Amazing improvements...

[Laird Popkin]

I've found things thad made good improvements to my Replicator (and how I use it) which I wanted to share for the benefit of other relative newbies:

- I replaced the standard with the Beefed Up Replicator Extruder Bracket (http://www.thingiverse.com/derivative:33848). The paint gun tube attachments are rock solid, cost under $10 for two, and arrived in two days from the company linked from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:26880 . I also added the strain reliever.  thingiverse.com/thing:21570. Fluorescent red looks good...

- I started wiping the print bed with ABS dissolved in acetone. And I bought a gallon of real acetone from the hardware store. The stuff they sell for fingernail removal in drugstores isn't even close. But when they say to use it in a well ventilated area, they mean it. The result is amazing stickiness. Goodbye curling from the base,

- I bought David Randolph's 3mm hood and side panels, and they eliminated all drafts (living in Florida, houses have serious AC, which caused problems). This eliminated splitting in tall/wide prints. And looks great with the printed side clips (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:23636 ).

And the number one improvement: acceleration. I've printed everything accelerated for weeks, and i have not once had to turn it off. Prints are crazy fast, and look fine. I love it when physics and math actually work as they are supposed to!

- Laird "very happy customer" Popkin

[tvett05]

Have you tweaked any of the on-board firmware settings for acceleration? I cant get anything to print good for the life of me with acceleration enabled. 

[laird popkin]

I had trouble with acceleration not sticking until I started wiping ABS/acetone on the platform.

I did notice that it appears more sensitive to the filament diameter setting, which I did tweak. But none of the deep Skeinforge settings.

[tvett05]

Thanks for the tips, whats the ABS to acetone ratio one should use? 

[Laird Popkin]

I wasn't terribly precise. I filled a small glass jar 1/2 way with acetone and then stuffed in whatever scrap plastic I had around, with the result perhaps 2/3rds acetone, 1/3rd ABS. The texture is fairly thin - that lets me quickly wipe a thin layer across the build plate while it's heating up, with the layer being basically invisible. If the goop is too thick, it leaves a much thicker layer, which doesn't look great if the colors don't match. (And I'm not dedicate enough to keep separate jars of goop for every color of plastic).

- LP

[Cymon]

I've fiddled with the acceleration settings some but I still don't trust it over 60mm/s feedrate. Check my blog for some of the settings I've already fiddled with. http://joesmakerbot.blogspot.com/2012/07/acceleration-and-you.html

[Zak Kus]

The number one thing that cranked up the quality of my prints is a leveling jig setup ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:23257 ). I wouldn't ever even get close to good and level before it. Combined with acceleration, i barely ever toss a print now.