Chriske

Someone suggested Google : 3d printer fire. Do the same and Google also : washing-machine fire, dish-washing machines fire, laundry dryer fire...etc... I'm not saying ignore safety measures, let that be clear.

Don't do it..!!!

About the that guy(in the link above) almost burning his house down. All printers are protected by a firmware setting. Meaning in case of overheating the printer shuts itself down immediately. I don't print ABS, so mine is set at a safe 290°C. Max temp I use on all my printers is 260°C. About cheap(Chinese) power supplies. ALL cheap and mid range printers do have Chinese power supplies on board. Myself I started printing in 2013. Together with a few friends we've built about 25 printers, maybe even more, we've lost count. We've always used these same power supplies, purchased from different companies. All of them (even from companies in the EU) were all marked 'Made in China'. These power supplies are protected by two big thermo-fuses. Never had any problems with these PSU's btw. And yes, PLA can be stored unopened a long time Louise. Only in very damp locations you will have some problems. Only nylon needs to be stored in a sealed container. Someone mentioned it before : learn about printing using one brand filament. Different brands filament needs slightly different slicer settings. As a beginner it is very difficult to recognise what to do in case of bad result.

Printrun(Pronterface) Still going to use it when I'll run Raspbian OS

Until 2 years ago I ran WinXP for my printers, next I switched to Linux Mint on these same PC's(P4 - 2Gb Ram) And now I'm busy changing all again. My plan is to run all(3) printers on one RPi4-4Gb Ram. Tested it already with an old RPi3 and all works very well. Only 1 printer on that RP3 was tested. Reason for changing to RP4 is, well, my old IBM PC's I'm working with until now are veeeery old(15+years) but now all the bigger elco's inside start to blow themselves up. As OS I'll be running Raspbian-Buster(another Linux) on that RPi4 and Pronterface as printerdriver. Advantage of using a RPi : to run these printers I don't need a PC anymore.

I think somewhere between 150 and 200mm. My hand is 204mm long(starting from the wrist) So I think closer to 200mm

Nope, speed has nothing to do with it Roland. This printer has a major Z-axis problem. It's a well known problem btw. With my printer I can go even faster without any degrading perimeters.

This is the one he's testing.

Well Gina, on this one I must disagree with you about that word 'disaster' I did use. It is a 400+$ printer, I've expected far more clean prints for that kind of money. That was my second thought too...😱

Just watched the newest Angus YouTube movie. He was testing that Sidewinder-X1 printer. To my astonishment at min. 5.25 he said about that blue cat he just printed with that Sidewinder-X1 : 'it's still a great result, compared to many machines I've reviewed...' To me : This print is a disaster.!!! Ok, agree, it is a cheap printer, and I would not expect great things or super quality using this kind of printer. But saying about this 'great result' Is a bridge to far imo.

Glass is indeed the best surface to print on. Parts printed on glass have that smooth and glossy surface. I always use plain float and clean it with glass cleaner instead. Then I rinse with hot water(not cold!) And as Gina said, dry with clean kitchen paper. No towel or anything else that came out of a washing machine is used to dry the surface..! Rubbing the glass surface dry with a towel or cloth will undo the effect of Isopropyl or glass cleaner completely. Freshly washed cloths still have traces of soap in it. Drying a glass surface with it, at the same time you put a very faint soap-film onto that surface. Anyway after glass-cleaner and hotwater-rinse parts sticks like hell. That's why I have several glass sheets for each of my printers. When a print is done I take glass (+ part(s) still on it) of the printer and replace it with a new and clean glass sheet. After a few minutes the finished print starts making cracking sounds while releasing itself from the sheet of glass. I always put it angled against a cabinet or wall allowing it to cool faster. After a few minutes the parts fall of by itself. Very large parts takes longer. There's that issue of using hot water to rinse the sheets of glass. I've tested it several times using cold or warm water. A warm water rinse makes the glass surface more sticky compared to a sheet that has been rinsed with cold water. Very strange, did some research on the matter, and I still don't know why. As a matter of fact when a glass-sheet is freshly cleaned I'm able to print very small parts on it without the need of a skirt at all. Even when the first layer is just 2 or 3 lines wide..!! (PLA, not PETG)

Louise has a new problem now. We all try to help Louise(or other 3D-printer starters) by writing down our way of working with our own printer. We all have our own way of working thinking it is the best way. There are dozens of things that could be done differently. We all have our own criteria how good a print supposed to look like. We all have our own optimal set of slicer settings. We all have our own method how a print should stick onto the bed...and so on... For a newbie like Louise this must be all incredibly confusing. I'm not saying stop posting info/tips. Problem is all printer-users here (and around the world) had that same problem/dilemma when they started their own endeavour to find the correct way. So did we 6 years ago. In the end we decided to forget all about printer-forums and go our own way because after a while we didn’t know what or who to believe anymore. Reason : Yep...they all have their own way of working thinking it is the best way... What I didn't find on the net back then was a set of 'standard (basic) rules' how to use a printer. Not a specific printer 'X' or 'Y' brand, just a printer. A mini manual how to start and most of all how to correct errors like quality problems. That is what Louise and all other starters need. Lucky for all these starters these days there are a few (non brand related) sites were you can find very good info, 'How to' and 'How to fix' This is just one of many. It has to the point info what to do in case of bad printing. (The one in this link sells Slicers but the info is free.)

Printing small parts there's absolutely no need to reinforce them. The trick is to find out how many 'Perimeters' and what 'Infill' you need to set in your slicer to make that thing strong and stiff. Most (almost all) beginners underestimate the strength of printed parts. There's one important rule : Never-ever print slim-line parts. Printing things to thin is the very start of frustration. The internet is literal filled with a zillion downloadable projects/parts designed that are way to thin. It's tempting and an easy way to start printing, don't do it. Printing larger parts, and I mean really large, reinforce it by adding steel rods or threaded rods. But as I read it higher up, your not planning to.

Correct, a friend of mine tried it, and for every reel of filament you need a new brass nozzle.

Best is to learn all about the slicer you're using, there's absolutely no need to coat the outer perimeter to have a very smooth perimeter in case of a 0.4mm nozzle. I know, I know, it's a bit blunt(so sorry in advance..!), but sometimes I see pictures of printed parts on this forum that I myself would throw away and start all over again because of it's bad perimeters. For me the most outer perimeter should be perfect. That's what we all want, perfect perimeters isn't it..? If there's no mechanical malfunction on the printer itself, most of the errors are caused by bad settings in the slicer. Strength of printed parts, also it all has to do with the settings in your slicer. When demonstrating about printed part's strength to spectators(during open door) I give them a printed part on which they can stand on. And no I do not pick a child to stand on that printed part. And it's not a solid part either, it is a hollow cylinder. Before I decided(that was years ago) which filament I was going to use for most of my parts I did tests on solid parts. It was a completely different test I also did to test what colour would be best to use in sunny conditions). Anyway that test-part was 100x20x10mm, I made 5 of these parts each all with different infill and a few different materials. All parts had 3 perimeters. It took me almost 2 days to test all these different materials/infills. ABS(I never use it myself). but did add that in my test because my friend Marc asked me to. Half of the length of that test-part was clamped on my workbench, the other half was hanging free above the floor. Hanging on that part above the floor there was a bucket that I filled with brass, lead,... The most promising infill (for PLA) was 'Line infill' at 40%. After about 30kg that small part started to bend. It needed 55 kg before it eventually cracked. To be clear, that bucket was not hanging close to my workbench, but at the very tip of that part. Under stress ABS bended sooner compared to PLA. But PLA did crack sooner. A few times I stopped mid-test to see what would happen with these parts under stress, All PLA parts returned to it's original shape, the ABS parts did not. Anyway, my point is : most of the time, standard settings of a new installed slicer is not always the best way to go. It needs to be tuned. Yes I saw the test too that Angus did, but the man lives in Australia...!! Environmental conditions down-under are completely different..! It is a hot country..!! If Angus would do these same tests in our milder countries the result would be completely different. That is btw why I did my own tests.

😱😱 180°C 😱😱

190°C....😱

Funny, so everyone has it's own formula to work with... I wouldn't even think of printing @ 200C. My steppers would stall..!

There's absolutely no need to raise temp using a bigger nozzle. But as I want to combine very big nozzles and fast printing, higher temp is a absolute necessity. Standard speed of my 1.5mm nozzle is 45to50mm/s, sometimes I go even faster. Using 'SpiralVase' modus I can go as high as 55to60mm/s. To be clear: That is all done with a Volcano hotend of coarse.

I set PLA always at 235°C for a 0.4mm nozzle, 245°C for a 0.7mm nozzle and 250°C for a 1.5mm nozzle. I always use max partscooling(powerfan) and max heatsink fan speed. For that 1.5mm(Volcano) heatsink I even use a 70(!) mm powerfan at max speed. This allows me to print rather fast.

I use clips. But I always make the sheets of glass 15mm larger at two side, so I still can use the full printable surface.

I have several sheets of glass for each printer. When a print is done I remove sheet + sticking part and install a fresh sheet of glass and continue even before the alu printbed is cold.

Why ditch the glass..? imo it is the perfect solution.

PLA is made of....corn..!! Good thinking Neil.. Thanks for the tip..😊

Indeed , I even print my own plectrums...😉