3D printing tips for the lulzbot mini

[Das Troll]

I just purchased my second lulzbot mini because I broke the first one cleaning it. This post will be about upkeep and tips to keep from fucking it up.

First a word on how the lulzbot mini auto levels itself for even prints. Each edge has a washer that is connected to the printer itself via wires. When the print head comes down to touch these washers, a connection is made telling it to stop the Y axis and to move onto the next washer. Once all the washers are detected the printer then auto levels the bed for you. This is very important.

One of the biggest problems 3d printers have is an unclean printer head. Often times a little bit of the printer filament gets out and cooks to the head. This causes an unclean connection to be made with the washers and the printer just keeps moving down the Y axis until it starts to grind the belt and motor. At this point cancel the print and shut it off if you have too. If it keeps going, at best you will get a lobsided part. At worst it will drag the print nozzle across the print bed, possibly damaging it and your bed.

So how do you keep it from doing this? Well for the inside of the print nozzle there are strips of cleaning filament with directions on how to use it. These strips will burn all the gunk out from inside of the print head and keep it clean from the inside. This has never really been a problem for me. The real problem came with keeping the outside of the print head clean. I used a wire brush on the head that cleaned it wonderfully. But if you are paying attention you will know that was a huge fuck up on my part. DO NOT USE A WIRE BRUSH! Since there is electricity going through the print head, I basically blew the rambo board on the printer. It messed the whole thing up at that point. It didn't know where to stop on all axis. X, Y, Z, all of them would go past the point where they should causing more damage to my printer. I tried to replace the board but I think it's too messed up at this point. I will have to send it in for maintenance.

My second printer I had more luck with. I started to get the washer mashing when I switched to nylon for printing. This time however I used a piece of fine grit sand paper to get all the gunk off along with a abrasive sponge. This was done after I disconnected all power sources and flicked the button just in case there was some stored power. Once I got it nice and clean, it worked fine. Keeping your print head clean is very important for the life of your printer.

For now, this is all I have until I think of more.

[Enigma]

Ballpark what does a 3D printer like this run?

[Das Troll]

Ballpark what does a 3D printer like this run?

Used? About 600. New about 1400. Lots of people just look at the print speed and the resolution of the printer and get the cheaper 200 dollar printers. At that point they realize how much of a pain in the ass printing is. All the little extras that the higher end printers bring to the table make printing so so much easier. Auto leveling heated beds, a higher print head temp range, the ability to print other types of filament, ect ect. I personally wish I had the money to do a taz 6 with a 12x12x11.5 ( i think) inch bed. That would have been super helpful for my projects.

[Das Troll]

This is the kind of stuff I print BTW, DnD terrain.

[Enigma]

Is that some of your work?

[Das Troll]

Is that some of your work?

Not models no, I'm not that artistic. I did print that though.

[Enigma]

Wow, I never would have guessed it was 3D printed. Usually there's, like, super obvious thick lines in between each layer. I actually see the hype and appeal now, because that's better quality than injection molding can usually achieve.

[Das Troll]

Wow, I never would have guessed it was 3D printed. Usually there's, like, super obvious thick lines in between each layer. I actually see the hype and appeal now, because that's better quality than injection molding can usually achieve.

It's all about print resolution at that point. The lower the resolution the more you see those lines. Where 3D printing starts to fall apart is on small prints and things with over hangs. For example if you were to print a T with no supports under the "arms" of the T then it would just start to spit filament out into the air. There always has to be something under the head for it to print well.

I'd still rather have resin, metal, or even plastic to use for models. They're of much higher quality. There are certain tricks where you can smooth out prints though to where you cant see the print lines at all. One of them is using acetone fumes to melt it.

[Enigma]

Could you, in theory, make the supports part of the 3D print and trim the gate after? I've only ever done injection molding. Thinking about it though, I bet you could 3D print something to make a mold out of for injection molding, which would be bad ass and save a lot of time. Tooling is what cost the most.

[Das Troll]

Could you, in theory, make the supports part of the 3D print and trim the gate after? I've only ever done injection molding. Thinking about it though, I bet you could 3D print something to make a mold out of for injection molding, which would be bad ass and save a lot of time. Tooling is what cost the most.

Your slicer (the program you use to actually print the 3d model) has the ability to add supports. It will automatically build scaffolding under the hanging parts and you can trim it off later. It takes a little more effort to get a good print though because of the smoothing you need to do though.

I never thought of creating a mold for injection. I'm sure that would work but I don't know how well though. I would however like to see how well it works with resin dipping 3d printers. That would be neat.

[Enigma]

Now I want a 3D printer

[Das Troll]

Now I want a 3D printer

Don't skimp then and don't just buy it either. A lot of people buy them thinking about all the cool things they're going to make then either get dissolutioned by the quality of the print or don't know what to print. I specifically got one so I could print out dungeons and dragons stuff. Everything else just kinda branched from that.

[Enigma]

Yeah, after seeing yours I see the potential of a non-bargain bin unit. It reminds me of when I worked at SMC and they bought, like, an $85,000 3D printer.

[Das Troll]

I have to replace my print head and PEI print bed sheet. Heres hoping.

[Enigma]

Good luck. You ever watch Gear Down For What? They 3D print these incredible gear boxes

[Das Troll]

Good luck. You ever watch Gear Down For What? They 3D print these incredible gear boxes

Nope, never even heard of it. I just spent the last hour and a half getting all the glue off my print bed. I'll finish the rest tomorrow.

[Enigma]

[Das Troll]

I clinched up a bit when he bent his print bed. Mines made out of glass.

[Das Troll]

Fucking PEI pad was a pain in the ass and the print head required rewiring. I hate Lulzbot documentation.

[Enigma]

Fucking PEI pad was a pain in the ass and the print head required rewiring. I hate Lulzbot documentation.

That's my struggle with cars. For something so many people own there's ZERO information on things you wouldn't be able to find in a regular ass book that comes with the car.

[murderman143]

you cant just print slower at lower heat, or faster and the same heat to avoid it geting gunked on the outside, id assume you can fully program this thing correct?

[Das Troll]

you cant just print slower at lower heat, or faster and the same heat to avoid it geting gunked on the outside, id assume you can fully program this thing correct?

You can do both of those things but it ins't going to save you from getting excess filament on the print head. The print head needs to be hot enough to melt the filament, which means any excess filament on the outside will eventually cook and burn. You can set the printer to print faster but you risk the chance of a print going bad.

I changed the PEI sheet with a cheap one and paid the price for it. The heated print bed would cause the glue to loosen and bubbles to appear under the prints, causing it to be lob sided. I eventually just paid the 25 dollars for a single official lulzbot PEI sheet. It's much thicker and sticks much better. So far it hasn't given me any problems.

The rewiring went fine. It was a pain in the ass though. The first run I wired it incorrectly and the print head wouldn't heat up. The second time I wired it up I realized what I did wrong and fixed it.