I've had this happen before on various Prusa i3 style printers, especially with my homemade tight self printed POM linear bearings for the Z linear shaft. The problem is that the right side Z axis has some sort of friction caused by a skew frame, probably caused by the incident you had earlier.
You need to check whether the X axis carriage goes up and down smoothly. Unscrew the lead screw couplers or the trapezoid nuts and check the movement. If it catches friction, try solve where it comes from. The friction is causing the stepper to skip steps and causes the unsynchronized up/down movement. Please check if the frame or the rods have not bent, the distance between the linear guide rails needs to be the same over the complete height.


Most commercial blow-molded fuel tanks for model airplane fuel (methanol or ethanol, nitromethane or nitroethane, and some combination of castor, mineral, or synthetic lubricating oil) are made from HDPE.  This material isn't commonly seen as filament, in my limited experience, but it ought to be possible to arrive at settings that will give a liquid tight tank without further sealing if you can find some.  As you note, limonene might be used to smooth/seal HDPE prints, but likely won't be necessary if your settings are right.
You might want to test PETG filament for its resistance to your fuel mix(es) -- this material is available as filament, prints with settings little different from generic PLA (in my experience, higher nozzle and bed temperature, and a little more bed clearance for the first layer), with good layer adhesion and, with a good print, is liquid-tight as printed.  It's not particularly flexible (as is the case with HDPE), but since you can customize the shape of your fuel tank, it may work for you -- or it may be more flexible in vase mode, as PLA is.
Sealing PETG may be as simple as baking it (similar to "heat treating" PLA to increase print strength, albeit again at a higher temperature) -- this partial remelting will ensure that layers are adhered throughout the print, which (presuming you have avoided under-extruded areas) should be all that's needed to make a printed tank liquid tight.


Why and how am I supposed to change the extrusion multiplier?

In an ideal world, you will not need to change this parameter once it is properly calibrated.

In a non-ideal world, some filament may be out-of-spec, and some filament may slip when it passes through the extruder. So for a flex (or more flexible) filament, you might increase the extrusion multiplier a little to compensate. If the compensation is material specific, it should be consistent (and might even be advised by the filament manufacturer).

You might want to increase/reduce the multiplier whilst printing the first layer (in lieu of fixing your bed leveling properly).

Maybe you want to fine-tune the top surface (which will be 100% fill) and you prefer to slightly under-fill this (because over-fill results in more noticeable surface defects).

It is for quick hacks or fine tuning, there is probably no scientific approach to setting any value other than 100%.

When it comes to material specific variations (due to melt viscosity, thermal expansion or drive efficiency), there are many factors which affect the tuning. Machine geometry, temperatures, colourants (and other additives in the filament), as well as the base material.


Check for wobble in the X gantry and Y gantry also your Y-axis belt should vibrate like a snare when you pull it and let go. Same goes for your X-axis belt. If that doesn't work see if going back to Cura 4.6 helps (it did for me) and lower your acceleration in Cura (advanced settings movement).


Building a 3-D printer is actually very easy, assuming that you are electronically and mechanically competent, and there are a whole bunch of websites devoted to doing just that. The principal of which would be the RepRapWiki.

There are a number of different designs, mostly from a few basic designs:

Cartesian
Delta
Polar
Scara

Take a look at 3D Printers Explained: Delta, Cartesian, Polar, Scara, for further details.

I, personally, would suggest looking at the following 3D printer designs (although there are many more out there):

Prusa i3 (arguably the most common/popular), or its derivative the P3Steel
Wilson II
Kossel

On the web, i.e. eBay/Amazon, there are plenty of ready assembled versions, DIY kits, or you can source all of the individual parts yourself. I seriously recommend reading this question What are the pros and cons of collecting parts yourself, versus getting a DIY kit and then modifying it?

I would strongly suggest that you do a lot of googling, and read around the subject for a couple of weeks:

Reading other peoples blogs;
Watching construction videos on YouTube to get a better understanding, and;
Going through the issues that other people have experienced whilst building there own printers

Doing this will help you glean a greater understanding of what is required, and what to expect when building yours - as well as getting an understanding of the individual parts required and how they all fit together.

Spending a fair bit of time on this site, SE 3D Printing, and slowly going through the questions and answers is also strongly recommended.

Building your own printer is, ultimately, more rewarding that purchasing a ready built one. This is because, due to its nascent nature of 3D printing, the printer that you purchase will, most likely, go wrong, and you will need to fix it. If you have built it yourself then you should be able to easily understand what is wrong, and then be capable of repairing it yourself. It is somewhat similar to the situation when the automobile first became popular, back in the 20's/30's (?) - the driver was, usually, also a mechanically competent engineer (unless they were filthy rich and were able to afford to pay a dedicated mechanic to accompany them - which was also the case, in those days).


Weird stepper issue when setting up Marlin printer

lower the moving speed of the Z-axis motor, search for

  homing feed rate

in config.h as it looks like the given speed is to high.


How to get Sunlu PLA to adhere to the printing bed?

Level the bed
Make sure that the bed is level. The nozzle must be equally high over heated surface, otherwise only part of the print will have chance to be smeared and adhere properly.
Clean thoroughly
First thing I do when I notice that increasing bed temperature does not work anymore, is washing the glass with soap or detergent. Some advice to use also isopropyl alcohol. My impression is that the main mistake is to use alcohol to wipe the glass instead of dismounting and thoroughly cleaning the glass from any grease. This is a bit more work, and for me works great.
Applying alcohol, brake cleaner or similar no-trace solvent could enhance the effect (as suggested by FarO).
Reduce the air flow
Disable fan for the first layer (or even more layers above).
Isolate the printer from environment - e.g. buy or build enclosure. Remove any drafts. Ensure that ambient temperature is not cooling prints down too fast (for example printing in garage or shed may fail until the space is heated).
Use kapton tape
You may like the idea to put kapton tape on the surface (only glass?). Wide kapton roll would be needed to cover big area at once, to cover the whole glass with good quality and in reasonable time. Created surface should be as ideal as possible, because any bubbles will cause later trouble, it is not easy but doable. The outcome is great. Any accidents with hotend should be avoided, and prints removed with some care, to remain tape undamaged as long as possible.
(I use 50 mm tape. And I save this surface for printing ABS, and only occasionally for PLA, because it sticks so well that I had problem to remove prints saving the surface, even after cooling down.)
Apply adhesive
You can use adhesives like hairspray, glue stick or even better a dedicated adhesion spray. It is suggested especially for larger parts, which tend to wrap without this kind of adhesive aid. There is no one good solution. You may want to experiment, starting from cheap and widely accepted to commercial and wildly advertised products, with regards to your local market. Look for example links at the bottom.
Expand line settings for initial layer
Make sure that amount of extruded material is correct. This mean proper calibration regarding settings like: steps/mm for E axis, flow rate. Small difference in amount of extruded filament will reduce the quality of the rest of the print. Bigger differences may ruin print at the initial layer, and for sure will spoil the rest.
Use slicer settings to increase line width for first layer. Values of 120-140% are standard settings for improving adhesion.
Slightly increasing height of initial layer may also help to overcome bed surface
roughness or slight leveling errors.
Decrease speed to 20 mm/s or less
Reduce printing speed for initial layer to 20 mm/s or even lower, and raise it carefully after trouble is really resolved. (In my opinion it is better to decrease speed to let plastic melt and stick, than to increase temperature.)
Modify temperature
The temperature of heated bed should be high enough to keep the initial layer of filament within glass transition zone. This usually means more than 60 °C for PLA (between 50 °C - 80 °C depending on contents). (I usually print at 70 °C, and raise to 80 °C when meet issues.)
Increasing the temperature of nozzle also may improve the adhesion. But it may also be temporary success, because of negative effects related to temperature differences, and for example cause wrapping - ruining especially wider prints. So decreasing the nozzle temperature is also an option to check, when wrapping is observed.
Experiment with more advanced techniques
If you are still failing, then try experiment following many advices around (contrary, but sometimes working). If the firs layer adhere to the bed, but problems appear later, then other advanced techniques may help - like slicing model with additional structures (brim or raft).
The best advice may depend on kind of heated bed, surface or environment. This checklist may be of some use: 3D Printer Bed Adhesion: All You Need To Know. Also there are many troubleshooting threads on the web, like this on Reddit: SUNLU PLA+ will not adhere to build surface, or; this on Thingiverse: SUNLO PLA+: does not stick..


No stepper motor movement on Ender 3 Pro

This is theoretical assumption, but I suppose that your steps/mm values are now wrong in EEPROM - specifically they are set to 0 (zeroed steps per mm)? Could you please use LCD and navigate to Configuration > Advanced Settings > Steps per mm and check what values are set there? If there are zeros, could you set them to positive values (e.g. =80) and check homing again? Than you may save changes using Configuration > Store Settings.
I just made following test proving that this may be the cause. I set steps per mm for X=0 (executed G-Code: M92 X0 from serial terminal) and tried to move X. The stepper motor was enabled (quiet noise or hiss), but it not moved at all. There was no additional feedback e.g. on LCD. Pretty similar.
If this is not the only broken setting, then option Configuration > Restore Defaults should reset EEPROM to values defined in Marlin's configuration. I needed to perform Configuration > Store Settings to make it persistent. But this will reset many other values, so I would suggest to write down all current values from LCD before doing the reset, for reference in future (in case they were valuable). And still you may not see all settins in LCD, therefore I would use g-code for this operation - see below.
These operations can be also performed from serial terminal using G-Code commands: M503 to verify and copy current configuration, and M502 followed by M500 to perform factory reset.


The Creaform EXAscan is according to the manufacturer a laser based machine. This means that it determines data points and their positions by some triangonometry done with a laser, 32.000 times a second, resulting in very high density point clouds. This demands a powerful program to work with.

At some point, your company used Rapidform, which costs a wooping 10 to 30 grand for a license. Other software in this niece are - according to a solidworks thread - Geomagic and PolyWorks. The gist of the thread seems to be that these "big 3" were the best ones at the market in 2011. However I have no idea if they work together with the given hardware or what the later two cost.


Issues with connecting Pronterface to Anet A8 printer

After some trial and error, I discovered you need to set the baud rate to 115200 in the printer settings. I went through and tried each of the baud settings available until it connected. Glad I started with Pronterface, as RepetierHost has a lot longer baud list :o) Setting the baud rate is not inuitive as to the issue, as getting back "access denied" to me implied something else was going on. After that, was able to run direct commands to the printer through the USB port without issues.


Which is more durable to sunlight/weather - PLA, ABS or PETG

Ok, I tried all 3 materials.

PLA failed after less then one day, I believe it deformed from the constant pressure and fell out (I didn't find the part but I didn't really search for it, there's some tall grass below the window)

ABS lasted about a year, it fell strait down and I found the part, it looks ok if probably deformed by just a few mm so it doesn't pressure fit anymore.

PETG still going strong as I write this


Can I repurpose the ISP pins in the lower right corner of the Melzi board?

In theory, you can; but, you may need those pins to attach an external programmer to bring your system back to life when playing around with the code.

Here are a couple of articles that could help if you still want to pursue that path:

Can SPI programmer interfere with other components on same pins?
Can I reuse ISP pins for other tasks?(Target: Atmega164p)

Another option (the one I chose) is to just buy a RAMPS board set.  I got one on ebay for $19 and it have lots of more options for IO.  That way you can play and still go back and plug in your stock Melzi and print whenever you need it.

I got all this for $40 - boards, display, cables, power supply, and even shipping

Here is a really nice detailed description of converting a Duplicator i3 from Melzi to RAMPS.  The process would likely be very similar for your printer.

The biggest challenge will likely be setting up the firmware

BTW, what printer did you get?


This is a very large part. My estimate for the cost would be a few thousand to get this printed in metal, if not tens of thousands (assuming it even fits the maximum build volume of the printer, which is only 440mm on its longest axis).

3D scanning also isn't a very reliable way to reproduce parts, especially for something mechanical that needs to be precise. You can not just scan something and then print it like making a photocopy. A lot of manual design and reverse engineering work would be involved.


Prusa I3 mk3 - Not your average inconsistent first layer

If you repeat a test and the problem occurs in the same location, then you probably have a problem with your bed or build plate. However, picture 3 suggests to me that you may have a partially clogged nozzle. Manually extrude some filament. It should fall straight down. If it curls as it comes out of the nozzle, then you have a partial clog. Brass nozzles do wear out, so if you've put some hours on your printer, it might be a good idea to fit a new one.

Edit: I meant picture 3, not picture 4.


Ender 3 nozzle gets closer and closer to the previous layer as the print progresses

Finally I've found the damn problem: Adjustable rollers of all axes were flat on one point making layers to shift in all directions.

The effect was less visible on the X and Y axes but it was more notable in the Z axis as the flat part was right from the start of the print. I think that flat part was making difficult for the Z axis to move upward, and making my prints fail when printing at higher resolutions (I guess the finer the displacement the weaker the torque).

It seemed to me that the nozzle was getting closer to the previous layer but instead it was resting (or barely moving) on the flat part of the Z right adjustable roller first and then on the other adjustable roller of the same axis.

To diagnose the problem disable the steppers and moved the axes manually and feel if there are notches, so to speak, in various spots on every axis.

The solution is to replace the rollers with new ones and to not close them too tight otherwise they'll deform over time.


I have not been able to find a simple model for FDM part strength.  FDM parts are pretty complicated as they have a LOT more things that affect their strength than just layer adhesion.  Since any "solid" part will have infill, the part can't really be modeled as a laminant.  There are so many settings you can play with in the slicer that effects part strength, the model would have to have tens (if not hundreds) of parameters.  Also, you would likely have to establish them for your own printer since lots of things can affect them (like room temp, ventilation, humidity, material, material storage, ...)

One empirical example discussing the affects of FDM choices on part strength is a video done by Angus at Marker's Muse.  In the video he discussed how orientation and wall thickness affects strength.  Angus is not a math/ME guy (by his own admission).  FEA or other modeling would not be his approach; but, you can get some insight from his experience.

On the modeling front, I have seen one company that did create an FEA model to test whether their product would be strong enough if they produced it using FDM.  Here is the publication they wrote showing their analysis approach.  It will give you some insight on how they approached what I think you want to do.

Note: They do offer a service where you can pay to have your part analyzed for a considerable amount of money.  I have no idea how much money; but, based on jobs I have quoted in the past, I would expect it would be a least a few hundreds dollars.

As for me, I really enjoy basing my decisions on models and understanding how a part/process works. In this case; however, an empirical/experimental approach might be more cost effective.  If you really want to take an analytical approach (and have the time to spend doing it), I would recommend choosing several key parameters and run an analysis using DOE (Design of Experiments).

If you come up with something, I would love to see it posted here.

Good luck and happy printing.


How do the E commands in G-code work, exactly?

Yes, the absense of an EX.XXX (or an EX.XXX with the same value as the previous one) means nothing will be extruded during the move. The extruder is treated as an imaginary fourth axis and works exactly the same as any other axis: if in a G1/G0 no new coordinate for it is specified, it retains its original position.


Can I use a multimeter to test the outgoing voltage of this power supply?

If your multimeter can handle the voltage, it should be safe. 12 V should be in the capability range of common multimeters, so I would tend to say yes, - but make sure that your multimeter can handle the voltage and be sure it is set to voltage mode in the appropriate range (if set to current measurement mode for example, it will not survive).

Also take the typical precautions when measuring with a multimeter, as described in, for example, Safety equipment and precautions for DC circuit experimentation and development.


Is there any way to correct uneven bed temperature?

I had this exact issue with my Qidi X-Plus. After checking with a thermometer there was a spread of 9°C - enough to burn in (always the same) certain areas when printing at higher extremes of temperatures, or causing poor adhesion in other certain areas at lower temps. Very similar scenario too, I noticed this primarily when switching over to glass from the stock magnetic plate.

My solution was quite straightforward - I set the bed temperature on the printer's control panel and preheated it before sending it a print. As long as I left it there for a solid 10 minutes after getting up to temperature it balanced within around 1°C. I observed far more consistent results from print to print.

Now I don't know your exact machine myself, so I don't know if this is possible on the control panel on an Ender 3. However if it's not, as an alternative possibly consider looking up how to stick a pause in the initial gcode in Cura to see if you can achieve the same effect.


What is this called? A tube flange bearing threaded for threaded pushrod

To the best of my knowledge, it's just called a lead screw nut or lead nut. The flange and holes for attaching it to a surface are inherent in its role in letting the lead screw move something.


Please do not go down this road. First, not all lasers are equally absorbed by the material and the energy converted to heat to vaporize the material. The light not absorbed is reflected right back into your eyes. This is especially dangerous because it doesn't make you go blind instantly, fooling you into thinking there is no harm. You got the other part right, the lower the laser power, the less turned to heat, the longer it takes to cut, the longer you risk exposure to your eyes. That's right, a low powered laser is MORE dangerous than a big one. Next, the only way to properly cut is with air assist. This means a stream of air blows away the vaporized material so the laser can keep cutting deeper. This also prevents fires. The thing we haven't even touched is a proper safety enclosure, proper bed design to not reflect the laser beam back into the laser killing it and your eyes, and finally smoke/particle exhaust.

Simply put, these cheapo DIY lasers are dangerous, and are also illegal.


3d printing for outdoor use: what types of filament are most weather resistant?

PET(G) is a strong contender. It is very strong and water-resistant, and as such is often used to make pop bottles.

PLA has a reputation for being "biodegradable" and therefore it is often discouraged to use PLA outside and/or in contact with water. However, PLA only biodegrades under very specific conditions which it won't generally be exposed to so it can be used (though, as a harder and less flexible material it is more likely to be damaged by hail).

ABS and Nylon are good choices as well. Basically, any plastic you have on hand will last for years, even in an outside application.


Can PETG be used as support material for PLA?

PETG works as support material for PLA, see video

In theory, PLA printed on top of PETG will be fine because PETG softens and gets sticky at higher temperatures.
Printing PETG support on top of PLA may cause remelting of PLA, but if PETG is kept quite cold (220 °C) the issue will likely be minor. As shown in the video, it works.
PLA/PETG may still be better than using PLA/PLA because of this difference in extrusion temperatures that, for example in bridges where PLA is printed on top of PETG support, should result in very easily removable supports.
The type of supports used should be tested: tree supports could minimize the contact surface between the two and thus minimize marring by the hotter PETG being deposited onto the PLA at the expense of more PETG and normal supports could be used on a limited surface, so they can be removed easily. If the two materials really don't adhere much to each other, you may even be able to fake dissolvable supports, which increase the contact surface but provide a far better finish for bridges and bottom surfaces.
Using a single nozzle may require experimentation. In my experience, I print PLA at 230 °C so it wouldn't be an issue, and 220 °C would also work, but if PLA is printed cold, below 215 °C, you may need to heat/cool the nozzle. In any case, switching filament (especially PETG -> PLA) requires quite some filament to be discarded, so there is time for the heating. It is however to be kept in mind that cleaning of the nozzle between PLA and PETG (or in fact after any material swap) is difficult: some residue can remain in small gaps or low flow areas of the hotend and will be blended into the stream for quite some time after the swap, resulting in hybrid materials of unknown properties.1
As I said, experimentation is needed for this kind of task: my experience, with a 2012-era hot end, may not even be representative of the behaviour of modern hot ends.

1 - this effect is easily noticeable even with similar materials if switching from dark to light color filament, especially if not doing a cold pull to remove most of the material from the melt zone.


How to make sure we reach the total feedrate despite jerk

The simple answer is that there's no way to guarantee you reach a specific maximum speed, with a given acceleration limit. You have to accelerate and decelerate along the length of a line, so the distance you're accelerating is roughly half the length of the total line. Imagine you can only accelerate at 50 mm/s2, and you've got a line that allows you to reach exactly 100 mm/s before you start decelerating. If you have to print a shorter line, you're going to reach a lower speed. Any combination of maximum speed and maximum acceleration can be defeated just by printing a shorter line than you tested with.

As far as a sweet spot goes, I'm not sure quite what you're asking there. There are tradeoffs to be considered for any combination of speed, jerk, and acceleration.

Prints with high jerk settings will be able to "skip" a certain portion of the acceleration and just jump straight to some minimum speed. This tends to result in echo artifacts on the print around corners.

Prints with low acceleration settings tend to exhibit some irregularities in line width over the length of the line due to the interaction between pressure and extrusion rate inside the extruder. I went into some detail on the third section of this previous answer of how and why this happens.

Prints with high top speeds, but low acceleration and jerk, can suffer from under-extrusion if you set your maximum speed too high, and it can be a little difficult to diagnose this in some cases. If you think of the extruder as having an internal "buffer" of molten plastic, that buffer tends to fill at low print speeds, and empty at higher print speeds. You may think you've got your maximum speed set appropriately, when in reality your extruder drains the buffer over maybe 50 mm of max speed printing (hypothetical nonsensical number), and attempting to print very long straight lines may result in the extruder emptying its buffer until it slows down again. My recommendation is to do some trial and error testing to figure out the fastest extrusion rate your printer can support for an extended period of time, and then put that maximum limit into your printer firmware to prevent printing too quickly. Acceleration and jerk settings should be set as high as you can tolerate without causing echoes and other odd artifacts, with attention paid to the printer itself; it gains you nothing to shake your frame to pieces trying to chase some theoretical maximum printing speed limit.


This is classic Layer Shift in the Y plane. This happens in one of three cases:

Belt too loose
Belt too tight
Bed movement hindered

The belt should ring and resonate when tapped, giving a nice tune. I haven't really tuned mines, but my ender3 (250 mm bed movement in total) has about a G major.
The bed movement should be, with motors off, easy and smooth. If there are spots where it hangs, you might need to rearrange cabling or check if there is a bad spot on the linear motion system. If the movement is hard, you might need to lessen the pressure. Since the CR10 is pretty much the same as the ender3, the eccentric nuts should be turned so the bed does not wobble or move side to side but not to a degree the friction slows the movement. Carefully tweak here, use increments of about 10° till the layer shift vanishes.
Be careful where you place your printer: cabling can snag on other items or things can brush onto the bed. That should not happen. On the Z-axis it can unplug the X-axis motors and extruder, or in worst case, yank at the heater cartridge and damage it.


How can you both reliably print and remove your item, without breaking it when detaching it?

If your print is sticking too well, try printing directly onto the glass.
If then, your print isn't sticking well enough, try using something like a glue stick instead.
Most people use a paint scraper (a small one, like this) to remove prints from build surfaces.


Where to get the Slic3r configuration files for the 3D PrinterWorks Creatorbot printers?

Looks like 3dprinterworks.net went down sometime after March 2018 and 3dprinterworks.com went down in January 2019. Luckily the Wayback Machine still has the machine's specs.

Here is the instructions for entering settings in Slic3r as found here in lieu of importing a profile. (Please note that I have not used Slic3r so the following is solely based on the link)

The key settings under General are

Bed size*: X = 305 mm; Y = 305 mm; and Z = 457 mm
Print center**: X = 152.5 mm; Y = 152.5 mm
Extruders: 2
Heated Bed: Checked

Under Extruder (each extruder should have its own settings so be sure to set up both)

Nozzle diameter: 0.4 mm
Extruder 2 offset: 30.9 mm (good job, OP on finding the email stating this)
Everything from Retraction and on is up to what works best for you

There may be a set of setting for acceleration (there is in Ultimaker Cura) which is 3000 mm/s2 for most printers, I think. This is the max acceleration, not to be confused with acceleration settings when slicing the model.

The next set of settings, though outside of the Slic3r link, regards the filament. The diameter should be 1.75 mm and the nozzle temperature should be within the range of the filament (e.g. PLA should be set within 180-220 °C) and a heated bed set to 50-60 °C. These parameters are filament dependent and not printer dependent (other than diameter).

That should be the settings that a profile would set for you. Thankfully there's not too many.

*There is a wizard for this section that may make input easier, but here is the build volume.
**This setting may require whole numbers and may, in fact, not be a necessary setting at all.


Since 50% of the bed is uninsulated, you're definately into diminishing returns as soon as you start adding any insulation.
With that area, I think you are looking at 1.2W per kelvin for a 2mm thickness.

I'm guessing a bit with these powers, but roughly, maybe from 100 W un-insulated, 75 with 2mm, 60W with 4mm. You can get a reasonably accurate measure of the power by looking at the duty cycle of the heating element.

Actually, its not clear if your primary goal is to reduce energy/maintain a very high temperature, or speed the initial heating. You can place a temporary sheet of cork on top of the bed (preferably extending over the edges to prevent convection) and this will significantly improve heat-up times.


What air filtration options exist for enclosures?

My residential materials expert referred me to these links (3D Printing Fume Extraction Solutions, and ABS 3d Printer Nanoparticle and Chemical Exhaust Air Filter) and thinks that you're pretty much on track with the idea of using activated carbon.

We both primarily print with ABS with my Replicator Dual and what's worked enough for me (in the past 5 years) is to keep my printer next to a window or vent in my den at home. The window is obviously a good ventilation option, but the variability that it creates in the ambient temperature screwed with my prints. Later, I moved my machine into its own hutch, which, if it is an option, would greatly help the overall environment for both the machine and any stored filament.

We'll keep poking around, but hopefully that helps in the mean time.


Anet A8 - X and Y axis not square - how to fix?

I recently went to the same issue on my CoreXY printer (culprit was uneven belt tension in the 2 belts), but you have a Prusa style printer like my first Anet A8 printer.

If you just found out (because you are printing large models now) but always had this issue it could be frame related. You should check your printer and try to fix the geometry that is causing this. If this is impossible you could fix this by changing the firmware (see below). If large prints used to be accurate, but are now skewed, you could be facing stretched belts. Replacing them will fix the issue.

Skewness compensation in Marlin:
When X-Y are skew (or any other plane like X-Z or Y-Z) you can fix that through the firmware software in Marlin Firmware. Please go into the Configuration.h file and look at the instructions; please search for "Bed Skew Compensation".

Basically you are required to print a giant square and measure the diagonals, these should be the same, but apparently are not in your case.


How to calculate linear Y rod length for a larger replacement bed?

Basically, your setup is the following:

The overhang of the bed, assuming the bearings are in the center, equals (300-105)/2 = 97.5 mm on each side. So the distance from the leftmost bearing face (when bed is at y = 0 mm) to the center of the Y rods assembly equals 300 - 97.5 = 202.5 mm. Knowing this distance for the other side of the center to the right when y = 300 mm is the same, the minimum length of the rod will therefore be 2 x 202.5 = 405 mm which equals the addition of the bed length and the outer bearing distance 300 + 105 = 405 mm.

Please note this excludes extra length for e.g. a limit switch, and some extra space around the bed. Basically the extra length of the bed 300 - 220 = 80 mm needs to attributed to each side of the bed, so 40 mm on each side extra.

For a 220 x 220 mm bed, the minimum length would be 2 x (220 - (220 - 105)/2) = 325 mm. When I measure the rods between the acrylic flanges it measures about 365 mm, about 40 mm extra for clearance around the bed (20 mm on each side).

The overhang for the 300 mm bed is not that much, and a construction under the heated plate will be used to fasten the bed at the corners, as long as that construction is not to flimsy, the current distance will be alright. For other distances you should change the value of 105 in the formulas above. E.g. for an outer flange distance for the bearings of 120 mm, you would require rods of at least 420 mm.


The problem turned out to be mechanical.  The arm that I mounted the camera on had developed a crack where it connects to the build platform.  I used some superglue to repair the crack and the camera shaking went away.
The lesson here is to check EVERYTHING mechanical before trying to blame shaking on the firmware.


OpenSCAD render (F6) fails with "ERROR: CGAL error in CGAL_Nef_polyhedron3()"

Reading between the lines on other forums, I found that the GCAL renderer will render a malformed object, but it will fail when a binary operator, such as union or intersection, is applied to that object.
There was a discussion about degenerate points (two points in a polygon list that were the (nearly) the same values.  I had this situation, but fixing it did not solve the problem.
I rederived the face lists, and found that for one face the vertices were listed in the opposite order from the others.  Rather then using right-hand-rule, I had used left-hand-rule.
Reordering the vertices for the one face fixed the problem.  There was no way to see the problem from the preview.
A more useful diagnostic message would have been helpful, or a tool for checking polyhedra for being manifolds could have saved me hours of experimenting and failing.


Can I replace hotend on Lulzbot Mini 2 with upcoming E3D Hermes?

Yes, E3D has a guide "LulzBot Taz6 Hemera Upgrade" if you'd like to make your own.
The upgrade requires you to print parts beforehand which are found here; note that:

We recommend printing the Hemera Mount in PETG, and the Fan Duct in ABS/ ASA or another high-temperature material.
Use an infill percentage of 25 % or higher.

The Hemera (the new name for the Hermes) toolheads are also available for purchase, e.g. here.


Even if you pour in boiling water in a cup, the outside of the cup will have a lower temperature. When resting on a coaster, usually a small part of the cup actually touches the coaster. Also, the design of the coaster could influence the heat transfer, a more open structure of the coaster may be beneficial. Some people print coasters in PLA although the glass temperature (temperature at which the plastic becomes soft, this is usually the temperature of your bed when you print the material) may be lower than than the temperature of the cup, the filament will weaken (for PLA at about 50 °C), but not melt , melting of PLA happens at a higher temperature (for PLA above 150 °C) than your mug can get (unless you pour liquid metal in it). It should therefore be doable in PLA, I have printed a PLA coaster that has very small ridges (about 1 mm) of an embossed image and placed a cup with boiling water on it, to find that the coaster is able to withstand the temperature of the cup without deforming (the ridges do not fail or deform).

To elaborate on the filament materials other than PLA; there are many filament types that have higher glass temperatures, but are still very printable. Various types of co-polyesters exist, like PETG, that have a higher glass temperature (> 85 °C), are a substitute for ABS and still very well printable. Nylon is also a material that can be used, there are brands that have low warp nylon.

Note that there are a few options to print ABS while you have a non-enclosed printer, you could

fabricate some cardboard pieces for a temporary enclosure,
place the printer in an non-draft room or
print the skirt height at the height of the print part.

Note that coasters have a relative low profile height, it should not be that big of a problem to print ABS coasters on an open printer.


Note that I am not stating this as the best 32 bit solution, as that is too subjective. Although you might want to read Recommendations for a good 32 bit microprocessor to run Marlin, which I cover in On which board can 32 bit Marlin run?

So, to clarify, yes, while the MKS-BASE is based on the 8 bit ATmega2560, the MKS-SBASE is powered by 32 bit ARM, 100M Cortex-MS MCU-LPC1768.

Anyway, SmoothieWare can indeed run on MKS-SBASE. There is an extensive guide on Instructables - Configuring MKS SBASE V1.X 32-bit controller basics and into to SmoothieWare.

You first need the drivers (for Windows). Plug in the MKS-SBASE board and then install the driver.

  Connecting USB

  Plug in USB to the board and look at the LEDs at the upper left
  corner.  Immediately the D7 led lights up. After a bit D1 also
  starts lightning while D2 and D3 blinks rapidly.

  Open device manager and update drivers for the new Smoothie/Serial USB
  device with the signed drivers you just downloaded from Github located
  in the easy to find folder:
  \MKS-SBASE\MKS-SBASE\Driver\smoothieware-windows-signeddriver-v1.0

Then to install the firmware:

  Installing firmware

  Firmware from MKS are just and old copy of Smoothieware, so we always just want to use the newest version from Smoothieware.

  In other words: always use firmware from Smoothieware.
  If you can't find config.txt file from original Smoothieware, just use the one from MKS.

  Download official firmware from Smoothieware's firmware page which is a subpage on their own Github page (you might want to
  download their full Github repository (folder) in order to find their
  config.txt file)

  Start by using the Stable version. When everything is working fine, you can use the Nightly version instead. It is the newest
  version, but not fully tested yet, and considered as beta/test.

  Insert the SD Card into the MKS Sbase board and plug in the USB Cable. Your SD Card is now going to show in your file-Explorer.

  If not, you need to make sure you have the Drivers installed.

  If you can't find the config.txt file from Smoothieware, just locate the config.txt in \MKS
  Sbase\MKS-SBASE-master\MKSSBase-firmware and copy it to your SD Card.

  Smoothieware suggest disabling auto-Mount on the SD when connecting to USB. Especially when using a Mac, as OSX tends to do
  funky stuff at strange times.
  I have changed nothing on my Win10. And nothing bad has happened the past year.

  The D7 lights up, shortly after D1 follows. D2, D3, D4 blinks and then D4 turns steady while D2 and D3 continues blinking.

  At this point, the firmware.bin had changed to firmware.cur file on the SD card

  After successful updated, the file name will turn into firmware.cur.

  Changing or Updating firmware

  Just delete the firmware.cur file from your SD, or rename to
  firmware.cur.old or similar, and copy on the new firmware.bin file
  to your SD. Powercycle your printer (also unplug USB) and you can see
  your new firmware.cur file on your SD card.

  Note: After making any changes to your config.txt file in the future, you need to power-cycle your controller, meaning disconnect
  both power (if in use) and USB. You can send a reset command, but only
  through true terminal use and not through Printrun/Pronterface or
  similar.

The guide, as stated above is extremely detailed, and goes on to explain all of the other aspects. The contents are as follows:

  Table Of Contents:

  Connect and install

  Connecting USB
  Installing firmware

  Configuring Smoothieware compared to Marlin
  Obvious difference from Marlin

  Less obvious differneces
  Firmware and Config file(s)
  Configuring firmware
  Comments

  Firmware Step 1: Default feed rate

  1/32 Multistepping
  Connecting Motors
  External Motor Controllers

  Firmware Step 2: Cartesian axis speed limits, pins and current

  Pins
  Current

  Firmware Step 3: LCD, SD and Extruder

  LCD and SD
  Extruder Setup
  Delta driver current

  Firmware Step 4: Hotend temperature control configuration

  Thermistor Type
  PID Tuning
  Hotend Thermistor - Physical Layout
  Hotend Heater Pins - Physical Layout

  Firmware Step 5: Heated bed temperature control configuration

  Thermistor Type
  Temperature Control Bed BANG-BANG
  Heated bed thermistor - Physical Layout
  Heated bed heater pins - Physical Layout

  Firmware Step 6: Configuring Endstops

  Homing direction
  Disable unused endstops
  Define axes size
  Reversing endstop output
  Fast and slow homing rates

  Firmware step 7: Network Settings
  Step 8: What's next?

  More advanced setup?
  Using Switches

As there is way to much to cover here, please visit the Instructables page for the complete guide, in order to complete the configuration.


The phenomenon you experience is called under-extrusion. Under-extrusion is the effect of extruding lesser filament than required for the print. The result of under-extrusion (depending on the amount of under-extrusion) can be described as spongy prints, gaps in prints/layers, failed prints, etc. As the amount of plastic flow is less than required for the print, the quality and print strength is much lower than that of a normal filament flow printed part.
Most severe under-extrusion is usually caused by incorrect filament diameter setting. E.g. Ultimaker Cura (to date, April 2019, the version is 4.0) is notorious for resetting the filament diameter to 2.85 mm after you upgraded to a newer version (because that is the diameter of the filament the Ultimaker machines use) while most people use 1.75 mm diameter filament.
From the settings if appears you have set the correct filament diameter (i.e. if you use 1.75 mm filament). Please measure the filament over a few meters and determine the average filament diameter to be sure.
In your case it must be something else!
A higher temperature causes filament to be more fluid (do check if the temperature you use fits the type of filament you use), so an increased temperature should help against under-extrusion (less friction for the extruder to push the filament through the nozzle). Please do check the extruder stepper; is it skipping?, is the tension the extruder gear exerts on the filament enough to prevent slipping?
Finally, blockage of the nozzle; partial blockage of the nozzle can prevent consistent flow from the nozzle. It is advised to rigorously clean the nozzle (e.g. using the atomic cleaning method where you heat up the nozzle insert filament and turn off the heat to pull the filament out when temperature is about 30 °C lower than the printing temperature of the filament) or replace the nozzle.

To complete the answer, another source for under extrusion that is seen from the beginning of 2020 of Marlin firmware operated 3D printers is that instead of normal extrusion (where E in the G-code file denotes extrusion of filament movement in units of length), the printer assumes it is volumetric displacement. From the Marlin menu of the graphical controller you can change volumetric displacement to length displacement by disabling volumetric flow.


Prints are now sticking too well to the bed. What to do?

Options to check (in order of probability of occurenece and success):

Z-calibration

Maybe you should perform calibration again. It's possible that nozzle is now too close which causes the filament is spread on the heatbed, which causes that the bottom surface is "too flat". It means all separate filament tracks are spilled and they create "glass flat" surface. You did mention that the model sticks too much even to kapton. It suggests z-calibration.

Temperature calibration

Check if the temperature is not too high. Reducing it a bit can reduce sticking. If filament is too soft then material sticks usually better (causes the same as in #1)

Heatbed cleaning

If your HB is scatched (even not visible scratches) then it's possible that previous printouts left little grains in such scratches. Cleaning HB could then help. Are you using glass? if yes - change glass side to check this option. Eventually replace glass with new one.

Heatbed surface

If your heatbed is scratched then filament can penetrate such scratches and increase sticking.

Filament

Did you change filament vendor? If not then maybe your filament had changed during a time/humidity/sun/cigarete smoke. This is very doubtful option but who knows.

What methods you can use to detach model

Paper knife

I also have the same problem when I use paper glue stick. Some vendors produce such sticky glue that I affraid to break a glass (which I use of course). When this happens I use a paper knife. Glass is scratchproof enough. Be careful - if your model suddenly detaches releasing knife... just be careful. Unmount HB or unmount glass first of course.

Hammer

I know people use hammer to detach sticked model. I would suggest this method only for big and relatively simple elements. Especially for solids (fully filled with the material, without any grid/honeycomb inner structure). One short hit in the same surface as the HB. Be careful of course and unmount HB or unmount glass first.

Fridge

As HB material and filament have most likely different thermal shrinkage factor it might help. And guess what - unmount HB/glass first ;)


PLA support material suddenly a problem on Ender 5

As the commenter suggested (thanks, 0scar!), the culprit appears to have been a Cura update and a change to the support material settings.

In my case, the defaults for Z distance and even the X/Y distance for support material, in addition to the density, was creating very effective supports, but very tricky to remove. I should add that the model was a character sculpture, which I've since learned creates much more complex support scenarios versus the more uniform models I've been accustomed to printing.


Can I make this extruder work by changing motor?

In general I would use https://github.com/rcarlyle/StepperSim which takes into account more parameters.
You can play with voltage and current to see which combination gives you the best results for your motor.
Or you can change to a TMC driver with higher voltage (35-50 V) to keep torque at much higher speeds and push the current motor more.
Since the torque you require is likely not so high, you can increase the speed of your stepper motor with 3D printed herringbone gears, for example 4:1. They don't need to be super accurate, backlash is totally fine considering the ridiculous 40:1 reduction.


How to switch firmware from 12 V heated bed to 110 V SSR heated bed?

How does Marlin know that the heated bed pins are controlling a relay now instead of a bed directly, and therefore should limit their current output?

Marlin does not (need to) know this. Simply put, all Marlin does is switch on/off the voltage at the heated bed output. The amount of current that will flow is a function of the voltage and the device connected. If you connect a heated bed to a 12 V voltage, a high current will flow. If you connect your relay to 12 V, only a small current will flow.

  In other words- I am worried that if I just drop in the relay, it will burn up since the board still thinks it needs to supply high current to the bed.

You do not need to worry about this. Your question is essentially equivalent to this: "if I replace my 100W incandescent lightbulb with a 1W LED one, do I need to replace the light switch in the wall?" The switch (i.e., your printer board/Marlin) does not care what load is connected to it, so long as it does not exceed the maximum rated current.


Eryone Thinker SE ignoring endstop, gantry only moves down

You do a critical error in your order of operations: you home. Then you home again.
However, the firmware does not check if the switch is already depressed, it waits for a signal to cut out. But the signal is already not there. And as you will notice, it moves into X+ and Y+ before rehoming into 0, but does not do so in Z.
To prevent that behavior, you need to move the printer up a little till the switch no longer is engaged, then it will properly home the position.
The proper fix would be to alter the home-Z behavior to include a movement upwards by 2 mm before starting the actual homing. This does require a knowledge of Marlin though.


How can I determine whether my borosilicate glass is fake or not?

Google turned up this thread: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?t=96214

There don't seem to be any easy, definitive tests. You have two main options, both of which seem to require a fairly high level of laboratory skill (but nothing fancy in terms of equipment).

The refractive index of Borosilicate glass is very similar to vegetable oil (implying no reflection from a boundary if you have a pool of oil on the glass).

The density of the glass can be measured too, using a water bath. This should also be able to give a fairly accurate answer.

Stress testing seems the most reliable way to determine if you have a 'good' sample, but may be more expensive.


This answer explains that you can have different infill within the same part. Firstly the implementation in Ultimaker Cura is described, secondly how you can do this in Slic3r.

Ultimaker Cura
I've used a feature in Ultimaker Cura that can be used to alter the infill density locally. What you need to do is load your model into Cura, then load other objects (models) at the size of the area/volume you want your infill differently and position those at the position you want a different infill. So basically, you use other models to intersect with your primary model to create intersections that can take a different infill percentage. This is extremely useful for lugs and brackets where you need some extra infill (e.g. extra stiffness for compression stresses) at the fastener holes. Note that this is an advanced feature which is not easy to use, but quite handy if you master it.
I could not find the video (on second thoughts, I think it was animated GIF) posted by Team Ultimaker, so I quote a section of one of their forum topics.
A short how-to: (italic font is not in the reference, but added to reflect recent version of Cura)

Unselect "keep models apart" (now called: "Ensure models are kept apart") and "drop models to build plate" (now called: "Automatically drop models to the build plate") in Cura preferences
Import a second object (for example a simple cube)
Put Cura in "custom mode"
Select the cube, and use the button "per object settings" on the left side
Select "Infill Mesh" (now called: "Modify settings for infill of other models") and enable that setting
The cube now turns transparent gray.
Position the cube to overlap part of your model. It should overlap with the section that you want to change the infill for.
Also with "per object settings" (now called: "Per model settings") select the option "infill density"
Set it to the desired value. All is more or less illustrated in the screenshot below
The picture shows a cube on the buildplate with infill 20 %. Locally, with a rotated 2nd cube, the infill % is raised to 100 %.
What happens is that the volume where the cube intersects with your object is locally sliced with different infill.

Please find below another example of a simple bracket that has extra cylindrical objects loaded to create the intersections with the bracket at the fastener holes. In the example, the infill at the fastener holes is set to 99 %.

After slicing, you will see that the infill at the intersections is adjusted accordingly.

Note: I've tested this in Ultimaker Cura 3.4.1, and confirm it works. I sliced a part with the inserts for fasteners and it actually is not very difficult, it just requires a little more work. You will have to make some STL's of cylinders and position them correctly. If you make your own 3D models it will be a very easy task to add extra components while you design, positioning will be a lot more easy then (as they align with your model). An example is the following linear Z rod bracket of a Hypercube Evolution CoreXY printer, this bracket requires local enforcements for the bolts clamping the bracket onto the aluminum extrusion profile:

Inserts are modeled together with the development of the bracket:

When combined, it looks like this:

Now the infill can be modified locally to 100 % to increase compression strength.
Note that this will also work if you want a different infill percentage at the first X layers, just use a large cube (larger than the model) and position it correctly. Note that Cura already has an option called "Gradual Infill Steps" to adjust the density at the top layers.

Slic3r
This reference describes how to do this for Slic3r in detail.
The blog describes the use of a simple volume (the green volume loaded from an STL file). After loading:

Right-clicking on the main part brought up the object settings menu.
From there, clicking "Load Modifier" and selecting the previously
saved model adds it to the part as a modifier.
The green "+" was selected and "Fill Density" was added to modifier
list and set to 100 %.

This shows that the functionality in Slic3r is very similar to the functionality in Ultimaker Cura.


XYZ cube's layer is shifted, How can I check my TEVO Tarantula axis?

The two most common things to check:
1) make sure your belts are properly tensioned.  If there's significant slippage in the y-drive you could get the results seen.
2) Make sure the base layer is well attached to the base plate. you've got plenty of reference pattern on the plate shown, so check whether the lower chunk of print moved relative to the imprinted pattern at some point.


Issues with OctoPi connecting to FlashForge Creator Pro via Serial Communication

I got the same problem.
Auto-detect baud rate was not working too.
So I manually tried every baud-rate and finally found one working, for me it was 115200.
Good luck!


Strange vertical lines on X-axis direction of parts

In your slicer check your z-seam overlap. Lines like that are what happens when a slicer is systematically trying to hide a seam while not adding a ton of time onto the print by adding in a bunch of additional time for travel.


... does Square really benefit a whole lot over parallel?

That would depend by the definition of "a whole lot", of course! :)

Strength

Generally speaking, the variable you want to operate to tweak the overall sturdiness of your part is not the type of infill, but rather its density.  According to the literature I have access to, sturdiness grow fast until about 60 % infill, then the gains become progressively more marginal.

Different types of infill modify the way the part reacts to stresses.  The two you showcased, for example, are strongly anisotropic: a part with those infill will resist a lot more to stresses along the Z axis than along either the X or Y ones.

Also, relative to the squared infill pattern, my experience is that parts with a parallel infill pattern typically have a bit more give when squashed.

In case you wonder: cubic, cubic subdivision (and solid) infills are those regarded as offering the most equal resistance along all axis.

However, the way the infill will affect rigidity and sturdiness of a part is as much dependent from the type of filament and the shape of the part as much as from the infill settings, so - if you are after precise numbers - you should most definitely run some tests.

Time

That depends entirely from the part shape and size.

Typically, a printer will spend most of its time printing the shell. This is due both to the settings (you want to go slow on the shell to increase quality) and to physics, the shell typically requiring many more changes of direction (and thus accelerations and decelerations) than the infill.

So, even if the parallel infill requires about half the work of the squared one (50 % faster), in a small print with a sparse infill, the total time spent doing infill may be 10 %, thus the net gain would be only 5 % of the total printing time.

Quality

This is very printer-dependent. For me, when printing with two shells, I can't tell the difference on any infill. For the top layer, the quality is affected more by infill density than type (with the filament sagging slightly between walls if the infill is very sparse).


How can I set the position in Pronterface?

G92 X0 Y0 Z0

tells the printer that the current position is (0,0,0).


How small can I expect FDM 3d printers to print?

1) If we're talking about FFF/FDM printers:

Accuracy of the electronics and motors allows it, yes.
But how FDM printers work it might be very hard to lay down layers of molten plastic so small as to preserve little details in the X and Y axis, not much of a problem doing 20 micron layer height though (Z resolution).
Check this answer to find out what the X and Y resolution is and what it depends on: https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/a/509/381

You'll need both a small enough nozzle, as well as somehow cool the plastic because since the printed objects are so tiny the nozzle keeps contact with the surface surrounding it and heats it longer, which might melt the whole object or even char it.

I've seen very few people do tiny prints with success. And the smallest nozzles I know are 250 micron.
Not trying to dscourage you, just letting you know. If it was easy to do I think more people would be doing it and more companies would be advertising their printers as capable of such a thing

So you'll have around 20 micron Z resolution and around maybe 200 in the X/Y.
If that's enough for you, then you could try. Calibrating it all won't be easy, tiniest backlash will be noticeable.

2) It's a lot easier with curing resin 3d printers (SLA or DLP). Most of them actually have trouble printing larger objects, ironically (trouble sticking to the bed and cracking of the 3d print).
Even here badly calibrated lasers would prevent you from doing this and even many Form 1 users have reported their lasers being assembled poorly resulting in poor beam profile.

Size of the laser beam profile (aka laser "spot size") is what determines the X/Y resolution for SLA 3d printers. With the Form 2 its 140 micron, unless you'll get a badly calibrated printer.
For DLP printers it's easier, it's the resolution of the DLP projector divided from the size of the print area.


Infill keeps "shoveling", but perimeters are fine

Normally, what you're calling shoveling is caused by having the bed too high - when you deposit enough material for a space that should be the nominal layer height high, but significantly less volume is available, it has nowhere to go but up around the edges of the nozzle.

However, in your case your temperatures are also seriously wrong for PETG. The normal recommended range of nozzle temperature for PETG is 230-250 °C, and in my experience, you need the full 250 °C to have any hope of printing fast. At 220 °C I'm really surprised you're not having problems with underextrusion instead.

The bed temperature is likely even more important. Minimum bed temperature for PETG is 80 °C. If the material is hitting a 58 °C bed as it comes out, it's likely to cool way too fast. This may lead to what you call shoveling (especially if you see both pits and ridges rather than just ridges), but even if not, it's going to prevent the material from bonding to previously laid down lines, so that your print will end up more brittle than PLA.

One additional detail I initially missed involves your 0.8 mm nozzle. It might be hard for the hotend to keep up with properly melting that much PETG at normal print speeds. As noted in the comments, a 50 mm/s linear extrusion rate with an 0.8 mm nozzle is equivalent, in volumetric extrusion rate, to a 200 mm/s linear extrusion rate with a typical 0.4 mm nozzle, which would be extremely fast for PETG. It's unlikely that any hotend except a "volcano" or similar (with extended melt zone length) could keep up with raising that much material to 250 °C that quickly.


How to remove a resin print stuck to the FEP tray bottom

Wash the resin tray in the normal way, with hot water and dish soap. Once the FEP sheet is warm, run a finger alongside the bottom of the sheet, opposite the side where the failed print is stuck. The slight warping of the FEP sheet will cause the print to come loose. If this does not occur the first time, try again. Proceed patiently and delicately, making sure to wait for the FEP sheet to be sufficiently warm.


Is it safe to use photon-resin-calibration for Epax printer?

Yes, it seems to be.

I tried the test and it worked well.


How close should the nozzle be to the substrate?

This photo isn't exact, but may help

Edit: Whoops! Forgot to include source. This is from the Wanhao User Manual/Build Guide. I can't quite find the webpage at the moment.


My Hatchbox PLA filament only allows me to use rafts

It is unlikely this is a filament material issue since many of us have used Hatchbox PLA without this issue.  This is a first layer adhesion issue.

Your bed may not be clean, or the bed may have had an adhesion layer you cleaned off.

Your nozzle may be too high on the first layer.

Your bed my not be level.

Glue sticks can help adhesion.  Glue sticks usually don't post the composition on the packaging, but Elmer's glue sticks work.  Elmer's washable makes it easy to remove the old layer before adding a new one.  There are also glue sticks specified for 3D-printing.

Here's a discussion on glue sticks: Are all glue sticks PVA-based? How to find out?


There is a trick. However I would like to mention that chances are that the random spool you pickup from most stores, especially no name brands, are either completely lying to you about its material or is mixed / cut with cheaper fillers. All about finding a good brand. Course rarely does one actually need pure PLA, a mixed material will often perform as well without you even noticing. Aside from the temp difference. Not to say it is right.

Now the trick is this. While I don't advise ever breathing in potentially carcinogenic plastic smoke. You take a lighter. Burn it. If it smells sweet it is PLA.

From this link from digital trends about PLA VS ABS you can see why it has this smell.

  The thermoplastic is also more pleasant on the nose, as the sugar-based material smells slightly sweet when heated opposed to the harsh smell often associated with ABS. However, while PLA might seem like a better overall choice at first glance, it features a far lower melting point than ABS.

Also not responsible if you burn yourself or your property. At your own risk.

Just warming it with lighter might work too. But just burning a small section. It will be real clear.

Or you could just drop a bit into aceton and see if it melts. PLA will mostly just look like crud after being treated is aceton. ABS is 100% dissolve.

We see from these forums that PETG does not dissolve via Aceton. So you can test you material. If it does disolve it is ABS. If it smells sweet when burned it is PLA. If it melts at 240 and does not dissolve it is likely PETG.

Solid forums
3d printboard

We are a bit lost on a test for PETG. However we do know its melting point. Which is 240-260c. I would say it is likely you have ABS

Once we know the material we can get to the meat of your question.

Best way to proceed is to start with simple calibration prints. The thin wall. Cube, and part fitting. Once those pass you are good to go. Other than buying simplify3d I do not know of any short cuts. Back when I used slic3r I kept a spread sheet. I would change a temp by 5 degrees and give it a quality score. Repeat with speeds. Far as fan, I would expect that it wont effect much. Maybe need to calibrate your PIDs.

Once you have it dialed in, all you will need to do is calibrate the temp when switching materials. Remember you need to calibrate even between different colors (okay its best to.. I often skip) I usually do the temp adjustments live on the printer. Increase and degrease a few degrees. For me the goal is to have the plastic as cool as possible. That allows for highest quality prints (ie less oozing and such)


Besides the P, I and D values, you may also have to tune PID_FUNCTIONAL_RANGE and PID_INTEGRAL_DRIVE_MAX.

Basically, the functional range disables PID control when more than the set number of degrees away from the target temperature and just puts the heater to zero/maximum power. The integral drive max parameter limits the value of the integral term of the PID controller.

The RepRap wiki notes: (note this wiki is dated! some options might not be available)

  In Marlin, the parameters that control and limit the PID controller can have more significant effects than the popular PID parameters. For example, PID_MAX and PID_FUNCTIONAL_RANGE, and PID_INTEGRAL_DRIVE_MAX can each have dramatic, unexpected effects on PID behavior. For instance, a too-large PID_MAX on a high-power heater can make autotuning impossible; a too-small PID_FUNCTIONAL_RANGE can cause odd reset behavior; a too large PID_FUNCTIONAL_RANGE can guarantee overshoot; and a too-small PID_INTEGRAL_DRIVE_MAX can cause droop.

My hunch is that the functional range may be too small; the PID doesn't kick in until close to the desired temperature at which point you will already have overshot the target (due to the high power heater and delay in the measurements). Once you've overshot the target temperature the integral term starts growing (negative) which causes the massive undershoot.


How to feed the filament through the material shortage sensor?

I've designed similar sensor casings, sometimes the filament catches a ridge/ledge or part of the cavity, even when it is chamfered or rounded. The arm of the limit switch pushes the filament up, away from the filament straight path.
Have you tried cutting the filament under a very sharp angle, that may work.


Really the only thing that would matter for this project is the amount of torque the motor has available and subsequently how heavy your setup is that is connected to the motor. A part that size may just be too heavy for a CD-ROM motor if you intend on adding more parts.

However, to answer your question, ABS should be able to endure the stress. I recommend paying attention to how the hooks are printed. You'll want to make sure that the hooks are printed in profile, meaning that the profile of the hooks should be printed with each layer. This will help provide structural integrity to, what sounds like, the most stressful area of the part (the outer edges of a spinning device and a clamping feature).

Something to keep in mind for projects like this is that most of the time the design will likely be the cause of failure, not the capabilities of the material.


How to solve ABS deformation at the bottom?

The up-curling of overhangs is frequently seen when printing PLA or PETG when the just deposited layer hasn't been cooled enough. The residual heat will allow the curling as the plastic has not been fully set (above the so called glass temperature) because of insufficient part cooling.
Knowing that ABS doesn't need much cooling (to improve the inter-layer bonding), you most probably will not require full power of the fan (depending on the cooling power of the fan). You do need a little cooling though, but not for the first (few) layer(s), so keep the fan off at the first layer. Be sure it is up to speed at the layer you require the cooling as the first few percentage of the fan is generally not enough to rotate the fan. E.g. my fans start spinning at about 20-25 %.


Thoughts on designing and printing 3D miniature house

Answering your questions in turn:

On the scale you're trying for, printing brick with FDM won't show up - you'd have much better results, and could be possible, with SLA. You won't see every brick, but you will see the texture at least.
Same as for brick, You wont see shingles, but you can differentiate that there is a texture difference. If you were to paint it after the fact the color plus the texture will make it clear.
Yup, but both won't hurt.
Doable if they're big enough. SLA would be required I think to make them look good.
For something like this I'd suggest Blender, if your modelling skills are pretty solid. If not, Fusion-360 would work really well. But that's purely opinion based.
SLA if that wasn't clear as of yet.

Sounds awesome. I think the hardest part on this is going to be the modelling, the structure I'm picturing isn't all that complex so it should be doable.


I have not given up yet!

And I figured it out, I think. I tried many things, dried the spool at 60C for an hour, Simplifiy3D's slicer, but eventually playing around I found a setting that resulting in no warping during the print.

Final solution:
- Original Prusa Powder Coated sheet.
- Changed the nozzle to 0.6 mm.
- 20 mm/s print speed, slow.
- 260 C nozzle temp, make it liquid to get best bed adhesion.
- 90 C bed, this keeps it soft at the bottom. Do not change the temperature, as this will detach the print.
- 0.95 Extrusion Multiplier instead of 1.2

The extrusion multiplier did the trick. It kept pushing slightly too much stuff out, especially on the bottom layers causing ridges that is will pull on the next layer.
It did still warp a bit, I found that this stuff shrinks about 2% when cooled, and when you start infill, it will pull itself loose. Hence the 90C bed temp.

It still prints poorly, but it did print without creating "the blob"!


Folgertech FT-5 : Does not seem to be reading G-Code correctly

The image shows that somehow steps in Y direction (under the assumption that you have taken the photograph from the front) are missed.

Missing steps can be caused by too high settings for acceleration and jerk, too much friction on the undercarriage or the belt assembly, undercarriage catching something at a certain point, too less current through the stepper.

You could increase the torque on the stepper by increasing the Vref of your stepper driver is you have separate stepper driver modules, or a adjustment screw on the printer controller board. Furthermore reduce the acceleration and jerk settings and check the undercarriage for stick-slip movement by disconnecting the belt, then reconnect the belt and check for friction of the pulleys.


You can put the speed to 100 % by G-code command: M220 S100.

The M220command is described here.

Know that speed changes sent to the printer have an effect on the next printed layer, it first finishes the current layer at the speed commanded before starting printing the layer.


You're not sticking to your bed. Adjust your bed height. You are too far.
Otherwise you are going too fast and or too hot.

Calibrate the bed. Reduce speed. Then adjust temps.

Also could be material contamination

See this link for a visual troubleshooting.

http://reprap.org/wiki/Print_Troubleshooting_Pictorial_Guide

http://support.3dverkstan.se/article/23-a-visual-ultimaker-troubleshooting-guide

In addition use some gluestick. That will often solve these issues. Last but not least add a raft if it continues. Or just ignore it. My bet is temp is too hot. I also like to smash my first layer, but not everyone likes that technique as it causes elephant footing.


Step motors vibrate, don't move at all (Prusa I3)

Usually if they get too hot you have to adjust the amperage by turning the little potentiometer on the A4988 (turn left until you can move the motor by hand, turn right until you cant, add a little bit like 1/8 to 1/4 of a turn).

But this:

  I used a different stepstick RAMPS card and Mega, they worked perfectly.

it is not completely clear, so:

the A4988 work on another board -> your new board is broken
another A4988 worked -> the A4988 is broken

HTH


How to 3D print an object with variable printing speed?

As @fred_dot_u mentions, Simplify3D has the capability to do this, but you can achieve the same effect by slicing the file twice, once at 40 mm/s and once at 50 mm/s, and then manually combining the generated G-code using a text editor. You should be able to find the point where it transitions from printing the cube to printing the circular structure by looking at the Z-height, and you can simply copy-paste the G-code from that point onward from the 40 mm/s file into the 50 mm/s file.
For instance, you might look for a point like this in the G-code (Cura):
G1 F3600 X113.543 Y94.098 E105.96969
;LAYER:25
G0 F7800 X113.743 Y91.369 Z2.700

or this (Simplify3D)
G1 X175.981 Y74.019 F2880
; layer 25, Z = 1.869
; inner perimeter
G1 X162.982 Y57.870 F7500
G1 Z2.069 F900

Note that the both include a comment line (a line that starts with ;) to indicate the layer. Everything before that you should copy from one file, everything afterwards from the other.


What setting do I need to change to get rid of this gap between the shells and the inside?

It's generally called infill overlap.
In terms of first layer it's good to set extrude rate to 120% or even more so infill will overlap perimeters and itself. There is also the issue of "overlapping" layers which is not managed by any specific parameter. it's the issue of layer thickness and HE temperature.

Unfortunately Matter Control has kinda bug or at least an issue with extrude rate. If you set higher  extrude rate then overlap will be automatically reduced in some way. So it's good to increase extrude rate manually during printing and then set it back to normal. this will cheat slicer.


It looks like you overtune it. I think it's because top layer of hollow object doesn't have any support (which is obvious) but because of that the filament is not oblate that's why it looks like underextruded.

If you really need hollow object then set number of top layers to 3..5 then check if it helps. I know it's not really what you expect but IMO this could help here. (I usually set 2 bottom layers and 3 top and it's quite enought.) You can also experiment with speed of top leyer. I would say the faster the better in this issue as the the first top layer should be as flat as possible then next top layer will have better support. And of course cooling should be set to max (as for the bridges).

Here is an explanation why you get underextrusion.

A is wall (perimeter) B is (ceiling) top layer.

Empty outlines are what you expect but filled shapes are what you really get. Differences are of course slightly smaller but it's to clearly explain the issue

Please also check Printer Settings > Advanced > Top solid infill.


There are generally 3 ways, in order of least to most desirable, and at times you need to combine them in an escalation:

Toss the vat. This is the most expensive and generally should only be the last resort, for example, if you damage your film.
Careful Brute Force. This can damage the film, but carefully getting a wedge between the film and the print might be the only option to remove the last bits sticking to the film. If you have to resort to this, take your time.
Using thermal expansion. We all know that materials expand when you heat them. The reverse is also true: materials shrink if you cool them. Different materials shrink differently. So by cooling the vat with as little liquid resin and the print inside can lead to the print 'popping' free, just like in an FDM printer. Note however that this might not work on its own in case you made a suction cup (then you need to resort to brute force or drill a hole into the top), and you should take extreme caution not to contaminate any food with resin, as the stuff is not safe for consumption at all. With the right setup, you might be able to heat the build plate carefully while the print itself is kept cool.


PETG is great stuff to work with. It is stronger than ABS also. It prints slower than ABS and PLA. The formulas vary quite a bit from vendor to vendor. I have used 3 brands, and each of their properties vary.

From my experience you do have to be careful with moisture. You'll be able to tell you have moisture in your filament if you start hearing a slight hissing and popping and an increased number of structural zits on the object. Moisture will also increase the problem listed in Mark's post below regarding the accumulation of filament on the nozzle.


I don't have a profile that has settings for the dissolvable filament anymore, but this is one I use for thin layers (second extruder at 232C my first extruder isn't working so just ignore that one).

You may want to try printing small simple objects with each extruder independently first to confirm that you have good settings, then try both together after you know you have good settings. ABS is a pain but mostly for warping and sticking to the build plate. The dissolvable filament I believe is PLA if you're using Makerbot materials.

{
       "_attached_extruders" : [ "mk8", "mk8" ],
       "_bot" : "replicator2x",
       "_extruders" : [ 0 ],
       "_materials" : [ "abs", "abs" ],
       "adjacentFillLeakyConnections" : false,
       "adjacentFillLeakyDistanceRatio" : 0,
       "anchorExtrusionAmount" : 5.0,
       "anchorExtrusionSpeed" : 2.0,
       "anchorWidth" : 2.0,
       "backlashEpsilon" : 0.050,
       "backlashFeedback" : 0.90,
       "backlashX" : 0.0,
       "backlashY" : 0.090,
       "bedZOffset" : 0.0,
       "bridgeAnchorMinimumLength" : 0.80,
       "bridgeAnchorWidth" : 0.80,
       "bridgeMaximumLength" : 80.0,
       "bridgeSpacingMultiplier" : 1.0,
       "coarseness" : 9.999999747378752e-005,
       "commentClose" : "",
       "commentOpen" : ";",
       "computeVolumeLike2_1_0" : false,
       "defaultExtruder" : 0,
       "defaultRaftMaterial" : 0,
       "defaultSupportMaterial" : 0,
       "description" : "External Definition",
       "doAnchor" : true,
       "doBacklashCompensation" : false,
       "doBreakawaySupport" : true,
       "doBridging" : true,
       "doDynamicSpeed" : false,
       "doDynamicSpeedGradually" : true,
       "doDynamicSpeedInteriorShells" : false,
       "doDynamicSpeedOutermostShell" : true,
       "doExponentialDeceleration" : false,
       "doExternalSpurs" : true,
       "doFixedLayerStart" : false,
       "doFixedShellStart" : true,
       "doInfills" : true,
       "doInsets" : true,
       "doInternalSpurs" : false,
       "doMixedRaft" : false,
       "doMixedSupport" : false,
       "doOutlines" : true,
       "doPrintLayerMessages" : false,
       "doPrintProgress" : true,
       "doPurgeWall" : false,
       "doRaft" : true,
       "doSplitLongMoves" : true,
       "doSupport" : true,
       "doSupportUnderBridges" : false,
       "endGcode" : "",
       "exponentialDecelerationMinSpeed" : 0.0,
       "extruderProfiles" : [
          {
             "bridgesExtrusionProfile" : "bridges",
             "feedDiameter" : 1.820000052452087,
             "feedstockMultiplier" : 0.9300000000000001,
             "firstLayerExtrusionProfile" : "firstLayer",
             "firstLayerRaftExtrusionProfile" : "firstLayerRaft",
             "floorSurfaceFillsExtrusionProfile" : "floorSurfaceFills",
             "infillsExtrusionProfile" : "infill",
             "insetsExtrusionProfile" : "insets",
             "layerHeight" : 0.20,
             "maxSparseFillThickness" : 0.20,
             "nozzleDiameter" : 0.40,
             "outlinesExtrusionProfile" : "outlines",
             "raftBaseExtrusionProfile" : "raftBase",
             "raftExtrusionProfile" : "raft",
             "restartExtraDistance" : 0.0,
             "restartExtraDistance2" : 0,
             "restartExtraRate" : 25.0,
             "restartExtraRate2" : -1,
             "restartRate" : 25.0,
             "restartRate2" : 25,
             "retractDistance" : 1.700000047683716,
             "retractDistance2" : 0,
             "retractRate" : 25.0,
             "retractRate2" : 50,
             "roofSurfaceFillsExtrusionProfile" : "roofSurfaceFills",
             "sparseRoofSurfaceFillsExtrusionProfile" : "sparseRoofSurfaceFills",
             "toolchangeRestartDistance" : 18.50,
             "toolchangeRestartRate" : 6.0,
             "toolchangeRetractDistance" : 19.0,
             "toolchangeRetractRate" : 6.0
          },
          {
             "bridgesExtrusionProfile" : "bridges",
             "feedDiameter" : 1.769999980926514,
             "feedstockMultiplier" : 0.9300000000000001,
             "firstLayerExtrusionProfile" : "firstLayer",
             "firstLayerRaftExtrusionProfile" : "firstLayerRaft",
             "floorSurfaceFillsExtrusionProfile" : "floorSurfaceFills",
             "infillsExtrusionProfile" : "infill",
             "insetsExtrusionProfile" : "insets",
             "layerHeight" : 0.20,
             "maxSparseFillThickness" : 0.20,
             "nozzleDiameter" : 0.40,
             "outlinesExtrusionProfile" : "outlines",
             "raftBaseExtrusionProfile" : "raftBase",
             "raftExtrusionProfile" : "raft",
             "restartExtraDistance" : 0.0,
             "restartExtraDistance2" : 0,
             "restartExtraRate" : 25.0,
             "restartExtraRate2" : -1,
             "restartRate" : 25.0,
             "restartRate2" : 25,
             "retractDistance" : 1.399999976158142,
             "retractDistance2" : 0,
             "retractRate" : 25.0,
             "retractRate2" : 50,
             "roofSurfaceFillsExtrusionProfile" : "roofSurfaceFills",
             "sparseRoofSurfaceFillsExtrusionProfile" : "sparseRoofSurfaceFills",
             "toolchangeRestartDistance" : 18.50,
             "toolchangeRestartRate" : 6.0,
             "toolchangeRetractDistance" : 19.0,
             "toolchangeRetractRate" : 6.0
          }
       ],
       "extruderTemp0" : 228,
       "extruderTemp1" : 232,
       "extrusionProfiles" : {
          "bridges" : {
             "fanSpeed" : 0.50,
             "feedrate" : 40.0
          },
          "firstLayer" : {
             "fanSpeed" : 0.50,
             "feedrate" : 10.0
          },
          "firstLayerRaft" : {
             "fanSpeed" : 0.50,
             "feedrate" : 50.0
          },
          "floorSurfaceFills" : {
             "fanSpeed" : 0.50,
             "feedrate" : 40.0
          },
          "infill" : {
             "fanSpeed" : 0.50,
             "feedrate" : 40.0
          },
          "insets" : {
             "fanSpeed" : 0.50,
             "feedrate" : 40.0
          },
          "outlines" : {
             "fanSpeed" : 0.50,
             "feedrate" : 10.0
          },
          "raft" : {
             "fanSpeed" : 0.50,
             "feedrate" : 90.0
          },
          "raftBase" : {
             "fanSpeed" : 0.50,
             "feedrate" : 10.0
          },
          "roofSurfaceFills" : {
             "fanSpeed" : 0.50,
             "feedrate" : 90.0
          },
          "sparseRoofSurfaceFills" : {
             "fanSpeed" : 0.50,
             "feedrate" : 90.0
          }
       },
       "fixedLayerStartX" : 0.0,
       "fixedLayerStartY" : 0.0,
       "fixedShellStartDirection" : 215.0,
       "floorSolidThickness" : 0,
       "floorSurfaceThickness" : 0,
       "floorThickness" : 1.0,
       "gridSpacingMultiplier" : 1.0,
       "infillDensity" : 0.3000000119209290,
       "infillOrientationInterval" : 90,
       "infillOrientationOffset" : 0,
       "infillOrientationRange" : 90,
       "infillShellSpacingMultiplier" : 0.70,
       "insetDistanceMultiplier" : 1.0,
       "jsonToolpathOutput" : false,
       "layerHeight" : 0.1199999973177910,
       "leakyConnectionsAdjacentDistance" : 0.0,
       "maxConnectionLength" : 10.0,
       "maxSparseFillThickness" : 0.1000000014901161,
       "maxSpurWidth" : 0.50,
       "minLayerDuration" : 5.0,
       "minLayerHeight" : 0.010,
       "minRaftBaseGap" : 0.0,
       "minSpeedMultiplier" : 0.30,
       "minSpurLength" : 0.40,
       "minSpurWidth" : 0.120,
       "minThickInfillImprovement" : 1.0,
       "modelFillProfiles" : {},
       "numberOfShells" : 2,
       "platformTemp" : 110,
       "purgeBucketSide" : 4.0,
       "purgeWallBaseFilamentWidth" : 2.0,
       "purgeWallBasePatternLength" : 10.0,
       "purgeWallBasePatternWidth" : 8.0,
       "purgeWallModelOffset" : 2.0,
       "purgeWallPatternWidth" : 2.0,
       "purgeWallSpacing" : 1.0,
       "purgeWallWidth" : 0.50,
       "purgeWallXLength" : 30.0,
       "raftAligned" : true,
       "raftBaseAngle" : 0.0,
       "raftBaseDensity" : 0.6999999880790710,
       "raftBaseLayers" : 1,
       "raftBaseRunGapRatio" : 0.8000000119209290,
       "raftBaseRunLength" : 15.0,
       "raftBaseThickness" : 0.3000000119209290,
       "raftBaseWidth" : 2.50,
       "raftExtraOffset" : 0.0,
       "raftFillProfiles" : {},
       "raftInterfaceAngle" : 45.0,
       "raftInterfaceDensity" : 0.3000000119209290,
       "raftInterfaceLayers" : 1,
       "raftInterfaceThickness" : 0.2700000107288361,
       "raftInterfaceWidth" : 0.4000000059604645,
       "raftModelSpacing" : 0.3499999940395355,
       "raftOutset" : 4.0,
       "raftSurfaceAngle" : 0.0,
       "raftSurfaceLayers" : 3,
       "raftSurfaceShellSpacingMultiplier" : 0.6999999880790710,
       "raftSurfaceShells" : 2,
       "raftSurfaceThickness" : 0.1400000005960465,
       "roofAnchorMargin" : 0.40,
       "roofSolidThickness" : 0,
       "roofSurfaceThickness" : 0,
       "roofThickness" : 1.0,
       "shellsLeakyConnections" : false,
       "solidFillOrientationInterval" : 90,
       "solidFillOrientationOffset" : -45,
       "solidFillOrientationRange" : 90,
       "sparseInfillPattern" : "hexagonal",
       "splitMinimumDistance" : 0.40,
       "spurOverlap" : 0.0010,
       "startGcode" : "",
       "startPosition" : {
          "x" : -112,
          "y" : -73.0,
          "z" : 0
       },
       "supportAligned" : false,
       "supportAngle" : 30.0,
       "supportDensity" : 0.2000000029802322,
       "supportExcessive" : false,
       "supportExtraDistance" : 0.50,
       "supportFillProfiles" : {},
       "supportLayerHeight" : 0.2000000029802322,
       "supportLeakyConnections" : false,
       "supportModelSpacing" : 0.2000000029802322,
       "supportRoofModelSpacing" : 0.4000000059604645,
       "thickLayerThreshold" : 0,
       "thickLayerVolumeMultiplier" : 1,
       "travelSpeedXY" : 150.0,
       "travelSpeedZ" : 23.0,
       "version" : "3.9.4"
    }


The printer prints, then moves up, then down again. The print surface stays inside the resin vat at all times. As a result, we have this experiment:

The "bottle" is resting in a vat of liquid. As we raise it more and more, it does not drain until the lower lid is free of the liquid surface or some point of the shell delaminates. The release of the resin can happen in a rather violent way - which in turn could deform the print in the making. Delamination rips through the part till air can enter the enclosed space, destroying the print in the process.
Even if printing the mouth against the plate you'll have cupping if you have a solid plate to print against. This can be mitigated with a little angle but trap liquid in the print at the end or including a couple of small gaps close to the surface to allow air to get into the print - yet unless the resin can flow out at the bottom some will be trapped in any case.
To prevent cupping, I would turn the cup to print sideways, that way resin and air can be exchanged.


Is it possible to know which is the correct temperature range and speed for any model?

The first indication for print speed and temperature should be taken from the box the filament comes in. Generally it specifies temperature ranges for the hotend and the heated bed. Sometime, mostly online, more parameters can be found amongst which is the printing speed.

Do note that temperature and printing speed are linked, if you want to print faster you should increase the temperature. But, if you are printing small or thin things you should print slower so that the part cools enough for the next layer. Basically, part cooling is then also important, but not all filament types (e.g. the ones with a high melt temperature like ABS or PETG) like being cooled too much. So you have another parameter to consider.

It is difficult to instruct you to print at a certain speed and certain temperatures as it is highly depending on the filament (e.g. also the filament diameter), the machine type/make and model, extruder setup (direct or Bowden), the print, enclosure, etc.

Because of the many parameters affecting printing, it is usually suggested to calibrate the printer by printing a temperature tower or performing retraction tests to find the print window for your specific setup.


Anet A8 beginning layers not printing correctly

With respect to the filament lifting off, and/or not adhering correctly, on the first layer, see Filament lifts from the hot bed while printing... in particular, you may need to clean the bed, calibrate the leveling and the nozzle height (see my answer).

The fact that the prints are fine, after 10 or so layers, could be to do with the heat - at the higher layers the print is warm and no warping occurs, but below that, maybe the print bed is acting as a heat sink and making the filament cool too quickly - hence the distortion. Are you using a heated bed? If not, then maybe consider installing one.

Not sure about the bubbles: how do your store your filament? The bubbles could be due to water, which expands as it gets hot, thereby causing the filament to bubble. It is best to store your filament in an air tight container, to prevent it collecting moisture and dust from the air.


The usual suspects are overheating stepper motor drivers and over-tight belts. It can also be caused by belts coming loose in their mounts.


I suspect you are printing through a usb or network connection,  and the communication rate it's to slow for any of many reasons.   A curve consists of many tiny linear movements,  each requiring a command exchange between the PC and printer.

If you can,  try printing from an sd card plugged into the printer (I'd the printer is so equipped).

This could be worse if the uses a Bowden extruder,  since there is now compression and windup in the filament.


Stepper motors making noise after steps/when idle

When idle, the stepper is stationary, no rotation.
Normal standard electric motors will start spinning as soon as you apply power to them. However, steppers only rotate when a magnetic field is applied1):

Stepper motors effectively have multiple "toothed" electromagnets
arranged around a central gear-shaped piece of iron. The
electromagnets are energized by an external driver circuit or a micro
controller. To make the motor shaft turn, first, one electromagnet is
given power, which magnetically attracts the gear's teeth. When the
gear's teeth are aligned to the first electromagnet, they are slightly
offset from the next electromagnet. This means that when the next
electromagnet is turned on and the first is turned off, the gear
rotates slightly to align with the next one. From there the process is
repeated. Each of those rotations is called a "step", with an integer
number of steps making a full rotation. In that way, the motor can be
turned by a precise angle.
The motor's position can then be commanded to move and hold at one of
these steps without any position sensor for feedback (an open-loop
controller), as long as the motor is carefully sized to the
application in respect to torque and speed.

When you power the printer and energyze the steppers there is no movement, but, the magnetic coils in the stepper are activated to hold the rotor in position. This is controlled by the stepper driver. The creation of the signal for the magnetic coils is causing the noise. It is a function of the driver type, micro-stepping setting, the stepper motor inductance, current setting and supply voltage.
If the stepper motor, stepper driver and power supply can take it, increasing the current setting of the driver may lower the noise.
Turning off the steppers (disabling them with G-code using M2, M18, or M84 depending on your firmware) will stop the noise, but you will easily lose the current position as it is not hold into place anymore.

1) source Wikipedia


If the V roller wheels aren't tight on the Y axis beam, it means the eccentric nuts are not adjusted correctly. Two of the rollers are mounted centered on the holes in the carriage frame, but the other two are on eccentric nuts which displace them from center slightly depending on the orientation the nut is turned to, to allow tightening and loosening of the grip on the beam. Since the Y axis ones are hard to see under the bed, look at the X or Z ones to get an idea what to expect.
Note that the bolt through the whole roller assembly can loosen when adjusting the eccentric nut. You can probably avoid this by figuring out the right direction to turn it and only going that direction (continuing around just under 360 degrees if you go too far). If you do loosen the bolt then the eccentric nut will move on its own under vibration, so you need to re-tighten it. For the Y axis this might require taking off the bed or taking the carriage off the beam (by removing the belt and tensioner).


Odd print artifacts on same layer as large top surface

Just a guess here. If I understood correctly the deformation is at the first layer of the box bottom, it seems highly unlikely that it randomly happened at this exact position so I am assuming that if you do the print again you will get the same deformation at the same place (you can test this maybe ? I know it is a long print). In this case it is more likely that is a slicer issue than something with your machine and it could also be a problem with the stl model. Maybe try to create a small simple box then slice it using the same setting and try to see if you can reproduce artifact.


It's possible to close over a hole using Meshmixer. I've done exactly that recently, although the "hole" was a depression, the process would be the same. As you've discovered, Meshmixer can be considered somewhat imprecise.

Fusion 360 will import the model you wish to modify. You would then turn off edit history, convert the model to BREP, then perform the edits you require.

Once you are satisfied with the results, it's an easy matter to export the model as an STL file.

I've summarized the steps, which are almost as easy as my description. You'd have to combine Google-Fu with the summary for the detailed portions, but it's something I've done in the past.

Fusion 360 is free for hobbyists, renewable each year. There are many YouTube tutorials and text-referenced solutions for the steps required to accomplish your edit.

Some will consider Blender to be an alternative method and I agree that it's a viable option, but it's not quite as intuitive as Fusion 360 and was more challenging for me to embrace.


Creality 3D Ender-4, a "extruder kit" does not fit the frame

From the photo on their website, it looks like you are orienting it correctly.

Here is a photo to confirm the orientation.

Note: I added this as an answer so I could share the photo


Internal thread not sticking to inner wall

I do a lot with printed threads, and find this problem creeps up mostly when the filament is wet. Higher temperature (like 220) can partly compensate but it's better to dry your filament and store it properly to keep it dry.
Assuming standard metric thread profile, though, these are also pretty severe overhangs for a concave extrusion (where motion of the head will tend to pull the way you're seeing) unless you use very thin layers. You probably need 0.16 mm or thinner to print reliably (independent of pitch, though finer pitch also needs finer layers for other reasons), and limited acceleration for outer walls (I use 500 mm/s²).  If you slice with "outer walls first" turned off, you may be able to get by with thicker layers, provided you have everything else tuned perfectly to ensure the outer wall sticks to the previously extruded inner one (i.e. flow rate perfect).
A contributor to your problem could also be underextrusion due to oozing during combing. You might try setting max comb distance very low (like 0.6 mm, around what I use) or turning off combing and see if that helps.