Hi @doug, I’ve just read through this thread. I agree with your assessment of the Snapmaker PLA white - it seems very brittle. Anything I’ve made which has a bit of stress on it has broken.
I’ve had much better luck with the 3D Fillies stuff and I suspect we might have got a bad batch from Snapmaker.
My temperature tower of PETG is currently printing well. A bit of stringing at 250 degrees and I expect problems to occur once the extrude temperature drops below 210 degrees. The temperature tower goes down (up?) to 180 but I’ll probably have to stop the print before then.
One of the factors which seems to have improved my prints is the slicing software - I’ve started using Simplify 3D and it really seems to make a difference - especially with the infill and some of the smart thinking around slowing down the print for short paths etc. I’ve been able to raise the print speed to 100 mm/s without any noticeable problems but I’ve been keeping the first layer to 20 mm/s and sometimes even 10 mm/s for small items.
It’s quite a journey!
I have not found the Snapmaker PLA too brittle, I did with the ColorFabb
Also the biggest lesson I am learning, is the orientation of the object. e.g. imagine a pencil, you can print it in a vertical or horizontal position. The vertical print is lots of of short/narrow layers, wheres printing it in a horizontal place is less layers and they are the length of pencil and make it stronger. Also temperatures and print speeds alter the build quality which can make the object stronger or more brittle.
One of these days I will learn all this stuff hahaha!
I am still at the crawling stage and hoping to walk (totter) soon.
@Doug. Your comment about the Snapmaker PLA got me thinking. My problems with brittleness were when I was printing at a lower temperature. I have had good results with some PLA so far printing at the high end of the temperature range. I will do a reprint with the Snapmaker white, and might do a temperature tower as well.
Hi @doug. I’m using Simplify 3D. I found a script which you paste in the ‘script’ area of Simplify 3D which does the temperature changes to match the numbers and levels on the tower. This works with a layer height of 0.2 mm. If you change that you would need to adjust the number of layers to match (2 mm first step then 7 mm each succeeding step it looks like). The model is Better Temperature Tower v5 240-180 (Thingiverse 2318636). The script goes in the "Scripts - Post Processing’ box and is:
No worries @doug. I’m just sharing other people’s work😊
A quick question. I noticed that you have an IR thermometer. Is the Snapmaker indicated temperature consistent with what you see on the thermometer?
Thanks Doug. That is consistent with what I was thinking. Is you machine accurate enough to read the nozzle temp?
I have found so far that I need to have the indicated temperature set a bit higher than expected to get the best result. I currently have the bed at at 65 for PLA and 80 for PETG (but that might change!)
I did try the testing the nozzle temp when I acquired the thermometer and had no luck, it was showing a much lower temperature. Obviously the temperature that we set is for the heater element/block and that is not being transferred to the nozzle.
Like all newbies i started with Snapmaker3D and it worked like a charm, in fact I still use it on some builds. I then started using Cura, which offers many more options and I use this most of the time. I see that you and a few others are using Simplify3D. Do you consider it an improvement on using Cura.?
My thirst to learn and improve is driving me further.
@doug
I haven’t done any objective testing yet but the results from Simplify 3D appear better looking and seem to print faster. This may be confirmation bias as the expenditure was substantial!
When I get the time I’ll try and do some comparison prints.
I really liked the ‘work flow’ of Simplify 3D, but Cura was pretty good too.
So, it’s early days, but I think Simplify 3D is better. Is it worth the money? Hard to say yet. I could have bought a lot of filament for the price of Simplify 3D.
My printing with PETG is improving and after the poor Calicat episode I have had much improvement by changing a few parameters. I’ll have some pictures up soon.
Thanks for that, much appreciated. I have taken the leap and purchased a copy. I consider it to be another tool in the toolbox. No doubt each application will have some benefits & features that differentiate them… we can now cover all bases.
I’ll have some pictures up soon.