Tag: 3dprinting

Easy to work with, biodegradable, inexpensive, can be infused with different materials to introduce different properties; what’s not to like about PLA?

I like to use PLA. It’s a good filament for a variety of uses, and I use it for probably 80% of my prints. But it’s not a one-size-fits-all. I like to use it for a lot of proof-of concept ideas that I have had or to experiment with different versions of a component.

Some of the downsides of using PLA, you need to be careful of which manufacturer you purchase from. Not all PLA is created equal. Some manufacturers put in cheap additives to keep their costs down. Then these additives end up causing problems with your prints. Find a good brand, dial in your printer for that brand, and stick with it.

Compared to other materials, PLA has pretty poor thermal properties. It your component is going to be anywhere near any type of heat source, PLA may not be the right material for you.

PLA doesn’t hold up very well outdoors. 

PLA, has pretty poor hardness properties. 

As with so many things, it depends on what you are doing. For the right application PLA is great.

About 13 hours into a 16 hour print I got a notification on my phone: “Thermal Runaway: E1. Printer Halted.”

Ugh, so much for that one. Put it in the pile of abstract spaghetti.

Upon investigation, I found out that I basically did everything wrong. I had my printer directly in line with one of my HVAC vents with no enclosure. I had received a new hotend for Christmas, which I had just swapped for the old one. My silicone cover had dragged on one of my prints so I removed it. So, you get the opportunity to learn from my mistakes.

  • Make sure that your printer is not in a drafty area, or that it is in an enclosure if it is.
  • Make sure that you PID tune your hotend any time that you change something on the hotend. Every hotend will have different characteristics. PID tuning is basically using the thermal sensor to determine what amount of current is needed to set it at a particular temperature. If the PID is not done correctly (or not at all) then you will see fluctuations in your temperature as your printer is constantly trying to adjust.
  • Don’t remove your silicone cover. Plain and simple. Figure out why it’s dragging on your print. In my case, the heat break was loose, a symptom which I masked over by removing the silicone cover.

When it comes to 3D printing, the orientation of your model can have a big impact on the quality and success of the final print. 

FDM printing works by heating a filament of thermoplastic material and extruding it through a nozzle, layer by layer, to build up the model. The orientation of the model during printing can affect how the filament is deposited, and can cause issues such as warping, poor surface finish, failed prints, or the failure of a part while it is being used.

It’s this last failure that I want to elaborate on. When I am making functional parts, I try to make sure that the layer lines are in the same direction as the force that is being applied. Where each layer line joins is a weak spot and a potentail point of failure for your part. But, by changing the orientation so you can reduce the negative impact of the layer lines.

Another factor to consider is the location of overhangs and support structures. Orienting the model so that overhangs and support structures are minimized can help to reduce the need for additional support structures, which can save time and material. It can also improve the surface finish of the print, as support structures can leave marks on the final print.

In summary, orientation is an important factor to consider when 3D printing using FDM technology. By understanding the impact of orientation on the final print, you can optimize your model for the best results. This includes selecting the best layer direction, minimizing overhangs and support structures, and more.

I recently designed some parts that need to be structurally stronger than any of the plastic components that I have designed in the past. I set out to find something, I was hoping for a metal filament that I would be able to print with my FDM printer.

I was not disappointed. I discovered BASF’s Ultrafuse metal filament, which is PLA infused with metal. It’s not cheap, so I’ll be doing quite a bit of investigation before I start using any of it. It also requires post-processing to remove the plastic from the metal and to sinter the metal together afterwards. I also need to plan for 20-25% shrinkage. All in all, this should be an interesting experiment.

Sometimes people post wondering why their prints come out horribly.

They will adjust their settings and tune them to a specific brand, color, and type of filament. Then, after a little while, they change something minor, like a different color from the same brand and their prints get all messed up. It takes different additives to make different colors. In the 3d printing world, yellow is different than red, which is different than blue. The different additives from the colors cause the filaments to behave differently when melted, which in turn results in different looking 3d prints. You must tune them each individually.

Someone printing an object had an issue where the printhead would move off to one side after each layer. This can be set by several slicer settings. You can enable/disable, depending on what you are trying to do.

Most slicers have a camera setting. After each layer the printhead moves off to the side to give a clear shot of the progress for the camera. 

Minimum layer time. For small cross-section prints, you can run into issues if you print too many layers on top of each other too quickly. Minimum layer time moves the print head off to the side for a moment to allow the last layer to cool down a little bit before moving on to the next one.

If you do much 3d printing, you will eventually want to use a different spool of filament before your current one is finished. And, unless you live in a desert region, your filament will pick up moisture, leading to printing problems down the road. By the way, even if you do live in a desert, I would still argue that your filament will pick up moisture. 

I’ve seen some people dry out their filament and then store it in vacuum bags, then remove it when they are ready to continue printing. My preference is to just store it as-is, then dehydrate it when I plan to use it again. I use a modified food dehydrator to do this. I just cut out the middle part of the racks so that the dehydrator closes around the spool. Other people use purpose built dehydrators or other homemade versions. Airtight Tupperware seems to be popular for storage and dehydration.

Sometimes you will see small holes in your print when viewing the first few layers. This can happen if your line width is set too high. Too high? Wouldn’t I need to increase my line width to cover more of the surface?

Running your parts with a thick line width will cause larger gaps in the “corners” where the nozzle steps over to the next line to lay down. I usually don’t worry about it too much. In most prints, these holes don’t matter and eventually get filled in anyway. However, in cases where it matters, just reduce your line width. Or, even better, replace your nozzle with a smaller nozzle.

Sometimes extruder problems are truly extruder problems. When there is a clogged nozzle problem, your extruder won’t be able to push more filament through and your extruder gears will often start making a clicking noise, leading you to start your troubleshooting diagnosis with the extruder.

For troubleshooting, see if you can isolate the extruder from the nozzle. For a Bowden tube setup, this is pretty simple. Just pull out the Bowden tube and see if the extruder works. For a direct drive system, it’s a little more difficult, but you can just pull of the nozzle and see if the extruder works then. Then, if the extruder suddenly starts working correctly you will know that the problem is with the hotend. If it still doesn’t work, then you know that the problem is with the extruder.

When using Wood PLA, I had to make a few adjustments. The main issue that I encountered was clogging. The wood grain that is embedded in the PLA just seemed to clog up a 0.4mm nozzle very quickly. To resolve this, I switched to a 0.5mm nozzle. Additionally, I had to increase the nozzle temperature. On average, I run wood PLA about 10-15 degrees hotter than standard PLA.

Once it is finished, the results are pretty cool.