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Temp Tower Results

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Momenslythe, Sep 13, 2018.

  1. Momenslythe

    Momenslythe Member

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    I want to do a couple things with this post. First, I would like to share my results on a temperature tower for my R2 in a variety of configurations. Second, I would like to ask for advice on improving the quality of these results.

    TLDR: Wow, the precision air flow fan upgrade seemed to help a lot! I can't tell a definitive difference in prints whether or not I'm using the Robo3D faceplate. How can I improve my results further?

    Preperation
    I had not used my printer for a few months due to moving. Once I was set up at a new place, I went through the maintenance steps for updating firmware, cleaning the feeder gear, drive gear alignment and tightening, and lubricating the axis detailed here: https://help.robo3d.com/hc/en-us/sections/115000189532-Maintenance I also ran the onboard PID tuner. I then calibrated my extruder steps per unit as in this guide:


    Configurations
    I have three variables that I changed individually over the coarse of a few temp towers. These variables are fan speed, placement of the Robo3D faceplate, and inclusion of the precision air flow 3D printed fan mount upgrade. I did not do every iteration as I felt some would be unneeded. For fan speed, I used the 75% that is default for Cura for Robo3D and I use 100% because I was often told to change it to 100% when I was having heating/cooling issues in the past. For the faceplate, I had not printed with the faceplate in the past because it would always fall off my C2 mid print making a huge mess and a lot of problems. I then read in some forum posts here that it may be part of the design for the cooling mechanism. I thought to try the precision airflow upgrade because I often had trouble with cooling of small features.

    Print Setup
    I used the default Normal Quality settings for PLA in Cura for Robo3D as a basis. I changed the following.
    Print: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2493504
    Temp: Start at 210, ended at 170. Used TweakAtZ to change the temperature at the starting layer of the block displaying a different temperature. I did not find an easy method to have it stop and wait for the temperature to drop but found that the 5degree increments cooled quickly before it started printing the overhang.
    Fan Speed: 75% or 100%
    Quality: Normal (0.1mm layer)
    Infill: 50%
    Adhesion type: Skirt 2mm spacing, 15 lines

    Results
    It seems that in all cases using 195 degrees is the best for this filament. It is unclear to me in this test if there is an advantage to having the plate while printing at this temperature. This is the same for fan speed. I am unsure what to test or modify next to improve these results or my print quality in general. I have seen much better temp towers than this on other printers. In everyone else's experience is this what I should expect? Is it better or worse than what you have experienced yourselves?

    temp towers sep 13.png
     

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