Until now i have just been running the plate that came with it with alot of success. at least until when i printed some Jerry cans where the lower surface had an awful texture from the plate!
But they are not wasted as i can just mount them that face inwards.I also printed a fairy house for my wife to paint up and stick in the garden, That worked very well indeed and quite fast. She is over the moon with its possibilities.
My son wants a Dinosaur to print haha!
So i think i may be understanding a little more why Cura has failed. In fact i don't think it really is a Cura issue!
I should explain the Micro SD card reader that came with the printer didn't work! So in order to print i was saving on local C and then emailing to my phone and saving on the card. Then printing from that.
It works very well for files less than 5mb.
However when i have inserted files over 5mb hotmail asks me to attach a copy. If i do this and send i find the files received and downloaded on my phone are alot less file size than i sent!
Therefore it would explain why the printer just stops because the file is not complete!
Unfortunately all the files i have in Cura are alot larger than the same files saved in Slic3r. I guess this is down to other optional features bumping up file size.
So all the successful print are from Slic3r.
I then tested this theory slightly and made a large file in Slic3r and sent, i could then see the same issue as when it printed it stopped mid print!
I then used another email account to send the same file and the file received was much larger.
The Micro Card reader has now arrived, so i will test print one of the previous Cura files and see if it completes a print.
Major lessons learnt,
Do not keep door in room where printer is running open. We have quite a cool(heat wise) house with draft. On larger print area prints the draft was causing horizontal cracks. The make shift draft excluder helps greatly reduce these cracks.
Also running slighlty higher extruder head temp. So roughly 215-220 seems to work well on prints soo far. But on areas with overlap this has to reduce to stop droop. So lower to 205.
First print speed reduce dramatically to allow th print to adhere for the first layer well. I have been playing with bridging speeds, infill, perimeter and support.
Slic3r was at first quite difficult to set the support material as it was quite dense and close, meaning it was a complete pain to release from the final model. But i have learnt ways to control this now aswell.
Don't give up, keep trying until the issue you come across is resolved!
Really enjoying it now, trusting it alot more and want to make some big things with it! Made another order for more filament with more colours. I really fancy doing multicolour prints now for learning. I can see the kids getting 3D printed toys now! hahahahaa
