3D Printers

[DavidJ]

Yep - I have made loads of these
View attachment 181984
Without them, the filament goes everywhere.
You can't see it in the previous post photo but, believe me, its there!!

Hi Mike
Realised yesterday how useful your clips would have been. Yep! Filament everywhere. You have my e-Mail, would you mind sending me your design please.
Regards
David
ps
I’ll post it here because it may be useful for others but how do you print say 2 off of the same design. I can’t find a simple way of doing it?

 

[Dogone]

Good to see another FreeCAD user.
I've been using the pre-release versions of the new 1.0
I'm watching the progress of the new release - last week there were 31 issues to fix before the release.
This week it is up 4 to 35 but I'm sure there is progress.
The Toponaming problem seems to be well under the way to be fixed - certainly seems fixed in the pre-releases.

Personally, I've been using the pre-release versions which work faultlessly for me.
You can get the weekly builds from here
Release weekly-builds · FreeCAD/FreeCAD-Bundle

Of course, FreeCAD won't have the polish of other applications like Fusion 360 but we have to remember that it is totally free.
And, it does a great job for anything I would ever want.
I don't think I will be "eating my words"

I wonder if old professional CAD software would be suitable? 20 years ago the sophistication of software like SolidWorks was very great and exceeded what FreeCAD can do now. It should be possible to pick up old license cheaply. SolidEdge would also be good, or Rhino even.

 

[Hurricane]

Hi Mike
Realised yesterday how useful your clips would have been. Yep! Filament everywhere. You have my e-Mail, would you mind sending me your design please.
Regards
David
ps
I’ll post it here because it may be useful for others but how do you print say 2 off of the same design. I can’t find a simple way of doing it?

I didn't make my own filament clips - I just downloaded some using Bambu Studio.
Open Bambu Studio - click "Online Models" then search for "filament clips".
I used ones like these




BTW to print 2 off - in Bambu Studio, right click the item and Clone - easy.

 

[slawosz]

I wonder if old professional CAD software would be suitable? 20 years ago the sophistication of software like SolidWorks was very great and exceeded what FreeCAD can do now. It should be possible to pick up old license cheaply. SolidEdge would also be good, or Rhino even.

Never really tried FreeCAD, but there is Fusion 360 with lot of documentation everywhere and its industry standard together with other Autodesk products. Although getting free licence is a bit of clicking around.

 

[Hurricane]

Never really tried FreeCAD, but there is Fusion 360 with lot of documentation everywhere and its industry standard together with other Autodesk products. Although getting free licence is a bit of clicking around.

I'm worried about the limitations on free Fusion - now and in the future.
That why I am using FreeCAD - FreeCAD will always be free and it does everything that I need.

 

[DavidJ]

A general question which may be useful for others.
I have an option on Bambu for my P1S to switch off bed levelling.
Is bed levelling something that has to be done before every print?

 

[Puffin10032]

A general question which may be useful for others.
I have an option on Bambu for my P1S to switch off bed levelling.
Is bed levelling something that has to be done before every print?

It depends on if your printer has the facility to manually level the bed. My own printer is an Ender 3 Pro which is considered archaic and obsolete by some but is fine for my needs. It doesn't have ABL. Very occasionally I do a check that nothing has moved and the bed is level. ABLis a bit of a misnomer in most cases. Perhaps the Bambu is more sophisticated but on most printers all ABL does is probe the bed height at various points then apply a correction to the GCode to compensate for the tilt of the bed. This results in perfect 1st layer adhesion but because the bed might not be physically level the part might come out slightly out of square in Z. It'll only be a tiny bit out and won't matter for most purposes but is worth bearing in mind if you print something where squareness in all 3 dimensions is important.

 

[Refueler]

Bed Levelling .....

I have an Ender 3 Pro - adjustable bed and another budget machine with fixed bed.

Over time both started to display errors in bed height on one side or another ... the budget machine was fairly easy to cure because it already had dual Z drive motors .. slight adjustment of motor one side (basically switch off machine and turn vertical screw rod by hand). Any other adjustment is made by slipping paper or card between bed and mount at respective corner.

The Ender was not so easy even with the stiffer 3rd party springs etc. The reason being that the printer beam was only single Z height motor - so no matter how much you adjusted the guide rollers - as the print head moved away to other side from the Z motor - the beam drooped just a tiny bit. I'm talking decimals .. but it was enough. Even with BL Touch - the droop was not always same ...
Finally I fitted dual Z motors kit ... from Ender (Creality) so its obvious they must have been aware of this. The difference is monumental ... now the beam stays exactly level ... I can adjust bed manually using the slip of paper and Z offset ... then BL Touch.
My last change to the Ender was to remove the BL Touch and use Creality's metal version and that has improved the last tiny bit.

I installed the latest board and FW ... which gave more options on bed levelling ... but basically I still manually level, setting Z ... then do Bed Level check with the CR Touch.

I do the full setup check before any new project and at least once a week. The CR Touch is used each time I restart machine just to make sure.

I can switch of Bed Levelling completely - but IMHO - that would be a mistake. Its impossible to get bed perfect - so something has to make up for it.

 

[DavidJ]

I keep my Bambu P1S in the garage. SHMBO won’t let me keep it in the house (I love the plastic smell personally)
Thinking of keeping an electric plant seeding pad in it (or underneath it with a cover on) during the winter. 17.5W and will maintain 25 to 30C temp.
Is this a good idea?

 

[SealineTony]

Hi Mike
Realised yesterday how useful your clips would have been. Yep! Filament everywhere. You have my e-Mail, would you mind sending me your design please.
Regards
David
ps
I’ll post it here because it may be useful for others but how do you print say 2 off of the same design. I can’t find a simple way of doing it?

In Bambu Studio or Orca Slicer, select model and right click and choose clone options. Hope that is of some help

 

[Refueler]

I'm lucky - I have a full workshop and above that - Sail loft ....

The 'bar' now has a 55" Smart TV ... divan and table.

The total area is 12m x 8m .... with a sail loft above at 12m x 4m ... twin large garage below and 3rd room as store ...

 

[DavidJ]

In Bambu Studio or Orca Slicer, select model and right click and choose clone options. Hope that is of some help

Thanks Tony and welcome as a new member. Actually @Hurricane beat you to it #163 and I printed them off yesterday, beautiful design with little barb grips and all.
I’m new to this as well as FreeCAD. All good fun.

 

[Hurricane]

A general question which may be useful for others.
I have an option on Bambu for my P1S to switch off bed levelling.
Is bed levelling something that has to be done before every print?

The quick answer is that most of the time, you can untick bed leveling.
I assume that you mean the options in the last dialog where there are 4 check boxes.
One is "Timelapse" - self explanatory - check it to record a timelapse of your print.
One is "Use AMS" - uncheck this to disable the AMS which then selects the back (non AMS) spool
One is "Bed Leveling" - most of the time, you can get away with this unchecked.
I can't remember the 4th checkbox but I usually uncheck that at the same time as the "Bed Leveling" one.

Once, I was printing using PLA after printing with ABS and the job wasn't sticking to the bed - that usually happens with ABS but using glue works.
After a few failed attempts, I re-enabled those "Bed Leveling" options and it all started working again.

Hope that helps

 

[DavidJ]

The quick answer is that most of the time, you can untick bed leveling.
I assume that you mean the options in the last dialog where there are 4 check boxes.
One is "Timelapse" - self explanatory - check it to record a timelapse of your print.
One is "Use AMS" - uncheck this to disable the AMS which then selects the back (non AMS) spool
One is "Bed Leveling" - most of the time, you can get away with this unchecked.
I can't remember the 4th checkbox but I usually uncheck that at the same time as the "Bed Leveling" one.

Once, I was printing using PLA after printing with ABS and the job wasn't sticking to the bed - that usually happens with ABS but using glue works.
After a few failed attempts, I re-enabled those "Bed Leveling" options and it all started working again.

Hope that helps

Many thanks
The ABL felt unnecessary every time and coupled with not finding the “clone” option doing multiple prints was taking an age
Looking forward to FreeCAD v1 which looks great from your review link. (#155)

 

[Refueler]

Bed levelling .... with various machines having magnetic beds / lift off glass / Painters tape etc - the bed level can change each time its lifted off to remove a print. The Ender series with their mag sheets are a prime example ... the mag sheets are really good - but after a lift - you can occasionally see ends of a print not sticking etc due to slight level out.

Thinking about sticking to bed .... I used to use High Strength Hair Spray .... but found Prit Sticks better ... yes - the Prit Sticks you get in stationary shops ... I did buy '3D branded Glue Sticks' one time - but found it no better than a Prit Stick but higher priced .. the only thing with Glue Sticks - is bed temperature ... I try to delay application until just before print starts to have it work before it dries out.

 

[slawosz]

Regarding leveling - I have Ender 3 Max and Ender 3 Pro. Both glass bed. Due to nature of my prints most of the time I use 0.4 mm layer. After I learned about quirks/common issues I barely level the bed. Both printers are unmodified, so when I need to level, I use feeler gauges and custom G-code that moves head around so I don't need to do anything manually.
One day I will buy better printers - probably Bambu A1 but for now it is enough.
And some of my prints are quite sophisticated, here is fully functional joystick:

 

[Refueler]

My Ender 3 Pro was transformed by adding Dual Z drive ... Direct fed head instead of via the tube .... CR Touch instead of BL ... 3rd party bed springs ... latest main board with modified FW ...

Its like a completely different machine ...

 

[DavidJ]

Hi
I’m getting about 1% shrinkage using the standard Bambu supplied Basic PLA in my P1S
Tad annoying as my expectation was that it would automatically make that adjustment/compensation.
1% doesn’t sound a lot but it’s the difference between a sloppy fit and a snug one.

 

[DavidJ]

Bit of a boat drift I’m afraid but I’ve just cleared a jam in my extruder (Bambu P1S) and going to reassemble tomorrow.
However the nozzle still has filament in. Do I need to remove this (not sure how) or will it all heat up and just get pushed through.

 

[Hurricane]

Bit of a boat drift I’m afraid but I’ve just cleared a jam in my extruder (Bambu P1S) and going to reassemble tomorrow.
However the nozzle still has filament in. Do I need to remove this (not sure how) or will it all heat up and just get pushed through.
View attachment 183840

I haven't (yet) had any problems with my hot end but I did buy a spare when I bought the printer.
Bambu spares are well priced so it is worth keeping some spare bits - cutter blades etc.

I've not noticed and shrinkage in my prints but when I do make my own tolerances when designing close fitting parts so I probably wouldn't notice any shrinkage if there is some.