Recently I archived all of my H1 and H1-1 notes. I don't refer to them any longer so why
keep them in my working notes?
#8 Be Consistent.
A CEO friend I worked with many years ago was fond of saying "Consistency is the
hobgoblin of small minds!". I understood what he was trying to say but it has to be taken into
context. When you are first learning any new activity, it is critical to be consistent. If too many
things are changing at once, you have no idea what contributed to a good or bad result. Don't
change too many things at once. In fact, if you can isolate and change just ONE thing, you will
have a much better chance of success and understanding. This isn't always possible so lock
down as many things as you can. If after a run of successful printing you run into a problem, go
back to a known good state (see #7 - you did keep notes on what this state was didn't you?)
and start there. Many times we try to change too many things in our frustration and that almost
always makes things worse. Step back and think about how to isolate the problem areas with as
few changes as possible.
#9 Know Your Filament.
This strategy is a bit lower level than the previous eight but important and often
overlooked. I see a lot of folks just assume that they should print filament X at temperature Z -
for instance, print PLA at 200°C. This might get you in the ball park but if you really want to get
to consistent and GREAT results, profile your filament. It's easy and if you write it down (see #7)
you'll never second guess how best to print that filament again. It's important to realize that
higher temperatures are not always better, they can actually lead to issues - parts that are just a
little too large, parts that stick to the bed too well and can't be removed, blobs on the print,
stringing, and a host of other problems. In general, I like to print at the lowest temperature
possible for PLA and ABS. Then, as I ramp up print speed, I also need to ramp up the hot end
temp a little since the filament is not resident in the hot zone for as much time. I suspect little
details like this cause people more problems than they might anticipate.
Here's how I profile a new filament:
•
Start with a reasonable target temperature - 200°C for PLA and 225°C for ABS (one
quick note, it is ideal to have a calibrated hot end, so when I say 200°C I mean 200°C.
One easy way to do this is to make a little table with the hot end set temperature (what
you see on the temp display) and the measured temperature (with a thermocouple). Do
this in 5°C increments from 160° to 240° C (or so). Keep this chart in your notes (#7) and
you will always know what the actual temperature is.)
•
Now, use the manual controls of your host to extrude 50mm at 50mm/s and watch and
listen.
•
If the filament extrudes nicely, reduce the temperature by 5°C and wait for the
temperature to stabilize.
•
Test again by extruding 50mm at 50mm/s
•
Repeat until you reach a temperature where the filament does not extrude well. At 5°C to
that temperature and note this as the "low extrusion temperature" for that filament. Use
this low temperature whenever you are printing slowly (20-30mm/s). You might find some
37
