I’m beginner and started looking at 3D print technology 3 months ago. I’ve decided for Vertex because I did not want to spend too much at the beginning, I wanted to dive into the 3D technology and it is a nice, handy printer.
In summary I’m quite satisfied with my 2 heads Vertex as it meets my expectations well.
Assembly was time consuming but also fun. Instructions are excellent. Mechanics and accuracy are much better than claimed by other sources. For the moment I’m using white and red PLA for printing architectural models - as big as possible.
It is a DIY kit and of course I had to face some issues. My experiences:
Z height calibration. Was not really a problem but is the instruction really correct (turning direction of z height bolt)?
One stepper driver was defect. I’ve got replacement from Vellemann.
I’ve noticed grinding of the belts, already mentioned in this forum, do not know if it is a problem.
After two months successful printing there was a mysterious problem with heating the second nozzle. After quite time consuming searching the error I’ve found out that one wire of the cable from board to print head was broken. Unexpected but easy to fix.
When increasing speed I observe that temperature can not be maintained. It drops to a lower value than specified. Behavior is different between both nozzles. I’ve measured temperature and noticed that actual temperature it is higher then what the sensors are telling. Actually it is around 240 °C instead specified 210 °C. I’ve compensated it by decreasing temperature.
Now after I’ve solved all issues popped up so far I started optimizing parameters speed, temperature and flow rate. I’m wondering if there are any recommendations. My impression is that default settings are more on the safe side. Mechanics and accuracy of positioning is not bad at all and could stand higher speed for sure. What are the limits?
Another measure to increase speed obviously is to adapt cura settings concerning structures such as perimeter thickness and density of support. Especially support is often not optimal regarding speed. E.g. when I define just lines as support sometimes they are oriented the wrong way and support nothing. How can I specify the orientation of such support lines. Grid infill, when low density is selected, is sometimes not really ideal to support top layers. I’m wondering if there is either a more intelligent or more flexible slicer software, not necessarily free of charge. Maybe with the possibility to design support structures manually.
As mentioned it is a good printer with fantastic cost performance relation. It is a pity that obviously in Germany / Switzerland there are no really well equipped online shops supporting Vertex respectively spare parts.
Your list of hurdles to K8400 happiness is such a standard list of issues that I think everyone has had them to some degree! I even had the defective stepper driver (which Velleman replaced without question or cost, I must say).
Even your observations about the grid vs lines support is spot-on. The lines always go front to back, never any other direction. My only solution has been to be clever about rotating the parts on the print bed until the lines go across what they need to support, rather than parallel. A better software solution will always be welcome if you find one!
Finally, the only way I have found to have good default print settings is if you never change how you print, or with what filament. My experience has taught me that you need to adjust settings if you print with a different: speed, thickness, brand of filament, different color of SAME brand filament, time of day! (warm room vs cold).
[quote=“mats19”]Hi,
Now after I’ve solved all issues popped up so far I started optimizing parameters speed, temperature and flow rate. [/quote]I’ve never really understood why people want to optimise speed - you can’t keep quality and increase speed, not significantly. And if you don’t care about quality, why not just increase your layer height and reduce fill?
Optimising quality - now that’s worth doing! I’ve found after a year and a bit that the printer is no longer producing flawless prints and it gets increasingly difficult to track down where the sources of whiplash and vibration come from, or slipping pulley wheels or out of parallel rods and so on and so forth. Sure you can do a full overhaul, dismantle and reassemble, but that’s more time than I have to give at present. So I put up with my less than stellar prints as it’s too much time and effort to fix it. In fact…
I have actually started to entertain thoughts of a new printer! :-0
In my experience the faster the printhead moves, especially with infill, the more the bed will shake in X-axis direction. This effect increases obviously in the middle of the Z-axis. You can feel it by moving the bed on the frontside by hand from left to right.
I have an extended Vertex, so my Z-axis is 53 cm instead of the original 35 cm, so the shaking of course did increase but I noticed this effect already on the original Vertex.
I reduced this effect substantially by mounting a vertical guiding rod in the front left corner, coupled with a lineair bearing on the printbed.
I didn’t do a before-and-after printing test, but if trying to move the bed by hand from left to right, there’s no movement at all.
Having said this, I agree with Biscuitlad that maybe with this kind of printer a good quality is fine and acceptable and a perfect quality is not within reach.
And in my opinion with this mechanical fdm kind of system it’s hard to reach perfectly smooth prints. I am curious which other printer you have in mind Biscuitlad? On internet they let us believe that Ultimaker is the ultimate printer. But it is a similar system as the Vertex is. Does it make perfect prints? Anyone who can compare?
Well this is off topic, but you’re right. No point in getting an Ultimaker, it’s just a slightly more robust version of the Vertex with a better filament range.
But I have my sights set on the BCN3D Sigma. It’s (IMHO) the only correct way to do two nozzles. They have to be independent to avoid scrapes and oozing, particularly when you start mixing filament types. It’s also been shown to print fine with filaflex, which is about the softest filament out there, so it ticks all my boxes… except the price!! :-0