Author Topic: Crap hack. Bulk filament  (Read 60427 times)

Twiz

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #105 on: March 24, 2016, 07:59:59 pm »
Have owned a Cube 3D type 2 for nearly 20 hours now. Also owner for 6 months of CTC dual extruder 3D printer.

Out of the box experience OK so far. Prints well with cartridges supplied.

Bulk filament using Crap Hack working extremely well after adjusting the filament drive to accept the slightly larger 1.75mm reels of PLA and ABS I have.

Currently use the Cube for PLA as it does not need a heated bed. CTC for ABS using heated bed and Makerbot Desktop.

Using Makerbot to refine STL models before importing into Cube 3D Software to create Cube print files.

Working on using a Makerbot controller for the Cube so I have better control, but OK as is at the moment.


HittinBottom

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #106 on: March 25, 2016, 07:28:18 am »
How did you adjust your filament drive for the bulk filament?

Twiz

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #107 on: March 27, 2016, 01:23:09 am »
My way:
1. After unplugging power supply, remove extruder cover.
2. Remove 2 front screws holding the fan in place. (Torx T8 I think) Careful not to drop the standoffs and carefully move the pcb aside on its wires.
3. Loosen the Nut now revealed next to the calibration disk (black & white segmented wheel)
4. Push a section of 1.75mm filament through the feeder. This should press the filament retaining wheel out a smidgen.
5. Gently tighten the nut up again. All being well the gap will be slightly wider than originally set.
6. Gently pull the filament out again.
7. Reassemble the pcb, standoffs and fan.
8. Replace cover and power up.
9. Load filament using the standard process.

For me this worked first time and I have now printed a number of objects without issue.


« Last Edit: March 27, 2016, 01:31:37 am by Twiz »

Twiz

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #108 on: March 27, 2016, 01:25:52 am »
Finished modding the Cube3D Gen 2 for bulk printing.
Using the Crap Hack for printing, but looking at installing a cartridge chip in the machine with a momentary push switch and timer to disconnect after 1 minute. Means I can use bulk filament, without forgetting to unplug the cartridge after hitting the STOP button.
Used the http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:76083 and added a spool mount on the side from my CTC. See photos.
Going to start with Slic3r and modding the G-Code files for better control and print quality next.
After that probably gut the gadget and build a Ramps controller into the chassis.
Definitely not impressed with 3DS filament pricing and policies.
Also using UHU glue on blue tape on the platform. UHU with a little water makes a useful surface for PLA to grip onto the tape and is relatively easy to remove build afterwards.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2016, 01:31:14 am by Twiz »

spegelius

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #109 on: March 27, 2016, 12:58:40 pm »
Finished modding the Cube3D Gen 2 for bulk printing.
Using the Crap Hack for printing, but looking at installing a cartridge chip in the machine with a momentary push switch and timer to disconnect after 1 minute. Means I can use bulk filament, without forgetting to unplug the cartridge after hitting the STOP button.
Used the http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:76083 and added a spool mount on the side from my CTC. See photos.
Going to start with Slic3r and modding the G-Code files for better control and print quality next.
After that probably gut the gadget and build a Ramps controller into the chassis.
Definitely not impressed with 3DS filament pricing and policies.
Also using UHU glue on blue tape on the platform. UHU with a little water makes a useful surface for PLA to grip onto the tape and is relatively easy to remove build afterwards.

Have you had any success with Slic3r? Last time i tried, all the printer options produced g-code that is incompatible with Cube. I've been using Kisslicer mostly and last week i switched to Cura. Kisslicer is quite ok, but the quality needs some tweaking regards solids in small areas (over extrusion). With Cura i get better quality prints, but with default Cube extruder i hear the extruder stepper skipping steps (seems to be related to prime/suck options). I'm switching to Aitrippers Bowden extruder as soon as i get time to assemble it, hopefully it fixes that problem.

I wrote a small python script to do some post processing for the g-code and it supports Kisslicer 1.5b and Cura 1.5 currently. https://github.com/spegelius/CubePostprocessor#cubepostprocessor
Doens't do much currently, but for both it removes all comments and cleans the file so Cube reads it (after CodeX).
For Kisslicer, i have option to adjust infill and solid ratio and WIP feature to detect when 2 perimeters are side by side and make sure those are actually connected. Currently printing 1mm wall leaves very small gap between the perimeters (0.5mm each)
For Cura, i change first layer temp 10 C higher that the temp used for later layers.

spegelius

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #110 on: March 27, 2016, 01:31:40 pm »
Also i'd like to incorporate CodeX functionality to my own scripts, but don't know what type of encoding is used. Looking at Cube software's install directory, i see Apex.DLL and Apex seems to be some kind of encoding/decoding library. If i understood correctly, a key is needed for encoding and decoding...

Twiz

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #111 on: March 27, 2016, 10:42:28 pm »
Hi Spegelius,
Easter break, so no progress on Slic3r, but happy to try Kisslicer or Cura.
Coming to the conclusion that the SW with the Cube is archaic, arcane and a pain when you want any refinements.
Anyway, thought I'd stress test the Cube and see what would happen when given an organic design to print.

So, in a fit of universal optimism, I loaded http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1210985 (Hunters Skull), used a raft, no supports and let it go. Estimated print time 8 hours 45mins. So far 2 hours in and it's looking good.
A few random strings but other than that no apparent hassles considering the complexity and some interesting bridges and air gaps to contend with. Also printing without the extruder cover, results, at least in my office, appear better.
Will likely switch extruder sometime soon as well.

Guess I see the Cube as a "Build it again Project" for the Australian winter weekends while using the CTC dual for more serious objects.

Twiz

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #112 on: March 28, 2016, 07:19:26 am »
OK, marathon print completed with bulk filament over 9 hours.
Extremely happy with the result. Very little cleanup for the finished object.
I can see me using the Cube for more of my organic  models.
Sorry about the Crap photos, USB endoscope camera on a flexible mount, but not really in the correct focal plane.
Still, shows the progress and finished Skull.

spegelius

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #113 on: March 29, 2016, 02:26:31 pm »
Nice. Is that sliced with Cube's own SW? It's actually not bad with most objects, but there are some corner cases that make it almost unusable with some objects. Also the supports are damn hard to remove. My guess is that Cube SW compensates for the lack of heated bed with well sticking raft and supports.

I got my Bowden extruder installed and so far it's working fine. Had to change the original stepper to new high current Nema 17, it just didn't seem strong enough and the axle was too short for the Airtrippers extruder. Had to reverse two wires to make the extruder reverse it's direction and now everything seems to work fine. Printing my first test object and it does seem that some of the small problems apparent with the original Cube direct drive extruder aren't there anymore: extrusion seems more even and there's no skipping steps when printing objects sliced with Cura. Need to to more testing to adjust prime/suck settings even though current settings seem to work fine.

I also needed to mod my Cube mobo so i can adjust the stepper current. Initial vref was 0.35V, now running at 0.7V.

I bought some wood filament, i might try that hunter skull to see ho it work :)

HittinBottom

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #114 on: March 29, 2016, 02:29:47 pm »
Can you post your cura settings for the cube printer?  I downloaded it but not sure what values to input for the cube.

spegelius

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #115 on: March 30, 2016, 10:00:45 am »
Can you post your cura settings for the cube printer?  I downloaded it but not sure what values to input for the cube.

Sure. I'll start new thread about Cura.

spegelius

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #116 on: April 09, 2016, 04:42:26 pm »
I've been having problems with bulk filaments jamming now and then. Adjusting the wheel opposite of the stepper has helped quite a lot, but still some of the filaments tend to get stuck. Now that i change my extruder to Aitrippers Bowden type extruder, the problem got actually worse and i think it's because with bowden type extruder longer prime and suck settings are needed, i.e. filament needs to move backwards and forwards more than with the default direct drive system.

I fixed this by simply drilling the hotend input hole bigger. 2mm drill bit seems to work fine (could not find 1.9mm bit and frankly i don't think that it makes any difference...). Actually there's only ~1mm of material to drill away, after that the hole in the hotend seems to be 2mm (at least) all the way. I wonder if this is just one of the thing that 3DSystems has done to steer people away from using bulk filament... anyhoo, no more jams so far. Before drilling, my attempts at priting with PETG failed within 5 minutes with filament jam. Actually could not even get the filament out of the hotend at one point, had to use the Cube needle to force the stuff out...

spegelius

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #117 on: April 11, 2016, 03:57:13 am »
Sigh... started printing Hunters_scull yesterday, using Bamboofill filament. It went fine for ~7 hours and quality seemed to be very good, but something happened during night and filament jam. Hopefully i can find a good reason why, otherwise it's just hit and miss what to do about it... It could be the hot end itself, need to see if there's some rough edges in the input hole. Or it could be a tight spot in the bowden tube setup, need to check those and use 2mm drill bit to widen the tube ends. Also Bamboofill might be just too fragile and constant forward/backwards movement might weaken it and gear grinds a hole in it, causing a stall.

spegelius

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #118 on: April 11, 2016, 01:15:14 pm »
Ok it seems that the problem was with the extruder, the point where the bowden tube attaches to the extruder frame was very tight, had trouble getting filament past that point. Used 2mm drill bit to widen it and so far it's been printing fine. Fingers crossed... ::)

spegelius

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Re: Crap hack. Bulk filament
« Reply #119 on: April 13, 2016, 09:33:04 am »
Aaand... didn't work. Actually the Cube hot nozzle setup is quite interesting. There's an PT.. PFE... PFTE? tube with 2mm inner diameter INSIDE the nozzle that apparently came loose after my drilling and clogged the nozzle occasionally. Well got that out which definitely opened the nozzle up. But i stumbled on another issue when doing testprints with bamboofill: the nozzle temperature doesn't seem to be stable. I printed with 200 C and during pahsese whee more filament was extruded, like solids, the flow would just stop after starting fine. After thinking what has changed, i remembered that i lowered the temp from 210 to 200 at some point when testing different settings. Set the temperature back to 210 and no problems.
So this means that apparently the nozzle can't keep up when there's lot's of material going through it. I don't know how bad the problem is as i don't have thermometer capable of measuring the nozzle temperature, but i hope this problem can be overcome by just upping the temperature. I did have a look at the motherboard for clues how the temperature is adjusted and it seems it's the main controller and as the firmware is poprietary, no change of fixing possible problems...