I recently switched to the Kliment fork of the TonokIP fork of the Hydra-MMM firmware.
The tiny pauses between g-code segments are all but gone, and I’ve been re-printing some things
to do before & after comparisons.
The black PLA-4043D Hyperboloid was printed with the Tonokip firmware, and the recent natural 4043D PLA was printed with the Kliment firmware.
Both were printed through a MakerGear plastruder with a 0.35mm nozzle, at 0.25mm layer heights. I’ve been using the same hot-end for a while now, and have put nearly 15lbs of PLA through it. The took 2 hours each, give or take a few minutes.
Hopefully my picture managed to capture the difference in surface quality. Hit the full-size photos to see it better.
I did a test print at 0.08mm layers, the smallest layer height I’ve attempted yet.
I used a Makergear Plastruder, and black Ultimachine 4043D PLA.
Skeinforge sliced it onto 187 layers. It was not a fast print, taking about 2.5 hours.
Aside from a kind of smeary top layer, it came out ok.
Pictures follow:
These two pulleys are the final print of a complete Prusa Mendel parts set I’ve been printing for a friend. It took about 3 weeks of evenings on & off. Most of the parts were printed one at a time, I didn’t use the production parts files.
The parts are now in the hands of Eric, hopefully he’ll be printing in a month or so.
I made some links of chain, arranged just so that I could slip a previously printed link over two adjacent links, while they were still being printed. Purists may take exception, but I think it’s kind of cool.
The links were printed with a 0.4mm MakerGear nozzle, using 0.26mm layers. All the ‘extra shells’ settings in Skeinforge->Fill set to 0, the infill turned way down, and lots of cool air..
I made a new Z-axis motor coupler, as I suspect the old one was slightly off-center & causing wobbles to show in printed parts. The new one seems better, but I still have a little bit of wobble from a still undetermined source.
new Z axis shaft coupler
Here are a few recent prints. I recently started using the “Dimension” module within Skeinforge to retract the feed-stock between moves, and it’s really helped reduce the “stringies” that’d happen between parts.
I'm six little teapots.
These rings printed fine, but a few lost their grip right as the print finished.
I’ve managed to connect a webcam to the ArduinoMega that is controlling my 3D printer, so now I can trigger a picture from the G-code that the printer is reading to make the part.
This means I can take a picture at the beginning of each printed layer, and make time-lapse video like this:
After melting the PTFE insulator yet another time, I’ve built another hot end. This one doesn’t use the PTFE as a stress-bearing part, but only to contain any plastic that may ooze above the top of the heater barrel.
The heater barrel is threaded into the PTFE about 0.25″, just enough to keep it aligned. The PTFE isn’t attached anywhere else, just sandwiched between the washer and the aluminum mounting plate above it.
I also made modular heater and thermistor, ala Makergear.com HeatCore. (I know a good idea when I steal it).
non-load-bearing PTFE
I’ve also ditched the separate nozzle, and used the brass screw as a one-part barrel+nozzle. The opening was drilled with a 0.45mm drill.
No nozzle!
Print quality has improved by a lot, and I haven’t had any problems with the feed pinch-wheel teeth stripping the filament.
After trying to do some printing with a spool of White PLA 4042D, and being unable to replicate the quality level I’d got with Natural PLA 4042D, I started to look for possible differences in the composition of the filament.
After reading the datasheets, the only documented difference is %2-%4 pigment. I’d had decent results with green & black PLA, so I wasn’t convinced that the pigment was a factor. (Although at this point I was so frustrated that I wasn’t ruling it out, either).
