First Print. Think it came out good  

Re: First Print. Think it came out good

Hi Scott

Congrats on your first print!

The part seems to have stuck well ans is quite clearly defined, so the best thing to do now is to run of a few prints of your own and make sure you are happy with them.

That's all that matters really; that you are happy. Of course there are ways to improve the prints. Every printer is different, so they all have slightly different flow rates for example. This is one easy tweak to make - see attached document.

Also don't forget that this printer is not expensive; it produces results better than much more costly printers, but it can be modified with a variety of upgrades to generate even better quality prints. However, its about bangs per buck and depends on the depth of your pockets!

Have fun printing and learning. You will soon find out where you want to go with this.

Peter

Re: First Print. Think it came out good

Peter. Thank you very much. I was playing with leveling the bed a lot. To me it seems that the front is ever so slightly lower then the back but from what I have printed so far (test block from another site) the layering seems really good.
Printed the tree frog out last night before bed too lol. Any ideas on the little gap there on it's back?
Just getting the prints off the glass seems to be my biggest issue. They just stick so darn well. lol
Will be printing your attachment after work today. Thank you.
My son already grabbed a simple design from Maya to try out while I'm at work (lucky kid!)
Thanks and have a great holiday!
(Already have several different colors of PLA listed on my wish list! and was looking at a different bed instead of the glass - woot more money to spend!)

Re: First Print. Think it came out good

Scott

Stick with the glass bed at the moment. Put it in the freezer and the prints will release a lot easier. Get a second glass sheet so you can print on one whilst the other is cooling.

That small gap on the back - what filament are you using? If it's ABS, then it could be because of a draft. Otherwise, it may be temperature, calibration, bed level, print speed, in fact a whole load of things.

For PLA, I have blue painter's tape over the glass. This helps with bed levelling as well - wrap the ends of the tape over to the other side of the glass, so that the tape is between glass and heater.

Peter

Re: First Print. Think it came out good

Peter. Thanks.
Do you run heat with the blue tape? I have some just haven't used it yet.
Thank you again for all the help.
It is the grey pla from here BTW.
The settings are the default 210/50 for the temps. Pretty good on the leveling that I can tell with the card. But will check again. Plus the machine is leveled on the table.

Re: First Print. Think it came out good

Scott

210 is the upper end of PLA temps; you could drop that by 10 degrees.

With blue tape I use between 40 and 60 degrees depending on size of print; however if you bet the first layer squished down, there is probably no need for any heat; it does stick very well.

OK, if the frog was printed with PLA, then it's possibly a feed issue (tweak - increase by 3 or 4%) or you may need an additional perimeter(loop) - (3 rather than 2.

These things are all trial and error.

Peter

Re: First Print. Think it came out good

Cool. Will try that after work today.
Thanks again.

Re: First Print. Think it came out good

Scott

One other thought for you.

You probably know that PLA soaks in moisture from the air and degrades quite quickly, such that printing with it becomes difficult.

I find it best to use whole spools of filament and not leave any laying around for too long.

So, I buy mainly white filament. When I want different colours, I have an airbrush and a wife who is quite arty. That way, you get any colour(s) you want, without having too much stock of PLA.

Peter

Re: First Print. Think it came out good

Lol very nice.

Re: First Print. Think it came out good

Hi all and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!
I tested and printed some other items and all were good.
I decided to print one of the tiles - Wall B from Fat Dragon 3D Tiles.
All was going good. It was very late and i went to bed. I got up to a completed wall. Cleaned it up and noticed that it shifted in the X after the second set of the wall. Base came out wonderful and the piece stuck to the glass fantasticly.
Used Slic3r to get the gcode using his original 1.75 PLA settings. All looks good in the Slic3r from what I can tell.
Any ideas? Cause the rest printed great after the initial move. Now the print head shifted over. The piece was still firmly stuck to the bed. So this is confusing me a bit.

Re: First Print. Think it came out good

Hi Scott

I am experiencing the same issue. See here: http://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=405&p=2823#p2823

As soon as I get to the bottom of this, I will let you know.

Peter