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Had a peculiar failure last night. I'd started a print, and I like to watch the first layers going down. To my surprise, the printer drew a few straight lines ( should have been curved ), then went away & sat in one corner - where there shouldn't have been any print at all............... Restarted the print, and a a similar thing happened. I thought that this must be a software slicing problem, so I resliced the model & tried again - the same happened, although it did draw a few more lines - I rebooted the printer, but - nope.
I realised the common feature was the micro sd card - I replaced it with another - result, printing straightaway. I've had micro sd cards fail, but they seem to fail completely - this one was garbling the code. The card looked normal - the contacts were clean and straight. It was a 4Gb card, small by todays' standards - I've quite a few cards spare, so that went into the bin. Very odd - wasted an hour or so of my time!
DaveComment
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If you can retrieve it from the bin, try using RUFUS to analyse and reformat.
If it is a good make they can usually be recovered, its the cheap no-names that tend to fail most often.Comment
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It was a card I'd used before in a smartphone, a couple of years ago - I analysed it & reformatted it, but it came up with no errors - I'm not wasting time testing it in the printer. I might try it in my MP4 player, that only has a 2Gb card in it!
Dave
STOP PRESS I've just had a delivery from Yodel - my Sunlu T3 printer has arrived - I know what I'll be doing for the rest of the day!Comment
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A very valuable side effect of your 3D printing adventure, Dave, is it's keeping you occupied :smiling:
..... and keeping us entertained!Comment
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Assembling the Sunlu T3 printer took about half an hour - 10 bolts, four of which were for the spool holder!
It has a bed size comparable to the Anet, the frame is aluminium extrusions & the body of sheet steel. It has a Bowden style feed, with an all-metal geared extruder. The power supply gives 24V, and heats up the bed & nozzle very quickly. It took me a while to work out the sequence of levelling the bed, the instructions seem to be counter intuitive! It's now set, and before each print it does a 15 point check of the bed height & compenates. First print I did was rubbish - the printer clattered and groaned, but was very fast. I found that I had not unchecked the 'fast print' mode in the printer menu, and it was printing at 3 or 4 times the normal speed! Now, it is printing - it's very quiet, most noise is from the cooling fans! You are allegedly able to print at 200mm/sec, but the quality would be rubbish. I've been printing at 80mm/sec - twice the speed of the Anet. I still need to tweak the settings to improve the finishes & reduce stringing, but that shouldn't take too long. I'll put up some pictures tomorrow.
DaveComment
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You're really becoming quite a pro now Dave:hugging-face:Comment
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Keep following but have no real idea of what's been done, seems very much like a printer when it has a turn .
Definitely going to be the big thing in years to come for modellers with a flair for engineering and computing skills .Comment
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Here it is, in operation as I said the printer itself is quiet ( silent steppers ), but the fans are not, and they cut in and out as needed!
The first thing I printed out after initial false starts was this an Admiralty Armed Trawler in 1/700 printed at 0.2mm layer height
A bit rough, but the shapes there................
A few tweaks, and .........
Printed at 0.15mm layer height - took about 90 minutes to print
In close up, the layers are nice & even - the height of the bows is around 7mm
I can print down to <0.1mm layer height, but the time of print increases.
I'll give these a lick of primer & see how they look.
I don't tend to print benchmarks - I prefer to see the results on something I actually want to print. They're OK if you want to compare printers, but I want to see results on a real model
DaveComment
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Those few tweaks have definitely made an improvement.Comment
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After a quick coat of primer - the better of the two trawlers,,,,,,,,,,,,
What I would do is carerfully go round the model & remove all sharp edges, strings & other artefacts before painting, but this is still the process of trying to find the best settings for the Sunlu.
It's now in the process of printing something else
Guess what it is yet?
DaveComment
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Stingray?Comment
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Yes! - A four part model of Stingray - scale?, well your guess is as good as mine!
DaveComment
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Another lesson confirmed! I'd finished my Stingray & decided that there wasn't enough filament on the spool for my next print. I decided, on the grounds of economy, to revisit a spool of filament that I'd had problems with on the Anet. I thought that with the Sunlu it might be more forgiving. Now, with dismal failures on two printers, I can say this stuff is garbage! Today, it wouldn't stick, I re- levelled the build plate, tweaked the temperatures - it began to stick, but in the middle of a nice line of print, it would start to 'blob' and miss patches & then, when adding another layer, it'd begin to pull the whole lot up. I tried a different software slicer, but finally admitted defeat. It was an unbranded satin white PLA. I opened a brand new packet of JAYO grey PLA - and the printer happily started working properly.
I've been under the weather recently, and must admit I was getting a bit discouraged with the white PLA, but the new spool has lifted my mood a bit.
I was trying to print a 1/35 AMC 35 - a French 30's cavalry tank, but that's now the plan for tomorrow - the printer is working on a 1/700 floaty thing...............
DaveComment
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This is a 1/700 USS Independence - a 'littoral combat ship' essentially a hull with two outriggers & the deck built across them
Has proved to be problematical, and has been laid up, after less than ten years service.....................
Modern ships don't lend to be suitable for FDM printing - too many aerials, and lattice masts - this print lost the fwd gun barrel, a radar mast & the Phalanx CIWS. - Just too delicate - and it shows 'quilting' in places - I'd reduced the % infill & surface layers to cut the print time - not clever.
This the start of the print of the hull of the AMC 35 ( going to take 7 hours ).......................
I'm happy to say the layers are sticking & going down evenly - a big contrast to the total mess I had yesterday!
DaveComment
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