So I got access to a couple of 3D printers at a hackerspace and started printing parts for a V3 rotator. We have a Repetier TL4100 which does not seem as accurate as the older and slower Makerbot Replicator 1 Twin, so I’m sticking with printing from the Makerbot.
The prints are in ABS. The TL4100 printer had some PLA spool on it but I wasn’t getting very good prints out of it. My worm gears printed OK but they are the roughest out of all of the prints so far. I might ask if there’s other ways to improve the print using settings.
I’m using 15% infill. I tried more but then got a couple of prints of ABS where the cooling was not uniform so one side lifted up from the bed during the print so I’m back at 15%.
It looks very good. In Athens Ηackerspace, we print most of the parts with these options:
Perimeters: 3
Solid layers: Top 3, Bottom 3
Fill density: 10 - 20% (according to the part)
Fill pattern: Honeycomb
Enable auto cooling with Fan speed: Min 35%, Max 65%
In v.3.1 parts we added XY size compensation (slic3r) option in order to reduce dimension errors.
Right on! I have been doing mine with about a 20% infill on the bigger peices and upwards of 60% on the smaller ones. I am using replicator g makerware software and I am just going with the default settings. Worm gears are tough tho they just dont look fantastic but hey what more can you ask for.
The largest parts - the axis sides kept lifting off the bed with ABS. Not with PLA, however after the print was done due to non-uniform cooling the PLA parts warped in the middle slightly.
I went back to ABS, increased the raft to 10mm that almost did it right. One corner still lifted up slightly towards the end of the print (always the same side too leads me to think the bed is not heating uniformly.
I added a bit of craft glue to the heat platform. It dried quickly, but made the surface just a little more bumpy over the smooth kapston tape heating bed increasing the surface area for the melted raft to latch on to and then my next prints came out fine.
Thanks for sharing these. I’m new to 3D printing and have read about many of the problems you, and others who replied have seen.It’s interesting to see good examples and hear how people overcame printing issues.
Thanks
-John, nz0s