New to 3D Printing, couple of newbie questions!

[SilverOranges]

So for black friday I picked up a flashforge creator pro, I saw online that it has a lot of aftermarket support, and its good for entry level stuff. I use it for simple functional items, and will be experimenting with some of the metal infused filament once I upgrade the nozzle. I have some awesome ideas for it, and also can't wait to get some conductive filament, because I tinker a lot with arduino and rpi stuff, and the ability to print simple circuits would be amazing. It is the main reason why I got the ffcp, so that I could use dual extruders in that manner. Also looking forward to trying the dissolvable support filament. 

I have been printing tons of stuff, I am learning Solid Works, I had taken a class for it before but it was for an older version. I still know enough to do simple stuff. I also picked up about 20 spools of different filament on black friday from Maker Geeks, been varying the filament to see the differences.

I have successfully printed a 'suicide knob' for a forklift at my job, and it works great! I designed it from scratch, my first functional design and I am proud. It is actually way better than the ones on thingiverse as well, they are all very long and bulky and require different sized hardware. This one just needs 3 commonly sized machine screws and matching bolts. Of course I had to have big bold engraved letters saying "Johns Knob" on the steering knob xD

I used the software that came with it at first, then heard about simplify 3d. So I 'acquired it', decided it was worth the money, and purchased it. Works great, still learning all of the functions. I have been binge listening to the 3D Printing Today podcasts last couple of days at my job which is how I heard about this group. I love the podcasts by the way. 

I have ran into some odd little cosmetic issues, the one I just noticed while printing with some 'Raptor Crystal PLA' filament, is that it seems to be creating a saw tooth like pattern on one section, then smoothing out again. What would cause this? I have a youtube vid demonstrating the issue linked below. 

https://youtu.be/GjSA8GPUql8

Also another, also minor issue, is that I have a seam going up a certain area on all of my prints. It seems to always be on the top left side if looking at the build plate straight down, from front. I THINK from what I have researched, that this is a stepping issue? I took some pictures, I hope you can see what I am talking about. 

I will be upgrading the nozzle to a ruby nozzle, because I read somewhere that if you print metallic filament it will wear down the brass nozzle. Also I am getting an all metal hotend from micro swiss, as well as the machined lever/extruder plate from them as well. If anybody can suggest any other upgrades that would increase rigidity or the quality of the printer I would greatly appreciate it. I am not as interested in speed, more in accuracy since I don't print very large objects, mostly smaller parts. I know when adding mass to print head you have to slow it down a bit. I am currently modeling a window switch cap for a coworkers vehicle, he said he would pay me $50 for it since the factory wants to charge him a couple hundred, and junk yard doesn't have his car. Probably not worth the time I've put into modeling it, but its experience plus helping out a friend. 

Anyway, glad to be here, if I can contribute in any manner I will try! I don't know much about 3D Printing yet but I have a lot of knowledge in other fields, namely computers, python, networking, micro controllers, things of that nature.

Thanks!

[Kurt at VR-FX]

Welcome Aboard!

So - how can Oranges be Silver?

As for your Seam issue - listen to the Very last or next to last 3DP Today podcast - as they speak about seams. I think is your problem. Its a common problem. So - check out that podcast.

-K-

On 1/11/2019 5:04 PM, SilverOranges wrote:

So for black friday I picked up a flashforge creator pro, I saw online that it has a lot of aftermarket support, and its good for entry level stuff. I use it for simple functional items, and will be experimenting with some of the metal infused filament once I upgrade the nozzle. I have some awesome ideas for it, and also can't wait to get some conductive filament, because I tinker a lot with arduino and rpi stuff, and the ability to print simple circuits would be amazing. It is the main reason why I got the ffcp, so that I could use dual extruders in that manner. Also looking forward to trying the dissolvable support filament. 

I have been printing tons of stuff, I am learning Solid Works, I had taken a class for it before but it was for an older version. I still know enough to do simple stuff. I also picked up about 20 spools of different filament on black friday from Maker Geeks, been varying the filament to see the differences.

I have successfully printed a 'suicide knob' for a forklift at my job, and it works great! I designed it from scratch, my first functional design and I am proud. It is actually way better than the ones on thingiverse as well, they are all very long and bulky and require different sized hardware. This one just needs 3 commonly sized machine screws and matching bolts. Of course I had to have big bold engraved letters saying "Johns Knob" on the steering knob xD

I used the software that came with it at first, then heard about simplify 3d. So I 'acquired it', decided it was worth the money, and purchased it. Works great, still learning all of the functions. I have been binge listening to the 3D Printing Today podcasts last couple of days at my job which is how I heard about this group. I love the podcasts by the way. 

I have ran into some odd little cosmetic issues, the one I just noticed while printing with some 'Raptor Crystal PLA' filament, is that it seems to be creating a saw tooth like pattern on one section, then smoothing out again. What would cause this? I have a youtube vid demonstrating the issue linked below. 

https://youtu.be/GjSA8GPUql8

Also another, also minor issue, is that I have a seam going up a certain area on all of my prints. It seems to always be on the top left side if looking at the build plate straight down, from front. I THINK from what I have researched, that this is a stepping issue? I took some pictures, I hope you can see what I am talking about. 

I will be upgrading the nozzle to a ruby nozzle, because I read somewhere that if you print metallic filament it will wear down the brass nozzle. Also I am getting an all metal hotend from micro swiss, as well as the machined lever/extruder plate from them as well. If anybody can suggest any other upgrades that would increase rigidity or the quality of the printer I would greatly appreciate it. I am as interested in speed, more in accuracy since I don't print very large objects, mostly smaller parts. I know when adding mass to print head you have to slow it down a bit. I am currently modeling a window switch cap for a coworkers vehicle, he said he would pay me $50 for it since the factory wants to charge him a couple hundred, and junk yard doesn't have his car. Probably not worth the time I've put into modeling it, but its experience plus helping out a friend. 

Anyway, glad to be here, if I can contribute in any manner I will try! I don't know much about 3D Printing yet but I have a lot of knowledge in other fields, namely computers, python, networking, micro controllers, things of that nature.

Thanks!

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[Rich Webb]

On Friday, January 11, 2019 at 8:04:09 PM UTC-5, SilverOranges wrote:

I have ran into some odd little cosmetic issues, the one I just noticed while printing with some 'Raptor Crystal PLA' filament, is that it seems to be creating a saw tooth like pattern on one section, then smoothing out again. What would cause this? I have a youtube vid demonstrating the issue linked below. 

https://youtu.be/GjSA8GPUql8

That is probably ringing from the direction change. It's not much, since the curved path mitigates that effect quite a bit. You can play with the acceleration settings in the firmware. Use RepG and refer to the Sailfish manual for the details.

 

Also another, also minor issue, is that I have a seam going up a certain area on all of my prints. It seems to always be on the top left side if looking at the build plate straight down, from front. I THINK from what I have researched, that this is a stepping issue? I took some pictures, I hope you can see what I am talking about. 

Hard to tell from one picture but that may be a small gap where the new layer starts. Typical sequence is: retract, move to new layer, un-retract, start printing again. If there's a bit of ooze or a tiny thread of filament is pulled out during the retraction and movement (hard to avoid completely) then the un-retraction doesn't completely refill the nozzle. S3D has an "extra restart distance" for that. It's added on to the un-retract, that is if you retract 1mm of raw filament then it pushes 1mm plus the extra restart distance. The exact amount needed varies by filament, temperature, initial retraction distance, etc. 

[Petr Ptacek]

You can partially hide (dilute) the effect of staring and stopping by telling slicer to start every layer in some random point, not in the same spot every single time.

[SilverOranges]

Kurt, I was thinking of a less childish online name than my last one (thought of previous when I was 11yo playing Halo in middle school) and decided to pick two words that don't rhyme and sorta go together, and ended up with SilverOranges, 7 years later it seems to be working out. Unfortunately somebody took the Gmail name before me.

Thanks for the warm welcome, I plan on starting a project I've been wanting to do for a while now that it's slowed down at my job, I'll make a thread once I get everything designed out and a solid attack plan made. I think it would be of interest to a lot of people here.

I minimized the ringing by slowing it down, or it was the upgrade part I put on. I also fixed the seam by doing the random direction technique. Thanks!

[Kurt at VR-FX]

Hey!

On 1/16/2019 9:21 AM, SilverOranges wrote:
> Kurt, I was thinking of a less childish online name than my last one (thought of previous when I was 11yo playing Halo in middle school) and decided to pick two words that don't rhyme and sorta go together, and ended up with SilverOranges, 7 years later it seems to be working out. Unfortunately somebody took the Gmail name before me.

Bummer. But, what about gmail w/SilverOranges1 or SilverOranges01, or
even SilverOranges02??

> Thanks for the warm welcome,

You're quite welcome!

> I plan on starting a project I've been wanting to do for a while now that it's slowed down at my job, I'll make a thread once I get everything designed out and a solid attack plan made. I think it would be of interest to a lot of people here.

I look forwards to seeing that.

> I minimized the ringing by slowing it down, or it was the upgrade part I put on. I also fixed the seam by doing the random direction technique. Thanks!

Glad to hear you got your issues worked out.

-K-

>