3D Printer thread anybody?

[L67GS]

I don't see how it could be a cooling issue on TPU as it requires very little to none, much like ABS/ASA and to a lesser extent PETG.

Are you printing it enclosed?

Yes, I have an enclosure, I tried numerous rolls of filament, including a brand new roll of Sunlu PLA. It bridges just fine, but it botches overhangs. I tried slicing with Cura just to see if it was a superslicer problem too. Also 2 different extruders, same results. Better cooling can't hurt, and I'll have to be more careful with CAD, trying to do gradual overhangs.
Realistically I could use supports but when the overhang is small I don't see why I should have trouble doing it when I can do a 2" bridge with no problem.

[rooted]

PLA needs 100% cooling power and should be printed with the enclosure door open.

With PETG I use 15-20% cooling but I don't use an enclosure so YMMV, with TPU I don't use the fan except for bridging and use 15% there.

ASA and ABS likes enclosures and doesn't need cooling.

I don't have any experience with nylon.

I concur, nothing wrong with a dual 5015 setup, it's a nice solution.

This is a stringing test I did with PETG, 15% fan.

[L67GS]

PLA needs 100% cooling power and should be printed with the enclosure door open.

With PETG I use 15-20% cooling but I don't use an enclosure so YMMV, with TPU I don't use the fan except for bridging and use 15% there.

ASA and ABS likes enclosures and doesn't need cooling.

I don't have any experience with nylon.

I concur, nothing wrong with a dual 5015 setup, it's a nice solution.

This is a stringing test I did with PETG, 15% fan.

I'm going to do the fan upgrade and see what happens, it's possible that I'm just trying to do stuff without supports that need supports, but it still doesn't make sense to me that I can bridge so far with no problem. Maybe it's just that the fan can't reach the extrusion well enough because it does the outer perimeter first and it obstructs the air flow?
The problem areas are always closest to the main body, if that's the case 3X the airflow might be what I need. Technically I have tried 3 extruders, I put my rebuilt spare on, then did a new block, nozzle, heater, and thermister on the one I removed and put it back on. All 3 versions of an extruder failed.

[rooted]

My hotend assembly does have three 4010 cooling fans which work well and the stock assembly on your printer isn't known for great cooling coverage.

Your upgraded cooling solution won't hurt and can likely only help, I look forward to hearing the results.

Are you sure your hotend fan is working correctly? Not the part cooling but the fan which cools the hotend heatsink.

[mctom]

Not sure what fans you're using, but some time ago I bought this one:
https://www.mouser.pl/ProductDetail/Del ... ucLw%3D%3D
Except second hand and set me back mere $5.

I think that at full power it will blow off extruded material
This comes at a price, draws some 20W and is loud as hell.. I wanted to use it for my air purifier, but obviously that was a bad idea.

I wanted to mention this because apparently this particular model is highly regarded in some extreme CPU tuning circles..

[zyssai]

Not sure it will fit
Most printers uses 4010 fans, you can probably fit 4020, or 5015 with some mods but for most usual prints these fans will be sufficient.

[rooted]

You can use a fan like that with a duct which narrows to a flat zone across the build plate but you really need a core xy machine for that.

Skip to 4:50 to see what I mean.

https://youtu.be/65FVQ1jArME

Related files to build such a thing.

https://github.com/MirageC79/HevORT/tre ... STL/HevACS

[L67GS]

This is the one I plan on printing, my only concern is current draw but I know mods like this happen every day so I just keep telling myself the thin ribbon cable that connects to the extruder MUST have multiple conductors for the fans..... I know I'm lying to myself but it makes me feel better.


https://www.printables.com/model/268497 ... l-fan-duct

[rooted]

It probably doesn't but two 5015 shouldn't need much current.

Looks like around 0.1A per

[L67GS]

It probably doesn't but two 5015 shouldn't need much current.

Looks like around 0.1A per

This is absolutely right, I just checked the listing for those fans and the draw is claimed to be 0.1A. I guess <1/4A is negligible. I got the GDSTIME ones from Amazon, my printer is probably going to be louder than a WWII airstrip, but I should at least have quickly cooling extrusions.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1V6JTB8?re ... tails&th=1

And it's going to look totally B.A. too .....

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[zyssai]

I don't think current draw can be a problem (but need to be careful tho).
5015 works pretty better than stock one, and you probably add a nice fan duct, so you will not run 5015 at full speed all the time.
PSU seems also over dimensioned but don't know about MOSFET used for fans.

Today I designed part of my print head, I plan to make a new direct drive mod, and add fan ducts as the stock ones are totally... Absents.

[L67GS]

I don't think current draw can be a problem (but need to be careful tho).
5015 works pretty better than stock one, and you probably add a nice fan duct, so you will not run 5015 at full speed all the time.
PSU seems also over dimensioned but don't know about MOSFET used for fans.

Today I designed part of my print head, I plan to make a new direct drive mod, and add fan ducts as the stock ones are totally... Absents.

An entire Direct drive extruder with ABL is only $50.USD, It might be worth just putting one on rather than the custom one.

[L67GS]

I got the parts in yesterday and tested a fan @ 24V, it's a lot quieter than I thought, and it moves a bunch of air. Sunlu PETG came as an 8 pack of various colors, in smaller rolls of 1/4 kg each. I'm excited to get started but I work 12hr shifts the next two days so it'll have to wait until Saturday night.

[zyssai]

An entire Direct drive extruder with ABL is only $50.USD, It might be worth just putting one on rather than the custom one.

Yes, but I already have an extruder and ABL, don't wanna spend money if I can just print an adapter.
The one I used since one month gaves me some bad vibrations, not enough reinforcements.

[L67GS]

Overhangs are greatly improved now that I move enough air to propel a sailing vessel. Studying my test pieces I think it's simply moving too fast on the first layer of the overhangs. I'll have to look more closely at Superslicer and see if I can find a way to slow it down without creeping through all my prints.

[rooted]

Nevermind

[L67GS]

Well, I got as far along this fool's mission of printing perfect overhangs without support as I think I can. Anything but a straight out 90* overhang is not a problem, but it really wasn't in the first place because my printer is such a sweetheart.
There's simply no way for the extrusion to stay in place while the printer tries to make a corner in mid air without support. This test piece is both a success and a failure to me.

IMG_20230803_232704_735.jpg (324.42 KiB) Viewed 1410 times

Looking at the top snapped off in the image below, on the left is where I began the fight, and this final piece is on the right. The corners are clearly there but they get pulled out of shape.

IMG_20230803_233238_216.jpg (251.58 KiB) Viewed 1410 times

It would be nice not to have to use support for all the little stuff but I learned here that supports are just a necessary evil. Test piece overhangs are 2 cm wide, 8mm deep.

[zyssai]

I use no support for such a thing, printing bridges at 3mm/s full speed fan. Only tried petg but I think pla can suit also.

[L67GS]

I use no support for such a thing, printing bridges at 3mm/s full speed fan. Only tried petg but I think pla can suit also.

I bridge no problem, it's straight overhangs that do that.

[rooted]

Silk PLA is a bitch to print anyway, at least at speed.

[zyssai]

I bridge no problem, it's straight overhangs that do that.

Sorry, made a mismatch I talked about overhang, but anyway it depends about the size.

[L67GS]

Silk PLA is a bitch to print anyway, at least at speed.

I haven't tried any simple colors with the new fan and slicer settings. I'll have to try it.

[rooted]

Silk has this weird elastic backlash right after extruded, it doesn't necessarily affect the quality but it affects the size accuracy.

Regular PLA is a dream to print in comparison, but I prefer PETG for most things. It's not necessarily easy until you get your slicer settings dialed in but when you do it's nice.

[L67GS]

I've been playing with PETG lately, Sunlu has a nice price on a variety pack on Amazon that just kept getting my attention and I finally bit.
My first 4 or 5 prints were done with the most obnoxious green and turned out insanely stringy but very nice. I moved on to black and orange and suddenly it's like a portal to hell has been opened on my print bed. I've had 3 catastrophic failures that required a near complete extruder rebuild in the last 2 weeks.
Today I seem to have defeated the strings with a little lower extruder temp and I got poor bed adhesion in one spot in retaliation.
I've learned not to turn my back on PETG, I had a habit of getting the first couple of layers down and going to work because PLA was so good to me.

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[L67GS]

I finally got a few things uploaded to cults, and I have a few downloads! There's a couple more things I designed that I have to get up yet, like my magnetic fingertip nut starter that's become really popular at work and a toolbox organizer box set that I have been trying to print unsuccessfully in PETG.

https://cults3d.com/en/users/L67GS/3d-models

IMG_20230823_193242_538.jpg (567.61 KiB) Viewed 1167 times

[rooted]

That would work nicely to get t-nuts where you want in aluminum extrusions also.

[L67GS]

That would work nicely to get t-nuts where you want in aluminum extrusions also.

I hadn't thought about that, usually it's a pick that I reach for.

[rooted]

Just received a 1/8" (3.175mm) thick sheet of G10 (garolite) today I'm gonna start using for my build plate in lieu of glass, just have to cut it down to 250x250mm tomorrow. I've known of the excellent properties of this material for this use case for years but the last sheet I ordered around two years ago was warped and I couldn't use it.

Why so thick one may wonder and that's an easy answer, the aluminum on my heated bed is warped and I don't like using ABL to deal with it. This forced me to use glass versus the magnetic build surface the printer came with. I do have a replacement heated bed but it's not perfectly flat either. Cheap, thin aluminum just isn't a great material for this, I like how Prusa uses a PCB heated bed and wish more manufacturers would do the same.

[zyssai]

I've been playing with PETG lately, Sunlu has a nice price on a variety pack on Amazon that just kept getting my attention and I finally bit.
My first 4 or 5 prints were done with the most obnoxious green and turned out insanely stringy but very nice. I moved on to black and orange and suddenly it's like a portal to hell has been opened on my print bed. I've had 3 catastrophic failures that required a near complete extruder rebuild in the last 2 weeks.
Today I seem to have defeated the strings with a little lower extruder temp and I got poor bed adhesion in one spot in retaliation.
I've learned not to turn my back on PETG, I had a habit of getting the first couple of layers down and going to work because PLA was so good to me.

IMG_20230823_183935_541.jpg

IMG_20230823_183948_877.jpgIMG-20230822-WA0015.jpeg

To be honestly I'm pretty sure there is something to do with your z offset. Even if it's ok with PLA, it's a know issue that you need to play with it after changing to petg.
Your second picture the bed seems to be not clean enough, petg have bad adhesion and if bed is not perfectly cleaned you will face this strange behavior. I presume you heat your bed at least 70/80°.

[hominoid]

Just received a 1/8" (3.175mm) thick sheet of G10 (garolite) today I'm gonna start using for my build plate in lieu of glass, just have to cut it down to 250x250mm tomorrow. I've known of the excellent properties of this material for this use case for years but the last sheet I ordered around two years ago was warped and I couldn't use it.

Why so thick one may wonder and that's an easy answer, the aluminum on my heated bed is warped and I don't like using ABL to deal with it. This forced me to use glass versus the magnetic build surface the printer came with. I do have a replacement heated bed but it's not perfectly flat either. Cheap, thin aluminum just isn't a great material for this, I like how Prusa uses a PCB heated bed and wish more manufacturers would do the same.

I had been wanting to move in that same direction but I thought all the PRUSA PCB beds were 24v. Last spring I happened across a new original PRUSA 12v model. I wasn’t aware that they ever made them in 12v but it must have been when they first developed the idea before they switched to 24v.

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It’s been working great and provides me with a much larger print area and access to textured surfaces now too. Adhesion for ABS has been slightly better then the Kapton tape I used in the past. The only downside so far has been with cooling. I always wondered why PRUSA design their fan housing to blow air from the sides, it’s because the PCB bed has trouble with air blowing directly on the surface. The temperature starts to drop and it doesn’t have the capacity to recover when the fan blows continuously on the surface. I suspect it’s because of the low thermal mass, my aluminum bed never had an issue; Regardless, it's been a great upgrade. I would be interested in any feedback you have on the G10 once you have it installed.

[zyssai]

Today I tried a cheap textured plate and I am really impressed by the result even with PETG.
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJ78EDv

[rooted]

Got the G10 cut down to fit the 250x250 heated bed, just too worn out to give it a go. I will update when I do but it should be great, may have to hit it with a scotchbrite pad but I'm going to try it first.

Excuse the dust, haven't used it in a while.

[zyssai]

[rooted]

I'm old enough to have used 8" floppies, not before 5¼ were invented however.

[rooted]

I've done a couple of identical test prints and the adhesion on the G10 surface is great so far, I did one test at 50°C and another with no heated bed and the 50°C held great but the unheated let go after about 45 minutes which isn't surprising.

Both tests with silk PLA which I hate but it's what was loaded. If I ever find the box with all my filament I will test PETG and TPU but I don't really expect any surprises.

@hominoid since you're already interested in trying G10 I would go for it, it's lighter than equivalent thickness borosilicate glass and of course has much better adhesion. Similar to PEI without any of the pitfalls.

[L67GS]

Darn PETG, just when I think I have it beat. The bed adhesion problem was, I think, because my flexible build sheet is whooped from use. So 2" blue masking tape came to the rescue and works perfect for me now. So I made a perfect lid for my box project and then printed a box to put it on.
When I did the cad file I was very careful not to do any straight out overhangs and the PETG was not able to do it even though I had been so careful.
I don't understand because the very first few things that I made with it came out perfect, but insanely stringy.
For now I'm going to finish my box project in PLA because I want to make 15 to 20 of them quickly.
I did notice after the fact that sunlu specifies on the roll a temperature of 220 to 230 degrees so maybe after this project is through I'll come back and experiment some more.

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[mad_ady]

Why are you printing lots of custom boxes? Isn't it cheaper/more practical to buy imjection-made ones?

[L67GS]

Why are you printing lots of custom boxes? Isn't it cheaper/more practical to buy imjection-made ones?

By a huge stretch, yes it's cheaper to just buy them. These are for a specific, deep drawer in my toolbox at work. That drawer has an organization system in it already for odds and ends but it just has a lot of wasted space due to the design. I couldn't find any pre-made boxes that would be able to go in there and make use of all of the room so I made these, and I made several versions with different numbers of compartments in each. So now this giant drawer full of wasted space will be close to 100% usable.

[rooted]

Yeah I told you masking tape is great

Seriously though it works really well, especially for PETG and leaves a nice matte finish.

You can see it on the bottom of this benchy, the split in the T is a seam between two pieces of tape.

[L67GS]

Yes, the tape most definitely works the best for PETG for me, and it works for PLA, but PLA isn't very challenging to plant now that I'm probably closer to 100 prints. Just the same, I think you made me a masking tape user.
I noticed that the tape I'm using (3M) retracts some, leaving the gap despite my placing it perfectly against each other.
Also, I had to bring the extruder down to where I can pull a piece of paper, but a little too low to push it. With PLA, I was doing the bed level where I could just push the paper and then the glue stick thing.
The tape, in conjunction with the flexible build sheet is awesome because I don't have to hover over the printer trying to get it just right, and once it's on, it's really easy to trim the tails of the tape off the sheet by just rubbing it with a metal object.

[rooted]

Oh yeah, it's not going to break free alone as long as the z-offset is good on that first layer.

I would have loved to get it in sheets though

[rooted]

Think I'm gonna have to put the ABL back on my printer, this test print just doesn't look great. Part of it is flow settings but mostly just the aluminum on my heated bed is warped as hell.

Side note, I lost two clips behind the washer due to the hotend assembly knocking them off

I need a good corexy machine, I'm over cartesian printers.

[L67GS]

I finally got one of my boxes printed, this is box1, because it just has one compartment inside. I'll be printing many box2, box3, box4, box6 models too. The PETG still leaves something to be desired, but I went up in temp a bit to 225 and really reduced the strings.
For the remainder of this project I'm going to stick with PLA because it's going to come out nicer and it's far more cost-effective.
The hinge is 3 mm wire from the local tractor supply intended to be used as the tension wire at the bottom of chain link fence.

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[rooted]

I can get PETG at the same price or less than PLA usually.

It's nice to print your own stuff, feels like you accomplish something instead of just printing others designs.

[L67GS]

I've got two good boxes in PETG now. The rest were slated to be printed in PLA, but I bumped into a flash sale on Amazon, it was limited to one purchase so I slipped under the radar and got two almost different items under the same sale. I got a twin pack and a single roll for a total of 3KG of Sunlu Black for $46.20 saving $13.40. So I got them for $15.40 / roll.

[rooted]

Yessir, that's about what I pay per roll and won't usually order until I find the deal I'm after. My favorite PETG brand was Stronghero3D but their prices have gotten out of hand, I was paying $14/kg but no longer.

[L67GS]

I've officially made friends with PETG, now I'm working on speeding up my prints. I've found going to 60% on most of the speed settings works fine. Also I had to redo the cad for my boxes so that hinge section is built gradually, it can't even be classified as an overhang now.

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[rooted]

I don't know if you have ever sanded PLA but it's hard as hell, PETG sands nicely.

Not that you want to sand the boxes, just FYI.

[L67GS]

I don't know if you have ever sanded PLA but it's hard as hell, PETG sands nicely.

Not that you want to sand the boxes, just FYI.

PLA would probably be a better choice for this project because it's so much more rigid. I feel like I'm printing them out of PETG more out of spite because it gave me so much trouble. Lol

[rooted]

PETG has nice rigidity with a little flex, it's the best general material when printing functional parts for me. Don't have to worry about it splitting when screwing it to something, don't have to worry about it melting in the outdoors, and it handles UV light better so lasts longer outdoors and in the sun indoors.

PLA is best when something must have as little flex as possible, the problem there is it won't fully rebound after being under strain so things may start to sag.