Re: 3D Printing escapades
I too have an MK3S+ and I have found that a simple cleaning before each print works wonders. I have iso alcohol and a micro fiber cloth next to the printer and a scotchbrite type of pad. While the bed is heating I wet the cloth with the alcohol and rub the surface hard. Then go over it medium lightly with the pad. It takes a lot less time than the pre-heating does.
I have also gotten much better at designing my prints to be easily printed and strategically painting in very few supports.
-Bob
Tucson AZ
On Aug 21, 2022, at 15:15, William Lugg via Discuss discuss@lists.openscad.org wrote:
From: William Lugg luggw1@protonmail.com
Subject: [OpenSCAD] Re: 3D Printing escapades
Date: August 21, 2022 at 15:15:28 MST
To: Jan Öhman via Discuss discuss@lists.openscad.org
Reply-To: William Lugg luggw1@protonmail.com, OpenSCAD general discussion discuss@lists.openscad.org
Charles,
I suppose this is a little off topic for this forum, but let me see if I
can help. From what you describe, it sounds like you're printing PLA on
a filament printer, is that correct? (I want to make sure I understand
the printing environment correctly.) If so, it sounds like you're
having first layer adhesion issues. For PLA you shouldn't need to put
anything on the plate to get the filament to stick.
I use a Prusa MK3S+ with a MMU2S (multi material unit) and the plain
steel sheet on the print bed. I find all I need to do is keep it
extremely clean and it prints flawlessly 99% of the time. The other 1%
is because I did something wrong, typically. All I do to clean the
steel sheet is wash it thoroughly on both sides in dish soap and hot
water with a scrub brush and also give it a LIGHT scrub with a
scotchbrite pad. I dry it thoroughly with a lint free cloth and and I'm
good for several weeks of printing. All my PLA prints are run at the
recommended nozzle and bed temperatures.
If you're thinking of buying a new printer, I highly recommend the Prusa
line of FDM printers. They are certainly not the least expensive
printers on the market, but they consistently get good reviews, are
completely open source, upgradeable, and do a remarkable job, in my
opinion. Company and community support are stellar and I really like
their slicer too. Note that I have no association with Prusa other than
being a very satisfied customer.
HTH
Bill Lugg
On 8/21/22 15:50, charles meyer wrote:
Thus has become a troubling situation. I've Googled to find an
objective, independent site which reviews 3D printers but to my
chagrin have found none.
I found old posts on reddit whose thread is closed.
We have a Lulzbot Taz 6 (5 years old).
The nozzle cracked and we had to buy a new one. It can print both PLA
and metal but ti had problems extruing any PLA. A "tech" person saoid
they;v;e fixed that by drilling as little bit wiode hole inthe nozzle.
Since then we;ve had som really good prints and a lot of bad prints.
We slice the g-code from an .stl file (Thingiverse mostly) and save
that to a sd card which we insert directly into the printer to print.
The files get 45+ likes on Thingiverse.
Lately, most of the prints have been bad. From filament not extruding
during the print phase, it drags the filament across the bed,the 1st
layer prints badly but all the other layers print well.
We leveled the bed, changed the nozzle temsop from 205 to 210 to 220
to 230 changed the bed from 65 up to 75 degrees, changed the
extraction settings, sprayed the bed with hairspray for prints to
stick better to the bed, and purchased garlic! :)
We're considering replacing the Taz 5 with a Makerbot 3D printer as we
don't know what else to do.
We've used Ultimaker (free) to slice the g-clode, used Cura, Cura
Ultimaker, and the Prusa slicer.
We're not software engineers nor computer programmers, just public
librarians.
Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions even if it's to s share a
link to a more appropriate forum if I've drifted too far in my post
Charles.
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