Hello everybody,
I am new here, and new to 3D printing. I was looking into buying a vertex and then I stumbled on a secondhand ( well refurbished, I bought it in an official shop) printer.
I had a serious discount, however the printer came assembled, so I missed part of the fun, and learning curve.
Since I did not build the printer myself, I have no idea if every part is placed under the right specifications.
Anyway, my first print was a simple badge, and the print came out nearly perfect. The second and third failed ( I forgot to use supports ), fourth print was a ball bearing, and the tiny balls inside failed to stick to the bed ( buildtak is worn out I think, it has a burn mark in the middle ), so I stopped the print.
Then I found benchy on thingyverse, and descided to give that one a go. The print came out like this:
So obviously the printer has some issues with small details. Can anybody give me some information on where to start looking? Don’t really feel like taking the whole printer apart and start over.
I think it’s just the settings that aren’t correct. I think you had a partial nozzle blockage near these narrow pillars. Probably the printer printed these very slow or with pauzes in between because of minimum layer time, in combination with too high nozzle temperature blocked the nozzle.
Small details have to be printed slow (~30m/s) and set minimum layer time to 8s and minimum print speed to 20m/s, also try lowering the nozzle temp to 185°C.
You don’t need support structure for this object as the roof of you boat can easily be ‘bridged’
I have tried the setttings you recommended, and everything seemd to be fine, then suddenly while printing the structure of the cabin I heard a loud click and it started printing half a cm off. I am guessing the belt of the stepper motor slipped? Does this happen often or does it mean the belt needs tightening?
when you hear such ticking/knocking, it’s indeed a stepper motor that misses steps. If you see an offset in x or y direction it’s the x or y stepper motor and not the extruder that’s causing the problem.
Your belts are probably too tight, giving too much movement resistance and then steps are missed and you get what is called ‘layer shifts’. The default Velleman hardware tightens these belts too tight in my opinion. Also aligning the printer might help.
I would recommend you print the alignment tool from thingiverse, and also use the belt-tensionners. I’m using them since the very beginning and layer shifts belong to the past.
I recommend you read one of my older posts and I think your printer will work just fine. viewtopic.php?f=58&t=14551
The offset seemed to be once only, prints are getting better, now trying to print bigger objects and those seem to be going just fine.
I had to descide if i want to keep the secondhand printer or not, but it seems like it is working apart from some finetuning maybe, so I am keeping it.
I will start a 3d print design course next september, can’t wait to start designing myself.
It’s wise to avoid potential problems like layer shifts, these things happen when you’re not expecting it, like at the end of 10hr prints…sooner or later it will get back to you.
Your stepper motors are struggling so it’s best to adjust belt tension and alignment.
yes, designing your own stuff is where the fun really starts. My house is covered in bits and pieces of 3d printed objects.
3d designing is not that difficult as you might think. I’m using the open source program ‘freecad’, it works for me but maybe there are better ones.
And it doesn’t matter you bought your printer second hand, if you’re going really into 3D printing you’ll get to know your printer inside out. 3D printers are ‘ongoing’ projects.
When my printer is running I never leave it alone (some do)
I have a Raspberry Pi running Octoprint on it with a webcam.
I can see and control it with my phone tablet or any other computer.
I do not have the ports forwarded so I can only use it on my own network.
I check on it often and the few times there was a problem I was able to stop it before it got bad.
I also have a smoke detector over it as well.
You should download the free version of Sketchup to practice drawing.
There are a lot of good videos on Youtube for it.
I think most people leave their printer alone, since 3D printing is a slow process. My printer does 24hr prints
Especially printing without heated bed has little risk. The meanwell power supply is used all around the world in 24/7 applications, when it dies, it dies maybe with a bang but without catching fire, there’s no semtex or C4 inside.
Using a webcam is a good idea to stop printing when things go wrong. But I have had numerous cases when a print went wrong and stepper motor was blocked for a few hours. It just keeps ticking untill you unplug the printer, without damage.
This is still a very bad idea.
On my K8200 I made a nozzle for the fan.
It got bumped without my realizing it and it can into contact with the hotend and started on fire.
Fortunately I was in the room so nothing was damaged but there was a big mess to clean up.
A smoke detector is a good idea.
