84 posts tagged with "3D Printing Tips"

Klipper firmware is getting all the praise lately owing to its vast range of features and top-notch performance. It also offers several configuration options to calibrate your printer to deliver high-quality 3D prints.

One crucial parameter we’ll be configuring today is PID tuning for your 3D printer. Setting the correct PID settings ensures that your hot end and print bed are heated in the least time possible and maintain the set temperature with great precision.

This article will guide you through the PID calibration process for your 3D printer using Klipper. It’ll help you to understand more about these PID settings and sort out any heating issues with your machine.

Let’s start tuning up these beds and hot ends!

Introduction​

Pressure Advance in Klipper is designed to compensate for the side effects of instant speed changes that occur during fast print speeds. It reduces stringing, gives your prints sharp corners, and delivers a high print quality even at speeds above 100 mm/s.

But tuning pressure advance in Klipper and understanding its functioning can be puzzling to new Klipper users. So, in this article, we’ve gathered all the information you need to know about Pressure advance and set it up in Klipper. It’ll help you understand the benefits of this feature and how you can use it to sharpen up your 3D prints.

Let’s Advance!

Klipper firmware has been around since 2016 in the 3D printing community. It’s free, open-source, and has steadily become a mainstream 3D printing firmware, second only to Marlin.

Yet, Klipper’s earlier versions missed key features like the Octolapse, Exclude objects, and plug-in integration found on Octoprint and Marlin combo. This lack of certain valuable features restricted users from using Klipper as their primary 3D printing firmware.

However, since the recent updates, some of these features are slowly making their way into the Klipper firmware. For example, you can now shoot Octolapse-like videos on your 3D printer using the Klipper timelapse.

Likewise, Klipper now also supports the Exclude objects functionality to rescue you from failed prints. But, it needs some initial setup and configuration, which might be puzzling to new Klipper users.

So, this article will take you through the entire process of setting up Exclude objects for your Klipper 3D printer. We’ll look at this feature in detail and understand how you can use it in your 3D printing workflow.

Let’s exclude the failed prints.

3D Printer Failures/Courtesy: Fabbaloo

If you are new to 3D printing, we are sure you have encountered numerous print failures. Thankfully, this is not something new or unique. It happens to even the most seasoned users. But obviously everyone wishes to improve their 3D printing skills and so knowledge of 3D printer failure detection becomes essential, and this is exactly what we will cover in this article.

3D printing and failures​

Because 3D printing is rapidly becoming popular in a variety of industries, it is critical that every student, as well as manufacturing and design professionals, understand the technology. Though you may not need to understand its complexities, having a working knowledge will help you in your career.

3D printing is a manufacturing process that converts a digital CAD file into a three-dimensional physical model by layering thin layers of material one on top of the other. This is also known as additive manufacturing because material is added rather than removed, as is the case with most conventional technologies.

However, 3D printing is still in its early stages and thus prone to failure. DIY and desktop 3D printing, in particular, frequently fails, and users must use a trial-and-error approach to eliminate or reduce failed prints.

Camera mount for Creality 3D printer/Courtesy: Thingiverse

Creality's Ender 3 3D printer is one of its best-selling models, and it's popular among students, enthusiasts, and hobbyists. As a result, it is safe to say that Ender 3 users are mostly hustlers looking for ways to get the most out of their 3D printer. Many users do not see the need to connect a camera to their 3D printers, but it can greatly improve your 3D printing experience. Many feel that installing. Camera is a tedious task but it is not so. In fact, it is quite easy. All you need is a good camera and a camera mount. This article discusses the various Ender 3 camera mounts that can be installed on your 3D printer.

Klipper is one of the few 3D printing firmware that natively supports an external camera for monitoring your 3D printer. Klipper’s web interface makes it easy to attach a camera to the Raspberry Pi and monitor your printing progress.

But Klipper is a relatively new firmware with limited resources and guides detailing its various features. As a new user or beginner, it’s easy to get confused about the installation and configuration of a camera on your Klipper 3D printer.

This article aims to make this process easy for you and help you set up a camera on your Klipper-connected 3D printer. Read on to learn in-depth about Klipper’s camera setup procedure and how a camera can benefit your 3D printing workflow.

Introduction​

Using the timelapse feature in Klipper, you can record your entire 3D printing process and share bits of it on your social media platforms. These videos are also a great tool to analyze print failures and pinpoint the causes behind a failed print.

Yet, despite their usefulness, setting time-lapse videos in Klipper can be challenging for several users. And while it's a relatively easy setup, the initial configuration can confuse beginner Klipper users easily.

In this article, we'll simplify this process for you. We'll go over the entire procedure step-by-step and configure the timelapse functionality for your Klipper instance. By the end of this guide, you'll be able to record picture-perfect timelapse videos of your 3D prints and share them within your social circle.

Let's start shooting.

Nozzle Scraping Bed Surface​

What Is It?​

Inaccurate bed leveling, low initial layer height, or incorrect Z-offset settings can cause your printer's nozzle to scrape against the printing bed. It might damage the nozzle and the print bed and restrict the filament from flowing out of the nozzle.

If left unchecked for a while, it can build up pressure in the hot end and cause the extruder motor to skip steps. Nozzle scraping is relatively minor but one of the most common issues faced by beginners and new 3D printer users.

Blobs or Zits​

What Is It?​

Blobs or Zits are the tiny dots on your print's surface and directly affect its overall quality and appearance. These are often the result of incorrect retraction settings or high printing temperature and negatively affect the surface finish of your 3D printed part.

Sometimes, you can easily remove them with sanding, but big blobs can be challenging to remove and may leave an impression on your parts. For this reason, it's best to tune your printer to not create them in the first place rather than try to remove them through post-processing.

Broken Filament​

What Is It?​

The filament is a relatively fine plastic thread, which can break easily under certain conditions. If your filament breaks mid-way during a print, it will cause a print failure leading to a loss of print time and effort.

Filament usually breaks due to poor quality control, high humidity, or extreme tension in the filament path. These conditions are essential to consider if you're planning to print large-sized objects or want to use your printer for batch 3D printing.