Slic3r Tutorials and printing advice

I have started posting a blog about using slic3r. - Along with an overview of Slic3r print settings Part 1 also contains a visual guide to extruder calibration so I hope that will also be of use to some of you, if you are new to 3D printing it should also be an easy way to get familiar with some of the terms and settings etc.

Slic3r is really easy to use, but I hope this will help a few more people try it out and also experiment with the settings and also hopefully help you get better print quality!

Edit - Part 2 is now up here - , in that we will look at setting up the printer, filament, slicing and printing.

Edit - Part 3 (is now up 19thJan) will be looking further into printing at lower layer heights and anything else I can think of that's interesting.

Check it out here - Slic3r is Nicer - Part 1

Any if anyone spots any errors or omissions, let me know of if you have advice on using Slic3r add it into here -

Rich.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2012 03:10PM by richrap.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

sweet!

Very nice writeup. I do wish the last two fill examples had come out a little more clearly, though.

Thanks, I printed the examples at 85mm/sec, so with those last two maybe slower and a bigger sample piece would have come out better.

Slic3r really needs a good Hexagon fill...

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

Thank you! A great illustrated resource!

Transition from Skeinforge is quite straightforward.

WOW Richard!!!!!!!!

That's an impressive and very very useful work. Thank you, and thank you on behalf of current and future Slic3r users!

I'm glad you like it, I am working on parts 2 and 3 now.

Rich.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

Thanks again for this. Looking forward to Part 2 and 3. It would be especially helpful if you can point out the bits there it can translate to actual settings used in Skeinforge.

You see, I'm a eMaker Huxley owner and didn't go thru the same (hard) calibration like most people here. Things like print speed baffles me.

Part 2 is now up here - , in this part we look at setting up the printer, filament, slicing and printing. It also has some tips on the heated bed, parts sticking and using the 'lift' setting (really interesting results).

I hope it all makes sense, any questions just ask.

Rich.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

Great! Thanks for sharing all these tips and tricks!!!

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Frédéric

awesome. I just finished my reprap and I've had a real perplexing time getting all the dependencies working on my Mac (OSX 10.7.2) - I couldn't manage to get pronterface + skeinforge/sfact working that well together without some crazy work-around. just a day after making my first calibration print w/ sfact, I found yr post on Slic3r and I have to say I'm really wondering why I should continue to tough it out w/ skeinforge/sfact when slic3r seems to be working great.

obviously I haven't put it through all it's paces yet, but these two posts are really helpful and clear - I even told other reprap builders at my hackerspace that I can go back into sfact now because slic3r helped me understand what all these settings mean. thanks! I can't wait for part 3.

I've only just installed Slic3r and am very impressed so far. I must say Richard finding your Tutorial was fantastic and love the fact that you illustrate what you write with those fantastic pictures. Great work honestly can't thank you enough for your time and effort.

Cheers
Paul

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2012 03:26PM by bmsweb.

Thanks everyone, it's really nice to know they are helpful, maybe I should write some more?, it would be interesting to gather together a list of any aspects that were tricky for people when getting started with 3D printing and make some visual notes for these. Maybe Firmware setup? Electronics build, config and testing? and I know people want a Skeinforge guide.

But I'll finish Slic3r part 3 first

Rich.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

Thanks Rich

Great write up and tips.

Cheers

Sean.

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[www.cncdudez.co.uk]
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Hello everyone, Part 3 is now up on the Blog, I'll be really interested in anyone else experimenting with Slic3r at low layer heights. It would be highly interesting to know if my findings and results are similar to anyone else?

Cheers,

Rich.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

What a fantastic read! I'll need to read this one a number of times Rich . . as I did with the other 2 parts. Most of my printing has been at .2mm at this stage.

Thank you Rich - most excellent and greatly appreciated!

Yep, awesome tutorial posts on slic3r Rich!

And thanks for the hint about cleaning the extruder drive knurling prior to calibration - that did the trick.

Hamish