Warping of bottom of print The bottom of my prints warp/curve upwards, most often at the corners. This is a very slight curve, only about 1-2 mm.

I print with a raft all the time.
I don't have a heated bed.
I print with PLA at 199 °C (390 °F) with a print speed of approximately 40 mm/s
I have a Sindoh 3DWOX DP201.

What slicer settings might be the cause of this phenomena?
Or could it be 3D printer settings?

The first thing to understand is what causes warping.  Warping is caused by the thermal contraction of the plastic when it cools down.

Simplifying things a fair bit, you can visualise the process like this:

hot, expanded plastic gets deposited on cooler, shrunk layers,
when the hot plastic cools down, it shrinks and pulls the upper part of the layer below inwards
at this point, the layer below has a differential in the compression between its upper and lower parts, and curls up
the problem is exacerbated at the very first layer (the one touching the bed) as this is "locked" to a rigid body (the bed) and cannot shrink, while subsequent layers are only attached to the somewhat flexible plastic beneath, and thus can contract.

Also notice that the larger the part being printed, the stronger is the force trying to curl-up your print.

Once one understands all of this, then it is possible to appreciate the many ways the problem can be mitigated.

Here are the common ones:

USING A MATERIAL WITH LOW SHRINKAGE COEFFICIENT

This translates in smaller tensions and thus less force "pulling up" the corners of your print.  Historically, 3D printing started with ABS because this material was one of the very few, relatively safe ones to source.  Nowadays there are materials like PETG which have similar mechanical properties to ABS but are much easier and forgiving to print with, so - unless you need ABS for some very specific reason (e.g.: acetone smoothing) consider never printing with it.

DECREASING THE THERMAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MOLTEN AND SOLID STATE

Concretely, this means lowering the "gap" between the ~200°C of the nozzle and the ~20°C of room temperature by using a heated bed and - possibly - an enclosure.

The heated bed not only drastically diminish the shrinkage of the first layer, but because heat radiates, and hot air goes upwards, the entire bottom of the print has shrinkage mitigated.

An enclosure just increase the benefit of the heating bed, by reflecting IR radiation back towards the print and preventing hot air to escape.  A heated enclosure just improve things even further.

Some slicers offer a "shroud" option, that encloses the entire print in an enclosed, sacrificial structure, that tries to emulate the benefits of a proper printer enclosure.

INCREASING ADHESION WITH THE PRINTING BED

That is the "brutal force" approach: if you face a strong "curl up" force, oppose it with a strong "anchor down" one.

The increase in adhesion can be achieved in a number of ways:

Lower print speed (more time for the molten plastic to "bond")
Overextrusion (more pressure, more material)
Disabling cooling fan (more progressive cooling, more time to "bond")
Using a brim (more contact surface between print and bed)
Using "ad hoc" material on the bed (PVA glue for PLA, ABS sludge for ABS, kapton tape, hair spray, blue tape, etc...)

REDUCING THE CURL-UP FORCE

This is typically achieved during design.  Designing is a vast field and it would be impossible to cover all the possible mitigating strategies one could use, but here are some of the most common ones:

Prefer assembling smaller parts over printing huge ones.  This is self explanatory really, as the curling force increases with the amount of material "pulling", the least material one has, the less force one gets.
Make relief holes above the first layers in long structures.  This will essentially "break" the build-up of tension in the layer, creating many points with a little "curling up force" rather than two with a huge one.  Something along the lines of this, for example:

Avoid extensive overhangs close to the bottom of the print (this is because otherwise you will have considerably more material "pulling up" than you will have "anchoring down".  Here is an example of what not to do (to be fair: this was specifically taken from a bed adhesion/warping test).

Of course all of the above strategies can/should be combined, when possible.  Even if not warped, a part with a lot of internal tension will perform less predictably and possibly worse than a part where such tensions are lower.


Extruder spins for a few seconds after layer changes Sometimes my Extruder will start spinning pointlessly fast and long.

Youtube Video showing the problem

This Issue only happens:

When printer has finished a Layer and moved up to the next (right after the Z axis has moved)
Not on all, but only on some layers of a print.
Typically it will be more towards the middle of a print, and it will happen on several (maybe 10, 20, or a lot more) consecutive layers

My regular Setup/Stack:

PrusaSlicer-2.0.0+win64-201905201652
Octoprint (Version 1.4.0)
Tevo Tornado (with Mamorubot print-platform)

I have tried to test whether the source of the problem could be Octoprint or the slicer/gcode.

Octoprint:
The problem persists, when i print directly from SD

slicer/gcode:
Here is some gcode, one of a layer change where the problem did occur and one where it was fine:
Problem occured here:

G1 X167.854 Y170.305 E209.95401
G1 X167.851 Y132.289 E210.24063
;BEFORE_LAYER_CHANGE
G92 E0.0
;3.95

G1 Z3.950 F7800.000
;AFTER_LAYER_CHANGE
;3.95
G1 X168.141 Y131.859
G1 F3600
G1 X129.532 Y131.858 E211.24663
G1 X128.945 Y131.592 E211.26340
G1 X128.419 Y131.004 E211.28396

No Problem occured here:

G1 X168.288 Y170.558 E474.06508
G1 X168.224 Y170.259 E474.06950
G1 X168.213 Y131.857 E474.62495
;BEFORE_LAYER_CHANGE
G92 E0.0
;9.8

G1 Z9.800 F7800.000
;AFTER_LAYER_CHANGE
;9.8
G1 X168.559 Y131.441
G1 F3600
G1 X129.622 Y131.440 E475.63947
G1 X129.198 Y131.248 E475.65161
G1 X128.776 Y130.777 E475.66807

I cannot see any problem with the gcode.

Now I am at my wits' end - what could be the source of the problem, and how to I proceed to debug it?

Doing some googling, it looks like the BEFORE_LAYER_CHANGE comment in the G-code and stuff that follow come from the before_layer_gcode setting in your PrusaSlicer profile. Somehow, G92 E0.0 got in there. Remove it and the problem should go away.


Can a 3D printer make a 3D printer? Could you use a 3D printer to make a 3D printer's parts? What is the most of a 3D printer that can be made this way? Could parts that break be replaced this way?

Yes, you can print most of the parts (electronics, linear guide rails, ball bearings and nuts and bolts, etc cannot be printed). Actually this was exactly the purpose of RepRap.org:

  RepRap is humanity's first general-purpose self-replicating
  manufacturing machine.

and:

  Since many parts of RepRap are made from plastic and RepRap prints
  those parts, RepRap self-replicates by making a kit of itself - a kit
  that anyone can assemble given time and materials.

There have been attempts in the past to even replicate the frames of printers (e.g. Dollo 3D or Snappy, but such designs are not very successful, printed frames are more flexible than metal frames.

I have built 2 custom printers myself using other printers to print parts and printed all printer parts for several others. It is possible to print your own linear bearings from POM, I prefer these over the noisy metal bearings.


Autobed leveling doesn't compensate I finally manage to setup the ABL on my Prusa.
I run G28 to home all axes (for z I use the same probe used for ABL). Then
I run G29 E ( I use E because otherwise for some reason I have not understood yet, Z does not lift during probings) probing 4 points on the corners of the bed.

finally I get the map of the bed:

Bed Level Correction Matrix:
+0.999999 +0.000000 +0.001233
-0.000005 +0.999992 +0.003905
-0.001233 -0.003905 +0.999992

and after that, the print starts.
The first layer looks perfect however I have not seen Z moving a single step along the printing.

Any hint about what to check? Is the obtained map indicating that the bed is already too leveled to act on any compensation?

UPDATE
I printed a 180 mm diamater cylinder and the Z axis is not compensating the 1mm difference from edge to edge of the bed.

I believe that the matrix is shown transposed from how it should be, but that doesn't affect the answer. The compensated Z position is derived from the original (X,Y,Z) position by multiplying the corresponding vector with that matrix. This means that the new Z position would be

Z' = 0.999992Z - 0.001233X - 0.003905Y

If you have a 200 x 200 printbed, a diagonal move from one corner to the other would correspond to a 1mm change in Z-height. This should be noticeable, but if perhaps you're printing something quite small you might not notice it.

Though, if your first layer is perfect, I would see no reason to mess with it.


SLS 3D printer to DMLS 3D printer I know that the SLS 3D printer stands for selective laser sintering,where as DMLS stands for direct metal laser sintering.

I want to know that,can i convert SLS 3D printer to DMLS.

By just changing powder(or another way?)

By just changing powder: No.
Changing the powder, the laser and the chamber, maybe you can get something, but it's not recommended.
DMLS machines use a sealed chamber with a flow of Argon, Nitrogen, or other gas to prevent oxidation of metal powder (and avoid fire or explosions).
Laser power for metal needs to be of higher power than that used por polymer laser sintering (SLS, SLM, LS, etc).
BTW. DMLS also need a metallic build plate to dissipate heat.


prusa i3 not extruding enough plastic I built my 3d printer from a kit a few weeks ago, and initially, it was working fine. However, when I took it with me to college, something must have went awry. The first layer comes out fine, but afterwards, the infill breaks apart. It extrudes the entire time, but there are gaps in it that make prints porous, unisitely, and brittle. The printer is a prussa i3 knockoff. I have included a gallery of a recent print attempt of mine. I hope you guys can help me diagnose the problem.

Gallery: https://imgur.com/gallery/BLxJa

For your troubleshooting process, I would suggest to use a simple model, perhaps a small cylinder of 20-25 mm diameter, 5-6 mm height.

You've not indicated what material you are using, nor the extruder/nozzle temperatures, but the print appears to be suffering from low temperature problems. You would also include the slicer software name although I don't believe this matters.

The initial layer will print reasonably well, if your slicer performs a reduced speed layer one. The slower filament movement through the nozzle allows it time to heat up for an acceptable layer, while the faster later layers will prevent enough heat to be imparted to the filament.

Increase your temperature at least 10°C for the initial test, as your part is quite a bit below temperature, in my opinion. If the first test is not acceptable, increase by 5°C for each succeeding test.

Keep in mind that individual brands will have different optimum temperatures and within a specific brand, different colors will require temperature adjustment.

The "initially working fine" reference does not include information regarding filament change, color change or other useful information such as print speed, layer thickness, etc., but I'm aiming for a temperature adjustment as the most likely answer.


Printing material for methanol tank I am trying to print a tank to be used with my RC engine. The material that I have to use needs to have the following properties:

It needs to be possible to seal the final print so that it is not leaking any fluid
It needs to resist methanol, nitromethane (a solvent like Acetone) and lubricating oil at room temperature. It can get discolored or have other changes from the fuel, but it must not be able to compromise the sealing.

I first - foolishly - just printed it with ABS as I do for every fluid container as I can nicely seal it with Acetone. After almost being done with it a friend told me to check the chemical resistance of ABS and as you might guess methanol and nitromethane completely desintegrate it, almost like acetone itself, so that was a waste of time/material.
Next I considered using Nylon. It shows exactly the chemical resistance against all the fuel components I need, however I could not find any (easily available) option to seal the print after printing and after printing a small test container and pouring in some water it leaks after half a minute, so unless I find a way to seal the Nylon containers interior this is also not an option.
I checked various epoxies but the few that I checked all showed poor resistance against methanol/nitromethane.
What I could not test yet but seems like an option is using HDPE. I am using PET bottles to transport the fuel sometimes so it definitely is both resistant and - in theory - watertight, however I am not sure how I can seal an HDPE print, so I am not sure about my first requirement with HDPE. EDIT: I found that Limonene dissolves HDPE and is relatively harmless and easily obtainable. Maybe it can be used to seal the HDPE print surface?
Hence my question: Is there a material that can be printed on a regular desktop printer (heated bed, nozzle up to 255°C) that satisfies both my requirements above or am I "doomed" to buy a moulded plastic fuel tank?

Most commercial blow-molded fuel tanks for model airplane fuel (methanol or ethanol, nitromethane or nitroethane, and some combination of castor, mineral, or synthetic lubricating oil) are made from HDPE.  This material isn't commonly seen as filament, in my limited experience, but it ought to be possible to arrive at settings that will give a liquid tight tank without further sealing if you can find some.  As you note, limonene might be used to smooth/seal HDPE prints, but likely won't be necessary if your settings are right.
You might want to test PETG filament for its resistance to your fuel mix(es) -- this material is available as filament, prints with settings little different from generic PLA (in my experience, higher nozzle and bed temperature, and a little more bed clearance for the first layer), with good layer adhesion and, with a good print, is liquid-tight as printed.  It's not particularly flexible (as is the case with HDPE), but since you can customize the shape of your fuel tank, it may work for you -- or it may be more flexible in vase mode, as PLA is.
Sealing PETG may be as simple as baking it (similar to "heat treating" PLA to increase print strength, albeit again at a higher temperature) -- this partial remelting will ensure that layers are adhered throughout the print, which (presuming you have avoided under-extruded areas) should be all that's needed to make a printed tank liquid tight.


3 vs 4 bearings for y axis travel I have a Monoprice Maker Select Plus, where I'm doing the Gulf Coast Robotics carriage plate upgrade. I was watching through an installation video just to find any "gotchas" I might want to watch for, and the guy in video recommends removing one of the carriage bearings, going from 4 to 3. The idea is to get quieter, smoother travels, with less weight on the belt.

Has anyone else here done this for this model printer? Or for the very-similar Maker Select v2/2.1? Are there any downsides I should watch for? Everything I know seems to indicate 3 bearings are just better (the whole "3 points define a plane" thing), but if it's that simple, why go to the cost of shipping with 4?

Ideally you would use three bearings opposed to four. In principle you will only need 3 fixtures to get a stable reference frame. Look at how most Prusa i3 "X" carriages are constructed, they also have just three bearings.

Three bearings are way more easy to line out (especially with tight tolerance bearings), with four bearings you will get binding much more easy than with three.

I've been using three linear (self printed tight tolerance acetal/POM) bearings on the moving bed (Y direction) for quite some time on a Prusa i3 type of printer made from 2040 Aluminium profiles.

A similar reasoning applies to fixating the heated bed/glass slate, only three screws are necessary to define the reference plane. This is how my CoreXY heated bed is connected to the "Z" platform (a slate of glass is perfectly flat as a result of the production process).


Chalk objects: 3D Printed or Molds? I am thinking about making something from chalk. But can chalk be printed into shapes directly or is it better to shape it with printed molds? What kind of material would be suitable for a mold for the chalk so I can ensure the mold releases after the chalk solution cures?

Chalk, as a ceramic substance, could be printed with a paste printer and if the substance can hold its shape during drying for a couple of hours.

It might be easier to use a flexible filament like TPE or TPU to print a mold in which the paste can cure slowly to a point it can be safely removed. These filaments make release easier as one can flex them away from the printed object.

Another option could be vapor smoothed ABS and a tapered shape so that the object has no undercuts and easy paths only. If one adds a pusher rod place, which is closed by a plug during casting the chalk and can remove from the back after casting, removal gets easier as air can flow in from the back through the removed plug. It can also be used to use a pen or similar obect to gently release the item with light taps.


Configure Marlin for tool changing system I am planning to build a CoreXY machine with a tool changing system. I am using Marlin firmware and BigTreeTech SKR PRO as the controller board. There are 3 options in Marlin for tool changing systems:

Switching tool head
Magnetic switching tool head
Electromagnetic switching tool head

I want to use the switching tool head in my project using a servo/stepper motor. So I have 2 questions:

Should I use a servo or stepper motor? Which one does the board and firmware support?
Where should I connect the servo/stepper on the SKR PRO and what should the value of SWITCHING_TOOLHEAD_SERVO_NR be?

Note: I am also using a BLTouch leveling sensor So I can't connect the servo to the BLTouch servo port.
Edit: After so much research, finally, I found the way to do this. For the first question, Servo is the best choice.
First, we need to configure tool change x and y position and servo rotation angle in configuration.h file and leave SWITCHING_TOOLHEAD_SERVO_NR as it is. Also, uncomment #define NUM_SERVOS and set it to 2.Then we need to open Marlin\src\pins\stm32f4\pins_BTT_SKR_PRO_common.h file and in the Servos section, add the following line:
#define SERVO1_PIN                          PC9

In the end, connect the servo signal pin to the PC9 pin on extension 1 and the VCC and GND pin to the pins next to the PC9 pin that are GND and 5V.
Note: I haven't tested this because I don't have this board. If this way doesn't work, please tell me in comments.

Use a servo. This way you can use the digital pins to control it; or in your specific case PWM_PC9
Connect it to the expansion port and configure one of the digital pins in the marlin configuration file. A servo will go to the minimum position when the pin goes low, and the max position when the pin goes high. I take it you don't need any stops in between since you're doing a tool changer.

If you figure out how to modify the code to support tool changing, I'd be interested to know as well.


What is Thermal Runaway Protection? What is Thermal Runaway Protection (TRP) and why should I enable it?

How does one do so in Marlin?

What is TRP and how does it work?

Thermal runaway protection is basically self-explaining; it is protection against the temperature getting out of control. Essentially, the firmware checks whether the measured output of the thermistor (What is a thermistor? A thermistor is basically a temperature sensor; it is an electrical component (more specific: a resistor) that has a large reduction of its resistance when heated; it is frequently used for measurement and control as you can link the resistance to the temperature via a table or a curve) is within an expected range for a certain target value within a certain time frame when heating the hotend or the heated bed.

E.g. When you request the hotend or heated bed to a certain temperature, the heater elements are being scheduled/switched on to increase the temperature. If the temperature increase as a result of scheduling the hotend or heated bed are not met in time (settings in the firmware configuration), the printer will halt and heating of the heater elements will stop. The printer needs to be reset after such a failure.

What triggers TRP?

Common problems that trigger the thermal runaway protection are:

a faulty thermistor,
an incorrectly placed thermistor (e.g. not making good enough contact with the heater block),

including falling out

a loose heater cartridge,

including falling out

faulty connectors,
faulty or partially broken wires,
basically, anything that interrupts either heating or the measurement of the signal.

Why should TRP be active?

Thermal runaway protection is mainly meant to prevent fire hazards by stopping the heater cartridge when it might have fallen out of the heater block and is trying to set the whole surroundings on fire.

To illustrate the point: This happens if Thermal Runaway Protection is disabled, and the associated story. Luckily this one did not result in a loss of life and home, but it could have - and the owner was able to do some forensic examination on what caused the fire.

How to activate TRP in Marlin firmware?

Please make sure that you have the configuration lines in the Thermal Runaway Protection section (466-485) of your Configuration.h file uncommented (no // in front of the lines starting with #define THERMAL_...).

//===========================================================================
//======================== Thermal Runaway Protection =======================
//===========================================================================

/**
 * Thermal Protection provides additional protection to your printer from damage
 * and fire. Marlin always includes safe min and max temperature ranges which
 * protect against a broken or disconnected thermistor wire.
 *
 * The issue: If a thermistor falls out, it will report the much lower
 * temperature of the air in the room, and the the firmware will keep
 * the heater on.
 *
 * If you get "Thermal Runaway" or "Heating failed" errors the
 * details can be tuned in Configuration_adv.h
 */

#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_HOTENDS // Enable thermal protection for all extruders
#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_BED     // Enable thermal protection for the heated bed

Note that Marlin 2.x has an additional protection for the heating chamber:

#define THERMAL_PROTECTION_CHAMBER // Enable thermal protection for the heated chamber

This should generally be enough to enable TRP on your printer, fine tuning can be done by changing the time constant and the temperature increase in the file Configuration_adv.h in the section:

//===========================================================================
//=============================Thermal Settings  ============================
//===========================================================================

However, it is advised to not change these values unless you are absolutely certain; e.g. if your heating cartridge is not powerful enough and you are getting printer halts. When getting false-positive printer halts according to the Marlin firmware you could:

* If you get false positives for "Thermal Runaway", increase
* THERMAL_PROTECTION_HYSTERESIS and/or THERMAL_PROTECTION_PERIOD

How to test if TRP is active on my printer?

To test if thermal runaway protection is enabled on your printer, you can disconnect the heater element of the hotend or the heated bed while printing a print or sending temperature commands to the printer over USB using a terminal to send commands directly to the printer. You can disconnect the heater element while the printer is cold (before start) and also when the heater element is heating up. No heating of the nozzle will take place, so after the period defined by the time constant set in the firmware, the printer will halt if thermal runaway protection is enabled. Power down the machine and reconnect the wires, it is not advised to put them back in on a running machine, as one might touch the open wires; when the printer halted, you should power down or reset the printer anyways. If the printer did not halt, power it down as quickly as possible - TRP is disabled.

Further Considerations

Besides activating thermal runaway protection, it is always a good idea to install a smoke detector and a fire extinguisher in the surroundings of the 3D printer: the smoke detector over it, the extinguisher within arms reach of the door leading to the room.


Is it necessary to have both hot ends on a dual extruder printer at the same height? I'm thinking of another extruder on my printer, and I'm curious about this one....

Is it necessary to have both hot ends on same height? Why yes / why not? (if there is not)

I have a dual extruder Replicator 1 and having the nozzles at the same height is a must and albeit a bit of a struggle otherwise. At one point, I had to disassemble my extruder head and the nozzles didn't line up quite right. There after, printing with the lower one obviously didn't have any troubles, however, printing with the high extruder made it so the lower extruder would scrape the molten plastic layer. This made my surface finish horrible and almost impossible for support structures to be printed.

Instead of fighting with my stock nozzle assembly to get everything perfectly lined up, I just shimmed the one side with some stacks of paper cutouts. This brought my extruders very close to even.

Also, you'll want to make sure excess plastic is cleaned off of BOTH nozzles when printing with either nozzle. I found that some prints would fail because of a small discharge from a previous print on the other nozzle.


What does a "3 h5" mean in reference to the axle of a motor? Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask, but it seemed like the most relevant stackexchange.

I want to print a connection from a motor to an omniwheel, the axle of the wheel is listed as 8mm, but the one of the motor only say "3h5" which isn't really helpful for me, and neither was Google.

Side-question: Would pla be sturdy enough or do I need to use abs?

I think it's a reference to a tolerance. Look at this ISO table. This States that the nominal diameter of 3mm is held to a tolerance of +-0.004mm.

@DarthPixel provided some great links identifying the term interference fit (or press fit as I've heard locally) as described here. Also, here is a better link providing examples of how the tolerance works and more legible tables to reference the correct tolerance. Keep in mind that the units in the tables is in nanometers.


Do you have trouble with 3D printer on UPS during short power outages? Using a Gearman RepRap with Slic3r, printing from an SD card, with an uniterupted power supply (UPS), and both PLA and ABS filaments, short power outages often result in x/y-axis offsets (see image).  During an outage the power is not as clear from a UPS as from a power conditioner.  If both x and y axes offset the results look like Why did my print fall off its raft?.  Are you experiencing these same issues?  Have you solved the issue.

The image above shows an x-axis shift that occurred evenly across eight parts distributed across the bed.  The filament was ABS.  The parts still adhered to the bed.  Note: the G-code file normally prints well.  Thus, the file is not corrupt.

Part of your self-answer:

  What is puzzling is why did the 3D printer run as if the computer was still operating it, when is was printing from the SD card? Was the circuitry getting power from the USB cable from the computer?

is more of an extension of the question, which I'll answer. Generally, yes, the logic of many (most?) 3D printers can be powered by the USB connection. You can try it sometime with the printer not plugged in to the AC power source at all. Under such a power configuration, the motors (not to mention the heating elements) should not operate at all, and I think the firmware has logic to detect this condition and not try to print under it, but I may be mistaken. However, in any case, in the event of an outage during printing, the logic board will remain powered if it's connected by USB, and especially if the outage is short enough, it might not even notice that the motors and heating elements are not functioning, yielding a result like what you saw.


Is it practical to build a separate hotend temperature controller to assemble hotends without taking up printer time? One could make such a controller with 3D printer parts and building a case for them, but is it significantly less than just buying a compatible low-cost printer.  The intent is to heat up the all-metal hot end to tighten the nozzle to the heater break.

You can get a suitable board for $20 or so, print a case for a few cents, and either repurpose an old PC power supply or buy a new one just powerful enough for the hotend (not bed) heater very cheap, so I think it's a lot less costly than a cheap printer, and cobsumes less space. But I'm not clear what you need it for.


Extra data appended to the Y values when issuing `M92` & `M500` I am still trying to dial in my Anet A8.

The Marlin firmware takes too long to scroll through the axis settings when I change them, so I use Repetier Host instead issuing M92 followed by M500.

I noticed in the log window that X goes in as typed but that Y has a *75 after the value i input. Can anybody tell me why/what it is for? I suspect I know what it does just no idea why it is doing it.

*75 is the checksum value, (a method for verifying the integrity of the transmitted information).

RepRap wiki gcode : checksum

There is probably an option to not use/disable checksum generation in repetier/slicers, however this may only be advantageous for use with code run from the sdcard as it is extra processing (and probably less relevant when not being transmitted over serial connection. )


Ender-3 Pro - PLA mid-layer warping (layer separation) - salvageable? I just got into 3D printing with an Ender-3 Pro. The test dog printed great, some custom small/thin objects printed good, and now I tried my first big object.
Designed in Tinkercad (link to my (updated) design), exported to .stl, sliced and printed using Cura 4.5.0 with the default 0.2 mm profile (3 layers wall thickness) and 100% infill (for strength), with the extruder at 200 °C and bed at 50 °C. Ambient temperature had been 25-ish °C.
The filament is a brand-new Spectrum Premium PLA (Arctic White). On its box it says it prints at 185-215 °C.
So I got this:

The top (thinner) sections look OK-ish (there are some visible lines, but meh), but the transition from the bottom sections (thick) to the top has terrible layer separation and warping problems. One side of the base is actually barely holding together when I'm holding it. There is also a smaller problem mid-way at that side of the base, but it's not catastrophic.

Why did that happen? What did I do wrong? How can I print it again and get it nice and strong?

2) I have a handheld "3D print pen". If I use it to fill the gaps manually, how strong will the part be? The part is meant to "hug" the iPad charging port, so that you can hold the iPad in the bed while charging, without pressing the cable on your body and damaging it. nvm that

Using wall thickness of 4, layer height 0.16 mm, 30% infill and 205 °C extruder, this is my (successful) result.

One hundred percent infill is not necessarily stronger than lower values. By having such a high infill figure, the forces on the model as it cools are magnified and not in a particularly good manner.

Consider that you could use twenty to thirty percent infill to get the strength you require for this application, saving filament and time for the print. You've not noted how many wall layers used, but for increased strength, four to five would make for a very strong model.


Can general purpose polystryene (not HIPS) be used for 3D printing? High Impact PolyStyrene (HIPS) is a frequently used filament in 3D printing.  It has been touted to have simular properties when printed to ABS and is especially useful for support structures (if the user has a multi-nozzle 3d Printer) as it is soluble in Limonene.

General Purpose PolyStyrene (GPPS) is frequently used in disposible cups, cutlery, etc.  I don't believe I have seen it as a 3D printing filament.  This is not styrofoam for the purpose of this question despite the identical chemical properties as the incorperated air makes it difficult to recycle.

Would filament produced from GPPS, be usable on most FFF 3D printers that are capable of using ABS, PLA, and HIPS? Are that any particular issues observed with such filaments that would not be observed with HIPS (besides the implied decrease in impact resistance)?

Note: For the purpose of this question, I am assuming that the filament can be produced and am concerned about whether the filament would be usable for support structures and infill.

In principle, it should work fine as a filament, since it's used extensively in the plastic extrusion industry, but I don't think you'd get great material properties out of it. ABS and HIPS incorporate polybutadiene into a graft polymer structure for a very good reason: the butadiene sections in the long molecular chains kind of "stick together" as a distinct solid phase to produce what amounts to micro-bubbles of rubber inside a matrix of hard styrene or acrylonitrile-styrene plastic. This compound microstructure is what gives HIPS and ABS favorable impact toughness and some minor flexibility.

The flexibility is important -- the stiffer a filament is, the more it will tend to warp while printing. Based on chemistry alone, I would expect styrene to be somewhat more prone to warping than ABS. And it would certainly be more brittle. So there doesn't seem to be much reason to use it as filament.

Interesting sidenote: PLA/PHA has very favorable mechanical properties because the PHA forms a very similar flexible microstructure inside the hard PLA matrix. PLA/PHA is good stuff because it mimics ABS and HIPS!


Is it possible to make a hermetic sealed 3D Printed case? I am wondering if making an hermetic box is feasible using 3D printer. The box would be a cube with a front face removable, with screw and sealing joint to close it.
I searched for different materials, however, none talks about hermiticity. (However, I found a product that seems to improve water resistance of 3D printed items here, which might be a starting point)

Does anyone have experienced to make hermetic things ? I am specially interested in carbon fiber reinforced materials.

A few thoughts that might help...

Material:

ABS can be vapor smoothed with Acetone which results in the layers sort of "melting" together to form a smoother, and less porous surface.
Other plastics can be smoothed with compatible solvents, but I've not tried solvent smoothing with anything other than ABS.  Be careful if you try.

Print Method:

Consider slightly higher print temps to increase layer adhesion.  You'll likely have to compensate with extra retraction to avoid excessive stringing.
Consider more perimeter layers and more top/bottom layers.
The CF materials are stiffened with chopped CF strands...I think it's a stretch to call them "reinforced" unless you happen to have a Markforged printer or similar.

Sealants: This is probably your best bet.

Epoxy: Generally considered effective for producing hermetically sealed containers.  Dip or brush on.  Mind your VOC's and pay attention to working time.
Plasti-dip or similar sealants: These may be good enough for your application and result in a rubbery coating over your part.  Good for water sealing, and may be close enough to hermetically sealed for your needs.

Design:

To mechanically seal the opening, there are many options depending on your requirements.  O-rings, gaskets, etc.  If you use a rubberized dip, you may be able to skip the gasket.  You could install a few threaded inserts around the perimeter of the opening, put in the screws, then dip.  After drying, you slice around the screw and remove it (this just keeps the coating out of your threads)  Dip the cover as well.  Then when you screw on the cover, it will provide a water-tight seal.  To help make a good seal, apply a silicone grease to the mating surface.

I hope this helps.  :-)


Tronxy X5S-400 Marlin stuck at splash-screen I got a Tronxy X5S-400, I assembled it and when I power it on, I see on the screen one of the below images and gets stuck there.

Is the firmware broken? If yes, where can I get a configuration.h file?

I verified that the two buses between the screen and the mainboard are not loose or incorrectly connected.

The board is a MKS Melzi v2.0 clone

It looked like the firmware wasn't flashed correctly in the factory. What I did was to flash a bootloader using an Arduino compatible board and to flash the Marlin software e.g. according to videos from this guy.

Next, the menu wasn't displayed correctly so I added, in the Configuration.h the following lines:

#define ST7920_DELAY_1 DELAY_NS(63)
#define ST7920_DELAY_2 DELAY_NS(100)
#define ST7920_DELAY_3 DELAY_NS(125)

Now the display is working fine, and the Marlin firmware can be directly flashed from the computer because the bootloader remains there.

I also had a problem with the heating bed which was heating very slow and I had to raise consistently the TEMP_BED_RESIDENCY_TIME and decrease TEMP_BED_HYSTERESIS to 1.


What is causing this "ribbed" texture on my circular prints? I am having this problem with my printer. It doesn't print smooth circular objects. The objects are typically "ribbed" or ridged... never smooth. I am not sure how to fix this.

I have tried fixing it in Meshmixer, I've tried Sli3r (I normally use Cura 2.7). I've tried turning down acceleration as low as it will go (500 in my printer's case), tried slowing down the actual print and travel speeds. Short of just replacing the dang thing (not an option at all), I have no idea what to do... I'm at a total loss for words here.

My printer is a TronXY P802MA. Auto Level, runs Marlin firmware. I use Octoprint as my print server. The picture shows the odd texture. It's at the bottom of this particular model. For some reason, within the pictured model, the problem isn't reproduced in the partial spheres.

Any deviation from smoothness is caused by irregularity in the material feed, the motion, or both.  In this case, I would suggest both.

The problem is that current 3D printer control firmware (If someone has a counter-example in the hobbiest space, please add it) prints in linear segments.  This starts as @senthil-j-prakash shows in the conversion of the CAD object to an STL file.  STL files are made of triangles, which are linear structures.  There is no curvature in a triangle, only straight edges and flat faces.  Making the triangles as small as possible helps, but it exacerbates the next problem.

The second problem is that each line segment is passed as a separate command to the control firmware.  No matter if this is stored on an SD card, or transmitted through USB from the PC to the control firmware, each command defines a short, linear movement.  In an ideal world, the printer would precisely reproduce each of this short, linear motions, which would flow smoothly from one to the next.

Unfortunately, the "flowing smoothly" part is difficult to implement, and in some cases isn't actually what you want.  If the angle between segments is sharp enough, you don't want to round the corner.  When printing approximations to circles, however, one could move continuously, if the commands were sent enough ahead to analyze, and the firmware were clever enough to combine two segments into one smooth, curving motion.

This computation is very difficult to perform on an 8-bit microcontroller, and historically has not been done.

I am using a 32-bit ARM microcontroller and the RepRap firmware, which also does not smoothly merge motion between two low-angle linear motions into one smoother motion.

But, it's not just merging two into one.  One must merge a long series of short, linear moves into a long sequence of curved moves.  We could be doing motion planning based on splines rather than segments.

But then, we need to cap how much the control processor may change the path because the slicing software needs to predict very closely where each extruded element will lie. Adjacent elements (additional perimeters and infill) must be placed to touch those elements for bonding and strength.  if the control processor has moved an element too far, it could either not connect with, or interfere with, an element that is placed later.

But, enough of that rant about the technical difficulties.

For your particular machine, it is likely to be moving in fits and starts because of the short, linear commands.  Anything you do that improves the print quality will help with the ribs, and make them look more like facets.

Check the belt tension, the backlash, and the stiffness of the whole machine.  Try using slower speed and acceleration settings.  If you are printing from a PC through USB or the network, try printing from an SD card.  (If printing from an SD card, try printing over USB or the network).

Good luck, and keep printing!  Tell others of your experiences.


How to properly use Polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam with the heated bed? From what I understand, it takes a really long time for the heated bed to heat up using an MK2a heated bed.  I've heard some people suggest that using Polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam (insulation that takes quite a bit of heat to catch on fire) can be used under the headed bed to make it heat up faster.

Now of course there are other methods for doing this too, for instance using a larger power supply, but at this point I'd rather just use the parts that I have without re-soldering many of the components on the RAMPS board.

I was wondering what a proper way to attach this to the bed would be for instance, should the springs go on the bottom or on the top of the bed?  Do I need some extra parts?  Are there any other considerations for doing this?

An alternative solution that is used with some Kossel Mini models, is a simple cardboard covered with aluminum tape (docs).

This solution has the added benefit of actually improving heat-up time, since the reflective surface of the aluminum tape reflects the heat back into the bed, instead of getting absorbed.

It is also a very simple solution, without costly materials. I guess mounting it properly could be an issue depending on your printer, but this is a fine solution for the Kossel models, at least.


Is it ok for stepper motors to be hot? I have been running my i3 MK3 for about 12 hours now and the motor on the extruder is fairly hot, not too hot to touch but I'd guess its about 60c on the outside. Is this within normal operating temperatures or should I let it cool down before starting more prints?

The maximum operating temperature can be found in the specifications of your steppers. Usually the ambient temperature operating conditions are limited to 50 °C with a maximum operating temperature in the range of 70 - 100 °C. For instance, the steppers I use are limited to a temperature of 80 °C. It is however advised to keep this temperature lower, e.g. to max. 60 °C to prolong the life. Do note that very high temperatures could be a problem for "self-printed" stepper mounts of the wrong material (materials with a low glass transition temperature).

To answer your question: "Yes, steppers may get hot, but if you want them to get too hot is up to the mounting system and how long you want to use them."


What glues to use for PETG? In analogy to: "What glues for PLA?", what are the best glues to use for PETG?

I mostly print in PETG and have occasional failed prints which I usually reprint. But what if I'd like to repair a print e.g. a split between layers or a part broken off?

Knowing that PETG is more "greasy" than PLA, what typical glues can you use to create a good bond; this question excludes using heat to (re-)bond.

From  forum

  Bison plastic - works great for me, only it's not "quick dry" but it's very strong, not brittle, holds PETG and PLA very strongly.
  Buy paint stripper that is/contains methylene chloride (dichloromethane). It will solvent weld both PLA and PETG.

Or see  other forum  which recommends Eastman-910 (original brand of cyanoacrylate) or any equivalent, polyurethane glue, or even epoxy.


Nozzle always "randomly" moves to 0 during print, then resumes I recently bought an Anet A8 (https://pevly.com/anet-a8-3d-printer-review/). I've managed to get everything up and running, leveled the board, but am now running into a problem.

At the start of the print, the printer moves to 0,0,0, bumps into the switches a couple times (I assume to calibrate or so?), and then starts "printing". But the nozzle "randomly" moves to either an X of 0 or an Y of 0 before returning to the printing position. This movement seems to pull off any basis the printer managed to lay down, which then forms a nice "ball" on the nozzle, to which the rest gets stuck. (I'm still having some other issues with getting the filament to stick to the bed, but there's plenty I still have to try out for that.)

During one attempt of printing a very simple small cube, I carefully pulled the filament "ball" from the nozzle while it did one of those movements to X 0, and afterwards it managed to lay down the bottom layer perfectly fine. This causes me to believe those movements are the biggest problem I'm facing right now.

After it did the first layer, it moved up a bit, moved to X 0, back to the model, and got stuck on a piece of plastic that was standing upwards.

These movements seem to happen at around the same phase in the print, and happen quite consistently. Is this normal behavior? If so, how do I make sure the filament does not get pulled off during these weird movements? If not, how do I get rid of them?

(No, not a duplicate of Printer randomly moves to home during printing, then resumes as normal as I print directly from PC.)

Edit to add more information:

I use Cura 3.0.4 for printing, the stock Anet A8 firmware, and am attempting to print the cube model that comes with Windows 10. (Yes, I've tried different models, same result.)

I seem to have more issues, in the video it's visible that the feeding does not seem to work too great, but I think the random movements are the most clear and biggest problem right now, so I should tackle that first.

In Cura I've used the Pruisa I3 printer, with the following G-codes:

G21 ;metric values
G90 ;absolute positioning
M82 ;set extruder to absolute mode
M107 ;start with the fan off
G28 X0 Y0 ;move X/Y to min endstops
G28 Z0 ;move Z to min endstops
G29
G1 Z15.0 F9000 ;move the platform down 15mm
G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length
G1 F200 E3 ;extrude 3mm of feed stock
G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length again
G1 F9000
M117 Printing...

and end

M104 S0 ;extruder heater off
M140 S0 ;heated bed heater off (if you have it)
G91 ;relative positioning
G1 E-1 F300  ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressure
G1 Z+0.5 E-5 X-20 Y-20 F9000 ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even more
G28 X0 Y0 ;move X/Y to min endstops, so the head is out of the way
M84 ;steppers off
G90 ;absolute positioning

(Yes, I added in the G29 in the start code manually, as I bought the official auto-leveling sensor. I'm not sure if it works though, but I read somewhere that I might need a different version of the firmware to support it properly.)

And here's a video showing what my printer does do exactly. It started printing from the center in this case, it seems to randomly either move to the middle or to 0,0,0 when I abort the print.

I see two problems in your video:

It looks like the first layer is built too much upwards. (The level calibration should be so that a Z-height of 0 can barely fit a sheet of paper under the nozzle. )
Your printer is not extruding at all. As you said, the extrusion has some problems. Extrusion problems will cause adhesion problems too.


I need an acetone substitute Acetone is banned in my country, and I cannot get it.

What substitute could I use?

The answer really depends on what you are using it for. Is it for dissolving ABS? A quick google search should show you what you want.

The thread, Could you recommend me a suitable alternative to acetone as solvent?, has a good many points that are worth considering:

For example, you may need to consider the Polarity Index

  Burdick & Jackson solvents are arranged in order of increasing
  polarity index, a relative measure of the degree of interaction of the
  solvent with various polar test solutes.

If you are using it to dissolve a polymer other than ABS, then the family/class of polymer may need to be considered:

  Apart from your desired solvent qualities (non-flammability and low boiling point), the choice will be totally dependent on the family/ class which the polymer  belongs. Based on the principal that 'like dissolves like, the attached document will provide you with good ideas on which solvent to use when a particular repeating unit of the polymer is involved.

Butanone is a possibility:

  One alternative is butanone (button-2-one) - this is similar to acetone, but has a much higher boiling point. It is often used for alkylations etc. It has a boiling point of 79-80°C compared to 56°C of acetone.

or NMP:

  N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) can be used. It is a polar aprotic solvent and dissolves many polymers. It has high boiling point ( >200 degree centigrade)  It is soluble in water and easy to dispose which is a great advantage during work up of reactions.

However, some other alternative chemicals are listed here (from Any good alternative to Acetone?:

Butyl alcohol
methyl isobutyl keytone (MIBK)
denatured alcohol
MEK (methyl,ethyl,ketone), i.e. Kleen-Strip MEK Alternative
Ethyl Acetate

Some branded items, from Alternatives to Acetone:

  Surfasolve

    Surfasolve is a 100 percent biodegradable acetone replacement that removes adhesives, degreases tools and works as a resin solvent.
    Surfasolve is a non-regulated product.

  Bio-Solv

    Bio-Solv is an acetone replacement that is 100 percent biodegradable. It is not deemed a hazmat, so shipping will not cost
    you more. This acetone alternative is not listed on California
    Proposition 65, a law passed in 1986 to keep substances that cause
    cancer and birth defects out of drinking water. Nevertheless, you want
    to use Bio-Solv in a well-ventilated area because of an unpleasant
    odor. It is not, however, a hazardous air pollutant. Bio-Solv is not
    petroleum based.

  Replacetone

    Replacetone is another acetone alternative. It is nonflammable and nonvolatile. It can be used as an acetone or MEK (methyl ethyl ketone,
    an industrial solvent) replacement that is biodegradable. Both
    Replacetone and Bio-Solv are referred to as green acetone.

  Methyl Acetate

    Methyl acetate is offered as an acetone replacement. Manufactured by the Eastman Chemical Company, it is utilized in industrial
    applications. It is biodegradable, volatile organic compound exempt
    and non-HAP (hazardous air pollutant)

Important note

However, some of these items may also be banned in your country, so check first. As you do not say which country that you are from, it is not possible to qualify this statement.

It is worth remembering that some of these substances are not as safe as acetone, and the fumes may be more toxic, so they should always be used in well ventilated spaces.


creating support for a surface I created an stl file of bathymetry using Matlab and the results can be seen in the two pictures below in Blender. The problem I have is that it is very thin with overhangs. I would like to add some kind of support. For example put a solid block underneath it like in the third picture.

I can't seem to figure out how to do this in Blender and if I try to fix the stl file in Blender it puts a surface through my original surface. I also tried to use Microsoft 3D printing repair but it takes hours to queue.
How to I change my stl file so it has enough support to be printed?

You generated a simple surface. You do however need a closed body to print. You might get away with using that surface as a cutter for a block and removing the top half, but there is an easier way using blender:

Select the whole ara with A
Extrude with E then Z to constrain direction
pull until you have an item that is fully thick everywhere
Scale the currently selected, extruded vertices with S then Z then 0 to force them all into the same plane
possibly move the vertices down till they all are below the bottom surface

Now you have a positive thickness, solid body! Run a simple "remove double vertices" on this bottom if you want to reduce file size, but there you go! Export as STL and print!


Which common 3D printing materials/methods will suitably replicate (w.r.t. durability) this injection molded Polypropylene item? Note: Before any negative flagging, we asked permission on Meta prior to posting & got a YES: Could this Printing Material Recommendation Question be or shaped to be valid on 3D SE?

Which common 3D printing materials/methods will suitably replicate (with durability) this injection molded Polypropylene item?

Item to replicate via 3D Printing:
Club Handle - 5/6 image album (a few images are attached below as well)

Physics, Mechanics & Forces in play on object:
Usage Intent is not to create an Impact or Hit but to Flow in Circular motion like this: YouTube - 10 Best Indian Club Exercises

Item with PCO 28 PET Threading
20 cm Length - Avg. 28 mm Diameter

Instead of me trying to figure out materials, I seek advice from experienced experts here.

Please advise and suggest on materials:

Ideal top 3 materials recommended/ most suitable for this item?
Other top 3 materials that are easier to get through "Entities" on 3dHubs?
Add Thought: Is "negative" printing is the way to go (Sculpting, lathe, threading, CNC types)?

Note: The immediate answer people gave was to use PP printing, however I am looking for alternatives because PP printing is not common or easy to find nearby and expensive.

Self Homework:

So I looked through these material guides which show different attributes and ratings for various parameters:

Print-ability
Strength
Stiffness
Durability
Price

For example, Polypropylene - Simplify3D - Polypropylene

Polypropylene is great for high-cycle, low strength applications due to its fatigue resistance, semi-flexible, and lightweight characteristics.

Entire Material Lists looked at:

Simplify3D - Ultimate 3D Printing Materials Guide
Tinkercad - 3D Printing Materials Guide
All3DP - 2018 3D Printing Materials Guide
3DPrinting.com - 3D Printer Materials Guide
Shapeways - Materials for every stage of any project

No FDM print at all.
The problem of your design will not be the materials, but a basic property of FDM printing: FDM Printers do create a structure by placing a long string of filament next to itself and ontop of itself, creating tons of boudaries.
These boundaries between the layers are the weak points for this application: Even if the material like ABS could withstand the blow handled with such a club, the print will break at its weakest point - which in this case is any layer boundary. This is amplyfied by the basic design we have here: The elongated shape will serve as a lever on each of the weak boundries, until one gives way and results in catastrophic failure and a flying clubhead.
Non-FDM for the rescue.
To counteract this, you need to use a different method than FDM printing to get a more homogenous material than the bound deposited filament. Such methods could be for example SLA (Stereolithography) or SLS (Selective Laser Sintering). Both could easily offer even tiny details.
SLS uses Nylon or metal powders, sometimes even ceramics - Tungstencarbide for example.
SLA/Resin
Using a Resin printer using the SLA methods results in an object almost as homogenous as an injecion molded object. Proper aftercare and curing is required to get the best results. Also, Resin prints usually age under UV light, which can negatively impact lifetime. SLA printers are expensive (for home printers), print shops that offer them relatively rare and costly (in comparison to FDM) but usually offer superb resolution and almost perfect smoothness. A lot of the exact material properties is resin and aftercare dependant.
A way around the aging could be that the results of an SLA print could be used to create green-sand molds countless times, which can be used for casting metal or even some thermoplastics. Remember though, that cooling metal shrinks.
SLS Nylon
Nylon would be a medium rigid, light solution, but it ages and has a quite rough surface. It does offer some flex, almost perfect for this application. While most SLS machines for nylon are commercial to industrial, print technology of this kind is widespread enough to make them somewhat affordable (for an industrial printer) and printshops for these relatively common, prints are not cheap but well priced.
DMLS / SLM
Direct Metal Laser Sintering and Selective Laser Melting - an evolution of SLS - allows to create structures from various metals by sintering/melting powders of metal at the right spot to gain shape. The benefit would be, that you get a part that could withstand much more destructive testing than your bottle used as a clubhead - you get a workpiece of solid metal (Steel, aluminium, Titanium and a lot others are available) after all that has the same properties as a cast item. The big downside is, that only few companies currently delve into DMLS, among them the former patent holder of many of the FDM printing patents, Stratasys. This means, that a machine for this is industrial rated and priced, and that print suppliers charge accordingly.


Problem with swapping E0 for E1 (TEVO TARANTULA MARLIN 1.1.x) Looking at the following code, from Line 139, pins_RAMPS.h

Here is the actual code:

#if ENABLED(EXTRUDER_USE_E1)
  #define E0_STEP_PIN        36
  #define E0_DIR_PIN         34
  #define E0_ENABLE_PIN      30
  #ifndef E0_CS_PIN
    #define E0_CS_PIN        44
  #endif
#else
  #define E0_STEP_PIN        26
  #define E0_DIR_PIN         28
  #define E0_ENABLE_PIN      24
  #ifndef E0_CS_PIN
  #define E0_CS_PIN        42
  #endif
#endif

#if DISABLED(X_AXIS_USE_E1) && DISABLED(Y_AXIS_USE_E1) && DISABLED(Z_AXIS_USE_E1) && DISABLED(EXTRUDER_USE_E1)
  #define E1_STEP_PIN        36
  #define E1_DIR_PIN         34
  #define E1_ENABLE_PIN      30
  #ifndef E1_CS_PIN
  #define E1_CS_PIN        44
  #endif
#endif

I've already tried everything that the online community tells me to do to solve this problem, but that all doesn't help me. Almost everyone is saying that I just have to swap these lines of code and it will work, but it's not working. Any ideas ?

By the way E0 is not working because I've burnt a pot on it :)

At first it was unclear from where the snippet you posted is taken from as it was not stated in the question (this has now been addressed by a moderator edit).

Depending on the value of EXTRUDER_USE_E1 (and where and how it is set) the underlying code of the if statement will be carried out. Albeit said, swapping lines will not work, if you want to use the E1 connector of your motherboard, you have to make the printer think that it is using the E0 while it is redirecting to E1! This implies that you need to assign the pins of the E1 to the E0 extruder (so swap the pins, not the lines). This has been explained before in this topic by editing the correct pin layout file of the Marlin firmware.

EDIT : Further investigation shows that you have a custom Marlin for the TEVO Tarantula and are using the fork of Marlin maintained by JimBrown (this is essential information for your question). I have looked into the files, the only thing you would need to do is define the constant EXTRUDER_USE_E1 in your configuration.h file:

//#define EXTRUDER_USE_E1

to:

#define EXTRUDER_USE_E1

So do not swap anything. Once this constant is defined, the pin re-allocation is done for you automatically! (see the pins_RAMPS.h file)

Basically, this is exactly the same as is explained in topic How to change E0 to E1 on Marlin 1.1? and hence a duplicate. ;)


Bad quality at horizontal faces I'm newbie at this stackexchange and I have a "FlashForge Finder"; lately there are many problems with the horizontal surfaces quality (Bottom and Top at the same time).

As some issue guides suggests, I changed: number of solid layers, % of filling and extrusion multiplier; I use "Flashprint", so some concepts must be translated from Cura in the options menu.

P.S: All filaments are PLA.

Without any change:

After all changes (the "best")

My settings for last black disk:

This could be caused by under extrusion, often caused by the bed being too close to the hot end / extruder nozzle. You could try to relevel the bed, or change the screws so that the bed moves down slightly. Often when levelling, you want to feel slight resistance when sliding a piece of paper between the bed an the nozzle. You should do this for all 4 corners. Be careful though, you dont want the bed too far away from the nozzle, or problems maybe arise with the print not sticking to the bed.

Hope this helps, Luke.


Prusa i3 Stopping midprint I am trying to print an earbud holder with my Prusa i3. About an hour though the 3-hour print I left the printer for about 20 minutes and when I came back the printer stopped printing. The printer didn't display any errors on the LCD. The extruder and printing bed all cooled down but the z-axis didn't raise so the nozzle was stuck to the print. What could cause the printer to stop printing?

There's really no telling why that happened if you weren't there to observe it.

A possibility is a temporary power outage, which would stop and reset the printer without any trace of it having happened. Even if there was not a power outage, maybe there was a temporary dip in power that caused the power supply to be unable to supply the required voltage (or perhaps the power supply was of poor quality to begin with and suffered some issue that caused the voltage to drop).

Another possibility is that you were printing via a computer, and the computer rebooted during the print. If this is not the case and you were printing via an SD card, maybe the SD card became corrupted and the printer read some invalid G-code and reset itself (though this latter case would probably come with some indication of a fault on the LCD).


Printer is over extruding for the first few layers I'm facing a strange issue where my printer is over-extruding only for the first 6-8 layers (layer height of 0.2 mm).
All the layers above that have no such issue, which, as far as I understand, rules out any extrusion settings misconfiguration.
Also, I'd like to note that the hotbed is perfectly leveled, and the first layer is not too thin.
What could be causing this?

My setup:

Printer: Creality CR-10S Pro
Filament: eSun PLA
Hotbed temp: 60 °C
Hotend temp: 210 °C
Infill: 20 %
Layer height: 0.2 mm
Nozzle Size: 0.4 mm
Speed: 60 mm/s

Depending on your slicer, there might be settings that modify the flow ratio, First layer height or extrusion width for the first few layers. If those are different from the modifiers for the rest of the print you might be able to play around with these variables.


How can you prevent the build plate from slipping? I have just set up my new 3D printer. However, the build plate keeps slipping while printing. I tried to use binder clips to keep the plate in place, but this makes the build plate unlevel, messing up my prints. What are some other ways to prevent the build plate from slipping. I was considering using duct tape, but am not sure whether this would work.

I use kapton tape to fixate the glass plates to the heated beds on two of my printers, one a Prusa i3 clone, the other a CoreXY. The tape is able to withstand higher temperatures, and is very thin, so it doesn't have the drawbacks of limiting the print area or high chance the nozzle hitting the clips.


Useless head movements in PrusaSlicer I love PrusaSlicer but I am having a problem.
As you can see in the picture the head makes movements that seem useless
(blue lines that come out of the print in the corners and go back instantly in the object) and these make damages to the object during the print.

How to configure PrusaSlicer so that doesn't happen again ?
Thank you.
Edit : Thank you for your answers but I think we have a misunderstanding. I already have z-hop activated, the real problem is that the slicer makes the head move outside the print (that's what you can see on the first screenshot, every blue line crossing the print shouldn't exist).
I actually don't have this problem with curaengine on repetierhost as you can see in the following screenshot :

I found the solution :
It was the option "avoid crossing perimeters" that seems to do exactly the contrary of what it means.
Thank you all for your answers.


3DBenchy's bow prints out of alignment I'm new to 3D printing, but I've solved all of my problems except for this rough surface shown in the image of a Benchy  print:

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Printer (new): Raptor 2 (400x400x700 mm)
Bed Temp: 65 °C
Extruder Temp: 210 °C
Filament: PLA (1.75 mm) right out of the package (came with printer from
Formbot)
200 degrees extruder; 60-degree hotbed - print success, bow issue
persists. speed: 100
fade height: 0
nozzle: 200
bed: 60
fan speed: 255
flow: 100 probe offset: -1.4

You print too hot and probably with not enough cooling. These typical defects are caused by too much heat input into your model. You see this best at the overhang of the bow of Benchy, it should be smooth like the bottom part of the side of your Benchy. It clearly shows heat induced defects. Lower the temperature at least 10 °C. Know that PLA usually is printable at about 190 °C, also 65 °C for the hotbed is quite high, Depending on the surface you could aim for a temperature between 50 - 60 °C,


Layer height issues creating partial top layer Cura is slicing my object (a gear with text) with a partial top layer, and I believe it has to do with layer height and rounding issues. I have been able to solve this at specific heights 10-14mm using a layer height of 0.25 mm, however other heights will cause this issue to arise again. There must be a solution to this that doesn't require the user to constantly be adjusting layer height and object height in order to resolve what I perceive to be a rounding issue.

Here is the model:
https://filebin.ca/3f2g2s0dklzR/hackEly_v1.0_joined_text_2.stl

Here are my settings:

Here is the model at a height of 10 mm:
Note the diagonal line, this is the line between two layers.

Here is the model at a height of 13 mm:
Note the diagonal line again, and how it is farther to the right than the 10mm height view.

I don't believe that this is not a non-manifold issue. I have also tested this using a gear without text.

Like I mentioned, I can get rid of that layer division at certain layer heights and object heights (e.g. 0.25mm layer height), but I would like to find out how to get rid of this issue regardless of object/layer height. Thank you for your help.

Your model isn't perfect. I took it into Windows 10 3D Builder for simplicity. I kept clicking the "Mirror" function and noticed as it basically flipped there is some slight movement. I measured some points from bottom to top and noticed some differences.

Try to take your model into some software to fix/flatten it. Or recreate it making sure its perfectly flat on both sides. It is definitely not your Cura software.


Cannot configure default E step for extruder on TH3D I installed the TH3D firmware to my Ender 3 Pro yesterday and today I am trying to configure the extruder rate because I am not using the stock extruder on my printer but have swapped in a BMG extruder. I edited these values and upload it to my board

#define CUSTOM_ESTEPS
//#define REVERSE_E_MOTOR_DIRECTION
#define CUSTOM_ESTEPS_VALUE 415

But these values do not change when I start to print something and because of that I need to edit it manually by going in to tune menu and editing flow to 415. How can I fix this issue?

Initializing

After changing your firmware, you always need to overwrite the old values in the SRAM and EEPROM with those from the Firmware. Which you do with M502 & M500:

  Installing firmware does not by itself alter the EEPROM, so these settings needed to be seeded into SRAM via M502 and then saved into EEPROM via M500.

You could also run a G-code that has only these two lines:

M502
M500

Altering the EEPROM

Via command

Alternatively, you could access the printer via a terminal and send the command M92 E415 to overwrite the SRAM directly, then M500 to save the new setting to EEPROM. The associated G-code that only alters the E-steps/mm would read

M92 E415
M500

Via Software

Or you use a terminal that supports direct alteration of the EEPROM, like Repetier Host.


Pile up objects and attach them for mass 3D printing I'm completely new to 3D-printing. Because of Covid-19, my dad got a Dagoma Magis 3D printer and we are printing protective visors for hospital workers here in France.

We have been given a 3D model that we can simply load on the printer and it works pretty much alone. The 3D-printed part is quite small and very flat so we thought about piling six or seven of them up so we can let the printer work during the night. Then in the morning we would simply have to detach each piece from the pile using pliers. I thought about doing this using Blender (I know nothing about 3D but I've heard Blender is a good tool for that). In fact, I started by posting this question to the Blender stackexchange, which redirected me here.

This is the piece (or two pieces, actually) that I want to pile up.

My strategy would be to extrude small cylinders to the shape from different points and copy and paste the model several times. The end result would look like this:

The yellow bits are the cylinders I want to insert to separate the different parts. So when it is printed, I can simply cut them to separate each visor.

To do this, I think the best way to proceed is the following steps:

Load up the model as I did (imported an STL file)
Add some tiny cylinders (or another shape) on the top of it by extruding them
Copy and paste the shape and move it along the Z axis to pile them up
Fuse everything together and merge it as a single item
Export as STL
Put into 3D printer.

Is that a good strategy? How should I proceed?

I looked up everywhere at how to extrude a cylinder, or copy-paste a shape and attach it together, but in vain. I'm too clueless about Blender to figure how to do this. I could only manage to make a circle spawn at the origin of the plot.

I know stackexchange is mostly for professionals and this is a beginner question, but this is a quite peculiar situation. I really want to do it fast, as the quicker we print the visors, the faster the medical staff can have them.

Also, if you recommend using anything else than Blender, I'm up to anything.

Don't modify the STL to separate the visors with cylinders. The rest of the part is unsupported, so this will give you lots of support structures or, if omitted, a gigant spaghetti print.
Josef Prusa is already printing stacked visors on his print farm overnight.
I would stack the models of a set of visors in my slicer and for each visor added after the first disable "dropping print to the build plate" and position each consecutive visor one layer height (e.g. 0.2 mm) higher than the last layer of the previous, this way you use the previous visor as a raft for the next.

Below, a reference of someone who prints 8 parts stacked (4 high) overnight:

I wanted to be able to print more than just 2 at a time. Specially over the night when everyone is sleeping. I came up with the idea to stack them on top of each other. Instead of 2 you could print 8 during night. If your printer has smaller build plate and you can only print one its also big help for you.
After printing jsut simply peel them away and they will break loose.
Gap between parts is 0.3 mm .


Ender 5 SKR Mini E3 -- After Heating the Hot End Assembly Runs into the side of the printer So I got the SKR mini E3 for my Ender 5 after hearing all the positive reviews.
When it arrives I plug everything in, make sure it's secure and test the axis... they all worked correctly.
I then tested auto home... everything worked.
I then tested the heating... everything worked again.
Finally, I go to do a test print-- it heats up and then homes. When it is finished heating, the hot end assembly starts moving slowly until it goes into the corner and contacts the side of the printer. Obviously, I turned it off right away.
Currently, I am uncertain whether it is a firmware issue, a board issue, or something else? If anyone could please help me solve this, that would be greatly appreciated!

So I found an answer on Reddit when I asked the same question: It actually had to do with the homing -- basically, it was starting at 220, 220 instead of 0,0, which resulted in when the print started for it to head straight into the corner. In order to counter this, I had to change some of the firmware. Everything works now. Thank you for your help!


MOSFET as a safety feature When going through printer reviews, I often see the presence of a MOSFET listed as an important safety feature.

I understand the MOSFET to be a transistor, but I haven't understood how it is used in the circuitry of a printer, and - above all - why it increases the overall operating safety of the printer (nor what the less safe option would be).

In the world of (cheap) printers, "MOSFET" has taken on a meaning of its own.

For a long time, 3D printers have had MOSFETs on board of their motherboards to switch the heated bed. In the past two years or so, we've seen a surge of (mainly) Chinese printers where the on-board MOSFETs (or, more often, the terminal blocks) weren't rated for the high current for the heated bed and would melt down or catch fire.

People then started recommending fixes to these issues, such as using a relay, soldering wires directly to the board (to bypass the terminal blocks) or using an external (better) MOSFET. Eventually, manufacturers caught on and started offering "MOSFET boards" which basically consist of a high-power MOSFET, high-current rated terminal blocks and (often) an optocoupler to isolate the drive signal from the bed power (but this doesn't really do anything; there's no need for this isolation). These boards are meant to be used to switch the high current to the bed directly, without it passing through the main board (and instead, the bed output of the main board is used as a control signal for the MOSFET board).

People often refer to these pre-made "MOSFET boards" simply as "MOSFETs" but there is more to them than just a single transistor.

  why it increases the overall operating safety of the printer

Using an external MOSFET board does not increase the safety of the printer at all, unless the main board of the printer is badly designed. There's no reason the MOSFET needs to be external and can't be integrated on the main board. Essentially, any company that is offering a printer "with a MOSFET (board)" is saying that their main board is poorly designed and that they've included a band-aid fix. Or, perhaps, because installing an external MOSFET is such a common "mod" nowadays, they're advertising an external MOSFET because it is what people want to see (even if the main board might have a perfectly capable MOSFET already...).


Settings for vase mode in CURA? I keep hearing about vase mode, but I have some problem figuring out how to set it up in my slicer; I use CURA.

So, I'd like to get some settings to do it in Ultimaker Cura, using PLA if the material is important, plus any advice on how to properly do it and ensure that the print retains it's shape on print.

Vase Mode changed the name in some version before 3.5. Now you can achieve this with 2 modes: "Surface Mode" and "Spiralize Outer Contour". To turn it on do this:

Choose the Custom setting menu on the right
click a gear to set up what settings you want to see
Under the header "Special Modes" you find both Surface Mode and Spiralize Outer Contour
set the checkmarks on both

Turning on the Surface mode to Surface and checking Spiralize Outer Contour gets the "classic" Vase Mode.

Turning on Surface without Spiralize Outer Contour gets an infill-less outer perimeter

Now, the classic Vase mode will only print the single most outer perimeter of a print, so your model will have to be very limited with angles and contain no bridges - with one perimeter, you will only be able to print at best 45° angles!


How to probe twice while mesh bed leveling with a BLTouch setup I am using an Ender 3 (v1.1.4) with Marlin 1.1.X bugfix installed. Also BLTouch v3.1 is used. The probe is deployed once only while mesh bed leveling.
How can I make the probe deploy twice at every point? Where am I supposed to change the code for it?
Please explain in detail if possible as I am not familiar with the coding part?

For the 1.1.x (1.1.9) bugfix firmware version, the multiple probing is defined in the configuration.h file.
// The number of probes to perform at each point.
//   Set to 2 for a fast/slow probe, using the second probe result.
//   Set to 3 or more for slow probes, averaging the results.
//#define MULTIPLE_PROBING 2

You should change the configuration to include the multiple probing by uncommenting the line:
#define MULTIPLE_PROBING 2

Note that there is question: "Updating Marlin Firmware - Step by Step Guide" that shows how you should modify the sources.
How to compile and upload/install the compiled binary on your printer controller board depends on the controller board version and type.


What is the purpose behind a glass nozzle? So while doing some research I stumbled upon a wiki page on reprap from a few years back where the user was creating a glass nozzle to replace the brass and PTFE assembly.1

Does anyone know the theory behind this? Glass is a great insulator so I could see how that would be beneficial for the heat break part but I can't see how it is appropriate for the nozzle as this is normally brass which is a good conductor.

Surely the glass takes much more energy to heat up?

On a side note I've seen similar projects using ceramic instead.

Ceramic I can understand - very strong, great thermal range capability.  Glass not so much - you'd need some seriously careful annealing at least.
 In either case the material is much harder than brass, or even steel, so you could presumably use tougher tools to unclog, etc. as needed.  If you're using materials loaded with wood or metallic particles, the glass/ceramic tip will be less likely to degrade than brass.

BTW, glass being a thermal insulator means it may take longer to heat up, but the energy required is probably less . The specific heat of glass is on the order of .84 J/gm-K . Compare with brass at  0.38 , but keep in mind the rate at which brass will shed heat into the air vs. glass.  In either case the energy is tiny compared with the thermal mass of the hotend assembly.


Can I print an object with thin walls? Most specifications for 3D printers show that the minimum wall thickness should be 1 mm.  We printed our object using Selective Laser Sintering with Nylon12 through an online service, and although it looked great, it did not work as expected.
We are hoping to try the print again with a 0.5 mm wall.  What is the best printing method that offers the strongest model for this wall size?
We also found a service that offers even smaller wall thickness - does anyone have any experience with this?
We were also wondering if we could do post-processing to make it stronger - such as metal plating.  Would this work on thin models?

The test print in your question used an SLS printer. The other common alternative is FDM.
For narrow outer walls with FDM printers, you want to think in exact multiples of the nozzle size. Furthermore, unless the printer is well-tuned, you usually want at least two rows for the outer wall. Otherwise any flaw at all in the outer wall leaves gaps or tears in the final print.
Given most printers use a 0.4 mm nozzle, this means the typical minimum wall thickness is 0.8 mm. I use this number fairly often with good success.
If you want 0.5 mm you could step up to a larger 0.5 mm nozzle and give it a shot with only one row. But again, this will end up with flawed prints unless the printer is very well tuned and assembled, and if strength is one of your concerns it will be significantly weaker. Or, you could step down to a 0.3 mm or 0.2 mm nozzle and use multiple rows. Neither of those sizes will give you exactly 0.5 mm, but they can get you a smaller thickness than the 0.4 mm nozzle, at the cost of longer print times.


Can PETG be used as support material for PLA? Printing supports, either complete, or partially from PVA have not always resulted in successful prints according to my experience with the filament (used in a dual extruder Ultimaker 3 extended). But, when it works well, the surface finish is perfect as there is no gap between the PVA and PLA.
From my experience with PVA, I conclude it is prone to clog, the filament is very hygroscopic, resulting in popping sounds when printing if too moist which most probably also impacts on clogging. The clogs lead to failed support structures as the extruder grinds through the filament and as such failed prints.
I was wondering if PETG can be used for supports or for the interface layer of supports for printing supports for PLA prints? For example:

This is a sliced view of a print in line color (left or top on small screens) and material color (right or bottom on small screens); black PLA and cream colored PETG. This print contains a larger gap that needs support. Can you make the support from PETG, either the support as a whole or just the top interface.

How does PLA-PETG or PETG-PLA bond or stick considering the 2 different print temperatures?
What are the concerns using a single nozzle?

PETG works as support material for PLA, see video

In theory, PLA printed on top of PETG will be fine because PETG softens and gets sticky at higher temperatures.
Printing PETG support on top of PLA may cause remelting of PLA, but if PETG is kept quite cold (220 °C) the issue will likely be minor. As shown in the video, it works.
PLA/PETG may still be better than using PLA/PLA because of this difference in extrusion temperatures that, for example in bridges where PLA is printed on top of PETG support, should result in very easily removable supports.
The type of supports used should be tested: tree supports could minimize the contact surface between the two and thus minimize marring by the hotter PETG being deposited onto the PLA at the expense of more PETG and normal supports could be used on a limited surface, so they can be removed easily. If the two materials really don't adhere much to each other, you may even be able to fake dissolvable supports, which increase the contact surface but provide a far better finish for bridges and bottom surfaces.
Using a single nozzle may require experimentation. In my experience, I print PLA at 230 °C so it wouldn't be an issue, and 220 °C would also work, but if PLA is printed cold, below 215 °C, you may need to heat/cool the nozzle. In any case, switching filament (especially PETG -> PLA) requires quite some filament to be discarded, so there is time for the heating. It is however to be kept in mind that cleaning of the nozzle between PLA and PETG (or in fact after any material swap) is difficult: some residue can remain in small gaps or low flow areas of the hotend and will be blended into the stream for quite some time after the swap, resulting in hybrid materials of unknown properties.1
As I said, experimentation is needed for this kind of task: my experience, with a 2012-era hot end, may not even be representative of the behaviour of modern hot ends.

1 - this effect is easily noticeable even with similar materials if switching from dark to light color filament, especially if not doing a cold pull to remove most of the material from the melt zone.


Geeetech GT2560: Electronic safety and power source I'm about to build myself a 3D-printer.

After a long search for a brain for this one I came across the GT2560 from Geeetech, because it leaves a solid impression on me.
The manufacturer himself has a quite extensive wiki page for this board.

My idea now was to use an ATX power supply.

The PSU is a be quiet! BN257. On 12 V (combined) it can deliver 324 W. On 12V1 there is 20 A, on 12V2 16 A.

Would that be enough or would you rather use a 24 V power supply?

Since I have read some reports about the Anet A8 and its danger of overloading, I am a bit uncertain, even if the GT2560 looks a lot better than the A8.

Are the connections to which the heating bed and the extruder are connected sufficiently large to withstand 10 A and 15 A respectively, or should I solder the cables directly to the board from the very first?

According to the information I received from Dr. Search Engine, MOSFETs of type STB55NF06 are used. According to the data sheet, these can withstand loads up to 60 V/55 A. I don't necessarily need to replace them with external ones, do I?

Whether 350 Watt is enough depends on the amount of Ampere can be generated over the 12 V lines. Computer power supplies add up the power of all the voltages! A nameless or cheap 350 Watt PSU may not deliver enough power (in the sense that they may never reach the given power), you should check that out. The high-end PSU's are usually well fabricated and can usually deliver more power (but should not be taken for granted!).

a typical (214x214 mm) heatbed is about 12 V/1.5 Ω = 8 Amperes (about 100 Watt),
a typical hotend is about 40 Watt,
steppers and board could draw another 5 Amperes (about 60 Watt)

This totals to about 200 Watt, which your PSU should be able to generate without a problem.

Those green connectors plug in and out of the board don't they, usually with those small pins, transporting up to 10 Amperes is not recommended, you should look up the ratings of those connectors.


Different Probe Z offset for G28 and G29 After trying to solve this for the whole weekend I've run out of ideas.

I've fitted an BLTouch to my Ender-3 with an SKR mini e3 V2.0 board, firmware is Marlin 2.0.

My issue is the following:
when I do autohome (G28) it uses the Z-Probe (BLTouch) to home (this is expected).
I then set Z Probe offset to 0 (using M851 Z0) and move Z down until it the nozzle touches a piece of paper.
I then set the Probe Z offset to whatever value Z is at (M851 Z-4.10), save the settings to EEPROM and restart the machine. When doing another G28 and moving Z to 0 afterwards the distance is perfectly the same. This is repeatable.
However when I do G29 it measures the bed to be sitting around -1.9 mm, therefore moving Z to 0 will crash the nozzle to the bed. I can change my Probe Z offset have this fitting (M851 Z-2.20), however then the nozzle sits ~2 mm above the bed when doing another G28 with "Bed Leveling" disabled.

All of this is perfectly repeatable, so I think my I've got something off in my Marlin configuration, but can't find anything wrong.

What I've tried so far:

Setting the Z offset as default in config -> this yields the same result as saving it to EEPROM
Reflashing the firmware and resetting the EEPROM -> this didn't change anything
Connecting the probe as Z-Endstop and as Z-Probe -> after matching the configuration (setting/unsetting Z_MIN_PROBE_USES_Z_MIN_ENDSTOP_PIN) it just gave the same result.

Did anyone encounter this issue before or can give me any idea how to fix this? Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT: I've just flashed the precompiled stock firmware from the BTT Github and it works. So im quite sure i've got something wrong in my config. But since I can't find the configuration.h for that .bin file, I can't realy compare both

I'm answering my own question here.

The Issue was that I set Z_MIN_POS to -2.0 I guess these 2 mm were subtracted from G28 but not from G29.

I don't know wether this is expected behaviour but changing Z_MIN_POS back to 0 fixed the issue for me.


CR-10S Pro pausing and starting again I found this question, CR-10 randomly pauses for a few seconds, that someone asked earlier. I am experiencing the exact same thing, only on a CR-10S Pro.

None of the suggestions on that post helped. For what it's worth, I am using  Ultimaker Cura 4.3.

Any help would be wonderful!

I made this video for someone I know from Creality. The pausing seems to happen at each new layer. But, as the layers pass like 4 layers then the pausing stops. This also happens on every print big or small. I changed nothing and it just started happening.

Quoting my comment from the previous question:

  I am seemingly having the same issue only on Cura 4.3. There is no
  "Maximum Z Speed" anywhere on 4.3 so how can I fix this? As talked
  about above I just checked my "minimum layer time" and it is set to
  10. I have also used another slicer and this same issue keeps happening it just messes up differently. I've also tried printing from
  SD card and OctoPrint. Same issue... How could this be my slicer if
  this same thing is happening on a different slicer than Cura?

From your comment on the linked question you state:

  As talked about above I just checked my "minimum layer time" and it is set to 10

Note that Cura's default value is 5 seconds.

This means that the print speed is lowered down to the minimum print speed to have layers that print for at least 10 seconds. When it cannot print slower (there is a minimum print speed) and the minimum layer time has not been reached yet, the print head halts until the time value is reached, then it continues. This behaviour is expected when the print area becomes small so that the time per layer drops under the 10 seconds.


Ender 3 distance between nozzle and bed changing on Y-axis After I level my Ender 3, the distance between the nozzle and the bed seems fine on both ends, but moving the bed on the Y axis shows that it's increasing and decreasing for three times, which I just cant fix.

This only occurs on the left side - the right side is constant from beginning to end.
Also I've been using three different beds (the magnetic one and two glasses) to make sure it's really something else.

I created this video to demonstrate the problem.

I'm sure that this has something to do with the carriage wheel adjustment, but tightening those did not change anything.

How do I get rid of this problem?

Your video shows that your bed seems warped somewhat.
Ammount of error
As I assume you did level the bed with a sheet of paper to be 0.1 mm thick, we can estimate the change of thickness. The thickest point seems to be 0.2 mm, the thinnest 0.05. that's in average an error of 0.075 mm for the first layer. If you can live with that, no need to touch it.
Fixing the issue
Basically, if the error is too large for your liking, you need to fix it. To fix it, there are pretty much 2 ways. Remember that the Ender-3 uses 24V when ordering parts!
Fix the part or install a replacement part
If you feel like you need to get it even flatter, you'll need to try to flatten the bed mechanically or replace it. You'll need to be comfortable to remove the BuildTak-clone surface, then remove the leveling screws, open the electronics enclosure, remove some hot glue, unhook the bed.
Then you will need to flatten the bed in some way (grinding the upper side perfectly flat or bending it, replacing it for an entirely flat one).
Then reinstall it, going through the uninstallation backward, and add a new build surface on it.
Switch to alternate leveling method: Mesh Bed Leveling
If you consider yourself to be able to do some intermediate to advanced modification of your printer, you can change the hotend carriage to one that allows mounting a distance sensor and changing the firmware to mesh-bed-leveling.
You'll need to get an induction or capacity sensor (common operation ranges for those are 6-36V, so perfectly fine with 24V) and some way to couple that to the board, most likely an optocoupler. Print a new mounting for sensor and fans.
To install you open the electronics compartment, hook up your chosen 24V-5V coupler as extra to the Z-switch, hook the power supply of the sensor up and run it up to the printhead. Replace the mounting for the hotend cooling fan and part cooling fan and change your firmware. Calibrate the height of the sensor to trigger correctly.
I did flash a bootloader via the ISP on my ender-3 since then, so I can just flash the new firmware via a direct connection.
Last words
In either way, after fixing, you should run a PID-tune on the machine.
Thermal Runaway might or might not be active, depending on your firmware iteration, so you should update it anyway, which might make Mesh Bed Leveling the slightly easier way to go.
This has nothing to do with the bed carriage wheels, as the bed hangs onto the carriage only via the screws in the corners.


What clearance should I leave between parts that are supposed to fit together perfectly when using a .6mm diameter nozzle? Here's the thing that I'm working on putting together (the purple stud on the bottom right should be up higher like the one on the left).

Notice how the purple studs fit into the red ring? Well, most of the parts are like that in one way or another. That is, most of the parts need to start right where another part ends with no gap and without being too tight.

Are there any good rules of thumb for knowing how much smaller a male part needs to be to fit into a female part? I want a good fit but I don't want to have to jam them in.

I'm doing this at the library and just getting down there and setup is an ordeal. The blue cylinder (4x102mm) alone takes almost 4 hours to print with a nozzle size of .6mm. ...I imagine this is how it must have felt when people had to program on punch cards, lol. Except, this isn't just a logic thing. It's an experimentation thing and it's taking up a ton of my time.

How can I get these parts to fit together perfectly like they do in my model?

First, find or make a tolerance checking test print. This basically just involves a few cylinders with diameters something like 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, 0.25, 0.3, ... mm smaller than a cylindrical hole, and lets you figure out what works without going through lots of iterations on your actual part design or time on the printer. Make note that diameter (2 gaps) vs radius/gap-width (single gap) is a really important distinction here.

With that said, your design does not look well-suited to 3D printing. The purple studs are going to break. That's pretty much a given. And overall there are just way too many pieces. A big part of the advantage of 3D printing is that you don't have to assemble things out of parts that would be easy to produce (or available stock) with traditional manufacturing methods. You can often produce a complete working result all in one print, or two or three if there really need to be separable parts.

I would replace the purple studs and red piece that looks like it's intended to allow easy connection/removal with a threaded interface. That would distribute the forces much more evenly, and it's easier to print. If you don't care what orientation it stops at, it's super easy; otherwise you have to put some sort of stop or predict where the friction will hold it.


Does the Ender 3 need an 8 pin mini USB or 5 pin, or no difference? I've been searching for a reassuring answer for a week now. What type of mini USB does the Creality Ender 3 need? I have studied about them and five pin seems to be the answer but I haven't found a reassuring answer.

If anyone knows the answer would you please inform me?

The ender 3 follows the USB standard for a USB-2.0/2.0 revised 5 pin USB-Mini-B.

To prove, a picture of it. Left, you can clearly count the 5 pins that conform to the standard.

as a side note: There is no 8 pin USB-Mini - Mini has the T-shape. In fact, there is not even a USB standard conform plug that has 8-pins! The standard allows only 4, 5, 9, 11 and 24 pins


What are some cheaper versions of Multi Jet 3D printing? I noticed 3Dsystems has Multi Jet 3D printing where wax is used provide support and give users with high resolution 3D printed objects. I was wondering if there were cheaper and smaller Multi Jet 3D printing?

Can Form 1+ from FormLabs be considered to do the same job with resin?

Objet by Stratasys is a comparable technology (they call it PolyJet). SolidScape is also somewhat comparable (they also use jetting).

The FormLabs printers are not comparable. They use a completely different process, which can only print in one material. With jetting, you can mix different materials in the same part.


Prusa MK3S Y-skewed prints My prints have recently started to come out with a serious skew along the Y axis.  This occurs regardless of printing parameters such as speed/acceleration. I don't know the exact cause yet, can someone help me resolve this? What could have caused this?

Please don't mind the stringing/blobs, I'm currently running out of filament and I was forced to use an old PET-G spool damaged by moisture.

Apparently, the possible cause mentioned by @R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE turned out to be true. The frame was noticeably skewed in the Y-axis, which is why the prints were leaning in that direction.
I replaced the Z-axis top parts with a 3D printed modified version of them (what came with the printer is orange, what I printed is yellow.) The modified version is slightly longer so as to move the steel rods (ones that hold the X-axis) slightly towards the front of the printer (in the opposite direction to the skew)
This turned out to work perfectly, the skew is still slightly present, but it has been substantially mitigated and I can fix it completely by adjusting the length of the printed parts.