3D Printers?

[iapa]

When you have done a few trial pieces, which are not quite right, what do you do with them?

Can the plastic be reused? Hod do you get it into a thread form to put back on a reel.

 

[JamesF]

PLA is made from corn starch if I recall correctly, and is biodegradable if you can get it hot enough.  Unfortunately I don't think that's feasible at home.  It would be nice if the local recycling centre had a collection bin for PLA waste though.

There are people experimenting with recycling waste PLA back into a usable form and I think even a few machines on the market that claim to do so, but I don't think you get back something as good as you started with.  At least, that seemed to be the situation last time I looked.

Sadly therefore, my waste ends up in the bin.  The positive side is that I have far more good prints than waste, and it's not uncommon for me to print parts that prevent something else being thrown out because it is otherwise unrepairable, so I've decided I can live with the consequences of having to put a small proportion of my output into the bin.

James

[adyj1]

20 minutes ago, iapa said:

When you have done a few trial pieces, which are not quite right, what do you do with them?

Can the plastic be reused? Hod do you get it into a thread form to put back on a reel.

 

As a rule it is way too fiddly and expensive to do on a small scale... There are options if you want to have a go 

"Best Filament Extruders to Build or Buy | All3DP" https://m.all3dp.com/2/6-best-filament-extruders-to-build-or-buy/

 

NB - apols James, typed at the same time 😉 

Edited May 9, 2021 by adyj1
Typo - an NB

[teoria_del_big_bang]

4 minutes ago, JamesF said:

There are people experimenting with recycling waste PLA back into a usable form and I think even a few machines on the market that claim to do so, but I don't think you get back something as good as you started with.  At least, that seemed to be the situation last time I looked.

I would agree with this statement.
I have bought a few rels of RPLA (recycled PLA or Reflowed PLA - I think the same thing) and whilst they quote it is as food as {LA, it isn't, well the half dozen rolls I have tried are not.
They print but I had far more print failures and the ones that did not fail were quite bumpy and zitty.
Maybe if I took more time to tweak the parameters it would help but it just did not seem to extrude with any consistency.

Steve

[Mognet]

PLA is a bioplastic, and can apparently be recycled or composted. There is nothing specific on the Essex County Council website about it or Type 7 plastics in general so might have to ask. I expect that the current volume for recycling is comparatively quite low so there may be nothing officially in place yet

Wikipedia has some more about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid

[JamesF]

10 minutes ago, Mognet said:

Wikipedia has some more about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid

The "end of life" section there makes me wonder...

My compost heap can quite comfortably reach 40C when we have sufficient material to feed it, and in fact when I measured it a few weeks back was at 50C.  Would PLA break down reasonably quickly under such conditions?

And regarding incineration, if burning it does not release any toxins, would it be preferable to save it to put in the wood-burner during the winter (when it would at least be keeping us warm) rather than putting it in the dustbin?

James

[Gasman]

Re the 'disable the steppers' and moving the feeder!

It's my understanding that you can quickly fry your motherboard moving the x,y or z axes while the steppers are disabled as they can generate current apparently🤷‍♂️. +1 for the Ender3 v2 excellent printer 👍.

Steve

[iapa]

6 minutes ago, Gasman said:

It's my understanding that you can quickly fry your motherboard moving the x,y or z axes while the steppers are disabled as they can generate current apparently🤷‍♂️.

 

Any motor if manually rotated is a generator.

If still connected to a control board there is potential to damage the board - subject to the voltage/current the manually rotated motor can generate.

 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

13 minutes ago, Gasman said:

Re the 'disable the steppers' and moving the feeder!

It's my understanding that you can quickly fry your motherboard moving the x,y or z axes while the steppers are disabled as they can generate current apparently🤷‍♂️. +1 for the Ender3 v2 excellent printer 👍.

Steve

I guess it depends on the motherboard you have, I think some of the more expensive ones have pretty good protection.
I have lit my LCD display up several times moving axes too fast by hand without any issue but I would not recommend doing it.
Sometimes it is necessary to move axes by hand when setting things up but it should be done slowly and only when necessary.

Steve

Edited May 9, 2021 by teoria_del_big_bang

[iapa]

16 minutes ago, iapa said:

 

Any motor if manually rotated is a generator.

If still connected to a control board there is potential to damage the board - subject to the voltage/current the manually rotated motor can generate.

 

As a relevant aside, this can also apply if you have not disconnected your motors from control boards when tuning out backlash etc. on your mount.

[JamesF]

1 hour ago, iapa said:

Any motor if manually rotated is a generator.

If still connected to a control board there is potential to damage the board - subject to the voltage/current the manually rotated motor can generate.

That was one of the reasons I was initially concerned about moving the X and Y axes manually.  With my old printer I could move the heads by controlling them via RepetierHost over the USB connection, so I didn't need to worry about it.  However, disconnecting the motors and moving the axes manually seems to be the Creality way to do it so that's what I did.  I found a photo of their controller board and it looks like a bespoke design, so perhaps when the "disconnect steppers" option is chosen, it genuinely does disconnect them, rather than just powering them down.  I have no idea.

James

[AlexK]

C'mon folks! A stepper's "back flush" current is rather miniscule and will be grounded by the driving MOSFET anyway (the controller is separated from "gentle CPU circuits" by the high power driver).

I have my printer for 7 years and moving X/Y 250mm wide back an forth all the time. No issues. Never heard about anything drastic like that  either. Urban legends. Disconnecting your motors you are just reducing connector's lifespan and possibly eventually crack the PCB from mechanical stress too.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

30 minutes ago, AlexK said:

C'mon folks! A stepper's "back flush" current is rather miniscule and will be grounded by the driving MOSFET anyway (the controller is separated from "gentle CPU circuits" by the high power driver).

I have my printer for 7 years and moving X/Y 250mm wide back an forth all the time. No issues. Never heard about anything drastic like that  either. Urban legends. Disconnecting your motors you are just reducing connector's lifespan and possibly eventually crack the PCB from mechanical stress too.

I would tend to agree.

I also move mine fairly regularly by hand but I do do it slowly as that is what is recommended in the Prusa manual but also never had an issue in over 6 years.

I just wondered if the cheaper boards may be more prone to damage if molved quickly.

Steve

[Steve Clay]

I move my creality all the time and no issues.

Steve 

[StevieDvd]

An update on my Ender 3 v2 purchase.

Succesfully printed a few items before I started to get some warping on one corner of small projects. Bed-leveling was a bit of a hit or miss as it seemed to leave one of the spring wheels very loose.  So I invested in a set of better springs and metal spring wheels and the 'sprang' for the BLTouch auto leveller too. That took some time to get correct - I even managed to bend the BLTouch probe - for some reason the firmware was adding the Z offset onto the current setting and ruining all my home position attempts.

All sorted now - though still getting some small warping which I believe is down to drafts & temperature changes in the room. May need an enclosure to solve this.

My best faux pas so far though was when prnting a space for mounting some venetian blinds I tried to adjust the dimensions in the slicer to make a thin version to check the screw holes aligned correctly.  I managed a print that was set to 4.5mm instead  of 4.5cm - it printed and you could see the 2 holes as well. The print time was so short I thought the print had jammed at the start until I moved the print head. I did manage to print the test piece which was fine and the full size spacers are now fitted.

Have any of you had similar hiccups?

 

 

[Steve Clay]

2 hours ago, StevieDvd said:

An update on my Ender 3 v2 purchase.

Succesfully printed a few items before I started to get some warping on one corner of small projects. Bed-leveling was a bit of a hit or miss as it seemed to leave one of the spring wheels very loose.  So I invested in a set of better springs and metal spring wheels and the 'sprang' for the BLTouch auto leveller too. That took some time to get correct - I even managed to bend the BLTouch probe - for some reason the firmware was adding the Z offset onto the current setting and ruining all my home position attempts.

All sorted now - though still getting some small warping which I believe is down to drafts & temperature changes in the room. May need an enclosure to solve this.

My best faux pas so far though was when prnting a space for mounting some venetian blinds I tried to adjust the dimensions in the slicer to make a thin version to check the screw holes aligned correctly.  I managed a print that was set to 4.5mm instead  of 4.5cm - it printed and you could see the 2 holes as well. The print time was so short I thought the print had jammed at the start until I moved the print head. I did manage to print the test piece which was fine and the full size spacers are now fitted.

Have any of you had similar hiccups?

 

 

The warping and bed issue could be the frame not being square. There is a utube video about squaring the frame.

Steve

[StevieDvd]

4 minutes ago, Steve Clay said:

The warping and bed issue could be the frame not being square. There is a utube video about squaring the frame.

Steve

Yes, I checked that out. The mesh seems to be a lot better now and the first layers are great. It's only now and then when the object is cooled and removed can a warp be seen. Last few prints were OK so I guess another warp is overdue 🤔

[Steve Clay]

What bed temperature and base are you using. I do 65 for base and with small to medium prints i use raft adhesion 

Steve

[Gasman]

Use the Jyers firmware for the ender3 V2 no brainer!

[StevieDvd]

5 hours ago, Steve Clay said:

What bed temperature and base are you using. I do 65 for base and with small to medium prints i use raft adhesion 

Steve

I've been using 205/60 for first layer and 200/60 for rest. Best results were with base cleaned with water/washing up liquid first then Isopropyl spray. The base is the standard carborundum glass.

4 hours ago, Gasman said:

Use the Jyers firmware for the ender3 V2 no brainer!

I'm using the latest Marlin firmware from the Creality site, that has the zero live adjustment and can show the offset for 9 sections - that helped in getting them almost the same. What extras will the Jyers give?

 

Thanks

Steve

[Gasman]

Steve maybe just give this a quick look? Tells you better than I could👍.

Extensive UI , colour etc etc also manual bed level tools.

Hth Steve

[StevieDvd]

4 hours ago, Gasman said:

Steve maybe just give this a quick look? Tells you better than I could👍.

Extensive UI , colour etc etc also manual bed level tools.

Hth Steve

Thanks, I have downloaded that firmware for my printer (with the BLTouch and a 3x3 sectioning). Will see if that can help, it does look more useful and has active updates.

When Amazon Prime sale was on I bought some new filament colours and an enclosure to keep the current spool dry to see if that helps.  I'm likely to get an enclosure and a dual z axis as my next upgrades, before I get too deep into anything else. Hopefully the enclosure will help the most to keep the temperature stable, as I think that's my main issue outstanding.

 

Thanks

Steve

[chemistorge]

Hi, 

 

I have the ender v2 printer. To get it working perfectly I did a few things:

1) Turn down motor current a bit for y and x axis as the motors were getting very hot and also I was getting layer slips when the drivers overheated.

2) Open controller compartment and prop open a bit at top to allow better air flow, stops the drivers over heating.

3) Use captan tape with smaller builds to prevent the parts slipping off, also I rub down the bed with IPA after every print.

[StevieDvd]

I have added the second Z axis motor and re-levelled the bed using the mesh viewer, several iterations until all the numbers were as near to 0 as possible, though as some were positive and others negative it's not possible to get all at zero.

I then adjusted the z offet during a test print as the new firmware makes that easy. Prints have been good since then.