QA

Question: How To Use A Purge Tower 3D Printing

What is a purge tower in 3D printing?

When 3D printing with two separate materials a purge towers or an ooze shield is required to prime the nozzles for the next layer. This is done to reduce the pressure inside the nozzle so that filament does not continue to come out of the nozzle tip.

What is a prime tower 3D printing?

A prime tower is an additional print that’s created on the build plate to help prepare the nozzle before printing the next layer. It reduces oozing, under extrusion and enhances overall printing quality. The prime tower has a few settings that can be adjusted.

What is wiping in Cura?

Wiping & Coasting This decreases the pressure buildup in the hot end and minimizes any blobbing or zits left by retractions. Work with the default values (0.4-mm wipe distance, 0.064-mm3 coasting volume) and adjust by 0.1 mm and 0.01 mm3, respectively.

What is the best support pattern for 3D printing?

The best support pattern for 3D printing is the Zigzag pattern because it has a great balance of strength, speed, and ease of Removal. When choosing the best support patterns for your 3D prints, I’d mostly stick to the Zigzag and the Lines pattern because of their balance of speed, strength, and ease of removal.

What is extrusion multiplier in Cura?

The extrusion multiplier, which is called “Flow” in Ultimaker’s Cura, specifies the rate at which your printer will extrude material. Based on the value for this setting, Cura automatically calculates how fast to move the extruder motor for certain print speeds or filament diameters.

What does an ooze shield do?

Ooze shield prints a single shell of extra material around the outside of your part, intended to catch excess material that may drip from the non-printing nozzle.

Does Cura support dual extruder?

To print in 2 colors, you need 2 STL files that have been designed to fit together for dual extrusion. There’s no way to separate a single STL file into two parts in Cura. You can also find ready made dual extrusion prints on YouMagine or Thingiverse.

How do I change extruder in Cura?

How to select the extruder to print your model in Ultimaker Cura Select the model you would like to assign to a different extruder to open the model toolbar on the left side of the screen. Select one of the available extruders at the bottom of the menu.

How do I view GCode?

About GCode Viewer Drag the mouse to rotate the model. Scroll with the mouse wheel to zoom. Right click and drag to pan. To view your own model, drag a gcode file from your desktop and drop it in this window.

How do I change my GCode in Cura?

Open Cura (or your slicer of choice) and navigate to your machine settings by clicking the “Settings” tab. After opening up the settings bar, click “Printer”, and then “Manage Printers”. Click “Machine Settings”, and you’ll see the start and end G-code scripts in the two boxes on the bottom of the pop-up screen.

What does orange mean in Cura?

I remember that the orange color means the item value is illegal.

Should I retract layer change?

Retract on layer change – Movement along the Z axis must also be considered when dealing with oozing, otherwise blobs may occur. It is recommended to leave this setting on. Wipe before retract – Moves the nozzle whilst retracting so as to reduce the chances of a blob forming.

What is a good retraction speed?

If you retract too quickly, the filament may separate from the hot plastic inside the nozzle, or the quick movement of the drive gear may even grind away pieces of your filament. There is usually a sweet spot somewhere between 1200-6000 mm/min (20-100 mm/s) where retraction performs best.

What should my support density be?

Size of overhang: The bigger the angle of the overhang, the denser supports you need. Especially for 90-degree overhangs, a support density of at least 15% is recommended. Support removal: The denser the supports are, the harder it is to remove them (and the more material you waste).

What support is easiest to remove?

Support Pattern Zig-zag is the fastest to print and simplest to remove. Lines is the next step up. It still makes for great, easy-to-remove supports, but it’s slightly stronger than zig-zag and doesn’t usually “pop off” in one piece. Concentric is best for models with shapes near to spheres or cylinders.

What are the best settings for a 3D printer?

In short (because some of you just need the settings), here are the main settings I found to be perfect: 3D printer used: MP Select Mini 3D. Plastic used: PLA Esun. Temperature: between 180°C (356°F) and 190°C (374°F) Interface support ON. Interface thickness: 0.6mm. Interface distance from the object: 0.2mm.

What temperature should I print PLA at?

What temperature to print PLA? In general, PLA filament settings have an optimal printing PLA temperature range from about 185C to about 205C. If you’re using 1.75mm as opposed to thicker 2.85mm (or 3.00mm) your optimal print will be closer to the lower end of this PLA filament temperature range.

How do you use Cura plugins?

From Ultimaker Cura, simply open the marketplace using the Marketplace button in the top right of the user interface. The marketplace panel will be displayed, from where you can navigate the plugins and materials. Click on a plugin or material to learn more about it, and simply click Install to add it to Cura.