Project Griever: 01 - My first print

During the first weekend with my 3D printer, I managed to find time to print a couple of the Makergear demo bracelet included on the SD card. Most of the time were spent on calibrating the hardware setup, mainly speaking leveling the bed and setting the Z endstop. Two extremely cruicial aspects if you ever want to have a successful print, two amongst many other important steps in fact. Something I just learned the hard way just for about a few hours ago: the slicer settings.

What exactly is a slicer? 

A software which generate printing information based on your input settings and your 3D model. Three popular freeware slicers out there are Slic3r, KISSlicer and Cura. Basicly your workflow from start to finish is like this: 

1. Make/import/scan a 3D model in your software of choice, then export the model in a STL file format.
2. Open the STL file in a slicer software. 
3. Input settings such as your printer properties, and model size, printing speed and start/end code.
4. Slicer generates a new file called GCODE, which is readable by most printers out there.
5. GCODE gets loaded in a printer communication software. You control your printer directly from here
6. All temperatures and settings ready, hit print and watch the printer print.

The demos I received are pre-sliced and immediately ready to print, and they look good as well since they have been sliced with the correct and appropriate settings made for the specific printer. I think different types of printer should have their own unique slicer/gcode settings even though its the same model they are about to print.

Anyhow, I looked up one of my old 3D models made back in 2006, and figuerd out it might be a good printing subject since its small and proves a couple of challenges in comparison with, lets say a simple box. Lets have a look.

A symbol/Pendant called Griever

From studying the 3D model, I can guess there will be a couple of challenges:

• It's an organic shape with both concave and convex ends. 
• It has a relatively high level of details, especially in the cross section and the eye. 
• The surface is not even, and should be very subject to "terraced" surface similar to what you see when reading a height data map.
• Aaaand I've also no idea what I'm doing. Let's hit print and see what happens...

Printing the Griever

I crashed my printer several times before I managed to print something. I learned that I need to do something called "Homing my printer" before loading up the Gcode and hit print. Homing is simply telling the software where the start position for the nozzle is, which in positional terms would be 0,0,0 in the X,Y,Z axis.

A couple of restarts, and a couple of repositioning the Z endstop, I was up and running again. So as soon as the temperatures were right I hitted print again and we were good to go:

Looks cool doesn't it? I find the strange spaghetti like shapes almost mesmerizing and I sat and watched it print from start to finish to ensure everything worked. Being the first print it unfortunately it didn't go without some problems. I used the standard recommended slicer settings for the M2, which apparently did not work well with the high detailed object. The speed settings were kinda high and for every movement the printed did, the whole printer and the table it stood on was wiggling heavily. I scrapped that one and reduced the speed settings and started a second attempt. And look!

...standing proudly where it was printed, only waiting to cool down and let the plastic temper itself so it can be peeled off. Total print time was about 50 minutes at 0.25 mm layer height. It measures roughly 6.4x8.4 cm. Slightly hard to see if it got the details correct due to the translucent propeties of natural PLA. More so getting good pictures of it, but here they are:

I managed to find some leftover primer spray from my earlier project and crossed my fingers the PLA wouldn't be melted or dissolved by it. I gave it one layer of primer and it really enhances the details much better for viewing as well as filling small gaps and cracks. Unfortunately, it also made all the errors much more visible as well. You can easily see the layers of the surface being thrown around and creating a big uneven mess. And there is the 0.25 mm layer height which causes the terrain effect.

Well, the primer should cover up small cracks and crevices, but in this case it also made all the flaws much more visible. It looks much more worse now, however it's safe to say  it looks better than my first try which had more flaws due to relatively high printing speed. As of being my very first own sliced model and everything I still couldn't be more happier to see this tech in action and one of my digital creations take physical form. I still see lots of room for improvement but a step at the time. I will return to this project and see it perfected one day!
I give it a 3 out of 6 stars.

Lessons learned

In the meanwhile here is the initial conclusion and what I've learned.

• For those who likes to take photos of prints straight out the printer. A good picture is very appreciated, and filament which is white or translucent does not work very well. I managed to restore some of the picture quality due to RAW format. I believe the same applies to black and red filament as well because its hard to see contrast in those colors.
• PLA doesn't smell as waffles with corn syrup :( They don't smell anything in fact. Not as what I could detect anyway. Maybe my print is too small?
• The importance of finding the correct slicer settings have a huge impact on prints.
• ALWAYS home your printer before printing. Otherwise you will crash your printer as I did. Might also be my printer.
• Also it might be a good idea to turn off your sleep/hibernate function on your computer while your printer is hooked up to it and printing.

Feel free to join in with tips and solutions to the mistakes so we can haul in this project in someday!
-WJ