Thank you the_digital_dentist for confirming the complexity of the situation! Like I said, I've been fighting with this thing for several weeks, and I had a feeling there was something more than just one or two tweaks causing all the problems. In response to your other observations:
1) I am using the software autoleveling function of Mattercontrol, and I already know its not perfect. Several times now, I have noticed that the autoleveling function has set the extruder too low and it will jam the nozzle, or too high and it just squirts liquid plastic in midair. I hope to at least get it to the point where I can print a hardware autoleveler to use directly with Marlin. When I get home from work, I'll try to tweak that and see if I can get a better first layer. However, I want to note that that fourth picture was after I had removed the raft from the print. The settings I used for it were:
Expand Distance 5mm from sides of print;
Air Gap 0.2mm from top of raft and bottom of print, with a
Fan Speed of
100%. The
Standard Layer Height is set to
0.2mm, as I have a
0.4mm Nozzle, and I have it set to print the
First Layer at the same height. Do you think there still might be an issue with my First Layer Height Settings? Or do you agree that its probably a fault of the software Autolevel?
2) As far as the heated bed, I agree and disagree. I made the bed from
DIY Nichrome Heated Bed. I used 12 individual heating elements, wired in parallel, each one a maximum of 10mm away from the next, and they are firmly attached to the glass with an even layer of Kapton tape. The thermistor is wedged into a copper plate that spans a gap between two different elements, right in the center of the bed. The effective total resistance of the bed comes to about 2.4 Ohms, which comes out to a 5 amp current, and I was worried about this, but I noticed that the bed heats evenly and consistently during prints (even got out the kitchen thermometer). I had a mind to either activate the Marlin PID Autotune or tweak the PIDs myself, but only after I knew I was going to keep the bed as is. I still hadn't decided if I was going to scrap the higher resitance build and try to get closer to 12 amps, or if I was going to just get a PCB heated bed and call it a day. I was most hesitant because I have heard of serious warping issues with PCB elements and uneven heating that results from that. Do you think I should scrap the nichrome build for a PCB, tweak the PID or just concentrate on the other issues before considering that particular obstacle?
3) I have calibrated the extrusion
pretty dang close, by taking the hotend off and measuring filament extrusion with a digital caliper, but I have not
fine tuned the extrusion by observing infill quality during a print and sending G code modifications every few layers. The problem was, the prints were curling and warping off the bed so quickly, I couldn't get more than 8 to 10 layers out before it the nozzle started digging into the print, and I couldn't get a good look at the infill density. Would it be easier to print, say a large round cylinder with solid infill? Try to cut out the corner warp and hope that the large size would give the filament enough time to cool?
4) I have the
First Layer Print speed set to 30mm/s,
Infill Print Speed set to 60mm/s, and
Inside and
Outside Perimeters set to 30mm/s and
21mm/s respectively. Whats funny is the
Raft Print Speed set to 60mm/s and it didn't warp at all! Do you think I should try printing the First layer closer to 20mm/s?
5) I have a print cooling fan already installed, and I have it set to run at a minimum speed of 35% the duration of the print, with the exception of the first 2 layers, which I set to 0% to give those first 2 layers the best opportunity to adhere to the bed. When I get home, I'll try printing 2 or 3 of the cubes to see if that helps with the warping.
6) I have yet to try the painter's tape, as I eventually wanted to print ABS in addition to PLA and wanted to be able to use the same bed. Is that practical? or am I missing some logic there?
Thank you again for your help! This thing has been waiting for me to get my S!@# together for over a month now and it feels great to have someone with much more knowledge giving me direction!
Edit: italics didn't come out right -> fixed it.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2016 02:13AM by Sminky.