YES, I have spent an hour doing searches and reading on the forums trying to find the information I’m looking for.
YES, I’m sorry I even have to bother anyone asking this question.
NO, I’m not going to give up and crawl back in my cave.
YES, I’m cheap and using “junk” as all I could afford is an ENDER 3. It’s been working fine for me.
What I’m looking for:
More than just perimeter and infill settings. The print list does NOT say anything about how fine to set the printer (draft, fast, normal, fine, extra fine) I would love a complete list: layer height, nozzle size, print speed, etc. as many of the print parameters as possible laid out in one place as a general guideline which could then be tweaked for individual users/printers. I’m currently printing my first part on my printers default settings and the print list says it should be 3:30 but I’m CLOSE to complete at OVER 12 hours.
Thank you for any help and POLITE guidance. Keep your rude comments to yourself, my self esteem is low enough already.
Those first 5 questions are not we are all about here. Everyone starts somewhere, Sorry you even had to search, No bother, Please do not give up, You have a 3D printer no one here cares what it is we are happy you have one.
Perimeter and infill are specified like I am sure you found. I am unfamiliar with the other setting you are talking about so I will assume it is slicer specific and actually means layer height. I have this listed and depends on your printers nozzle diameter (we all use something different) Us no more than a 75% ratio or less (solid guidelines for any print). So if you have a 0.4mm (most common) Your layers can be no thicker than 0.3mm to get a get quality print. The thicker the layers the stronger the part, but less visually smooth. I am assuming this is draft or fast on you settings but I would be very cautious of using there settings at all, you should look over everyone.
If anyone here is not polite I will delete them…Never had to yet (other than spammers). It really just is not that kind of place. I designed the thing and get taught new things every day in these forums. We all come from different technical backgrounds, no worries. Ask any question you are unsure about.
There’s no real solid settings for the layer height because it depends on the printer itself, I printed all the way up to .26mm layer height using a .4mm nozzle and that worked great.
It says on the page with the parts that layer height should be no more than 75% of the nozzle diameter (for good adhesion), so if your ender 3 is stock, then .25 will work and still get done at a decent speed.
As far as speed, again, depends on the printer. It kind of sounds like you’re using Cura, and Cura is a little more conservative than I’d like as far as speeds. It’s also slower for lower layer heights, so at .25mm layer height, you can increase the base speed to 50mm/s, as well as the wall speed and infill speed, stock ender 3 should be more than enough to handle that. If you get under extrusion, either slow down, or increase the temperature a little bit.
Part of it is knowing your printer itself, as well as your slicer. For example, I could tell you to go ahead and use the “.20 mm 100mm/s Linear Advance” profile, but that’s in Slic3r/prusa slicer, not Cura. I also found out that printing the biggest/heaviest part, my printer would skip steps using that profile once a lot of plastic was laid down, because the base travel speed of that profile was 180mm/s with 100mm/s infill. That was a curated setting from the manufacturers of my printer and it ruined 2 x/y parts for me.
TL;DR
Try .25mm layer height, 50mm/s perimeter and infill speed, in addition to 2-4 perimeters and 55% infill.
Thank you very much for the help, I never expected such a quick reply. I am using Cura for a slicer and your are right a .4mm nozzle. I’m sure the draft fast etc are layer height and I know I can make adjustments to the settings. I am nearly certain I reset it to default settings but I will double and triple check it before printing my next part. If I don’t get it figured out my printing will likely not be finished until I’m 90 LOL. As anxious as I am to get the cnc built, I’m ok with it taking some time to print the parts as it gives me a chance to research the Arduino software, the “slicer” or code generator for cnc routing, and such. Thanks again for the quick response. it does help me.
Thank you so much, I’ll give those settings a try this afternoon when my first part finishes printing. I think I’ll post a pic of the first part too. I’m hoping I won’t need to be on here being a bother all the time once I get to the Arduino and firmware parts. I know I’ll need to to a lot of reading about that, good thing I have so much wait time for the printing. LOL Thanks again.
I used to follow this as rule until I saw that cnckitchen video testing layer height strength, and he found that lower layer heights actually make for a stronger part (everything I know is a lie now), but I’m also curious if a larger nozzle will make the same layer height stronger because it outs down a much wider line, so more “squish”.
.3 should work fine, but I noticed bad layer adhesion with certain filaments. If that happens, a little bump in temp helps
I bought an cheap used Ender 3 Pro and had many difficulties getting it to work well. I haven’t had a 3d printer before, and I’ve had to learn many things. Levelling the printer bed and getting good adhesion has been a big challenge, but it worked out eventually. I ended up with making my own glass bed from a mirror and using glue stick. Just to be safe I print with a brim, to prevent warping. In the end the prints turned out quite decent!
For settings I have found the following from these forums:
0.26mm layer height (I have 0.4mm nozzle)
30mm/s print speed
70mm/s travel speed
I would advise against printing too many parts at the same time, that did always mess things up for me. But after I got proper adhesion, I dared myself to print several of the smaller pieces, and it worked out well.
One very important aspect to troubleshoot is the squareness of your printer. When I started printing the larger parts, they seemed skewed, in a parallellogram kind of way. Turned out my axises where not perpendicular to the base, in both x and y direction. Take a square tool and measure between the top extrusion and the side axises, and to the bottom axis. In these two pictures you see how I’ve done it, but with a bigger square (the big one is out in the garage). The bigger the square is, the easier it is to spot any skewing! If the printer is not square, there are a few guides around for adjusting. I ended up making small aluminium shims from foil and a beverage can to correct it in both x and y directions.
[attachment file=108515]
[attachment file=108516]
Good luck with your project, trust me, it’s really rewarding when things works out!! Feel free to PM me if you want to ask more.
And yes - I’ve also missed some kind of detailed manual/setting list for the printer - but have come to realize that this project is very much learning by trail and error. All printers and hardware are different and therefore it’s difficult to make golden standards for it all!
I ran all my parts on a CR-10s, I nearly exclusively used 3 perimeters and 55% infill using a .4 nozzle and .2mm layers. The only thing I adjusted was infill per Ryan’s sheet, and for a few parts I used skirts for bed adhesion
First part off the printer. Feels solid. Pretty sure when I tried resetting the default printer setting either I did something wrong or it didn’t work because this looks like it’s the “fine” or “extra fine” Cura setting for my ender 3. While I was waiting for this to finish I updated my Cura 4.0 to the Cura 4.2, learned hor to print more than one part at a time, and set the slicer/printer settings to what was recommended above (.25 layer & 50mms). The next print is 32 hours 26 minutes but there’s 8 parts on it so I think I’m on the right track.
As a side note when I first downloaded the print files I thought you had to open them in fushion first then send them to Cura which resulted in grossly oversized parts (10x larger), for giggles I tried opening the files directly into Cura and low and behold they were the right size! LOL. [attachment file=108570]
I would like to offer some advice on printing lots of parts like that. I would not load up the bed that much, there’s a possibility that once there’s a lot of plastic on the bed, it can skip a step because there’s so much mass moving, and if that happens, all 8 parts are trashed, and you’ve wasted all that time. Imagine being 24 hours in and the power goes out or something, all the parts are trashed. If you do them 2 or 3 at a time, you’ll get complete parts at intervals. You might even print faster because of less travel time
I never thought about the mass of those parts moving around like that. Makes perfect sense that it could cause problems. I was somewhat lucky with those parts (more about that later). I’ve been so busy with other things I wanted to get these printing and let them go that I didn’t put enough thought into it. I’m embarrassed to say that isn’t the only mistake I made in the last couple days.
I spent the last 3 weeks researching and deciding between the mpcnc and the maslow. Boy am I glad I decided on the mpcnc. Way more versatile and accurate than the maslow, and for around the same price (if not a bit less).
1st I want to apologize to Ryan (and the mpcnc community as a whole) I posted this saying the site didn’t say what to set the printer at. Well, it does. Very clearly in fact, I was just too inexperienced and impatient to realize that the whole world does really on the same settings as the software and hardware that I am using. I completely missed the 78% of nozzle size for the layer height. I wouldn’t have made this post if I had known that is the information I was looking for.
The other mistake I made was not following the site’s recommendation to get the conduit 1st. There’s 3 sizes listed, but in my haste (and because the local store was out of conduit the day I went) I started printing the 1" parts because I felt 1" would be more rigid than 3/4 and I’m building a 48"x36" machine. Well, I’m in the US and I just spent over 2 days printing parts I can’t use because US 1" is actually 1.163 external dimension.
Anyway, I’ve got myself straightened out and am going to slow down a bit. I want to find balance between doing it right the first time and getting it up and running so I can do a few projects to help with funding either upgrades or more likely a 2nd machine. I’m going to keep the current print settings as they are working (PLA, .25mm layer height, 205 degrees, and 50mms). I’m thinking about mounting the 1" parts to a board to remind myself not to rush. Anyway thank you all for helping me get going. I’m sure I’ll be back to ask questions about what software to use for the router and how to upgrade to the auto squaring.
Shhhhh, no worries. We all get excited on a new project and seriously…who reads the manual until you absolutely have to (when no one is looking)? You more than make up for it with you excitement and lightheartedness.
If you start packing those parts closer together on your build plate and grouping similar height items you can save a ton of time in travel moves and usually get a bit better print quality as well. Not a big deal just a tip.
Had my first failed print. 100% MY fault.I didn’t have the support turned on or check that the auto arrange had put them in a safe orientation. Lesson learned. At least 2 of the parts came out so not even a total loss.
The first thing I did was print one of the Bottom_Corner pieces and take it to home depot to make sure it fit the conduit I was going to buy. I did this because a lot of people said to measure the pieces to see if they were accurate, however i did not know what they should measure to so I went and got the EMT that will be used and tried putting it on. fit like a glove
Well, I think I'm just about done printing. For now at least. I learned that 5 wraps of electrical tape makes the 3/4 inch conduit fit in the 1 inch foot perfectly. Same on the corner pieces. That's how I'm handling my screw up for now. I plan on printing the correct parts when I get more pla and time. At least this bandaid will get the project moving. I've started assembling the individual parts. Gotta love the walkthrough. Very easy to follow. I plan on making an adjustable table so I can have the ability to cut thicker material without having to level the whole machine after every adjustment. Yes I'll still have to level the table but that shouldn't be as bad as risking knocking the machine out of square or level or damaging the plastic parts.
