Even LowER-end 3D Printer - Part 3

I think it's safe to say that i'm out of the "setup and blind confusion" phase and firmly into the "building expertise and production" phase.

I spent a fair bit of time over the last week working out the ins and outs of the printer; specifically in terms of 'getting objects made'. The software that came with the printer is not to my taste so i've been investing my efforts there in understanding Cura.

At the start of the week it was all about default setting gcode and getting the print bed more or less level and working.  The 'brim' that the software adds before it starts elevating the actual model helps a bit with working out which corners are high or low; and these can generally be tweaked easily during printing with a hex key.

So i cranked out a mess of tanks, some fliers and various bits and pieces. big stuff, easy stuff.

It was then time for infantry. Using the default settings for infantry really didn't cut it, so i tweaked the Cura slicer from 0.2 (draft) down to 0.1 (fine) quality.

This makes a frackHuge difference. I tried some marines and guard and they generally turned out very well. At least as well as my old printer, so that was good.

and now.. some pics...

here we see a couple of infantry samples and a malcador with a portable flame dispenser for scale.

Infantry: printed at 0.1mm z-axis. these were printed without support (except for the autocannon guy) though inevitably required a little knife trimming to remove 'extrusion gribbles'. the guard are very delicate pieces so the result there is extremely pleasing.

Vehicle: printed at 0.2mm z-axis. a bit of knife work required with gribbles and support (usually printed with support). it contains an acceptable level of detail given the 'quality' (tracks, hatches etc).

Things like tank barrels and things that stick out tend to print worse; e.g. the leman russ barrels were really blobby (even with support) and needed lots of post-print work (melted smooth and knife trimming).  this may have been avoided/reduced with a higher quality print... maybe.

Next we see my combined efforts from the last few days (much of which was done on the weekend).

A new Vraksian army close to completion... with only a handful of infantry sticks and transports to go.

[above: 10 leman russ, 10 malcador, 3 basalisks, 6 minotaurs (2 versions), 2 deathstrikes, 4 sentinels, 4 rhinos, 8 marines sticks, 2 hell talons, 3 hydras. todo/underway: 13 guard sticks + 7 chimeras... p.s. all of these are thingiverse models]

The wide variety of models and shapes REALLY helped push the learning curve.  There's a fair bit of experimentation and trail-and-error required in working out the technique for getting this all working but once you have that formula it seems easy enough to repeat the process.

Someone asked me online what minimum specs i'd want on a low end printer for this kind of project, to which i responded that "the 0.1mm z-axis resolution definitely makes a difference in infantry quality. i like the idea of a smaller nozzle (0.3mm) over 0.4mm but i honestly can't say how much difference it makes."

There are still a few fundamental issues to be resolved before i'd say we're business as usual...

- model lift (edge curling) is a (much lesser) issue but still happens with certain models.

Experimenting with the software brim/raft settings may provide a better result, an tweaking bed temperature.

- drift: where the print seems to displace during the job creating an unwanted offset. seems to happen on bigger jobs. nozzle might be dragging or bump a hard, raised bump... dunno, but might be a function of unlevel table.

[late additions 2018-03-20]
a couple of extra pics...

All the vraksians complete. i'm reasonably sure there's enough for a 3k list there, though i've been working at building options for various 1500pt combinations rather than tournament friendly lists. I think for 3k lists i'll need to add some extra formations, possibly doubling up on some.... unsure at this stage. i should possibly put painting off until i decide what else i need :)

The other remaining things i've printed since starting production with the new printer... just for completeness.


[later 2018-03-21... this post may end up being a ongoing piece]
I mentioned previously having issues to be resolved. 

Last night i ran a job to print out multiple small items in a single job (pic below, left object). it was about 75% of the way through the job when it obviously bumped, dislodged and went to schwit basically. quite annoying. part of the reason for looking at these printers was the 'do bigger job/batches' aspect.

not blaming the printer for this. the plate adhesion aspect is most likely the problem. 
After this i tried smaller batches (pic, right object) which printed perfectly... and i then printed 3 more perfect batches.
i should point out that i also tried 2 more small batches this morning and they both had adhesion issues.  this morning was cold and rainy, almost opposite of yesterday's situation, so the environment probably factors into the results.

my old printer used a 'fibreglass-looking plate' which you had to basically hack the object off.  more research on PLA required.


[much much much later] [ed 2018-11-06: it would be remiss of me to leave the story there. Obviously these are just diarizing my experiences with cheaper printers.
I recently saw a post from a chap in Newcastle who had printed off a very nice looking (based on his pic(s)) BF Gothic ship with tonnes of details; and this from an Aldi printer.
The bigger the ship, the more details available. I'm not aware of the settings/setup/model that he used but it appears that the Aldi printers (cheap but not nasty) are capable of very good results.
My aim here is definitely not to bash cheap printers, but (as i've said all along) to manage one's expectations when it comes to this particular medium.]

Until next time...