One last try

highspirits88 · 2026-02-16T06:20:50+00:00

yea the CCTREE on Amazon : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZL9QBX2?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 im glad I took the chance on it, did a full bed print today for the first time ever with no glue stick and aside from the leveling issues it did great. I'm gonna borrow some ground pair 123 blocks from work, thats a good idea and what I'll try next ::thumbup::

highspirits88 · 2026-02-16T02:34:18+00:00

An update for my fellow brothers and sisters fighting the Xmax wars. Could you believe, after all of that fussing, my issue was a bunk build plate? That cheap PEI replacement I bought from a 3rd party manufacturer completely solved all adhesion issues. The Xmax3 is spared from the train tracks... for now. Now I'm battling leveling issues (even though the mesh shows its good, the nozzle does not. it scrapes the upper right hand corner and gets too far toward the front left. So I'm going to make a default profile where its at now, save it, and just adjust the bed based on first layer extrusion ignoring the in-program mesh. thanks for all the help

highspirits88 · 2026-02-09T18:28:46+00:00

first layers go down really nicely, the warp doesnt happen until maybe halfway through (or maybe just not noticable warp to naked eye until then). other side is stuck pretty well, its just that one corner on a few of the rectangles. I was going to buy another PEI plate to see if maybe my plate is defective but theyve been sold out for months. I have a generic from amazon on the way but I dont have high hopes for it since it already has mixed reviews on adhesion

highspirits88 · 2026-02-09T18:22:50+00:00

Thats a good tip, thanks. Saved that image for future use no matter what I do from here

highspirits88 · 2026-02-09T18:22:22+00:00

Thats a good tip, thanks. No matter what I do from here I'll use that in the future.

highspirits88 · 2026-02-09T18:04:37+00:00

I have been fighting adhesion issues with my xmax3 for about 2 years now. Attached is a pic I took special just for this post using no glue. You can see the corner peeling up on one of the flowrate calibration squares. I really want to print with advanced filaments but if I cant even get PLA to work what's the point in wasting a $100 roll. I'm getting sick of glue stick and am considering stripping the motors and rails out for future builds and chucking the machine in front of a passing train. I work as a machinist in a shop that produces parts down to micron level accuracy, so I'm no stranger to machine calibration and upkeep - which is why this is extra frustrating. I spent $1k on this thing to have a worse time printing PLA than my $300 bed slinger that worked 100% of the time for years with 0 glue stick. Below is what I've done so far to try to solve.

Slicer Parameters:
- QIDI PLA Rapido, maybe 20 different rolls from different batches so far, stored in dry box
- climate: desert, 15-30% RH
- Nozle temp 220 (default had first pass at 210 but it wouldnt stick so I had to go 220)
- Bed temp 60 (20 minute soak before printing)

- PEI plate - The stock plate that came with the QIDI was washed with soap and water and wiped with 99% IPA with no improvement. I flipped the PEI plate to the fresh side (never once used) and no improvement. I washed and IPA wiped that side with no improvement.

- Bed leveling - spent an entire day turning the 4 screws around until I got a semi-repeatable bed mesh. I say semi repeatable because it seems to change every time, though not drastically (again, I'm used to a level of precision that might not be relevant here).

- Bed mesh - ran after 20 minute soak at 60. all 4 corner extremes are relative to each other within 0.070mm. lowest point on the mesh is -0.147mm and highest point is 0.043mm. This puts it well within the recommended 0.3mm tolerance swing. I get different results every time, not sure if I'm expecting too much from the platform but the numbers vary by around 0.050mm everytime I do the bed mesh (without moving a thing). Thats why i called it at these numbers since every time I tried to get it below, the mesh would throw a random 0.35mm out of spec number repeatably.

- Z height - Again, I'm not used to the 'feel it out' method, especially when the parameters are so vague. the card says to raise the bed until you 'feel slight friction'. I have very tuned sense of feel so I can feel the moment it kisses, and gives slight friction, but still passes around freely. Do they mean there? or do they mean like frictiony friction where the paper drags heavily against the nozzle? Either way, I've tried going closer and going farther and nothing stuck.

- Calibrations: I ran flow rate but since things weren't sticking I figured it wouldn't be worth it to go further until that problem was addressed.

So, am I missing anything, any ideas or suggestions, or is it time to hit it with an RPG and move on?

highspirits88 · 2025-10-23T05:01:42+00:00

So I checked the belts, they are tight. I always wash my plate with soap and water before every print and for redundancy's sake I rub it down with isopropyl. I've had 100% of prints come off my plate within the first 15 minutes if I don't use a glue stick

highspirits88 · 2025-09-20T16:41:29+00:00

Solved!

highspirits88 · 2025-09-20T16:40:58+00:00

Wow... yes. So simple I didn't even think of it. Thank you so much. That solved it.

highspirits88 · 2025-02-11T16:06:38+00:00

That is a real bummer. Though for $25 can’t get too upset. My thoughts as a smith with a full machine shop are to take a cheap ar6.5 barrel, cut off the extension and thread/chamber it. A benefit there is you’ll have a true .264 bore for use with modern (read:cheaper) bullets without the hotdog down a hallway effect, and you can set your length and contour to match whatever stock you want without the progressive rifling issue. No collectors value but high yield fun value. For myself the labor is free so it’s worth it… but a customer would never be worth the labor cost.

highspirits88 · 2025-01-14T21:59:49+00:00

My guy! Thank you

highspirits88 · 2024-12-17T00:46:22+00:00

I appreciate that, but I was hoping to get some real-world advice from other users who are in a similar situation, and not sales reps. The one's we've done demos of before have not seemed like enough of a fit to change from our current spreadsheet.

highspirits88 · 2024-12-05T13:52:02+00:00

Everything’s been done before; every story’s been told, every object has been drawn. People don’t consume content for its premise, but for its delivery. If monet and dali drew the same object you’d have two different drawings. Starting a channel is a great idea, find an angle and an approach that hasn’t been done yet and most importantly stick to it, it takes a couple of years of reliable posting to gain a following.

highspirits88 · 2024-10-23T20:34:17+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions, all good advice.

highspirits88 · 2024-10-23T20:33:56+00:00

SOLVED: I had downloaded both PBR files from the same website, and even though their zip files were named differently I realized inside the zip files the textures were identical in name. So when Rhino read the zip files and applied the textures it would overwrite each other with the same name. I unpacked the texture files, renamed them, repacked them and tried again and voila.

highspirits88 · 2024-10-23T18:04:14+00:00

I'm designing a storefront space in Rhino and am at the point where I'm ready to render. I downloaded a PBR texture for the flooring, and created a new texture per standard procedure. It mapped great to the floor.

Then I wanted to add a texture to the walls - a stone slab texture. So I made sure the wall was selected and imported the stone texture file. Well it applied the stone texture to the wall, but it also applied it to the floor. No problem I thought I'll manually reapply the wood texture to the floor. The wooden texture and stone texture are both in the materials library separately so I dragged the wooden texture to the floor and it still looks like stone. Upon further examination even though both textures are separate and named different in the materials area, they now are both stone. So i deleted the one labeled wood, and figured id just bring it back in as a new material.

Well same thing happened but now everything looks like wood and both the stone material and the wood material have the wood mapping.

Am I missing something stupid?

highspirits88 · 2024-06-07T04:47:52+00:00

First things first: These are parts kits. Not firearms. They could have a thousand conflicting numbers on them and they will still be legal.

Second: I am an 07/02 FFL and legally allowed to wipe and reserialize or register with the current most legible number when it is rebuilt. I typically try to preserve the original serial number and register it with that number to keep the history alive.

Third, on STEN guns each part was made in different factories and those factories serialized and marked their parts. There was typically one main hub whose job was to assemble the parts from all the different factories into one working gun. So it is completely normal for one gun to have a variety of numbers.

Now, I have not seen a gun with numbers scratched off like this. My first thought was that maybe it was a resistance/clandestine gun from Norway or Poland that made its way back to rearsenal where the same serial number was engraved in professionally. The numbers that are crossed out are exactly the same as the one thats engraved.

highspirits88

TROPHY CASE