7 Printing
Make sure that the nozzle and the bed are heated to the desired temperature. If you forget to
preheat the printing nozzle and the bed before printing, the printer will automatically check
the temperatures of the nozzle and the bed; printing will start when the desired temperature
is reached - that can take several minutes. However, we recommend preheating the printer
beforehand as described in chapter
6.3.8 Loading the filament into the extruder
Do not let the preheated printer idle. When a printer is preheated and non-printing,
material in an extruder degrades over time - it may cause the nozzle to jam up.
● Watch the first few printed layers to be sure filament has attached to the bed
properly (5 to 10 minutes).
● Press the LCD-knob and choose the
Print from SD
option from the menu, press to
confirm and pick the desired model
file_name.gcode
. The printer will start printing
the object.
The
filename (.gcode) must not contain any special characters
otherwise the
printer is not able to display the file on the LCD.
7.1 Removing objects from the printer
Removing prints from the build plate is much easier because of the ability to remove and
bend the build plate. Different thermal expansion of the steel sheet and plastics used in 3D
printing also helps with detaching prints after the plate has cooled down.
● When the printing is finished, let both nozzle and heatbed cool down before removing
the printed object. Always handle the printed objects when the temperature of the
bed and nozzle drop to room temperature. When the bed is hot, objects are very hard
to remove. Remove the steel sheet from the printer and bend it slightly; prints should
pop off.
● If you experience any troubles removing the object (especially the small ones), you
can use a flat tool like a spatula
with rounded corners
to prevent damage to the
PEI
.
Slide the spatula under the corner of the object and gently push until the print
pops off.
Pict. 13 - Removing the model from the PEI print surface by bending the steel sheet.
30
