3D Printers

[Gina]

I never use a raft.

[Thalestris24]

3 minutes ago, upahill said:

Looks good.

The problem with weak infill is it can be easily missed, once the top layers go on and cover it up it looks great, but the structural support it was also adding just isnt there. I ripped a picture off the net to demonstrate...

This infill would probably be good enough to support the top layer but isnt going to add much strength to the part, so when you knock it it could break. It's worth dialling in the settings for infill to give you the strongest possible parts. As with this part the external perimeters can look fine too, but the infill will often print using different speeds / overlap so needs to be tuned.

Another tip would be that a part like you printed probably wouldnt need a raft if the bed is nice and level. There is plenty of contact with the bed. You will get a cleaner finish on the bottom surface and save some material.

You must be over the moon to get parts like that though, took me months of fiddling with my first printer to get anything close to it. 👍

 

The reprint was done at 60% infill so should be stronger than the part that broke. Ok - I'm printing another part at the mo but the next one I'll try without a raft - I've basically just been using defaults

I'm happy with printer. It's been easy to build and, apart from some frustration when I changed to the PLA+ (my fault for not levelling the bed), it's performed as expected. I'd certainly recommend the Ender3D for anyone who wants to also print small parts on a budget! I'm almost halfway through printing the parts for the Lowspec spectrometer. The main case will take a while - some 30 hours the slicer is saying, lol.

Louise

[Thalestris24]

6 minutes ago, Gina said:

I never use a raft.

I think I said before - I know nothing! But I'm slowly learning

Louise

[Gina]

We all knew nothing when starting 3D printing and had to learn.  3D printers are not simple things, there's much to learn.  Good luck Louise.

[Thalestris24]

2 minutes ago, Gina said:

We all knew nothing when starting 3D printing and had to learn.  3D printers are not simple things, there's much to learn.  Good luck Louise.

Thanks! Hope my BP lets me live long enough to get to grips with it!

[PeterW]

Also looked like you needed to print with a greater number of walls/ceiling/floor, increases part strength a lot. I usually run with 4, but used 8 for a colleague recently who expected his part to get dinked in usage. I rarely go above 40% infill as the walls provide most of the strength and the part is nearly solid beyond about 60% infill. Also 0.2mm layers are good for most stuff (0.4mm nozzle), prints faster. Of course I am currently printing some lithopane a so down to 0.1mm or batter for the resolution.

looks like you’re getting the hang of things!

 Peter

[Thalestris24]

14 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Also looked like you needed to print with a greater number of walls/ceiling/floor, increases part strength a lot. I usually run with 4, but used 8 for a colleague recently who expected his part to get dinked in usage. I rarely go above 40% infill as the walls provide most of the strength and the part is nearly solid beyond about 60% infill. Also 0.2mm layers are good for most stuff (0.4mm nozzle), prints faster. Of course I am currently printing some lithopane a so down to 0.1mm or batter for the resolution.

looks like you’re getting the hang of things!

 Peter

The parts are only for a spectrometer. They don't need a lot of strength as they're not bearing any loads or anything. As long as the main case comes out ok, I'll easily be able to reprint replacement small parts if necessary

Thanks

Louise

[ejp1684]

1 hour ago, Thalestris24 said:

I'm happy with printer. It's been easy to build and, apart from some frustration when I changed to the PLA+ (my fault for not levelling the bed), it's performed as expected. I'd certainly recommend the Ender3D for anyone who wants to also print small parts on a budget! I'm almost halfway through printing the parts for the Lowspec spectrometer. The main case will take a while - some 30 hours the slicer is saying, lol.

My main case took 29 hours. I've settled on using a print speed of 30mm/sec for just about everything, and that's reduced to between 30 and 40% for the first layer. I also found that printing the main case using PLA  I had to wind the bed temp up to 70 to stop the base contracting and bending as it cooled before the thing was finished. I've kept to Paul's (the designer of Lowspec) recommended infills and layer heights.

Best of luck!

Eric.

[Thalestris24]

3 minutes ago, ejp1684 said:

My main case took 29 hours. I've settled on using a print speed of 30mm/sec for just about everything, and that's reduced to between 30 and 40% for the first layer. I also found that printing the main case using PLA  I had to wind the bed temp up to 70 to stop the base contracting and bending as it cooled before the thing was finished. I've kept to Paul's (the designer of Lowspec) recommended infills and layer heights.

Best of luck!

Eric.

Thanks for the tips! I thought there might be a challenge printing something relatively large and over such a long time - I figured it might take me more than one go! 😮 I'll certainly increase the bed temperature for the case. I'm using pla+ so not sure if that will have any consequence. I'm currently printing the small parts at 40mm/s. I imagined the case wouldn't need 'fine' printing. I'll find out when I get to it and try!

Cheers

Louise

[ejp1684]

2 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

I'm currently printing the small parts at 40mm/s.

My Prusa designed 3D printer is over 3 years old, so I suspect more modern ones have improved and can cope with higher speeds.

I used layer heights of 0.2mm for the case and 0.1 for all the other parts.

Eric.

[Chriske]

Just got back..

You said it took rather long to print this part(how long..?), seem to me this part should not take to long
Could you post the STL file please. Like to do a simulation.

[Thalestris24]

3 minutes ago, Chriske said:

Just got back..

You said it took rather long to print this part(how long..?), seem to me this part should not take to long
Could you post the STL file please. Like to do a simulation.

Hi

Um, what part are you referring to?

Louise

[Chriske]

5 hours ago, Gina said:

I never use a raft.

Never used it either. The only situation I can think of using a raft is while printing ABS.

 

[Chriske]

This one.

[Thalestris24]

2 minutes ago, Chriske said:

This one.

Oh, it took 2hrs 40min at 60% infill, 0.1mm layer height, I think. It's done now, so no worries  

Louise

[RolandKol]

16 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

The base raft was still attached - I didn't bother taking it off as the part was broken. Here is pic of same part reprinted. Seems fine to me.

Louise 

Just a small note for the future,

Especially for the parts which are external (like cases and etc), which you would like to have "nice and shiny", - enable Combing>Not In The Skin.

It will stop printer's travels above the flat/surface area and you will not have these diagonall strypes. Surface will look much nicer, but it will print a bit longer as travels will be via perimeter.

P.S.

As per rethorical question about material for hinges:

For this type of model and In theory, the best material should be Nylon. But PETG or PLA would be more practical option for Ender 3.

[Thalestris24]

5 hours ago, RolandKol said:

Just a small note for the future,

Especially for the parts which are external (like cases and etc), which you would like to have "nice and shiny", - enable Combing>Not In The Skin.

It will stop printer's travels above the flat/surface area and you will not have these diagonall strypes. Surface will look much nicer, but it will print a bit longer as travels will be via perimeter.

P.S.

As per rethorical question about material for hinges:

For this type of model and In theory, the best material should be Nylon. But PETG or PLA would be more practical option for Ender 3.

Thanks for the tips! The above component is internal and purely functional. 

The hinges were nothing to do with me

Cheers

Louise

[Thalestris24]

Was doing some printing yesterday... One piece came out a bit of a mess!

I printed the piece on the right first - just towards the end it's gone a bit ball of wool, lol. I then printed the piece on the left - perfect! Any ideas what might have caused the problem? Could it be anything to do with 'supports'? As far as I know the top part should just be a plain hollow rectangle.
Cheers for any suggestions

Louise

ps the top bit is higher than the piece on the left - could height be a factor?

Edited October 27, 2019 by Thalestris24

[upahill]

Assuming it was printed on the side facing us then yes an overhang like that will need supports. It would need internal supports too. If enabled your slicer should be able to work out what supports will be needed and where.

[Thalestris24]

22 minutes ago, upahill said:

Assuming it was printed on the side facing us then yes an overhang like that will need supports. It would need internal supports too. If enabled your slicer should be able to work out what supports will be needed and where.

It was printed as seen. I don't think there was any overhang but I had the slicer set to print supports. I thought having it set might have caused a problem. I'll try printing it again.

Thanks

Louise

[ejp1684]

If that had happened to me on my printer I would lower the print speed for the top section. If the first layer of the 'chimney' didn't adhere to the main part then all the subsequent layers would  misbehave as well. But it may well be a different issue for you.

Eric.

[Thalestris24]

1 minute ago, ejp1684 said:

If that had happened to me on my printer I would lower the print speed for the top section. If the first layer of the 'chimney' didn't adhere to the main part then all the subsequent layers would  misbehave as well. But it may well be a different issue for you.

Eric.

I'll probably just try a reprint. If it happens again then I'll fiddle with the settings. Do you remember printing yours  - it's the part 13_focuser_slider

Thanks

Louise

 

[upahill]

1 hour ago, Thalestris24 said:

It was printed as seen. I don't think there was any overhang but I had the slicer set to print supports. I thought having it set might have caused a problem. I'll try printing it again.

Thanks

Louise

Ah, if it printed in that orientation then it shouldn't have failed at all. Your top layer infill looked like layer lines, and the cylindrical holes looked very neat so I assumed it was printed with the small rectangle overhanging. You mention that this part is a slider, if thats the case you may want to orient it so that the holes are printing vertically, you will have to tackle the overhang of that rectangle but wont get the stepped edges on the cylinders which could affect the motion of the finished product (Im not familiar with what you are printing but as a general rule I try to print cylinders and holes in vertical orientation)

Good luck with the reprint.

[ejp1684]

1 hour ago, Thalestris24 said:

Do you remember printing yours  - it's the part 13_focuser_slider

Yes, I printed it as you have it in the photo.

Eric.

[Thalestris24]

1 hour ago, ejp1684 said:

Yes, I printed it as you have it in the photo.

Eric.

But without the ball of wool at the top, I presume

Louise