New to 3D printing

[csorrows]

I think 2 of those are by me.

[Telman]

Thanks for letting me know. I got a 5 damper pack for $5 and it sounds like they are well worth the money.

[Telman]

Yes they are. Thank you Sir.

[Telman]

Thank you Ron. I have my fingers and toes crossed that everything goes to plan.

[Telman]

I did my first test print today, the cube . Overall, I'm pleased with it.

For some reason, there was a problem with the far left corner. It started off well, then got worse.

[Ron]

Since it appears only to be in a single corner, that actually looks like a CAD or slicer issue to me.
I had a similar sort of thing happen when I was becoming accustomed to the relative weirdness of TurboCAD (I am a long, long time user of Inventor at work so TurboCAD can be rather alien to me in the way it does certain things).
If the solid model meshes do not connect properly, or are misinterpreted by the slicer that sort of thing can happen.
It could also be that the slicer is using the same "start" point for each layer and doing a retraction or pause or other such thing at that point.
Or it could be speeding up with increasing layer height.
I don't know, but you might try a solid cube (with maybe 20% infill) instead to see what happens.

I suppose it could be some odd issue with motion or temperature, but that would not be my first guess because everything else looks so good.

[PaulS]

yup i agree. not sure what slicer you are doing but look for a setting to vary start point. may be that is the start point so every new layer you get a blob. if the blobs move to different spots then you know it is either retraction or over extrusion from there. good luck

[Telman]

Thank you for the advice. I came to realise that last night. I used Repetier Host software to print the cube. I also printed some heat bed knobs with Repetier too. But I decided to print the last knob using Cura 3.3.1 and the results were like night and day in quality, even though it only took a few extra minutes to complete. I read that using different print software can give better results, but I had no idea it would be that pronounced.
I'm going to Ikea, to buy Lots mirror tiles to use as a print bed and also blue painters tape for adhesion.

[Ron]

Lots mirror tiles to use as a print bed and also blue painters tape for adhesion.

That's the ticket.....

[PaulS]

might want to get a sheet of pei to stick to 1 of those tiles. save a lot of time a grief. no blue tape or slurry needed.

[PaulS]

side note that diagonal spread towards the top of the cube may be an indication of belt deflection and not just a slicer issue. watch your belts during direction change and see if they appear to twist. any idler mounted with only has a screw sticking up or drive misalignment may cause flex under load and that is what it can look like.bigger cube should be even worse if so.. just my 2 cents :).

[Telman]

Thanks PaulS. I’ll check for any belt twist and misalignment on my next print. I think a pei sheet came with my printer, so I’ll use that on the mirror. I guess my next step is understanding the Cura settings. I checked the advanced settings and didn’t know what most of it meant.

[PaulS]

best advice i can give there is make as few or ideally only 1 change at a time while testing and calibrating. You will be sorely tempted but take my word for it LOL

[Telman]

Cheers PaulS, I’ll keep that in mind. I have some prints to do tonight, so I’ll do some slight setting changes then.

[Cajones]

Hey there everyone. I'm new to this too and am getting ready to get an R2. From what I've gathered from reading this among other topics, I think I'm fairly confident of what extras I'm going to purchase to start off with!

[Ron]

I think a pei sheet came with my printer, so I’ll use that on the mirror.

It's funny, I bought a stick-on PEI sheet recently to try because so many people have praised them.
PLA sticks to it like mad.
Literally too good (prints can actually be quite difficult to remove from it).
For me ABS sticks OK but not "great" without first laying down some ABS juice.
So I may go back to the trusty old mirror tiles which have served me quite well.

Perhaps I just don't understand the finer points of using the PEI sheet yet.
I don't know. I haven't given up on it by any means.
But at the present time I have to get on with printing things.

[Telman]

The PEI sheet was working well, until the printer bed wasn't properly aligned and the nozzle tore chunks out of the sheet. I read online that someone was using the back of a lots mirror for adhesion, and I have found that works very well. I also recently changed the bed springs to longer/stronger type, as I had a lot of trouble aligning the bed. I'm hoping this has fixed the issue.

[Ron]

The back of the mirror tiles?
I had not thought of that.
Interesting idea.
The mirror-coated surface seems relatively fragile, but hey it's worth a try.

[Telman]

The mirror-coated surface seems relatively fragile

You're right. It wouldn't take much to scratch the surface, as it seems spray painted on. But it's working for me at the moment. I've tried the glue and blue tape method and I'm not having much success with them.

[Ron]

I think that the painted coating is only to protect the actual mirrored surface (metalized) from being corroded by junk in the air.
So maybe it would be OK even if scratched?
IDK.......Worth a try for sure!