Guide: 3D Printing
Definitely read Ben Kreimer's review of our two printers to get a sense of how they differ.
Pros:
- Beginner friendly
- Free CURA software to drive it
- Auto levels bed, cleans extruder, handles cool-down
Cons:
- Smaller bed
- Often less precise
- Fewer advanced settings
- Hard to find 3mm filament
- Must be plugged into computer the entire time while printing
This will walk through printing a simple coaster.
Make sure the Lulzbot is plugged in and turned on. For this demo, you'll also want to switch to full settings by clicking on "Expert" => "Switch to full settings".
Download an stl file (for this demo try this coaster), press the "Load Model" button in the top, and load it onto the virtual bed in CURA.
On the left there is a column with settings, which you should check whenever you print. For this demo, there are two things to configure:
- Make sure the printing and bed temperatures are correct for the filament
- Set "Flow %" to
89(the Lulzbot consistently over extrudes, see below)
Press the "Control" button and a new window should open up + the Lulzbot's fans should make a whirring sound briefly. If the "print" button remains greyed out you'll need to flip the printer off and on again, and possibly restart CURA. See known problems.
You don't need to manually level the bed, clean the extruder, or fill in the printing and bed temperatures. Just press "Print" and it should take off!
To fix, change the "flow %" in CURA. For most things 89% seems to work pretty well, but if your print has large, solid surfaces (> 75mm by 75mm) you might need to bump it down even more (try 87%).
It might get stuck to the bed! When it does, it's a huge pain to scrape off!
Fortunately, there's kapton tape. It's hard to get onto the bed, but will save you a lot of time in the long run.
Sometimes when you press "Control" in CURA it will fail to connect to the Lulzbot. Only known fix is to –sometimes repeatedly– flip the Lulzbot off and on, unplug / plug it back into the computer, and restart CURA.
When the extruder moves up and down, a kind of loud and alarming clicking noise comes from gears somewhere. Ben and Wes looked at this but had no idea what was wrong.
If you're having trouble getting the first couple layers to stick, try pre heating the bed before pushing "Print". Westley suspects that the temperature sensor is a little faulty and thinks the bed is done heating before the whole thing has reached a consistent temperature.
Pros:
- Larger bed
- Precise
- 1.7mm filament is easy to find
- Lots of advanced controls
- You can start a print, then unplug your computer and do other things
Cons:
- You have to manually level the bed and clean the extruder
- Simplify 3d software can be... less than simple
- More precision often means longer prints
- There's an awesome troubleshooting guide here: https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshoting
- When printing long thin things, sometimes the first couple layers will stick fine but the print will come unstuck and become misaligned later on. This might be because the fan is cooling the thin parts of the print too quickly causing them to change shape. Try disabling fans altogether, or only turning them on well into the print.
- For large substantial things, it might be tempting to leave the fans off. Unfortunately this can cause things to cool unevenly and warp in strange ways.
- For printing with NinjaFlex, this is a good overview of settings.
- Sometimes when you power the MakerGear on it starts to make a horrible grinding noise. Don't print while it's making that noise. Flip it off and on –sometimes repeatedly– until it stops making that noise.