Rostock MAX V2 User Guide 1st Edition
User Manual:
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- Read Me First!
- This document is your instruction manual for your new SeeMeCNC® 3D printer machine. Before using your new 3D printer, thoroughly read and understand this manual for safe and effective operation of the machine.
- 0 – Introduction and Acknowledgments
- 1 – Driver and Software Installation
- 2 – Installing MatterControl and Calibrating the Printer
- 3 – First Print: PEEK Fan Shroud
- 4 – Second Print: Layer Fan Shroud
- 5 – Matter Control Basics: Slicing
- 6 – MatterControl Basics: Loading and Printing Objects
- 7 – Advanced MatterControl: Configuration
- MatterControl includes a number of basic configuration options that you can use to set up things like your default slicing engine, change EEPROM settings, etc.
- Let's go over each one as they appear on the MatterControl Configuration pane.
- MatterControl includes a bed leveling feature that when properly configured, can assist with issues that can arise from an un-level bed. Note that this will NOT calibrate a delta printer! What it can do is help improve first layer performance on an already calibrated printer.
- SeeMeCNC has put together a nice video that illustrates the process quite effectively:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6ymbr-AMew
- 8 – Advanced MatterControl: Settings – General
- MatterControl offers three “classes” of settings that have a direct effect on how your printer works. General covers elements that relate to how the plastic is laid down. Filament covers parameters specific to the type of filament that you've chosen to print with. Printer handles those remaining parameters that describe the physical printer you're currently using to print with.
- Let's start this overview on the main page of General, Layers/Surface.
- The first parameter is Layer Height. We've covered this one before, but I wanted to point out something that I didn't go into a lot of detail about earlier. You'll notice that the field has a yellowish highlight to it. That means that the value exists in the currently selected QUALITY profile. If you look carefully, you'll see that the highlight color matches the thin colored line under the QUALITY drop down. (This same effect holds true for MATERIAL profiles, but the color is orange.)
- Any time you add a Print parameter to a preset profile, it will be highlighted just as the Layer Height field is in the example. Note that you can use any of the Print, Filament, or Printer configuration parameters within either of the QUALITY or MATERIAL profile editors.
- The First Layer Height parameter allows you to set the thickness of your first layer. Having a thicker first layer will help provide a good base to build the rest of the part on as the thicker (and thus wider extrusion) will help improve the adhesion to the bed. If your first layer isn't any good, the part could eventually separate from the bed and ruin the print job.
- Bottom Clip allows you to tell the slicing engine that you'd like to “clip off” a specific amount from the bottom of the model. For example, say you've got a 200mm tall model, but you only want to print the top 50mm or so. You can enter 150 into the Bottom Clip field and when the slicer generates the G-Code for the print job, it will begin slicing 150mm up from the bottom of the model.
- Perimeters dictate how thick the “skin” of your model is. 2 or 3 perimeters are good for most parts, but if you want a really strong exterior wall, you can make the perimeter count as high as you feel you need it. To get an idea of how thick the skin will be, you multiply the perimeter count by the extrusion thickness (we'll get to that parameter in a bit). For example, if you have a 0.5mm nozzle, chances are your extrusion thickness will be set to 0.5. 2 perimeters will give you a skin thickness of 1mm. You also have the option of specifying the perimeter thickness in millimeters instead of perimeter counts.
- When Avoid Crossing Perimeters is enabled, the nozzle path will not cross a part perimeter during travel moves. This will help reduce the opportunity for stringing or oozing since the nozzle tip is rarely over open air. For instance, if the tool path would normally cause the nozzle to travel from one side of the part to the other, it would cross at least two perimeters and may leave strings of material in its wake as it moves. If it is set to not cross perimeters, it will cause the nozzle to trace a perimeter back to the nearest point where it can begin printing again instead of jumping straight across to the new extrusion position.
- Spiral Vase mode allows you to print things like vases or other open top, single-wall objects in one continuous layer. What happens is that instead of the slicer raising the nozzle up a full layer height for each new layer, it gradually increases the Z height as the print progresses. This results in a perfectly seamless object, which can be important for artistic prints such as vases. When you're printing a vase or similar object, you'll want to make sure that you set the top layer count to zero to prevent the vase getting a “lid” that you'll have to cut off.
- By default, objects are printed from the inside features to the outside. If you want to reverse this process, enable External Perimeters First. This will cause the outside of the model to be printed before the interior features.
- The Top and Bottom solid layer parameters dictate how thick the top and bottom surfaces of your object are when printed. These two parameters fulfill essentially the same function as the Perimeters parameter, but for the top and bottom of the part. You can calculate your top & bottom thickness by multiplying the solid layer count by the layer height. For example, 5 top layers will result in a final top thickness of 1mm if your layer height is 0.2mm. You also have the option of specifying the top and bottom thickness in millimeters instead of layers.
- The next page in Print is called Infill and covers how the interior of your part is filled. While I covered Fill Density and Infill Type earlier, the Advanced mode adds two new parameters.
- The Starting Angle parameter allows you to control the orientation of the infill. For example, an infill type of GRID with a starting angle of zero degrees is going to look like this:
- Now if you change the starting angle to 45 degrees, you'll end up with an infill pattern that looks like the example below.
- Note that changing the starting angle will also change the angle in which the top and bottom layers are printed. You can see this in the image below – this shows the second layer as it would be printed.
- Infill Overlap is used to adjust how well the infill pattern attaches to the inside perimeter of the part. A good infill will have a solid connection to the inside perimeter of your part, and the structural integrity of your part depends on this.
- The Speed page covers parameters that control how fast various features of the object are printed. The speeds are listed in mm per second, or as a percentage of a related speed parameter.
- The speed parameters are pretty self-explanatory, especially if you've got the Show Help check box set. However, there's a couple of points I'd like to cover about printing speed.
- First of all, there is a relation between your print speed and the temperature you've set for the material you're printing with. The basic rule is, the faster you go, the hotter you print. This is because as the hot end extrudes plastic, it's constantly being cooled by the cold filament that's coming in.
- Setting the extrusion temperature higher allows the hot end to melt the incoming plastic at a faster rate. This allows you to print more quickly. The relation between print speed and extrusion temperature is one of those things you'll get a feel for as you gain experience with your printer.
- You'll quickly learn that the Rostock MAX will “talk” to you if you're printing too rapidly for a given temperature. The extruder will begin to “skip” periodically (or frequently, depending on how fast you're going). A skipping extruder has a very distinct sound – it's kind of a light bump or knocking. If you watch the nylon gear that you use to manually feed filament, you'll notice that it will briefly rotate in the opposite direction at the same time you hear the skipping sound. If you draw a line on the face of the gear, you can spot this motion more easily. The skip is caused by the hot end's inability to melt the material is rapidly as is required. The pressure builds up until the stepper motor can no longer generate the force required. At this point the tension in the filament is released like a spring and the filament pushes back with enough force to cause the stepper motor to skip steps, resulting in a short reverse rotation.
- Secondly, there is also a direct relation between print speed and print quality. In the image above, you'll notice that the speeds for print moves vary a bit. This is because some features don't require a focus on surface quality.
- Perimeters are a great example of this. You'll note that the inside perimeter speed is 40mm/sec, while the outside perimeter is 35mm/sec. The inside perimeter will never been seen after the print is finished so it can be printed at a higher rate. However, you want the visible surface of the print to be smoother and more consistent, so you print the outside perimeters a bit more slowly.
- The last bit about speed settings I want to cover is the first layer speed. You'll see that it's really slow. The reason for this is that while hot plastic loves to stick to hot plastic, hot plastic doesn't like sticking to other things as much. By going slowly on the first layer, you're giving the material time to get a good grip on the surface of the bed. This is known as “part adhesion”. When a part comes unstuck from the bed during a print, it's ruined. This isn't so bad when you're five minutes into a print, but you'll be ready to flip a table when it happens 18 hours into a 19 hour print.
- The Skirt and Raft page covers settings that control how the hot end is primed at the beginning of a print job as well as features that help the part stick to the bed.
- The first section covers the Skirt feature. A skirt in this context is basically a series of single-layer loops printed around the perimeter of the part. This acts as a method to “prime” the hot end with material before the actual part begins to print. Loops defines how many times you want to go around the print. This is tied to the Minimum Extrusion Length parameter. If the number of loops you specify are not enough to meet that minimum length, additional loops will be added automatically.
- The Distance from Object parameter dictates how far away the loop stands off from the part outline. If you set the distance to zero, the skirt will become a “brim”. It will result in the loops being printed connected to the first layer of your print. This can give small parts a first layer that has a larger surface area to improve part adhesion. Since the brim is only a single layer thick, it's usually pretty easy to remove after the print job has completed.
- I mentioned earlier that hot plastic really loves sticking to hot plastic, but not so much to other things. If a brim isn't doing the job for you, you can try a Raft.
- When in Standard mode, the Raft setting was simply an on/off setting. In Advanced mode, you've got a lot more control over how the raft is laid down.
- Expand Distance is the distance you'd like the raft to exceed the base area of the part you're printing. You may want to adjust this parameter if the part you're printing is larger than the bottom contact point on the bed. A larger raft will help to support the part more effectively.
- Air Gap defines how much space you want between the top surface of the raft and the bottom surface of your part. This gap helps make it easier (or even possible!) to remove the raft from your part when it's finished. As mentioned in the help text, a good air gap is one half the diameter of the nozzle. For example, if your nozzle is 0.5mm, you'd want an air gap of 0.25mm.
- You can use the Fan Speed setting to cool the raft as it's being printed. This is typically only used when printing with PLA.
- If you've added a second extruder to your Rostock MAX, you can specify which one should be used for rafts by setting the Raft Extruder value to the index of the extruder you want to use. If you don't have multiple extruders, you can leave this set to zero.
- The Support Material page provides detailed settings on the use of support material if the part you're printing requires it. While I covered the basics of support earlier, I'm going to get a bit more in-depth on it here.
- Checking Generate Support Material will allow you to configure support for your part. Support is required when a part has an overhang or other angled feature that would result in little or no physical support to put a print layer on. The Support Type selection allows you to define the geometric pattern for the support structure. You have GRID and LINES. These patterns were covered earlier, so I won't cover them again here. The new parameter you have to work with in Advanced mode is called Amount.
- Amount is expressed in degrees from vertical and tells the slicing engine to generate support for any feature that meets or exceeds the specified angle. In the setting shown above, the slicing engine will generate support at points where the model “overhangs” 45 degrees or more from vertical.
- When you've got a part feature that's only 20 degrees or so, each layer can easily be supported by the layer underneath. This is because as the part height increases, the horizontal dimension increase is less than the extrusion width. This means that each new layer has a solid foundation to adhere to as it's being applied.
- As you can see when your angle increases to 45 degrees, each layer has much less surface area to adhere to as you print. This is where support comes in handy. It provides that underlying structure for those layers to build upon.
- As the angle increases, the underlying surface area for each layer becomes smaller and smaller until there's simply not enough surface for the next layer to adhere to. In these instances, support material is practically a requirement if you want your part to print at all.
- Now that you've got a good handle on why support can be useful, let's go over the parameters that you can tune to get good support that is easily removable from your part.
- Pattern Spacing controls the distance between each “track” of support that is laid down to support your part. The wider the spacing, the less support that is printed.
- Infill Angle adjusts the angle at which the support structure is built.
- Interface Layers allows you to specify solid layers interspersed with the support material. This comes in handy when using multiple extruders. For example, if you're printing a part in PLA with lots of support, you can generate all the support with PLA, and then have 5 or 6 interface layers of PVA (a water soluble filament). The print would then only be in contact with the PVA interface layers and it would be a flat layer to print on. When finished you can dissolve away the interface layers and the rest of the support falls off the part cleanly.
- X and Y Distance dictates how far away the support structure will be from the part you're printing. You want it as close as you can get it without it actually touching the surface of the part. The default of 0.7mm seems to work out pretty well.
- Z Gap specifies how many layers should separate the support material from the part. This parameter contributes to how easy or difficult it is to remove support material from the part once the print is finished. If you have too little gap, the support material will have more of a grip on the part surface making it difficult to remove. If the gap is too large, the support material won't be able to do its job very effectively.
- If Support Everywhere is checked, you're probably going to get more support material than you bargained for. If you have an internal feature of a part, this may be required in order to support it, but keep in mind that it will also add support to features like horizontally oriented holes, which don't normally need support to print properly.
- If you've got multiple extruders on your Rostock MAX, these parameters allow you to specify which extruder is used for generating support structure.
- The Repair page contains a couple of settings the govern how (and if) the slicer will attempt any repair of invalid part models.
- Sometimes modeling programs will create a model that isn't “water tight”, meaning it's got gaps in the surface. These gaps make it difficult for the slicing engine to do its job and in some cases can cause the slicing operation to fail. The Repair option is MatterSlice's attempt to help fix these issues if they're detected.
- On the Output Options page is a single parameter, Center On Bed. This will automatically center the model on the print bed when you load it. If you don't want that to happen, just un-check the box.
- The Multiple Extruders page has two settings that control how ooze & filament wipes are handled.
- The Wipe Shield Distance specifies how far away from the part you want what is commonly known as an “ooze shield” to be placed around the part. In a two extruder system, the unselected hot end will create this “shield” in order to avoid dripping or oozing plastic on other parts of the model.
- Wipe Tower is used when changing extruders. The active nozzle creates a tower of the specified size and will use it to wipe the nozzle in order to reduce the possibility of oozing or dripping material on the model while the other extruder is active.
- 9 – Advanced MatterControl: Settings – Filament
- 10 – Advanced MatterControl: Settings – Printer
- 11 – Using the 3D and Layer Views
- 12 – A Strategy for Successful (and great!) Prints
- Appendix A: Maintenance and Troubleshooting
- Appendix B: Alternate Calibration Method
- Appendix C: The MatterControl Touch
- Appendix D: Printing From the SD Card
- Appendix E: Optimizing The Temperature Control Algorithms