Unresolved Noob with some of questions...

Hi all. After months of research, I decided to jump into this hobby- YOLO. It helped that Fry's had this on clearance and my local store is the only one in Northern California that had it in stock.

With that said, I got a couple of prints done and noticed a couple of quirks in my printing. I am 95% it is mea culpa. I noticed that printing in PLA, my model is "stringing,"

My question is: is this caused my the filament? The roll that came with the machine. I know you guys/gals aren't very fond of the stuff. But before I resign it to that I figure I ask.

Could it also be the temp the extruded is releasing the filament? Using Matter Control on the Mac with the default setting of 210 C. Or both? If it is the former, any brands you recommend? How's Hatchbox? If the latter, any recommendations on the temp?

Any and all feedback is appreciated. Thank you. I am looking forward to learning more about yet another expensive hobby.


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Stringing is a function of filament, retraction, and temperature settings. 210 is generally ok, but the Deprime Test object is a nice quick print to tune your settings: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:66175

I think he also lists recommendations for things to adjust so give it a read. I find about 4mm retraction at 30mm/s should be plenty to stop strings.

Hatchbox is good filament and very popular, but still very much the bottom of the line for acceptable filament, the Chevy compact car. Even brands like eSun are typically more reputable and will in general have tighter tolerances and better color mixing. The Cadillac of filament is ColorFabb PLA/PHA series.

 

Thanks, Mike.

I'll give that a look see. Should I bother testing it with the included PLA or use a 'decent' one?


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Btw, not kidding about Colorfabb being the Caddie/Merc of the bunch. That stuff cost more than double that of Hatchbox.


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Good to know Mark- and funny. The cheap, frugal in me wanted to use it for practice. They do give you a good amount of the stuff (crap?). I didn't want it to go to waste.

Then I read an article that said specifically that a machine that is "dialed-in" can print even on crap. Guess this stuff goes beyond the crapper?


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Another question, is the oiling/priming thing just for PLA or do I need to oil ABS?


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I don't think Robo's stuff is that terrible, but it's also not the best. Somewhere below hatchbox but not the bottom of the barrel.

I would use it for doing some calibration type objects but wouldn't print with it unless you really needed that particular color

 

So, Mike the Sample spool is actual Robo PLA, like the ones they sell in the online store?


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No it's a different brand/company that makes their 250g spools

Their store filament is much nicer, it's sold as Octave elsewhere, same stuff afaik. Not worth what robo charges for it though.

 

Right, I think the Colorfabb is the same price as Robo sells theirs for. Guess, for now I now going with Hatchbox until my needs matches the Colorfabb route. Knowing me, it will eventually- as it does with my other hobbies: photography, vinyl decals, etc.

The Robo sample was not bad, but required a lot of Post work. I was sanding for two hours last night to clean it up. But I do plan to epoxy it, prime then paint, so it may not matter too much in that case?


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Yeah post processing can save the worst of prints. That's why I prefer ABS. Sands much nicer, can be vapor polished, etc.

before post processing:
http://imgur.com/a/Ko7tF

After hand sanding and sand blasting, plus a vapor polish:
http://imgur.com/a/TOmnS

 

That turned out great!


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Okay, I drop the temp to 205, used the extraction settings you recommended and albeit not quite perfect yet, much better than it was before. So got to shoot more trouble and adjust accordingly.


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Looks like the initial adjustments reduced stringing to cobweb-like strings, better but not their yet. Should I continue to decrease the temp? 200 C?


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Have you calibrated your extruder steps per mm?

 

Thanks, Mike- I'll try that.


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Okay drop the temp to 200 C and this came out...from the "crappy" Robo PLA.


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