🖨️3D Printing

What is 3d printing:

  • Additive manufacturing

  • the process of adding thin layers upon each other of material to create a 3d object

Main parts of the plastic extrusion printer

  • hot end

  • Bed

  • Extruder

  • Z axis gantry

  • Control board

  • X axis gantry

  • Y axis gantry

Hot end

  • Heats up filament into semi-liquid

  • Made up of the nozzle

  • Made up of the heatsink

  • Heat block

  • Thermal sensor

Bed

  • Build plate

  • Heated bed

  • Stepper motor

  • Thermal sensor

  • Leveling knobs

Extruder

  • Stepper motor

  • Feeding gear

  • Feeder

  • (optional) feeding tube

Control board

  • Usb ports

  • Sd card reader

  • Micro sd card reader

  • Usb b port

X axis gantry

  • Stepper motor

  • Gear

  • Belt

Y axis gantry

  • Stepper motor

  • Gear

  • Belt

Z axis gantry

  • Stepper motor

  • Z axis screw

  • Aluminum extrude

Problems with printing:

Failed print causes:

  • bed adhesion

  • under extrusion

  • layer shifts

  • clogged nozzle

  • the filament breaking

  • temperatures

Bed adhesion:

Check your bed is level

Use a glue stick or hairspray to keep the print stuck to the bed

Check your temperatures

Under extrusion:

Check your extrusion settings speeding up or slowing down the Flow rate or extrusion multiplier

Check your nozzle temperature

Check to make sure there is no blockage in the nozzle, can be done with a thin needle

Layer shifts:

Check the tension on the belts that control the x and y axis

Clogged nozzle:

Dirty on unclean hot end

Temperatures

Not purging the hot end after changing filament

Filament breakage:

Make sure that your filament is flexible, brittle filament could be due to higher moisture in the stored environment

Temperatures

Make sure that you dont set temperatures over the recommended limit

All filament types require different temperatures

Hardware:

Check your wiring

Check for mechanical problems; gears, belts, screws

Most important thing is that it takes time!!

Resources

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