axis feed rate" which defaults to some ridiculously low number. I bumped mine to 4800 I think. Also, it begins heating after it is finished descending. Seems backward to me, but since I preheat I don't ever notice it.

Another thing I noted was the LCD screen on the Rostock said "Heating Bed" even though the target temperatures for both the extruder and the bed were 0.

Maybe it just says that until it's finished descending? Again, I preheat, so I never notice.

[QuantumTitan]

I tried Cura again, this time with a faster Z-axis feed rate and preheating everything and it works better, but I still run into a problem. I have all of the speed values set up the same as Slic3r, but it seems to ignore these values and flies through the print way too quickly.

I went out and got some disappearing purple elmer's gluesticks and the prints stick and are easy to get off, but I kind of miss having to use an ice cube to get the print off when using my decade-old gluesticks. I just knew for sure the print wasn't going anywhere where as with this stuff, it takes no effort to remove which makes me nervous. Not too many places I can source finely-aged gluesticks though Using the elmer's I tried to print a larger print, an enclosure print from this thread: /viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5695, and I had it lift.

Lifting Base Print

I will have to try it with a higher bed temp maybe. I also get more lifting on that side just because it is closer to an outside wall which is cold because it is, well, Winter. In the meanwhile, I have been tweaking with settings to see what they do and going through the Calibration checklist(I am a perfectionist and will probably never stop calibrating I've been trying to calculate my extrusion multiplier, but I am having trouble. This is the thread I am following to do it: /viewtopic.php?f=54&t=1163. He takes .55/avg.results = Ex. Multi. Should I use .55 like he did because it is what the wall should be or will mine be different because I am using a different extrusion width? Should I substitute my general extrusion width for the .55 in the calc? I am also having difficulty taking measurements because my digital calipers have no difficulty cutting into the walls with little effort.

Good News, everyone! My 3D printer has already saved me at least $100. All of the tilt tabs on our windows have been broken for years and we haven't bothered to replace them, but I have modeled them, even made them better, and now I can print them all out for orders of magnitude less! The pin doesn't come out perfect, but it still works for the most part. It's just a spring guide anyways. Probably needs to be printed with support material. I have it set to print overhangs at 10mm/s and I print these at 30% speed so I know it is printing it slow enough, ~3mm/s!

Here are the tops of them.

Here are the bottoms of them.

The not so good-looking pin.

Still works though!

I still don't understand why that top layer can look solid, but the bottom layer has to look like stroodley. I know you guys said that was the result of the Slicer, but if it can do it on top why not the bottom?

ATTENTION: This is the important part of this post. The ABS filament I am printing with is from Monoprice. If you recall, I didn't have any ABS for my fan shrouds at the end of my build, so I got Monoprice filament because it was cheap, seemecnc didn't have any gray filament in stock, and the reviews didn't look that bad. Also, I was being impatient and wanted to overnight it. Because I don't have experience with any other filament, I can make no observations about print quality. Just today though, I was messing with the tid bit I cut off for dia. measurements and I broke a piece off an noticed there were cavities in it. Bubbles or tunnels, it's hard to say, but I imagine that's not desirable because it would change how much is being extruded per given mm. Take a look and tell me what you think:

The first break.

It's everywhere I break it.

Once I get these tilt tabs printed, I am switching to my reel of PLA. Finally got some buckets and air-tight lids to store reels in. Just need to get some desiccant while I build my air-dryer.

[BenTheRighteous]

A couple things -

I use brand-new elmer's disappearing purple glue sticks on my prints and they stick quite well - too well sometimes. If you're experiencing a lack of stickiness, either you're not using enough, or you're not giving it time to set up before starting the print (I notice it's still purple in your picture; I wait for mine to dry clear before I start).

I don't really understand what those window things do that you printed, but they look frickin' cool!

For that filament - I would be very suspicious of that. I've gone through some rolls from a couple different suppliers now and when I break off a piece, it's always been solid through to the core. That might be why you're getting "stroodly" (?) first layers - if the printer isn't actually feeding as much material as it thinks it is, and you're starving the first layer, that would be a likely culprit. Not sure why that wouldn't carry over to the other layers also, though...

[QuantumTitan]

Hmm, I will try letting it dry more. I was adding a new coat before printing! I just finished a print and it literally pops off by itself when the bed has cooled slightly.

They are tilt tabs. The windows tilt inwards to be cleaned and these keep the windows from falling into the house when they are not pulled back. We've been shoving things between the window and the jam to keep them from falling in lol. Not only is it awesome I can fix them for a fraction of the cost, but I noticed the originals weren't exactly long enough, so a quick tweak in Inventor and I have cheap, superior replacements!

I figured as much. I have spoken with Monoprice and they are setting up my RMA. Not only the bubbles, but I know this stuff isn't 100% ABS. It does not dissolve in Acetone as ABS would. I am going to take some of my failure pieces and run some Determination of Composition tests.

I see SeeMeCNC has gray back in stock, so I will be getting it from there to replace it.

[geneb]

It must be dry before you print.

g.

[barry99705]

A couple things -

I use brand-new elmer's disappearing purple glue sticks on my prints and they stick quite well - too well sometimes. If you're experiencing a lack of stickiness, either you're not using enough, or you're not giving it time to set up before starting the print (I notice it's still purple in your picture; I wait for mine to dry clear before I start).

I don't really understand what those window things do that you printed, but they look frickin' cool!

For that filament - I would be very suspicious of that. I've gone through some rolls from a couple different suppliers now and when I break off a piece, it's always been solid through to the core. That might be why you're getting "stroodly" (?) first layers - if the printer isn't actually feeding as much material as it thinks it is, and you're starving the first layer, that would be a likely culprit. Not sure why that wouldn't carry over to the other layers also, though...

They're on the top of the inside window. Like this.
[img]http://www.sovereignwindows.com.au/wp-c ... e-hung.jpg[/img]

It's also the same kind of latch/lock you'll see on a sliding storm window/screen. I'm now going to have to check out my windows to see if the latch can be replaced. Might really help out on the WAF!!!

[JackFoz]

As for the bottom layer I found that I got results like that when my E-Steps was out. Calibrating that helped a load of other problems too. There's a pretty good video on YouTube for it (Using the RMax) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbX5Ilmc8m0

Hope this helps!