Notes to myself: Lulzbot TAZ n00b guide

A work in progress…

Critical Specs:
Bed size / Build envelope: 298mm (X) * 275mm (Y) * 250mm (Z)
Nozzle diameter: 0.35mm (shipping default; others available)
Filament diameter: The TAZ’s extruder expects 3mm filament. However, not all off-the-shelf filament will be exactly this diameter; the discrepancy could affect print quality in severe cases (see notes later).

The Parts:

Printer:
-RAMBo – all-in-one Arduino-compatible controller + stepper/heater/etc. driver board (all-in-one variant of RAMPS)
–Marlin – firmware used by RAMPS/RAMBo boards
-Extruder (motor/gearing for filament control, plus hot end)
–Hot End (nozzle, barrel and heater): Budaschnozzle

PC Software:
For open-source 3D printers, this comes typically in 2 parts: a printer interface program and a slicing program. The slicer converts STL to G-code, and the interface is what actually drives the printer (usually includes homing, viewing/adjusting temperatures, and sending the generated G-code to the printer).

Printer controller / interface: TAZ ships with Pronterface, but others are available.

Slicer: TAZ ships with the aptly-named Slic3r, but again, others are available.

Common Problems

Printer “shriek” followed by severe height problems when printing (head crashing into bed or printing in midair) – This is the ONE issue that gave me the most grief. The issue in brief is that the TAZ’s Z-axis (2-motor gantry on high-friction leadscrews) must be driven quite slowly compared to the other two axes, or else the motors will stall. However, most slicers (including the Slic3r configuration that comes with the printer) insist on moving every axis at the maximum possible speed for all non-printing moves (and often even printing moves). In general, this is accomplished by generating G-code specifying arbitrarily high feedrates (F999999 or whatever) and expecting the firmware to limit these moves to a sane speed. For some reason, these limiting values are either missing or incorrectly set on the printer firmware end, so the Z axis motors stall when performing the initial home-raise-position-lower move at the beginning of the print. This results in a number of highly irritating problems such as printing in midair (if it stalls more during the lowering portion), or the nozzle dragging across the bed and shredding the crap out of any films/coatings thereupon (stalled more/entirely during the raise portion), or putting the entire gantry out of whack (if the motors on either side stalled by different amounts – have fun with this one!).

Some more discussion of this issue at http://forum.lulzbot.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=91 .

To fix it: At the time of this writing (10/2013), you have to rebuild and reflash the firmware after tweaking some settings. In brief: Download the appropriate firmware sourcecode for your printer here, along with the Arduino IDE from the same page (they specifically endorse and host v. 1.01, but any recent version should in theory work). Oh yeah, and for you Windoze users, some kind of tool for opening .bzip2 archives. I recommend 7-Zip. (Great utility, but be wary of fake/spam download links from their file host when downloading…) Unzip the firmware files, go into the configuration.h file and uncomment the //#define EEPROM_SETTINGS and //#define EEPROM_CHITCHAT lines. This will let you set maximum speeds using an M code (to be explained later). While you’re in there, may as well sane up the default values too. Scroll up and lower the Z value for DEFAULT_MAX_FEEDRATE (the values are X, Y, Z and Extruder, respectively). The default is 10, which for my printer is too fast. On mine, a value of 5 was slow enough but excited some nasty resonance that caused the whole printer to buzz angrily. In the end I ended up with 4.2, which provided much smoother operation. (YMMV of course.)

Open the Arduino IDE, and from there open “marlin.ino” in the firmware files. Set the board as “Arduino Mega 2560” (Tools -> Board) and the serial port used by your printer (Tools -> Serial Port), press the Upload button and cross your fingers.

Assuming everything worked, you can now use M commands to set speed limits for each axis. Use:

M203 X### Y### Z### E###

to set speeds, and M503 to display the current values (if EEPROM_CHITCHAT is enabled). You can add this code to your slicer’s startup routine to ensure the speeds are not overridden by other users or software settings (most slicers have a place to add custom G-code before and after the slicer output.)

NOTE: Pay careful attention to expected units. The M command expects (by default?) values in mm/min., whereas if you set a default in the firmware as above, this value is expected in mm/sec. Particularly braindead slicers and/or host software might even set your machine into Imperial mode, blech.

Print does not stick to bed / breaks loose – Very common, and semi-related to the curling issue below. The big thing to check is the nozzle height when printing the first layer. It should be basically touching, smooshing the initial layer down nice and flat. The output should not look like a round bead of toothpaste being squeezed out of a tube. Check bed leveling, Z screw and repeatability, etc. Next things are to play around with the bed temperature and possibly extrusion temperature. Ensure the bed is fully up to temp before printing. For parts with low bed contact area or small protrusions that get caught and lifted, you can try various software-generated adulterations (raft or brim) to help with adhesion. These are typically autogenerated by the slicer program at your command. A raft is a solid-fill first layer covering typically a bounding box around the footprint of the print, followed by a sparse layer that allows for breaking the raft off afterward. A brim is a widening of all features on the first layer (as if your print were a bit melty and thrown at the bed with some force) to increase the surface area and move any “peel point” away from your actual part geometry. Brims are good to help stick down thin features that are prone to being lifted during the early print passes. After removal, the thin brim can be easily cut off with an X-Acto knife.

UPDATE: I tried the “lulzjuice” (acetone glue) trick, and it seems to work beautifully – completely solved my adhesion problems! Basically, for printing ABS, dissolve a bit of filament in some acetone, and wipe/brush a thin layer onto the buildplate before printing. Acetone has a low boiling point, so if you have a heated buildplate, do this *before* heating it up to avoid a bubbly mess. The flip side is that unsticking the print (intentionally) can be a little harder – if all else fails, try hitting it with coldspray (or an inverted can of computer duster).

Edges of print peel / curl away from bed while printing – Caused by a combination of poor adhesion to the bed and changing temperature. Check all of the stuff for the previous problem, then see what you can do about controlling the rate of cooling (overall or between layers). Try lowering the extruder temp slightly or raising the bed temp(?), dealing with any sources of cold breezes (enclosing the build area if necessary), or fiddling with software-based thermal controls (delays between layers, etc.).

Fat, floppy, and/or blobby print (edges extending beyond where they “should have been”) – Often a side-effect of the edges peeling upward and pushing the outer surfaces up toward the nozzle (the excess material has nowhere to go but outward…). If there is no peeling problem, most likely too much material is being extruded. See “Filament Diameter Problems” below…

Filament Diameter Problems – Use good, red-handled calipers to measure the filament diameter in several places – it may be a bit fatter or thinner than the nominal dimension, especially extra-cheap or noname-brand stuff. A fraction of a mm difference may not sound like much, but considering that’s being squeezed down from, say, 3mm to 0.35mm, it can become significant! Most slicers have a means for compensating for the filament diameter.

Popping sounds from extruder during print – Trapped humidity in filament (think popcorn) – try gentyl baking or storing in a drybag when not used for extended periods.

Trouble bridging – The extruded filament should be getting “pulled” slightly during print; not “pushed” (i.e. travel rate should slightly exceed the extrusion rate). See “Filament Diameter Problems” or related compensations offered by your slicer.

Hole diameters in printed parts – plastic may “squish out” a bit during extrusion, causing your hole diameters to be slightly narrower than expected. Assuming the amount of extrusion is actually correct (see several of the above), I’ve heard of folks compensating with an Excel table of expected vs. achieved hole size (it might calculate this) – don’t know where to get this though.


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