What did I learn in my first couple of days?  

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

Won't even watch the video ad. The print sheet contamination is enough to steer me away from any insights this user may have ... lol.

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

Posted by: @quentinsf

This might amuse, or perhaps even be useful to somebody!

Hah! We've got a Shark here and a bag of loose accessories. I've been procrastinating building something to organize them. Kudos for jumping in with a practical print so quickly. Don't use that metal scraper though. That bed flexes!

Your thumbnail makes the bed look like a problem, but you provided a very nice summary on the importance of cleaning the PEI and Live-Z adjustment. Nice visual overview of the "Life Adjust" procedure too. Update that thumbnail to show the clean bed! 😀 

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

@tim-2

Ah yes, I did try a glue stick before discovering other solutions 😀 

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

@bobstro

Thanks - thumbnail now updated, so as not to deter the Pritt-stick-sensitive! 🙂

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

ps: I really did watch some of the video, but when that "clean" sheet is shown as it is loaded onto the printer while the narration discusses soap and water then alcohol as if that is a good idea, I stopped watching. It is just too hard to convince people alcohol needs to be kept in a bottle and not be a first choice for bed maintenance. Enough so that when someone promotes using it AFTER a bed is cleaned with soap and water, well, they don't have enough experience yet. My opinion, and I know it doesn't count for much. But it's one of the few things I can really call my own. lol.

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

@quentinsf

Nicely done Quentin, enjoy your Printer, it looks like your going to have a lot of fun.

Maybe even help someone 😀 

Swiss_Cheese

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

Posted by: @tim-2

ps: I really did watch some of the video, but when that "clean" sheet is shown as it is loaded onto the printer while the narration discusses soap and water then alcohol as if that is a good idea, I stopped watching. It is just too hard to convince people alcohol needs to be kept in a bottle and not be a first choice for bed maintenance. Enough so that when someone promotes using it AFTER a bed is cleaned with soap and water, well, they don't have enough experience yet. My opinion, and I know it doesn't count for much. But it's one of the few things I can really call my own. lol.

 

I'm sure you're right. I was just too inexperienced to know I should ignore the manufacturer's instructions... 🙂

For what it's worth,  the marks on the bed are the results of trying somebody else's advice to use a bit of the supplied glue stick and spread it around with some alcohol.  (The light used in the video is the other side of the bed from the camera so makes it look rather worse.)  Anyway, the glue helped (as did soap and water) but it wasn't quite enough.  Everything started working reliably and consistently (on that bed as you see it there), once I decreased the Z-axis adjustment by 0.15mm, in a way that it hadn't on a more pristine sheet with the higher setting.  So I spent more time on the Z-adjustment in the video.

All advice welcome, though!

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

@quentinsf

Prusa has some quirks. They also tell users they don't need to lubricate the linear bearings; that their textured PEI sheet is good for PLA; and about 50 other items I am trying to forget because it's all bad advice that I've wasted a ton of time on. Probably the worst was their instructions on how to change nozzles (E3D has a good article that actually is useful - and what finally dug me out of that pit). 

I understand why you'd use alcohol; and it works for many. But unless you have a squirt bottle, a roll of paper towels or a clean large and fluffy microfiber rag to soak up a few ounces, the method doesn't stand a chance of actually doing anything useful when compared to soap and water. As for Prusa recommending it... when you work for an industrial size company, alcohol comes in 55 gallon drums, not 4 ounce bottles. I suspect the amount they use to clean a sheet is a lot more than you use and thus they have better results than the rest of us. And - I have never found glue stick to improve adhesion over a bare -- clean -- PEI sheet. And with clean, I mean soap and water beading clean.

Don't get me wrong - at the end of the day any effort to promote good printer hygiene is a benefit and will probably help others. Kudos for trying to share your experiences here. I just hope folk who watch the video don't walk away with the idea that a print sheet coated in muck is sensible.

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

No gonna watch the video, but good topic.  I like the tool you printed for the Dyson.  

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

Posted by: @cwbullet

No gonna watch the video, but good topic.  I like the tool you printed for the Dyson.  

If you get a chance, it's worth putting on in the background. You won't learn anything new as an experienced user, but Quentin has done a good job on presenting a lot of information for new users and has a very watchable presentation style. I have bookmarked the video and will likely point anybody curious about 3D printing to it as a good overview. I particularly like the way that he acknowledges that he could probably buy 'something' for less effort, but that he can now design exactly what he wants. That's something that can be hard to get across.

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

Since we are on the subject of tool holders... I found this to be somewhat useful. 

Dyson Tool Holder

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

Posted by: @tim-2

Since we are on the subject of tool holders... I found this to be somewhat useful. 

Dyson Tool Holder

Great tool holder.  I till have to try and print that one.  

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

@quentinsf

Okay - I broke down and watched the video from front to back ...

Except for my prior comment about the messy PEI sheet - which is still true - the video is quite good at presenting the basics, and it would even have helped me in my early days. If you find the time to edit that short segment where you discuss the clean bed, but show a dirty one...

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

@tim-2

I have to agree - good video.  

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

And now that Quentin has 2.74K subscribers, I'm sure he's raking in all the YouTube cash! Seriously though, good start. Have fun learning 3D printing. It's a very rewarding pastime. 

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

Posted by: @bobstro

And now that Quentin has 2.74K subscribers, I'm sure he's raking in all the YouTube cash! Seriously though, good start. Have fun learning 3D printing. It's a very rewarding pastime. 

🙂  I used to joke that, after posting occasional YouTube videos for a little over a decade, I now earn roughly enough to keep me in coffee.  But that's only because I haven't been going out for coffee during lockdown!  (A lot of the videos, like this one, don't have ads enabled at present.)  

Now I think about it, though, I might almost be earning enough to pay for a supply of filament..!

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

Posted by: @tim-2

Since we are on the subject of tool holders... I found this to be somewhat useful. 

Dyson Tool Holder

Yes, that's very nice too!

Mine's on Thingiverse, by the way, or should be soon, once I get past the new-users-need-to-wait-24-hours boundary!

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4851885

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

@quentinsf

That link does not work. 

RE: What did I learn in my first couple of days?

Posted by: @cwbullet

@quentinsf

That link does not work. 

No, it doesn't yet, but I think it should become live in about 12 hours when they've made this newbie wait for the publishing to become active 🙂