M4 Latch

[Ducky4546]

I have been tuning my printer (CR6se) and using the m4 extruder as a test part. The larger parts are coming out great.

But the small latch parts keep printing with an ugly a taper. I tried again last night and it did the same thing and it was stuck down to the bed very well. Any ideas?

Ignore the crappy layers I accidentally tuned on adaptive layer height in S3D. It does the same thing in Prusia slicer. Lager parts are coming out nice and straight.

I had the latch door, shuttle and wheel on the build plate as well so maybe it was an uneven cooling time?

[smirk]

If it had been uneven cooling time (caused by other items on the bed) then I would have perhaps expected to see some deformities in those items, but there again that's easy enough to test (and I'm sure you've tried it) print the latch by itself and experiment with minimum layer time (or whatever it's called in S3D) and/or cooling fan. Likewise, if it was mechanical then I would expect everything to be deformed in a similar manner (unless the latch is always printed on the same cursed spot on the bed )

I wonder if it's the size or the part (gcode) itself - what would happen if you scaled one of the larger parts down to the size of the latch? Would it still print nicely or would the horrible taper appear? If it didn't then that too me would point to something freakish about the latch model (it doesn't look horrendously complex but I'm only seeing one side).

 

[Ducky4546]

Thanks @smirk those are some good theories. I'll give those a shot. 

The model should be good....Both parts printed install in PLA and we're perfect. 

Ill report back with my findings. 

[Ducky4546]

I ran a bunch of tests today while hanging out with my Daughter. I printed a bunch of them and the the biggest affects was turned down my flow rate to %93. Then the quality went way up. Going extra slow helped as well. Def need to hone in on proper flow rate and this little part showed it well.

So I found and post that agreed with theory I came up with. Same issue the part had a taper from top to bottom.

https://community.ultimaker.com/topic/38450-printing-small-gears-wierd-tapering-issue/

To sum it up. It was a very short layer time and as the filament lays down it doesn't have a chance to cool and contract completely before the next layer. So this seems to accumulate through our the part. 

The fillemnt I'm using is hatch box ABS. The latch works fine I'm just being picky. Ironically the original PLA latch still works the best.

[smirk]

Every day is a school day! Glad you got to the bottom of it. Out of interest what speed were you prinitng at? I've seen cooling related oddities on very fine details (if I'm printing a figure) but those details looked a lot finer than your latch. Suppose if you'd been sic  "over-extruding" that wouldn't've helped, It's probably multiple factors (filament, speed, flow rate.....). It's this sort of tihng that makes 3D printing so interesting

The Andrew Ellis tuning guide for flow rate (in fact the majority of his guide) is applicable to any printer not just Vorons.I certainly use it to tune the flow on my non Vorons and it works a treat.

[Ducky4546]

Painfully slow 50 mm/s and then turning the speed down.

I do think my Z offset could also be thinning out the first layer width. Seems I'm constantly messing with that vs flow rate. I did install linear rails on the bed and it behaving much more consistently across the bed now. Which is good to start the abs printing for my real Voron parts. It's plenty good for the big stuff.

I will definitely revisit Andrews flow tuning guide. I'm leaning allot and thats what makes it fun.

[claudermilk]

If you think it's painfully slow now, wait until you get your Voron running! Sometimes I'll slice for the Prusa Mini, look at the print time and it's "aw hell naw!" and I slice for the trident instead.