So been doing a bit of reading up and there is a firmware update here. Also that the Makerbot Makerware software works with the Duplicator 4 and is allegedly better than ReplicatorG. And so it should be with one of the largest 3D printer companies behind it. Maybe it’s what I have been looking for and I can get going with this new printer at last.

Followed the firmware update instructions to the letter and now the RepG software thinks that the bed center is the middle of the right hand edge.

The Makerware software is really not much better than the RepG. Who writes this stuff it is really awful and clunky. To edit settings you have to actually load up the profile, once you have found it, in a text editor. At least it knows where the bed center is. But again the print just won’t stick to the bed.

I now starting to wonder if I have rolls of ABS not PLA??? This would account for its lack of tack. Hmmmm…

So far not really liking this printer much. 🙁

EDIT: So yea, the printer comes with one roll ABS and one roll PLA. I picked up the ABS of course and all the other stock we got is ABS too. Doh!

So the Duplicator 4 is out of its box and on the bench. Then what? No instructions in the box so what to do. Rummaging on the internet I find the drivers. It uses a package called ReplicatorG . I was hoping to extract the drivers from the install and carry on using Repetier-Host or Cura but it seems this printer does talk reprap as its a clone of the Makerbot 2.

ReplicatorG is basic. And Crude. And not much fun. Compared with Cura or Repetier its like something out of the Arc with little sophistication or granular control. In fact its like a DOS program.

Installed all the software and give it a go with my usual 20mm cube.

Brakes on. Erms.. maybe I should make sure that the heads aren’t going to crash into the bed first. Pushing a few buttons on the front brings up the bed leveling procedure, however I see that the bed is a little to high and the heads are just going to trash right into it.

Underneath the bed are four knurled nuts you need to do up a bit to get the bed down. One had fallen off. Then run the leveling prog which moves the head around the bed and you adjust the nuts using a piece of paper to get the height right.

So on with the printing. First using the left print head.

Booger! It wont stick. Try again with a higher bed temperature 80 degs instead of the usual 50 degs I use for PLA.

Just as it reached the end it came unstuck. Booger again.

Hmmm… What do we have here?

Yey! Looks like the new printer has arrived 🙂 Lets get it opened.

Nice and woody and some assembly required too.

You need a first class degree in spatial reasoning to get the included two reels of filaments out of the inside the printer.

Also five other colours and two rolls of ninjaflex flexible filament.

During research into calibration I came across a youtube vid about setting the flow rate of the printer and the basis of this was print a test object and measure its wall thickness with a vernier caliper. I downloaded the test object but on loading it into Cura for printing the object came up on but the preview was blank ie nothing was going to print. I ran the print anyway just to check and indeed nothing was printed. I could not figure what the problem was so just left it as the printer was running ok.

Just recently though I was trying to print a cookie cutter that I had modeled in AC3D and some parts of it were also missing in the preview window. Ok so this got annoying.

As it happened at the same time new version of Repetier-Host appeared that used the Cura engine and the print looked mostly ok in this s/w. So what was the difference??

The answer is Shell-Thickness. The combination of this setting and the size of the print head aperture determine the number of passes needed to make up the wall (I am not sure what the formula is yet.) The upshot of this is that I can now print the test object with out a problem. You can even lie about the print head size to vary the results.

A couple of initial tests. The missing bit is just where the initial layer blobbed.

Test prints changing different variables.

I left the calipers at work so I don’t quite yet know what the optimum setting is yet but got flow rate down to 70% of its current setting before things went badly wrong.

I wanted to try the Kensington lock adapter in ABS to see if it would be stronger than PLA. To do this I need to heat the bed much higher (100+ degs) and print at a much higher temperature (230-260 deg). I have also read that ABS is susceptible to warping in drafts so it is best to contain the printer in some way. Some of the newer models actual are fully enclosed to maintain a constant temperature. ie MakerBot Z18 and the Duplicator 4X

In addition ABS does not stick very well to the print bed and its a good idea to use ABS slurry (ABS melted in acetone) or hair spray, which it turns out is much the same thing. I went with hair spray as I don’t have any acetone.

My problem turned out to be that the heat bed on my printer would not heat to anything more than 89 degs and even then slowly failed to maintain even this on each subsequent print. Solutions to this maybe using a higher voltage on the heater element, fully enclosing the printer or even replacing the thick aluminium sheet and glass plate with a mirror. If I remember right Ikea do a 200×200 mirror so I might go get one. Glass is essential to get a super smooth finish on the under side of a print.

But I did manage to produce some output even so. I didn’t bother fiddling around to much as it seemed like the higher bed temperature was indeed needed.

The first print on the left was bitty due to low head temperature and the second came unstuck. The third printed fine and I will test this glued to the side of the cupboard at a later date.