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Print Curling

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Woodrow Collins, Mar 10, 2017.

  1. Woodrow Collins

    Woodrow Collins New Member

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    Anyone have any recommendations on preventing the curling of the bottom portion of a print on the C2? Seems like every print I perform at least 1 corner is curling up. Kind of getting frustrated with this printer at this point. First the z alignment issue with having to move the bed around (which im still not convinced its fixed but can ultimately solve the problem with the current work around). And now no matter what print I attempt a portion of the bottom is curled.

    I hope there is a solution for this, the $700 I paid for this thing I can't justify keeping it with the curling problems. The bed I can deal with but if I can't get flat surfaces to the prints the printer is pretty much useless to me.
     
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    What filament?

    Have you tried more than one spool? What have you tried (i.e. did you try printing cooler/hotter extrusion temperatures, etc)?

    For PLA curling with no bed heat applied is very uncommon although I have seen it happen (not much but a bit) if I extruded too hot.
    Other filament types vary.
     
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    If you are really not happy with the results you should be working with Robo3D directly to get it sorted as a warranty issue (or get it returned).

    The user community will be happy to assist you work out whatever we can, but there are limits to what we can do -- we can't send you replacement bits for example. It is a bit further complicated by the fact that not a lot of forum users have C2 machines so the pool of expertise is somewhat limited.

    All that said, I did have issues with the bed and was able to figure out (and label) the best orientation for the bed and I have not had PLA warp issues. So far have only tried a couple of brands though (HatchBox and ColorFab) so that part is a wee bit of a limited sample set.
     
  4. Woodrow Collins

    Woodrow Collins New Member

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    I have only tried a single brand of PLA material in this particular printer but I have used the same brand in other printers I have and haven't experienced curling. The labeling of the bed helped out with the other thread, though after finishing a few prints and going to start new ones I had to reset my z offset and even when placing the plate in the same position and as before I was getting the same off level behavior.

    I'll attempt to change my temp on the hot-end and see if that helps. I can't say I had had curling issues in the past with any printers I have used but all the printers have always had heated beds as well.

    As far as contacting Robo, my $0.02. If they have a good working product there shouldn't be many calls needed for regular operation. I'll return the product and go with something that does operate as expected. When I first was getting into 3D printers I was all about tinkering but it mainly was for educational purposes on my part. Now , aside from expected maintenance, I have no interest in trying to troubleshoot issue's for a company that should have already done so. If I wanted to tinker/troubleshoot I would have purchased me a kit and saved money. If this sounds bad please don't take it as so. The people here have been wonderful and very helpful, I just find in certain points in my life time is more limited than others and right now is one of those times. I just want it to work.
     
  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Heck no :)
    I hear you. I have gotten myself to the point that fiddling is just not top of my agenda.

    Given the premium you pay for the Robo over the cost of kit printer, there is no reason to expect that you NEED to do that either.
     
  6. JohnShuba

    JohnShuba New Member

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    Mine at first had the same curling issue. Once I got use to the Z-offset "setting it correctly it takes practice" and then I raised the tempature to 200 the problem does not occure anymore. Im using the Cura software and out of the box the PLA tempature was set to 190, when I raised it I have better results overall.
     
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  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Thanks for sharing this.

    I guess we don't say it enough for the new folks to see it, but you really need to think of all the temperatures listed for any filament spool as more like "guidelines" than a hard-n-fast rule.

    Not only will different manufacturers have different best temperatures on a given printer, different spools may too. You have to test every spool and see where the sweet spot is.

    But wait! there's more :) If you happen to have a spool that hangs around long enough to age the range may well shift again.

    Even with problem symptoms (like curling) there is no universal "right" answer either. All you can say is that it is a heat management issue (too hot, too cold, too fast cooling, etc.)

    It is good to experiment with these things as there is a world of filament types out there (not just PLA and ABS) and some of them are fantastic for specific applications.
     
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  8. Rigmarol

    Rigmarol Well-Known Member

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    Where and when you print is important too.
    Mine is in the family room. Air conditioned during the day.
    At night it will get much colder in the winter and much much hotter in the summer when we all go to bed and turn off the central air conditioning and switch to our bedroom fans.
    I print a lot at night so have seen some impact.
     
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  9. Frank van Gilluwe

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    I was also get curling on larger prints in the front. What solved it for me was in Cura change the Fan speed from 75 to 30. Works like a charm!

    To do this, select Custom print setup, mouse over the Cooling like and click on the gear icon. Add a check to the 2nd item listed "Fan Speed" and Close. Now you can set the fan speed. I'm not sure why any other value should be used, as 75 always causes curling, and I've not found any prints that had problems at 30.

    This trick was actually in the manual pdf somewhere (who looks at manuals?).
     

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