Guys, I have a variant of RepRapPro Mono Mendel, and I need advice regarding calibrating the exturder. I'm using Sliicer 1.0 and pronterface.
Generally I can print quite well for simple shapes. However, complex models have always been iffy. I've gone by Triffid Hunter's guide to calibrate the printer, and it helped a bit. I've repeated the main extruder calibration several times, until the E-steps have been very stable. However, was still getting issues on complex stuff. The symptoms appear as follows:
- good adhesion and good printing on simple shapes without too much overhand or detailing
- an all larger surfaces, there is lots of little bits of PLA sticking out (seen on the first attachment)
- on some overhangs or details, the plastic seems to swell up, causing the printer to either to hit the already printed bits on next layer, or to skip steps. Example on second attachment, where the leg got kicked out while the next layer was printed.
So, I went back to Triffid Hunter's guide and went through the extruder fine tuning by printing 95% infill and calibrating until I got gaps in infill and no gaps on solid layer. And surprise, I got to E-steps of around 75% of the previous amount, and when I measure the length of plastic extruded, it corresponds to that 75% of what I click in pronterface.
I have yet to try a serious print with these settings, but I'm very sceptical, as I expect the print to fall apart with not enough plastic.
Has anyone encountered a similar anomaly or has a rational explanation for this? What am I missing?
Regards,
aruta
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2014 04:44PM by aruta.
