LulzBot TAZ 4 User Manual Download

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Slic3r

Figure 2.10: Plater

Once you have acquired a model, drag it onto the Plater window (or use

the Add button below the ﬁle list) to load it into Slic3r. In the ﬁgure below,
the traditional RepRap Minimug

is loaded, and is viewed from above. The

ring around the model is a skirt - a single perimeter, several millimeters
away from the model, which is extruded ﬁrst. This is useful in making sure
the plastic is ﬂowing smoothly from the nozzle when the model is starting
to be printed.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:18357

PROOF

Summary of Contents for TAZ 4

Page 1: ...Content Type Standard Color Paper Type STCO19 Page Count 130 File type Internal PROOF...

Page 2: ...P R O O F...

Page 3: ...TAZ 4 User Manual Aleph Objects Inc P R O O F...

Page 4: ...odify this document under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4 0 International Public License CC BY SA 4 0 Published by Aleph Objects Inc 626 W 66th Street Loveland Colorado 80538 USA For m...

Page 5: ...r Host Software 22 2 Slic3r 23 2 1 Introduction 24 2 2 Getting Slic3r 25 2 3 First Print 26 2 4 Simple Mode 43 2 5 Expert Mode 52 2 6 Con guration Organization 81 2 7 Repairing Models 83 2 8 Advanced...

Page 6: ...lts 107 4 8 Hot End 108 4 9 Electronics 108 5 Advanced Usage 109 5 1 Intro 110 5 2 Changing nozzles 110 5 3 ABS Acetone Glue 111 5 4 Using 1 75mm lament 111 6 Hardware and Software Source Code 115 7 3...

Page 7: ...loaded 41 2 13 Preferences 43 2 14 Simple Mode Print Settings 44 2 15 An example of insu cient top layers 45 2 16 Creating a vase from a solid model 46 2 17 An example of an object printed with suppor...

Page 8: ...ons Printer Settings Tab General Note the two extruders de ned in the left hand pane 71 2 44 Multiple extruder options Printer Settings Tab Extruder 71 2 45 Plater with multiple lament options 72 2 46...

Page 9: ...rocessing script to display Slic3r environment variables 91 2 63 Example post processing script to print each line to output 92 3 1 GLCD Info Screen 99 3 2 Main menu 101 3 3 Con guration Menu 103 3 4...

Page 10: ...P R O O F...

Page 11: ...WARNINGS Safety Information P R O O F...

Page 12: ...h the extruder nozzle or heater block without rst turning o the hot end and allowing it to completely cool down The hot end can take up to 20 minutes to completely cool Never touch recently extruded p...

Page 13: ...lectronics Electrostatic discharge can damage electronic components Ground yourself by touching a grounded source like the metal power supply housing or your computer case Age Warning For users under...

Page 14: ...P R O O F...

Page 15: ...3D Printer Software P R O O F...

Page 16: ...section at LulzBot com support downloads You will also nd instructions there for installing each program onto your PC You can also nd downloads speci c to the TAZ 3D printer on the TAZ product page 1...

Page 17: ...ation Plater allows you to arrange and combine several STL les into one More information on the other programs within the Printrun package can be found at https github com kliment Printrun Printrun ca...

Page 18: ...n Pronterface by using the following command in a terminal python pronterface py Installing from source Using Git in a terminal issue the following command git clone https github com kliment Printrun...

Page 19: ...un Figure 1 2 Printrun Printrun is used to control the printer from a computer It is divided into 4 main parts The buttons over the top are used to connect to the printer load les and start stop print...

Page 20: ...tty usbserial USB ID The Port button will refresh the Port listing Once selected choose the default 115200 buad rate and press Connect Pronterface will open a connection to the printer and display rmw...

Page 21: ...moved by hand Keep in mind that there is no positional feedback so if you move an axis you will need to re home in order to re establish the hot end s position mm min XY Z These settings control the...

Page 22: ...on to home the Z axis or the Home All button at this time In a later step you will need to set the Z end stop trigger before homing Z X Y Z Axes Movement Controls Prior to moving the X Y or Z axis mak...

Page 23: ...d below outputs millimeters as the unit by default FreeCAD Website http free cad sourceforge net Although still in development FreeCAD is a great free libre CAD application Containing a full GUI for b...

Page 24: ...er Host Software OctoPrint Website http octoprint org Octoprint is a printer host that uses a web based interface to access and control the 3D printer Added web cam functionality allows for time lapse...

Page 25: ...Slic3r P R O O F...

Page 26: ...manual slic3r org Goals Philosophy Slic3r is an original project started in 2011 by Alessandro Ranellucci aka Sound who used his considerable knowledge of the Perl language to create a fast and easy t...

Page 27: ...n 32 and 64 bit versions to match their system Slic3r Slic3r can be downloaded directly from http slic3r org download Pre compiled packages are available for Windows Mac OS X and Linux Windows and Lin...

Page 28: ...ble click the downloaded dmg le an instance of Finder should open together with an icon of the Slic3r program Navigate to the Applications directory and drag and drop the Slic3r icon into it The dmg l...

Page 29: ...ulzbot com support downloads For information on loading and export Slic3r pro les please see page 81 Note that the pre set pro les will only work correctly when Slic3r is in Expert mode The pre set pr...

Page 30: ...are The con guration wizard asks a series of questions and creates a con guration for Slic3r to start with When using the pre set TAZ Slic3r pro les you do not need to complete the Con guration Wizard...

Page 31: ...e gcode produced by Slic3r is tailored to particular types of rmware The rst step prompts for the rmware that the printer uses For the TAZ printer select RepRap Marlin Sprinter Figure 2 2 Con guration...

Page 32: ...sure to measure from the lower left corner where the extruder nozzle rests when are the home position to the maximum distance the nozzle can travel in each direction Take into account that the X carri...

Page 33: ...ame from a source without a diameter given then carefully measure the aperture as accurately as possible One way of determining nozzle size is to very slowly 1mm s extrude some lament into free air an...

Page 34: ...lament used in FDM printers is sold as being either 3mm or 1 75mm this is only a general guide The diameter can vary between manufacturers and even between batches Therefore it is highly recommended...

Page 35: ...tic materials will have a di erent range This is one parameter which you will want to ne tune when you start producing prints The optimal temperature can vary even between colors of the same material...

Page 36: ...rature the value will depend on the material used A rule of thumb is that PLA requires 35 C 60 C and ABS requires 85 C Note One may choose to control the bed temperature manually from the printer cont...

Page 37: ...2 3 FIRST PRINT At this stage the wizard is complete and the basic con guration is de ned Figure 2 8 Con guration Wizard End 35 P R O O F...

Page 38: ...thumb an additonal 5 is recommended Lower speeds Slowing down the extruder for the rst layer reduces the forces applied to the molten material as it emerges reducing the chances of it being stretched...

Page 39: ...h rst layer height technique recommended above with this one Setting the rst layer height to 0 35mm and the rst extrusion width to 200 would result in a nice fat extrusion 0 65mm wide Bed material Man...

Page 40: ...community It is similar to the STL format Additive Manufacturing File Format AMF was developed in re sponse to the limited nature of the STL format In addition to describing the geometry of the 3D mo...

Page 41: ...available one of which is Meshlab8 a comprehensive tool for viewing and working with 3D les Figure 2 9 Shapesmith online CAD tool Working with Plater Slic3r has a tool called Plater which allows one...

Page 42: ...e below the traditional RepRap Minimug9 is loaded and is viewed from above The ring around the model is a skirt a single perimeter several millimeters away from the model which is extruded rst This is...

Page 43: ...2 12 STL le loaded The model can be repositioned by dragging the representation of it on the left of the screen around the bed Note that the dimensions of the bed should match your printer as given du...

Page 44: ...rrange or export the models Add Opens a le dialog to add a model to the plater as an alternative to dropping a le directly Delete Delete All Remove one or all models from the plater Autoarrange Attemp...

Page 45: ...le Mode Simple Mode Slic3r has two modes of operation Simple and Expert These may be chosen from the Preferences window found under the File menu Figure 2 13 Preferences Simple mode o ers a reduced se...

Page 46: ...previous one There are several factors that in uence how high each layer should be Desired resolution Lower layer height should result in prints with less noticeable ribs or bands as each layer is sm...

Page 47: ...subsection of the perimeter is not printed correctly then the second perimeter will help cover it The upper and lowermost layers that sandwich the model are lled with a Solid layers pattern For the bo...

Page 48: ...tic this would be a waste of material and take a long time Instead most models can be lled with less material which is then sandwiched between layers lled at 100 see Solid layers above A density value...

Page 49: ...he support material is printed Figure 2 17 An example of an object printed with support material Tip It is sometimes worth considering altering the orientation of the model in order to possibly reduce...

Page 50: ...rs to the rst layer as a base ange in order to provide more surface area for the print to stick to the bed with in order to reduce warping see 2 3 The brim is then cut away once the print is nished an...

Page 51: ...lue should ideally be set in the rmware it can be useful to test slight changes to the rate by altering this value It varies the amount of plastic proportionally and should be changed in very small st...

Page 52: ...round which the print will be centered A Bed size of 200mmx200mm and a Print center of 100mmx100mm would sit the print in the middle Should it be desired to print away from the center because of a scr...

Page 53: ...rs before travel The retraction will then be compensated for by the same amount after the travel move before starting the new extrusion path A value of between 1 and 2mm is usually recommended Bowden...

Page 54: ...which is that the results are produced quicker but also faster print times can be utilised in producing more layers i e lower layer height thus improving perceived print quality An additional bene t...

Page 55: ...icated a value can be given in percentage This is in relation to the preceding value e g 50 solid in ll would be half of the value de ned for in ll A few general guidelines for each option Perimeters...

Page 56: ...aving the extrusion span distances depends on the material and cooling Going too slow will result in sagging too fast will result in broken strands Experimentation is the key here but generally bridgi...

Page 57: ...2 5 EXPERT MODE Take into account any restrictions enforced by the rmware as many have settings for the maximum safe speed of each axis 55 P R O O F...

Page 58: ...In ll pattern settings Slic3r o ers several in ll patterns four regular and three more exotic avours The numbers given in brackets below each gure are a rough estimate of material used and time taken...

Page 59: ...25 In ll pattern Concentric 351 80mm 5m 30s Figure 2 26 In ll pattern Honeycomb 362 73mm 5m 39s Figure 2 27 In ll pattern Hilbert Curve 332 82mm 5m 28s Figure 2 28 In ll pattern Archimedean Chords 333...

Page 60: ...ach layer forming a strong vertical structure Figure 2 30 In ll pattern comparison in a complex object Left to Right honeycomb line Most models require only a low density in ll as providing more than...

Page 61: ...5 EXPERT MODE Figure 2 31 In ll patterns at varying densities Left to Right 20 40 60 80 Top to Bottom Honeycomb Concentric Line Recti linear Hilbert Curve Archimedean Chords Octagram Spiral 59 P R O O...

Page 62: ...terials Solid infill every n layers Forces a solid ll pattern on the speci ed layers Zero will disable this option Fill angle By default the in ll pattern runs at 45 to the model to provide the best a...

Page 63: ...preferable as the perimeter acts as a wall containing the in ll Fighting Ooze Unless the material being extruded has a very high viscosity it will ooze from the nozzle in between extrusions There are...

Page 64: ...l moves then it may be useful to add a small amount of additional material Minimum travel after retraction Triggering a retraction after very short moves is usually unnecessary as the amount of ooze i...

Page 65: ...e the start point to a di erent location for each layer See also subsection Sequential Printing on page 84 for another tech nique which can minimise strings forming between objects Skirt The Skirt set...

Page 66: ...ing print quality Too hot and the material deforms too cool and layer adhesion may be problematic Applying cooling will allow the freshly deposited material to solidify enough to provide a good base f...

Page 67: ...not cool any heated bed more than necessary It should also not cool the heater block of the hot end so as not to force it to do more work and waste energy The air movement should aim for the nozzle ti...

Page 68: ...detailed how important the rst layer is and so it makes sense not to apply the fan until sure the print is securely attached to the bed Keeping the fan turned o for the rst two or three layers is a g...

Page 69: ...is determined by several factors most notably layer height and extrusion width and is usually around 45 For models with larger overhangs a support structure may have to be printed below it This incurs...

Page 70: ...required Small models and those with small footprints can sometimes break or detach from the bed Therefore the Enforce support option will cause support structures to be printed for the given number o...

Page 71: ...his attribute take into account the width of the support extrusion and the amount of support material that will adhere to the object Care should be taken to choose a support pattern which matches the...

Page 72: ...ort or perimeters Multi material printing requires a suitably designed object usually written in AMF format as this can handle multiple materials see Model Formats in 2 3 Details on how to create such...

Page 73: ...which are particular to multi extruder setups Figure 2 44 Multiple extruder options Printer Settings Tab Extruder The Extruder offset is to be used should the rmware not handle the displacement of ea...

Page 74: ...Assigning Filaments When a printer pro le with multiple extruders has been selected the Plater tab allows the selection of a di erent lament for each extruder Figure 2 45 Plater with multiple lament o...

Page 75: ...ion of the Printer Settings tab has an option for inserting G code between tool changes As with all custom G code subsections placeholder variables can be used to reference Slic3r settings This includ...

Page 76: ...i material AMF le Split the original design into the separate parts within the CAD program and export each part as STL Within Slic3r choose Combine multi material STL files from the File menu When pro...

Page 77: ...ere it may be bene cial to modify extrusion widths Perimeter A lower value will produce thinner extrusions which in turn will produce more accurate surfaces Infill and Solid Infill A thicker extrusion...

Page 78: ...ns and other parts could be printed with a ner layer height for example sloping gradients where layering appears more pronounced The model in g 2 49 gives a rudimentary example of where variable layer...

Page 79: ...ght The variable layer height options are available by double clicking on a part name in the Plater window This will cause a pop up window to be displayed which contains two tabs The rst gives some in...

Page 80: ...52 presents a table where each row de nes a layer height for a particular range along the Z axis given in millimeters In this example the walls of the model are printed at 0 4mm the steeper parts of...

Page 81: ...ODE Figure 2 52 Variable layer height options Layers The resulting G Code g 2 53 shows a higher de nition which should result in a higher quality print Figure 2 53 Example with variable layer height 7...

Page 82: ...height An additional feature of the variable layers height option is that by entering a zero for a range that part of the model will not be printed Fig 2 55 shows the G Code where layers between 0 an...

Page 83: ...ting as each minor change to a parameter may have to be duplicated across many con gurations For this reason pro les are a more suitable way of managing multiple con gurations This method also allows...

Page 84: ...Slic3r Figure 2 56 Saving a pro le Pro les can be deleted by choosing the pro le to delete and clicking the red delete button next to the save button Figure 2 57 Deleting a pro le 82 P R O O F...

Page 85: ...ribed here are all free at the time of writing FreeCAD Freecad16 is a comprehensive and free CAD program which comes with a mesh module in which repairs to degenerate models can be made The following...

Page 86: ...for example by removing important triangles Export the repaired model via the Export menu option or context menu 2 8 Advanced Topics Sequential Printing When printing several objects at once it can be...

Page 87: ...s The clearance that should be given around the extruder Take care if the extruder is not mounted centrally take the largest safe value Height The vertical distance between the nozzle tip and the X ax...

Page 88: ...output gcode to by default the file will be saved into the same directory as the input file using the output filename format to generate the filename j threads num Number of threads to use 1 default...

Page 89: ...ptions travel speed Speed of non print moves in mm s default 130 perimeter speed Speed of print moves for perimeters in mm s default 30 small perimeter speed Speed of print moves for small perimeters...

Page 90: ...plied file default nothing toolchange gcode Load tool change G code from the supplied file default nothing extra perimeters Add more perimeters when needed default yes randomize start Randomize starti...

Page 91: ...eed Maximum fan speed default 100 bridge fan speed Fan speed to use when bridging default 100 fan below layer time Enable fan if layer print time is below this approximate number of seconds default 60...

Page 92: ...over layer height like 200 first layer extrusion width Set a different extrusion width for first layer perimeter extrusion width Set a different extrusion width for perimeters infill extrusion width S...

Page 93: ...e G Code le that Slic3r generates All Slic3r con guration options are made available to the scripts by way of environment variables These all begin with SLIC3R_ The following script would write out al...

Page 94: ...Slic3r usr bin perl i use strict use warnings while modify _ here before printing print Figure 2 63 Example post processing script to print each line to output 92 P R O O F...

Page 95: ...ibbing you should always choose a layer height that is a multiple of your full step length To calculate the full step length for the screws you re using take the pitch of your screws I recommend M6 wi...

Page 96: ...com alexrj Slic3r wiki FAQ Blog The Slic3r blog contains tips hints and advice http slic3r org blog IRC Found on the irc freenode net server the following chat rooms are often lled with people who ca...

Page 97: ...ues Please take the time to read through the existing issues to see whether the problem has already been submitted Also make sure that the problem is a bug in the application do not submit support rel...

Page 98: ...P R O O F...

Page 99: ...Printing with the Graphic LCD P R O O F...

Page 100: ...m calibration checks Because of this it is easier and faster to make the required manual movements within Printrun Calibration checks can be done with the Graphic LCD but require a number of repetitiv...

Page 101: ...d gcode les drag and drop or paste the gcode les to the SD card Once the les have transferred eject the SD card from your computer and insert it back into the SD card slot on the left side of the Grap...

Page 102: ...rdinates on the X Y and Z axes 5 Feed rate represents the current feed rate setting The feed rate is set to 100 by default this matches the speed set in the gcode generation When on the status screen...

Page 103: ...on knob to bring up the menu and select Prepare Select Preheat PLA for PLA lament or Preheat ABS for ABS lament This will set the temperatures for the hot end and heat bed and begin bringing the print...

Page 104: ...ing Manual Movements With the Graphic LCD As noted previously page 98 making numerous manual movements is easier done using the Printrun host software However you can make manual movements with the GL...

Page 105: ...Among others these settings include default temperature settings and axis steps per millimeter The Store Memory and Load Memory functions will store and load the changes you make using the GLCD Contro...

Page 106: ...Printing with the Graphic LCD GLCD Controller Menu Diagram Figure 3 4 Con guration Menu 104 P R O O F...

Page 107: ...Maintaining Your 3D Printer P R O O F...

Page 108: ...ch may compro mise the plastic parts Apply the silicone grease both above and below the X ends on the threaded rods and wipe down the threaded rods Use pronterface to drive the Z axis up and down to h...

Page 109: ...he hardware in printing quality parts Each quarterly software update can bring advances in print quality The les are available at http download lulzbot com TAZ You can also nd updated software version...

Page 110: ...he nozzle with acetone 4 9 Electronics The electronics case holding the RAMBo board may need dust blown out occasionally Power down the printer and use the provided 2 5 mm driver to remove the four M3...

Page 111: ...Advanced Usage P R O O F...

Page 112: ...ind if turned Heat the hot end to 160 C This will soften the plastic inside the hot end and allow the nozzle to be loosened o the threaded extension Power o the printer and once it cools continue unsc...

Page 113: ...small amount to the wiping towel Acetone liquid and vapors are highly ammable Keep acetone away from open ames and high temperature sources including the 3D printer Read the warnings label on your pu...

Page 114: ...nter and allow the hot end to cool Disconnect the two 4 pin connectors on the extruder assembly Locate and remove with the 2 5mm hex driver the tool head 3mm screw in top center of the X axis carriage...

Page 115: ...these screws as you can crack the wooden plate 14 Wrap the wires through the strain relief slots in the correct path of all four wires snaking through each slot together 15 Place the hot end back dow...

Page 116: ...P R O O F...

Page 117: ...Hardware and Software Source Code P R O O F...

Page 118: ...riginal source les 3D calibration objects and random novelties Production le for calculating large print runs Design les for all electronics and machined parts Budaschnozzle hot end RAMBo electronics...

Page 119: ...3D Printer Support P R O O F...

Page 120: ...ions or help The latest version of this information guide is also available at http download lulzbot com You can also nd more information including images videos and updated versions of this manual in...

Page 121: ...Contact Information P R O O F...

Page 122: ...com Phone 1 970 377 1111 x610 8 2 Sales Email sales LulzBot com Phone 1 970 377 1111 x600 8 3 Websites Aleph Objects Inc the makers of LulzBot 3D Printers www AlephObjects com LulzBot 3D Printers and...

Page 123: ...zle 116 burns x bushings 106 C CAD 21 calibration 26 116 command line 86 community support 94 118 con guration export 81 import 81 Con guration Wizard 28 connecting 18 cooling 64 fans 65 slowing down...

Page 124: ...hardware 116 hazards x heater block x 110 high resolution 110 hobbed bolt 107 Host 22 hot end 108 110 I in ll 56 60 IRC 94 118 L latex 116 layer height 76 license 25 lubricant 106 M maintenance 106 Ma...

Page 125: ...eters 47 53 Small perimeters 53 Solid in ll 53 Support material 53 Top solid 53 Travel 47 53 Support material 47 Enforce support 67 Generate support material 47 67 Overhang threshold 67 Pattern 68 Pat...

Page 126: ...07 116 Source Code 25 source code 116 speed 52 static xi STL 21 22 38 116 cleaning 42 stl 14 support material 67 T technical support 118 temperature x 14 64 threaded extension 110 threaded rods 106 U...

Page 127: ...free speech not just free as in free beer although most free libre software is available for no cost Libre hardware designs can be copied modi ed and are usually available for download Free Libre soft...

Page 128: ...eratures PET Polyethylene terephthalate PTFE Polytetra uoroethylene is a synthetic uoropolymer used in the Budaschnozzle for it s low coe cient of friction RAMBo R epRap A duino M ega compatible M oth...

Page 129: ...P R O O F...

Page 130: ...Colophon Created with 100 Free Libre Software GNU Linux L A TEX Memoir P R O O F...

Page 131: ...P R O O F...

Page 132: ...7IA9I9 dhiefb P R O O F...

Page 133: ...P R O O F...

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