Adhesion issues using AmazonBasics PLA I am a neophyte at 3D printing. My Ender 3 is now 4 days old and I modified it out of the box with a glass bed.  My first print was a fairly complex item, but a mere 90 x 160 x 3.5 mm. Used the sample filament that was included with the 3, first print was a keeper.

Today I was trying to use the AmazonBasics PLA 3D printer filament.  I am not amused. I'm using the identical setup and glass bed as before but poor adhesion prevented a print.

I cleaned the glass with acetone followed with 90 % IPA...  No joy.  Another cleaning using a dishwashing detergent and IPA, boo hiss!

The glass bed is a Creality for the Ender, purchased separately For the first print, no adhesive was used, just the glass (cleaned the glass prior to the first print as described).

Your suggestions are solicited.

Answer taken from OP's question

****Fixed it!****

Reset bed height to clear nozzle by 0.04 mm. Printed on raft.  I appreciate the answers.


Tuning PID parameters for hotend I have a TEVO Tornado that I messed a bit with, so basically now I have:

MKS GEN 1.4 board
TMC2130 stepper drivers
E3D v6 hotend

A few days ago the heater cartridge so I replace it with the old one that was on the hotend of the TEVO Tornado. Now ideally both should be 40 W from what I found online but after I replaced it the heating didn't work as expect so I set out to re-tune the PID parameters but no matter what value I try the temperature is always oscillating below the desired temp. Say the desired temp is 200 °C then the head temp will oscillate between 187-200 °C. I tried M303 auto tuning but with no luck for some reason the temperature can't go above 160-170 °C when auto tuning so I get a thermal runaway error.

I tried setting the D term to 0 and then to 1000 but the difference in behavior didn't change a lot which I think is weird... I thought the board might be going crazy so the timing for the PID controller is messed up but the thing is that is was working fine with the old heater cartridge. Any ideas?

Issue was with PID tuning nothing to do with the hardware. I switched to a duet wifi and used the auto tuning of the reprap firmware and now it is just working beautifully. I guess I was doing the manually tuning in such a bad way and the auto tuning on marlin was not working correctly for me.


Missing top layers in Cura I've just tried to make some small labels with embossed lettering. Base is 1.5 mm, with letters and a perimeter protruding by another 1 mm. After printing, I realised that Cura is not giving me a top layer, all I get is an inner and outer wall for the perimeter and the lettering:

The base is OK, with 4 layers, but there is no infill at the top. Presumably there is a setting that I've missed (I can appreciate that maybe this is a detail to the slicing which is model dependant). Layers are 0.2 mm, top and bottom set to 4 layers.

I had walls set to 1.6 mm, (4 layers) and the wall features here are 1 mm (i.e. 2.5x the nozzle). The features are solid so far as I know, not drawn as a hollow.

I found a relevant bug for Cura: https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/issues/1303 (and I also understand a workaround now, just need to write up an answer).

What is your source model?  Typically this "missing layer" effect happens if the source has a wall thickness less than the size of the extruder nozzle selected. Cura will view that part of the model as non-printable.

Meshmixer and TinkerCad (among many others) will allow you to set and change thicknesses in the model.


Hictop 3d printer upgrades? Where can I go to upgrade this printer? It's a hictop prusa i3 3d printer. Where do you buy heated beds suitable for ABS and PLA? Also, what kind of extruder do you guys think I should buy?

This is were I bought it from.
http://www.amazon.com/HICTOP-Desktop-Accuracy-Self-Assembly-Tridimensional/dp/B00N7I1ZVU

Assuming your electronics are open source (such as RAMPS), you can buy upgrades and spare parts from pretty much every 3D printer spare part provider out there, as long as they suit your needs and the specs of your printer.

In other words, if you want make a headbed upgrade, find some bed that i.e.:

Fit the size of your printer
Can be mounted properly
Can be used with your current electronics (and possibly software)

In general, most DIY hobby desktop 3D printers today use more or less the same components mounted in various ways.


How to execute firmware command from gcode I wrote a command in Marlin firmware which changes Neopixel color based on extruder temperature.

In my start G-code for I set the color to white. How to execute my above command from the end G-code so that the the color changes per request?

As your color is based on the temp reading, as far as I know, there is no G-code to read a temperature and push that value to another command.
The way you can do it is:

Static color change - use same method as you are setting to white
Intercept firmware temperature reading function and push that value to led module


Hall Sensor Diagnostic I'm looking for some help with an ID3 Glacier Point 3D printer that I currently use. The hall sensors on one end of the X and Y axes have stopped functioning. I need to diagnose and confirm that the hall sensors are faulty before I can replace them (work stipulation.) I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of some diagnostic technique to detect faulty hall sensors? Google hasn't been much of an aid here, unfortunately.

It's really pretty easy to diagnose a Hall effect sensor. If you plug the sensor into the board (so it has power), then wave a metal object (screwdriver tip should work nicely) very close to the head of the sensor, the light should go on if it's reading. If the light doesn't come on, there's an issue. An issue would most likely be the wiring. You may want to test the same sensor by plugging it into a known good port on your main board. Any of the axis stops should behave the same, but since it's both the x- and y-axis sensors which are not functioning, I'd try attaching them to the z-axis stop.


I mistakenly used 90% ethyl alchool to scrape some PLA off my bed; did I ruin it? I just printed my first cube from my newly arrived Artillery Sidewinder X1. I am totally new to 3D printing but I managed to correctly unbox, assemble and prepare it for printing.
I used PLA filament and the cube ended up great. I removed it using a cutter gently pulling it up from the first layer and it popped right off.
A little layer of material was still stuck on the bed and, I don't know why, my dumb brain decided to use ethyl alchool 90 % to scrub it off on that little surface. I immediately used some water to wipe the alchool off but it was too late.
Now on that portion of the bad all I see is a matte area that I can't fix.
Did I irremediably ruin my bed? I am so bummed I can't even describe it. All went great but I decided to do this on my own and I failed. I do know that the bed is replaceable but I just hope is not very expensive.
Here's a couple of pictures to give you a look of the damage.

First of all, let's look at what kind of bed you have. According to a review, it is a "porous ceramic coated glass surface."
Your bed is fine...
Glass and almost all ceramics are virtually impervious to most liquids, be them alcohol or even most acids unless that acid is hydrofluoric acid. So on a chemical standpoint, your bed is most likely ok, just the alcohol managed to leech some of the coloration or deposit dust in the surface - which is no problem usually. The matte might even just be PLA stuck in the surface, so if this happens if you print in a different area, you know that is not damage per see it's a normal sign of use.
So from that standpoint, I see no problem.
...but there are safety issues with the bed design
Where I see a problem though is the construction of the bed itself: it runs on mains voltage and is heated directly, which can cause all kind of problems, especially breaking off the cable as there is no proper strain relief on the cable! Atop that, the review points out that the bed heats uneven, which can very quickly lead to stress and breaking of the bed.
Because of this construction, I strongly advise to refit a strain relief and use utmost care no to touch the bed during operation. Make sure not to hammer onto it and don't overheat it to prevent thermal cracking.


Squential Printing: Some objects are too tall and cannot be printed without extruder collisions The following setup seems printable.
Why do I get this error?

Some objects are too tall and cannot be printed without extruder
collisions.

The error message explains that you cannot print your objects sequentially as they are too tall for the gantry to go back to the bed level after the first object.
In other words, your clearance between bed and gantry is too small.


Slic3r settings for flat slopes on top I am having trouble printing a hollow object using Slic3r. On flat slopes on top, there are gaps that I cannot get fixed. The perimeters of successive layers just don't cover each other.

Cura however adds filament to cover the gaps.

The bottom left bunny is sliced with Slic3r 1.2.9.99.
The top right bunny is sliced with Cura 2.5. Take a closer look at the forehead and the back of the bottom left bunny.

I have "extra perimeters if needed" turned on. But turning it off makes no difference. What am I missing?

So far only adding infill and increase the solid top layer count helps to get a closed surface. But then everything gets stiffer. The bunnies are printed with nylon so they are a bit squishy.

The printer settings in both Cura and Slic3r are:

0.4 mm nozzel;
0.2 mm layer height;
No infill;
2 perimeter walls, and;
3 solid top/bottom layers.

This seems to be a recurring problem with Slic3r.

Slic3r appears to have problems with perimeters that are not attached to infill.  I suspect that it is getting confused on what is the inside and what is the outside.  I know that seems a bit silly; but as you slice an object with indentations (like the bunny's face) then the perimeter can cease to be a simple closed shape and it gets confused.  If you use a viewer to step through the gcode layers around the place it starts having problems you may be able to see what is going wrong.

Here are a couple of examples of why I say this is a recurring problem with slic3r.  I also recall seeing a video that showed the problem but I can't remember where.  That was one of the reasons I don't use slic3r.

Reported on Sic3r Git in 2012 - Can't tell for sure if this was ever fixed
Infill Perimeter issue in 2015

Here are three options that may work

Use a different slicer for this specific condition.  Every product is going to have vulnerabilities - this may be one of slic3r's.
Increase the perimeter and top and bottom layer thicknesses.  Making them thick enough it will bridge the problem areas.  Use a gcode viewer to inspect that area to see if it fixed the problem.  That way you don't waste material on another fail. It sounds like you may have already tried this but you didn't like that it made the model stiffer.
Repair the STL file using an application like Meshmixer.  Maybe you will have to get the file close then tweak it where it doesn't.  Here is good article from PinShape repairing and STL file.

Good luck, hope this helps.


How to automate printing of multiple parts continuously? I would like to print multiple parts continuously (non-interactively), so
I can leave the printer alone for a longer time. So after finish, parts could be moved somehow out from the printing area, so the next can start.

Are there any methods of achieving that with standard desktop printers without having to use multiple printers?

The only thing I can think of off hand is an old mod for the early MakerBot machines. It first was released for the Thing-O'-Matic I believe, but is compatible with Replicator 1 machines (and its knock-offs). Here's the Thingiverse page, but look up Automatic Build Plate.

Essentially, you can use the Replicator G slicing program and there is a setting for "ABP" or Automatic Build Plate. This will basically tell the ABP to run its routine after the controller receives the response that the printing program is done and roll the finished part off the edge of the build plate, then start the same program over again.

Drawbacks:

I don't think it's easily compatible with newer machines/slicers. But, it's open source
Pretty sure you have to use Replicator G, which is outdated now and may make your machine sound like it's going to fall apart (I know from experience)

Going off of @Pete's answer about solenoids. It reminded me that someone integrated a solenoid "ejector" (aka Boxing Glove) for their machine.

Update (06/08/2016):

Forgot to mention that if you choose to create your own "Boxing Glove" or conveyor belt, some software such as Octo-Pi and Repetier-Host allow plugins. So, you could interface with your hardware via customized code and integrate the functionality directly into the slicing application for the full closed loop operation.


Slicing problem - Slic3r prusa I'm trying to slice this model: https://www.shapeways.com/product/VVNUVZ6JL/dread-warrior?optionId=66361748&li=user-profile

I'm using a .4mm nozzle and .1mm layer height. When using slic3r some of the layers seem to just not get generated. You can see this on the horns. It also has some weird artifacts on the shield of the model.

I tried using Cura to slice the same model and while it does a better job for the horns it removes most of the face on the model.

Are there any slicer settings I can adjust to help fix these artifacts? Is there any other slicer out there that may fix the problems? Is this just a problem of needing to use a smaller nozzle and lower layer height?

It's a nozzle size issue. The model contains a lot of details which is really challenging to print with a 0.4 mm nozzle.

A big nozzle is just not able to print such fine details. You should switch to 0.25 mm or 0.15 mm. Just try to set a smaller nozzle in your slicer.

There is a nice article on Prusa's blog showing the difference in printing details with 0.4mm and 0.25mm: EVERYTHING ABOUT NOZZLES WITH A DIFFERENT DIAMETER, especially chapters Examples of practical use and Printing miniatures.

See the difference:


Creating a 3D modelled "mold over" an imported object Let's say I've made a 3D scan of my face and managed to get that into FreeCAD. How might I then create an object (it's a mask, okay?) that conforms to the shape of my face, with a given thickness, such that I can export and 3D-print that part only?
So if I printed it, it would fit over my face, but still look like my face from the outside, too. It would be, say, 3mm thickness througout.
To be clear, I'm not looking to make a 3D model of my head (the world does not need such a thing), or 3D model of a mold that I can use to replicate my head. I just want to make parts that conform to the shape of other, complex, parts.

Instead of using FreeCAD, I would import the mesh data into a vertex-based 3D modeling software, such as blender.
After stitching the model in any areas where you still have gaps, you remove any vertex belonging to areas you do not want to use for the mask. This leaves you with pretty much a skin-tight base for your mask. Select all the remaining surfaces and scale S them in all directions in regards to the origin so you create a little airgap 5% extra (1.05) should create enough space to sit somewhat comfortably, but you might prefer a little more. As a stand-in for the face, I use this approximation of a forehead...

Next, we thicken that surface using the modifier menu: Select the Solidify modifier and set a thickness that looks good to you and that might be printable. Then make sure it pushes away from where your face is. Also make sure the Offset is at 1 or -1 to ensure that it does not stick out from the face-scan surface to the back!

Now you got a perfect base to model on the outside of using the sculpt features while retaining the inner surface! Do yourself a favor though: print at least part of this model as a test fit and adjust the mask as needed.


How to print a voxel object? I recently downloaded Magicavoxel to give this voxel thing a try, and I was curious if there was a way to turn the voxel files into a file for printing?

Magicavoxel doesn't seem to offer a way to export the project as STL.

Magicavoxel supports export as .obj, natively or with the right plugin.

While .stl is the standard for 3d-printing exchanges, as it contains a "1-unit" length,(typically that corresponds to 1 mm), .obj is also accepted by most slicers.

To get to MagicaVoxel's native export, look in the lower right corner, click export and see this pop up:

Press the top-left OBJ option and you get a save position window where you can store it. Then open it with your slicer and choose a scale - most .obj files do not contain a scale as the format does not contain a unit measure by default like .stl and has to be given one.


Problems with the right Z axis My 3D printer was working perfectly, but one day I put it inside an acrylic box and put it to work, that was not a good idea, because the Z axis grabbed the box, after that, the Z axis started to rotate strange, I even tried to change the wires between the motors and the drivers, but it didn't work.

I have a suspicion that the drive must have a safety criterion, so when something strange happens it stops sending the necessary current for the stepper to run, if it is possible. Does someone have any tips on how to make it work correctly again? Remembering that the motor that is working in a strange way is the motor on the right side of the Z axis, the motor on the left side looks normal. Below I will leave a video showing how the printer is working, like, if it moves just a little bit with the Z axis, it looks like it works normally, but if I move it a little more, then it starts to get weird.
On this printer, I used a AtMega Arduino, with RAMPS 1.4 shield, with A4988 drivers, "NEMA 17" steppers and  and I'm using the Repetier-host program to control the printer.
Video:

I've had this happen before on various Prusa i3 style printers, especially with my homemade tight self printed POM linear bearings for the Z linear shaft. The problem is that the right side Z axis has some sort of friction caused by a skew frame, probably caused by the incident you had earlier.
You need to check whether the X axis carriage goes up and down smoothly. Unscrew the lead screw couplers or the trapezoid nuts and check the movement. If it catches friction, try solve where it comes from. The friction is causing the stepper to skip steps and causes the unsynchronized up/down movement. Please check if the frame or the rods have not bent, the distance between the linear guide rails needs to be the same over the complete height.


What are the pros and cons of writing nozzle size vs using e3d style dots on nozzle? e3d uses this scheme to mark the size of their nozzle:

How do I read this scheme? Do we read the second row of dots after completing the first row of dots or we read 1 dot from row 1 and second dot from row 2 the again 3rd dot from row 1 and 4th dot from row 2?
It can be seen here in the nozzle:

Other nozzles usually have size engraved on the hex flat face:

Which one of these is a better scheme to designate a nozzle? is one cheaper to machine than other?

dots
First of all, reading the dot pattern: for all but the 0.15, the total number of dots is read, and there is only 1 dot per side. So a .5 nozzle has dimples on all sides. The only outlier where the dots are not all one next to another is 0.15, which has 2 dots but they are interspaced by one blank side.

0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
0.6
0.8
0.5 (which was added after the .6 and .8 had already been established)

2 interspaced ones - 0.15, also added after the 0 to 5-dot group had been established.

dots vs. inscription
The inscription is, compared to the dot pattern, much more shallow and can vanish under scratches. Also, the dots are easier to recover from being caked in plastic.
On the flipside, the dot pattern isn't easy to read intuitively, it doesn't follow an easy pattern (the 6 and 2-interspaced-dots are later additions into the setup).


Bed size and nozzle homing offset in Marlin 1.1.9 firmware This is driving me up the wall, hope somebody can give me some advice...

I have an Anet A8 (metal frame, so 'AM8').  Bed is the original 220x220 mm.  When the nozzle is at the X/Y end stops it is positioned 16 mm 'west' away from the bed (in free space) in the x-axis, and 5 mm 'north'.

The problem I'm having is with the X_BED_SIZE (surely 220) and X_MIN_POS settings. I keep falling into either the nozzle home a long way from the center (should be 110,110), or getting a message about end stops being too narrow for the bed.  Given my sizings above, what should the following be?:

// @section machine

// The size of the print bed
#define X_BED_SIZE 220
#define Y_BED_SIZE 220

// Travel limits (mm) after homing, corresponding to endstop positions.
#define X_MIN_POS 0
#define Y_MIN_POS 0
#define Z_MIN_POS 0
#define X_MAX_POS X_BED_SIZE
#define Y_MAX_POS Y_BED_SIZE
#define Z_MAX_POS 240

The original Anet A8 has:

// The size of the print bed
#define X_BED_SIZE 220
#define Y_BED_SIZE 220

// Travel limits (mm) after homing, corresponding to endstop positions.
#define X_MIN_POS -33
#define Y_MIN_POS -10
#define Z_MIN_POS 0
#define X_MAX_POS X_BED_SIZE
#define Y_MAX_POS Y_BED_SIZE
#define Z_MAX_POS 240

So in your case it would be:

// The size of the print bed
#define X_BED_SIZE 220
#define Y_BED_SIZE 220

// Travel limits (mm) after homing, corresponding to endstop positions.
#define X_MIN_POS -16
#define Y_MIN_POS -5
#define Z_MIN_POS 0
#define X_MAX_POS X_BED_SIZE
#define Y_MAX_POS Y_BED_SIZE
#define Z_MAX_POS 240

Tuning the bed to print exactly in the middle so that large prints fit on the build plate is described in question: "How to center my prints on the build platform? (Re-calibrate homing offset)".


First 3D print made up of diagonal strands Just got a Creality Ender 3 yesterday. Set it up and ran the dog test print. Photo below.

I used the sample filament that came with the machine. I'm not 100 % what kind it is, but assuming it is 1.75 mm PLA.

No matter what temperature I set the end and bed, when I launched the print, it would change to 200 °C hotend, 45 °C bed. Is that because the two temperatures are set within the gcode file? Do I need to set a higher nozzle temperature? And to do so, will I have to alter the G-code file?

Does the head need cleaned? I did try some blue ABS I bought, and didn't work, so I switched it to the sample filament. There was still some blue ABS in it, but seemed to be gone after a few seconds after the extrusion turned pure white. But might there still be some ABS clogging or slowing the filament?

EDIT: When I ran the test file with ABS, the material didn't adhere to the bed or itself, just created a jumbled bird's nest of spirals. Then I found something online that I needed to use the temperatures on the ABS spool. I set the temperature to 245C nozzle, 100C bed. But as soon as I ran the print, the nozzle went to 200 and the bed 45.

Is the motor that moves the filament moving too slow?

Is the head moving too fast?

Should I use a glass bed?

Based on your comment to the comment of 0scar:

  When I go to Fillament, I get: E in mm3: On; Fil. Dia. 1.750

That's almost surely the problem. Unless the model was sliced for "E in mm3", this setting needs to be off. What it does is change how the printer interprets extruder moves in the G-code: rather than in linear mm of filament to move, as volumetric mm³ to extrude.

At 1.75 mm diameter, that's a factor of 2.4 mm³/mm, so you'll only be extruding 1/2.4 = ~41.5 % of the material needed. That extreme underextrusion will give exactly the effect you're seeing.


How to attach insulation to Hot End I bought some heating block cotton to insulate the exposed surface of my hot end.  I thought the yellow as double-sticky but it appears to be Kapton.

What can I use to attach it to the extruder?

My extruder is already covered on four sides.  I want to cover the other two.

Kapton tape would be the logical material. It's unfortunate that your vendor did not supply that as a separate item, rather than sticking it to the "cotton" (I'm guessing not actually cotton, as things might get a bit scorching for cotton, so I'm assuming some type of ceramic fiber or the like.)


How to print edible food? I would like to print edible cookies or ornamentation for a cake.

Is printing with edible materials achievable by standard thermoplastic-like 3D desktop printer? Or you need to buy a special printer to do that?

You cannot print edible models using a "standard" consumer 3D printer without first installing an "hot end" capable of depositing edible - normally thicker - substances as well as a suitable extruder mechanism.

However, there are not necessarily any technical limitations in the electronics, software, slicers etc. in a typical printer that wouldn't allow you to install such an upgrade. For instance, you could calibrate your extrusion rate and nozzle width to suit batter and similar.

Some commercial printers, such as the DeltaWASP allow for upgrades that print clay, which wouldn't be very different from printing liquid food.


CoreXY Calibration Issue I have a Tronxy X5S and I am having issues calibrating my X and Y axis. When I print a 20 mm3 cube it comes out 19.9 mm x 20.4 mm x 20 mm. I have already made the belt tensions as even as I can get them but it did not change the calibration cube size.

I have added this upgrade to my printer for the idlers and motor mounts:

I have also upgraded the hotend to a V6 clone, after this change is when I noticed the discrepancy in the calibration print.

What else can cause the X and Y axis to be uneven in a CoreXY printer besides uneven tension in the belts?

UPDATE:

Its seems Oscar was correct in his assessment that my printer is not printing square. I printed this calibration square to measure the diagonals and I got: $ \overline{AC} = 141.82 $, $ \overline{BD} = 141.35 $. I believe the correct value for these diagonals should be $ \sqrt{2} \times 100 \approx 141.42 $.

Oscar also mentioned that I can adjust my firmware to correct this but I would rather fix the problem than apply a band-aid. Does this indicate that I did not assemble the printer frame correctly?

Oscar's answer is the correct solution to this issue. My printer was printing skewed and there is a built in correction for this in Marlin. Unfortunately the X5S does not have a boot loader and I don't have an ISP programmer (yet), so I am unable to re-flash my board at the moment.

In the mean time I created a software fix for this issue. I used a script to add a Affine Shear Transformation to the stl file. This adds a reverse skew to the model so the print comes out (closer to) square. Basically read all the points from the triangle mesh (STL file), apply XY shear transformation preserving Z, re-save the STL.


How to start a print in the center position after a change in parameters using M92 and M500 G-code I have a Core XY Custom DIY Printer, but actually I have a problem with the measure in Axis X and Y. When a print a test cube with the measure 20 mm x 20 mm 20 mm, the object printed result with these dimensions.
Z = 20 mm
X = 15 mm
Y = 15 mm
Well, I know how solved this problem, because of long time ago have the same problem, do a question, and that was answered, and this moment solved my problem. answer old question
Now I use the same process

Connect the printer to my pc

Use Simplify 3D for send gcode to the machine

M503 for get the set values

M92 for change the values X and Y

M500 for store the new values for default in the memory of the printer

M503 for check the actual values, and these are the correct

So, I print the test cube, the measure are right, but with two problems

Every time I.m will go to print, if turn off the machine, the process to be need repeat, in other words, the gcode M500 doesn't work.
the nozzle doesn't start the extrusion in the middle when the parameters were changed.

Send M503 for known the parameters. These parameters are the set by default At this moment in the printer.
G21    ; (mm)
M149 C ; Units in Celsius
Filament settings: Disabled
M200 D1.75
M200 D0
Steps per unit:
M92 X80.00 Y80.00 Z400.00 E100.00
Maximum feedrates (units/s):
M203 X100.00 Y100.00 Z2.00 E10.00
Maximum Acceleration (units/s2):
M201 X2000 Y2000 Z50 E5000
Acceleration (units/s2): P<print_accel> R<retract_accel> T<travel_accel>
M204 P2000.00 R2000.00 T2000.00
Advanced: Q<min_segment_time_us> S<min_feedrate> T<min_travel_feedrate> X<max_x_jerk> Y<max_y_jerk> Z<max_z_jerk> E<max_e_jerk>
M205 Q20000 S0.00 T0.00 X5.00 Y5.00 Z0.40 E5.00
Home offset:
M206 X0.00 Y0.00 Z0.00
Material heatup parameters:
M145 S0 H180 B70 F0
M145 S1 H240 B110 F0
PID settings:
M301 P13.70 I0.71 D65.64

After sending code M92 X106.64 Y106.64
G21    ; (mm)
M149 C ; Units in Celsius
Filament settings: Disabled
M200 D1.75
M200 D0
Steps per unit:
M92 X106.64 Y106.64 Z400.00 E100.00
Maximum feedrates (units/s):
M203 X100.00 Y100.00 Z2.00 E10.00
Maximum Acceleration (units/s2):
M201 X2000 Y2000 Z50 E5000
Acceleration (units/s2): P<print_accel> R<retract_accel> T<travel_accel>
M204 P2000.00 R2000.00 T2000.00
Advanced: Q<min_segment_time_us> S<min_feedrate> T<min_travel_feedrate> X<max_x_jerk> Y<max_y_jerk> Z<max_z_jerk> E<max_e_jerk>
M205 Q20000 S0.00 T0.00 X5.00 Y5.00 Z0.40 E5.00
Home offset:
M206 X0.00 Y0.00 Z0.00
Material heatup parameters:
M145 S0 H180 B70 F0
M145 S1 H240 B110 F0
PID settings:
M301 P13.70 I0.71 D65.64

Red circle, the middle of the plate or surface printer, in this position, start to print with actual parameters by default, and respect the limits(black square), but, with the measure in axis X and Y wrong after printed the model.
Green circle, the nozzle start in this position when changing the parameter in axis X  and Y, printed with the measure correct, but by taking a position that is not the right one, it assumes other limits and spends almost half of the print surface area.

Every time I.m will go to print, if turn off the machine, the process to be need repeat, in other words, the gcode M500 doesn't work.

This tells me that your firmware has the EEPROM support needed for the M500 command disabled.
Fixing the firmware
You need to update your firmware to enable storing the information in the EEPROM: the line should read as follows without any leading //
#define EEPROM_SETTINGS // Enable for M500 and M501 commands

When you are already updating your firmware, you should also fix your firmware to have the correct steps/mm, as those are off in your build. An example for the line you look for is
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT   { 106.64, 106.64, 4000, 500 }

Workaround
automatic setting of the Steps/mm fix
There's a way to fix it on the user side though: When slicing, your Start-G-code needs to include M92 X106.64 Y106.64, best before homing. That way you make sure that your printer sets the correct Steps/mm whenever you load a printjob.
Home position
via offset
If the home offset is wrong, you can fix it as the next line before G28 - if the home position is for example 10 mm of the trigger in both X and Y, you'd add M206 X100.00 Y100.00 Z0.00 - If your printer has "home" properly defined in the center of the build plate and your slicer is set up to respect that, this should do it. You need to
via move and 0-ing
Another way to get the printhead to the center is to use first G28, then insert a movement to the center of the bed (G0 X100 Y100 for a bed 200 mm across) and then order G92 X0 Y0, defining that point as the origin.
necessary next line!
In either case, the setup of Marlin also prevents you to move to the "negative" area due to the software endstops by default. So you need to add M121 after it to be allowed to go into the negative space.
Start G-code in bulk
M92 X106.64 Y106.64
G28
G0 X100 Y100 ; move to center
G92 X0 Y0
M121


3D printing source material and superglue I've seen there are several different types of source material for 3D printing. My question is: Which of those would hold up under regular Loctite superglue or plastic model glue?
I'm asking because I want to try 3D printing, and I have a project in mind. But I don't want to spend too much, so I'm looking to get a small 3D printer. I want to make a clock, and I can design the step down gears to make in a small printer, but I'd need a large base for so many smaller gears. I want to print pieces of the base, and superglue them together.

CA glue works on PLA, especially if you're gluing parts that fit together rather than small surfaces that just touch, but I'd encourage you to consider alternatives just because there are so many more ways to attach things when you have freedom to design the parts, and non-glue approaches admit disassembly, repair, etc.
Some possibilities include:

snap fits
parts sliding into grooves
threaded holes and bolts
threaded interfaces.


What is the point of diminishing returns on the STL refinement level in Fusion 360 on an Ender 3? When exporting an STL from Fusion 360, one must select an STL refinement level to use for calculating the maximum triangle count.

For FDM printing (0.05mm and above layer heights), where is the point of diminishing returns on STL refinement level when printing PLA and PETG on an Ender 3 with a 0.4mm nozzle? All mechanical components on the printer are stock.

I don't know that this can be definitively answered for a specific printer and all arbitrary designs.

The refinement level basically determines how smooth a curved surface will turn out.  The STL file format can only express an object in terms of triangular-shaped surfaces, so Fusion 360 will need to approximate a curved surface by breaking it up into triangles. Flat surfaces and straight edges can be represented perfectly, so they won't be affected. Low refinement will use a small number of relatively large triangles. On a part like your example, the cylindrical shaft will have noticeable facets. Higher refinement means a larger number of smaller triangles.

If you have "Preview Mesh" checked as shown, you will be able to see the triangle wireframe, and you can use your own judgment if it's "good enough".

Ultimately, higher refinement means longer processing times and larger file sizes. The final print time won't be affected much if any.

Personally, I always use high refinement. Even on my modest system, it only takes a few more seconds to prepare a multi-hour print, and maybe a few hundred kilobytes or a couple megabytes on my hard drive that I will barely notice. This is a small tradeoff to ensure the best possible STL definition.


How to extract 3D information from a 3D model for calibration? I made two "OBJ" 3D models of myself using Sense 2 scanner and using photogrammetry with Meshroom.

I would like to extract some information about myself to be able to scale the model properly and to be able to compare the accuracy. For example, distance between shoulders or circumference of the neck/chest. Another option would be to hold a reference parallelepiped and then scale the model based on the known distance between faces.

How can I do that? I can calculate the distance between points I can click using Meshmixer, but circumference or the distance between parallel faces is more difficult. The tools Meshmixer offers for the purpose don't seem to work well.

What are my options?

Extracting various measurements from 3D models is easily done using the following free online tool:

https://0x00019913.github.io/meshy/

I scanned a person using the Sense 2 scanner and I compared the values from meshy for the hip and waist with those measured in real life one day after the scan: the difference was about 1 cm, which can easily be explained by the uncertainties in the choice of the measurement point and moment of the day.

This shows that both the 3D scanner and meshy are quite accurate. The tool is also very easy to use.


Painting Text on Model For a model that has raised text on it, how do go about painting the very top layer of text, to make it stand out from the background? Lets say I printed the whole model the same color, what type of paint would work well, and not get on the background too?

Here's an example of a model that has raised text: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3025280

You don't provide any dimensions or sizes, but...

Assuming that the text is sufficiently elevated from the rest of the model, you could use a firm solid (as opposed to soft and spongey) roller, of an appropriate width.

This should enable you to paint just the text without getting paint on the rest of the model.

If the text is small and in a "valley" or groove, then a narrow roller would be required, in order to avoid the surface either side of the text.
If the text is not on a flat, or smooth surface, then a small diameter roller might be required.
If you can't find a tiny paint roller, you could jerry-rig one using a paper clip and a roller wheel from an old cassette tape


CT Segmentation Model Intersection I am using (micro)CT data and generating 3-D models using CTAn - a SkyScan piece of software: Bruker - Control and reconstruction programs.

Basically I am using simple thresholding to create 3-D model STL files.

What I would like to do is get the number of voxels where the surface area of the two models touch.

Imagine having a model that is a sphere with another model within it that is exposed on a portion of the sphere.  I want to know the surface area of that exposed portion.

Does anybody have any advice?  I have been banging my head against tools like 3D-Slicer, Seg3D, ITK-Snap and so on and have not been able to find this capability.

This solution assumes the following

a-The scaling factor for the object is correct i.e real world dimensions .

b- There is a .STL file available .

c- This will take some 3ds max skill and time .

Steps to be followed -

1- Take the .stl file into Autodesk 3ds max .

2- Now we are going to trace the exposed surface using a process called reptology . Here is link to get you started - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azkbuZloTqo .

3- Once you are satisfied with recreating the mesh and sure it is as accurate as humanly possible , run the measure utility on the recreated part .

This is the link . https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/3DSMax/files/GUID-12CDEA7A-042E-4CB3-9BF6-8191D3290CD8-htm.html .

If there is a upper side and a lower side to the model then you should divide the surface area in half ( in this case it would be ).

3Ds max is very accurate if your part is designed properly .

4- This can be done directly on the .STL file if you can efficiently isolate your target area , lemme warn you this is not an easy task .STL files are notoriously difficult to edit. ( its much easier to redesign on top  )

Try it should work out fine .

Please do not waste time processing .STL files on 3D-Slicer, Seg3D, ITK-Snap
they are mostly for file preparation i.e (.STL file generation ),viewing and study purposes only .


Ender 3 Calibration Cube Fail + Can't Print Circles After noticing that my ender 3 couldn't print a 'perfect' circle I decided to use a calibration cube to see if that could be the issue. These were my results:

I did have some successful prints before noticing these problems but it would be great if anyone could help/find a solution.
I think it may be because of the belts tension as I had accidentally over stretched it by putting it over the wheels instead of under: is it worth getting a new belt then?
I use 20% infill, with triangle pattern in cura, using the standard 0.4mm nozzle.
Edit
After doing a different testprint and measuring, it revealed that both had an accurate 20mm Y and Z, but only an 18.5mm X. Might I have destroyed my belt when I mounted it overstrained?
Edit2:
After purchasing a new X belt, the calibration cube was much closer at 19 x 20 x 20. But still not at a good enough tolerance for my liking. Additionally, when printing a cylinder, two relatively flat edges were printed with it either side (perpendicular to the x-axis).

First, check that the calibration part you have is actually a cube. Maybe you downloaded a trick 'calibration cube' model. Cura will show he overall dimensions of any model which it is slicing.

Ignore any print quality issues first off. A hollow calibration cube is mainly used to check the X/Y/Z motion and so long as you print at a sensible (slow) speed), the other parameters shouldn't have much effect (so long as the first layer is OK, and you get within 30% of the right extrusion).

If the calibration cube is within +/- 0.5mm on each side, it's probably good. Under/over extrusion, caliper technique, etc, can explain this sort of variation, and you might want to use a bigger test part like this star on my thingiverse account once you think you're close.

The 'steps per mm' setting is determined within the firmware, it is part of how your printer consumes G-code. For a delta printer, for example, there is some fancy maths to combine X/Y/Z into the motor movements. This means that you can't change steps/mm in Cura, you need to either change the firmware defaults and 'reset to factory settings', or modify the parameters in EEPROM by sending G-code.

Seeing too small a calibration part (for a Cartesian printer) can easily be explained by problems in the printer's motion system:

Stepper missing steps due to jerk or acceleration too high
Stepper missing steps due to binding/friction in the bearings (Send M84 to idle the stepper motor, and move X by hand)
Teeth missing on the drive belt (may show up on a diagonal 'bar' print)
Loose drive pinion (maybe backlash on the flat on the spindle means the problem is greater on small parts) - see below
Flex in the drive mechanism (e.g. belt mount to traveller is loose)

An annoying feature of a lot of these problems is that for any particular repetitive sequence of steps, you might see a very consistent result. Even thought to problem is something being badly adjusted, it gives the impression that the problem is calibration.

The drive wheel is held in place with a grub screw, see this diagram from the Anet-A8 assembly diagram.


How to add extruder to RAMBo Mini I have given up on getting the RUMBA board to work. I tried to add a P.I.N.D.A. (or PINDA) probe, but that didn’t work. I tried to add a BLTouch sensor, but that didn’t work either. Now the RUMBA board is not communicating with my PC.

So I have moved on to using a Mini-Rambo but the one drawback is that it only has one extruder capability. I would like to know if there is any way to add an extruder to the Mini-Rambo. Whether it be a separate board or soldering or something. I am open to anything.

I would say that the clue is in the name, MiniRAMBo. The Mini part is related to its diminutive size and reduced functionality.
Extending the board would require patching in a secondary board to the MiniRAMBo board via pins1 that may or may not exist, and would probably be more trouble than it is worth.
Looking at the board layout certainly shows that there are not any readily available connections for such an expansion.

If you want two extruders then the RAMBo would be a better bet, as it has 5 stepper motor driver outputs. It would certainly be easier, and quicker (as well as cheaper) than a MiniRAMBo plus a secondary daughter board).
That said, as the MiniRAMBo has two Z-axis controllers, it may be possible to repurpose one of them, if they are wired independently of each other and separately controllable. Although these lines suggest otherwise:

It has 4 stepper drivers and 4 mosfet switched outputs.

and

Differences from Rambo
MiniRambo has:

4 stepper drivers vs. 5

and

Motor Drivers
4 A4982 1/16th microstep motor drivers(2 connectors on Z for Prusa
Mendel and other dual Z printer designs)

So, it would appear that the two Z axis drivers are wired together.

1 By pins, I mean external board pins/connectors - rather than the pins of the µController itself


M502 will reset all configurable settings to their "factory defaults", which settings are those? From the M502 documentation page can be read that M502:

  Reset all configurable settings to their factory defaults.

Please note that this phrasing from the manual has been used in the question title!

  To also reset settings in EEPROM, follow with M500.

Note that:

  This command can be used even if EEPROM_SETTINGS is disabled.

The question is what is the definition of "all configurable settings"?

Are these the settings that are displayed with M503, or are there hidden settings?

What Marlin does when M502 is called is defined in the configuration_store.cpp file.

It resets:

Max acceleration
Steps per mm
Max feedrate / speed
Min segment time
Acceleration (Normal, Retract, Travel)
Min feedrate
Min travel feedrate
Jerk settings
Junction deviation
Home and SCARA offsets
Hot end offsets
Filament runout sensor distance
Tool change parameters (Swap length, extra prime, prime speed, retract speed, Park
positions, Z raise)
Backlash correction distances and smoothing parameters
Extensible UI
Magnetic parking extruder settings
ABL (fade height, stored points, nozzle offset, servo angles
Delta calibration data (Height, Endstop offset, radius, rod length, segments per
second, calibration radius, trim angle)
Dual / triple endstop adjustments
Preheat parameters
PID parameters
self-defined thermistors
LCD contrast
Power loss recovery
Firmware retraction
Filament diameter (for volumetric extrusion)
Endstops (if disabled)
Stepper drivers
Linear advance parameters
Motor currents (digipot)
CNC coordinate system (if selected)
Skew correction parameters
Advance pause filament change lengths


Delta printer distortion I have make a little test with 4 dots aligned with A tower, B and C tower. Distance W and S are the same in the stl but not in the print. I have tried diferent values of diagonal root but S always is smaller than W, and all S are equal (more or less 38.20mm) and all W are equal (more or less 40.80). I expect that W and S will be 40mm. How can fix this problem?

Update:

Here is the stl I use: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2vwjbo387cmk5qa/DeltaCalibration%20v15.stl?dl=0

Update:
I have replaced the steper motor in tower B but same result.

i bet your towers are not standing straight (vertical) or
your bed is not clearly horizontal

i've recreated your picture with some assumptions (for example that your SW calculates properly and your steppers and motors act well)

take a look here

if you deliver your printer dimensions

tower height (from the base)
tower distance from the center
bed distance (height) from the base

i can calculate what is inclination angle on all towers but i suppose it's not really important

the important thing is to set them straight ;)

we can see from the picture that towerA is the most inclined to the center or
the bed highest point is next to towerA
(and i bet one of those or both cause the issue)

EDIT

i've made some calculations based on imagined assuptions of the tower height
here are details

    towerH | inclination
-----------+----------------
    300mm  | 0.11deg
    400mm  | 0.08deg
    500mm  | 0.06deg

seems to be quite small but in fact your differences in dimensions are also small

inclination of towerB is bigger as there is bigger difference in dimensions
so maybe the issue is more in bed "horizontality"

would be good if you would check and measure these params

EDIT2

here goes the explanation why bed inclination causes dimension distortion

of course it's exaggerated but it's just to show the issue


Ender 3 Pro, Motherboard v4.2.7, Marlin 2.0.1 Firmware reset Upgrading motherboard to v4.2.7   How do I reset the firmware after making wrong mods?

You could download the firmware version directly from the vendor and choose the one that is supposed to be on the board when it was shipped to you.
Put the bin file on the SD card from your laptop/computer and reinsert the SD card in the printer and start the printer.


Printerbot printing stringy My Printrbot is always printing stringy, despite changing the setting on my z probe by entering command M212 Z-.1 through Z-1.5, with and without a heated bed. My prints look roughly like the one on the left. How do I fix this?

The most common cause of print issues like this is incorrect first-layer gap between the nozzle and bed. You can tell if that's the problem by trying to print with a raft and/or letting the print continue for a while. If the raft helps and the print eventually "heals up" and only the bottom few mm are bad, then you have a bed leveling / nozzle gap issue The bed must be leveled to the nozzle properly, or nothing will work right.

When using a probe, you need to follow the manufacturer's instructions for how to configure it. For example, are you adjusting the Z offset in firmware configuration.h or in EEPROM? Printrbot should have a guide for this.

If the nozzle gap is fine and the stringiness continues farther up the print, there are two main causes:

XY or Z movement is larger than intended due to incorrect steps/mm value or wrong microstepping setting
Severe under-extrusion

Of the two, under-extrusion is far more common, and unfortunately has lots of possible causes:

Printing too cold for the material
E-axis steps/mm is incorrect for the extruder drive hardware and microstepping
Extruder stepper current is too low
Extruder hardware is misaligned or jamming or the teeth are full of plastic dust
Partial nozzle clog or damaged PTFE tube in the hot end
Commanded flow rate through the nozzle is too high, such as if you're trying to print big, fat strands at high speeds
Incorrect slicer calibration (eg extrusion multiplier is too low) or inappropriate slicer settings (eg extrusion width too large for the nozzle size)
Excessive filament feed path drag between the spool and extruder drive

The first under-extrusion tests you should start with are:

Preheat and try to push filament through the hot end by hand. Can you get a strand to come out without a ton of force? Does it go mostly down, or curl back up to hit the nozzle?
Remove the hot end from the extruder drive, and command 100mm of filament motion through the extruder. Measure how much travel you actually get. It should be close to 100mm.
With the hot end removed, command some filament motion, and try to stop the filament from moving by hand. Does it take some significant force to get the extruder to stall or slip?

Based on these, you should have a better idea of what needs to be fixed.


da Vinci Jr. nozzle diagram Has anybody taken apart a da Vinci Jr. 3D printer nozzle?

My first time trying to clean the nozzle after it jammed, I broke off the filament immediately before it gets heated, inside the nozzle assembly. The XYZprinting video, "da Vinci Jr. 1.0 - Advanced Nozzle Cleaning", shows the filament coming out easily when heated, but now I'm seeing that I should have cut the filament by the feeder and pulled it out after heating.

I have a long length of wire that is similar to the tiny cleaning wire that comes with the kit. Is it safe to heat up the nozzle and push the wire all the way through?

I tried pushing from the other direction with the large cleaning tool (as shown in video). I also tried heating the tip of the filament and pushing it to the jammed filament inside the nozzle and reconnecting it. It held a while as I tried wiggling it when heated but did not break the jam loose and broke off again...

What should I do?

After watching the video, it looks this is a Bowden style extruder.  The extruder assembly is encased in the black box the OP mentions.  The assembly is user removable.  It appears they also include two cleaning tools

Small (0.4mm?) wire to clean the nozzle tip
Large (1.7mm?) rod for pushing filament down that is stuck in the cold end

It appears the OP tried accessing the filament in the cold end by removing the fitting at the top of the assembly without opening the assembly.  Unfortunately that caused the nut holding the fitting on from the inside fell off.  At that point he was in a bit of a mess.

I believe the manufacture's intent is to "ram" any broken pieces in the cold end through the hot extruder by using the provided rod and pushing while the extruder is on.  It seems that it should work but would not be easy to do if the filament broke off outside the extruder (which seems to be the case).

At the point he left it, it would seem that he would either have to do surgery or replace the extruder assembly.


Does the material a bed is made out of affect the cooling time of a part? Let's say I print a part out of ABS and wait for it to cool. I could theoretically do this with several copies of the same printer, modified to use print beds of different compositions.

Will the material a bed is made out of affect how long it takes a part to cool?

What bed material cools faster?

I found an extensive list which relates various materials to their thermal conductivity, k [W/mK]; the lower thermal conductivity, the better the material insulates, and the slower the print bed will resist changes in temperature - both heating up, and cooling down.

Here are the thermal conductivity for some common materials for 3d printer beds:

Aluminum    205
Glass       1.05
Acrylic     0.2
Air         0.024 (for reference)

There is also the matter of thermal capacity, but I will not go into that right now (need to do some research myself first!).

Will bed material affect cooling time?

Bed material, I believe, is not necessarily related to print cooldown time: it depends on the situation, such as whether we are discussing cooldown during or after printing, and if the bed is heated or not.

If you are not using a heated bed, I believe the bed material doesn't matter at all.
With a heated bed while printing, only the first dozen layers or so are probably affected by the rising heat sufficiently that it affects the printing process.
With a heated bed after printing, the thermal characteristics of the bed will determine how quickly the print cools (and thus can be removed).

Also remember that other physical properties, such as flatness (both cold and during heating) of the bed material is vital for successful prints, and that not all materials can tolerate heating equally well!


Filament moving around and not sticking to bed I have only just set up my Anet A6 today. I am trying to print a calibration box, but the print is moving around the bed while trying to print. Any ideas how to fix this? The documentation is very vague.

Basically I am very new to 3D printing. I purchased an Anet A6 and have set it up stock. I am trying to just print the box directly from the demo models on the SD card. I'm using the standard filament that comes with the printer. I'm not sure what type it is.

All settings are default.

If the printed material moves with the nozzle, you might have several problems at hand, e.g.:

adhesion,
nozzle to bed distance and
overall level.

Nozzle to bed distance needs to be the thickness of a plain A4 or Letter paper. This needs to be at the same distance (when pulling the sheet of paper you need to feel a little drag) at the complete area of the bed. This is sometimes difficult as not all beds are perfectly flat from itself. Finally, you need to pull some tricks out of your sleeve to get the filament to adhere to the bed. Many example can be found, popular ones are using blue tape, glass bed, glue stick, PVA based spray (e.g. strong hairspray or dedicated spray cans like 3DLAC or Dimafix, etc.), or a combination of these. You just need to experiment some more what works best for you, but it is good to start with a correctly levelled bed with the proper nozzle gap. Sometimes, increasing the bed and filament temperature with 5 °C for the first layer also helps.


Are 3D printed gears applicable for industrial use? Are 3D printed gears applicable for industrial use?

I want to print some gears with ABS.

What will their lifespan be? How long will they last if I use them, for example, every day?

Survivability of parts is a very tricky topic, because a lot of factors go into it. While ABS is a common industrial plastic for molding, FDM introduces quite different challenges that can impact the time a piece lives. I can't estimate a lifetime for you, but I will illustrate why we can't estimate it for you, giving you things to think about in your design process:
Problem 1 - What's the printed internal part geometry?
FDM introduces boundries in 2 (r,z) dimensions . Not just the z layers above each other do have boundries that can and will become plane of failure, each layer consists of one filament1 that was deposited side by side to itself. These neighboring pieces (distinguishable by r in cylindrical coordinates) have a boundry that is not of the same strength as staying on the same piece and following it around (and changing ψ) a solid chunk of ABS (as you would get with molding). under stress, these boundries can crack. If you want to force your piece to have such a fate just to see how it looks: mount a 0.4 mm nozzle in a machine calibrated for 0.35 mm and run a 0.35 mm sliced print - it should be easy to crack it apart into a long snail of filament. Or declare your filament to be 3mm in a 1.75mm machine. The Horrible underextrusion and lack of pressure against already deposited filament makes it possible to unravel the whole filament at times.
Problem 2 - What is the intended use?
Use is not the same as use. Yes, it might sound unintuitive, but depending on how a piece is used, stress on the part is different. Let's take the same two gears. We put one of them in a hand mixer and a superlight drone. In the mixer it will spin rapidly against medium to tough loads (depending on dough) over medium periods (the timeframe here is usually minutes at max) of time. In the drone it will have considerably less load, but it will spin for much longer, maybe up to hours if the pilot is very capeable and the batteries last. In both cases wear and tear will be quite different.
Problem 3 - What determines strength?
Strength of the part is not only determined by the filament used, it is ALSO determined by tons of other variables. Print orientation. With enclosure or not. Humidity during print. If the surface of the part is sealed or not after the print. If it was postprocessed somehow to increase capabilities. If the piece is printed hollow or solid. How long did it cure or harden after the print... There are so many variables, that each guess would be quite wild.
Problem 4 - How to get the lifetime now?!
You can't guesstimate the reliability of a product from its design and makeup only. That is why design departments create prototypes: To rigerously test the products. This is how they learn how safe or sturdy their product is. They make prototypes and purposefully put them under various kinds of stress until they break. For gears this involves spinning them in a gearbox for hours nonstop until they break, force them against a blokaded gearbox till they break, run the gearbox dry, hot or freezing, and also under other very destructive conditions. Part of this destructive test is an accelerated life time test that, just like other tests in this stage, tries to find out the maximum parameters it is useable with. A common test for hand mixers apparently is to run them 2 minutes against some gooy substance, then stop some time before repeating.

1 - For the math inclined: the filament can be represented as a function in cylidrical coordinates, f(r,φ,z)=r(ψ)*φ(ψ)+z(ψ), where ψ the path-parameter of the filament - or in other words the length already traveled. To some degree, a G-code is generated by first creating such a function and then creating the tool path from this.


How can I solve the problem of line distortions on my prints? Hello guys I have a little problem with printing. Whenever I print something there are always these lines my printer does, it's not a very big deal, but it looks rather ugly and I'd really appreciate it if anyone could help me if you know what the problem is. I post also a picture to show you the problem clearer. From what I see (observing how my printer prints), I noticed that it starts printing at one point and then when it arrives again after a circle to the starting point to print the layer above, it stops just a millisecond (instead of keep moving smoothly) and I think that's how the problem is created. I'm pretty sure its not the printer's problem, but probably the G-code or the filament... I don't know for sure.

Here some details:

Printer: Creality Ender 3 Pro
Slicer: Cura
Filament: PM filament, PLA, 1 kg, 1.75 mm

As towe noted in a comment, that's Z seam. The mechanism by which it happens is mostly the same as bulging corners. The print head is moving considerably slower just before and just after the layer change, decelerating to a stop then accelerating back up to speed in order to perform the slow Z-axis move, but the rate of extrusion, which is dependent on pressure built up (in the compression of the filament, and possibly expansion of the bowden tube) between the extruder gear and the nozzle, not directly on the motion of the extruder gear, remains the same.

In my opinion, the best fix for this is upgrading to firmware that compensates for it. In Marlin firmware (the stock Ender 3 firmware is based on Marlin 1.0), this feature is called Linear Advance. You tune a spring constant for your material's compression, and after setting it, extrusion is roughly proportional (linear) with respect to logical E-axis moves, regardless of the speed the print head is moving. However, upgrading firmware is nontrivial to do, and has a lot you might have to tune/tweak to get it working the way you want.

Short of that, there are a lot of ways of mitigating the problem:

Select "Outer Before Inner Walls" option (in Cura, or equivalent in other slicers) and "Infill Before Walls" when slicing. This will ensure the layer change happens inside the model (on an inner wall) not on the outside surface, because outer surface is neither the first nor last thing printed on the layer.
Increase X/Y acceleration and/or jerk limits so that motion can start/stop a lot quicker, so there's a shorter period for the disproportionate extrusion to happen in. But if you do this too much, you'll get layer shifts (failed prints) or at least bad vibrations that show up in print surface. My Ender 3 can handle accelerations up to at least 3000 mm/s² in X and Y and 10 mm/s "jerk" (a misnomer, thus the weird unit) and you can likely go higher if you experiment.
Tell slicer to retract at layer change. This will prevent extrusion from continuing during the Z move, but won't help with the extrusion during the time you're decelerating/accelerating in the XY plane.
Increase Z acceleration/jerk. This will reduce the time spent during the Z move, and might even allow the head to keep moving without coming to a full stop during layer change (but that can't happen if you turned on retract at layer change).
Print at lower speed. If the max speed is lower, it takes less time to decelerate/accelerate from/to it, and nozzle pressure will be lower (so extrusion is naturally closer to linear).
Enable coasting in your slicer. This is a hack that really poorly approximates what Linear Advance would do, but it can lead to underextruded walls and brittle prints. I always had bad luck with it and don't recommend it, but it's an option.

I would recommend starting with items 1 and 2. #1 is good for a lot of other things too, and the only tradeoff is that overhangs might print worse (in my experience that's not really the case and they sometimes print better even). And #2 will get you faster prints (sometimes at lot faster) which is nice.


Add a laser module to Reprap Guru Prusa i3 I have a Reprap Guru Prusa i3 v2 3D printer. Here is a link to the 192 MB manual. And here is the link to the resources page for the Reprap Guru. Page 58 of the manual discusses electronics.

I purchased a 5.5 W laser from an online resource (AliExpress). It has its own controller module. It has one connector with 3 pins

12 V
Gnd
PWM

I want to now connect the laser module in-place of the 3D printer nozzle. I have been able to install it physically, but not sure how to connect it to the Reprap Guru Prusa i3 board.

I am not an electrical engineer, but I am capable of connecting wires with clear instructions. Any pointers on how to connect this module to the 3D printer board is appreciated.

Updates:

The board of my 3D printer is an Arduino Mega 2560 board.
I have been able to power the laser on using the fan connections and it can burn stuff (so it works). I have connected to the D9 pins
Now need to figure out where to connect the PWM from the laser module to the Arduino Mega 2560 board

By connecting to the D9 output header (see RAMPS 1.4 shield schematic below) you only have 2 wires that represent a scheduled load and ground. You actually need to connect the positive (red) lead to the power supply 12 V and the negative (black) lead to the ground. The third wire (usually a different color) needs to be connected to the actual D9 in your example; note that this one is connected to the MOSFET! And as such not readily available, it is far more easy to use an other free pin.

Just use the PWM pin (attached to the MOSFET) of the print cooling fan (that schedules the MOSFET), you can then schedule the laser power with G-code M106, e.g. M106 S127 to select half the power (S255 would be max power). Alternatively, and probably a much better solution is that you can use any free (but exposed) pin of your microprocessor; you can set the value of that pin using G-code M42.

  M42 switches a general purpose I/O pin. Use M42 Px Sy to set pin x to value y, when omitting Px the LEDPIN will be used.

The only electrical wiring you need to do is to attach a wire (solder or connect to a header) to bundle that with a power and ground wire and route that to the laser module.

Note that the PWM pins of the Mega are numbered D2 through D13. Also, D44, D45 and D46 are also PWM capable. Checking the RAMPS 1.4 (the board/shield of the Reprap Guru) pinout, you will see that D8, D9 and D10 are used for the MOSFETs (and as such not easily available and would require soldering). E.g. D2 and D3 are used by the X max/min endstops (note that most printers don't use an X-max, so pin D2 may be free on your machine).

For your purpose, any of the following pins can be used: D2, D4-7, D1112-13 and D44-46.

Best option would be the D11 pin (on second thoughts, D4 might be a much better option as the timer associated with PWM on pin D11 is internally used in Marlin for generating interrupts); it has a pin you can connect to the SERVO header pin.

The image shows the location of the pins:

An example to connect a laser module is seen in this image:


Wanhao Duplicator i3 Mini - Not reaching temperature -> screen freezes I have been having some issues with my Cocoon Create Model Maker/Wanhao Duplicator i3 Mini. The hotend doesn't get up to temperature.

I will go to any of the heating functions (start print, preheat, add filament, etc.) and it will begin to reheat the nozzle. The temperature rises until eventually, it stops at any number that is not the desired print temp and the screen freezes. Sometimes it will stop at 150 °C sometimes 180 °C. It all seems quite random but the screen is frozen when this happens.

If anyone had any thoughts it would be much appreciated. My last printer was abandoned due to a similar issue and it's incredibly frustrating.

The solution was posted in a comment, as the asker hasn't posted an answer yet, it is answered in this community wiki answer:

  Ended up replacing the thermistor which solved the problem.


How are things like a USB casing designed for 3D printing? How are professional or regular products designed on the computer for manufacturing?

Do they do it by making a 3D model and then getting it made by manufacturers/plastic factories, or the process is different?

If it's by making 3D models then what kind of programs do they use - Regular 3D software like blender?

I also understand that you can get a 3D model printed by 3d printing services, but are they the same as mass manufacturing companies, by that they make the product by 3D models.

3D printing provides a faster method for prototyping and have always been labeled as prototyping machines. Until recently, it has been rare to see 3D printers used for "mass manufacturing".

Yes, most mass-produced products start the manufacturing process with a 3D model. 3D models can be created in many different applications such as Solidworks, AutoCAD, Unigraphics, Blender, even Sketchup just to name a few.

In product development, the 3D model will then go through prototyping. Rapid prototyping can be done using a 3D printer by utilizing cheap materials and almost no labor cost.

Here are a few costs that can be associated with the different prototyping methods.

Traditional Prototyping

(Typically involving "traditional", subtractive manufacturing methods such as CNC mills, lathes, routers, etc.)

CAM programming
Fixturing
CNC Machine Setup
CNC Operating/Labor

Rapid Prototyping

(Typically involving a 3D printer or other additive manufacturing methods)

Model preparation (for slicing)
Printing Operation
Object post-processing

Removal of supports
Curing/Cleaning of part (for non-FDM/FFF printing methods)

Once a prototype is produced, the designer will adjust the 3D model accordingly based on results of the prototype. This process will be repeated until the prototype is adequate for the purpose of the end product.

When the product design is ready for mass production, it will go through traditional manufacturing methods such as:

CNC Machining (subtractive)

Mill
Lathe
Router
Laser
etc.

Injection Molding
etc.


Ender 3 cracking magnetic bed My first magnetic bed mat for my Ender 3 Pro is cracking underneath. On the top side there is a bubble in the middle which prevents any viable print. The layers are probably separating.

I am new to printing but have read many articles on hiccups to expect, fixes etc. I do understand these magnetic mats can break down. They're pretty cheap on Amazon (something like \$12 for a 2-pack). Not a huge deal. I've printed only about 1100g worth of filament over 30 prints. Despite their cheap price I don't feel I got a proper amount of mileage out of the mat.

I keep my bed at 60 °C and 215 °C for the filament. I'm pretty sure 60 °C is below the maximum temperature for this kind of bed. I am struggling to find articles on this issue.

What can I do to prolong the life of these mats? I have removed the mat (with its print) while the bed was still hot to remove items just as much as removing cold items. Am I supposed to wait until it's cold? The cracks I only assume are from flexing the mat. I'm not trying to fold it here. I do pull on the item as I'm curving the mat to break it free. I can't explain the bubble.

The bed deteriorated after my first large print which took 27 hours. Prior, longest print I had was about 5 hours, most prints 1-1.5 hours. Is this a factor?

My personal technique for removing prints (particularly larger prints) is not to flex the mat at all. Instead, I wait until it's cool and then work the spatula under an edge and move it under the model to basically peel it from the mat.

Smaller prints usually pop right off if I start with this technique from one end.

Surface area on the bed (for a single part) is most important to how much work is involved. For example, a raft or brim will greatly increase the surface area.  The spatula is long enough that usually I can reach everywhere under the model so eventually it will pop free. I might have to work around the model a bit before it reaches this point.


PMMA print distortion and inconsistencies I am working on refining my PMMA printing process and I am trying to print as close as possible to the theoretical 100 % density of the material. I am making good progress and am slowing increasing the extrusion multipliers to try and find a good set of print settings.
I recently have run into an issue where the bottom ≈1/3 of the test cylinder is coming out rather distorted (see picture). The problem seems to sort itself out as the finish around the top of the cylinder looks fine. Do any of you have any experience with PMMA or have seen this problem before?
My initial thought is that it is heat driven and as more material is added it becomes less of an issue as there is more mass to dissipate the heat. For reference I am printing on an Raise3D Pro2Plus, for my prints I am running the extruder at 250 °C and the heated bed at 100 °C. I am eventually going to need to print rather large cylinders and would like an even surface finish along the length of it.
Test Cylinders, right and left show distortion on the bottom and the center shows a bizarre print where half of the cylinder was fine and half came out very jagged.

Commercial PMMA may soften already at 85 °C.
The higher you go away from the bed, the colder the air is, so the issues solves itself.
Try lowering the bed temperature, at least to exclude that as cause.
The second cylinder shows the very common issue related to uneven cooling. Probably your part cooling fan is blowing only from one side. Try using a better fan shroud or add a second part cooling fan.


How to automatically add support and "base" to the model I am printing? Most of time my prints fail due to lack of support and "base" for the 3D model. I'd like to know if there is any software that can automatically check my model, and add support and a "base" to it, if required.

This program type you seek for is called a slicer. However, you got to manually choose support structure and rafting - the tricky part is getting the configuration right for your build. To my knowledge there are no slicers that decide automatically to raft unless you configure to raft always and you have to enable support.


Why is Print Adhesion almost good, but still not right? It feels like my print is almost there, I spent a long time fine tuning the calibration with a fantastic set of G-code files from Chuck Hellebuyck.

I am using an Ender 3, on which I have modified the heatbed to carry a glass sheet, otherwise factory standard. The prints are done on the bare glass. When I printed a window some 14 feet (~4.5 meters) away was open to the cold New York winter. The cooling fan on the Ender 3 is mounted on the right side of the hotend and uses a simple declector, it can be seen in picture 2.

However, my print is not perfect yet. I'm using 1.75  mm PLA at a temperature of 200 °C for the 0.4 mm nozzle and a bed temperature of 60 °C. Out of the 4 corners, 3 printed perfectly, the back-left one did lift.

What do I need to do to fix the bed adhesion issue?

Based on the pictures, this looks like the bed wasn't clean enough, thus why it didn't adhere correctly in some spots. The lifted corner is the worst, but I can see a couple more spots where the PLA didn't stick well enough, though the brim prevented it to completely lift off the bed.

I would advise you to not print with the window open, even if it's only slightly ajar. Weather conditions and temperature will affect the quality of the print, even if it's only a small variation in temperature. I've had enough failed prints due to a shift in temperature to know that, even though PLA isn't affected as much than ABS by temperature changes through a print.

You might also try to increase the bed temperature a bit, up to 70°C or 80°C. I've looked at the recommended temperature for PLA with my UM3E and it says 80°C for the glass bed.

You should always make sure that the glass bed is clean: ie no dust on it and no grease. Yes, touching it with your fingers will leave a thin greasy residue in the form of fingerprints, and even one fingerprint can prevent good adhesion and result in the problem you had.

There are various products to clean glass beds, I've personally found out that the cheap yellow-colored window cleaner from Karcher works wonder. Do not use the standard blue colored window cleaner products: the blue one has a chemical in it that is made with the express intent to prevent anything to adhere to the glass, which is obviously not what we want. The yellow-colored cleaner doesn't have that chemical, and it cleans without depositing an anti-adhesion film on the glass.

If a thorough cleaning isn't sufficient, you can look into various adhesive products. While there is quite a lot of adhesive solutions marketed as being specifically for 3D printing, with insane prices most of the time, I've found that a simple UHU glue stick works wonders. I usually do not need glue when printing PLA, but I use it for Nylon, ABS and other filament that absolutely require it and it's a breeze to work with, and it cleans easily with soap and warm water.


Upgrade firmware without Slic3r and USB connection? When printing a part today on my Prusa i3 MK3, I was prompted to upgrade the firmware. I went to the website and downloaded the firmware as a .hex file.

When reading the attached firmware upgrade instructions, it seems there's only one way: use Slic3r and connect the printer via USB. These instructions are also available online.

However, my printer is too far away from my PC and I'm printing from SD card only. Can I upgrade from SD card as well?

Hopefully next week I'll get the Raspberry Pi Zero W so I can use Octoprint for printing. Does that combination support upgrading the firmware?

I have tried:

this Prusa forum post suggests that upgrading via SD card is not possible.
this Prusa forum post mentions that there once was a way to upgrade the firmware via Octoprint, but the post is very old (last entry from January 2017)
it's not a duplicate of this 3D Printing question, since all solutions require a USB or serial connection.

No, you cannot update the firmware from an SD card.

Yes you can update from a Raspberry Pi (RPi). A RPi runs a Linux distribution, when you install the correct tools you should be able to update through USB using the RPi.

For simplicity and time it would be an idea to lend a laptop for a few minutes.


3D printer out of normal printer (HP PSC 1315) I thought as a fun project to make my own 3D printer out of a normal printer parts + some parts out of old CD-ROM drives that are lying around. The printer of my choice is an HP PSC 1315 one.

But I have these questions:

Does this printer users stepper motors or is using a combination of DC ones and some sort of position sensor?
What kind of electronics and firmware I can use for this type of builds?

No, Printers are not good sources
Common printers contain at best one stepper motor in the scanner, and it is usually too weak for use as an X or Y stepper, but for a very slow printer they might be useable, especially if you could source 2 or 4 of the same type.
The main motors in the printer are almost universally DC motors that get their turning signal as a voltage from the main board, which again uses positional information from an encoder strip/disk. Using both of these to make a 3D printer is usually not feasible.
However, they usually have good rails (sadly often of non-standard diameter) and might be salvaged for a decent optical sensor. See also Thomas Sanladerer's video about this.


Anet A8 - SkyNet3D freezes randomly at boot I have a problem with my Anet A8. It is a little strange because it does not always happen.

When I turn on my printer, it freezes on boot in the second splash screen.

If I turn off and turn on several times, the printer works OK.

The printer firmware is:

SKYNET 3D - V2.1 - BASED ON MARLIN RC7-BUGFIX - FOR ANET 3D PRINTERS

It was modified by me but I promise that I did not touch the boot section.

Could the Anet A8 motherboard be dying ? (before this issue it worked perfectly)

Update 1:

I am changing some wires (power supply and hot bed). I think it has improved...
In my opinion, I think that is better change all wires...

Update 2: Some wires were black :-( (I changed them and the printer run well)

The Anet A8 is a low end printer which works better after installing a better (read safer) than stock firmware (stock firmware does not have thermal runaway protection which is considered to be a hazard). It is good that you flashed another firmware that does have thermal runaway protection.

The electronics of the Anet A8 are also questionable, the stock connectors are not rated for their task and wires could have been of better quality and thickness.

Now that your older SkyNet3D firmware does not boot properly anymore, it would be time to check all the leads, possibly use new wires of proper gauge and flash a new version of a more recent firmware. SkyNet3D has been forked from Marlin Firmware and is no longer maintained as all functionality has been implemented for Anet printers in the Marlin sources.

If your printer still is giving you problems then when booting, a new set of electronics (e.g. board and steppers) would help out.


What are ways to avoid heat creep? Printer configuration and many settings affect heat creep.  Heat creep stopping extrusion doesn't necessarily involve melting the filament too high above the nozzle.  All it takes is making the filament too soft.  The filament may bend and wad up (the importance to avoid gaps in the hot end allowing this).  On direct drives (not Bowden tubes) the filament can get soft so that the teeth on the direct drive cuts a notch in the filament instead of pushing it through the nozzle.
[moved to answer]

Fig. 1: Some typical signs of heat creep on the filament of a direct drive.  1) notch in filament where gear spins in soft filament. 2) normal teeth marks in filament. 3) soft filament bending. 4) soft filament bunches in open area. With a Bowden tube, the filament widens at the end.

Fig. 2.: Another example of heat creep with a direct drive extruder.
Note: Setting the retraction too high can cause the extruder to jam, but this is not heat creep.  Although, the symptom could be mistaken for heat creep.
Also note: Printing materials like PETG too fast can clog the nozzle because the filament doesn't have time to melt.  This is the opposite cause from heat creep.
A defect in the filament can jam in the tube to the hot end, as well as the filament hanging up on the spool or in the path to the hot end.  This can also stop extrusion.
Of course different materials change the characteristics of heat creep, but what are other things affecting heat creep?
This is expanded from How is heat creep characterized?

Things to consider (This is expanded from How is heat creep characterized?):

The air volume of the cooling fan on the hotend heat sink affects the temperature gradient across the heat sink.  Usually the size/geometry of the fan depends on the printer design, so the main parameter of a fan that controls air volume is the rpm.  I've noticed fans fitting hotends from 6,000 to 10,000 rpm.  The higher rpm the better as far as preventing heat creep.  Of course, make sure the fan is spinning properly.

The raising the temperature of the extruder increases the chance of heat creep.

A high resistive connection to the sensor will cause a lower that actual temperature reading.  Thus, the controller will raise the hotend to a higher temperature than set, which can cause het creep.

Razing the temperature of the heated bed, especially when the printer is in an enclosure, increases the chance of heat creep because this raises the temperature of the air the fan blows across the heatsink.

What can be useful is using higher extrusion and bed temperatures for the first layer, then set lower temperatures on subsequent layers  to reduce the chances of heat creep.

The slower the print speed the higher the chance of heat creep.  That's because a slower print speed gives the filament more time to heat up in the extruder.  Many slicers have a setting that slows down the print speed if a layer will finish below a given time.  If this slowed down time causes heat creep, the extrusion will stop when the printer reaches these smaller area layers.

Too much travel of the extruder without extruding has a similar effect because the filament isn't moving.  I verified that connecting isolated structures on a design with heat creep can eliminate it.  Using a little more material for thin walls is better than scraping prints.

Example: This is easy to demonstrate with PETG.  Design a table printed top down 100 mm square with four legs 5 mm square and 100 mm long.  Set the parameters so that you start to get heat creep when printing the legs.  Now put four 1 mm thick walls between the legs to get the heat creep to go away.

Sometimes if you start a second print without letting the extruder cool down from the first print, heat creep will cause the extruder to jam.

The heater block might be too close to the heatsink so that they bypass the heat breaks reduction in conducting heat.

Hotends for temperatures 245 °C and below can use such things as Teflon tubing in the heat break to isolate the filament from the metal.  But, +250 °C nozzle temperatures need all metal hotends.

The PID settings in the firmware might be letting the hotend temperature overshoot too high.


How should I make my PTFE tube smaller? So, some background. I bought a e3d Lite6. When assembling the hotend, the PTFE tube does not even go in 1/4th of the way. I found out that the issue was that the PTFE tube was too wide. It measured 4.26mm (outer diameter) and the heat break is only 4.1mm (inner diameter). How should I make my PTFE tube smaller?

I would advise buying a new tube for a few reasons:

PTFE tubes should be either 4 or 6 mm external diameter (for 1.75 or 3 mm filament respectively).  Chances are that if your external diameter is that much off from the nominal value, the inner diameter will also be inaccurate, and this could cause a lot of problems during printing, as the filament will likely bend slightly and unpredictably within the tube and the pressure in the nozzle will be unstable, as well as retraction may work inconsistently.
A non all-metal extruder is designed with the assumption that the inner and external sections of the PTFE tube are concentric.  This may or may not be the case for your tube, but it is likely that any hand-made modification to the tube will cause the above not to be true.
PTFE tubes are pretty cheap (around 2€ per metre or less, when bought online).

That said, should you still want to manually modify your tube, I would proceed like this (beware: untested!):

Insert the end of the tube onto a drill bit that fits snugly into it.
Insert the drill bit into a drill press or a drill held in a vice or otherwise immobilised.
Let the drill spin the bit/tube at a moderate speed
Move a piece of fine grit paper up and down the portion of the tube on the bit, trying to apply consistent pressure.
Check your progress with a caliper or a micrometer often, and reduce increase the grit while approaching the desired result.

Best luck! :)


Remove the Marlin Boot screen I added a custom boot screen to marlin by adding _Bootscreen.h to the project root folder and it works fine. The problem is that the custom screen shows quickly and disappear then the marlin boot screen is then displayed for a longer time.
I want to remove the marlin boot screen.

I dug around in the source code and found a void lcd_bootscreen function in the   ultralcd_impl_HD44780.h header. This seems to be the function that is loading the marlin's boot screen due to the comments in the code. I added return; to the first line of code in this function but the marlin's boot screen is still loading.

How can I remove the marlin boot screen. How can make my custom boot screen wait for more time?

The marlin version is 1.1.8.

You can add return; command in the ultralcd_impl_DOGM.h file.

  void lcd_bootscreen() {
    #if ENABLED(SHOW_CUSTOM_BOOTSCREEN)
      lcd_custom_bootscreen();
    #endif
    return;  // Add this line


How to block UV light (transparent material)? I want to build my own curing station for my resin printed parts.
I know there are a lot of prebuilt machines but they do not completely satisfy my needs.
I now want to know which material i can use to cover the chamber, but still be able to see inside.
The material should therefore block UV light but still be transparent.

The material should be transparent to only light above the UV spectrum, but should block UV light (UV-A, UV-B if possible)
The material should be purchasable in sheets to be able to build a cover out of it (e.g. acrylic sheets)
the color is not relevant as long as you can see through it

The questions is now, which material satisfies those points?
You can find reference on existing machines like the Elegoo Mercury Pro or the Formlabs Form Wash. Maybe somebody knows which material has been used by either one of them.

I contacted the manufacturers of curing stations directly and got some interesting feedback. Not all of them were keen on sharing their information, but two responded:

Elegoo is using Polypropylene
Creality is using polycarbonate

I am sure they are using some additional UV blocking on the plastics with a coating, but thats all I could find out.
Thanks to @Greenonline for pointing me in the right direction!


Ender 3 Nozzle does not clear bed I have a thicker glass plate on the bed. Also, I have a z-axis offset at the maximum value 50 yet the nozzle does not clear the plate.

Why can't I adjust the axis beyond 50?

There are several ways to get the Z0 into a position the sotware can account for it without needing to write your own firmware if needed:

Remove the build-tak-clone under your glass sheet to get the better heat transfer and remove a couple millimeters.
Tighten the bed leveling to account for some millimeters.
Move the physical endstop to account for the thicker build platform.


Different lengths of filament is extruded with different temperatures TL;DR: I'm looking to change the steps per mm but I'm not sure what to set it to. Do I decide on a temperature and change the rate based on the percentage for that temp? Or is there a more general setting I can put it to? Or is there a different underlying problem here?

I'm running into an issue with my Ender 3 where when I print PLA at different temperatures I'm getting different extrusion rates. I've done the test where marking it at 120 mm and then extruding using PronterFace 100 mm and measuring the distance and this is my results. I did two tests of each to confirm results

185 °C 80 mm left = 60 % under extrusion
200 °C 31 mm Left = 11 % Under Extrusion
210 °C 32 mm Left = 12 % Under Extrusion
220 °C 28 mm Left = 8 % Under Extrusion
230 °C 25 mm Left = 5 % Under Extrusion

When I feed 100 mm through the Bowden tube without the filament going through the hot end I get exactly 20 mm left meaning:

0% under Extrusion

echo: Steps per unit:
echo: M92 X80.00 Y80.00 Z400.00 E93.00

I have been having this problem since I started. I normally print at 210 °C at 50 mm/s with a flow rate of 103 % which seems to work well for most prints but on flat walls on prints it under extrudes in the same spot each time it comes around to that point.

Steps I have taken so far:

Different PLA filaments. All perform the same
Replaced the nozzle with a new one
Checked all fittings with the bowen tube system
Printed a spring spacer to make the spring tighter on the extruder gear
Changed the Vref from 0.75 to 1 for the extruder stepper

The reason I changed the Vref on the extruder stepper is because the system would click back when printing as if the pressure was too great in the tube. Changing this has helped some of the under extrusion a bit.

So. depending on the temperature, it's harder or easier to push the filament by hand through the hot end. Maybe I need a better hot end?

Examples:

My test print to replicate the issue. The ripple bit is brittle and under extruded.

This was a Prototype piece for an up-sized print I was planning. After going around it under extrudes at the same point each time 210 °C

Most of the print is fine just some parts are different. This is an inner wall.

Heat towers

Obviously, your extrusion process is troubled by a lot of pressure. This can be seen from the extensive experiment you conducted with PLA extrusion at different temperatures. Please do note that 230 °C is considered pretty high for PLA! Usually it should be in the range of 185 - 205 °C:

  In general, PLA filament settings have an optimal printing PLA
  temperature range from about 185C to about 205C. If you’re using
  1.75mm as opposed to thicker 2.85mm (or 3.00mm) your optimal print will be closer to the lower end of this PLA filament temperature
  range.

The temperature dependency of filament diameter is explained that small diameter filament warms up way faster in the heating zone of the hotend than large diameter filament as the heat travels less far to the filament core. Basically, with 1.75 mm filament you should be able to print at 195 °C. The pressure that the filament exerts on the hotend and extruder is clearly too much and leads to skipped steps.

It is strongly discouraged to create a function of steps per millimeter (or an over-extrusion by specifying a more than 100% flow modifier). This is a mechanical issue that needs to be fixed by addressing the hardware problem. Usually this is done by:

fixing the extruder;

is it skipping steps?
does the filament tension get too high that it skips back pass the extruder gear?
does increase the stepper current work?

fixing the Bowden tube;

is it clean?
is there too much friction?
are there kinks?

fixing the hotend;

is the temperature that is reported the correct one? (thermistor problem?)
is the heat conducting properly to the nozzle?
is there a tolerance issue in the hotend/heatbreak?
is the coldend properly cooled?

A few of these you already explored, others you have not. Unfortunately, you have to do a little more troubleshooting the get to the bottom of the actual problem that is causing this pressure preventing the extruder to extrude the proper commanded length.


Is it possible to print an object that has a "roof" without anything under it? I recently bought a 3d printer and right now i am printing a normal cube just to try it out. However I was wondering, when it has the last part left of the printing where it needs to create the roof, how will the filament stay there and not just fall down as there is nothing underneath?

Will I need to check the "Support" function in the print-settings before hand or is there something else i need to do?

Thanks a lot for the help/tips!

Sometimes a "roof" can be accomplished using the bridging feature of the printer. Depending on your slicer and on your printer's capabilities, the filament can extend from one edge of a structure to another without using support. The slicer will "recognize" the endpoints and the distance between and speed up the travel and possibly increase the fan cooling, allowing minimal sag between points. There are resources available on many model sites to print bridging test pieces to help determine the limits of your printer.

Expect some sag on the first layer, with a reduction for each successive layer. If you have, for example, five layers for the top faces, the last of the five may cover the sag of the previous ones.

Support is commonly used when there is no opposing endpoint to handle the bridging or when the distance exceeds the capabilities of the printer.

An example of a bridging test piece can be found on Thingiverse, although there are many to be found with a simple search.


Under extrusion towards the end of the print I have really strange problem. Thing is that my print (first layer) started ok, not good nor perfect but ok and everything was going well but then all of a sudden, near the end of a print, quality drops drastically. I'm not really sure but I think this happened because of under extrusion. I'm not so good with English so here are pictures of finished print and some more details.

I'm using custom build Delta printer with RepRap and Repetier firmware, CURA for slicing and Repetier-host for printing.

Slicing parameters in CURA are:
- ABS 250 °C hotend and 70 °C heatbed
- Layer height 0.2 mm (initial layer 0.18)
- Printing speed 50 mm/s (30 mm/s outer walls)
- Infill 40 %
- Extrusion multiplayer 0.96 (96 %)

Do anyone have any ideas? What this can be? How can I fix this?

Do anyone have any ideas? What this can be? How can I fix this?

At least judging from the pictures, that does seem like under-extrusion.  Some ideas for further investigating the issue.

The problem may be due to the gcode being wrong.  In this case, your printer is merely executing correctly... the wrong commands.  To check if this is the case:

The easiest, but inconclusive way, would be to re-slice a model that fails consistently, with a different slicer.  If the second print came out good, than you would know that the problem is with the slicer.  This method is inconclusive because you wouldn't not if the gcode is bad or if it simply happens that your printer cannot print well that specific sequence of commands (which may still be emitted by the other slicer under different conditions).
The more conclusive analysis would be to look at the gcode of a failed print where the fail happens between two geometrical identical layers.  This seem to be the case for the print in the picture, btw.  You should then compare the gcode of the layer that printed good with that of the layer that printed poorly.  If the gcode differs... then you positively know the slicer doesn't work as it should.

The problem may be due to a mechanical fault with the printer.  Here the only idea I have to offer is overheating of the steppers and/or their controllers.  This may in turn make the extruder servo skip some steps and therefore extrude less filament.  If you perform the conclusive test above, you will know if this is the case.

The problem may be due to a firmware bug.  This is difficult to investigate, my only suggestion would be: upgrade to the latest and greatest, if you haven't done it already.

The problem may be filament-related.  This could be a number of things, but since the problem seems to happen at towards the end of the print, and your are printing at relatively high temp, an idea could be that too much heat reaches the cold end of the extruder, interfering with its extrusion.  The easiest test here would simply be to re-print a failed print with a different filament.  In your case I would suggest some PLA, just to decrease the temperature and change the chemical composition too.

These are more or less all shots in the dark, but - together with asking here - it would be what I would do to debug, had I the same problem.  Keep up posted! :)