FlashForge Creator Pro
So, I get home from work to find my wife has bought me a box.
It's another 3d printer. Some helpful chap at her work was bringing in all manner of amazing 3d printed objects, and she thought.. 'gonna get me some of that'. I think the final result in her mind is 3d printed shoes. Sorry luv, ain't gonna happen. So I unpacked it all, and read the 5 lines of English instructions (well, there was a little more than that). Not a lot however. Google is certainly your friend when getting one of these babies off the ground. It came with a roll of blue and a roll of white 1.75mm PLA. |
So, first thing to print will be some printer upgrades. None of my 3d Filaprint drums fit on the supplied roll holders, so I downloaded a replacement spool holder from Thingyverse and went with that.
Turned out that the design was OK, but needed tweeking. I added a second outer 'cone' and a little plastic clip to hold the cones in place.
They work very well printed in white PLA.
Second upgrade was a better filament tube guide for the back of the printer. This ensures the filament is taken from the middle of the spool and not the inside edge (where it can drop off an get caught).
Turned out that the design was OK, but needed tweeking. I added a second outer 'cone' and a little plastic clip to hold the cones in place.
They work very well printed in white PLA.
Second upgrade was a better filament tube guide for the back of the printer. This ensures the filament is taken from the middle of the spool and not the inside edge (where it can drop off an get caught).
After printing many PLA prints successfully, I thought we would try ABS. Nope... just won't stick to the bed as I suspected.
We will have to address that as my next project.
The hot plate however got to 105 degrees pretty damn impressively fast. That's handy.
We will have to address that as my next project.
The hot plate however got to 105 degrees pretty damn impressively fast. That's handy.
Software
You install the Flashprint software. Took a short while to work out how that all works.
I installed the USB lead to the printer, but it turns out you basically appear to not use it. Everything seems to operate from the sd card (supplied).
So, I copied the files off the sd card (mostly Chinese) and then formatted it. Set up some decent folders and begin to fill it with projects.
Basically, you load your .STL files (mine are mostly designed in Tinkercad) into the Flashprint software.
Here you adjust your print, pick which extruder to use and pick your settings. Then simply export the file to your sd card.
Stick the SD card in the machine (just inside the front door) and then navigate to the file on the front menu. Press print and you are off.
It also came with Happy 3d software. No idea what that is, but I didn't find it immediately pleasing to use.
So, lets see if we can get this machine to work with ABS. It's already way more reliable that that pile of rubbish RoStock Max V2 that is sitting in my garage gathering dust.
I installed the USB lead to the printer, but it turns out you basically appear to not use it. Everything seems to operate from the sd card (supplied).
So, I copied the files off the sd card (mostly Chinese) and then formatted it. Set up some decent folders and begin to fill it with projects.
Basically, you load your .STL files (mine are mostly designed in Tinkercad) into the Flashprint software.
Here you adjust your print, pick which extruder to use and pick your settings. Then simply export the file to your sd card.
Stick the SD card in the machine (just inside the front door) and then navigate to the file on the front menu. Press print and you are off.
It also came with Happy 3d software. No idea what that is, but I didn't find it immediately pleasing to use.
So, lets see if we can get this machine to work with ABS. It's already way more reliable that that pile of rubbish RoStock Max V2 that is sitting in my garage gathering dust.
Now that I have had it a while...
So yes, it stopped working. But, too be fair, it did bang out about 2000+ hours before doing so.
The extruder gear stripped, and I basically had to search the entire world for spares. Finally found spare toothed gears (they are an odd type) in China, using AliExpress. I also bought an all metal extruder to see if that improves things. The rear spool holders also got an upgrade with some ball bearings. My redesigned ones were fine, but squeaked and it drove me mad. As you can see here below, sometimes it just decides to piss you off. No idea why this print came unstuck from the bed. |
Talking of sticking, my go-to adhesive was UHU sticks.
But, they seem to have changed something in them and they no longer work (or I have a dozen dud ones here).
So, I jumped over to the disappearing purple glue sticks that most people seem to use, and they are working fine.
Also found that Poundland hairspray worked pretty well with PETG. Trouble was it stank like a tarts apron, oh, and you have to go into Poundland. The non-fragranced stuff just didn't work.
I started using PETG, and it was very troublesome at first. But, I found printing at a ridiculously slow speed provided very good results.
But printing PETG at 15mm a second is just too slow. Some of the prints that should have been 5 or 6 hours took way over 20.
Some of the other improvements I made included a latching relay, triggered by a microswitch at the bottom of the cabinet.
This turns the unit of entirely once a print has finished (the print bed drops to the bottom of the cabinet when complete, which hits a microswitch). This saves the printer sitting powered up all night if it finishes printing in the early hours.
I also installed a wireless webcam on the print bed platform. Brilliant for keeping a remote eye on your print. Even better it was only £16 on Amazon and it ACTUALLY WORKED out of the box.
The final thing I added was assistance for my old man eyes.
A couple of high brightness white LEDS shining directly at the print nozzles. I embedded them into a replacement fan duct that I made, which actually directs the factory layer cooling fan to both nozzles (rather than just the left hand one as factory standard). I was going to add a filament detector, but I have never run out of filament... ever, so it hardly seemed worth the effort. |