Adventures with a Flashforge

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philipy
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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by philipy » Mon Dec 21, 2020 5:21 pm

Trevor Thompson wrote: Mon Dec 21, 2020 5:04 pm I think lower will give it longer to fuse to the lower layer.
True. I was thinking that increasing the speed would get the head back again before it had cooled too much! As you say, try both. :D
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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by SimonWood » Mon Dec 21, 2020 7:53 pm

So far I've got around the curling problem cleaning with nothing more than IPA but I think the ambient temperature has been warmer.

Meanwhile...
SimonWood wrote: Mon Dec 21, 2020 10:53 am In the meantime, on the Lego wagon I used tabs. There I noticed that for a tab drawn at 64mm I needed a slot drawn at 64.8mm for it to fit into. Tab and slot were both drawn and printed in the same plane...
On Rik's Southwold short van the side (digital height 80mm) has printed out at a real-world height of ~79.5mm. The gap it fits into in the van end has printed out a height of ~78.5mm. Again, nothing a file can't fix...

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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by Trevor Thompson » Mon Dec 21, 2020 11:07 pm

I suppose I have avoided the issues of making one part fit into another by avoiding the issue. Looking at what I have made I make most things as flat plates when I can. So each side and end separately then glue them onto a base. So the issue of shrinkage and so on is just not apparent.

It explains why I have only crossed it with holes for axles and wheel centres, which I just machine anyway.

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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by philipy » Tue Dec 22, 2020 7:59 am

Trevor Thompson wrote: Mon Dec 21, 2020 11:07 pm

It explains why I have only crossed it with holes for axles and wheel centres, which I just machine anyway.

Thinking about it, thats about the only time it's bothered me, as well. I normally fudge it, if necessary, with drills, files, etc. I don't have a lathe and haven't used one since about 1965/6 at school, when my one and only effort was a brass cannon barrel about 3" long!
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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by SimonWood » Tue Dec 22, 2020 11:47 am

It's good to know that it's not just me. As I say it's quickly resolved with a file (or a lathe!) but if it were the case of it being 5 minutes tinkering with the settings if only I knew how, I'd learn how before I made any more prints! As it seems to be more of a case of nothing is perfect, but it improves as you get to know your printer, I'll just keep getting to know my printer!

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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by philipy » Tue Dec 22, 2020 12:00 pm

This won't help in the slightest :roll: but one of the joys of the resin printer was printing axleboxes and the blind hole for the bearings came out exactly the right size as drawn with no messing about!
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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by SimonWood » Tue Dec 22, 2020 1:15 pm

When one's exploring the limits of what a machine can do, inevitably it involves pushing it to the point where it doesn't quite do exactly what you're asking in exactly the way you want it to... that's the point, though it can be mildly frustrating.

But we're living in an age when one can download and print a cow in the comfort of one's own home. Sometimes you just have to pinch yourself.

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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by Trevor Thompson » Tue Dec 22, 2020 6:50 pm

philipy wrote: Tue Dec 22, 2020 12:00 pm This won't help in the slightest :roll: but one of the joys of the resin printer was printing axleboxes and the blind hole for the bearings came out exactly the right size as drawn with no messing about!
Ah! only a few days to go and I will be able to share that joy!

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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by pandsrowe » Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:27 pm

Simon, apart from your desire to print with ABS was there any other reasons that you decided on an Adventurer 3?
I'm in the process of selecting a suitable printer for myself and I keep getting drawn towards it, not the cheapest and the print area is a bit limiting but I keep thinking it's nicely engineered and I do like the fact that it's enclosed. So many other makes look like a a prototype lash up from a research lab and I presume being enclosed reduces the noise level somewhat. Also I'm wondering if the special filament reel size is much of a hindrance, I see you have mentioned putting reels on an adapter and leaving the door open but isn't that defeating the object of an enclosed printer? Is it not practicable to wind filament from a larger spool onto the Flashforge reel, or is it not worth the bother?
One other point that that you may be able to clear up for me, I have heard that unused filament should be kept in some kind of airtight container to prevent deterioration, is this fact or some kind of old wives tale?
Thanks in advance for any useful pointers.
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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by philipy » Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:50 pm

Phil,
I'll jump in here if I may, and no doubt Simon and others will share their thoughts as well.

Pretty much all printers will handle both ABS and PLA and some other materials as well. It's just a matter of setting the correct parameters when slicing.
The noise level is minimal and not a reason to choose between enclosed or open machines ( unless you keep it beside your bed and print overnight!)
I can't comment on the flashforge reels specifically, but no way wouId I try to rewind a filament reel - that stuff has a mind of it's own and always get in a tangle. I have in the past bought small trial reels of various materials/colours and it is always a 'mare.
Yes, filament should be kept in an airtight container to keep moisture away from it, because it is hygroscopic and will absorb moisture from the air which will make it brittle, but having said all that, I don't normally do it!
Actually, I do if I'm changing the reel to a different colour/material, but normally I just leave the current reel on the machine and I've only once lost a small amount of filament, at the end of a reel which been lying around in the open air and hadn't been used for a couple of months. A little tip, I use the round plastic 'tins' from chocolate selections (Roses, Celebrations, Heros, etc) which are the perfect size for 1Kg reels once the small internal plastic reinforcements are removed. They've been on special offer for £3.50 in the supermarkets in the run up to Christmas, so you get a storage box for £3.50 and free choccys! :roll: . New filament reels come sealed in vacuum packed wrappers with silica gel sachets inside. Keep the satchet and put them in the 'tins'
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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by SimonWood » Sun Dec 27, 2020 3:04 pm

pandsrowe wrote: Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:27 pm Simon, apart from your desire to print with ABS was there any other reasons that you decided on an Adventurer 3?
To be honest the primary reason was because I wanted something that would require very little set up or tinkering to begin producing decent prints. (I don't mind tinkering when I vaguely know what I'm doing, but right now everything about 3D printing is new and I want to learn about what's possible, and the various other aspects, including the design side, and limited time means this is a good compromise). This machine seemed to suit my needs, based on talking to Trevor about his experience, also seeing the results he had with it. Also the fact that Trevor has been able to give me some very useful guidance based a year's worth of using this machine!

In short - Trevor will be able to give you a better answer than I can when he comes along!

In terms of the noise - that wasn't a factor for me, but I can report this machine is very quite. No louder than your average inkjet. That said, it did wake me up when I had it in the room below where I'm sleeping, but I have very poor noise insulation!

Yes I've used an adaptor and just used larger filament reels hanging outside the enclosure. It may defeat the object - I'm not sure whether it is the cause of some of my ABS issues - but one potential solution is printing a new door (or modifying the old one) with a holder on the outside and a slit let in to feed the filament through. Or, as you say, you can wind the filament onto the Flashforge reel - I know this is what Trevor did until recently.

As to your question on keeping filament airtight, thank you for the question and thanks Philipy for the answer! Not something I'd really thought about, but something I'm glad to know now.

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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by pandsrowe » Mon Dec 28, 2020 4:23 pm

Thank you both for your very detailed replies and as usual as one question is answered it in turn poses another question.
If the filament is hygroscopic and potentially becomes brittle, what happens after it has been extruded by the printer? Is the printed model still hygroscopic and brittle and dependent upon being painted to negate this problem or am I just worrying unnecessarily?
I have just watched a utube video of a guy in the States explaining the setting up of one of his printers and in the background are racks with dozens of reels of filament, all exposed to the air, so he for one is not worried.
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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by SimonWood » Mon Dec 28, 2020 4:49 pm

Well none of my models are more than 2 weeks old so I'd better leave that to others to answer! :D

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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by philipy » Mon Dec 28, 2020 5:24 pm

pandsrowe wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 4:23 pm Thank you both for your very detailed replies and as usual as one question is answered it in turn poses another question.
If the filament is hygroscopic and potentially becomes brittle, what happens after it has been extruded by the printer? Is the printed model still hygroscopic and brittle and dependent upon being painted to negate this problem or am I just worrying unnecessarily?
I have just watched a utube video of a guy in the States explaining the setting up of one of his printers and in the background are racks with dozens of reels of filament, all exposed to the air, so he for one is not worried.
Phil,
Thats a good point and one that I personally don't know the technical answer to. However at a practical level, I can vouch for the fact that I've had both PLA and ABS prints out in the garden permanently for a couple of years and although dirty they are still fine and as good as when they were first printed.

The one thing I can say is that once it goes brittle, the filament tends to snap before it gets to the extruder nozzle so you get failed prints simply because the machine isn't being fed. Unless you watch it like a hawk and are quick enough to feed it in manually when it snaps( which is just about possible, but not infallibly so), come back 10 minutes later and you have a failed print. After that happened half a dozen times, I gave up and chucked the rest of the reel.
As for the racks of reels, yes I've seen those as well. Dunno how they get away with it, although it may be because they have several printers going virtually all the time, so each reel isn't there for very long. As I said, I don't bother to protect the one actually on the machine, normally, and that will take maybe a few months to use up, but once I've changed it for whatever reason, it may be several months before it goes back on so the overall working life could be up to a year or so. Protecting it whilst not in use is a sensible precaution IMO and it has to be stored somewhere so a more or less airtight box and silca gel sachet that cost nothing is worth doing.
Philip

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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by ge_rik » Mon Dec 28, 2020 8:14 pm

On a different tack, I wouldn't be too put off by open-framed 3d printers. Some of the best quality printers are open framed. It's possible to construct your own enclosure around a printer, but I've not really experienced problems with draughts on either of my printers.

My cheapo (£80) printer is a bit noisy when it's whizzing about printing from one side of a model to the other, but my better quality £250 printer is almost silent. The cooling fan on the power supply makes the most noise - about the same as my laptop computer.

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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by Trevor Thompson » Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:15 pm

pandsrowe wrote: Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:27 pm Is it not practicable to wind filament from a larger spool onto the Flashforge reel, or is it not worth the bother?
I also like the idea of the door being shut on the filament - makes the whole thing seem properly organised. I spent the first 9 months of using one of these transferring filament to the smaller reels. I have stopped bothering - I am using it so much that its more fuss to transfer it than to just use an adapter. Otherwise it doesn't seem to make any difference. The hole through to the printer with the door off isn't very big by the way.

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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by SimonWood » Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:58 pm

Trevor Thompson wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:15 pm The hole through to the printer with the door off isn't very big by the way.
This is a good point. It's the bit with the light shining through in the top right of this photo:
tempImageIgBTxg.gif
tempImageIgBTxg.gif (102.09 KiB) Viewed 4907 times

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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by Trevor Thompson » Tue Dec 29, 2020 8:44 pm

That is a neat method of holding the reel. Do you have the reference for it?

Finding things on thingiverse is amazingly difficult!

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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by SimonWood » Tue Dec 29, 2020 10:26 pm

Trevor Thompson wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 8:44 pm That is a neat method of holding the reel. Do you have the reference for it?
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3692572
Finding things on thingiverse is amazingly difficult!
As Philip has said elsewhere, Thingiverse is flaky. But at the best of times the search really sucks. I tend to use that trick of using Google by typing site:thingiverse.com along with my search term.

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Re: Adventures with a Flashforge

Post by Trevor Thompson » Wed Dec 30, 2020 3:51 pm

Thanks Simon - and for the search tip

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