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Sharebot NG
Failed to load the filament in the extruder
Delete the last 2-3 cm of the filament. Cut the filament with a pointed angle, this will help to facilitate loading. It is important that the filament has no curves or tangles. Click the utility menu “upload’ filament”.
Check the CLD panel and, when indicated, slightly push the filament in the extruder. Hold the strand and push it in the upper hole of the extruder. Make sure you have entered the straight filament in the extruder, not diagonally.
After that you feel (gently with two fingers holding the filament) the motor is dragging the filament, continuing to keep slight pressure on the strand for five seconds, then loosen the grip a little and feel if the filament slips from your fingers and verify that a thin wire goes from below the extruder.
What should I do to free locked filament or when the motor’s cogwheel becomes dirty?
To release the filament unscrew the 4 lateral screws (those with springs), you have to remove the plaque with its bearing in order to have at home and with free access to gear; at this point,proceed by removing any remaining filament which block the nozzle inlet or block the wheel. Later, when you are changing the filament, “help it” by pushing it gently for the first few inches of extrusion.
I have to regulate the extruder’s spring. What I have to do?
On your desplay you have to select the option “Change Wire” from your printer’s menu. Wait until the printer had finished the expulsion’s cycle than insert your filament. While the machine is loading the wire, you have to try to block the filament with your fingers; If this were to lead to a “slip” of the pulley on the filament, the springs should be tightened up to have an outlet to blow away the engine (you should hear a ping like a tak tak). The springs must not be too tight so that the motor is not too under stress and consequently it will not lose any steps.
When I print, I can’t get a constant quality of the workpiece
The reasons that determine a certain inconstancy in quality printing perimeters are both mechanical and physical. If the printer works at excessively high speed, mechanical vibration may be leading the printing plate to swing from the extruder head creating compression and other points of separation. In this case you can see waves or flaws in the pattern.
Speed management is critical to check the quality. If the defects are similar to layers “rarefied”, it is likely that the filament is struggling to be dragged within the extruder. Make sure there are no obstructions or that the path is not too tortuous and, above all, that do not form in the strand curls before entering in the extruder.
A similar case can result from non-uniformity of diameter of the filament, making different amounts of material in relation to the software and firmware. In this case there is no “cure”, if not replace the coil with a better quality.
A final reason of defects, physical nature, relates to the extrusion temperature not suitable for speed and to the material. The extrusion temperature depends on the material, but it should not be forgotten that even the print speed requires adjustment: slowly prints can be made with lower temperatures, while high speed prints can also request varying degrees more than the typical temperature. Be careful not to overdo it and the fact that at high temperatures the phenomenon of gravity casting increase a lot.
Some borders of the printed object are deformed, touching the extruder while printing
The buckle edge phenomenon occurs basically in models that have overhanging shapes that rapidly expand outwards, reaching or exceeding 45% of inclination. In practice the perimeters are relative to each other very moved, with the outer perimeter that touches only marginally below. In this way, while the material cools it creates a tension that, when passes the extruder, brings everything to buckle.
The solutions are:
-a greater forced ventilation (for example. turn on the fan if it wasn’t active or put it up if it was at 50%)
-the reduction of the height of the layer to have – as possible – a greater overlap between a layer and the next
-the decrease of extrusion temperature
-the refrigeration in print speed to give time to the underlying layer of cooling itself
-use more perimeters for the walls, so you have more material and more thickness as wall so that, consequently, it becomes less deformable.
I want to print a object in less time, how can I do?
The parameters that come into play to determine how quickly an object is printed are basically three:
-Height of layer
-Number of perimeters
-Filling Percentage
-Feedrate%
The height of the printing layer, typically between 0.12 and 0.22 mm, do not alter the amount of material that will form the finished piece, but change the way this material is laid out. Thinnest the layer is and greater will be the number of layers required, with consequent increase of printing’s time. The thickness of the layer influences the resolution of the curves on the z-axis.
The number of marquees has a direct impact on how the object is robust and “massive”. A single perimeter is at the limit of flexibility, while already from 2 perimeters you have a stiffener. Going beyond the 4 perimeter can become excessive, or it can be a solution to not use all the filling, leaving the walls supporting theirself. Obviously there must not be horizontal surfaces requiring a support (that’s why we do the filling).
The percentage of filling should be chosen according to the requirements of robustness of the model: If the fill is used to give a support to horizonatal parties in the model’s development, the 10/20% is enough; If you want to give some strength to the object, the 30/40% is adequate, while 100% can be used in the rare cases where a small object must have maximum strength (for exemple: a gear).
With the same model, a quick print is achieved with one or two perimeters, the 15% of fill and layers of 0.2 mm. The same model can be strengthen if necessary only by increasing the number of perimeters. The thickness of the layers is the parameter with the biggest impact on printing time and it should be chosen carefully.
My models has droplets of material that will damage the finish.
The reasons that can cause the points where the model builds up more material than necessary, creating droplets, once again could be different.
a) temperature too high for print speed
b) slicing settings improvement
c) uneven filament diameter
In the first case, the material tends to leak from the tip of the extruder points such as the layer change or shifting from perimeter to another. Reducing the temperature increases the viscosity of the material at this point should be less prone to the phenomenon which in English is called “oozing” (leaking).
If excess material accumulates, forming a vertical line, you can work on slicing by setting parameters in the “Layers and perimeters” of Print settings the parameter “Randomize starting points”. This does begin at different points every boundaries so that you form a kind of scar on the piece. Alternatively, you can use the parameter “Avoid crossing perimeters” amending print path of each layer to keep as much as possible the extruder to the entire perimeters, preventing any drippings sticking to the outside walls.
When the filament does not have a uniform diameter, calculations made to dispense just the right amount of material are no longer valid and this could cause not only the uneven deposition of the layers, but also of the excesses and sagging. In this respect, it is very important to use only materials of proven quality and consistency, not loading the extrusion with filaments without adequate specifications or visibly uneven.
With the same model, a quick print is achieved with one or two perimeters, the 15% of fill and layers of 0.2 mm. The same model can be strengthen if necessary only by increasing the number of perimeters. The thickness of the layers is the parameter with the biggest impact on printing time and it should be chosen carefully.
When I print some models, these come off the printing plate and I have to start over.
The reasons that cause this problem are mainly three:
a) Poor adhesion of the first layer for incorrect parameters
b) calibration of the incorrect dish
c) glass treatment now exhausted.
These adds the issue of temperature in the case of print with ABS and heated bed.
Here your ordered solutions:
when you set up a profile by slicing, it is important to first set the thickness of the first layer to 200% to allow the printer to create the first layer with a certain abundance of material. If the surface is very small compared to the overall size of the object, you must use the adjustments that increase the contact surface on the printing plate and the first layer, RAFT or BRIM. If even with these measures the object tends to come off, you can consider next solution.
So that the filament material could adhere to the glass that came with the printer, there has to be a film of lacquer in good condition. With each print, a bit of material is removed along with the print so if you repeat a print in a short period of time the lacquer is removed. Similarly, if you printed a lot and some areas remained poor in lacquer, it is likely that in those places the detachment is lurking. Periodically you have to clean the dish washing it with warm water and sprinkle a new layer, trying to do it the more homogeneous and smooth as possible. Obviously you don’t have to spray too much material: two or three quick passes are usually sufficient.
If you are using the ABS with the heated plate, the situation may depends by a layer of lacquer too much consumed, but also from a object that, because of its shape, is subject to considerable retraction stress during cooling phase and therefore requires a higher plate’s temperature.
If the model has long and thin parts, with three-walled or more perimeters and with a certain abundance of fill, only with a temperature over 80 degrees and a layer of lacquer just laid you can hope to keep the piece without deformation. One potential solution may also be to slow down the printing of the first five or six millimetres to reduce thermal stress and allow the heated stage to do its job.
Avoid having draughts affecting these ABS models during printing and try to keep your printer in a hot environment.
When I print I don‘t have a homogeneous material’s flow and I feel some taps from the extruder motor.
When I print I don’t have a homogeneous material’s flow and I feel some taps from the extruder motor.
The extrusion system used has no mechanism for gear and then the engine must exert a significant force to push the filament in the path that leads it up to the heated part, where it melts and is extruded from the tip thanks to pressure from the still solid strand that follows it. If the temperature is not such as to bring the material to smooth enough, or the length of the extruder from the press plane is so low as to prevent the release of thermoplastics from the nozzle, the pressure should be applied to solid filament for it to escape from the nozzle is more than the engine is able to exercise and for this it miss rotation steps. The situation could also lead to the creation of a tooth in the filament is this is soft, further worsening the situation as it would not be applied any more boost to the filament.
The practical solutions are different: you must first make sure that the nozzle does not come into contact with the printing surface (intervene or on the Z-axis calibration or onthe four screws aligning printing plate). The second concerns the verification of printing temperature that you can check raising via software the nozzle from the printing plane (you have to lower the floor first), then through the nozzle a couple of inches from you, you must heat it to the desired temperature, then advance the filament to a few centimeters.
At this stage, it is very important to set the wire feed speed to a reasonable value (80/150 mm/min) to simulate the printing conditions. You have to extrude between 20 and 40 mm at a time and check if the extrusion is done continuously, homogeneous and without jumps. When the material comes out of the nozzle, it should be visibly fluid and create a kind of homogeneous donut. If with these settings the material has difficult to exit, there is a temperature problem, probably too low. Might also be a problem of excessive filament diameter, or you may have printed material that requires a higher temperature and its residues inside the nozzle are creating the problem. Increase the temperature by 2 degrees at a time, wait for 5 seconds and see when the tip of the extruder begins to look at the material which flows spontaneously. Go back a few degree, then you must give extrusion command again, trying to get a donut that grows evenly and with a diameter of no more than 1 cm. At the beginning the flow will be more liquid and then it will stabilize with repeated extrusions in sequence. Take note of the temperature because it is optimal for the material used. With this new approach, you shouldn’t have more problem with the extruder motor making jumps, assuming that you have also changed the flat adjustment if this was closing the extrusion of the first print layer. If even with these precautions, if you don’t get a filament without dragging jumps then you might have a problem on how to position the fixing the bearing block with respect to the motor pulley. Look at the part where is placed the filament, if it consists of a laminated block attached to the motor housing by two screws, the block has ball bearing fixed on one of its gills and then moving the block you can increase or decrease the space that exists between the bearing and the pulley on the motor shaft.
WARNING:, NOT unscrewing it but only loosening them) and pressing with your fingers to move horizontally all the slats and so supportive in an opposite direction to the front sprocket to widen the gap between bearing and pinion itself. Tighten the screws again and do the tests above. If the estruder’s block is in black PVC, you can intervene on side block that is attached to the pulley.
You will notice that is fastened with 4 screws with springs: speaking about tightening the4 screws, you can increase or decrease the socket of the pulley on the filament. In the factory, the tightening is optimized for biting all the strands that we tested. In general, the filament must be manually pushed in the extruder without exerting excessive force, but likewise should not slide too easily. In either case, the engine must not be running, otherwise the pinion was halted and the filament could not absolutely scroll.
Support & tricks
The nozzle is obstructed. What do I need to do to unblock it?
First of all you need to have a NOZZLE UNLOCKER (now available on Sharebot shop) if you don’t have one.
You need to start a “change filament” procedure selecting it inside the Sharebot 3D printer display menu. After the first cycle has been done (and you’ll heard a nice but persistent noise), you need to insert the needle inside the nozzle and rotate it inside it until you’ll see some printing material going out.
After you’ve done this process, pull out the needle: when all the impurities will be out of the nozzle, you will be able to start your print.
The extruder is blocked and I need to unblock it. How can I do?
First of all you need to control if the filament is blocked or wrapped around the pushing wheel.
To unblock it you need to unlock the 4 lateral pushing block screws (they are in correspondence to the springs): you must remove the plate and its bearing to have full access to the gear wheel so that you can work on it. Now you need to remove all the filament remaining parts that are clogging up the nozzle or the gear wheel.
After this process, when you’ll do the changing filament procedure you have to “help” the filmanent by pushing it gently inside the extruding block untill you’ll see the fused filament going out from the nozzle.
ble to do this operation without any problem, we advice you to settle the pushing block springs: select the “change filament” option from the printer’s menu through the display, then wait until ejection cycle ends and insert the wire: you need to block it manually during the uploading phase.
This process could cause a slip to the engine so that it won’t trail the filament: you need to fasten the springs until you’ll hear a clash (it means that the engine has the right grip)-
I need to correct the X and Y axes geometry. How can I do it?
To correct the X and Y axes geometry you need to print the test_cerchi file that you can download by clicking here.
We attached a picture and a diagram to let you understand better the steps you must do do correct the axes geometry.
Picture n° 1 (on the left): the diagram points out the offset correction values on the X and Y axes;
picture n° 2 (on the right): the picture points out the printing analysis points achieved with the test_cerchi .gcode file.
In the second picture you can also read the printing results of the test_cerchi file.
First of all you need to analyzed the first row (which is the X one) to select the best circle: to do it you nedd to consider the areas inscribed into the rectangles. Select the best one and take note the correction value as you see in the first picture. In this case the value is X=0,1.
Now you need to apply the same method to the Y axis, evaluating the area into the rectangles and selecting the best circle. In this case the one you need to select is the circle n° 3, so take note of the value 0,3.
Now you need to mix these two values with the string: M99 X0,1 Y0,3. Insert it in your favourite slicing software start gcode page so that the program will correct your printing geometry every time you will start a printing process.
Second extruder calibration
Printing with two extruders poses no particular difficulty if the calibrations of extruders physical and software were made correctly. Here are all the steps to get the perfect setup. We are assuming that your print plan is aligned properly with a single extruder, extruder detached from left to right and positioned on the left-hand side, in contact with the magnet of parking.
The distance of the plane from the tip must be virtually nothing, but without the tip rests: we use a ticket on thermal paper (bit thinner paper that you can easily find) to verify that in the various places you can slide the piece of paper with a minimum of resistance, but without blocks or that course too easy (for further discussion see Chapter 4). When you want to print an object to color, you should double from a file appropriately prepared for this operation as described in the manual of Slic3r. After you import the xxxxxxxx.amf file in the slic3r, select the SharebotDualstrusion.ini printer profiles to correctly create a G-code file.
Central Clamp
Now you can reconnect the two extruders using the central clamp with the two allen head bolts. Do not tighten them and screw them place the extruder torque in a central area of printing. Always use a piece of thin card, ensure that the extruder is still aligned right, then explored the left figuring if ranked, lowest or higher. If aligned, tighten the two bolts carefully avoiding the bracket involves displacements in the alignment.
If the tips are not jog, you can use the same to raise or lower the two ends by imposing a slight rotation to both extruders from the bracket and tightening the screws to hold the position. Remember to tighten with a certain decision both bolts as the vibrations may in time result in loss of any realignment obtained with this system. At the factory your Sharebot was however checked and calibrated relative to alignment, but if you have disconnected the extruders or loose central bracket bolts, you must perform the above operation for each “combination” of extruders.
If in spite of the measures listed above are required a further correction to bring the same vertical level the second extruder, you can adjust the adjustment screws placed on the two external sides of carts with caution. A good technique is to invoke an auto-home of the printer, make the menu “move axis” the truck centre plate extruder press and by turning the adjustment screws 2 on each basket align the lower extruder to the highest one. At this point if necessary you can re-adjust the printing plate by acting solely on rear dial that serves as the end stroke, z-axis to move it closer to or further from the extruders
Offset
Two extruders printing toggles either to press extruder based on G-Code T0 (0 tool) and T1. When the firmware meets T0, using the main extruder (the right one), and when she meets T1 passes control to the left of the extruder motor. Basically, apart from steering gear of the motor either extruder, firmware continues to move the two print heads with the only trick to add an OFFSET to the coordinates of the G-Code to overlay exactly the point of the original coordinates T1 extruder.
The value of the offset is therefore crucial to have a perfectly aligned on the two extruded filaments. Normally this value hovers around-58.5 mm for X and Y to 0, but it can happen that we should make some readjustment. To do this we need a file first to enable us to alternate the two extruders on a design that easily allows you to recognize the misalignment. In this page “download” section you can find the “Second Extruder calibration file” (already included in latest firmware version) and its user’s guide. By opening the file with a text editor you can edit the first few lines of the file (around line 25), the value written thereupon M218, increasing or decreasing it according to your needs.
The syntax for the F-series is M218 T1 X 35.5-Y0 while the S series is M218 T1 X 58.5-Y0. Start printing with the current values and see how the first layer is made: we start with the perimeters that are alternated between the two extruders, so there is a large part of the border first, followed by the extruder with fill the second extruder. First carefully observed four: perimeters are alternated correctly? Are offset only on an axis? Found the correct offset value, you can enter it in the start g-code of your slic3r ShareBotDualstrusion’s profile.
Refining X and Y values
If there is staggering on a single axis, you must act on its value (integrated into your Sharebot NG double extruder. Further information are available in the “Second Extruder Calibration” file that you can download here above in the “Download and Printing profiles” tab of the “Tutorial” section), remembering that if you increase the negative value, you move the extruder more right (x) or more inside (y). Well stop printing the first layer until you have obtained a perfect centring eye. At this point let go and watch how you walk away from a solid surface on the first two layers in a thin layer on a particular form that quickly grows. To 5 mm of height is the first extruder and change if the horizontal alignment between the two extruders and correct, there should be no problem of interface between the two colors.
The offset that you set should be such as to overlap exactly the two colors allowing the subtle “wall” grow vertically without oscillations from one side or the other. Touch up to the tenth of a millimetre the values if you notice an overlap imperfecta without worrying about whether a “dirty” extruder printing passing above the model: the important thing is the alignment between the two colors on the vertical axis in both directions.
Modifying the profile with Slic3r
When you have found the ideal values, take note and then plug in the code that is in Slic3r as “custom g-code” in the printer profile ShareBotDualstrusion; in this way you will have your value entered in automatically each print is made with double profile extruder. In this way you’ll also insert the M218 command at the beginning of the G-Code, making it easy to any adjustment due to some readjustment operation of your mechanical (e.g. for combined and separated repeatedly for extruders).
Positioning the locking printing bed rubber bands
The correct position of the rubber bands for glass block printing plate, in a way that does not interfere with the prints in both single and double extruder is shown in the drawing below. the position of the pegs is not binding or final: pegs in blocking the glass invade useful print area, you can then change the position based on which in turn will be printed, so as not to find the clamp on the nozzle.
Second extruder FAQs
The second extruder mark the printed object
Unscrew the attachment screw of the bracket between first and second, Then you have to park the second extruder to the left on the parking magnet.
Using two different material on a single object
If the solution based on scope and coverage is not enough, then you must design the object as two distinct forms intersected, but they have to not share the same space. For example, if you want to get a soft material inside of the letters to make a bracelet, you will need to drill holes into the letters in correspondence with the soft part so that at each point in space there is either one or the other object. From the spatial perspective, the coordinates of the two objects must be those which determine the right joint because you cannot align the parties between them during slicing.
Through the steps documented in Slic3r, the two distinct STL files are loaded with a specific mode and each of the two solids is given an extruder. In an example of the result.
With this system you can also manually create the necessary supports to your print, positioning them so that you feel less onerous in terms of printing times or that they are able to offer the best results in terms of quality of surface.
Using a soluble filament for my supports, creating better quality items.
You can choose the solvent you want to use and consequently the filament’s material of print as support. We start from the solvent, because each has its advantages and disadvantages. Acetone can dissolve the ABS, which could then be used to print with Nylon (not attacked by acetone); water can dissolve the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and it can be used with PLA, Nylon and ABS; the problem of PVA is that being sensitive to water and humidity, it will deteriorate very quickly when exposed to air.
With Limonene you can dissolve the High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) that you can print well in combination with PLA, ABS and Nylon. His solvent is of natural origin and therefore has a better impact than acetone on the environment.
Printing with multiple colors a monochromatic object with two extruders
Assuming that in the right extruder (1) there is a PLA Red filament and on the left one (2) there’s a PLA Green filament (can also be two ABS), you can take any model and make sure that the slicing software (Slic3r) uses either extruder based on settings you choose in the screenshot shown in the image.
The software provides specific usage of one extruder or the other in four different situations: tracking printing perimeters (vertical walls), filling horizontal surfaces, supporting material and the interface between the support and the material.
If I have for example the classic two-color gear, I can assign an extruder/color to the perimeter and the other extruder/color to filling.
The result makes clear how two extruders are alternated. If you increase the number of perimeters in the settings, you’ll have green perimeters occupying more space and objects that consist only in perimeters will basically be monochromatic with the exception of horizontal filled areas.
Using different materials for the two different extruders
You should take into account the characteristics of each material, both in terms of compatibility (Can a material be able to adhere or not to a second material?), and printing environment.
The ABS, for example requires a heated floor and high extrusion temperature, and this could create problems in the PLA that would remain soft and even may become difficult to extrude as the filament might soften before entering the extrusion mechanism due to the temperatures reached by the extruder motor mechanics that has very little time to cool off and due to the heat generated by the heated stage.
Going into detail, while the ABS is at “ease” with the heat, the PLA will tend to lose stability and warp prints if not properly cooled, so the two materials must be handled with great care if combined into one object.
Printing faster with two extruders
The printer is able to use either one extruder or the other, alternating them as requested in the G-Code, but never at the same time, at least with this firmware and the existing software of slicing.
