Please Diagnose my symptoms

GoreWolf

Hello, New guy here!

First week with the JG aurora A5

Ok, Here is a little background info!

The printer is all built, but I have so many questions. Unfortunately, in my hurry, I have been very unscientific about how I change my setting. I am currently printing some test to show everyone and give some more info.

1. The bed was warped from the factory.
A. lowered the Z-axis switch; the nozzle is now able to be 0.2mm away at 4 points...center is a little tight. (where most prints have been printed)
B. screws for bed control where striped on both sides (front) turned them around...they kind of work.
2. while leveling the bed the first time, the screws popped loose hitting the nozzle into bed.
- Will this damage the nozzle? Should it be replaced?
3. installed the newest Marlin firmware from the wiki.
- Mesh bed leveling set to 5? Should I reinstall firmware to conduct mesh bed leveling?
4. Installed blower 5000 cooling duct. set the overall fan to 60 after layer 0, and bridge override to 100%
- Is this right?
5. Downloaded JG Aurora A5 Simplify 3D profile for PLA and PETG

Some prints have been successful! 

Others not so much..... I will post printer tests tomorrow for further analysis. Here are some examples where I cannot specify the settings.

The two horrible failures are my own designs from fusion 3D....maybe I designed them wrong? (I crushed the first one to see its strength)

Thank you for any input! 

Cheers,

Josh

GoreWolf

Update:

Well......No test prints any time soon.

After a bed adjustment, it's totally shot. Either the screw attached to the bed or the adjuster knobs are stripped. Sadly, none of the adjuster knobs can now tighten the bed, they seem to only grab the screws over 1/2 the way inserted.


Does anyone have the measurements for the screws, nuts and adjustment knobs?  My bed is a two-part system held on by clips. I'm thinking that by replacing the screws or adjuster knobs I can get it back up and running.

Positive note.

If the knobs where the problem then my bed may not be warped. 2 of them were stripped off when unboxing, I think the package may have taken a hard knock and stripped them during shipping.

Any input?

Cheers,

Josh

Samuel Pinches

1B: the levelling knob nuts may not be the correct thread for the screws? You might have to visit a hardware store and pickup some M3 nuts. You can then 3D print new leveling knob wheels down the track - e.g. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:39459

Can you try take off the knob nuts and try each nut on each position, to see if it is the nuts that are damaged or the screw threads?

Samuel Pinches

2. If it was just a collision it should be ok. The bed is very abrasive, dragging the nozzle along the bed will leave yellow streaks where the brass is worn away. If that happens you will want to change the nozzle.

Samuel Pinches

3. To enable mesh bed levelling you don't need to flash anything extra. 5 is pretty good. You need to add "M420 S1" to your start gcode, just after G28, in order to enable mesh bed levelling.

Samuel Pinches

regarding the failures:

• Try increase the nozzle size in cura to 0.44mm, which is in my opinion closer to the actual size of the filament that comes out of the "0.4mm" nozzle.
• Try reduce layer height slightly to get more "squish" per layer.
  

GoreWolf

Thank you, Samuel!

1B. I have taken the screw, nut, and knobs off; It was the knobs that are stripped. The nut tightening the screw to the heating bed threads perfectly. I will grab a new M3 nut. There is something profoundly satisfying to fixing an issue and printing a solution.

I run a Forestry office in the middle of nowhere, It just past nothing and next to shit all. I will pick some nuts up when I drive to civilization on Tuesday.

2. It was only an impact, never a drag. I think it will be ok then.

3. I will conduct the mesh bed leveling  using  Prontface as in dahai's video. "M420 S1" added to my G code after G28.

4. I will increase the nozzle size in simplify 3d to 0.44. 

Thank you for the help! It is greatly appreciated!

cheers,

Josh

Samuel Pinches

Good luck Josh, see how you go!

GoreWolf

Hello everyone

I hope you enjoyed your long weekend!

FYI, driving to Canada on labor day does not help you get parts for your printer.....its labor day across the border as well.

Well, many miles and some quick fixes later we are printing again.

Thank you, Samuel, for the Thingiverse link they worked perfectly! 

The john deer mechanic has M3 locking washers, not standard M3 hex nuts......so we are back in biz.

here is a pic of the current set up, thoughts? (see pic) 

after a few beers (sorry for the bad spelling) and hours of tinkering here are the first results.

the screws printed amazingly! the infill was truly a thing of art. I need to work them visibly into an art piece.

Here is a benchy in white with my 0.44 nozzle size. sadly,  before the bed issues and the many changes, I printed this one in yellow PLA (old firmware).

Any tips?
 
I have an all in one bench test printing right now for a better insight into my current print quality.

Again thank you for the help and happy printing.

Josh

GoreWolf

Well, after a lot of tinkering I think I got it!.... I think....maybe.....

So after about .5kg PLA in experiments, I think I got it.

Here is the timeline of my spiral into madness.


The orange is PETG; I printed the new fan duct (blower 5000) in it. Then, figured I would try printing something else in PETG. It failed due to the bed not being correctly leveled. So I decided to level the best the best I could and changed to a  PLA profile with 60% fan and 100% bringing fan.  From there I tried my vase design, and this happened.



Unbenoced to me, the fan cooling was WAY to low and caused this. (at least that's my theory looking back.)



After trying bed leveling one more time, the adjuster knobs striped and I went back to square one. (still thinking all this was from the bed being unleveled and that my flow rate was wrong.) NOTE TO SELF CHANGE ONE THING AT A TIME DAMN IT!

Should have seen this (notice the burn). As the filament never solidifies it starts to swim in the layers.



So Last night after getting the bed all fixed I printed this. (from the wrong PC.) I usually use my laptop, not my gaming PC and they have many different profiles...)(mistake into success! -> I found out why small details were not printing because of this!)

I then went to a small all-in-one test with my laptop (main) S3D profile. From that, this was the result. (all future prints are on this profile with changes)



Still all the heat issues I was not seeing.........If you dont know what something should look like how can you diagnose it! (maybe 3d benchy will save me!)



NOPE! (same thing) this is where my spiral into madness starts. The amazing thing though is; every failure you learn something. I found the perfect settings for my rafts and they come off amazing clean and simple thanks to this print. As my rafts are now good, let's try benchy without a raft.



3....2.....1......F*@% yep something is causing my nozzle to pull on the model. During this previous print, the area at the front that looks bad had the nozzle Swimming in the wall. (clue #1, the filament is staying very wet for too long) I had originaly chalked this up to the bed not being level, but the raft in my mind should have made up for that...... I checked the distance around my bed in like 20 places......its level and spaced really well at 0.1mm. 

So.....one more try with rafts and some more settings changed.

This was the print where it finally struck me!!!! It's not my Nozzle temp its the fan cooling! I used to print in blue a lot and getting boarded watching bench I tried messing with the control panel and turned up the fan manually and experimented with switching colors.  BINGO!!!! an improvement from where I turned up the fan! while the fan setting do not stick, they always return to the default, the nozzle stopped swimming on its next pass and the quality improved for a layer or two.


So Here is where I am at. New print going now with 80% fan and 100% bridging fan. It should be done in an hour and I will share the results!

Sorry for the long post... Just had to share my insanity

Samuel Pinches

Thanks for sharing! Making progress is good!