Hello all.
So ill try an sum up everything as briefly as i can. I bought this printer having exactly zero experience with 3d printers before it, an basically have since winged everything! For the most part everything has been pretty damn straight forward and easy to pick up. iv’e put about 250 hours on the machine so though now was an appropriate time to ask a few questions about some of the problems iv’e had so far.
1) My first is calibrating the machine, as terrible as i am at it, i do persevere to the point i get a success message, but i always find even when iv’e done this it never seems perfect, i read somewhere to aim for a reading of about 135? But just lately as it starts to print it seems uneven, or too high in places, so i tweak it on the fly to getting better prints, but checking it afterwards i get failed messages lol … ? Either way, what number do you aim for on the calibration? Iv’e tried the paper trick too, it helps a little.
2) ABS. In general im having just terrible results with ABS, which is highly annoying as i have a bunch of cartridges sat here. I can never get it to stick without half a stick of glue, and more annoyingly i get terrible warping / cracks. If i apply enough glue to stop the base from warping in the corners it just splits a few layers higher up, an as i said cracks emerge all over the place. I read a few tips online, one was to tape up the gaps an keep the temp inside as high as possible, but that did exactly nothing to help for me. Iv’e recently bought some PLA an the prints are perfect! Im in love with the printer all over again after slowly loosing interest in the crappy prints i was getting with ABS. The only thing is that now im wanting to experiment with creating a better finish, it seems abs is better on that front, regards using the chemical vapour. It’s some what of a catch 22 for me, opt for good prints, or a material i can get a good finish on. Has anyone experienced similar issues with this printer and can suggest some advice?
3) My third question is regarding flashing the machine. Im about 14 cartridges in now so the price is starting to take its toll, and more recently when one errored after being on a 15hr print at about 95% done, I wanted to take a hammer to it. I’m sure ill find how to do it online if i look it up, but im more just wanting to know if there’s any obvious problems / steps i should take before doing it. An how much better is it afterwards?
Thanks for taking the time to read this anyway and a double thanks for any replies!
- Craig.
