1

Really, really happy with my Zortrax printer so far. Everything has been working well and the prints come out fantastic.

I’ve been printing some tanks that turn out excellent, except for the amount of support that is generated in the suspension. I thought I would be clever, and split the tank in half length wise, and print the tank so the tracks are up, then glue the halves together, thereby completely eliminating the support removal in the suspension. This has worked great and the models look really good. However, they all come out with a slight warp, as seen when I put the two halves of the tank together (see photo)

There’s about a 1-2mm gap in the front and a 1mm gap in the back. This is actually the best print of the 3 I’ve done. The first print had at least a 3mm gap in the front.

I assumed, after the first print, that I simply didn’t notice that the tank and raft had come off the bed. So I printed again, and got the same problem (albeit slightly reduced on the 2nd run, and even further reduced on the 3rd run). Here’s what I’ve done to troubleshoot through the 3rd print:

- Ensured that the raft is not detaching from the print bed

- Cleaned the print bed, including removing the perforated plate

- Manually leveled the bed (autoleveling has never worked on my printer, it just fails every time)

- To the best of my ability, ensured that the print is not detaching from the raft

- Printed at vertical orientation (first print, worst results), horizontal orientation (2nd print better results), and 45 degree orientation (3rd print, the best results, but still not perfect)

I then went back to my previous prints and noticed many are not level on the bottom, and many have the double taper that is viewable in the attached image. Mostly this isn’t too big of a concern as it really isn’t that noticable unless you’re looking for it. However, with the tank print, where I have to stitch those parts together at the seam, it’s obviously very noticable and requires the fix.

I already fixed the first two prints with apoxy sculp, and that worked fine. However, I really don’t think I should have to do that.

I’m using low infill, 10% supports, normal printing speed, and the rest pretty much default settings.

Any suggestions on how I might further troubleshoot this?

tank.jpg
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tank2_0.jpg

2

Did you notice the raft coming up at all?

Also be sure to wait until everything is cool before taking off the print bed. Taking it off while warm can do that.

3

Hi,

What material are you printing in? If it is Z-ABS it may be worthing considering Z-ULTRAT. It is very similar to ABS but is less prone to warping.

Have you got a side cover and door kit for your M200? It really goes along way in preventing warping by keeping the build area nice and warm. I have printed many large parts combining ULTRAT with the door & cover kit with no warping issues at all.

Hope that helps!

Luke

4

Why are you printing with a raft anyway? I only use a raft for prints with a small footprint on the build plate. Ditch the raft, rub some glue stick on the bed, and, as Joshuah_torres suggests, wait for everything to cool before removal. If you are still getting warp then your ambient temperature is too low. This can only be fixed by decreasing fan, raising temp of your AC, or enclosing the printer.

-Jesse

5

Jesse,

The Zortrax system prints everything with a raft. That is one of the reasons why the success rates are so high.

6

They default the raft because it takes some of the thinking out of the process and helps make it more “idiot proof” but I guarantee it is unnecessary for a print like this. The adhesion of the print to the bed is much stronger and uniform then to the raft, which would go a long way in terms of overcoming the warp.

7

I’d be happy to print without a raft if you can tell me how to do it on a zortrax.

8

I’m using Z-ABS. I do have some ultrat that I could try with. I am using the enclosures and printing in (at the time) a pretty warm garage (90F or so). My only problem with ultrat is that it effectively doubles the cost of the print, and where I’m just printing toys, it takes a $10-15 tank to $20-30. But yeah, I might give that a go and see how the results are.

Thanks!

9

No, that’s why I cannot figure out where the warping is. The raft is adhered to the bed, and the print is adhered to the raft. Everything looks great, and then I take the part off and have some warp.

Taking it off the bed while still warm? I hadn’t considered that. I am usually chomping at the bit to get these off and get playing with them. However, I don’t recall taking them from the printbed while the printbed was anything more than mildly warm. Good suggestion though, I’ll make a point to let the bed cool down the whole way.