Simple settings:

[rsilvers]

If you are having trouble and just want to make a good print, get PLA, measure the width in a few places with a caliper, put in that value under filament settings - and otherwise use my settings below. Note that under printer settings, my X and Y calibration values are for the fishing line on the bare shaft.

Get a 4x6 piece of glass from a $1 picture frame from a discount store. Put masking tape on it (does not need to be blue as you often hear). Put Locktite on your bed level screws. Level the bed so that a business card has the same tug under the nozzle in all four corners of the bed. Lower the nozzle as the head does the initial two loops until you see the bead going down. Lower it more until the bead flattens and widens - it will be very close to the tape. Then let it run.

[twistedmedium]

I already voted this post up but I can't express enough how this alone has contributed to the most perfect prints of anything I have done! After calibration, this should be the starting point for just about everyone. The results cannot be argued with! I stubbornly kept trying my own configs and in the end none beat these. Perfection!

[rsilvers]

Thanks.

I have the lift speed at 30 but I read that having a slow lift can leave dots where the layer changes. Dots where the layer changes was like my last problem. So I have since raised that to 120. I have not done a comparison yet though. If my dots go away, I will know why.

[twistedmedium]

I did notice the dots with your settings and wasn't getting them with mine. I also wasn't lifting on layers and randomizing start points. I think I like mine better in that regard, but that is all. I just had a catastrophic failure with my Z axis nut coming out during a print (that is a bad design point I forgot about until it bit me in the butt.) I took the opportunity to switch over to a brass 5/16-18 nut though so not a total loss.

[rsilvers]

I like to keep random start points off so that if there is a defect I know the cause. If they are in random locations then I will never know.

[twistedmedium]

Yes, it is more cosmetic for that one but the lift Z on retract does leave dots. I'll try the faster retract. Thanks for the update

[twistedmedium]

Nope, speed of retract doesn't help. The dots persist, without the lift and with the random start points my prints are flawless looking, with the lift and non-random start there is always two seams visible.

[rsilvers]

This is a good test - it is just a cylinder:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:35088

It would be good to compare no lift, to fast lift - and look for dots (warts?)

It is probably best to turn off random for the test as then any dots will line up and be easier to see.

I can't do it now as my printer is booked for 18 prints for this massive pre and post Bowden test I am doing and I assume everyone is excited to see the results as I am.

[twistedmedium]

OK, I thought I took out any setting from your profile that would cause the lifting between layers and it is still lifting between layers (I took out lift on retract). What setting is it that you have in there that would cause this? It is definitely the lift causing the pronounced seam/bumps, because my prints without the lift are flawless. I'll post pics as soon as I get a chance. I will have to compare the two configs to figure out what is still causing the lifting.

[rsilvers]

I only know about lift on retract.

[twistedmedium]

It was the lift Z and also whichever crossing perimeter setting on the first or second screenshot that isn't a default that was doing it. I have to print one more cube and then I'll upload pics.

[twistedmedium]

OK, I did the 0.5mm thin wall 20x20x10 cubes since I was pressed for time:

Pic 1 - Your settings exactly as posted:


Pic 2 - My Settings, no lifting at all and basically the default Printrbot guide settings:


Pic 3 - Your settings but Z lift only off (still lifts between lines and repositions start on one side or other):


Pic 4 - Your settings but no lifting at all (Still a strange behavior where it would lift every 3 lines and reposition to other side start point.)

[rsilvers]

Can you confirm that Pic-2 solves the problem?

And if so, specifically which exact setting from my settings needs to change?

Just change "Lift-Z" to 0?

[rsilvers]

When you said "default," I was thinking you meant the default for Slic3r. But now I am wondering if you mean "what the Printrbot guide says to use."

The Printrbot guide is for the previous version of slic3r which is missing all of the settings added for Bowden extruders.

[twistedmedium]

Yes, by "default" I meant the Printrbot guide. I made some slight changes to match my filament and my gcode for my calibration of YXZE but not a whole lot else. I played with the layer height and slowed the speeds down to your speeds, but not much else. I will revert back to those settings and get screen caps tomorrow.

Of the 4 the one with no lifting and random starts is the cleanest overall. The second best was your settings with no lifting.

[rsilvers]

It sounds like then it is still doing the warts, but they are distributed due to the random checkbox on.

I will turn off lift-Z when I can do a comparison.

[twistedmedium]

Quick question for anyone that might know: For some reason after using rsilvers settings, I can't get my printer back to doing what it did in pic #2 above where it randomized the starts and didn't lift at all. No matter if I check or uncheck the "randomize start point" in Slic3r settings it is now stuck doing the thing where it starts on either the left or right and lifts to travel there. It is driving me insane! How can I get back to my original setting as far as layer changes? I cannot figure it out.

[rsilvers]

I don't know. I will get round to comparing those settings though. But I have to grind through other things first.

I am going to use these speed settings for a while:

[img][img]https://imageshack.us/scaled/large/197/screenshot20130530at143.png[/img][/img]

[twistedmedium]

I'm convinced it is a bug in Slic3r. There is absolutely nothing different other than I had switched to your settings fully at one point to test them. I even created a fully new profile exactly as I had at the very beginning from the Printrbot guide and it will not go back to randomizing the starts no matter what.

Also I am now getting an intermittent error line in Repetier's log section at the bottom about Slic3r complaining about a missing or undeclared value in config.pm line 11... however the folder and the file it is complaining about don't exist. I may try a different slicer because some of the issues I've been wasting my time chasing have been slicer-related not hardware or settings. :/ Like last night I have my printer fully calibrated to .1mm yet when I slice and print the Seej game pieces none of them fit together and the flag base hole might fit a toothpick nowhere near the correct sized square hole.

[rsilvers]

Google your error message. You will probably find people discussing it.

I love Slic3r. At the same time, it needs work.

It does not check your input. I was putting "3mm" into a field rather than "3" and it did not complain until it crashed. Checking input was like what I was doing in my first computer science class.

[twistedmedium]

I did google it and there isn't anything out there. I was really put off though by the developer of Slic3r in a response he made to someone with a similar problem to mine. He basically said, "I'm busy and don't care/have time to do any input validation, if you want it code it yourself" That didn't sit the best with me and is why I didn't even bother contacting him about this issue.

I'd be happy to just hand edit the config.pm file but it doesn't exist. At first I was running Repetier from the original file mounted as a volume, but because of that the configs weren't anywhere so I drug it to my Applications folder and thought for sure I could just browse to the DIR and edit the file... wrong. Once I get to Slic3r/lib/std/ the only folders are "Mozilla" and "XML" but the config.pm is supposedly in a different folder that doesn't exist. I'm guessing it created this file on the fly in some temporary memory but I'll be damned if I can find it. and no search turns up a config.pm anywhere.

[rsilvers]

The developer is doing this for free though, and probably feels pressure to fix other things first.

[twistedmedium]

Definitely, I have lived in the free/open source software world since the early/mid 90's so I get that entirely but when such a basic issue as useful errors or input validation is not done and then to complain when people understandably have an issue with cryptic errors that can't be found or fixed seems a bit extreme to me.

I'll figure out the nuances I'm sure and learn to work with/around it in time. The only thing I am not crazy about is when it slices something with no errors but then prints out something that is clearly way off. At first I kept suspecting my calibration/settings, and wasted a lot of time and effort only to find out that Slic3r just couldn't handle the model. JohnSL's v2 Z-Axis knob for example, then before he made v3 he posted his gcode of it properly sliced... I copy/pasted and even with his printer settings it printed perfectly. It is all early days still, I'm sure things will mature.

[owens]

If you'd like to see the source for Slic3r it's here: along with some very useful documentation, all the way up to an e-book manual (which I haven't read yet). You're right, input validation should definitely happen; the typical Open Source answer would be to fork the project, make the changes and submit a pull request. Since I'm no kind of programmer and *definitely* not up to writing Perl, it won't be me who does that work. Meantime, I know how to work around it, so that's most of the problem solved. . .

[briankb]

[rsilvers]

I put the nozzle close to the masking tape, then start the print, then as it is looping I lower it more to close the gap and watch it lay down a bead. I adjust the height as it is making the first loop until the bead is wide and flat. That makes the print stick well.

[rsilvers]

By the way, after doing all of my testing, I am bumping up my speeds lately. I don't mean with a Bowden setup - just a stock printer:



A good all-around layer height is 0.254mm. Set the default extrusion width do 0.400 in Advanced. The temp I was using of 175 - I now use a 50mm fan and raise that temp to ~185.

[rsilvers]

Since I did speed testing, and since I now have a fan, I have come to see that I can go faster than I was going. Here is what I plan to use most of the time as general-use settings.

Note that these are settings for my printer with the normal extruder, not Bowden. I have the line direct on the shafts, which is why my calibration may differ a lot from yours. I am liking this 0.254mm layer height for general use.



Note that I have a 50mm fan. If I did not have the fan, I would probably want to print slower. Also I would want to lower my temp 5-10 degrees C.

[dlsio4]

Please pardon the newbie question here. I have been trying to solve a problem where the print is fine, but the Z-axis is stretched on the printed object (if something is supposed to be 27 mm high it ends up 34 mm high). It looks like the calibration gcode you supplied might be important to fixing this problem, but I have built my Simple with the vinyl around the x and y shafts and when I put in the sample starting gcode from your screen shots, my Simple, which used to print in the middle of the bed now maxes out both x and y travel and tries to keep going before starting to print. I just noticed your note about how your calibration reflects a bare shaft. How would I go about calibrating my shafts? Thanks!

Also, is there any startup gcode not shown in your screen shots above that I might be missing and need?

Dave Smith

[rsilvers]

Print a 1 inch by 1 inch cube, measure how large the cube prints, and then adjust the X and Y cal by cross multiplying.

[UXO]

Thanks for this! I was having problems with layer adherence and this sorted pretty much everything! At the very least, I'm now 80-90% of where I want to be. I suspect the V2 upgrade will take a chunk out of that final few percent when it arrives, hopefully some time this week.

[Neodavid]

Thanks for sharing everyone. Your time is appreciated by many besides me I'm sure.

[Neodavid]

Any updates to these settings?

This was a fascinating thread... My printrbot simple was doing very well, so I bought the 'size upgrade' (tower too), and suddenly my prints wouldn't stick.

Bed level, paper thin to bed all around, same as before...

So here looking at all these, I'll try tonight, but so far no luck getting PLA to stick to the new wood bed (old wood bed was perfect). Something else changed though, cause I put the old bed on top of the new to try (glued down carefully, carefully removed later), and pla still won't stick on first layer (after that, seems fine).

This is the aluminum extruder, btw... was running 199 first layer, 190 after, with fan, standard config per printrbot guide.

So, if anyone has no updates, maybe I'll add mine, but please jump in if other thoughts!!

Thanks for sharing everyone.

[Some Printr Noob]

On my aluminum simple, here's how I prep my bed. Prints stick like a charm now.

Put on masking tape (I use some 3M beige tape I had laying around)
Mix up some white school glue; 1 part glue and 3 parts water. Nothing fancy. Doesn't have to be exact.
Mix the liquidated glue really well, then apply some to the bed. I do a couple of lines, then take a paper towel and make sure I get the print area nice and evenly spread. It should moisten the tape, but not douse it.

Wait a couple minutes for the glue to dry.

Level the bed.

Print! I use 195 on the first layer and 190 for the rest. The bottom of my prints are almost perfectly flat.

[nalby]

Try wiping the blue tape with rubbing alcohol.It sticks so good it rips the tape sometimes trying to get the print off

[Neodavid]

Oh, awesome ideas!

VERY nice... I considered the glue thing, but rejected it out of hand as not worth trying.
Good show!

Alcohol... I bet that dries out the tape and wipes any oil... Nice!

AS soon as I unclog my crazy hot end, I'll try these!

It's so weird, before I got my expansion, everything stuck amazingly. But the new bed, uh uh... even after a little sanding. WEIRD

[jknightandkarr]

I will try these settings on my printer. I lost my settings when my hdd crashed.

Joe

[Erik508]

None of the images from the first post are showing up.

I know the post is a couple years old but it looks useful and it's about when I bought my printer.

[RetireeJay]

I just looked at the "source code" for the message, and all the images in the first post were in fact references to an off-site server. So I assume that the account on that server has been closed, or the server no longer exists. That's a good reason for people to use the "native" method of embedding pictures in their posts here: use the "Upload attachment" and the images will be stored on the same server that hosts Printrbottalk.com