Materials printed on M2

[jimc]

haha yeah bryan! lol

s3d has a load of functions you can use. retraction, coasting, wipe, ooze rate, etc. no matter what printer you buy unless its an industrial unit, will have a bit of a learning curve. you need to learn the printer, materials and software. every material from every manufacturer will need to have a tuned process for it but the more you print the more you'll get used to the machine and know what to do. when you have questions, thats when you come here.

[sthone]

I had a sample of Zen Toolwork's Dark Wood Filament I received with there flexible stuff I ordered so I gave it a shot. What better to try than a treasure chest.

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This first picture is how it came off the printer. I printed this with a .35 nozzle running the stock med. setting in S3D. (it prints between 190-230) I only had a small sample so this is all I printed but I didn't encounter any problems.

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(Penny for scale) I heard these wood filaments could take stain so I decided to try it will a gel stain I just used on another project. It kind of got a little darker I guess but to be honest the stain was lighter than the filament I was staining.

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For shits and giggles I also tried dry brushing on some black stain with a q-tip just to see if I could get a grainy look like wood. I probably should have used a brush but its not to bad all thing considered.

I'm not sure what you would do with this kind of filament it kind of seems like brown PLA to me but its cool to have some options I guess.

-Steve

[insta]

That's awesome. Out of the box settings with the M2 & S3D?

[jeffpowell101]

What is the max temperature you are supposed to print with the M2? I saw 250*C accord to this - http://makergear.wikidot.com/m2 - but I have concerns if that is true due to the plastic used in the extruder. http://www.makergear.com/products/extruders - this says it uses a PEEK extruder which I would think could not take 235*C or higher well, though it is unclear to me if you can now order with a hybrid part, and if that would even matter for temperature.

Thoughts? What is your experience?

[jimc]

the v3b extruder which is what the m2 i believe is currently shipping with is good to 255c. i printed with mine for short periods at 265 no problem but that was as i said short an mainly just as a test. i have done normal 14hr prints though at 255 without a hitch. the temperatures are all in where the thermistor is reading the temp. we do know there is about a 20 degree differential from the heater block where the thermistor is to the tip of the nozzle. knowing this, the peek and ptfe isnt really seeing the temps that the thermistor is reading since that is up the feed tube a ways.

[sthone]

That's awesome. Out of the box settings with the M2 & S3D?

Yeah I've had this M2 for maybe 5 months and I just recently started playing with S3D settings just to try to learn a little more about 3D printing. Up till now I load up a model select one of the stock setting and hit print and everything always turns out this good. I actually tell people I haven't learned a thing about 3D printing since buying my M2 because the damn thing just works that good... I haven't had too. I can't say enough good things about S3D either. (I'm glad Makergear recommends/sells it on there site) I've seen people post some sloppy looking models that come off the M2 and never understood why they didn't look that good until I found out they are using some of the free slicers out there. I'm not knocking any other software I'm just saying using S3D with the M2 is easy and my stuff comes out great, it was worth every penny to me.

-Steve

[hybridprint]

What do folks think is the best slicer to use for dual extrusion hybrid prints? Ive read somewhere online that Makerware was way better at dual extrusion prints preventing ozz and stringyness.. However I find that hard to believe.. Whats the experience here?

[Tim]

Don't know about Makerware. I know Cura does ooze shields and drip towers (or was it drip shields and ooze towers)? All of the slicers have various settings for ooze control, but very few have physical structures to deal with it. The problem with these shields/towers is that they only work in a small area which is basically determined by the distance the extruders are apart. Unfortunately, the M2 dual extruders being close together actually works against this concept, because if the piece is big enough, then each inactive extruder will spend a larger portion of its time inside the shield. But it may still work in many cases given that even for big prints, it doesn't really matter if the other extruder is dripping on the part interior, only if it drips on the piece's perimeter, which is tiny compared to the piece's cross-sectional area.

I thought that when the S3D guys said that version 2.2 was coming out in December and would have "better support for dual extruders", that meant having some of those structural features. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. I'm not aware that slic3r has anything like that, either.

[jsc]

I think something like Cura's physical blocks are necessary. As an experiment, heat up your extruder, purge some filament, then retract any distance you choose at any speed. Does any ooze appear, after an extended period of time? That will end up somewhere in a dual extrusion print.

I think the only way to succeed in this challenge is to have completely dessicated filament and aggressive retraction settings. But for me, I tend to leave filament on the spool for weeks at a time.

[insta]

That, or E3D's "Cyclops" hotend.