When you get layer shift, check your belt tension first. There are other contributing factors, but this is by far the biggest cause of layer shift. As your printer gets broken in the belts will tend to loosen up. Also, as the weather changes things might move around and loosen up too. Most belts on hobby printers are kept tight with a cam. Each one is different, but they all have the general idea that you tighten it by rotating the cam until the belt is tight.
Tag: 3dprint
I recently stumbled across MobileRaker on the iPhone app store. If you are using Klipper, MobileRaker makes things so easy for you. I would encourage you to use it. And if you aren’t using Klipper, I would encourage you to check it out. I’ve noticed a significant improvement in both the quality of my prints and the speed at which they print. Usually, those two things work against one another, but Klipper has managed to accomplish both.
Sometimes you just need something to put up on your mantle. It has no functional value to you or your family, It’s just for looks. In this case, you can enable “Vase Mode” in Cura. The official setting in Cura is “Spiralize Outer Contour” under the “Special Modes” settings group. This setting gives you no infill and only a single pass wall thickness. It’s not very strong, it really is something that is just for looks.
I saw a question from a new 3d printer who was asking about their filament not being pushed through, but they were definitely able to see the gears on the extruder turning. It is possible that the filament tensioner at the extruder end is not tight enough and not gripping the filament. The other possibility is a clogged nozzle. If you end up with this condition, an easy way to unclog your nozzle that works 75% of the time is to heat up the nozzle to 260 and then push the filament through by hand. Usually this removes the clog. If this doesn’t work, you will need to unclog it by following the steps in one of my previous posts: https://www.3dprinterrx.com/clogged-nozzle/
Winter is coming. If you are new to 3d printing make sure that your machine can hold temperatures properly. If you are in a warm area, you may not need to do anything, but if you are in a cold area you might want to consider getting an enclosure. Enclosures protect your 3d print from drafts, help you hold temperature better, and ensure that the temperature around your print is more consistent.
Sometimes it’s just the simple things. If your extruder is breaking your filament all the time, there is a tensioner on the back of most extruders to allow you to relieve some pressure. Likewise, if the extruder is not pushing any filament through, just tighten it up a turn or two.
After a while, everything wears out, 3d printer components included. I noticed, not too long ago, that my bowden tube kept slipping out of the pneumatic fitting attached to the extruder. Whenever the extruder would feed filament it would push the tube out too.
Upon investigation, I found that there are little “teeth” inside of the pneumatic fitting the keep the tube in place. Pushing down the little plastic ring disengages the teeth and allows the tube to slip out. Over time, the teeth had worn out and needed to be replaced. On most extruders, this is a simple fix. Just find the right size pneumatic fitting and replace it.
I see a lot of people wondering why their 3d prints have little zits and voids in them. One of the potential reasons is because their filament has collected moisture. Filament is porous and collects moisture over time. Most filament manufacturers do a pretty good job of ensuring that filament is dry when it gets to you, but not always. Usually, moisture is absorbed when filament sits around in the house for a while.
When water is heated to 200 °C, like when you are printing with PLA, it turns to steam and then escapes, leaving little pockets on the surface of the project.
To ensure that you don’t have to worry about this, make sure that your filament is dry. You can do this by vacuum packing your filament if you aren’t going to use it for a while, using a filament dryer or food dehydrator to dry out filament before use, and keeping desiccant near the filament to absorb the moisture from your filament.
Sometimes you just have to lay down a lot of filament. I make large structures for my boys, where details aren’t really that important and it’s ok if you can see layer lines in the print. When I print these, I like to switch from the 0.4mm nozzle to a 0.6mm nozzle to accommodate more filament being put down. However, there are a couple of adjustments that need to be made.
- Slow down the speed a little bit. The bigger cross-section of the extruded filament takes a little longer to heat up. Slow down to give it time to heat. Even with a slightly slower move speed, you are still putting down 1.5 times as much filament so your net speed is still much higher.
- Increase the temperature at the nozzle. You have increased the nozzle diameter by 1.5x. The center is going to cool down a little bit faster than with a 0.4mm nozzle.
When designing parts for 3d printing, make sure they will fit together. Sounds like common sense, but I hear of a lot of people trying to fit a 1/2″ pin inside a 1/2″ hole. Unless your intent is to get an interference fit, it won’t work.
From a design perspective, you need a small clearance fit for components to fit together. You can either make the hole larger or the pin smaller.
From a manufacturing perspective, your perfectly round pin that is exactly 1/2″ on your computer isn’t exactly round or exactly 1/2″. Depending on a lot of variables, it’s going to be slightly oversize or slightly undersize. How much will really depend on the process that you choose, the materials that you use, the environment that it’s in, the condition of the machine, etc. In addition to extra functionality like extra print heads, closer tolerance control is probably the biggest reason why a $10,000 3d printer costs so much compared to the little hobby printer that I have at home.
There are a couple of things that you can do to improve your tolerance. Maintain your equipment, get better equipment, level your bed, maintain your environment, buy good quality filament, etc. You should also run a tolerance test. You print a couple of parts that have gaps in the cad of varying sizes. If your 0.020″ gap is fused together, then that is your limit. It’s good to know your limit.