Second Print fail - questions

#1

Hi,
yesterday I finally received my Zim.
I set it up and did the first print with the Coaster. I would say it came out great.
Then I tried the wedgy removal tool from thingiverse and had a lot of problems and am totally clueless what the problem source is and what to do to get a correct result.
The first thing I noticed was that the second nozzle scrapes through some of the printed material, although I did the leveling and everything seemed fine.
The result is this:
…ok I am not allowed to upload images…

The print took 5 hours with fastest print settings so I dont know what happened. But to describe the problem the first layers where fine but then in the middle a lot went wrong so that there is a lot of material missing, a few holes and the complete layers above that are loose. So the result is more like two pieces now, as the top piece breaks loose.
It seems like the slicer forgot to slice/print a big section of a few layers.
Is that possible? Can I check that somehow?

What can I do?

The time estimation for best quality was 75 hours. Is it really that slow for such a little piece?

Thanks
Bjorn

#2

3DprintEvangelist,
Yes you can view what the slicer thinks it should do before you print something. I’m not at home right now so can’t give you exact directions but on the screen where you can select which nozzle to use after it has sliced the part there is an option that lets you view the G-Code and it also has an option to view the printer path and a slider lets you move through the layers. I find it helpful to see where support material will be placed.

I’m guessing this is what you were trying to print?

I don’t know how big the part is but 3D printing isn’t fast at all so 5 hours for parts isn’t unreasonable I’ve had parts take 6 to 8 hours on fast and the parts weren’t even close to the full build volume of the Zim.

#3

Thanks for the reply.
You are correct, thats the wedgy I was trying to print.

Tonight I will look into the screen you described.

The size is about the palm of your hand. So not really that big I would think.

As I still can not upload a picture heres the link to see what I am talking about:

I don’t understand what went wrong in the printing of the middle.

#4

Great Tip with the G-Code button.
There I can clearly see that the slicer did horribly wrong and that is why there is missing a lot of parts to print.
Its mainly around the area where the “wedgy” letters should have been and bleeding into the first two holes.

So…what can I do to get a better slicing result?

#5

Use a model editor and make sure that there isn’t an error or open surface in the letters. The other option would be to try and remove the letters.

#6

Ok, so I downloaded and installed 123D Maker.

What settings do I have to use for the printer?

#7

I’m not sure. I use Google SketchUp to edit things with a .stl exporter add-in and netfabb basic 5.2 to check the surfaces for errors and then fix the errors. I think 123D Maker writes its own G-code which means you actually have to know settings versus fixing the model and just importing the .stl into the zim. Sorry if I confused you.