q:
I understand how slicer programs create sets of closed-loop polygons to print on a layer-by-layer basis.  For a given closed loop polygon which needs to be printed, the tool path generator will know the coordinates and how those coordinates are connected to each other, such that traversing a set of segments in that order will bring the extruder head back to the first coordinate to complete the closed loop.

My question is: By what mechanism does the tool path generator decide which direction to traverse the closed loop?  As it is a loop, that loop could be printed "clockwise" or "counter-clockwise", as it were.  Any details, and links to further explanations of how some of the big-name slicer programs determine this is much appreciated.

[A]
Math
In math, there is a way how a path is to be followed, and that is usually counterclockwise:
Assuming a perimeter path of a circle with
$r=1$
around
$(2,2)$
, then the  path can be defined as
$f(p)={{\cos(p)+2}\choose{\sin(p)+2}}$
- where
$p$
is the path parameter, in this case an angle of 0 to 360°, and just increasing the angle rotates right hand around. If we had the same path but a different starting point, a shift by
$\theta$
, then the path would read
$f(p)={{\cos(p+\theta)+2}\choose{\sin(p+\theta)+2}}$
. So math is usually
counterclockwise
.
Slicers
Every slicer is applying math. As far as I can tell, any Slicer generates a perimeter path, which is always performed in the same way if sliced with the same settings. For one case look at this:
Counterclockwise starting from a 7 o clock position in this case. However, other slicers or other objects on the printbed might use other engines, thus doing it not that way. They might go clockwise since solving a path with
$p=0°\to360°$
and solving it
$p=360°\to0°$
results in producing the exact same print, just opposed print direction of the perimeter.
As long as the perimeter of an object is solved as being done as one closed loop, the perimeter will need to have just one, prescribed direction. This direction will be clockwise or counterclockwise depending on how the slicer exactly solves its calculations. Since both directions are equally valid, it is a programmer's decision. A programmer might even prescribe clockwise or counterclockwise solution based on any factor they wanted. They might use layer number (for alternating directions) or a user setting or even an RNG, if they wanted to.
On the other hand, how the memory is operated and written can also result in the path and the math looking differently. Two examples:
Solving the path correctly counterclockwise and putting the slicing into a FILO memory, resulting in a clockwise operation starting from the last solved point.
Solving counterclockwise and saving into FIFO, running counterclockwise.
Conclusion
Slicers for 3D printing have a hard-coded way to choose the direction that is followed when producing G-code. Any and all perimeters will be printed, starting from some arbitrary point, into that direction. In the end, it is a choice of the
programmer
of the slicing engine that determines if the path is to be run down "forward" or "backward" in mathematical sense.
Addendum
Slicers are derived from CAM programming. CAM - computer assisted machining - takes into account one more thing when solving the tool path that is not relevant to a 3D printer: The direction of the fluting of the tool. In fact, this one will determine into which direction the path will give a better cut and changing the fluting should swap the path direction to ensure best results.


q:
I've been 3D printing for a while and I've noticed that, when printing small parts, my colored plastics (PLA, PLA+ and ABS) have better layer adhesion than black ones.

Did you notice this?

What could be the cause?

[A]
Not inherently.
There are two things at work that might cause one color to test weaker than others even as its properties otherwise are functionally identical:
A bad print among good ones.
A bad roll among good ones.
Let's take a look at both, then do a little excursus into plastics and color.
A bad print
There are probably thousands of reasons a print might fail, but bad layer bonding and squish-ability under torsion strongly hint to under extrusion. Now, under extrusion itself can be caused by a plethora of reasons: a clogged nozzle is equally as possible as too thinner diameter as is just a bad temperature. The last one is, in my opinion, the most likely culprit: filaments may look the same and feel the same and bond the same, but in different colors, they sometimes demand different print settings.
As an example, I print most of my Kaisertech PLAs at 200°C, as that offers a quite good result for all of them. Yet when I started I had a white China PLA and a crystal clear PLA from the same manufacturer, both came from the same warehouse in the same shipment. The clear one is quite more brittle on the roll, but their starting-to-print temperature differs by 5°C - the white started to extrude at 180°C decently and printed ok at 195°C-200°C, while the clear needed only 175°C to start to be extrudeable and was really printable at 190°C. Yet recently I tried the same roll again to achieve fully clear prints, and with 210°C and lots of overextrusion, I managed to go almost solid-clear. Because of such experience, I suggest tweaking the settings.
A Bad Filament
There are several reasons why one roll might resulting in bad prints, but the most prominent are that the roll has
gone
bad over bad storage. It might be stored too hot or too humid, making it brittle or bubble in the hotend. Aging under UV plays a role (it degrades PLA). And dimensional accuracy plays a role because it affects the whole roll of filament. This is why tests should always be performed with equally treated and measured samples to achieve comparability.
Excursus: Plastics and color
What gives a plastic its color? Pigments added to it. Now, pigments can be of varied kinds. Usually, they are embedded in the plastic (=not bonded to the carrier plastic), and the plastic polymer is often either inherently transparent(ish) or white. Let's take some examples to look at...
Yellow
. Yellow can be made from a lot of stuff but many yellow pigments react to UV light by decay more than other colors, leading to yellow to fade quickly in comparison to other colors. It has varied chemical compositions, often they can become quite complex.
Black
. Black pigment is typically the most simplistic coloration to achieve: pure powdered carbon is one of our most potent black pigments, and also one of the cheapest, making black plastic one of the most common plastics. In contrast to other colors, carbon can't fade. But the plastic around it decomposes and turns white, fading the color this way.
Now, most colorings are - in physical terms - sizeable. Some few to a couple dozen atoms, making them range in the
Angström
(~Atom diameter) to
few nanometer
area overall. However, even something as complex as
$C_{22}H_{20}O_{13}$
(Carmine) is relatively small compared to the
$(C_3H_4O_2)_n$
of
Poly
LacticAcid, aka PLA. Poly tells us that n is at least 100, because shorter chains are
oligo
mers, not
poly
mers. In comparison, our red carmine pigment is more dense, much more compact in fact. As a result, a 100-chain of PLA is not just in the
Angstöm
area but in the
dozen nanometer
to
micrometer
range - a magnitude of at least 2 larger. Unless we have a huge excess of pigment or a pigment that reacts with the plastic under heat, then the impact of it on the strength should be neglectible to the other fillers often used.

s: huggingface

c: devops

d: intermediate


q:
I'm having a lot of difficulty removing support material without damaging the print.

Are there any tips/tricks to doing this or is it just a case of sanding, cutting, chopping and then cleaning it up as best I can?

Settings

Printer: Monoprice Ultimate

Filament Temp: 200 °C

Plate Temp: 60 °C

Material:  PLA

Slicer:  Ultimaker Cura

Placement:  Everywhere

Angle:  20°

Pattern:  Concentric

[A]
Print/material specific settings
If you are printing
too hot with too less distance
,
the support just fuses to the print object
. Extra cooling, lower print temperature and support distance should be in balance to create easy to remove support structures with respect to an acceptable print object surface. If temperature and cooling cannot be balanced to prevent fused support structures (e.g. for high temperature filament materials that cannot take too much cooling as that would result in less structural solid prints), there is an option in Cura to override the fan speed for the first layer above the support (
```
Fan Speed Override
```
). If this fails to produce easy removable supports, you can resort to changing the support distance between the support and the print object.
Support settings
Most of the used slicers have an option to determine how much distance (in terms of layers) you want between your support and your product, you could add an extra layer as space to try out if that works better for you. E.g. the default Cura setting for
```
Support Bottom Distance
```
(which is a sub-setting of
```
Support Z Distance
```
) is the layer thickness specified in
```
Layer Height
```
. If you have a layer height of 0.2 mm, the
```
Support Bottom Distance
```
is also 0.2 mm. For the top, option
```
Support Top Distance
```
this is two layer heights, so 0.4 mm in this example. These options are visible in the expert mode, you can search for them in the search box, see image below.
Why should you want air in between your part and the support?
You'll soon find out when you want to
remove supports
, if no gap is used, the support will fuse to the print part. This is only interesting (no gap between print part and support structure) when you use a different filament for support like PVA or break-away filament; e.g. PVA dissolves in water in a dual nozzle printer setup (not that you can make the biggest part of the support except the top and bottom layer from the print object material, e.g. PLA for the main part of the support and PVA for the bottom and top layer: settings
```
First Layer Support Extruder
```
,
```
Support Interface Extruder
```
,
```
Support Roof Extruder
```
and
```
Support Floor Extruder
```
).


q:
I am in college and am doing a team competition to print PPSU filament, and get the best results. This is being put on by the Solvay company, who makes the material. Our team signed up and the university bought us an Intamsys Funmat HT 3D Printer, which said it was capable of printing PPSU. However, the company doing the competition did not release the information that the bed plate must be a high temperature to avoid warping (Greater than 200 °C). However, our plate only reaches a temperature of 160. Does anyone know of any aftermarket heaters that would work with this printer?

Maximum temperatures according to Intamys: Chamber 90 °C, Magnetic Build Plate 160 °C, Extruder 450 °C

[A]
If you're a brave individual you might try insulating the bottom of your heated bed. You're going to want to get fiberglass or something that can actually withstand the temperatures you're trying to reach; anything past about 230 °C and you'll get organic things like cork and cotton starting to smoke. 200 °C is pretty absurd for a print bed temperature unless you're printing some pretty exotic materials.
Aside from insulating the bottom of the bed to aid in heat retention, you might also try getting an external FET chip for your heated bed, like is recommended for the RAMPS1.4 boards since their connectors don't handle high amperage loads well. External FET plus a 24 V PSU might give you the kind of temperature range you're apparently aiming for. Best of luck with that, and try not to set your entire setup on fire, 200 °C really is kind of absurd for an entire print plate.
TL;DR:
Insulate
External FET chip
24V PSU


q: When slicing with Slic3r Prusa edition the top layer of most models turns out pretty bad. There are usually small gaps or weird patterns. This does not happen with Ultimaker Cura, it will have a nice smooth top layer. Is there anything settings wise that I can do in Slic3r to get the same quality of top layer as Ultimaker Cura?

[A]
Yes
, you can show more than 300 lines in the terminal; just
disable auto scrolling
(
reference
).
Disabling Autoscroll now completely disables cutting off the lines (so
  you can have way more than 300 lines while that's disabled), filtering
  has been improved too and doesn't cause scrolling anymore.
Note that with disabled autoscrolling, you will be able to see more lines up to the point that the buffer is full. If you need even more lines to monitor, just enable the logging the data to file
```
serial.log
```
. If you open the options page (OctoPrint Settings), just tick the box for "Log communication to
```
serial.log
```
" under "Serial logging" of the "Serial connection" options.
This serial logging file is typically used for debug purposes, but as can be read from the options, it comes with a warning:
While this can negatively impact performance, a
```
serial.log
```
can be
  incredibly useful for debugging any issues observed in the
  communication between OctoPrint and your printer.
You can either access the log file through the OctoPrint options/setting through the "Logging" options tab, or direct download/copy from the logging directory:
on Linux: ~/.octoprint/logs
on Windows: %APPDATA%\OctoPrint\logs
on MacOSX: ~/Library/Application Support/OctoPrint/logs


q:
I've started printing PETG recently and I'm happy with results so far, awesome strength and good looking (except for stringing). But I've noticed that PETG prints better with more distance nozzle-plate than usual, and under-extrusion make parts looking better than both normal/over-extrusion.

What distance nozzle-plate is optimal for PETG? (i.e. the distance between nozzle and build plate during calibration)

What extrusion percentage is optimal for PETG?

[A]
I have printed literally kilometers of 2.85 mm PETG filament on various 3D printers, and frankly, I do not share your opinion on an increased calibration distance/offset (like using thicker paper when levelling you build plate or increasing the Z offset by G-code
```
M851
```
). I even lower the default first layer height in Ultimaker Cura (0.2 mm prints fine). I am aware that on the web there are folks that do increase the calibration offset, or increase the first layer height, but that should not be necessary on a well tuned printer with sufficient first layer adhesion (e.g. printing on glass with 3DLAC).
Furthermore, the best extrusion multiplier for printing PETG is 100 % on a well tuned extruder for a constant diameter quality filament brand.


q:
I have a Monoprice Maker Ultimate 3D Printer and have tried to replace the nozzle.

The nozzles I bought turned out to be too small.

What are the important specifications of a nozzle?

Thread size

Thread length

That plastic tube thing?

Monoprice is very bad at publishing the specs, can I work it out with a caliper?

[A]
What part fits?
A replacement nozzle needs to fit 3 parameters:
Thread diameter and pitch need to match up, to allow mounting
Thread length should be close to the original to allow secure fastening
The style needs to fit: there are quite some styles of nozzle - most are not lined, yours is PTFE lined to the nozzle (see also
Can the filament tube be outside of the nozzle?
)
Monoprice nozzles are
not
compatible with what is known as Ultimaker Mk8 or E3D style (which you bought). They are Ultimaker Mk10 style.
What's a good nozzle?
Now, what separates a good replacement nozzle from a bad one?
good machining to leave no burs and a smooth interior.
a good inner geometry that allows easy flow
outlet hole is to size
Finding premade replacement parts
As a first measure to not get the wrong replacement parts, make sure to add the manufacturer of your printer to the search and then check the thread diameter if given. In your case, you might have to add Monoprice or Toymaker, as those use this style of nozzle.
Reverse engineering a Nozzle
Now, which measurements do you need to reverse engineer it?
nozzle front pitch angle
hex head flat-to-flat & hight
recess diameter & hight
screw shaft relief diameter & hight
thread outer diameter & length
inner bore diameter at entry (and in case of a lined one: after the step) & corresponding depth of drilling
amount of chamfering
With these, it's possible to do do a CNC model or a sketch of the outside and produce pretty much blanks or shells on a lathe that just need their last little bit of drilling... and here comes the tricky part: till now, all could be accessed from the outside. We are missing one profile though: the last piece of the inner bore geometry.
This one can't easily be measured, but if one can push some plastic in, let it cool and then pull it out, one might get a molding of it, which might allow to reverse engineer a fitting drill for the last piece.


q:
Is there any risk of damaging stepper motors if I set too big travel speed?
What is maximum safe travel speed?

My printer is a German RepRap Neo.

I currently use 120 mm/s. Is it safe to increase this value to 200 mm/s?
What would my printer do if I set very big travel speed?

[A]
Short answer
no
We use stepper drivers to limit the current, the travel speed is at capped by the amount of current supplied by the stepper drivers. This prevents the stepper motors from damaging themselves. You can set 200mm/s in the slicer, but you have no guarantee that that will be reached in real life.
One thing to keep in mind though is that setting your travel speed too high can induce artifacts such: shifted layers, ghosting, uneven extrusion, etc. So the best thing is to keep the speeds within the specified limits.


q:
I want to create a micromouse project for fun that use 2 20 mm x 8.5 mm (0.8 mm shaft) motors. I have my own PCB as base. I want its built-in gears will be attached to two 3D-printed wheels with gears at the back of the wheels at each side. I'm having hard time to start designing the gears since I couldn't find any tutorial.

(photo for reference and not mine)

My Question:

How to design the gears at the back of the wheel? (I use Sketchup)

Is 3d-printing such small objects possible?

[A]
Designing gears is very difficult for a variety of reasons. Let me list what you should take into account:
The shape of the teeth are very peculiar, trapezoid shape will not work as the meshing will not be constant. Exact shape is controlled by the pressure angle
In lower number of teeth, teeth shape must be modified to avoid any locks, these are called cutoffs
Reducing the amount of material to print requires careful design, most people simply place circles but they cause weak points.
Herringbone and double herringbone gears improve meshing but are even more difficult to design.
For the reasons stated above, creating gears by hand is next to impossible without special tools. Luckily for those who are searching for it, there are systems that generate gears for 3D printing. This
customizer
has many options and is very open about the licensing, which is another issue with many scripts. For example, it is explicitly forbidden to print parts imported from the McMaster-Carr Catalogue.
If you use OpenSCAD,
this library
can create racks to go with the gears.
The parameters of the customizer are explained in the page. The script also contains explanations of every module and function.
Disclaimer: Both scripts are mine, yet I do not earn anything when people use them. I created the library when I was unable to find the gears I needed, published with a relaxed license to help others.


q:
After I level my Ender 3, the distance between the nozzle and the bed seems fine on both ends, but moving the bed on the Y axis shows that it's increasing and decreasing for three times, which I just cant fix.

This only occurs on the left side - the right side is constant from beginning to end.
Also I've been using three different beds (the magnetic one and two glasses) to make sure it's really something else.

I created this video to demonstrate the problem.

I'm sure that this has something to do with the carriage wheel adjustment, but tightening those did not change anything.

How do I get rid of this problem?

[A]
Your video shows that your bed seems warped somewhat.
Ammount of error
As I assume you did level the bed with a sheet of paper to be 0.1 mm thick, we can estimate the change of thickness. The thickest point seems to be 0.2 mm, the thinnest 0.05. that's in average an error of 0.075 mm for the first layer. If you can live with that, no need to touch it.
Fixing the issue
Basically, if the error is too large for your liking, you need to fix it. To fix it, there are pretty much 2 ways. Remember that
the Ender-3 uses 24V
when ordering parts!
Fix the part or install a replacement part
If you feel like you need to get it even flatter, you'll need to try to flatten the bed mechanically or replace it. You'll need to be comfortable to remove the BuildTak-clone surface, then remove the leveling screws, open the electronics enclosure, remove some hot glue, unhook the bed.
Then you will need to flatten the bed in some way (grinding the upper side perfectly flat or bending it, replacing it for an entirely flat one).
Then reinstall it, going through the uninstallation backward, and add a new build surface on it.
Switch to alternate leveling method: Mesh Bed Leveling
If you consider yourself to be able to do some intermediate to advanced modification of your printer, you can change the hotend carriage to one that allows mounting a distance sensor and changing the firmware to mesh-bed-leveling.
You'll need to get an induction or capacity sensor (common operation ranges for those are 6-36V, so perfectly fine with 24V) and
some way to couple that to the board
, most likely an optocoupler. Print a new mounting for sensor and fans.
To install you open the electronics compartment, hook up your chosen 24V-5V coupler as extra to the Z-switch, hook the power supply of the sensor up and run it up to the printhead. Replace the mounting for the hotend cooling fan and part cooling fan and
change your firmware
. Calibrate the height of the sensor to trigger correctly.
I did flash a bootloader
via the ISP
on my ender-3 since then, so I can just flash the new firmware via a direct connection.
Last words
In either way, after fixing, you should run a PID-tune on the machine.
Thermal Runaway might or might not be active, depending on your firmware iteration, so you should update it anyway, which might make Mesh Bed Leveling the slightly easier way to go.
This has
nothing
to do with the bed carriage wheels, as the bed hangs onto the carriage only via the screws in the corners.


q:
I just completed my first print on my Ender-3 and when the print finalized itself the nozzle didn't elevate itself to clear away from the piece. I watched as the nozzle slowly lowered itself into my print and destroy it. Here is the gcode generated by Slic3r used:

; Filament-specific end gcode
G4 ; wait
M221 S100
M106 S0 ; turn off cooling fan
M104 S0 ; turn off extruder
M140 S0 ; turn off bed
G91
G1 F1800 E-3
G90
G1 Z{z_offset+min(layer_z+30, max_print_height)}{endif} ; Move print head up
G28 X0 ; home x and y axis
G1 Y180; Remove Print Position
M84 ; disable motors
M300 S2600 P100; Beep
; filament used = 24040.5mm (57.8cm3)
; total filament cost = 0.0

[A]
Your print end code should have read something akin to this:
```
```
; Filament sy end gcode
G4 ; wait
M221 S100
M106 S0 ; turn off cooling fan
M104 S0 ; turn off extruder
M140 S0 ; turn off bed

; End code
G1 F1800 E-3 ; retract 3 mm
G1 Z30 ; Move print head up 30mm
G28 X0 ; home x and y axis
M84 ; disable motors
M300 S2600 P100; Beep
```
```
The problem with your end code is the
```
G90
```
for
absolute
measurements together with the formula
```
G1 Z{z_offset+min(layer_z+30, max_print_height)}{endif}
```
to set the height. The printer itself doesn't calculate anything. That what it doesn't interpret, it ignores, interpreting that whole thing as something crazy like
```
G1 Z30
```
to force the printer to go to Absolute 30 mm above absolute 0. To fix it,  your slicer would need to calculate
```
{z_offset+min(layer_z+30, max_print_height)}
```
for the printer - which seems to come out to 30mm above the print and then an if-statement that is not started anywhere.
Going up 30 mm can be much easier be done by staying in
```
G91 ; relative measurements
```
and calling
```
G1 Z30
```
to go up another 30 mm, though this might be too high for the printer frame.


q:
OpenSCAD has rotate function which rotates the body around its origin axis.

Is there a way to specify an arbitrary axis?

For example, this rotates a cylinder around its center:

rotate(a=[90,0,0]) {
  cylinder(h=10,r1=10,r2=10);
}

How to make it rotate around its edge?

[A]
```
rotate()
```
always rotates around the origin of the object following it.
What you can do is to move your cylinder
away
from the origin, like this:
```
```
rotate(a=[90,0,0]) {
  translate([0,10,0]) cylinder(h=10,r1=10,r2=10);
}
```
```


q:
Heads up: I'm not good with electronics and only have a vague idea of it's inner workings.

I have a E3D V6 Extruder rated for 24 V, that i plan to use in my 3D printer. Will there be any problems with it if powered by 12 V? Will it take longer to heat up? Will it be able to heat up enough to melt PLA? Will it work at all for that matter?
If there are any other quirks or potential problems that I overlooked, please let me know.

[A]
Electrical engineering can be quite complex, but in this case you can save yourself with same simple equations/relations. Using the following formulae:
Voltage (
$\ U$
) equals current (
$I$
) multiplied by the electrical resistance (
$R$
)
$$ U=I \times R $$
and
Power (
$P$
) equals the square of the current multiplied by the electrical resistance
$$ P=I^2 \times R $$
can be rewritten using the first formula to:
$$ P= \frac{U^2}{R} $$
Applying these formulae to a
40 Watt, 24 V
heater element, the electrical resistance (in
$\Omega $
) is calculated by:
$$ \frac{{(24\ V)}^2}{40\ W}=14.4\ \Omega $$
Running this heater element with 12 V will lead to a power of
$$ \frac{{(12\ V)}^2}{14.4\ \Omega}=10\ W $$
The heat produced is proportional to the square of the current multiplied by the electrical resistance,
halving the voltage
is
quartering the heat output
. This will heat up very slowly! If it is able to reach the required temperature that is. Calculating the temperature is far more difficult, but if you are interested in doing so, please look into
this answer
from the
Electrical Engineering
Stack Exchange.


q:
I have a Creatorbot 3D printer made by 3D PrinterWorks.  Their website appears to be down, as well as their Facebook page. To me it appears they are no longer around.

I've installed Slic3r as 3D PrinterWorks has recommended in the handbook but cannot download the settings for this from the 3D PrinterWorks website, since that is down.

Does anyone know where I can get the Slic3r configuration file for the Creatorbot?

[A]
Looks like 3dprinterworks.net went down sometime after March 2018 and 3dprinterworks.com went down in January 2019. Luckily the Wayback Machine still has the
machine's specs
.
Here is the instructions for entering settings in Slic3r as found
here
in lieu of importing a profile. (Please note that I have not used Slic3r so the following is solely based on the link)
The key settings under General are
Bed size*: X = 305 mm; Y = 305 mm; and Z = 457 mm
Print center**: X = 152.5 mm; Y = 152.5 mm
Extruders: 2
Heated Bed: Checked
Under Extruder (each extruder should have its own settings so be sure to set up both)
Nozzle diameter: 0.4 mm
Extruder 2 offset: 30.9 mm (good job, OP on finding the email stating this)
Everything from Retraction and on is up to what works best for you
There may be a set of setting for acceleration (there is in Ultimaker Cura) which is 3000 mm/s
2
for most printers, I think. This is the max acceleration, not to be confused with acceleration settings when slicing the model.
The next set of settings, though outside of the Slic3r link, regards the filament. The diameter should be 1.75 mm and the nozzle temperature should be within the range of the filament (e.g. PLA should be set within 180-220 °C) and a heated bed set to 50-60 °C. These parameters are filament dependent and not printer dependent (other than diameter).
That should be the settings that a profile would set for you. Thankfully there's not too many.
```
*There is a wizard for this section that may make input easier, but here is the build volume.
**This setting may require whole numbers and may, in fact, not be a necessary setting at all.
```


q: Using CuraEngine with my Ender 3, I'm getting what I'd call inconsistent inner and outer dimensions - for example, a nominally 3 mm peg is significantly larger than a 3 mm hole, and it takes dimensions something like 2.9 mm for the peg and 3.1 mm for the hole to get them to fit. Is this level of error normal? Is it caused by overextrusion, or does CuraEngine run its paths along the curve of the slice rather than offset by approximately half the nozzle width inside the sliced region? The magnitude of the error being almost exactly 0.2 mm, which is half of the 0.4 mm nozzle diameter, makes me wonder if it's the latter.

[A]
Filament expands slightly as it is extruded. Also, the width of the extrusion depends on the volume of plastic extruded (not the nozzle size), as well as the amount that it is "squidged" down. Some slicers (e.g. Simplify3D) allow you to specify the width of the extrusion that you desire, but I'm not sure if Cura does this. You can fine tune the width of extrusions by adjusting the flow rate. Note that apertures get larger as nozzles wear out, but this should not affect the width of the extrusion very much since the determining factor is volumetric flow rate.
I would say that if you are getting a dimensional accuracy of +/- 0.1mm, you are doing pretty well. If you want to improve on this, you will need to calibrate your extruder and also monitor closely the average diameter of the filament that you are using. I have included a link to an external article, since doing this is beyond the scope of my answer. However, I doubt if it is possible to get push-fit accuracy with FDM printing without fudging the dimensions of the objects that you want to print.
3D Hubs: How to calibrate, tune and fine tune your printer and filament


q:
I've been trying to find a 3D printer filament which would not release any chemicals if in contact with heated water for a substantial amount of time. So far, I've easily ruled out both PLA and ABS, as they're not considered food safe from what I can find. I have found PETG filament, which seems to be food safe.

My question is: "Is there's anything special you'd have to do to make sure the print is food safe, or as in my case, to make sure it's safe for usage in a mug?".

I will be using a steel extruder as brass ones may contain lead.

[A]
Many manufactures list their filaments as being food safe, but I would not treat this as "gospel truth". Apparently, the FDA considers PETG to be safe for food contact, but they are probably thinking about injection-moulded and vacuum-formed parts. Unfortunately, an initial search of the FDA's website did not yield any definitive information.
Even if a particular filament is genuinely food safe, that does not mean that a 3D-printed part made from it will be food safe, since there will be an abundance of nooks and crannies where bacteria can lodge and reproduce. You would have to sterilise a utensil before and after every use to be absolutely safe.
Anyway, good luck with making a water-tight mug with an FDM printer. You will probably have to seal it to make it water-tight, and then it will be the food-safety of the sealant that you will need to worry about. I would give it a miss, if I were you (at least, for other people's use). Items intended for one-time use would be OK, I suppose.


q: I have just built my first 3D printer, and I am having some problems. It is a Cartesian based 3D printer, using Marlin firmware and Pronterface software. My problem is homing the 3D printer. I do not have a probe to calibrate the z offset but I have all 6 endstops. The problem is that the "ZMIN" endstop isn't precise enough and my hotend is always either too far from or too close to the heatbed. Is there a way to manually set the home position, so when I start the printer, It just starts printing and it doesn't have to home again; Or maybe some other way to set the correct offset. It would also be helpful if I could use just the "ZMAX" plug, and then manually set the minimum Z position using a piece of paper.

[A]
It is possible to "home a printer" without having endstops, technically, you don't
require
endstops, but it makes your job a lot easier if you want to print something!
Basically, when you don't have endstops or limit switches, you need to define where the head of the printer is located. E.g. you can set the nozzle at [0, 0, 0] (origin in [x, y, z]) and add the command
```
G92
```
to your print G-code file that it is at that position using
```
G92 X0 Y0 Z0
```
(or any other location you use, e.g. you could engineer a parking position and refer to that position instead, note that you also need to write the movement commands to get out of that location safely). Don't forget to remove the homing command from your start code in your slicer, replace
```
G28
```
with the
```
G92
```
command with appropriate X, Y and Z values.
Regarding the inaccurate repetitive accuracy of your Z min endstop, it might be worth to find out why this is causing such a spread in triggering, maybe you need to invest in some new endstop switches or look more closely to the heated bed attachment to the frame.
Using Z max as a reference point is e.g. used by Ultimaker machines. The heated platform lowers to Z max; the printer knows from calibration and geometry how far it needs to rise to get to Z=0.


q:
Kicked off the second long print in a series (printing Lack enclosure components). First 10 hour print was flawless. Started this one, saw the first layer laid down well, went to bed. Woke up to this (you can see the successful prints in the background):

The whole heater block and nozzle is entombed in PLA. The leads to the heater and the thermistor are too. I'm assuming there's no solvent for this, and I'm better off just buying a new hot end.

Thoughts?

[A]
Yes
I had a somewhat similar clog once, and I could fix it back up. However, it is a lot of work.
Hobbyist Way
Step 1: heat
As long as the heater cartridge is still ok, just fire up the printer, move up the print head by 50 mm and wait some two or three minutes till the goop is warmed enough at the core to melt. Set the hot end to 200 °C and no cooling fan.
Step 2: rough clean
Check the cables for your hot end and thermistor as long as the plastic has not yet softened up around them and especially surrounding the thermistor: When the glob is removed in one swoop, you might tear the lines! It's better to use a sculpting tool or exacto-blade on the softening plastic and make an opening that allows the glob to be pulled away safely with minimal pull on the cabling.
When the blob has softened enough, you can just pull at the outer of the blob to pull it down. Use a tool like pliers and pull off the worst that still sticks to the hotend. Pulling the blob free can take a while, so be patient and careful.
If you have a soldering iron, you can use that as a heated scraper from the outside and skip on heating from the inside. If you have no temperature control (as if your thermosensor is shot) outside heat is the only safe way.
Step 3: Cool down
After having made a rough clean up from the outside, let it cool down so you can dismantle it.
Step 4: dismantle and clean the hotend.
This is actually rather simple, and I will point
to a question where I outlined that for a broken thermistor cartridge
. You have a working thermosensor at least, so less problems on that front.
Shortcut
If you have a hot air gun for hot air soldering, you can be much faster! Skip step 1 to 3, dismantle the hotend and go straight to Step 4, dismantling it and cleaning it out of the machine with the hot air soldering tool as a heat source. Heat and scrape away, and get out the thermosensor and thermosensor as soon as possible to prevent destroying them.


q:
Flsun 3D Cube; Marlin 1.1.1; main board: Makerbase MKS Gen_L V1.0; running from either Repetier or OctoPrint.

I was recently obliged to replace the main board when it stopped powering the heated bed. I got the new main board - same make, version, etc - got everything setup just as it was before, but the bed still doesn't heat. Multimeter shows zero across the board's heat bed contacts, whether using G-code from the terminal (in both Repetier and Octoprint), G-code in the print file, or the control panel on the front of the printer. The thermistor works: if I shine a heat lamp on the bed, it registers the temp change.

Bad board? Something in the Merlin config I missed? Is the board smart enough to not power it on if the bed heater itself is bad?

[A]
Considering:
Multimeter shows zero across the board's heat bed contacts
this implies that
If you measured
resistance
, the heated bed has no resistance. Basically this implies that the bed has a short. This might be the reason why it is not working. If you would power it as such you create a short. Instead of replacing the board, you need to replace the heated bed. Typical values for a heated bed of about 200 x 200 mm are in the order of 1.2 Ω (measurements between 0.9 and 1.5 Ω are reasonable to be expected).
If you measured
voltage
, the heated bed does not receive power for heating, or the power does not reach the bed (not turned on or broken wire?). It would then be wise to measure the resistance (of the bed and the wires). If the resistance is in the order of about 1.2 Ω (see above) for the bed, you could try to connect the heated bed directly to the PSU to see if it gets warm, if so, please disconnect immediately to prevent damage. From this experiment you can find whether the heated bed is broken (or the cables), or that the board is not functioning correctly, this is, however, strange as you tried 2 boards. A possible suspect could be the MOSFET that schedules the powering of the heated bed if you use an external MOSFET board that it.
If you measured
current
, then you found out that no power is delivered to the board, but you also might have broken your board in the process, as measuring current is a (close to) 0 Ω connection and has to be done
in line
of a circuit.


q: For a while now, my AmazonBasics PETG filament has been working like a charm. Now, it is balling up on my nozzle. I've tried slowing it down, re-leveling the bed, etc. I don't want to go through the hassle of replacing my nozzle with a Micro-Swiss all metal 0.4 mm nozzle. I've tried the other extruder which I know works with PLA, but same results. I'm using a Flashforge Creator Pro(2016).

[A] PETG does this. PETG is like glue when soft this is why when you level the bed you have to add an additional 0.1 mm distance for PETG. PETG should not be as close as PLA, but futher away. It will stick to the hotend so preferably change the hotend from brass to a nickle plated nozzle (e.g. Micro Swiss, PETG does not stick to that nozzle at all).


q:
First, I'm using Linux Mint 18.3 (Sylvia). Until now, I've been using OpenSCAD with the GUI and never experienced issues. Now I try to start OpenSCAD from the command line, but it always opens an empty file, even if a file with the specified name exists.

Since I have a rather big script, I'd like to generate the STL's via the CLI. Due to this error, I can not even do any tests for parameter passing.

What I'd like to do is to issue a command (flom the command line or in a shell script) that says "Set objectID to 1, render and export the result to stl".

Here is my M(N)WE:

// test.scad

objectID = 2;

if (objectID == 1)
difference(){
    cylinder(d=20, h=50, center=true);
    cylinder(d=16, h=50.2, center=true);
}

else if (objectID == 2)
difference(){
    cube(50, center=true);
    cube([35,35,70], center=true);
}

Any help will greatly be appreciated.

[A]
You can specify variable values from command line using:
```
openscad     ...\
             ... \
             [ -D var=val [..] ] \
             ... \
             ... \
             filename
```
See the
OpenSCAD Manual
.


q:
My model layers are printing much as I expect but the parts when removed from the plate are very soft and flexible and fail to harden any further in sunlight or UV lamplight.  A tall or slender part will bend and distort under its own weight while printing.  I am using LCD-T resin, I have increased time and reduced thicknesses and am now using 0.04 mm layers at 20 s and 255 brightness with no improvement.
Can anyone suggest what I need to change?


q:
I have an issue with my Anet A8 printer and how it interlocks with Ultimaker Cura.

I want to print this file named Loki_hörner_v2.stland Cura slices it fine, but when it comes to printing all the preheat happens, but then it stops, not going on at all. What might be wrong here?

[A]
Avoid naming
```
.gcode
```
files with non-ASCII characters
(this includes
EASCII
)
I know of no firmware on a printer that can handle files that have characters not present in the set of 95 non-control
American Standard Code for Information Interchange characters
by default. Marlin, for example, can't process the characters
```
ä
```
```
ö
```
```
ü
```
&
```
€
```
as these all are missing in the ASCII.
Avoid having more than one
```
.
```
Nowadays the
```
.
```
is no longer a fully reserved character in file names, so a file can be named
```
0.5mm Gauge Block.stl
```
on Windows without problems.
Ultimaker Cura will
cut
the name at the
```
.
```
before the extension when generating the
```
.gcode
```
. This is mainly done to prevent tons of errors that could crop up in firmware that might not be able to deal with it. Remember that this behavior can lead to overwriting files - our
```
0.5mm Gauge Block.stl
```
would generate
```
0.gcode
```
, as would
```
0.1.5 Penholder.stl
```
(that follows a version naming convention).
Avoid reserved characters
Also note that some characters are reserved in file naming and will lead to other errors (mainly when trying to create the files in the first place), including, but not limited to,
```
/
```
```
\
```
```
:
```
```
?
```
```
*
```
.


q:
I have only just set up my Anet A6 today. I am trying to print a calibration box, but the print is moving around the bed while trying to print. Any ideas how to fix this? The documentation is very vague.

Basically I am very new to 3D printing. I purchased an Anet A6 and have set it up stock. I am trying to just print the box directly from the demo models on the SD card. I'm using the standard filament that comes with the printer. I'm not sure what type it is.

All settings are default.

[A]
If the printed material moves with the nozzle, you might have several problems at hand, e.g.:
adhesion,
nozzle to bed distance and
overall level.
Nozzle to bed distance needs to be the thickness of a plain A4 or Letter paper. This needs to be at the same distance (when pulling the sheet of paper you need to feel a little drag) at the complete area of the bed. This is sometimes difficult as not all beds are perfectly flat from itself. Finally, you need to pull some tricks out of your sleeve to get the filament to adhere to the bed. Many example can be found, popular ones are using blue tape, glass bed, glue stick, PVA based spray (e.g. strong hairspray or dedicated spray cans like 3DLAC or Dimafix, etc.), or a combination of these. You just need to experiment some more what works best for you, but it is good to start with a correctly levelled bed with the proper nozzle gap. Sometimes, increasing the bed and filament temperature with 5 °C for the first layer also helps.


q: I bought an Ender 3, and after assembling it following the description and some YouTube videos and after correct leveling, I printed the test dog gcode on the micro SD card that comes with the printer. PLA 1.75 mm. Attached the image of the printing result. What went wrong? I didn't change or modify any settings what so ever, I just assembled the printer, and printed the test dog. Please help me, I am a beginner in 3D printing.

[A]
This is an extreme case of repeated layer shifting in the Y-carriage, which can come from some pieces related to the carriage. Luckily for you, they are easily fixable.
The Ender3 Y-carriage has an eccentric nut to adjust the force the wheels press down on the V-slot. Adjust it (most likely loosen them a little) so it moves smoothly when the motors are off, but keep it tight enough so it does not tilt.
The belt in the Y-carriage might be loose. Tighten it till it gives a nice ring when struck.
Check if the gear on the Y-motor is tightened down correctly. If it slips or wriggles, the backlash results in the layers shifting.
The Ender3 has the cables to the gantry and the bed running across each other and quite open. Make sure nothing can be caught in them.
Make sure the gantry is parallel to the bed and stays so in moving upwards - adjust the wheels as needed.
To ensure this, make sure the lead screw is orthogonal to the gantry. Level the bed afterwards. You might need to adjust the motor mount, possibly by shimming.


q:
I am looking for the temperature rating for hardboard. I want to use that as the base for my printer enclosure.

It has proven incredible hard get a ball-park figure from Google.

So, what is the maximum safe temperature for a hardboard panel at long term? (considering a print job can easily take 6 hours).

PS: if you have used a hardboard to build your enclosure, your experience might be helpful.

[A]
Hardboard is called
Masonite
here in the States because that is the trade name of the product. If you look up the
Material Safety Data Sheet
you will see Masonite it states the following (Section 5):
Auto-ignition Temperature (°C): >200 degrees Celsius
In Section 7, it states:
These boards are flammable but difficult to ignite.
Furthermore in Section 10, it states:
Conditions to avoid:
Avoid sources of radiant heat and flame; and avoid sparks and sources of ignition in all electrical equipment, including dust extraction equipment.
  Avoid excessive build up of dust from boards.
The hot end works of printers are neither radiant heat, nor flames, nor sparks. Yes, you'll have a buildup of heat within the working confines of an enclosure, but if you are only using it for a base there should be absolutely no issues. If you were to build an entire enclosure from hardboard, you could put a thermal probe inside with the printer to ensure it doesn't get too hot, but realistically, it will never get hot enough within the enclosure to light the hardboard on fire.


q:
Sometimes my meshes turn out with artifacts Which can be seen in the bottom image. What is the cause? The first image shows my mesh which its generated from.
I've tried multiple slicers. This tends to occur sometimes.
Any help appreciated. Is there something going over my head???


q: I want to 3d print my own icing smoothers, but I'm not sure if its safe to have plastic from a 3D printer in contact with cake icing. Is there any harm in this?

[A]
Only certain plastics are safe enough to be used to contain or manipulate food. ABS and PET-G are such materials. The 3d printing process however is not food safe because, it creates crevices in the printed part into which bacteria and other contaminants can cling to. A printed part would need to be coated in a silicone rubber to render the surface both inert (can't grow anything) and smooth (no crevices). Further, the type of plastic you use must be able to be sterilized in boiling water. PLA softens in boiling water. PET-G variants can as well (think clear plastic bottles). This is why most food handing utensils are either glass or stainless steel.
If you are going to use a 3d printing process to produce parts that are to be used for food, you also have to consider containment from the machine itself. The brass nozzle, the teflon tube, the extruder gears etc. The filament itself may not have come from the factory as clean as it would need to be to be used around food.
If you are able to coat the heat resistant part in silicone and you only use it a few times (ensuring that it is properly washed and sterile) then it can be used for food prep purposes.
There is a difference between food grade and safe for contact with food.
Acrylonitrile/butadiene/styrene copolymer identified in this section may be safely used as an article or component of articles intended for use with all foods, except those containing alcohol, under conditions of use E, F, and G described in table 2 of 176.170(c) of this chapter.
Abstract from: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=177.1020


q: I am new here and would like to work on a project to 3D print a precision prototype. What is the most affordable way to do it? How do I go about it?

[A]
These two videos seem to give a good, general, entry-level introduction to the various technologies and processes that are involved in 3D printing:
The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to 3D Printing - Part 1
The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to 3D Printing - Part 2


q: My Anet A8 reads as 120ish degrees Celsius, but it is set to 200 degrees. I don't know if it is reading the wrong temperature because it still pushes out plastic when I force it. It will climb up and then go back down. I don't know if the hot end it broke or if the thermistor is broke.

[A]
You are sitting on a fire risk!
If you are using the stock/original firmware, you should
immediately stop printing
. The stock firmware of the Anet A8 has no
thermal runaway protection
(
see also
this answer
), this means it will keep heating until the thermistor senses 200 °C, even if it cannot do that for some reason or another.
When a hotend temperature does not read the correct value, your thermistor in the hotend may not be making correct contact (as you say that it goes up and down). Please ensure that the thermistor is correctly positioned, it makes good contact and the wires correctly fastened.
Similarly applies to the heater cartridge, which can fall out and causing a fire if not properly fastened. Ensure the heater cartridge is properly positioned and held in the heater block.
Fluctuations in temperature sometimes are induced by a wrongly positioned fan duct (but generally not that much). The reason why this is not the case here is that you can still push the filament through while it reads about 120 °C;
this temperature is generally too low to push filament through
. Apparently the hotend is still hot enough to push filament through while registering a low temperature.


q:
I've recently acquired a Flashforge Adventurer 3 and am having difficulty printing with ABS. The initial layers seem to lay and stay pretty well, though after a few more moments, one side will peel up from the heated platform. I'd like to know if anyone has optimal and tested temperatures for the use of ABS on my printer for the nozzle and platform?

I've used FlashPrint for slicing my objects using the following options:

Supports: Disable,

Raft: enable,

Resolution: Standard,

Layer Heights: 0.18 mm,

First Layer Height: 0.27 mm,

Perimeter Shells: 2,

Top Solid Layers: 4,

Bottom Solid Layers: 3,

Fill Density: 15 %, Hexagon, Every 2 Layers,

Print Speed: 60 mm/s,

Travel Speed: 80 mm/s,

Extruder: 225 °C,

Platform: 70 °C,

Cooling Fan Controls: Automatic,

Nozzle Dia.: 0.4 mm

[A]
The most commonly used print temperature range for ABS is 220 to 240 °C with the major bulk around 230 °C. Some filaments are blended with inhibitors or PC, increasing their print temperature to up to 260 °C. Note that the color of the filament just as the brand can have an impact on the print temperature!
The most commonly used bed temperature for ABS start at least at 80 °C.
MatterHackers
suggest 85-90 °C.
If your bed is particularly bad at getting adhesion, you might want to clean the bed of residues and fingerprints and relevel the bed. If that is not enough and you use a glass bed, a slurry of ABS in Acetone could come in handy. If you have a glass bed, the slurry is pretty much the best option.
Print cooling is a bane on ABS - the stuff shrinks too fast if cooled, resulting in the parts breaking loose!


q:
I'm trying to print a calibration cube from PLA using a 70 °C heated build platform on a Prusa i3 Pro W. This results in:

Please explain why it prints like this.

[A]
There are multiple issues that cause this result.
First, your nozzle is to far from the bed. This can be seen by the curly deposited filament on the build plate (I guess that is the brim or the skirt). Please properly level the bed and position the nozzle at a distance of a plain A4 paper as best as possible (should be doable as you have a glass sheet that are usually very flat as a result of the production process to make glass).
The second problem you face is layer shift. You see that the squares are printed further and further to the left, the print head does not return to original position. Layer shift is usually caused by improper belt tension or a loose grub screw of the belt pulley.
This answer
describes layer shifting in more detail.
This question
may be helpful too, the answer contains some references to layer shifting.


q:
Recently I have been doing more complicated math in OpenSCAD and I have run into something that I find strange. Take a simple math expression: 2 / 2 / 2. By any programming language this will equal 0.5 (1/2), and OpenSCAD agrees. Something like this: 2 / -2 / 2 should also be -0.5 for the same reason. However, OpenSCAD thinks this is -2. That is echo(2 / -2 / 2); gives ECHO: -2. My calculator, other programming languages (and myself) all say its -0.5.

Is this a quirk of OpenSCAD, or am I missing something obvious?

[A]
I suspect the behavior you are seeing is an undocumented feature (aka, bug) of OpenSCAD. I've found in the latest stable release that if the - is placed on either end, the result is -0.5, but in the middle, my results are the same as yours. Surrounding the -2 with parentheses results in a correct answer, however.
It appears that the parentheses turns a mathematical operation into a signed integer. It follows that the operations without the parentheses is right to left:
2/2 = 1, negative 1 with the minus, 2/-1 = -2


q:
I bought new yellow PLA filament from XYZ (1.75 mm).

Over the past I have printed many objects with my da Vinci 1.0 (ABS only). I found that while the brim is being printing (using default configuration of XYZWare; the da Vinci machines give the user very little control over print parameters, if I remember correctly the temperatures are controlled by the chip in the filament cassette), filament stopped extruding from my extruder immediately. However, ABS can be printed properly.

Could anyone tell me how can I work around ?

[A]
That looks pretty bad for a number of reasons. If you've got an all-metal hotend, you can be pretty sure that your PLA issues are probably at least partially cooling-related. I'd recommend you try and find a better fan duct design for your hotend, if possible, and possibly upgrade to a better fan.
You can temporarily skirt around cooling issues with PLA in all-metal hotends by printing
more material
, which typically means one or all of the following:
Faster print speeds (if your printer can move quickly enough and has good acceleration)
Thicker lines! Surprisingly useful. If you don't want to sacrifice print detail, then make the infill lines ridiculously thick, the inner wall lines fairly thick, and the single outer perimeter "normal" thickness.
Thicker layer height. Normally I printed at 0.2mm like everyone else, but with PLA in my all-metal hotend, I had to up it to 0.3 with fatter lines as well.
If you can consistently keep the filament going through the hotend instead of lingering inside of it, you can basically "push" the melt zone back down into the heater block where it belongs, instead of it creeping upwards and resulting in a jam.
As a side note, the rippled surface of your brim there looks very similar to what used to happen to mine; the ripples are usually indicative of some form of over-extrusion on the first layer. I'd maybe look into checking your Z offset to make sure your print nozzle is far enough away from the bed, and maybe also check your flow rate is accurate for that particular filament. Check the filament diameter in a few places with a micrometer if you have access to one, and compare to your ABS prints to see if maybe you should adjust the flow rate down a few percent in your slicer.


q: At the moment the outside surface temperature is around 30 °C. Can I put my PETG spools outside with a fan in order to dry them cheaply?


q:
I have a 3D printer and I have printed some models with castable resin. When I burn one of these models in the oven and then do the metal casting, the surface of the metal piece is not smooth.

I did a test with a pan. I put a model of wax and a model of castable resin to heat in a pan, and the wax model melts, but the resin model don't.

The resin I have is the following:

What is the correct process to make a correct resin casting?

Thanks for your help.

[A]
Traditional lost molds.
The reason many jewelers use wax for making the molds for lost mold casting is, that it has (compared to plastic molding materials) a very low melting and boiling point, allowing to create molds with much lower temperature equipment.
A variant of green sand casting is done with materials that very quickly decompose in contact with the molten metal or that burn out after setting fire to them. Very common in this context is foamed styrene. Styrene melts and burns easily so it is easy to use in this way.
PLA has been used in some experiments as a positive and then molten out in a baking oven. It and other printing filaments are usually thermoplastics, so melting them out is similar to wax.
Resin is not soft wax or a thermoplastic.
No, in fact, most resins are a duroplastic, meaning that they don't melt.
If you print a positive from resin and then make a mold from that for lost mold casting, you go the traditional way. But most resins don't melt out the way wax does, and on contact with molten metal don'T evaporate the way wax residue does. You got to properly
burn
out the remains of the cured resin at a higher temperature and for a longer time than the wax as the melting point is much higher - use a proper burning oven. A proper burning oven in this relation reaches something like an email oven (1100 °C) or a clay burning oven (up to 1800 °C)
Putting the molds with the opening down into one of these ovens at high temperature should help a lot. Make sure to put a spacer and a tray below to allow better airflow and get the resin out.
Chemical Club.
Besides heat to destroy the resin, most resins could be solved by very highly aggressive chemicals. Which chemical works highly depends on what the resin actually is - if it is
epoxy resin
it would be the highly toxic CH
2
Cl
2
while
polyester resin
is soluble in isopropanol and sulphuric acid.
Cold alternative?
If your product is to be made of a two-component resin or a ceramic that can be shaped cold and that sustains form, then you might also look at silicone molding. This is not an alternative for most metal castings. Among the very few exceptions is pewter, as PunishedPropsAcademy and Evan&Katelyn
showed in their video
and there are high temp silicones around that could be used repeatedly for pewter.


q:
I've been having trouble uploading the TH3DUF_R2 firmware to my CR-10.  I've already successfully flashed the bootloader using my Arduino,  but when I try to upload the bootloader I get this error:

avrdude: ser_open(): can't set com-state for "\\.\COM4"

Things I've tried:

Changing the usb drivers

Changing the baud rate

Using a different computers without any other usb devices

My printer is not functional right now with just a bootloader and no firmware, so I'm not really sure where to go from here.

[A]
You should not look at the relative dimensional differences, you should be looking at the absolute differences. Multiplying the undersized dimensions in percentage with the cylinder diameter gives you a value of 0.4  mm for each cylinder give or take a few hundreds. So, basically your printer works very consistent it is just suffering from a systematic offset.
Basically, the printing process needs to
adjust the X-Y dimensions to compensate for plastic flow effects. An option or setting in Ultimaker Cura to counteract this is called
```
Horizontal Expansion
```
. Slic3r and Simplify3d have similar settings. In Slic3r it is called
```
XY size compensation
```
.


q: Anyone have any idea how much power it takes to run a Creality Ender 3 3D printer every day for several hours at a time? Like what does it eat up per hour? A rough estimate of power use per hour would be nice, then I can figure out how much it costs me. Can anyone help me?

[A]
If it is really important to you to know how much you are spending per any given print, your best bet is not to guess,
but to know
how much power you're using. To that end, you could purchase a power meter which monitors your power usage. Given the right one, it can even calculate the cost of the power usage all in one little package. This link,
The 10 Best Electricity Usage Monitors
, should provide you some ideas as to what you might find, but I'm sure there are plenty more out there (NOTE: I have no affiliation to the link provided ... it was just a random one I found through a Google search ... Go Go Google-Fu!).
As 0scar pointed out in his comment, there are just too many variables to try and guess what the power consumption
might be
. If you are looking for a real answer, I believe something along the lines as I've linked above is going to be your best solution to getting a real answer. Anything else is more or less just a guess.


q:
Has anyone had any luck with printing multi-colored prints with the Palette 2 on an Ender 3? If so, what is your steps/mm for the Ender 3 and your flow rate in whatever slicer you are using? I currently have my flow rate at 100 % and my steps/mm at 104.4, and I believe this is what is causing my Palette 2 to not produce accurate results.

About the Palette 2

Palette 2 is a separate device providing one multi color filament out of multiple single color filaments.

As the Ender 3 does not support multi-colour printing, that's why I'm using the Palette 2. It allows any printer to print in multi color as it adds multi color printing to single extruder printers.

[A]
On this thread,
Does anyone tried Palette 2.0 on Creality Ender 3 or Ender 3 Pro?
, there are a couple of useful links:
There is a video, albeit for the CR-10
1
, but that should be of help:
YouTube - Setup Guide: Creality CR-10 with Palette 2
;
In addition, this Facebook group,
Mosaic Palette, Palette+, Palette 2 (Pro) Users
, apparently has some users who have paired their Ender 3 with the Palette 2.
However,
with respect to your question about the flow rate and steps/mm
, there isn't much info out there about that, and no one seems to have experienced similar issues, but your issue
might
have something to do with profiles - which, as you haven't mentioned them in your question, it is hard to know if that might be the issue or not.
In the same thread,
this post
, states:
I use it with the Ender 3.  There is a profile in Canvas and Chroma for it also.
This link here,
Chroma for Palette 2
, states that
after
using Cura, you then need to load the G-code file into Chroma v3.1, after having selected the appropriate
profile
. However, if you use Canvas, then there is no need for Cura nor Chroma, as Canvas can slice. This link goes through the whole process for Benchy.
At the risk of repetition, the process for preparing the print, post-slicing, is also given here, from
Multicolor 3D Printing How To: Using the Mosaic Palette+ with the Creality Ender 3
, albeit slightly different from the link above:
Setting Up Chroma:
When you load up Chroma, you’ll be presented with a blank canvas ready
  to be filled with your 3D creations.  In the top left corner, make
  sure that you have the
Ender 3
selected from the drop down menu.
  After this you can click
Load Print
.  From there you’ll be presented
  with your gcode files that you have on your computer.
In this example we will be selecting the
```
butterfly-1.gcode
```
file, and
  clicking
Open
.  From here Chroma will be compiling and arranging the
  settings for the gcode file to be displayed.  This might take a minute
  or more.
Selecting Your Colors:
Once the loading is completed, you will be presented with the 3D
  rendering of our butterfly!  This butterfly will be in 4 randomly
  selected colors by default, but we will be changing this next!  To
  change the colors, navigate to the top of the screen where you will
  see 4 colored circles, and drop down arrows along with each circle.
  These circles represent the colors of each tool head.
To change the color, click on the
Tool Head Colored Circle
, and your
  options for color will appear, we’re going to select
Black
for our
  first color.  After this, you will want to select the
Default PLA
  Settings
by clicking the
Drop Down Arrow
to the right of the first
Tool Head Colored Circle
.
As we make these changes you will notice that the 3D rendering of our
  butterfly will change to our corresponding colors.  Repeat this
  process for the remaining 3 Tool Heads, remember to use the
Default
  PLA Settings
for each Tool Head.
Saving Your Project:
After you have selected all your colors, you will click
Save for
  Printer
in the top right corner of Chroma.  From there, name your
  file, and click
Save
.  You will be then presented with a loading bar
  as Chroma prepares our 2 output files.  One of the files will be an
  adjusted gcode file that has added the purge tower we just modified,
  and the other file will be a file that goes straight to the Mosaic
  Palette+.
Printing Your Project:
Once the files are ready, you will be presented with a screen that
  says “Ready to Print!”.  On this screen you will be presented with the
  files you have created for your project, which for us are the
```
butterfly-1.msf
```
which goes to the Mosaic Palette+ and the
```
butterfly-1.msf.gcode
```
file which is your newly created gcode file.
You will also be presented with “Materials Used” for the project,
  “Number of Splices” for the project, and “Number of Pings” for the
  project.
After this, you will need to turn your Creality Ender 3 on if it isn’t
  already.  After making sure that you have all your
components set up
  and assembled correctly
, then it is safe to begin the printing
  process.
Depending on your specific project will determine how long the
  printing process takes.  But once your printing process is complete
  you will be presented with your
beautiful multicolored 3D butterfly
(or whatever your project was)!  After printing is finished, you
  should let the project cool before you attempt to remove it from the
  tray. Once it has cooled you can now gently pry the project off of the
  tray.
Footnotes
1
The CR-10 is, on a broader level, an Ender-3 with 2 lead screws and a slightly different board.


q: When filament is too short for the extruder to push will there be a stop in printing on the Ender 3, meaning that I should replace the filament when the end of the filament is near the extruder?

[A]
The extruder can't push anymore when the filament is past the extruder gear. If your filament has run out to that point, the print will
not
halt but print without a filament, meaning that the print will fail. You need to pause the print in time and then put fresh filament into the printer.
If the end of the filament is cut flat at the end and the new one is flat too, the new filament can push the old one out to the nozzle, reducing the waste to a minimum, if you can live without retraction for the amount of length that has to be used up. You could friction weld the two parts together to alleviate this.


q: I'm interested in 3d printed reaction chambers, but can't find any good information on chemical resistances of PLA, just vague claims that it "might not be" "because it's biodegradable" or that it depends on additives (likely true, but it would be nice to know if there's hope of finding PLA without problematic additives if the PLA itself is okay). Is there any published research or even anecdotes (which could suggest it's worth spending effort to investigate further) on this topic?

[A]
As @T. M. notes in his comment, there are many good charts of chemical compatibility with various agents.  Very few (I found none) include information about PLA.  By all means, use search engines to find some information.
But, no data source is as true to your specific needs as is testing your candidate materials with your agents.
As a first test put the agent in a tall thin jar or test tube.  Use a few test filaments so that the ends are dipping into the agent.  Check for signs of dissolution, swelling, softening, or any relevant change in the material's characteristics.  Examine the candidate filaments right away, then after minutes, then hours, and if any material survives, perhaps in days.
Print test objects.  Test them with your agent.  Try until you find something that works.
The online material compatibility tables will help you eliminate materials before testing them.  If it says a material is incompatible, it probably is incompatible.  If rated as highly compatible, it should be tested because the formulation of a filament may not match the material tested for the compatibility tables.  If you are running out of options, try the intermediate compatibility plastics.
Bottom line, use the online information to help direct your search, but you should do your own tests.


q:
I'd like to buy a new nozzle for my Anycubic i3 Mega because it's not precise enough - it fails to print small details like 1 mm eyebrows.

Currently it has a 0.4 mm nozzle and I'd like to buy a better one but I don't know how to choose one which is compatible with this printer.

If you have any advice, please let me know.

[A]
According to
Anycubic
this printer uses the E3D V5 type hotend as can be seen from the linked video of the AnyCubic Mega:
The brass nozzle you see is fully compatible with the E3D v6 nozzle and can be found on those typical auction and Chinese websites by looking for "E3D nozzle". They are also available from
E3D directly
, the designer/creator of the E3D hotend family, and other specialized manufacturers like the
Olsson Ruby
. These nozzles have a short nozzle (snout) and are screwed into the heater block with M6 threads.
1)
The smaller the diameter, the smaller the filament traces and the higher the print detail resolution. Note that a smaller diameter causes thinner walls for the same amount of (vertical) walls and may require additional perimeters to get similar strength and rigidity. The maximum layer thickness also decreases, as prints with a layer height above 75 % of the nozzle diameter have very poor quality. As an example, a 0.25 mm nozzle should not print layers thicker than
$0.75 \times 0.25\text{ mm} = 0.19\text{ mm}$
.
As such printing with smaller nozzle diameters increases print time. Also note that a smaller diameter requires more force to push the filament through and
could
use some extra temperature to make the filament more fluid or reduction of the print speed.
Just buy some spare nozzles of different nozzle diameter and experiment what works best for you.
1)
-
The other popular style of M6 threaded nozzles has a long body and long taper (often referred to as MK8 nozzle; they come in two different shapes). While these might work, they extend from the heater block considerably further and might need readjustment of the heater block (
as explained here
):


q:
We have a fairly new Ultimaker 3 Extended.

When printing ABS with the AA0.8 nozzle and the recommended settings (up-to-date CURA) we receive a very poor wall quality that exposes some kind of pores. I've attached an image of those pores.

I assume those pores are dragged by the nozzle when it moves inwards to print the infill.

I already tried to increase the wall thickness or increase the layer height to 0.3 mm. Are there other settings I might be able to tweak to eliminate those pores?


q:
Is there a way to change the use of an extruder port on a 3D printer motherboard to move stepper motors (on y axis) on a 3D printer?

This is for a school project, and we have replaced the extruder with a laser for cutting material.

We were tasked with converting a 3D printer into LOM 3D printer, the laser is set using the fan port, however we still need two stepper motors to move material from one side of the printer to the other after each layer of material is cut.

The mother board we are using is WitBot MKS Gen L V1.0 Controller Board Integrated mainboard Compatible Ramps1.4/Mega2560 R3 with A4988 Motor Driver for 3D.

[A]
This has nothing to do with the infill overlap, the image you've added looks as if the issue is related to non-bonding perimeters (it looks as if it is in between the 2
nd
and the 3
rd
perimeter), hence infill overlap doesn't apply here. If that is the case look into
this question
.
I've had this same issue, the problem is that if the perimeters do not touch, this is most probably caused by insufficient filament flow which can be a result of a too high of a print speed (or too low print temperature) of the inner perimeters. This is frequently seen when printing PETG. PETG has a limited print speed, the PETG I use (premium brand) has a maximum speed value of 50 mm/s, your values are for some values over that value. That would be fine for PLA, but high for PETG, the question is not clear on the material used for this print (the hotend temperatures hint to PLA, the bed temperatures are rather high though).
If it is not related to the material being printed, these gaps are also explained if the positioning of the nozzle is not correct, e.g. caused by loose belts. This is supported by the comment on the first layer:
where the infill on a first layer would often not reach the perimeter shells


q:
During my last print I noticed this jumpy behavior during heat up (blue is bed, red is hotend):

So I am wondering about the jumps. What could cause this? I do not think that it is a defunct sensor (it is in both sensors) and I also don't think it is real. Could this pose some sort of hazard as temperature might not properly be controlled?

I use an Anet A8 printer with Marlin 1.1.9 and Octoprint

[A]
It looks like everything is ok with the real temperature, and it is just Octoprint missing some readings, like Oscar said.
But I think it is unlikely the USB cables fault, the whole print would fail in that case. I think the PI is to busy, maybe due to a Webcam streaming at high rate (try reducing the framerate). Another reason might be if you use a PI Zero W, especially if you transfer data over the Wifi at the same time, since Wifi and USB cause bottlenecks for each other on that board.
PS. I'd comment, but don't have privilege yet.


q:
I acquired an Anycubic Chiron yesterday. I went through the leveling procedure and I think the level test print came out okay so I printed a 20 mm calibration cube and a benchy. Both of these came out with a sort of spongy consistency.

I have no idea what could be causing this so some advice would be appreciated.

I'm using Ultimaker Cura 4.0.0 and printing in PLA.

[A]
I would lay odds on it being your filament is moisture saturated. You don't state what type of filament you're using, but to my understanding this is what happens when it is saturated. The water evaporates as it goes through the nozzle, which causes the filament to puff up, which leaves voids in your print.
The print itself looks like it came out rather well. I mean, the edges of the print are solid and everything is clearly defined. This would state to me the slicer and the printer itself are doing their jobs well. You didn't measure it (or leave any hint you did), so I'll assume the overall dimensions are good.
Try a different filament and see if you get better results.


q:
I am trying to print the 3 jaw lathe chuck on Thingiverse. This specific piece is the scroll.stl, but it applies on every big piece. The print material is (transparent) PLA, that I print on custom glass bed, which is heated by a regular heated bed at 65 °C. However, my print is warping on the external edges of a solid 2 mm for a 85 mm diameter print.

I didn't use the cooling fan. And I don't have an enclosure to keep the warmth inside the printing area. The nozzle temperature is around 200 °C.

What could be wrong?
The printer is a slightly modified Prusa i3 MK2.

[A]
Several things I've done to stop warping when it occurred:
Use a wider brim.
If the brim isn't sticking, use a higher bed temperature for the first layer.
If the brim comes up only on one side or warping is only on one side, make sure the bed is level.
Slowing down the print will keep you from having as long of a strand cooling down.  This will lower the contraction force and reduce warping.
A hotter bed temperature will reduce the temperature difference between the extrusion and the bed, thus reducing the contraction force.
200 °C is a good temperature for getting PLA to stick.  I've tried lower extrusion temperatures to reduce the temperature difference between the extruder and the bed, but this decreases adhesion to the bed and is counterproductive.


q: I made a print that involves joining two halves together to create the full model. I decided to use hot glue to bond the halves and on one model, the parts came together slightly skewed. Is there any way to ‘unbond’ the hot glue without ruining the model so I can realign the pieces? Touching the glue gun tip to the hot glue wouldn’t work, as the glue is inside the model.

[A]
it seems like retraction issue
i would say you should experiment with
retraction length - so it would retract more
extra extrusion after retraction - so the printer could put some material before it will start your next hole :)
unfortunately there is no good guide how much it should retract and how much it should additionally extrude as it depends on "all your printing circumstances" but here is my arbitrary list in order of importance
filament (density - type and producer)
temperature (viscosity - hotter filament flows easier)
nozzle diam (as filament escapes easier through big hole ;)
heat barrier (cooling efficiency - filament should be cool as long as possible up to (or down to) the nozzle)
extruder gearing quality (good coupling makes precise retraction and extra-extrusion)
cooling (fan and duct should cool your printing right after it sticks to the surface)
and one more thing worth to mention
usually the first layer is not cooled which makes whole system hotter (so filament flows easier)
you could experiment with it too especially for big printouts
so
overextrude first layer AND
turn on cooling first layer
it seems like there is a bunch of things you can do to master it :)
good luck - it's definitely manageable


q:
I'm still new to 3D printing and I want to print something. I expect that I'll mess it up since I find nothing to adjust it but it is now laying around for 4 months and I'm sick of it.

So my question is where do I find Windows software to print something and of course where do I get a 3D model?

I own a Geeetech i3 Pro W.

[A]
First; find a model!
To print something you require a
model
(usually this is in STL format, look into websites called
Thingiverse
and
MyMiniFactory
for examples). Once you have a model file, you need to make it readable for the printer firmware.
If you can't find suitable model, then you need to design a model yourself (or ask someone to do it for you) or adjust an existing model to suit your needs. "
Good (preferably free) Beginner Software for Part Creation?
" is a good place to start.
Second; use slicer software
For a printer to be able to print the model, the model needs to be sliced into layers. These layers need to be printed at specific speeds, temperatures, etc. Search online and look at the filament packaging (usually the ideal temperatures are on the packaging) to find the ideal temperature for your filament. If you are not using the right temperatures, your print will most likely fail. Programs that are able to slice models are called
slicers
. The most popular free (and Windows compatible) slicers are
Ultimaker Cura
and
Slic3r
(or its
Prusa distribution
).
The slicer produces a printer readable file called a G-code file (file filled with printer instructions for e.g. movement and heating). This G-code file can be sent to the printer using specific printer software (e.g. OctoPrint, Repetier-Host, etc.) but more common or simple is to put the G-code file on an SD card and print the file using the print menu on the printer LCD.


q:
The original bed surface of my Ender 3 has become brittle and finally cracked, requiring replacement. I'm trying to figure out what the cause might have been to avoid it happening again. It seems to have started after using "flex PLA", which involves both high temperatures (225 °C) and plasticizers mixed in the PLA. Could either of these have contributed to the problem? I'm not sure what material the bed surface is - it's the new one that's removable and held on by clips. If it's PEI, the glass transition temperature is supposedly 217 °C, just above what I use for normal PLA but well below what I'm using for the flex, so perhaps that's the cause?

Image of the damage:

[A]
The material used for the Build surface is not PEI but a BuildTak Clone that offers adhesion through a rough surface texture. I do not know what exactly is in the composition of the polymer, but I can say that my bed surface needed replacement about 9 months after purchase after I vigorously removed a piece I printed. As a matter of fact, most build surfaces - even PEI - are pretty much going to wear out over time and need occasional replacement. Luckily, a build surface isn't expensive usually.
To prolong the life of the bed surface, I suggest:
check the nozzle distance to the bed, as printing too close can make plastic residue extremely hard to remove.
be very careful when using sharp tools to remove parts - don't let a corner bite into the surface!
don't use a soldering iron or hot air gun on the build platform to remove stuck parts, you'll melt the surface and degrade it
clean the surface at times.
However, replacing the bed is easy enough, as I found out
here
.


q:
Trying to print a 3D model for my mobile phone, but I see that when printing the sides, being thin, increases the retraction and the recoil seems a little abrupt and makes a coarse sound.

I would like to know if it is possible to know what speed and temperature is recommended to print a model.

In my case I use Simplify3D, and when I'm going to save the file in .gcode format, I see that there are some ranges shown in colors, how does this apply to the models?

[A]
The first indication for print speed and temperature should be taken from the box the filament comes in. Generally it specifies temperature ranges for the hotend and the heated bed. Sometime, mostly online, more parameters can be found amongst which is the printing speed.
Do note that temperature and printing speed are linked, if you want to print faster you should increase the temperature. But, if you are printing small or thin things you should print slower so that the part cools enough for the next layer. Basically, part cooling is then also important, but not all filament types (e.g. the ones with a high melt temperature like ABS or PETG) like being cooled too much. So you have another parameter to consider.
It is difficult to instruct you to print at a certain speed and certain temperatures as it is highly depending on the filament (e.g. also the filament diameter), the machine type/make and model, extruder setup (direct or Bowden), the print, enclosure, etc.
Because of the many parameters affecting printing, it is usually suggested to calibrate the printer by printing a
temperature tower
or performing
retraction tests
to find the print window for your specific setup.


q:
I'm wondering if there is some trick to power my OctoPi with the power supply of my 3D printer. I'm using an Geeetech I3 Pro W.

The power supply itself should be able, but the output is as far as I'm aware of 3.3 volts. Not my desired 5 V for USB, it would be a shame if I really would need to buy a new power supply when I have a strong one actually running. My current power supply causes a lot of "Under-voltage detected!" warnings.

After thinking a little about the specs, there are cigarette lighter adapter for cars they use 12 V. Has anyone experience with using that on his printer?

[A]
Where are you plugging in the USB power to the Pi? If you are back powering it from the data connection, you will bypass the fuses and potentially ruin your Pi or worse. Look at this
wiki
under the power section:
Back-Powering; (powering the Raspberry Pi from a USB hub through the uplink/data port, single cable) Back powering is possible on the Raspberry Pi, but not advisable. Revision 1.0 boards have to be modified to back power, this is due to the 140 mA "polyfuses" that are installed in the USB port circuit. Revision 1.1 boards do not need modifications to back-power, they have replaced the polyfuses with 0 ohm resistors in their place. Revision 2.0 boards do not need modification, they have neither resistors nor polyfuses. It is advised that short (12" (.3 meter) or less) USB cables be used for back-powering a Raspberry Pi. Cable resistance plus connector resistance can quickly reduce operating voltages below the proper range (5.25 V to 4.75 V). But do note that if you do not power the Raspberry Pi in the "official manner", that is through its micro-USB port, but use any alternative way (such as through the GPIO header, the test points TP1 and TP2), but also by back-powering it, you are actually bypassing the Raspberry Pi's input polyfuse protection device! This can have extreme consequences if ever you manage to put more than 6 V on the Raspberry Pi, even for a very short period. As this causes the overvoltage device D17 on the Raspberry Pi to trigger and short the 5 V supply! Without the polyfuse limiting the current through D17, it will burn out, probably melting the Raspberry Pi's enclosure with it, (if you have any) and possibly causing a fire-hazard. It will probably also create a permanent short of the 5 V supply! So be warned, and if you use back power make sure your hub or its PSU has a fuse to prevent this from happening. If not, add your own fuse.
As far as powering the Pi through a 12 V to 5 V converter this will work as long as the current is rated above what the Pi will use, preferably a lot higher. You will also have to consider how this option will cut the power abruptly when you switch the printer off and the Pi will not boot down properly.


q:
My FDM printer bed moves on the Y-axis and the print head moves on the X-axis and raises on the Z-axis. When printing rectangular objects (a model of Notre Dame in this case), are there print detail quality advantages to aligning the model perpendicular to the X or Y axis, or at 45 degrees? Part strength is not an issue and support is not needed.

Thanks.

[A]
In short: Not really.
longer version: It depends.
The main culprit of losing details in this case would be the weight and speed of the thing moving. So if you have a heavy X-axis carriage, acceleration and decelerating the carriage won't be instant. Same with the bed (Y-axis).
Another culprit can be slop in the system, so check your linear bearings and belt tension.
Also keep in mind that you are printing on the bed, so the weight of the Y-axis increases while the print progresses. This shouldn't be a problem for small prints, but if your print becomes bigger it can decrease the quality. Another factor is that every print will bend a little the higher it gets, so if you print a tall slender object, don't accelerate the bed too fast ;)
To summarize, for high detailed prints:
Lower the speed
Check the system for slop (tighten belts, and align linear bearings)
Take the lightest axis for the highest detail (keep the weight of the print in mind)
One thing that you can do to test your machine is to test the ghosting on each axis (
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:277394
).


q:
I try to print a stamp with flexible filaments. The problem I encounter is that the filament is flexible, but not soft. This leads to small differences in height to parts of the stamp not working.

One solution would be to add a small 'cushion' to add some squishyness to the stamp. I designed the stamp and the 'cushion' but now the question arises:
"Which infill will provide the best uniform squishyness (in one axis)?"

I did a test with cubic infill of Cura, and although it becomes quite squishy, some parts are squishier than other parts of the block.

TLDR; Trying to print a squishy cube, where in one axis all areas of the cube have the same squishyness.

[A]
As the rubber stamp needs to be soft in one axis for the whole area, you could use an infill that causes the same softness in all directions, but is sliced as such that the stamp experiences the same softness. Alternatively you can use the specific infill types for flexibility, but beware of the orientation:
Concentric
Cross
Cross 3D
First
, to get the same softness in each direction you need to use an infill pattern that has similar/uniform properties (
isotropic
) in all dimensions.
It is suggested to look into the infill type called "
gyroid
" (see question
What are the advantages of gyroid infill?
).
This type of infill
is described as:
Gyroid infill is one of the strongest infill types for a given weight, has isotropic properties, and prints relatively fast with reduced material use and a fully connected part interior.
Second
, since the stamp has relief, slicing the part may cause different infill height. You could look into
Different infill in the same part
to e.g. get a solid infill for under the relief to get a uniform infill for the "cushion".


q:
I am printing a mechanical part for my printer.

It's a new mount for my extruders and I have been attempting to use BVOH as a support filament so that when my print is done it will cut down on the need to finish the part and possible mistakes.

My problem is I can get the BVOH to adhere to the bed with no problem and no warping of any kind, but I can't get the ASA to adhere to the BVOH supports. I run the BVOH at 220 °C and the ASA at 250 °C with my fan at 10 % and I am using a Flashforge Creator Pro printer which is mostly enclosed.

Does anyone know of a way to get the ASA to adhere to the BVOH?

[A]
Can you tell by looking at the de-adhesion what isn't sticking?
It may be that printing the ASA at higher temperature is melting the BVOH enough that it doesn't stick, being molten.  If so, then it may be possible to print the first layer of ASA at a cooler temperature, slower if necessary to still succeed at extrusion, with fans blowing.  Then, print the next layer of ASA at a higher temperature, also with fans flowing.
A test might be to print the BVOH, then a layer of ASA, and stop.  Let it cool and test the adhesion.  If it sticks under these conditions, then a better command of the temperature profile may offer a way forward.


q:
I don't want this to be a specific producer question, but I would like to know if the Sparkmaker is good enough to print small details in OO/HO scale objects.
I'm referring here to objects like furniture, and other house appliances at scale.
I wasn't able to find any visuals with very small objects for this printer.


q:
My voltage at the controller at max load is ~11.4 V
(heated bed + motors + hotend). Is this normal?

I'm measuring 11.8 V at the PSU, so 0.4 V -> 5 W lost in the wires.

I have a pretty beefy ~2 mm diameter copper wire that's ~1 m long. Its area is 2.5 mm2. The diameter with shielding is 3.5 mm.

Could there be a bad connection somewhere?

Checked the wire is warm to touch, so looks like it's actually the cause.
Is this normal? Should I go for even bigger wires?

[A]
Per
this website
it matches the expectations.
Using 13AWG =~ 2.5 mm^2, 18amps, 12volts, 6feet = 2meters (1m back and forth).
Results in 0.4v drop.


q: I printed parts for a Harry Potter wand with HatchBox Wood PLA, now I want to apply stain. I intended to try MinWax PolyShades wood stain, then noticed Varathane water-based wood stain is available at my local Rona hardware store. This seems a "healthier" option, maybe not as fussy to apply as PolyShades, anyone had experience with this product?

[A] Wood stains (as opposed to dyes, paints, etc.) work by having large particles that become lodged in the grain of the wood, yielding a result that varies in intensity with the grain of the wood and thereby brings out its beauty. It's unlikely that they will do what you want, or anything reasonable, on PLA that has wood particles mixed into it. You might be able to find some types of dyes that will work. I've used wood dyes on woods that don't take stain well and have had good results, and if the PLA+wood material consists of a significant amount of wood, it seems plausible that wood dyes might work well on it.


q:
Can any one help me out that how to start a cycle by just using a push button.

Note: Using Marlin firmware, Arduino Mega, Ramps 1.4

I haven't tried altering the Marlin code (as I am new to coding), I was just thinking of adopting this feature as it will be very easy for CNC DIY maker using Marlin code to run a cycle in a loop.


q: Does anyone know how the developers of Marlin decided to name it that?

[A]
Yes, it probably is totally off-topic, but fun too, so I'll try to get an answer in, before the question gets closed.
The best place to ask would be the
Firmware - Marlin forum
, on RepRap.org.
The question is there now,
Why was it named Marlin?
and I'll update this answer, if/when I get a response...


q:
Model: Infitary M508

Details: The filament is stuck in the extruder preheated for PLA (the filament is PLA 1.75 white). The extruder's motor works and the filament is in the hole of the extruder (not somewhere else). I took the fan covering the motor apart, to show what is inside, so you might see it on the attached image:

You might also see this video for details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8rYGhuYWvc

I'm able to pull the filament out, when I uncouple the motor's gear, but it doesn't go through the extruder when I push it in.

What can I do to fix this? Thanks!

P.S. It's the first start of the printer.

[A]
Unfortunately you're going to have to tear the extruder head apart and clean the nozzle. There are kits like the following (found on Amazon - No affiliation):
This will give you everything you need to clear the nozzle. The only other solution is to replace the nozzle and extruder tube. The filament is stuck in either or both of these parts.
(As an aside ... a wise person <
cough
> @0scar <
cough
> once told me I should keep extras of these parts, as well as the thermister and heating elements on hand. Treat them as disposable parts ... once they're dead, just replace them.)
What you need to figure out though, is why it clogged in the first place. More than likely you tried to extrude filament before the nozzle was up to temperature. If your readout said it was good, then you need to get a no-touch thermometer and check the nozzle for the proper temperature prior to printing to ensure it's all good.


q: I have been looking to buy a new extruder. One of the options I have seen comes in "right handed" and "left handed".  What does this mean? How can I tell what my current extruder is, so I get the right replacement?

[A]
This is an example of a right handed extruder setup:
And this is an example of a left handed extruder setup:
I believe that you can can choose whatever one you favor. With the right handed setup, you will be pushing down the red part with your right hand when inserting filament. With the left handed setup, you will be doing the same thing but then with your left hand. Personally, I favor the right handed setup (my right hand is my dominant and stronger hand). But, you should be able to choose whatever one you like! Be sure to check it will work with your printer though (extruder holder & hotend).


q:
During a print a lot of plastic ended up ripping the nozzle's yellow insulation strap.

Can printing without this insulation around the fusion chamber damage the printer?

If there is no chance of damaging the printer, how likely is it that the prints will be affected by the absence of this insulation

[A]
No, without the insulation you can print without a problem. I've been printing for years with (cotton or silicone) and without insulation, works perfectly. Although heat radiates from the heater block, I've never experienced issues that it causes overheating of your printed parts.
Note that the insulation tries to contain the heat in the nozzle preventing heat to leak to the surroundings (less energy is used/wasted). As such you may need to do a new PID tuning (certainly when the print cooling fan is incorrectly positioned as such that it cools the hotend heater block), but printing should just work fine if the print cooling fan is in the correct position.