Glitterwolf Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 2 hours ago, Olaf the Stout said: Clearly I tempted fate with this post. Just had 2 complete plate failures in a row. Looking at the discord server for the minis I was trying to print, several other people are having the same problem. Basically the supports are just too thin, so I think it’s more a model support problem than my printer being the issue. Learning to place your own supports ( or at least add some when needed with socalled presupported files) will be a great benefit! I had better results as soon as I learned that, Youtube is your friend here! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf the Stout Posted October 13, 2022 Author Share Posted October 13, 2022 3 hours ago, Glitterwolf said: Learning to place your own supports ( or at least add some when needed with socalled presupported files) will be a great benefit! I had better results as soon as I learned that, Youtube is your friend here! Yeah, I’ve supported my own STLs in the past and I agree that it’s a great skill to develop. I’m a lot, lot better at it now than I was when I first started (to the point where I wonder what the heck old me was doing when I see some of the supports I added). However, I’ve got about a dozen full build plates to print in the next week for prizes for the tournament I’m running, so I’d prefer not to have to spend hours presupporting minis on top of that. I just printed another full plate from another creator and had zero issues with minis falling off, even though the temperature was colder, if anything when I printed that plate. So it’s definitely a supports issue, rather than anything I’m doing wrong. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf the Stout Posted October 16, 2022 Author Share Posted October 16, 2022 My poor printer doesn't know what hit it. I'm printing prizes for a Blood Bowl tournament I'm running in 2 weeks time. Over the last 4 days I've printed 20 full build plates worth of minis. It's handled it all like a champ, with the only issue being 2 plates that failed due to the presupports being way too thin (to the point that the creator is re-releasing them with better supports). 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf the Stout Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 Well, my FEP finally got a hole in it. I had a failed print, lifted up the tank and discovered some slight resin leakage onto the screen protector. I'm going to try and get the resin off the screen protector bit by bit with some isopropyl, wiping with paper towel to get what I can, then some very careful, low angled scraping with a fresh blade. Fingers crossed the FEP changing process goes smoothly. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf the Stout Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 Well, I got most of the resin off, but slightly cut through the screen protector with my blade right near the end of the process. Bugger. A new screen protector has been ordered, but I'm out of action until that arrives. No point in risking it. On the plus side, it happened on my very first print attempt after my tournament. If it had happened 3 weeks ago before I'd printed dozens of print beds worth of prizes I would have been in trouble. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf the Stout Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 Well, I'm either a moron or a genius. I changed my FEP (so many screws!), rigged up a second FEP as a screen protector after reading that is what others have done and relevelled my plate. I'm running the Amerilabs calibration print now, which takes about 45 minutes. So I'll know soon if it actually works. The FEP screen protector will just be to tide me over until the proper one arrives. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf the Stout Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 Calibration print went fine. I'm testing some actual minis now. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf the Stout Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 Printed the a full plate of minis. Only the 4 at the back printed. The 7 at the front and middle all failed. I’m thinking I’ll try another build plate leveling, just in case I didn’t quite get it flat last time. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glitterwolf Posted November 3, 2022 Share Posted November 3, 2022 13 minutes ago, Olaf the Stout said: Printed the a full plate of minis. Only the 4 at the back printed. The 7 at the front and middle all failed. I’m thinking I’ll try another build plate leveling, just in case I didn’t quite get it flat last time. A stupid question maybe, but it happened to me the first time I changed my FEP. Did you remove the protective sheets on your FEP? There is one on EACH side! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haldir Posted November 3, 2022 Share Posted November 3, 2022 37 minutes ago, Glitterwolf said: A stupid question maybe, but it happened to me the first time I changed my FEP. Did you remove the protective sheets on your FEP? There is one on EACH side! Not all FEP sheets have protectors, just saying. There have been times I've thought there was one on the sheets I was changing, but there wasn't. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf the Stout Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 1 hour ago, Glitterwolf said: A stupid question maybe, but it happened to me the first time I changed my FEP. Did you remove the protective sheets on your FEP? There is one on EACH side! Yeah, I did. I read of several people that had that issue, so I made sure I got both off and put them aside so I didn’t get mixed up. Definitely a good question to ask though. 1 hour ago, haldir said: Not all FEP sheets have protectors, just saying. There have been times I've thought there was one on the sheets I was changing, but there wasn't. The Elegoo Mars 3 FEP have a protective sheet on both sides. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf the Stout Posted November 4, 2022 Author Share Posted November 4, 2022 Well I think I discovered my issues. Firstly, when I manually relevelled my build plate, I didn't re-zero the z-axis. So it's likely that was sitting at a slightly different height, which could have caused an issue. The second problem I'm having is build plate adhesion. My prints are failing due to them sticking too much to the FEP. This was rarely a problem for me before. So when I replaced my FEP I likely set the tension slightly too loose. I'm debating whether I just replace the FEP again and make it tighter this time, or if I increase the number of bottom layers and exposure time. I'm leaning towards just replacing the FEP. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf the Stout Posted November 5, 2022 Author Share Posted November 5, 2022 (edited) I replaced the FEP for a second time. I didn't really want to change it again, but I think it was the best option. Otherwise I'd just waste more time and resin from failed prints and risk getting a hole in the FEP from failed prints anyway. I didn't use a spacer this time and it definitely feels tighter. I've got a print running now, so we shall see if that has fixed my problem. Hopefully it works because I have about 10 build plates worth of stuff lined up to print. Edited November 5, 2022 by Olaf the Stout 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf the Stout Posted November 5, 2022 Author Share Posted November 5, 2022 Woot! I am back in business. I had a sense of dread heading out to check on this print, but it appears the FEP change worked well this time. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf the Stout Posted November 5, 2022 Author Share Posted November 5, 2022 Looks like I’m not out of the woods yet. I had 2 out of 6 Ogres partially fail on an overnight print due to them starting to come off the build plate near the end, then had the same thing happen with some bases. ☹️ I think I’m just going to spread them out more and print less per plate. See if that helps. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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