Embracing the obvious

In jumping back and forth with three different 3D printers – yeah, an embarrassment of riches – I have had to learn and remember each 3D printer’s idiosyncrasies.

Yes, there are more similarities between the Cerberus 3D’s two deltabot style printers, the 250 (right), which sits on a desktop, and my Gigante, which is 8 feet tall and can print up to 4-1/2 feet tall, but they each also have their own preferences.

(Yes, I think they’re alive, but that’s another post ….)

One advantage of having different 3D printers, though, is that I learn from them, or at least I should ….

Through the Grabers, who own Cereberus, I have learned about the value of a heated print tray, which is also called a print bed. Their 250 model does have a heated tray, while the Gigante doesn’t.

I’ve learned that the heated print tray helps keep the print from cooling too fast, which can result in the print curling up off the tray. It’s really a drag when that happens. Wasted filament. Wasted time. Frustration.

With the Gigante and the CubeX, I’ve been using an external heater to try to help, especially in the winter months.

OK, I know Phoenix’s winter months don’t compare with those of you in cold climes, but still, it gets cold enough here to need to address this issue. (It actually dropped below freezing here three times this winter, which does happen. I’ve even seen it snow a couple of times. Yeah, I’m just trying to make some of you feel better).

With my CubeX 3D printer, which is made by 3D Systems, I had been using a set of halogen lights I stole from our living room that seemed to help.

Until it didn’t. I had a handful of prints fail, and kept thinking, “I need more heat!”

Well, no, I didn’t. I needed to check the print tray.

I had to change out a bunch of electronic boards in the CubeX a while back, and when I did, it seems that I must have somehow tweaked the bed enough that it got out of level. How, I don’t know, but it only took a level to find out why my prints kept failing despite the added heat.

So yeah, I need to level it.

But I’m going to wait, because Steve Graber at Cerberus was nice enough to find and snag a heated bed for the CubeX. So I’ll install that new bed and THEN level it.

Yeah, it’s the little things …..