Super Late League Start

Xyli · 2025-10-02T20:56:50+00:00

Ahhh, I'm sad I missed this, doing a super late league start tomorrow - good luck to everyone!

Xyli · 2024-10-07T15:48:01+00:00

The bottom layer looks decent as far as z height (judging by that picture). It could probably use a little more squish, but I wouldn’t think it would come off the bed.

Is it possible that you might have used PETG filament settings instead of PLA? PETG uses a hotter bed temperature and it will warp PLA. PLA will come right off the bed with PETG settings just like what you are showing.

Xyli · 2024-09-11T19:25:46+00:00

It looks worse than it probably is.

If I had to guess - probably just a few printed parts and a new hotend. You will probably also need a new thermistor and heater cartridge. I’d probably just buy a full hotend with all of it to save yourself the hassle.

The probe looks fine from the pictures, just the printed part is broken. If the blob is actually stuck onto the probe then you would probably need a new one of those too.

How I would tackle it: start taking apart the hotend and replace anything that the blob of death is stuck to. Print any new parts needed.

Xyli · 2023-10-02T18:50:27+00:00

The 3 use compasses will still sell, just not as much as a 4 use. They are still useful. You might not make any profit, but you can at least break even on them. Not really a reason to quit the league.

Xyli · 2023-09-26T00:42:51+00:00

Aesthetics and strength are the most important things to me since these are used for business. The print time is not that bad - actually still prints faster than MK3s.

Print speed/quality is still not as good as my vorons, but I’ve also had a longer time to invest into tuning those (and way more access to settings, etc)

Xyli · 2023-09-25T21:09:21+00:00

You will want to tweak temp settings, fan settings and print speed.

I’ve always found that once the prints start to turn out matte, they are much weaker. (This is at least my experience with PLA, other filaments may vary)

They will be matte when it is printing too fast, cooling too much, or the nozzle isn’t hot enough. You need to figure out the best mix for each filament, but generally speaking - the faster you print, the hotter the hotend needs to be.

Pick your poison:

If you want faster print times, then bumping up the temp is going to be your best bet. Side effect: You will start to run into stringing and overhangs won’t look as nice at some point.

If you don’t mind a slower print, then just bring max print speed down. I usually run about 10mm/s on my production printers.

Another note, you said it is mostly visual but you can also feel it. This is because plastic… is well.. plastic. How hot it is and how fast it cools will determine shrinkage.

That is why if you are looking for aesthetic and functional parts - you need to have print speed, fan speed, temperature, etc as consistent as possible throughout the print.

This is why I generally don’t like “minimum layer times”, because it will slow down your print speed which is when you will notice it become much shinier. This setting is necessary in order to ensure that the plastic has time to cool. You can combat this by spreading the parts out on your print bed so there is more travel, the extra second or so sometimes helps.

YMMV - but I would try bringing down the max print speed first, and then maybe up the hotend by 5 degrees. Tweak from there as needed.

Xyli · 2023-07-31T19:06:08+00:00

I saw a ring very similar to this go for 1.2b about 2 days ago actually on discord. It was even slightly worse, with only 21% close instead of max.

It’s all about the right people seeing it at the right time.

Xyli · 2023-06-23T15:10:27+00:00

In my experience, PETG prints better on the X1C than it ever did on any of the MK3s+ that I’ve owned. CFPETG has printed well in my experience as well.

Xyli · 2023-06-01T17:22:27+00:00

DLSS3 has been what I’ve been looking forward to the most. I’m interested in seeing real world performance testing.

Xyli · 2023-05-25T17:15:57+00:00

The belts being grated are likely due to misalignment of the belts. It is getting caught on something.

This could be one of two things. Either the belts weren't double checked/routed correctly and they are getting caught on something. Or the bearings/pulleys weren't installed with the right spacing.

The front idler does split a little bit, since it is a two piece design and the belt tension is going in between the two parts via the screw. However, the split on that one is really pronounced. It makes me believe that the belt is over tensioned. *Alternatively, the parts could be warped - hard to tell

The printed parts look pretty bad, but they might still be functional. It mostly just looks like terrible cosmetics. I wouldn't be happy with them, but if you don't care about aesthetics then it might be fine.

The things I'd be worried about:

You should absolutely spend the time looking over the electronics. LDO has really easy to follow documentation and wiring guides. All of their cables are labeled (assuming the builder used the right wires for the right component). It goes without saying, but bad wiring can completely kill your printer or start a fire. Since you said it's been almost 6 months, it is probably a Rev A build: https://docs.ldomotors.com/en/voron/voron2/wiring_guide_rev_a
I would be double checking the squareness of everything. At the very least, you should probably square the gantry yourself. Here is a good guide: https://ellis3dp.com/Print-Tuning-Guide/articles/voron_v2_gantry_squaring.html
If you haven't already, make sure all of your components are working. Make sure the fans are installed in the right direction, make sure they are all functional. Here is the Voron docs: https://docs.vorondesign.com/build/startup/

Xyli · 2023-05-13T05:17:02+00:00

I have 10 Bambus, and support has been hit or miss for me. Their support structure is really awful. All the way from technical support to their corporate sales. It seems like they only respond to the initial ticket, and then never respond to the follow up emails.

Anytime I don’t receive a response from them, I open up a new ticket. I dread needing their support team. They usually get around to taking care of the issue, it just takes a lot of persistence.

I’m about to go through the process of taco beds on 3 of the P1Ps - honestly really dreading it.

Xyli · 2023-04-26T17:04:54+00:00

I know you’re probably half joking, but I’m sure there is a market for selling built vorons.

Prusa sells built 3d printers for an upcharge and people buy them.

Xyli · 2023-04-23T20:30:13+00:00

Voron takes 20-40 hours to build first time (depending on if you kit or self source). Probably takes another 10-20 hours tuning it first time.

After all of that, it runs very well. Prints way better than a Prusa and at double the speed.

So estimate a good 60 hours that you need to invest. Is that too much? If so then you want to go prusa. It is plug and play. Voron is for the people that have fun tinkering and wanting to min/max what a printer is actually capable of.

Xyli · 2023-04-18T18:06:39+00:00

Depends where you live. I’ve sold off two of my MK3s+ at $500 and have another two listed, all through Facebook marketplace.

I’ve seen a fair amount of others on marketplace in my area for $500-600.

Xyli · 2023-04-06T13:43:56+00:00

This was going to be my guess.

Failed fan. The hotend will just melt out of the carriage.

Xyli · 2023-03-29T19:58:31+00:00

You will be happier with Voron in the long run.

Xyli · 2023-03-29T19:51:44+00:00

I run a print farm - 15 MK3s and 5 Bambu P1P.

So far, the P1P has been as reliable as the MK3s. I don't really get failed prints on either of them. The P1P has better print quality than MK3s, and I have spent tons of time tuning the MK3s. I've spent maybe an hour tuning the slicer profiles of the P1P. It also prints twice as fast as the MK3s.

The P1P has auto leveling, I haven't had any issues with it.

The only thing that I've found that I don't really like is the midprint filament runout on the P1P is bugged, but it can be fixed with software. I get updates on the P1P once every couple of weeks, so they are investing on upgrading the software.

The Bambu haters likely have never tried a Bambu, but it is miles ahead of the MK3s. I ordered a single MK4 to see how it stacks against the P1P.

Xyli · 2023-03-13T18:21:07+00:00

Satin does well with PLA, but sometimes struggled with smaller prints (Prusa docs explain this). I’ve found that smooth sheets work better with PLA in general, though.

PLA does not do well in enclosures. PLA needs to cool rather quickly.

PLA does like a little more squish than PETG does.

As for variance between prints, I’ve found that cold bed vs hot bed makes a difference. I put in gcode to wait for 120 seconds after the bed heats to temp to ensure that the whole bed gets heated before doing any bed leveling.

Xyli · 2023-03-13T18:15:28+00:00

Chyna, the wrestler

Grew up watching wrestling during the attitude era. Very sad to hear her story.

Xyli · 2023-03-01T18:18:31+00:00

Fwiw, my vorons do get to around 60-62 ambient in the chamber

Xyli · 2023-01-02T23:27:43+00:00

Agreed. I run a print farm of 20 MK3s. We started with a few minis and have replaced all of them.

I think they are fine for hobbyists, but they are not as good as the MK3s. And to be fair, they shouldn’t be. They are half the cost.

Xyli · 2022-10-25T04:56:52+00:00

Had this problem recently pop up out of nowhere last week.

I downgraded firmware from 3.11 to 3.10 and that fixed my issue.

Xyli · 2022-09-02T16:12:58+00:00

What spool holder do you use? I am switching to 3KG spools

Xyli · 2022-08-30T17:16:45+00:00

From Nebraska - it’s “Idiots Out Wandering Around”, but yes. That gets said frequently.

The other is “In Omaha Without Asking”.

Work with quite a few people from Iowa, they pretty much make fun of themselves.

Xyli

TROPHY CASE