I’ve started to do more complex prints over the past few days and I was running into problems with my prints. After a little back to basics trouble shooting I think I’m getting the hang of the machine.
My Leapfrog Creatr came with a test print in the bed when it arrived, and for the first few weeks I found myself downloading STL files from the Thingiverse and printing them no real problems. But the prints were small and quick to print. Over the last few weeks I’ve been designing parts I would like to print and every time I tried to print a large (>80mm) part it would lift from the bed.
Here are the two things I’d recommend you do:
1) PLA only requires a bed temperature of 60 degrees C, lower it from the default 90.
2) Level the bed as soon as you get your machine! (It was level when it left, but is it when you crack the shipping box!?)
After doing these, I’m starting to get really great results! Now I’m able to do bigger and longer prints without worrying too much if they are going to go wrong.
The first of these was a box for my Carambola i2c IO board (which has been converted to a Raspberry Pi controller, but that is another post!).
Here are the results:
Top of the box with the Raspberry Pi fitted:
The top and bottom:
The box assembled:
The side with access for power and Ethernet:
The output connector side:
All good.. at last I can call this one done!