10

Hello,

great to see someone has found a balance for getting smooth prints out of this setup, its hard to find information on using the clay kit correctly…

I’m currently beginning the proccess myself and have a few questions if you don’t mind.

On the WASP setup video for the clay kit it shows the user changing the Z distance to the build plate : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DjVC5MxJr4

at 3:21 in this video you see the user select the “Modify Z Max” that brings up a “Z Correct” screen allowing him to input a -16.5 value.

On my 2040, when I’ve followed this video I don’t get a “Z Correct” screen

when I press “Modify Z Max”…I get a screen with a “Z home: +442.00” so I can’t input the Z Correct value and when I run a test print the print heads nossle

will crash into the build plate…did your printer have the “Z Correct” screen as in their video or was like mine and you found a fix?

Another issue I have is the clay isn’t coming to the print head on my machine even when I have the air pressure at 6 bar, it takes a long time to travel through the tube and seems to stop at the extruder opening, have you experienced this, could you share what air pressure, water, Ethenol mixtures you’ve found to work best to give the type of surface finish you show in that print photo?

Any and all info appreciated & thanks for your time,

Dara.

11

Okay, so for the Z correct I followed the numbers on the printed instructions that came with my extruder. It says set the Z correct to +425.5. That worked for me. I have smashed a few tips in the process of getting the set up right. If the clay mix is too dry it can push the nozzle down a bit. You can also start the print with the bed significantly lower than the nozzle then adjust the level on the fly… then once it is nice re start the print. I still do a lot of small adjustment at the start of most of my prints.

For the clay mixture, I spent many frustrating weeks experimenting and finally got a good mix that is much wetter than I had thought it needed to be. It is almost like creamy peanut butter or nutella. I add water as well as the alcohol. Also I mix the layers as I put them into the canister to make sure the mixture is consistent throughout. I use a wood dowel to clear out any clay in the hose when I start a new batch, this helps the mix move through the tube faster as there is no air pressure blocking it. Once all the clay has moved through the extruder the new stuff should get sucked through the tube pretty quickly. If it does not move well it is probably too dry of a mix. Start too wet and work back to a good mix is what I did.

Also, I pretty much mix a new batch for each print (re mixing any extra stuff in the canister) as I find the mix gets a little dry even after 1 day. It is a lot of work but it is better than the aggravation of bad prints.

Good luck, don’t give up I almost killed myself trying but it eventually worked out.

12

One more tip about the clay that was helpful for me, even though he uses a different machine, were Jonathan Keep’s videos. I don’t have a link but look for his demonstration videos online. The one where he is printing a rabbit has a good explanation of a good mixture.

13

Hey Gidget, brilliant…thanks so much for that info! I’ve spent the day on it and didn’t have a printed instruction manual so tomorrow I’ll try your soloution, sounds good.

Thanks again on the secret sauce recipe, I recon you’ve saved a few people a lot of time sharing those tips, it gives me confidence I’m not wasting time with it. I hope you get a lot of fun/return for your endevours whatever the application.

All the best,)

A happy man in a shed in Dublin.

14

Thanks, Jonathan Keep’s videos are great although I’d not seen one involving a rabbit yet,

I’ll check for that and his mixture ratios. Nice one.

15

hey guys.

i got my wasp 2040 yesterday with the clay extruder. also compressor, the right valves etc. now i start. just a quick question: what is the alcohol for you mentioned?

thanks for sharing thoughts. i will be here now daily to share my results and learnings aswell!

best

christian

16

hi guys,

i got the clay perfectly. the nutella way is great.

but, the print stops with out signal at 20% or so. at a z value of 15

and it says: out of plate

can anybody tell me, what it is!?

thanks

christian

17

Hey Chrisitan,

alcohol wise I bough some ethnol to use in the mix but havn’t tried it yet, it can be expensive depending on what its labled

as (either for industry “ethol” or a high percentage drinking alcohol works too), I think its all the same for our purpose, I used vodka and water before with a good result but it depends on how much water is existing in the clay body so every mix will be a little different. I think they reccomend around 5 percent alcohol to help it move along.

I haven’t had that failure at 20% yet, best open a support ticket from the WASP site. Try setting the zmax value to the values they

provide in the manual :

Change the Z eight of the printer following this procedure:
menu » prepare » modify Zmax » Zcorrect -16.50
or:
menu » prepare » modify Zmax » Z home + 425.5 (for Delta 4070: +752.5)

regards.

18

hey hey fellas.

i got my wasp delta working nicely. i love it.

in the delivered firmware for cure are two plug ins installed. one is twaek at Z. i disabled it, becaus eit leads to stop at a certain z height, that is markd in the plug in. so this was it with my initial problem.

i also have another question: the extrusion tips seem to be common supply for other usages. i would love to have a bunch of them, so when one is stuffed or broken, i can have a lot of spare ones. anybody knowing where to get them. i guess it´s penny things and not worth to buy at wasp directly.

many greetings from berlin

christian

19

hello hubbers,

i´m quite successful now with the 3d printing of ceramics. but come to the next level and see there might be problems with the firing. because of the infill structure, i create air infills in my object. that propably leads to explosions during the firing, because the air chambers widen, and crahs the ceramics. anybody experiences with that allready?

thanks

c

20

Hey Christian,

I though the same and bought some tips on ebay, arrived today and they look to be the same standard.

I paid about 30euro for a 21 pack, including delivery. So expensive but hopefully they will work well.

All the best.

21

Hey,

no I’ve not experience that yet, but a good point to now consider in my deigns is to try and avoid

potentially sealed up air pockets. Maybe it could be done by modeling in an air flow channel through the infills

leading out to a less noticable area so theres no sealed off areas for pressure build up, but I guess it depends on the application.

I’m thinking maybe I could print a clay raft, the on top, my clay form as normal and once its in a leather green state to take

the clay cutting wire and slice off the bottom raft, leaving the infills bottom exposed and now open to

air, maybe firing it upside down with that exposed could help. Or filling in the forms infills in the first place at the cost of extra clay would be a (expensive) soloution.

All the best.

22

I had no problems with the pieces I fired and they had little gaps between the walls. I try to build solid walls now to avoid this problem but again the pieces with little gaps fired nicely anyway. I have had some cracking on some pieces but they happened where the build layers were not tight enough together. Also I have adjusted my models now so I make the bottom the same thickness of the walls or even thinner so the drying in more consistent.

23

hi you all

thanks for the feedback

i started now to use the more tiny tip with the printer to refine my outcomes. works good in the results.

during the first cleaning i recognized, that the bearing is totally fixed to the screw spring connector. i cannot dismanthle the extruder as stated in the manuals. not my fault.

this leads to leaking in the top of the extruder. between bearing and the plastic part/container.

very disappointing. clay comes out of that front slit frequently in bigger blobs.

did anybody had this problem too?

i allready maild the WASP customer service about it.

for now i try to fix it with some rubber ring, to prevent from leaking.

all best

christian

IMG_5392.JPG
IMG_5392.JPG1936×2592 1.63 MB

24

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBg0sQ5taZc

Little contribution

25

Hi Christian,

I’m having the same issue with clay extruder kit 1.0. Did you manage to solve the problem?

Thanks

26

Hey Domenico,

I’ve found myself that the small pinch bolts on in the tension coupling can become seized and need a lot of force to unfree them, my second extruder delivery had that issue and I though they’d welded it together or somthing but yesterday it did come loose in the end, try some adding water or oil and a long L shaped alan key.

The issue of the clay pushing out the top opening, I know its a major pain…it can happen for a few different reasons, blockages, extruder holding compacted clay from previous use etc. I usually reduced the air pressure to around 3-3.5 bar depending on how soft my clay mixture was and that stopped the issue for the most part, I usually consider my clay too wet when it happens.

I bought the new extruder design thinking this would stop the issue but the first two times I used it the clay only came out the top, didn’t even reach down to the nozzle, after spending days on it I emailed support to find out I need to update the firmware as it was making the screw turn in the wrong direction…although I think thats only an issue if you change extruders.

Theres are so many variables in the system that I’ve found it very hard to get consistent results but I’ve invested enough time to be confident in its potential once the issues are fully understood and can be monitored. Its not a setup I expect to deliver prefect prints without monitoring in my expierence. Due to the wetness of the clay, air pressure range, nozzle size, slicing software choices, structural design considerations in clay, air bubbles killing a print and long print times it can be a handful and disheartening but stick with it and you can get good results as in their examples.

All the best.

27

Does anyone have any successful models (preferably with Cura Settings) on thingiverse?

28

When firing ceramics that have trapped air pockets, bring the temps up very slowly. If you do so the air has a change to dissipate through the unvitrified clay body. If you bring the temps up too quickly the outside shell of the clay body vitrifies and then the air pressure builds until it pops like popcorn!

29

Where did you get the firmware, and how do you update it?

I just received the 2.0 version of the clay extruder and i’m having the same problem. The screw turns the wrong way, it seems. just pushes clay up until it squeezes out of the top. Never gets down into the nozzle.