Removed Nozzle, Plastic Still Backed Up after Cold Pull on Ender 3

I have encountered this many times. This is how I solved it:
Sadly you have to disassemble the entire hotend. Remove the nozzle, remove the heatbreak and heatsink leaving the heater block in place, it does not need to be cleaned (unless I am mistaken). If there are any plastic pieces in those parts, remove them as well.
Now for the cleaning. Use hot air gun to heat the nozzle/heatbreak/heatsink hot enough so the filament starts to melt. Then you can use a thin screwdriver (or metal wire) to push the stuck filament out.
Alternatively, you can use blow torch (or gas soldering iron with the soldering tip removed) to melt and burn away the stuck plastic. However, when the plastic burns it transforms into a solid dirt which you have to manually remove. But it does not stick as well as the original filament.
I advise against using q-tips because they are made out of plastic which can stick to the surface as well. Instead, use a piece of old cotton cloth (old sock or t-shirt will do) to wipe the surface or threads after heating the part.
When doing so, use needle nose pliers to hold the part in one hand, with the other hand use hot air gun or blow torch to head it up. Then remove the source of heat and with the same hand use screw driver or piece of cloth to clean the part to your liking.
It is ugly and messy and you will most likely burn yourself several times. But it solves the problem quite reliably, unlike cold-pulls and other methods (at least in my experience).
Bathing the parts in acetone will most likely do nothing (unless the stuck filament is ABS) because most filaments in use are resistant against dissolving in acetone. If you need to remove filament from anywhere, use heat not chemicals. It is easier and works almost 100% time.
Good luck.
Note: The solution above for heatbreaks and heatsinks concerns only full metal hotends. Hotends with PTFE lining (such as on Ender 3 Pro - I do not own one, cannot confirm) need to wory about filament being stuck in the nozzle and/or in the PTFE tube, not in the heatbreak and/or heatsink.


Layer Times

See my answer to this question and pay particular attention to my suggestion about a minimum layer print time. I'm not sure if all slicing engines provide this option, but I know MakerWare/MakerBot Desktop and (possibly) Slic3r allow this setting.

Basically, when you're extruding smaller features like this, the previous layer(s) are still very hot and possibly very pliable. So, as your nozzle moves around above the previous layer, the nozzle may (and probably will) push some of this molten plastic around. Chances are you can see it to a certain degree while it's printing. You can definitely see this in a most drastic state if you print a tall and small diameter cylinder. You'll notice that the part will become almost exponentially unstable the higher it goes.

By increasing the time your printer takes to print a single layer, you are allowing the previous layer(s) to cool closer to the ambient temperature of the build space, and hopefully not as molten.

Please refer to this calculator or a similar one for material cooling times. For a standard shell setting of about 2-3 (0.4mm nozzle) will yield about 130sec to cool down to room temperature. I would recommend (for ABS/PLA at least) about a 15second minimum for each layer, possibly longer depending on the size and spread out of the features.

Also note that this can be cheated by simply printing multiple items in the same build plate with the same heights (ie. multiples of the same part). Naturally, it will take longer for the machine to print the rest of the parts and therefore allow each layer to cool slightly before being printed over.

Active Cooling

Again, some slicing engines have an Active Cooling setting. I don't personally have this option setup on my machine, but I believe it regulates the flow of air directed at your nozzle (usually by use of a mounted fan). This can help cool the layers a bit faster. With ABS, this might result in some pretty bad warping mid-print.

Feedrates

Try bringing down your feedrates to provide the printed portions of the current layer more time to cool if the above options aren't available. Note that you might also bring down your hotend temp to shorten the time it takes to cool the plastic.

All else fails

My only other suggestion is stated above, try printing duplicates on the same plate. My diagnosis is that the previous layers aren't cooling down enough before the next layer begins.


Is there any commercial supplier of 3D printed parts made from acrylic (PMMA)?

While I don't know of PMMA as a standard offering, I do know that a lot of the smaller entities will gladly accommodate custom requirements for the right price and an understanding that results may be inferior to their tried and true.
My recommendation is to google "3D Printing Service" and find what's local.  Local will hopefully mean you don't have to wait for a shipment to review the quality.


Silicone socks are safe to use, provided your printer is safely operating and you are using the silicone  socks in their operating temperature range.

Your current setup is NOT SAFE!

When the heater element falls out of the heater block (that should not happen in the first place, please secure it correctly) and heats up to about 800 °C this means that the printer has no active Thermal Runaway Protection (TRP) enabled. Basically, when the thermistor doesn't measure a temperature rise while the voltage to the heater element is being scheduled, the firmware should shut down the voltage to the heater element. When this fails, the heater element can reach dangerously high temperatures to start burning anything that can catch a flame on touch. In deliberate tests, heaters have been able to melt the aluminium of the hotend:

You should be worried at this point as you see from the link you provided what happens if the heater is not shut off when the heater element is disconnected from the heater block:

Please fix your printer ASAP by uploading a proper firmware with enabled TRP protection before proceeding to print anything or at least don't let it print without supervision and proper smoke/fire detection devices.


The repository's README.md includes a section titled "Build Scripts", with a link to another repository: https://github.com/Ultimaker/cura-build

This includes dependencies and instructions for building Cura on Windows.


I ground up some prints and extruded them into new filament. The quality of recycled filament is not very high so I would not recommend it.

As pointed out earlier, the shredded bulk material you would create from your old prints would cost more in time and energy to produce than buying new raw material (pellets, not filament), and you still need to extrude it into filament to be able to use it in a printer.


Problems with support interface since cura 3.1

In Cura 3.1 to 3.2.1 (date today is 2018-Feb-24): The Support Z Distance only changes the Support Bottom Distance and NOT the Support Top Distance. By activating the two sub-options you can configure this again.


This is probably caused by too few top layers in combination with a too low infill percentage. Increase skin layers and increase infill percentage.
If you have multiple layers already (at least about 4 for 0.2 mm layer height, for smaller layer heights even more), you might be printing at a too high temperature and or too few part cooling percentage and a too low infill percentage.


Please note that Skynet3D is OBSOLETE, this was a fork from Marlin Firmware that was created to support the "odd" displays (due to alternative pin layout) Anet use on their printers and has been completely integrated in Marlin.

Note that homing is used to hit the end stops to determine the positioning of the head. There is no such thing as homing in the center of the bed (apart from the Z-axis). How would the head know where it is just after switching the printer on?

When using the constant:

#define Z_SAFE_HOMING

the printer is instructed to move the head to (in this case to the middle of the bed):

#define Z_SAFE_HOMING_X_POINT (X_BED_SIZE / 2)    // X point for Z homing when homing all axis (G28).
#define Z_SAFE_HOMING_Y_POINT (Y_BED_SIZE / 2)    // Y point for Z homing when homing all axis (G28).

after sending the G28 homing command.

Basically it wil home X and Y, then move to the instructed position (in the example the middle of the bed) and then home Z.


Prints falling off the bed towards the end of the print

Even though knowing the model of printer is slightly helpful, it's not critical to making your print work. Your PLA manufacturer should have recommendations for both the bed temperature and the nozzle temperature. Is your print bed glass or metal?

As an example, my bed is glass and I set the temperature to 70°C for PLA, but the real temperature at the bed is slightly lower than that.

I'm using 3M brand blue painters tape. What type of tape are you using? It will make a difference. I originally used cleaner on the tape, but found it was not needed. Blue tape means parts stick so well that you have to get them free before the bed cools too much, or you'll have to remove the tape to get the part free.

My PLA nozzle temperature settings range from 190°C to 230°C, depending on the filament. I use the manufacturer's figures and vary them five to ten degrees depending on the results.

Too hot at the nozzle will burn the filament possibly causing a clog, while too cold will cause extruder feeding problems. You did not reference having feeding problems, which implies your nozzle settings are acceptable.

Consider to change your tape and to increase the bed temperature. At a 55°C starting point, you could jump five degrees at a time until you get a good bond.

Also be certain that your bed is level and properly calibrated. The first layer should apply in a slightly "squashed" manner. Too close and the nozzle tears up the tape, but too far and the filament will sit on top and not properly adhere.


This is a NEMA 17 motor. It is virtually identical to the NEMA 17 motors Creality uses in most of their 12V products.

In contrast to other companies, Creality uses a different connector with a flat ribbon cable instead of color-coded wires.

The upper line of the label identifies it more clearly:

JD Identifies the factory/manufacturer
42 identifies the faceplate size as 42mm square, so a NEMA17
HS identifies how the holes are shaped
60 is the height of the motor as 60 mm.
1500 identifies how much power is OK for it, here: 1500mA = 1.5A
A specifies our motor has a maximum safe temperature of 104°C
- gives us no voltage for this motor, but as you have a CR10, it should be 12V
02F is supposed to tell us something about the wiring and steps per rotation, but I can't find out what.

Side Note: the Creality Ender3 uses 34mm high stepper motors.


I would recommend PETG - only because it is structurally similar to the plastic used in the bottles that last forever, and most PETG is food grade - implying that its chemical stability should be reasonably good...


Ender 5 (Plus) - Gantry not square to frame, how to fix?

How would one go about squaring the gantry relative to the frame?

You first need to make sure that the cube/box frame is square. Once this is done, you need to check whether the gantry is still not perpendicular/parallel to the top frame. If not, you need to loosen the couplers at the front that control the Y movement of the printer. See if you can reposition the gantry to be square to the frame. If that doesn't work, you need to fiddle with the bolts that hold the wheels of the X-Y carriages so that the gantry will become aligned with the top of the frame.

Also would this account for the reason why when I attempt to print a circle it is not perfectly circular, and when I try to print a square, it is tilted?

Yes, a skew gantry causes skew prints, i.e. squares become parallelograms, and circles become oval. There is another solution to fix this in firmware, but, the preferred method is to mechanically fix the issue.


It is normal for an Ultimaker print bed to move up. But it should be stopped before the nozzle.

As it doesn't stop the end stop doesn't work. So either the end stop is not connected to the right connector or it is triggering too late.

The Z end stop must be screwed at the right hight. If you mount it too far up it will not trigger. The bed assembly has a small wooden peace that sticks up. The idea is that that wooden peace pushes the end stop at the right hight.

So instead of configuring the hight in the firmware you need to mount the Z end stop at the exact right hight. You can make the fine adjustments(Bed Leveling) with the screws that hold the bed.

You can test the end stop by manually triggering while the bed moves up. It needs to stop immediately once you trigger the end stop. If the bed does not stop, then check the connection or exchange the switch.

It can happen that the switch itself malfunctions if you screwed it in too tightly. So loosening up the screws a bit is a final test.


BLTouch error causing bed and nozzle temp setpoints to change to zero

I was wondering if it had something to do with my Z axis and BLTouch. When I unplugged the Z Axis on the printer the extruder wouldn't lower only raise so I plugged it back in and it moves in the right directions. The mother board I'm using is a SKR E3 Mini V2 and the BLTouch is 3.1 On that version motherboard the BLTouch plug has all 5 wires combined in one plug, where on other versions it has a three wire plug for the BLTouch and the wires for the Z axis from the BLTouch has a seperate two wire plug with it's own plug in spot, but I've read about instances where users had to plug those two wires into the motherboards default plug for the printers Z axis which is usually unplugged. I decided to depin the BLTouch Z axis wires from the 5 wire plug and depin the printers z axis two wires and repin that plug with the Z axis from the BLTouch and plug into the spot on the motherboard that is normally used by the printers wires, and that fixed the problem. Here's the link on Github that board manufacturer posted about the issue,  https://github.com/bigtreetech/BIGTREETECH-SKR-mini-E3/tree/master/firmware/V2.0  and thankfully that was my exact problem.


What kind of paint and varnish can be used with ABS?

ABS is more soluble in solvents than is PLA.  Acetone will dissolve it, which can be a benefit because it allows vapor smoothing, but can be a problem with some paints which have solvents other than water.  Try out any new paint on a scrap piece.  Apply a thick dot of the paint, let it sit for a couple of minutes, and then wipe it off.  If there is a change in the shape or color where the dot had been, the paint may be dissolving the ABS.

Acrylic has a water base and does not attack ABS.

A paint that attacks ABS may be fine, but there may be some color bleeding of the ABS color into the paint.  A translucent (or clear) ABS would minimize the problem, since does not contain any pigment.

Spray painting may work better because the paint is undisturbed once applied.  Brushing on paint will mix the dissolved layer with the unaltered paint.


Ultimaker Cura 3.6 choosing to fill in narrow walls with diagonal striping

All slicers have their own peculiarities, and one of Cura's peccadilloes seems to be that It likes to generate an even number of shells for narrow structures, even if an odd number of shells would work nicely. Slic3r and Simplify3D have no problem with this, and will automatically generate an odd number of shells if they will fit the model.

Cura, on the other hand, will reduce the number of shells and generate infill. If you have set the infill percentage to less than 100%, it will try its best to fulfil that requirement, and in your case, generate zigzag infill. However, if you set the infill to 100%, it will, in effect, create an additional shell, although it is really infill that follows the direction of the walls as far as Cura is concerned, since there is no space to generate the specified infill pattern pattern.


Given a viscosity is it possible to calculate required pressure for desired output?

The answer hews close to the famous cliche "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not."   That is to say,  yes, there is a nonlinear but repeatable relationship between viscosity and pressure and feed rate.  However, it's strongly dependent on temperature, and further the apparent viscosity is a function of the pressure (think oobleck).

In the end, it depends mostly on whether a couple percent variation matters to the final product.  (and if it did, nearly all hobbyist extrusion printers would fail)


Simulation tool software for 4D Printing

I am going to say that this probably is a whole dimension out of scope for this group ;-)
That said this new type of 3d printing is still at the University level. Also 4d is not necessarily 3d printing related at all. All it has to be is self assembling. Like http://www.selfassemblylab.net/4DPrinting.php
Unless you have a connect with MIT. Then you aren't going to be simulating any 4d models.
But if you HAD to do this, then you should write a paper about it and become a researcher. You could get published. You might need a PHD in material science. There might be some simulation in solid works.. but I would say you are mostly on your own and have to develop the models as they simply do not exist, especially outside of academia and stratasys.
That said if you take the "4d" part and use models based on the current understanding of the raw material you would have more success.


How to improve face that are printed on support?

The basic answer to your question is to create better bridging or overhangs on your machine. Bridging is when you are printing between two solid pieces (like a bridge). Overhangs occur when printing off of a single solid piece and coming back. Most slicing engines allow extra settings for speed, fan power, etc for these parameters, just refer to this terminology.

A very common and simple solution in getting features to 3D print properly is to just slow down! If you're not a in a rush to get the part done, you bring down all of the feedrates in your slicing engine. MakerWare has mine at 90/150 mm/s for print and rapid. Typically I'll bring that down to about 50/90. My reasoning is the more time you give the plastic to cool, both while and after printing the layer, the more rigid that layer will be for the next one. When briding or overhanging, there will typically be a sagged area in the print. You can minimize this by providing the plastic more time to cool. Also keep in mind that printing on supports is still technically bridging (printing between two solid pieces).

Another thing to keep in mind is adhesion from one layer to the next matter just as much between the current layer and the previous as the current strand to the one next to it. So, in some cases, increasing your shell could possibly make it easier for the infill/roof/floor strands.


Unable to install auto-bed levelling sensor into my Anet A8

The sensor is working correctly, but the signal is inverted.

Take the obvious solution: invert the endstop from being normally open to normally closed or vice-versa in your firmware.

If you still want to use your existing limit switch in parallel with the sensor (as shown in the video), you will need to switch that one over as well (usually limit switches have 3 contact points, one common, one NC, one NO, so you'd need to move the wire from the NC contact to NO or vice-versa).


Some steppers only rotate one way on RAMPS 1.4

As towe said, it could be a dir pin ( can be checked by metering the dir connection), but in my experience this behavior has usually been a limit switch issue (as 0scar pointed out).  Try seeing if you have a limit switch setting somewhere that expects normally closed (assuming no limit switches are connected).

There is also another possibility that has to do with microstepping on some drivers, but i'm guessing you are going for a rudimentary no microstepping test right now (and have configured jumpers appropriately).


Using CAT6 cables for 3D printer motor / sensors / fans

The ampacity question is not completely answerable because CAT6 does not specify wire gauge, so the current limit will depend on the specific gauge you get. CAT6 can be anywhere from 22 AWG to 24 AWG, and depending on who you ask this can be good for as much as 7A or as little as 0.5A. Given that you will have a bunch of wires in a bundle, this may cause them to heat up more than if they were in free air. For the steppers (1-2A) a single wire should suffice, but for the heater (around 3-4A) you might want to double up.

EMI will likely not cause any problems regardless of how you wire things up. CAT6 cables have the wires twisted in pairs of 2. Some people recommend to take advantage of these pairs: the +12V and GND of the heater should use a pair, each of the two coils of the steppers should have their own separate pairs. The reasoning behind this is that with equal current flowing in opposite directions in each wire of the pair, the generated electromagnetic fields will cancel out.

Twisted pairs are usually used when dealing with multiple pairs of wires that are carrying high frequency signals that might affect each other. The main concern for crosstalk in this application is if the stepper motor might cause the endstop to be erroneously triggered, but this is only a concern during homing when the feedrate (and thus frequency of the signal) is low anyways.


What does the stainless steel plug do in the E3D Kraken cooler block?

The connecting channel between the two brass barbed hose fittings needs to be drilled out.  To open that channel, a hole is drilled into the side to connect the two top holes (which have the brass fittings screwed into them).  The hole doesn't need to penetrate both sides, but it must get through one side.

The grub screw seals the hole.

Instead of using epoxy to seal in the screw, you could use the PTFE (Teflon) white plumbing tape.  It is specifically designed to seal threads.

If I remember, you can thread it in as tightly as you like.  It won't interfere with the water channel.

I have a Kraken, and I looked at how to make another one.


What are the downsides and aftereffects of using a smaller nozzle?

Here are some things to look out for when switching to a smaller nozzle size:

Curling (out of the nozzle): Make sure the nozzle is clear of any debris to avoid the extruded filament from catching and therefore curling around the nozzle.
Warping: You might experience more warping on the build plate and delamination between layers as a result of the smaller surface area of the layers.
Reduce speeds: You should reduce your print speeds anyways when printing fine-detail objects. However, the smaller nozzle size will need a bit more time to adhere to other objects (see above).
Standoff distance: The distance between the nozzle and build plate, a.k.a standoff, should be a bit smaller with the nozzle size. Typically people use the paper reference (using a piece of paper to "calibrate" the standoff), which is about 0.004".
Make sure your slicing engine knows the change! Most slicing software will allow you to adjust the nozzle size. This can also be used to fine-tune your machine.
Beware of clogging: Clogging is usually a result of poor cooling between your heater block and your drive gear, poor filament quality, and/or incorrect extrusion rates. You might want to perform a benchmark print with the new nozzle to "rediscover" which temperatures work best with the new "basin" volume in the nozzle.

I'm sure there are many others, but this should help get you started.


Should I remove Cmagnet base for installing glass bed?

The more layers, the higher the temperature you need to set the heated bed to reach the same print surface temperature as before (air is an insulator, so when entrapping air between your layer you insulate the heated bed).

I do not know the weight of the magnet base, but, keeping adding weight is not a very good idea unless your bed goes up and down (movement in Z direction is generally much more slower than in Y direction), but the Enders 3 bed goes back and forth. The more mass the axis needs to displace the less accurate the print.


Why does the prusa i3 sometimes put the layer more right or left as they should be?

I'm not sure if I read your question correctly, but if I do, what you are referring to is called "layer shifting" and looks like this:

This happens when the stepper motors fail to perform a step upon receiving the signal from the firmware.  Since stepper motors do not have any way to know their actual position (differently, for example, than servos) they will keep on printing as if nothing happened, and thus the subsequent layers will be shifted of the amount of steps they missed to perform.

Moving on to why this happens in sth...  I don't own a MK3, but I take it that sth is short for stealth mode, the new silent mode that has been widely showcased in reviews and articles on the printer.

That mode of operation is made possible by the Trinamic TMC2130 stepper drivers.  Normally these drivers monitor the power consumption of the steppers and are capable of deduce a missed step by sudden changes in that.  If they do, the MK3 will actually re-home the X and Y axis to fix the problem and resume printing normally.

However when operating in their StealthChop mode, the TMC drivers provide less energy to the motor themselves (to keep them operating quietly) and - more importantly - are unable to detect missed steps.  Less power will make much more likely that any sort of resistance to the print head movement will cause missed steps, the absence of detection will cause the printer to not even notice and cause layer shifting.

Again, I don't own a MK3 and I have no direct experience with it, but I would suggest updating the firmware to the very last version: I read in an article some weeks ago that a recent version addressed exactly your problem, by progressively increasing the power output along the Z axis (as the likelihood of layer shifting increases with the height of the print).


My extruder does not reach the set temperature

Two common problems to look out for in this situation:

Make sure that your part fan (the fan that is supposed to cool the filament you just extruded, and that does not start spinning until the print starts) do not blow air on the hot end of your extruder.
Make sure that your hot end is well insulated.  If available for your printer, silicone sleeves are the best:

otherwise the most common, universal and low-cost solution are cotton pads:


How to tell if a nozzle is truly stainless steel?

Let's preface, that there are a LOT of metal identification methods. For example, I found this guide helpful and I had been at the scrapyard lately, where I have been told that 90+% of the time, steel objects that are non-magnetic are the more valuable stainless steels. The kitchen sink I dropped off? Stainless, non-magnetic steel.
Tempering/Annealing behavior
The very fact that the nozzles do change color to a brassy color that is commonly called straw is proof that it is indeed steel: heating up a piece of steel does alter the steel and also alters the surface color in a process called tempering. The color is only the surface, and the mild straw color would become orange-brown, purple, pale blue teal and yellow if you were to heat it higher. Take a look at the tempering colors of steel here:

In contrast, brass acts differently when heated and tempering is somewhat different. Subjecting the piece of brass to heat you will not temper but anneal it and you get colors differently. Instead of becoming straw before blue, Brass becomes dark, starting with its pale gold to go over a dark "antique" look to before going green, teal, purple-blue, red and then losing its color like this piece of a polished brass plate shows:

Hardness/Chip
Another test that would be easy to conduct is hardness. The base idea of hardness is: An item can scratch a piece of equal or lower hardness, but not of higher hardness. If you have a chisel handy, then you have a piece of steel at hand. Most chisels are rated as HRC 58-62 - which is the Rockwell hardness scale. Brass could be all over the place, depending on work hardening. But the identification is not by the hardness but by how the chisel - or better a graver - cuts.
We expect Brass to get a smooth cut with saw tooth edges while stainless cuts smoothly and has sharp edges to the cut.
Sparktest
If you want to scrap one, get an angle grinder or another power tool to grind at the nozzle. Steel sparks red-orange to whitish and depend on the mix, Carbide sparks very short and orange. Stainless creates a HUGE shower of sparks, yellow-white and dense, no burstes and branching. Copper, aluminium and Brass do not spark. Titanium is very bright white. It can tell you what kind of steel you have.
Drilltest
As we are at destroying a pair of nozzles, why not drill them? we should have done that before subjecting it to heattreating and the grinding, but alas... Basically, we clamp the piece down and take an HSS drill to drill out the center.
Brass needs a different drill type but can be drilled and machined without coolant. Typical HSS drills from the home depot have a positive rake, brass wants neutral or negative rake to drill or machine smoothly. If the piece grabs, creates short spials and dusty small flakes with an unmodified, new drill (or under positive rake machining), it drills like brass, as you see here from a Clickspring video on drilling brass:

In contrast, stainless steel doesn't want to be machined without cooling at all and using high speed creates smoke quickly and nearly no chips at all. A moment later your tool starts to glow and gets a dull edge. If your drilling experiment turns a new drill blunt on high speeds or uncooled, you have stainless at your hands. To get chips, you need to work slow and have some sort of cooling. It is still a painfully slow process that needs a lot of pressure, but it gets larger, nesting chips like seen here from a Wayne Canning steel drilling tutorial:


I manage to get the printer working, it was an hotend issue. Was clogged, replaced nozzle and working as expected.

Thank you all for the guidance!


Sorry, I needed to learn to use the site.  This site shows Fablab as a word mark, the same way it shows Apple: https://www.trademarkengine.com/free-trademark-search/trademark-search


Bed Heating Failed, Printer Halted, Please Reset

Check that your heated bed is still working:

Measure the resistance of your heated bed. It depends an the power
rating of the bed, but 12V beds usually have values <3 Ohms. That's
hard to measure for cheap multimeters, but you just need to check
that it's not MOhms which would indicate a broken heated bed.
Your heated bed could also have a short. That's hard to measure, as <3Ohms are already 'almost a short'. You'll only notice because your
bed will not get warm, but the wires, connectors and elements on the
RAMPS will get even hotter. Marlin should detect this and switch off
after a few seconds.
Check your thermistor. Seems you already did that.
Check your RAMPS by measuring the voltage on the bed connector while setting the bed to heat up. You should see 12V, at least in the
frist few seconds.


What you are describing is not possible as a result of changing slicers, this must be an intermittent hardware issue.

The slicer has no knowledge of the hardware layout of your machine (other than the build volume and gantry dimensions; if properly configured), it just creates slices of the model you present which are found in the G-code file as Z movements. In case multiple Z steppers are used to move the X gantry, these are usually driven by a single driver, but if they are separately controlled, even in the G-code file the instruction would be to move up Z in total, not per stepper. It is the firmware of the 3D printer that translates this Z level in movement for your 3D printer based on the layout of the machine and the firmware settings.

The CraftWare G-code file does show some inconsistencies with respect to the Simplify3D file in that it does not use G29 and has a too large first layer height of 0.45 mm (this is larger than you nozzle diameter of 0.40 mm, you should always limit that to about 75 % of your nozzle diameter).

For an X gantry to become unlevel/skew, there must be a mechanical issue that is causing it to miss steps/prevent advancing at one side. It is possible that one of the shafts or lead screws has some more friction than the other (generally it is not a good idea to grease the screws as dirt easily stick to the grease, a light oil may be better suited). This is not uncommon for Prusa i3 clones and is usually fixed by resettling the leadscrew nut by loosening and tightening the screws which attach the nut to the X gantry idler. It is unclear if this is your problem here with this specific machine.

To be fair, uneven displacement of any axis powered by 2 separate motors (driven by separate drivers) could be induced by the slicer when unrealistic high accelerations and incorrect hardware/electronic settings are employed.


Resin printer build plate scratches/ damage

One of the resources I've found is a forum with a discussion of the impact of scratches.
The general consensus is that scratches are not a problem, as long as there are no burrs above the surface of the plate that would damage the bottom of the vat. One posting party has used 36 grit on a palm sander followed by scotchbrite pad to resurface his plate, but one takes the risk of creating an out-of-plane surface.
A better method to sand a plate would be to place the sandpaper on a glass surface or something equally flat and planar and pass the build plate repeatedly over that.
Another aspect of the discussion was that scratches are good, as the rough surface provides a better bond to the resin.
You're likely to note that your build plate is not a polished smooth surface for the same reason.


Ambient Temperature Range for Printer Storage/Usage

Printers are electrical machines. They don't like water, so they also don't like condensation in them. If you can keep your garage dry and prevent a sheet of metal inside it from rusting, then your printer might survive the problems the shifting temperatures induce by condensing water vapor on the electronics.

Another thing to consider is, that at negative degrees Celsius, your printer might trigger a mintemp error, as the minimum temperature allowable is usually defined as 0 °C or higher. On the other hand, low temperatures might allow to bridge further than other days, as the cold air absorbs the heat from the prints faster. It could cause other problems like clogging or under extrusion due to low temperature though.

High summer temperatures might impact the print quality, causing quite some extra sagging.

The Filament on the machine in a garage might be impacted because of the humidity changes, but might be mitigated with a drybox.


Where or who could I hire to assemble a 3d printer that came in a kit for me?

If you have a makerspace in your area, you'll likely find individuals with reasonable mechanical skills suitable for simple kit assembly. Most kits are engineered to be reasonable assembly, not rocket surgery. Makers are by nature capable of construction, often from raw materials, and kits are typically not particularly challenging comparatively speaking.

Resin 3D printers are also simple in construction, as the component count is less than that of an FDM printer, or quite close in count. SLA designs involve laser modules, mirrors and alignment, while DLP designs involve light projection and light masking. Both designs involve vats and movement mechanics.

Even if you do not have a makerspace local to you, consider to contact one that might be nearer than farther away, as those spaces may have leads for you to locate a suitable victim/candidate.

Our local library makerspace often farms out contacts to me or other makers with the necessary skills to meet a patron's requirements.


Connecting (Anet A8) 2004 display to MKS GEN L V2.0

It probably can be done, but, it requires some splicing of your LCD cables (or using some Dupont male-female cables) and altering of the firmware pins header files.
The MKS GEN L v2.0 lacks the AUX-2 port that is present on the v1.0 controller boards. The reason for this is that they implemented support for more modern stepper drivers like the trinamic drivers that are capable of using UART to set stepper options.
The old v1.0 pin layout is displayed below:

The new v2.0 pin layout is dislayed below:

The Anet A8 2004 graphical display (so-called ZONESTAR_LCD) uses (at least one as the buttons are suited with different resistors) analog pin that is used to detect which buttons are pushed.
#elif ENABLED(ZONESTAR_LCD)
  #define ADC_KEYPAD_PIN 12

Pins A5 and A9-12, D40, D42 and D44 are used according to the pin layout.
In the pins_RAMPS.h header file the display usage is coded as:
#elif ENABLED(ZONESTAR_LCD)

  #define LCD_PINS_RS                     64
  #define LCD_PINS_ENABLE                 44
  #define LCD_PINS_D4                     63
  #define LCD_PINS_D5                     40
  #define LCD_PINS_D6                     42
  #define LCD_PINS_D7                     65

In order for this to work on the MKS GEN L v2.0, you need to source for free pins that can mimic these pins and alter the header file and create a spliced LCD cable.
It might be much easier to buy a new reprap discount display controller for about 10 bucks/euros and connect it to the dedicated EXP1/2 headers. Stay away from the Anet A6 graphical display.


z-axis hard to move in some areas - what could be faults, how to improve?

X stage binding like this is almost always caused by parallelism issues with the rods and/or screw. The two-rod-plus-screw arrangement is quite over-constrained and thus requires good alignment to move smoothly.

Some basic troubleshooting steps:

Make sure the screw is not constrained at both ends. It is very difficult to manufacture a screw that is perfectly straight and then mount it so precisely that it can rotate with zero runout. Screws in light-duty linear motion applications should be allowed to "wobble" freely so any bend or runout doesn't apply side-load forces to the Z stage. This can be accomplished by putting a misalignment-tolerant coupler (like an Oldham coupler) on the driven end, and/or leaving the non-driven end free without any support bearing. A motor mount with a small amount of compliance (like a rubber stepper damper) can help when the screw is captive to the motor.
Lubricate the screw and bearings and make sure everything is clean and in good condition.
Allow the Z carriage to self-align the rods and screw. The proper technique for this will depend on the Z stage, but the basic idea is to loosen the rod and screw mounts on either end, run the Z carriage back and forth a few times to push the rods into position, and then only re-tighten the top and bottom hardware when the carriage is at that end. It may also be necessary to loosen the screw nut and bearings on the carriage to get everything aligned properly and smooth-running, but that does not enforce parallelism like loosening the rod and screw mounts, so is really a secondary step. It may be necessary to leave some "float" in one rod or the bearings on one rod (with gravity preloading out any resultant slop) if the hardware has major alignment issues.
If the stage still binds after doing the above, it may be necessary to check if the linear hardware is bent (such as by rolling rods on a flat table) or use a file or Dremel to loosen up the mounts or whatever feature is causing the misalignment.


What nozzle size should I use for filament containing glitter?

Fact is that you encounter clogs with this filament, so trying a larger diameter nozzle is an option to solve this. Nozzles are very cheaply found in various sizes, so buy a few and experiment. Commonly found larger nozzle sizes are 0.5, 0.6 and 0.8 mm nozzles, even larger nozzles exist, like e.g. 1.0 mm or even larger, but keep in mind that the hot end needs to keep up heating of the extruded filament, so deposition speed may need to be reduced for larger nozzle diameters.

Alternatively, you could fight clogs the usual way by playing with temperature, layer height, retract settings, oiling filament, purging nozzle from previous filament or cooked up residue, etc, etc.

Quoting someone's experience:

  As far as differences, here has been my experience:

  0.5 mm low back pressure (High speed), and very hard to clog,
  0.4 mm medium back pressure, rarely clogs,
  0.35 mm high back pressure and very easy to clog.

Edit: According to Proto-pasta, concerning filament with glitter, a 0.4 mm nozzle should not be a problem as the glitter particles are smaller, the print layer thickness definitely can be a problem. However, they state that a larger diameter nozzle will result in more sparkle as the glitter is not laid too flat.


How do you 3d print from an existing part when you have no CAD drawings?

You can't print without a 3D model first. There are various ways you can go about this (or pay someone to do the same for you, ignoring any IP issues).

It is possible to generate a 3D model from a sequence of 2D photographs (there is even software which will allow you to do this freehand on a phone). Equipment exists which is specifically designed for this process, and you have likely heard of the services which allow you to get a 3D print of your own body.

You can take a 2D photo and import this into a 3D drawing package. Copy the features into a mesh, and extrude it. This might be a good approach for a complex shape, particularly if appearance is more important than precision.

For the shape you show here, the simplest approach for anyone with modeling experience is maybe to just draw it from scratch (with a few key dimensions). Your shape is only made up of a handful of primitive shapes.

Experiment in TinkerCad which is an online 3D editor to see if you can handle this yourself. It's not clear if you have your own printer, but this sort of part should cost less than $1 to print.

Strength might be a problem if they are already breaking...


Is there lead in brass 3D printer nozzles?

It's very likely that leaded brass is used in the manufacture of nozzles for 3D printers -- as noted by @AndrewMorton, this is done to improve machinability (the same is true of some steels, by the way) -- and when you're going to have to drill a hole potentially as small as 0.1 mm diameter, you want all the machinability you can get (I can say from experience that brass without the lead is very annoying to machine and likely to produce unacceptably high rates of broken tools and destroyed parts during that drilling operation).
That said, the amount of lead found in a single nozzle is very small, generally between 1.5% and 2.5% by mass -- a typical nozzle is only a few grams, so the lead content would be a few tens of milligrams.  Further, ingested lead (as metal) is not a major toxicity issue, because stomach acid reacts to form insoluble lead chloride, which then passes through the gut almost unchanged (some lead will still be absorbed, but swallowing a whole lead bullet raises bodily lead loading less than breathing in a shooting range for an hour or two each week for a year, where lead compounds float in the air as smoke, both from primers and from unjacketed lead bullets).
If you, a child, or a pet ingested a used nozzle (say, you dropped it and couldn't find it and worry about your dog), it would be more likely to do harm by abrading the intestinal lining as it passes than by the toxicity of the tiny amount of lead in the metal.  If this is a "today or yesterday" event, you should promptly consult an appropriate health care professional (physician, pediatrician, or veterinarian), who will likely want to take x-rays or CT scans to ensure the item passes through the gut rather than lodging somewhere along the way, as well as monitoring for symptoms of a complication (a perforated intestine is life-threatening, but relatively easy to repair if caught promptly; the surgery needed is similar to an appendectomy).


You are trying to print an unsupported edge up there - the top edge has nothing to rest on and thus sags down. As a result, the print failed.

To remedy this, activate printing with support. With a support angle of 80° or tree support, you could minimize the needed material.


How small may I design objects for the Prusa i3 MK3?

This is dependent on the slicer and the nozzle diameter. Typically, you cannot print a wall smaller than twice the nozzle diameter because walls need an inner and outer line. Therefore, your slicer will make some cutoff and won't print walls below a certain threshold, in order to try to faithfully replicate your model.

Slic3r, I believe, will automatically go down to single line walls, but if you turn on "Detect thin walls" in Slic3r's Print Settings, more of the thin walls will be printed. Slic3r will actually reduce the plastic extruded to attempt to make even thinner walls, but there's still a limit.

With a 0.4 mm nozzle, you should design walls no smaller than 0.8 mm, or 0.4 mm at the very smallest.


Inconsistent vertical walls on a Robo 3D R1+

Mmm... you've tried lots of obvious things. I don't have a printer the same as yours, so my help is generic.

How about a thorough check of extruder and filament path, since it may be just inconsistent filament feed? I've seen something similar happen when the filament reel was not rolling freely. Less likely, but also check that the frame is still solid and nothing has come loose.


Z motors only working manual, do not home correctly

Jogging the Z axis may be a sequence of very short moves, happening relatively slowly.

Homing may be a longer, faster move.  The homing move would depend more heavily on the maximum velocity, maximum acceleration, and jerk parameters.  If there are too high the z axis won't operate properly since the motors will attempt to move faster than is supported by the torque, and the rotating magnetic field will lose control of the permanent magnet rotor.

To fix this, find how the motion limit parameters are controlled for your software, and reduce them all by a factor of 50. It should work, although perhaps too slowly.

I would also reduce the current setting.  Microstepping motors doesn't work when the magnetic field is driven to saturation.


CubePro Duo Filament Cartridge Replacment Problem

The CubePro Duo is a discontinued 3d-systems printer. It uses their standard proprietary cartridges to prevent to use other filaments. In comparison to other printer filaments, their filaments range between 100 and 150$ per spool, which is listed as "1 kg" (though if that is with or without casing is not clear).

From what I could find out about the cartridges, they should contain some kind of identification method to the printer. That it is stuck in Validation means, that it might not be able to read this. So let's try installing the cartridge again, following the handbook p.17!

Take out the cartridge
boot the machine
wait for the machine to ask for filament
remove the thumbscrew so the filament spool inside the cartridge can turn
pull out the 30 cm
cut 5 cm off the end
insert the material into the Bowden tube of slot 1
push the material till you get some goop coming out
mount the cartridge into the slot, make sure it is clamped in tightly.

This should start the validation of the material, at which point you might get told that the colors don't match the print defined colors. Should the cartridge not be validated again but works on the ABS cartridges, the validation method might be broken on this cartridge. Should it not recognize either, the firmware or the detector might be broken.


How to configure Marlin to enable auto-fans with dual extruder

After trying many different things, I found out that the solution is really simple and requires only a few lines of code. I'll answer my own question in the hope that this will help someone.
First, I defined a few constants (macros actually). To keep my own stuff separate, I created a new file for them called myconfig.h:
#define MY_BED_TEMP_THRESHOLD 50
#define MY_BED_AUTO_FAN_PIN 6
#define MY_BED_AUTO_FAN_SPEED 255

The pin constant corresponds to D6 which is the green marked output of the RRD Fan Extender where I connected the fans under my bed.

Second, in the file temperature.cpp of the Marlin Firmware, I included my file and added four lines of code:
#include "myconfig.h"

...

#if HAS_AUTO_FAN

  void Temperature::checkExtruderAutoFans() {

    ...

    HOTEND_LOOP() {
      if (current_temperature[e] > EXTRUDER_AUTO_FAN_TEMPERATURE)
        SBI(fanState, fanBit[e]);
    }

    // --- start of my code ----------
    if (current_temperature_bed > MY_BED_TEMP_THRESHOLD)
      digitalWrite(MY_BED_AUTO_FAN_PIN, MY_BED_AUTO_FAN_SPEED);
    else
      digitalWrite(MY_BED_AUTO_FAN_PIN, 0);
    // --- end of my code ------------

    ...

#endif // HAS_AUTO_FAN
...

Now my fans are automatically turned on while the bed temperature is higher than 50 °C and are turned off again after the bed has cooled down far enough.


ABS or PLA for structural printed parts?

To answer the main question "Is ABS better for structural parts of a 3D printer as opposed to PLA".

The answer, unfortunately is it depends.

ABS has lower yield and ultimate strengths compared to PLA. This means that at room temperatures, ABS is weaker than PLA. However the difference between yield and ultimate for ABS is much larger than PLA, meaning that ABS parts will deform, noticeably so before breaking. This can be a good thing. If your ABS part is highly loaded, you may want to be able to inspect it for overloading. The plastic deformation that occurs in ABS may be sufficient for you to identify, and modify your parts before a catastrophic failure. With PLA though since the two strengths are quite close, your part would more than likely fail completely without any warning or deformation before it. So in terms of strength, it's a design consideration. Would you rather have a slightly weaker part that shows signs of load failure, or is a catastrophic failure acceptable. There are use cases where either may be better.

As Ecnerwal pointed out, PLA has a lower Tg (glass transition temperature) compared to ABS. If your printed parts are going on a 3D printer and aren't sufficiently isolated from the hot parts (print bed or extruder) then you may end up having some localized deformation. That being said, the extruder is generally pretty localized and likely won't cause you too many issues assuming you're using any of the already available 3D printer designs out there, same for the print bed. However by the sounds of it your 'room' temperature is a fair bit higher than here in North America, by a factor of almost 2! This could cause you some issues if you're printing parts in the high heat with PLA. Your best option would be ABS, but even with it's higher Tg (roughly 90C if I remember correctly) you may still run into issues.

The warping and shrinkage issues mentioned in the question seem to be more about parts being built by a 3D printer. Once the parts are built warpage and shrinkage are essentially a non-issue unless you've heated parts back to within their melting temperatures.

Depending on where you're getting your plastic parts, there may be a third option. By the sounds of it you're looking at building your own printer. You may be able to get the STL files of the printed parts you need and then have someone print them for you in a stronger material such as Nylon.

Assuming alternative materials aren't an option I would personally suggest going with ABS for your use case. My reasoning is purely due to the potential operating temperatures. While 50C is below the Tg for PLA it's getting very close.


Prusa i3 MK2 Heated Bed Thermal Runaway Problems

The local library makerspace (prior to COVID-19 shutdown) has a Prusa i3 MK2 (no MMU) that had a similar problem. The model being printed was relatively small, compared to the bed and was being printed nearly atop the temperature sensor.

The part cooling fan was cooling the bed sensor while the rest of the bed was not being used.

Moving the model away from the sensor resolved the problem. If you're printing in the center of the bed, consider to re-slice in a position offset from the center.

If you are using the PEI sheet as the library machine is/was, consider to shuttle your prints around the bed over time. The library's printer wore away the PEI from always-centered prints. It had to be replaced after about a year. The replacement is going on two years with little complications.


After installing BLTouch and Marlin, my nozzle is too high when trying to print

In some ways, this reminds me of the pain I went through recently. I am also fairly new to 3D printing.
After you have completed the bed levelling using G29 you should have a list of mesh coordinates showing in the interface with Octoprint. (I am using Pronterface, so am not all that familiar with Octoprint) You need to save the mesh coordinates to the control board. To do this enter M500 and then M503 to check that the data has saved. If you enter G28 after using G29, but without saving (M500) the coordinates will be discarded.
When you have set your Z offset, you also need to save that too (M500).
Unless you bed is warped, a 7 x 7 grid (mesh) is overkill. If you are printing on glass or better still, a mirror, a 3 x 3 grid should be enough. I have a 5 x 5 due to may warped bed.
Best of luck and have fun.


Problem with print bed height on Creality Ender 4

Moving a printer would most likely affect the hardware rather that the software. Unless you have tinkered with the software over USB or loaded an unknown G-code file over SD card that has embedded G-code commands that change your settings.

The most likely solution is that the printer or parts of the printer shifted as such that the printer is not aligned anymore as it used to be. Re-calibrating the machine should fix that for you.


SerialException: 'WriteFile failed ([Error 22]...' Printrbot Simple Metal using Cura 15.04.6

From the look of it, and given that you already two different slicers, it look like this may be a hardware issue.  I have had very similar error messages with my cheap Chinese printer and this is ultimately why I ended up always printing via the SD card and stop worrying.

That said, the error is about the serial connection over your USB cable.  I was about to write a list of suggestions, but I found out that your manufacturer already has a troubleshooting guide for your printer here.

Adding my own suggestions to those of Printrbot, this is the final troubleshooting guide (the linked page has detailed instructions for each step but 6 and 7):

Cycle power
Update your Operating System.
[Windows users only] run a VCP (Virtual Com Port) driver wizard
Check physical connections and swap power and usb cables.
Use a standard 2.0 USB input rather than USB 3.0, if applicable
Make sure that your printer is away from any potential source of EMI (Electro-Magnetic Interference).  Microwaves ovens, many types of energy-saving lamps and power bricks/adapters are known offenders.
If possible, reduce the serial speed of your connection (revert if this does not solve the issue, as it may effect print speed and quality).
Flash your Printrboard

To clarify what these tips are all about:

Step 1 is about making sure you don't have your computer and printer in "dirty states" (as in: with their serial buffer corrupted or stuck).
Step 2-3 are about making sure you have as many known software bugs and problems patched as you can, as well as all the latest features.  This is especially important if you are asking for help, as nobody is going to downgrade their own machines just to replicate a user' unique state.
Step 4-7 are about diminishing the possibility that the signal in your cables gets disrupted and mangled along the way between the computer and the printer.
Step 8 is like 2-3 but for your printer firmware, rather than your computer software.


Problem identified.

I took of the fan and heat sink so I could see what was going on in the mechanism that should pull through the filament.

Using repetier-host software I tried to manually drive the motor - nothing happening.

I swapped the A4988 stepper motor driver for the extruder with another (and my x,y,z axis motors work) to see what would happen - and it worked!

So just a faulty A4988 on the extruder motor.

I also manually pushed filament through the hot end to ensure there was no blockage and it worked fine.

So hopefully GEEETECH can send me a replacement and I'm good to go!


It's rather simple:

Start to edit the sketch with this line via a right-click edit sketch
click the line you want to force horizontal
on the right menu, the lower menu has "align horitontal/vertical", click it
DONE

To find the button I mean, a picture with the right tool next to the red mark:

Hint: in the case of your item, I suggest to use the blue marked symmetry on the two lines you forced to be equal:

first choose the lines (SHIFT)
choose the tool
click the symmetry line (in your case: the construction line)


Purge okay but not extruding during printing

So, I was able to fix this (or it fixed itself overnight as these things sometimes do) with a 5°C increase in extruder temperature to 210°C.  The Sunlu PLA filament specifies 200°C - 230°C as its print range.
I followed the advice of a IRL friend who suggested "What happens if you raise the z a bit so you can see the nozzle and keep raising the heat until it starts to come out on its own.  Check temp and then run a print at that temp."
I only needed that 5°C increase before I could see it oozing.  From there I was able to successfully print a calibration cube and further model.


Raised lines on top layer surface Ender 3

I would firstly do a flow rate calibration:https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2490893

print this using: 0.2 mm layer resolution;0.4 mm layer width; wall count= 2; infill=100%
print it at the same temperature you printed the cat.
measure the walls width a couple of times in different places, get the average and then do : 100*0.8/average. the result is your new flow rate or extrusion multiplier.

I would then do a E-step calibration, use this:

Once you have this two parameters, re-print the block. I would suggest to print not faster than 50 mm/s and raise it by 5 mm/s if you see the thing is going right. Try a typical grid-20 % infill with 3 top layers and 1 superficial layer (usually you shouldn't need more than one). For these trials try scaling the blocks by 50% so you don't waste that much material. Try not to use the ironing function yet, you should get a uniform surface without it.

The weird thing is the holes pattern you get in all the pieces. Just in case, tighten your x and y belts, re-level your bed and try moving the extruder with your hand (gently) to see it doesn't wobbles.


No Z hop in Dual extruder, print getting disturbed at retraction point

It appears as though you are using (or used) an old version of Cura. More recent releases allow you to insert G-code commands on changing the extruder. You could insert a Z-hop in these sections.

Extruder End G-code: First set the extruder in a relative mode, move up 2 mm, set absolute again:

G91
G1 Z2
G90

Extruder Start G-code: First set the extruder in a relative mode, move down 2 mm, set absolute again:

G91
G1 Z-2
G90

You could even do filament retractions to prevent oozing or stringing!

Note that this assumes both hotends are on the same carriage!

An alternative you could try is to use a print server that is able to inject G-code scripts, an example is OctoPrint:


Alternative 3d molding techniques at home

Forming kinda blister out of paper is possible but not the way it's formed out of plastic. Paper is not elastic, it's bendable but not strechable. It's the issue of how cellulose fibers are formed and how are they entangled.

Anyway - you can create a form out of wet mixed paper pulp. Wrap it around your model and then wait until it's dry. It will form amazingly stiff form. You can do it also out of wet handkerchiefs.

You could build a vacuum machine as in the formbox to squeeze the paper pulp the get water out of the material but the cover should be done out of light silicone film so it would be treated by vacuum.


Screeching Noise when moving the Z-Axis Down

I had this same problem. I attributed it to the linear bearings which ride on the 8mm travel rods. I did two things which ultimately eliminated the issue (since I did both at the same time, I'm not sure which solved the issue, but believe it's #1 below):

I replaced all of my ball type (stock) linear bearings with Igus Drylin linear bearings. I'm pretty sure the metal ball bearings were screeching along the 8mm metal rods. The Drylin bearings pretty much eliminated any noise on the rods. I replaced all of them for X, Y, & Z axis rods at the same time.
I used white lithium grease (just a small amount) on the Z-axis screw rod. This helped everything travel better. It should also help it last longer by preventing wear.

Since I've done this, I've not had any screeching anymore. You don't have to use Drylin linear bearings, as there are other printable options on Thingiverse.com.


How many times printed printer can print it-self?

The files used to print these objects are digital, and do not degrade in any way after each printing. There are no side effects or degradation that occurs over time due simply to printing them multiple times.

This is the RepRap philosophy, and the machines are actually designed with enough tolerance for printing and building mistakes that even if the print isn't perfect, it will not only work fine, but it can print a printer better than it was printed, with some care and attention to calibration.

The process still takes a lot of human intervention, in the way of building the new printer and properly calibrating it.  If there are errors in the printer or the prints it produces, they can almost always be attributed to the builder/calibrator/user, and not to the design or the fact it's the Nth generation of printer.


This has been sitting for a long time without an answer, so let me answer with an experience I've had with PETG rather than HIPS.

PETG seems to be a relatively soft plastic.  It isn't soft like TPU, but it is softer than PLA or ABS.  The HIPS filament (which I have but haven't used) appears to also be softer, so it is possible that my PETG problem could relate to your HIPS problem.

I was printing and re-printing an object with PETG that had worked fine with PLA.  Three times in a row, I got a filament jam in about the same place.

The problem was that the filament was retracting, returning, retracting, and returning many times within a very small amount of extruded plastic.  My extruder was set for high pressure between the drive roller and the idler.  When the filament went back and forth through the extruder, it flattened enough that it would jam from being too wide to fit through the next stage (in my case, a Bowden tube).

When I reduced the compression of the filament in the extruder, the problem stopped.  I also reduced the retraction distance, and increased the minimum travel before the slicer would do a retract.  Both were intended to reduce the number of times any single bit of filament would pass through the rollers.


What you are looking for is the Frostruder style extruders.
Here is a link to a thingiverse file for it.
You honestly cannot expect fantastic results but it will get the job done! There are many other types. Quality will depend on the size of the point. However with something as high viscosity as clay I would not expect you to be able to push the quality very high.


Would 3d-printed objects outgas in vacuum?

I found much the same question at Does PLA outgas? An answer there pointed to a NASA outgassing database, Outgassing Data for Selecting Spacecraft Materials, and says that:

  ABS (unknown supplier), MakerGeeks PET and Makerbot PLA have been measured and are listed in the NASA database.

Poster there recommended PLA for lower outgassing, and clear PLA because there would be fewer additives to complicate the problem.


Ultimaker 3 Extended prints pores in walls

While no expert, I'm wondering if you're going the wrong way with tweaking your parameters.

If I'm reading your question correct, you have a fairly large nozzle (it's a 0.8 mm?) and then you're using ABS which requires more heat (230 °C nozzle temp) than say PLA does (typically 190 °C). Along with that you are using a fairly thick print layer of 0.3 mm, where I've normally only used a 0.1 mm layer height. You add all this stuff up and it seems to me the nozzle temps are probably not keeping up with the amount of filament you are trying to extrude, and due to these things, you're seeing the gaps in the print.

My thinking on this to fix your issue is to do a couple of things. You can slow down your print speed to allow the heating element to keep up. Secondly, use a smaller layer height. Both of these things should help, but will increase print times dramatically. You could also go to a smaller print orifice. Lowering the orifice size to 0.4 mm would again, increase print time, but would mean less filament extrusion and the chance for the nozzle temps to keep up with extrusion needs.


This is almost surely the source of your problem:

  I had to replace the entire hotend assembly on my Prusa i3 MK2,5. Before that, there was no issue. After the replacement and after noticing the issue, I followed the list above. I recalibrated the extruder and in fact I had to increase the steps/mm to match the extruded length.

There is no plausible physical reason for extruder steps/mm to change due to replacement of the hotend. Steps/mm is purely a function of stepper motor steps per rotation and extruder gear radius. Set it back to its original value.

If the extruded length is not matching what it should, you have a problem with blockage/flow rate in the hotend restricting advance of the filament and causing the extruder gear to grind without moving it, or the motor to skip steps. Adjusting steps/mm to "compensate" will not fix this; it will just grind/skip more. Instead go back to the beginning, with steps/mm set correctly to the original value, and start looking for the cause of your hotend problem.


Why does MakerBot Replicator heat the extruder and platform separately?

It really doesn't quite have enough power to heat everything at once. Initially bringing the bed up to temp takes a lot of current and so Makerbot's start sequences decrease stepper current and hold off on heating the extruder(s) until the bed is preheated. Once preheated, the bed's power draw decreases to a lower "holding" level and there is available capacity to do everything else.

The start sequencing decreases the max average power draw by a pretty substantial amount. The decrease is about 0.6A each for the XYAB steppers and 1.7A each for two hot ends, totalling 5-6A of avoided peak power draw. (Even lower if you preheat with the steppers disabled rather than idling.)

The history here is that one of Makerbot's design decisions with the Replicator 2 and 2x was to utilize off-the-shelf UL-listed power bricks (like a laptop might use) instead of an internal power supply. This made engineering and safety certification much easier, and completely eliminated mains-voltage wiring inside the printer, which is a big safety plus. However, the largest readily-available 24v power brick had slightly less current capacity than optimal. So Makerbot came up with a software workaround for the hardware limitation.

If you want, you can replace the stock power brick with a ~350w PSU and preheat everything at once. Sailfish firmware builds intended for printers with properly-sized PSUs (eg FlashForge Creators) will allow simultaneous preheating.


Dual extruder unused nozzle is breaking prints

I started this as a comment, but it got too long. I have been working for much too long on a multi-extruder printer, and so I understand that the fixed, dual-head designs are somewhat fraught with problems.

I am assuming that this is a mechanism in which the two nozzles are inline in the X-axis, the Y-axis is parallel to the bed and normal to the line between the two nozzles, and the Z-axis is normal to both X and Y (and usually vertical).

When you "bed level", is it clear that both nozzles are "exactly" the same height from the bed everywhere on the bed?  If there is anything non-parallel about the movement plane and the bed, it can cause one head to dip lower than the other when over the same position on the bed.

Is twist along the Y-axis of the heads possible?  A twist could be because of either looseness or compliance (springiness) in the X-axis.  The twist could be induced either through acceleration or by a nozzle being pushed up in reaction to the plastic extrusion against the object.

Is the printing from the active nozzle properly flat, or does it produce verticle bumps?  Any vertical ripples will cause any head passing over them to bump against them.  Something will need to comply with the force.  Either the head will melt through the bump and smear it out a bit, the bed will be pushed downward, or the nozzle pushed upward.  If the passive nozzle hits a bump, that compliance will be conveyed to the active nozzle, creating another defect.

Is the passive nozzle cold or hot?  It may help to heat the unused nozzle so that it can melt the plastic it touches rather than pushing against it.  If this helps at all, it may be necessary to slow down printing so that the passive nozzle has more time to melt through the obstacle.

If you find that the problem is bump defects from the active nozzle, it might help to remove the passive nozzle completely and focus on printing a smooth, even surface with the active nozzle.  Debugging that would be easier without the passive nozzle compounding the problem.


Why are skirts designed the way they are?

Skirt and Brim are not only nozzle prime operations. While Brim is intended to help in adhesion by increasing the area, Skirt is a method to test some things about the bed and positioning:

If the bed is unlevel, you can see this in the skirt before the print starts. This demands to go around all of the print.
If the bed is greasy, you'll see also before the actual print starts, as the extrusion does not stick well.
It provides a visual check if the slicing is positioned well on the printer. If you for example run printers of different dimensions, the skirt shows instantly, if you loaded G-code that is too large for the bed.

The effect to reduce airdraft to the first layer is sometimes brought up, but I don't think it is relevant. However, if one would pause between skirt and print, one could use the outline to put down glue or ABS-slurry for materials that need extra adhesion.

The use of the material in a skirt is directly proportial to the width (1 or 2 lines) and the area included (as circumference is proportional to area).

  In Cura, can I change the layout of the skirt, so that it gets drawn in a convenient part of the build platform, instead of going all the way around the edge of the print?

No. Skirt is, by definition always around the whole set of parts. Just turn off Skirt and use an alternate priming, if you don't think you'll need it or find it cumbersome. Instructions for example priming operations can be found in Writing G-code : swiping at start of print


Is there a reason for the z-axis M5 drive nut to be super loose on the lead screw?

It's probably intentional. Threaded rods are almost never perfectly straight. If the nut is rigidly coupled to the carriage, then the slightest deviation in the screw will either cause it to bind up or appear as artifacts (e.g. z-wobble) in the print. By making the nut slightly loose, it can move around a bit to compensate for wobble. See e.g. this design and this design for how this is commonly implemented in other printers.


Is 12V and 15A enough to make work a Ramps 1.6 Plus and two stepper motors?

The easiest way to know how powerful the PSU should be is to download from https://github.com/rcarlyle/StepperSim the Excel workbook which simulates the power absorbed by the stepper motor. Input the motor specifications, check in the graph the max speed at which you plan to run it, check the absorbed power, add 20% for the various losses. Once you know the absorbed power, you can multiply by the number of stepper motors and obtain the current required, add 20% not to stress the PSU too much.

In you case, this is the result

Your motor will never absorb more than 7 W, 14 W for the two motors, around 20 W considering losses in the motors and overcapacity of the PSU. This means that around 2 A PSU will be perfect for your setup.

Previous answer, which may not be completely correct but still provides a useful background knowledge:

The TMC drivers limit the current to the value you set, which is most of the time lower than the datasheet. In no case you will need more than 1.3 A * sqrt(2) * 2 motors = 3.6 A. In fact, you won't need this much either.

When there is no field in a coil, the driver applies full voltage, but the current is low (initially zero) so you don't hit the 1.3 A per coil.

The current increases (the higher the maximum voltage available to the driver, the faster it increases) and the driver (probably) keeps the full voltage until the preset current is reached. Just a moment before that, the current is almost there, but you still have full voltage from the power supply. This is the theoretical worst case, but it applies only for a very short amount of time.

As soon as the current reaches the preset, the driver "cuts the voltage" to keep  2.4 ohm * 1.3 A = 3.2 V (because V = R * I). This means that the power supply sees 3.2 A/12 V*1.3 A = 0.35 A.

When running, the motors almost never start from zero to max current: both coils are powered and when one increases, the other one decreases.

In fact, the microstepping makes the steppers act more or less like AC motors with two phases. This means that overall the current is the max current per phase multipled by sqrt(2). Also, when using microstepping one phase (coil) is not completely shut off, but two of them work at the same time (with different current levels). This means that in total one compensates the other, and the power supply only provides, more or less, 0.35 * 1.4 = 0.5 A per stepper. You have two, so it's 1 A total, therefore 2 A PSU considering the inefficiencies.

A very easy and complete explanation is provided here:

  By controlling the duty cycle of the chopper, an average voltage and
  an average current equal to the nominal motor voltage and current are
  created.

  ...

  As the current increases, a voltage develops across the
  sensing resistor, which is fed back to the comparator. At the
  predetermined level, defined by the voltage at the reference input,
  the comparator resets the flipflop, which turns off the output
  transistor. The current decreases until the clock oscillator triggers
  the flip-flops, which turns on the output transistor again, and the
  cycle is repeated

So you never have coming out of the PSU more than the preset current.

  Supply current is not the same as the motor current in a copper drive. It is the motor current multiplied by the dutycycle, at
  standstill typically Isupply = IM · ( VM ⁄ Vsupply )

  ...

  Depending on
  how the H-bridge is switched during the turn-off period, the current
  will either recirculate through one transistor and one diode (path 2),
  giving the slow current decay, or recirculate back through the power
  supply (path 3). The advantage of feeding the power back to the
  power supply is the fast current decay and the ability to quickly
  reduce to a lower current level.


How to identify, use, and replace the Copperhead Bowden coupler?

It's an embedded Bowden collet. Also called a Bowden clip which is a much more vague and overloeaded term.
E3D (UK) and MicroSwiss (US) have their own branded versions but they're likely not made in house, they're prbably reselling what they buy in.
Youtubers appear to pronounce this Bowden collect which does not help.


Baud rate for Ender 3 on Repetier Host (Debian)

Your firmware configuration may vary (probably worth checking what you have set), but from The Ender 3 configuration is set to 115200 baud rate #12174, the standard baud rate seems to be 115200.

  I think the default Ender 3 configuration is aligned to the Ender3 official confg, which has 115200 so...

Ah, but this is Marlin, and you're using Repetier. Hmmm, maybe ignore that then.

According to Recommended baud rate?:

  Normally 115200 or 250000 baud should work find and usb->serial latency is the bottleneck.

Apart from that I don't know. Sorry. I might delete this answer, if it doesn't help.


Difference in weight from Cura to printed model

The density of the filament can be specified in the material model of the filament in Cura (Preferences -> Configure Cura... -> Materials and click on the material/filament you are using to slice your model for PETG), look at the value behind Density, the PETG filament I use is using 1.28 g/cm³ (PETG Economy Black -> Specification >).

This field is user editable, so you can change it to your needs. Cura calculates the weight based on the deposited volume.


Removeable Glass Bed vs. Removeable Springsteel Beds

In favor of glass:

Smoother surface gives you a nicer bottom layer (though Kapton-layered steel is no slouch)
More even, regular surface makes bed easier to level
Easy to prep and clean
More scratch-resistant makes getting under a part with a metal scraper a little less harrowing
Corrosion-resistant (glass doesn't rust; silicon dioxide is in fact already about as oxidized as it can possibly be)

In favor of steel:

Flexes for easier release
Safer (steel plates don't shatter, at least not at temperatures you're likely to use them)
Conducts heat better for faster and more even heating
Slightly less expensive on average


Any possible issues with adding heat/cool down cycle in the end of print (PLA)

Heating PLA even to 60°C will make it pliable and may affect dimensional accuracy; 100°C is likely to make that severe. Being stuck to the bed and thus constrained by it might help some, but I think it's a bad idea.
If your PLA is hard to remove, you probably have bed leveling issues. PLA should remove easily after cooling from reasonable print-time bed temperatures of 40-60°C to room temperature as long as it has not been extruded against the bed with excessive force (from being too close and having nowhere else to go).


Is Repetier host able to do multi-material printing?

Yes, it can.  I have configured it for as many as four extruders.  The problem may be in the slicing, as the slicer is responsible for generating the tool change commands.

One problem with the Repetier multi-extruder support is that, although the temperature of each extruder is reported by the RepRap firmware response, only the selected extruder is updated, and only one extruder is shown in the temperature graph.


There was the CuraEngine plugin, but it's not really maintained anymore. It should still work though


Monoprice Select Mini - Detached Filament Feeder fitting

Solution - there is a set-screw and a square nut in that T-slot which holds the feeder fitting in place on the heat sink.

One may well think (as I did) that the fitting is threaded into the heatsink, since it does have a big hex-head for a wrench. A small turn an the set screw lets go, the nut sliding down the slot with it. Thus when you inspect it, you don't realize they are involved 'cuz they aren't around.

Simply slide back up and you're in business.

Mystery solved - thx to Mark on Twitter. :)


GCode flavor: the firmware your machine uses. Google tells me CR-10 uses Marlin, so you should select that. Volumetric Marlin is not very common.

Print Head Settings
X/Y min/max define the bounding box of the area your print head takes up. Measure the distance from the centre of the nozzle to the left-most point of the print head and do the same for the right-most, front-most and back-most.

Gantry Height is the distance from the tip of the nozzle to the lowest point of the gantry, which is the axle on which the print head is mounted.

These print head settings are only used for one-at-a-time printing.


Gaps between perimeter walls; potential under extrusion?

PETG filament is not entirely rigid and compresses slightly in the Ender 3's extruder gear and Bowden extruder setup. Tightening it will only make this effect greater. Being compressed at the point where mm of extruder advance is applied means less than the desired advance of at-nominal-diameter filament will take place. I find I need a flow of 104% to compensate for this.
When adjusting flow in Cura, make sure you get the main flow setting not the first-layer one (which is an additional factor on top of the main one and can be left at 100%), and that all the derived flow settings for each type of extrustion (walls, top/bottom, infill, etc.) all come out matching the value you set. When I first tried fixing this with flow, they didn't propagate right and I ended up testing changes that weren't actually doing anything.
With that said, you may have something else going on too. The underextrusion looks pretty severe, including in the top layers which you said looked okay. You should not see deep grooves between the lines like that. I suspect they're only bonded to the layer below, not to their neighbors. This could be a result of tightening the extruder pulley, or some other problem.


Monoprice i3 clone heat shuts off printing abs

this could be connected to a thermal shutdown protection.
Most firmwares requires a decent increase in temperature every few seconds.

if you use Marlin then in the source code you can extend thermal shutdown timings.

what to check:
check every single connector to eliminate any fiddling or play - risk of fire !!!

if any of wires goes hot - double check connections, replace wires/connectors

note temperature change (how many seconds/degree) on the hotbead
then increase voltage on psu (probably you have a led psu - so there is a small regulator next to the connectors)
validate if that help


Extruder feedrate when loading and unloading filament

Loading and unloading filament through the LCD options is taking care of by G-code command M600. The options used when executing the M600 command define where the head goes and how much filament is extruded of which extruder. Apparently, there is a difference in calling the M600 command via the LCD menu or (un)loading filament through the Repetier application.

The Firmware-based and LCD-controlled retract options are defined in Marlin Firmware file Configuration_adv.cfg (Advanced Pause). The settings for Repetier are probably differently defined than in the advanced configuration file; you should look them up in Repetier. It could well be that separate G-codes (or scripts) are used for this. E.g. G10 is used to retract filament as set by M207 (both length and feed rate!). G-code G11 does the opposite, it unretracts the filament as specified by M208.

To answer your question, yes, you need to alter the values of the constants in Configuration_adv.h for changing the speed when using the LCD to change the filament:

// (mm/s) Unload filament feedrate. This can be pretty fast.
#define FILAMENT_CHANGE_UNLOAD_FEEDRATE     10
// (mm/s) Load filament feedrate. This can be pretty fast.
#define FILAMENT_CHANGE_FAST_LOAD_FEEDRATE   6


There's a great tutorial here on youtube.

And personally my favourite is this tutorial.


When should I replace the nozzle on my printer?

Replacing the nozzle depends on many things,

the nozzle material (copper/brass, steel, hardened steel, Olsson Ruby Nozzle),
the type of filament you print,
how frequently you use the 3D printer.

To replace a nozzle, there are probably a few reasons for doing so. A nozzle can wear out (see: How to identify nozzle wear; not only from the friction  of standard filament, but especially when used with abrasive filament like glow-in-the-dark PLA, and glass or carbon fibre filled filament) causing the outer shape and the inner nozzle diameter to change size. This can result in lower quality prints or difficulty in getting the print to stick to the bed. Having a metal wire or drill bit of the diameter of the nozzle will tell you if the hole itself has worn out. Sometimes, a visual inspection may sometimes be enough for you to tell that it has worn out:

(source: filament2print.com)

Please note that an interesting video is posted by Stefan from CNC Kitchen on nozzle wear:

Nozzles can collect burned particles inside, partly clogging the nozzle, causing the extrusion to be non-ideal. A sign for this is when the filament is not leaving the nozzle straight when freely extruded at height, but curls up.

Furthermore, when used frequently, nozzles can get coated with filament which is sometimes hard to remove. This sometimes causes freshly extruded filament to stick to the nozzle, certainly if it curls up like mentioned before.

Note that nozzles are very cheap with respect to the complete assembly and replacing them is a matter of 2 minutes work. So if you're unsure about how to improve the quality of printing after having tried fixing flow rate and nozzle to bed height, you could replace the nozzle, see e.g.:

(source: The 3D Print General)

Depending on the quality of the nozzle and the filament, a nozzle replacement for one brand might be necessary much sooner than for another printer. E.g. my Ultimaker 3E has literally printed kilometers of PETG without the need to replace the nozzle (or "core" as it is called for this printer), while the brass nozzle of my first cheap, now dust collecting, Anet A8 printer has been replaced a few times.


You retraction settings may be too high. Direct drive extruders require less retraction than Bowden style extruders. Typical retraction settings for direct drive are 1.5mm at 50mm/s and for Bowden, 4mm at 50mm/s. The speed usually makes more of a difference than distance beyond a certain point.

You can get away with smaller retraction settings if you increase travel speed because there will be less time to ooze. You could also try using Coasting as well.

Anyway, try reducing your retraction settings if they're higher than what I stated above. Another alternative is to set an extra prime distance so that extra filament is extruded after the retraction.


This sounds like you have an adhesion problem if it catches laid down filament, you might want to address that first. E.g. use a PVA based glue or spray to get better adhesion. This will result in not dragging laid down filament.

To my knowledge, Ultimaker Cura has no option to choose how you print the squares (direction and start point). However, you could use Z-hop so that it will lift your nozzle (or lower your build plate in your case) prior to moving to the next rectangle.

It looks as though you are using an older version of Ultimaker Cura as it only prints one line of each of the small rectangular holes (or are you actually using a single wall/shell), in later versions of Ultimaker Cura this is fixed (e.g. the image below is created with Ultimaker Cura 3.4.1), it will print all walls/shells before commencing to the next small rectangular hole. This way you have more lines deposited which have a possible better adhesion to the increase of laid down material:

Further investigation of your image shows that you are using a very fine grating (< 1 mm?) resulting in very limited amount of walls. In your case the version is not that important, but the latter information is just left as a possibility for people that use an older version of Ultimaker Cura.

Also note that there is an option to put the brim on the inside of your models (option called Brim Only on Outside), when disabled, this would also increase the surface area for better adhesion.

There are also option available to start with the outer or inner wall (option Outer Before Inner Walls), but in this case that would not help you as there is only 1 wall at each side of the rectangular hole.


Ultimaker Cura is not always retracting in exported G-Code

It's likely that you're hitting Cura's Maximum Retraction Count (retraction_count_max) within the Minimum Extrusion Distance Window (retraction_extrusion_window). This is a misfeature supposedly designed to avoid grinding/flattening the filament, but of course acting on it will ruin your print in exactly the same way you're seeing. I think setting the window to 0 or the maximum count to some ridiculously high number like 1000000 will fix the problem.
Note that it's exacerbated by the thin nozzle making the number of retractions needed take place over a much smaller extruder-axis move distance than what you'd have with a normal 0.4 mm nozzle. This is probably why nobody has noticed and complained about the badness of Cura's defaults here.


What voltage does the Creality Ender-3 run at?

Bearing in mind that the specifications on Amazon's page are sometimes not 100% (even though they are in this case), it is always best to check on the manufacturer's website.
From Creality3D's own website, Creality3D.shop, on the Creality3D Ender-3 product page, Creality3D Ender-3 3D Printer Economic Ender DIY KITS, the specifications are given as (emphasis is mine):

##ender-3 Machine Parameter:

Modeling Technology：FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling）
Printing Size：220220250mm
Machine Size：440410465mm
Package weight：8kg Max
Traveling Speed：180mm/s
Filament：1.75mm PLA,TPU,ABS
Input：AC 100-265V 50-60Hz
Output：DC 24V 15A 360W
Layer Thickness：0.1-0.4mm
Nozzle diameter：0.4mm
Precision：±0.1mm
File Format：STL,OBJ,G-Code
Working Mode：Online or SD offline
Max Nozzle Temperature：255℃
Max Hot bed Temperature：110℃


What's the best way to connect pieces of a large print after printing?

Previous answer assuming not yet printed:
If you want to drill holes, print smaller guide holes to guide the drill bit.  The best glue depends on the material.  Printing structures like dovetails makes the connection less dependent on the strength of the glue.
Answer with the parts already printed:
The best way to align drilled holes is probably to glue the pieces together first, then drill the holes.  Otherwise, you need a method to clamp the pieces together or do precision drilling.


Adding custom M or G codes to Marlin 2.0

The code in 2.0.x is similar to the old branch 1.1.x, G-code is parsed in gcode.cpp, specifically in process_parsed_command:

void GcodeSuite::process_parsed_command(const bool no_ok/*=false*/)

In the case statement the codes read from the G-code files are parsed (interpreted) and the appropriate method is called (e.g. G28() calls void GcodeSuite::G28())

If you want to create your own codes, it could be an idea to start there. Also think of using a different letter and/or codes in the 10,000 range so that it will not collide with new implemented G-codes.


I believe that the matrix is shown transposed from how it should be, but that doesn't affect the answer. The compensated Z position is derived from the original (X,Y,Z) position by multiplying the corresponding vector with that matrix. This means that the new Z position would be

Z' = 0.999992Z - 0.001233X - 0.003905Y

If you have a 200 x 200 printbed, a diagonal move from one corner to the other would correspond to a 1mm change in Z-height. This should be noticeable, but if perhaps you're printing something quite small you might not notice it.

Though, if your first layer is perfect, I would see no reason to mess with it.


@Trish is right, it would help greatly to have more details, such as the model of printer, photos of the printer at the upper height limit, and a video with sound of moving the head against the 15 mm stop.

Without those details you might answer your question for yourself (and for SE) by trying these tests and considering the results.  If you have already done these things, it would help us help you if you included your results, and other experimental results, in the question.

The problem could be in the mechanism or in the slicing program.

Using the UI, can you raise the head above 15 mm?  On the Prusa3D branded i3m3 the UI will allow you to move the Z axis hard against the top stops.  If the UI can raise it, the problem is more likely to be in the slicing program.

If the UI can not raise the head above 15 mm, move has high as you can and listen carefully.  Does it simply fail to move with no noise?  Is there a clicking or banging sound as you try to move higher?

If there is a clicking or banging sound, something hard is interfering.

If it simply stops moving, does the machine reset or just stop with no glitching on the UI?  It is reset, look for a cable problem, such as a short circuit or wires pulling on the controller PCB.  If it is just a silent refusal to move, it could be the Z-axis plug is loose and being tugged by the cable bundle to the head.

If the problem seems to be in the slicing software, check that the Z-height is set properly there.  If good slicing software thinks you have only a 15 mm height, it won't try to print higher than that.


First I would hedge your expectations.. I am very familiar with t-glase. It is very translucent but it is not clear and no amount of post treatment will make it 100% clear. Their example is the only exception where you have a simple print where it has only a single layer. By applying the clear coating they have normalized the wall and made the surface even. Thus no more light diffusion.

You could likely get the same effect with good sanding but good luck sanding a 1 wall thick print. Also note they do not show any solid parts. If they cannot get a solid part to look good and clear, then really you shouldn't expect to be able to.

Any infill will cause it to be non clear. Any extra shells will also create air pockets, lines, etc and make it non clear. If you really want clear, FDM is not the way to go. The only way I could imagine to print an item clear with FDM is to create a cast, then cast it with resin or glass..

If you consider how the plastic is applied, you can see there is no real way make it 100% air pocket free.. See below,

Image taken from here.

The best I can recommend for settings. Make your temp spot on. If you boil the material you will have less translucency. Play with over extruding (too much material) in a Limited amount. Might reduce gaps. I would also try to print in BIG THICK lines. Less lines, less diffusions.


Water-cooling stepper motor with aluminum block

Cooling any single face of the motor is fine. The motor case conducts heat very well. Many 3d printers effectively cool the motors merely by having the output drive face of the motor bolted to a metal bracket which is bolted to the aluminum extrusion frame. That's it. That contact alone cools the motor, which is shown by how the motors overheat when people install vibration dampers, which puts rubber between the motor and the extrusion.

The only thing I would worry about is the surface area inside this particular style of block, and ensuring that you use an all-aluminum radiator since the block is aluminum.

There is another type of cheap 40x40 aluminum block with the nipples on the face instead of on the edge. That style has fins and a lot of surface area inside. This style with the nipples on the edge has a big S channel inside and not much surface area. It may still be more than enough. I'm just saying it's a significant difference and it might make a difference. If you find you're not cooling enough, all you may need to do is switch to that other style of block, not try to install 3 blocks per motor or any other exotic nonsense.

But no way do you have to worry about coooling more than one face of the motor, nor does it matter rwhich face it is, especially not with active water cooling like this, as long as the block is actually making good thermal contact with the motor (thermal tape, or thermal epoxy, or thermal pad & zip ties)


Answer for "2)":

The default firmware seems to be Repetier. It also includes Bed leveling (see documentation):
https://www.repetier.com/documentation/repetier-firmware/z-probing/

Marlin includes the Auto Bed Leveling feature too. You need to enable it by editing the Configuration.h file.

Bed size settings are there aswell.

"stylesuxx" made a video on how to get Marlin onto the Tevo:

or you can take a look at their website:
http://marlinfw.org/docs/configuration/configuration.html#configuration.h

Autoleveling can be enabeled as well in this file. There is a good video from Thomas Sanladerer on Mesh Bed Leveling:

If you want some help with auto bed leveling it would be nice if you can include what kind of sensor you want to use (inductive, capacitive, microswitch...) and what your prefered type of bed leveling is (mesh 3x3, just z-leveling)...


What alternatives are there to sanding resin parts with fine details?

desktop tumbler/brass polisher, rotary rock tumblers are probably a better option than a small sandblasting cabinet. choose your abrasive material from there, a coarse sand is probably not what you want but there are walnut based things and finer grit materials that should be able to get a nice shine. if you would rather do it manually and geometry allows you can try a dremel-type rotary tool with a buffing wheel or similar