Hi Ripley, welcome to the group!
One thing that would be helpful is a simple guide for Revetier. Everything I've found so far has been very technical.
Everything is pretty much on a volunteer basis here on the forum, so the folks who use Repetier would need to write up a guide for it. (Maybe as you get a little more comfortable with it you could put a few little How-To's together? We
could use a bit more information for it. Most folks use Simplify 3D here.)
The only way I know how to set the Z-stop is by using the M2 QuickStart software
You want to use the
Z-Adjust Application to adjust the initial gap here:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3666
The reason for that is that unless you also run through the leveling process each time in the
QuickStart Application, the results do not get written to the firmware. (And that's a bit of a hassle, and not necessary each time. The
Z-Adjust application writes the results to the firmware immediately.)
Rectilinear was making long lines which didn't stick to each other or the bed. Hilbert Curve looks cool but when I pulled the piece off, the bottom layer stuck to the plate and got totally ruined. Which pattern is best for PLA adhesion?
Infill patterns generally don't have much to do with adhesion - that can be helped with a little hairspray or gluestick, so just use the pattern you like. Rectilinear patterns are generally the weakest, things like Hilbert Curve and Honeycomb or fast Honeycomb are the strongest, but they take a
long time. Rectilinear is the quickest, so you just need to decide which one fits your needs for a particular print. If it needs strength, try a Honeycomb pattern. If it's a draft, use Rectilinear.
One thing....generally one uses several solid top and bottom layers on the print - if you don't specify solid top and bottom layers, the infill will come into direct contact with the plate, and yes, that would be impossible to remove in one piece. Don't forget to specify the number of solid layers that you want.
Lastly (for now) is there a tutorial for basic g-code writing? I just want to be able to set the finish code to retract 50mm and lower the z bed to home.
Excellent guide to writing G-Code here on the RepRap Wiki:
http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code
To save you some time, this is part of the ending script code I use:
M104 S0 ; turn off extruder temperature
M140 S0 ; turn off bed
G91 ; relative mode
G1 Z10 E-10 ; lower bed 10mm & retract 10 mm
If you don't want to have to re-feed the filament each time before you start a print, 10mm retraction should be fine. Go with 50 mm if you plan to actually remove the spool each time for storage. (I generally just leave it on if it's not PLA, and if I need to completely back out the filament for storage, I use the
Jog Controls in the
Machine Control Panel.)
Have fun with it! The learning curve is actually pretty quick.
