WoodiE's journey into 3D printing

[WoodiE]

PLA right? What is your nozzle temperature?

Polyterra PLA+

How many walls and what infill percentage?

2 walls, 15% infill gyroid

Can you take a couple close up pics of that thing where it separated?

Not sure how much this will help as I wanted to see just how weak it was and pulled up on the separation that I pictured above. That said it was extremely weak up to about where the ramp meets the sidewall. The back half there is certainly an issue and what looks like the start of separation, but isn't just there yet:

I did check the Bambu Wiki and found this article about model interlayer cracking - https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/knowledge-sharing/common-print-quality-problem

Point 3 mentions excessive cooling. I had read PLA likes to be cooler, compared to other filaments. When I printed this second go round, I had the top mostly open (sitting on the AMS riser/stand) and left the door wide open. Part fan was 100% and the Aux fan I believe was set to 80%.

So after reading the wiki last night I decided to once again try to print this poop chute but this time only leave the top cracked and close the door. I also set the Aux fan to 60%..

This is the result:

Minus that little glob in the top right corner, a pretty flawless (to my dumb eye) piece.

The print looks to be printed pretty uniform with no other visible issues.

This "successful" print was done by changing the outer wall speed from 200 mm/s to 115 mm/s and the inner wall speed from 300 mm/s to 175 mm/s. I also changed (I think the layer height) from 0.28mm Extra Draft to 0.20mm Standard.

 

[dure16]

Polyterra PLA+


2 walls, 15% infill gyroid


Not sure how much this will help as I wanted to see just how weak it was and pulled up on the separation that I pictured above. That said it was extremely weak up to about where the ramp meets the sidewall. The back half there is certainly an issue and what looks like the start of separation, but isn't just there yet:

View attachment 359624



I did check the Bambu Wiki and found this article about model interlayer cracking - https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/knowledge-sharing/common-print-quality-problem

Point 3 mentions excessive cooling. I had read PLA likes to be cooler, compared to other filaments. When I printed this second go round, I had the top mostly open (sitting on the AMS riser/stand) and left the door wide open. Part fan was 100% and the Aux fan I believe was set to 80%.

So after reading the wiki last night I decided to once again try to print this poop chute but this time only leave the top cracked and close the door. I also set the Aux fan to 60%..

This is the result:

View attachment 359626

Minus that little glob in the top right corner, a pretty flawless (to my dumb eye) piece.

The print looks to be printed pretty uniform with no other visible issues.

This "successful" print was done by changing the outer wall speed from 200 mm/s to 115 mm/s and the inner wall speed from 300 mm/s to 175 mm/s. I also changed (I think the layer height) from 0.28mm Extra Draft to 0.20mm Standard.

View attachment 359627

That looks much better! What’s your nozzle temp for that PLA+?

 

[WoodiE]

That looks much better! What’s your nozzle temp for that PLA+?

I'm using the PolyTerra PLA preset in Bambu Studio / Orca and the temp is around 220c

 

[Tex Koder]

I'm using the PolyTerra PLA preset in Bambu Studio / Orca and the temp is around 220c

View attachment 359630

That's a solid temp to use.

 

[dure16]

I'm using the PolyTerra PLA preset in Bambu Studio / Orca and the temp is around 220c

View attachment 359630

Okay, 220 sounds about right to me. I asked because that layer just didn't seem be bonding. It seems like too much cooling, as you've diagnosed, was likely the problem.

 

[WoodiE]

I've printed a card box for a friend which was a great success, even consider the poop chute I printed filled up and started to back up into the printer

Now I want to print the lid for him but I'm not sure how best to do it. Given the design it seems like it would take a metric ton of support. What do you guys think?

 

[Tex Koder]

I've printed a card box for a friend which was a great success, even consider the poop chute I printed filled up and started to back up into the printer

Now I want to print the lid for him but I'm not sure how best to do it. Given the design it seems like it would take a metric ton of support. What do you guys think?

View attachment 359962

View attachment 359963

So what is it exactly?

Nevermind.


I'd would print this lid in Two parts.

This is a slicer technique/hack-
1. Push the lid thru the print bed up to the place a couple of layers above the inner led (where normally you need supports).
And, make note how far in layers you made this 'slice'

Print this "section" , completely flat.


2. Then flip the lid upside down and again push it thru the print bed.. this time subtract the amount from step 1.
Now print this section.

3. Once done.
Glue the two sections together.
Done.

No supports at all.
Saved a ton on wasted filament and poop.
Plus shorten the print time by a lot.

 

[dure16]

I've printed a card box for a friend which was a great success, even consider the poop chute I printed filled up and started to back up into the printer

Now I want to print the lid for him but I'm not sure how best to do it. Given the design it seems like it would take a metric ton of support. What do you guys think?

View attachment 359962

View attachment 359963

@Tex Koder explained the smart way.

I'd probably give it a shot as you have it positioned on the bed. Yes it will be a challenging print but this is why you bought a good printer.

Use a brim since not much of the print is touching the bed. In prusaslicer, you can control exactly where to position supports and I assume you can in your slicer as well. I would put one or two rows of supports under the ceiling to reduce the bridging distance, but otherwise just let the printer do its magic.

There's probably a 50% chance my method would fail, but it would also look the best if it works. I've successfully completed prints this challenging on my prusa.

 

[WoodiE]

So what is it exactly?

Nevermind.


I'd would print this lid in Two parts.

This is a slicer technique/hack-
1. Push the lid thru the print bed up to the place a couple of layers above the inner led (where normally you need supports).
And, make note how far in layers you made this 'slice'

Print this "section" , completely flat.


2. Then flip the lid upside down and again push it thru the print bed.. this time subtract the amount from step 1.
Now print this section.

3. Once done.
Glue the two sections together.
Done.

No supports at all.
Saved a ton on wasted filament and poop.
Plus shorten the print time by a lot.

I'd be lying if I said I knew what you meant by this. haha

How does one "push" an item through the print bed?

 

[Tex Koder]

I'd be lying if I said I knew what you meant by this. haha

How does one "push" an item through the print bed?

Set the object's position into the negative.

So, if the object is 50mm tall and it's at:
X = 0 , Y = 0 , Z = 0

To "push it thru the bed, set it to Z = -25 to cut the object by 25mm

 

[dure16]

@WoodiE how did this turn out?

 

[WoodiE]

@WoodiE how did this turn out?

A complete dumpster fire. haha.

I'll have to post pictures in the morning, but I followed the suggestion of pushing the design of the lid through the build plate. The bottom half (the outer "lip" printed great. The top was terrible in so many different ways.

The span from side to side was far to long so it didn't adhere and now those runs are long pieces of hair. The top looks equally terrible which I think might be in part of the design, but also I think I had some printer issues.

I've helping a buddy setup his new sports bar by running a metric ton of network cable and installing security cameras. When I get that wrapped up I'll focus again back on the 3D printing stuff.

 

[WoodiE]

As promised, the dumpster.

The box turned out very nicely.

Next up is the lid, which I used the method of moving part of the print through the print bed and this was the bottom half of the lid which also looks great.

Then this is when trouble hit. While the bottom half of the lid was printing, my computer restarted due to Windows updates. No issue, the bottom of the lid still went on. The biggest issue was not knowing the exact dimensions I set to push the lid through the print bed to split it.

So I eye-balled the adjustment for the top half of the lid (No, I didn't get it exact, but that was the least of my worries).

The top half of the lid still had a short wall to build before it actually started printing the top. Because of this, and the size, I decided to add supports using tree. I think the tree support was the wrong kind to pick as it was printing tiny little yellow trees everywhere that turned the entire printer into a massive mess as tiny bits of yellow fillament tree pieces were going everywhere.

I stopped the print and tried again. It did thie same thing, but not as bad. I figured the heck with it and let it print and see what happened.

Yup a mess.

So two things I'm seeing here. The yellow clumps you see at the bottom are the tree supports that didn't release. Those little pieces like that were everywhere in the printer as well.

The filament hairs is the first layer printer after building up the walls of the bottom. I believe that span was just way too far to print with random (very messy) tree supports which the filament had nothing to adhere to and just kind of dried in midair. That layer was a side to side. The following layer up was a diagonal which seems to have printed mush better.

Before I forget, what you see above is the bottom of this particular lid print. that side was facing down towards the bed.

But the fun doesn't stop there. The top of the print was just as a mess.

Terrible looking print layers and then to finish it off it doesn't look like the hotend flushed enough of the black filament before it did the last yellow layer in the center of the lid. Which is just shocking to me as I have a Krogers plastic bag FULL of Bambu poop so how there managed to be any black at all is astounding to me.

If you look closing at the center top layer (yellow) of the lid it also seems to be print quality issues. Like maybe the print head running into it? I don't know.

I'm swamped at the moment and now need to order more yellow and blue filament and will then try again.

While the lid was a fail, I did learn something from the process. The "trick" of pushing the design through the print bed could certainly work, but I found Bambu Studio / Orca Slicer both have a "cut" feature which will do the same thing. The added benefit of using the Cut feature is that I can add connectors to it, either square pegs, push connectors - both of which would have also made assembly easier and possibly a bit more precise.

At least I've learned something.

 

[Tex Koder]

As promised, the dumpster.

The box turned out very nicely.
View attachment 361082

Next up is the lid, which I used the method of moving part of the print through the print bed and this was the bottom half of the lid which also looks great.
View attachment 361083

Then this is when trouble hit. While the bottom half of the lid was printing, my computer restarted due to Windows updates. No issue, the bottom of the lid still went on. The biggest issue was not knowing the exact dimensions I set to push the lid through the print bed to split it.

So I eye-balled the adjustment for the top half of the lid (No, I didn't get it exact, but that was the least of my worries).

The top half of the lid still had a short wall to build before it actually started printing the top. Because of this, and the size, I decided to add supports using tree. I think the tree support was the wrong kind to pick as it was printing tiny little yellow trees everywhere that turned the entire printer into a massive mess as tiny bits of yellow fillament tree pieces were going everywhere.

I stopped the print and tried again. It did thie same thing, but not as bad. I figured the heck with it and let it print and see what happened.

Yup a mess.
View attachment 361084

So two things I'm seeing here. The yellow clumps you see at the bottom are the tree supports that didn't release. Those little pieces like that were everywhere in the printer as well.

The filament hairs is the first layer printer after building up the walls of the bottom. I believe that span was just way too far to print with random (very messy) tree supports which the filament had nothing to adhere to and just kind of dried in midair. That layer was a side to side. The following layer up was a diagonal which seems to have printed mush better.

Before I forget, what you see above is the bottom of this particular lid print. that side was facing down towards the bed.

While the lid was a fail, I did learn something from the process. The "trick" of pushing the design through the print bed could certainly work, but I found Bambu Studio / Orca Slicer both have a "cut" feature which will do the same thing. The added benefit of using the Cut feature is that I can add connectors to it, either square pegs, push connectors - both of which would have also made assembly easier and possibly a bit more precise.

At least I've learned something.

I don't use Bambu Studio..
Totally forgot there was that Cut feature built-in.

Two issues -
1. You needed to slice the top portion of the lid all the way to where there is NO need for supports at all.







.

But the fun doesn't stop there. The top of the print was just as a mess.

View attachment 361085

Terrible looking print layers and then to finish it off it doesn't look like the hotend flushed enough of the black filament before it did the last yellow layer in the center of the lid. Which is just shocking to me as I have a Krogers plastic bag FULL of Bambu poop so how there managed to be any black at all is astounding to me.

If you look closing at the center top layer (yellow) of the lid it also seems to be print quality issues. Like maybe the print head running into it? I don't know.

I'm swamped at the moment and now need to order more yellow and blue filament and will then try again.

2. Due to the design of the top surface curvature (with such shallow angle), you are going to have do some post processing to smooth out that terrible looking layers..

Either by sanding it down..
or by filling it with bondo puddy and sanding it smooth.