3D Printers/Printing CATCH ALL

karmajay wrote:

What was the failure? The part came loose, etc etc

Damnit! Last print failed as well.

Filament stops extruding. Best I can tell, it stops feeding down into the nozzle. The nozzle itself isn't clogged. I can pull out the filament, re-insert it, and it prints fine. It's like something holds the filament back. I've checked my spool and there's no kinks that could cause additional resistance to the feed.

I can't make the nozzle go any hotter - it's already at the hottest (240 C), so I'm trying slowing down the printing speed.

I don't want to give up on the entire spool - Dremel PLA silver is really hard to find right now - but I may switch to some other parts that I'm printing a different color to see if I have better success. Will try that tomorrow if the 4 hr print job I just kicked off fails.

karmajay wrote:

@carlbear95 I printed a couple of the pieces out in PLA (20% infill) and they seem plenty strong!

Nice! I found someone local who will print the whole set for me. Just so I know what I'm being charged, the only spec is "Black PLA Material and .007" layer thickness", is that right? Is that 20% infill something I should also specify?

The nozzle itself isn't clogged.

If you can't push filament through the nozzle when it is hot then it is probably clogged.

Is that 20% infill something I should also specify?

The insides of shapes are filled in with patterns. 100% would be a completely solid object. Typical is 15% I just bumped it up to add some strength. This is just black PLA so that's fine.

karmajay wrote:
The nozzle itself isn't clogged.

If you can't push filament through the nozzle when it is hot then it is probably clogged.

That's what I thought, but when I take the filament out and then re-feed the filament back in (without doing anything else), it extrudes quite happily. Until it doesn't.

ETA: So the print last night completed successfully. It was an "upper half slice" of the original part sized to be able to be glued on top of the partial print.

So I'm trying the 7 hour print job this time. If this fails I'll switch to a different filament color and hope that the problem goes away. Frustrating that I'm experiencing this after a solid week of no-hassle printing.

Certainly looks like clogging. I did some Googlin' and discovered:

Dremel's official de-clog process is the one I've been following all along. There's 4 steps, each getting more involved if the prior step didn't work, culminating in a "take out the stepper motor". So there's no other official way.

They do sell new nozzles which come complete with the heating element and as part of that they have extensive "here's how to replace the nozzle" instructions. So I'm thinking that if this problem persists I'll take off the nozzle and soak in acetone to dissolve any PLA that may be in there causing it to gum up.

I wish I could increase the temperature of the nozzle. The heat setting it uses for PLA is already the maximum temperature that can be chosen. I did read one post from Dremel's technical support suggesting another owner to remove the cooling fan to allow the nozzle to get hotter during unclogging, but that can't be used for printing.

Are we sure the motor isn't burning out, or that there's not a kink or hard point in the filament that's making it harder than usual for it to push through?

Wait - the site says it can up to 280 so I'm not sure why you can't increase the temp for PLA. There legit has to be a way in the settings because there can be slight variations for temperature when using different brands of filament.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

Are we sure the motor isn't burning out, or that there's not a kink or hard point in the filament that's making it harder than usual for it to push through?

I'm leaning this way. After another partial print - that 7 hour job stopped extruding after a couple of hours - I switched filament and happily printed a small (1 hour job). Just kicked off a 12 hour. If it completes successfully, I know my silver filament has issues and will examine it carefully.

If it is not a clog make sure filament is actually progressing - maybe the extruder or roll is getting kinked? Your a techie you should set up optifine and a small camera and record your prints it may help you troubleshoot!

Sigh.

After a successful 13 hour print last night using white filament, I decided to crack open the roll of silver filament that had been delivered yesterday and try a 7 hour print during the day. It failed after a couple of hours. Both filaments are Dremel's own PLA - RFID'd and everything.

So, in a "F*ck it, I'll do it live" decision, I'm going to print those grey pieces in white and spray paint them the grey I want them to be.

In other news, other than printing silver, it's going great. There's going to be a month long hiatus as I travel down to Key West, but I'll be back on it in March!

Well, as a new printer owner I guess I need to drop in here. Hello, everyone.

I got it a couple of weeks ago, but it took me a bit of time due to problems with both assembly and leveling. (I don't care if it's a kit; I shouldn't have to alter parts to make them go together right!) But, after finally finding the right tutorial on leveling, I finally got it working.

My new setup:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/6LyKdb0.jpg)

Creality Ender 3 v2. And I finally got a successful print.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/4DveWeL.jpg)

That little guy was one of the sample files that came with it. I'm now trying my first actual test build.

But I still have a lot of questions...

The Ender has a USB port on the front, but when I try using it the software I'm using (Mattercontrol at the moment) claims it can't see the printer. The control panel on the printer lights up when I connect the cable, even if the printer is off, so something is happening but I'm not sure how to troubleshoot it.

Right now I'm using the 8GB microSD card that came with it to transfer files from my computer to the printer. But it only seems to like that one microSD card. I tried loading a file on a different one and it couldn't find any files on it.

And yes, I have already found out that the Ender has no concept of "Folders" and the file was at the root.

So... initial questions. Best software for creating files? It came with its own slicer software but immediately recommended that I download Cura. A friend suggested Mattercontrol, but as I said it doesn't think my printer exists.

I've been trying to run it using this old Nuc that I have. I've thought about getting a Pi 400 just to be a dedicated controller for the thing, using Octoprint, but would rather try to get my existing computer to run it (because the Nuc also runs my Cricut and Cricut doesn't have Linux/Pi software; I'd rather only have one computer in my hobby room.)

Anyway, just stopping in. I've got an Elite Dangerous Python printing right now. We'll see how that goes.

Yeah Cura is a good free one to use for a creality printer. I'm sure there are profiles out there for the ender in the community for cura.

Well, the second print didn't do quite as well.

It kinda looks ok, but it's wide and flat enough that the supports and base seem to be permanently fused to it. I can't even pry it off.

Guess for something like this I need to learn how to rotate it and print it standing on its tail.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/ZdfBHMm.jpg)

tanstaafl wrote:

Well, the second print didn't do quite as well.

It kinda looks ok, but it's wide and flat enough that the supports and base seem to be permanently fused to it. I can't even pry it off.

Guess for something like this I need to learn how to rotate it and print it standing on its tail.

Are you printing in PLA or something else? What setting did you use (temp, layer height, support setting, etc.)?

Supports are never going to be fun. If there is a side of the model, like the bottom, that isn't going to be viewed, then using the Support Roof option in Cura can help a lot. This is part of a dinosaur I was printing for a game. First pic is after the print was complete. Second is after I gave it a twist to get it off of the supports. It came off easily.

The downside of using support roofs in Cura is the part of the model that is sitting on the support usually doesn't look good.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/VZEk8ML.png)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/MbE6ZWV.png)

-BEP

Question for you Prusa MK3S owners. I had my first major PLA jam last night that I couldn't fix by doing the standard heating up of the head to ABS temperatures and letting the stuff melt through. I didn't catch the end of a spool of filament fast enough and I ran out. No biggie, I thought, since the filament sensor would catch it and pause the print job. This has happened before and it was fine. However, this time, when I tried to eject the filament stub and load new filament, nothing came out. I was also then unable to load any new filament. So this went on for a while and then I just gave up and canceled the print job.

Unfortunately, no matter what I tried (heating the head up to very high temps, waiting, and trying to reload) nothing would let me load the new filament. I even tried the acupuncture needle thing where I pushed the filament from the loading end but that didn't unjam it.

I opened the head this morning and saw that the PTFE feeder tube was blocked right up to its top. So...my question is...any words of wisdom for how to get that unjammed? Turn up the temp and let it sit for an hour and see if that loosens it up at all? Or am I going to have to replace the tube as per the URL:

https://www.help.prusa3d.com/en/guid...

or something else?

If it is backed up that high I doubt the heat is gonna reach it enough to clear it. You would have to pull it out to clear and at that point you might as well replace it.

One thing I 'll say is I replaced my hot end and it was easier then I thought it would be to pull it out. When I put it back together I just did a software calibration and adjusted the z and it was back to printing perfect. Did not have to do a bunch of wacky stuff at all.

Yeah, that's kind of what I'm assuming that I'll need to do. Unfortunately, it looks like the lead time on the parts is a number of weeks. I had a backlog of stuff I wanted to print. Ah well. I'll start putting together a replacement parts list for this and a bunch of other consumables.

Good news! After thinking about it some more, I re-read the troubleshooting manual and I was able to do the trick where I pushed the blockage out by inserting the acupuncture needle into the hot end of the extruder. Got it clean! And I could load filament and print. Woo!

Next issue...the idler gear bearings were FILTHY and barely able to turn. I'm cleaning them and will re-grease them and reinstall.

I'm definitely going to work on cleaning out the inside of extruder gear box more often!!!

Got a few more prints done. I decided to start by printing my Elite: Dangerous fleet, and have two so far...

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/SvmjTQw.jpg)

After the problems with the first Python I printed, I printed these standing on their tails. Which has still left a need for some cleanup on their tails, but overall they look much better.

The supports were insane though...

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/zayv8x1.jpg)

Printing an Arkham Horror Investigator tray now. I think I finally got the leveling dialed-in...

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/l15fKku.jpg)

Joined the Resin printer part of the hobby with a Sonic Mini 4K. Time to learn a lot of new stuff after only doing FDM in the past

tanstaafl wrote:

Printing an Arkham Horror Investigator tray now. I think I finally got the leveling dialed-in...
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/l15fKku.jpg)

I'd say so!

I printed this Federal Corvette from Elite last night in resin:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/0WFGsUY.jpg)
(no banana handy so a razor blade will have to do)

EDIT: That crack in the ship on the starboard side, front 1/3 isn't a crack. Must be a cat whisker or something in the pic. Freaked me out when I saw it in the posted image.

Welcome to the club, Jigsaw!

-BEP

Hey BEP, where are you getting those Elite models? I've not found many quality sources online.

I got them from Thingiverse. The Krait Phantom just finished, based on the lack of noise coming from the next room. I don't have time to clean it now so it will have to wait until lunch tomorrow.

I also downloaded an Anaconda from there.

I think they are all from this designer:
Kahn Industries

-BEP

I'm starting to read bits and pieces about the Elegoo Neptune 2, which is apparently an FDM they're putting out priced at $160. Looks kind of like an Ender 3. A few youtubers seem to have just gotten one, and it's listed on amazon (though it's unavailable). What's weird is that there's literally no mention of it on Elegoo's site.

It probably isn't as nice as the Prusa Mini+, but it's less than half the price, especially if you factor in shipping. Just weird if this is an actual product launch.

In other news, it looks like the Mini+ schedule moved up a bit, so my order's scheduled to ship the second week of March. I guess I should maybe think about ordering some rolls of filament and figuring out if there's anything else I should get ahead of time.

Chaz wrote:

I'm starting to read bits and pieces about the Elegoo Neptune 2, which is apparently an FDM they're putting out priced at $160. Looks kind of like an Ender 3. A few youtubers seem to have just gotten one, and it's listed on amazon (though it's unavailable). What's weird is that there's literally no mention of it on Elegoo's site.

It probably isn't as nice as the Prusa Mini+, but it's less than half the price, especially if you factor in shipping. Just weird if this is an actual product launch.

Yeah, I saw this video on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OyR... and was surprised how well it seemed to do for the price. I don't need another 3D printer but at that price maybe my kids need one as a project

You definitely get what you pay for in regards to 3d printers.

bepnewt wrote:

I got them from Thingiverse. The Krait Phantom just finished, based on the lack of noise coming from the next room. I don't have time to clean it now so it will have to wait until lunch tomorrow.

Pre-cured pic:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/XEGHgBz.jpg)

-BEP

I'm still over two weeks away from being reunited with my 3D printer, but I've been thinking about the clogging issues i was having towards the end of last month and want to run something by all of you.

I'm using PLA.

I'm wondering if my jamming was due to moisture. In reflecting back to when I had a clog, it seemed to be after the filament had been in the printer for at least one other print - i.e. at least a day. When not loaded into the printer, my filament is stored in a plastic bin along with all the desiccate that came in its packing material. Living in Florida, humidity is always an issue - even in an air conditioned house.

What do you think?

There a few changes I can make if moisture is an issue. I can change out the filament after each print. I can add much more desiccate into the storage bin. I can add sachets of desiccate into the filament area of the printer (it's held in a separate compartment that would be easy to keep much drier.)

I can't imagine that is the case. I can have filament on my printer for weeks and have zero problems.

Yes, PLA absorbs moisture, but I wouldn't expect it to happen that quickly.