santiclause said:
that worked to get rid of the clicking/ extruder not being able to be pushed out sound; however it seems like I get a perfect first line with my skirt and first lines of the 1st layer, but then on the 2nd layer I can kinda still hear it rub across the 1st layer...I'm affraid that if I adjust the z axis endstop again I'll loose my perfect 1st layer. I can live with it, but I just don't want my extruder to come loose or something over time, or I'm not sure am I just a hair off or something?
Also I still haven't gotten simplify to tell me extruders to lift before heating, but as long as my extruders aren't right down on the bed or homed before I hit the print button, I can still use simplify because it heats it off the bed, then homes, and goes straight to print.
I find myself with a pair of pliers before every print, grabbing the oozeing pla from the extruder right before it touches the bed to begin the print to avoid it dragging it over to the center and messing up my first layer. Is there a way to stop the filament from oozing out like that everytime while it's heating up?
The hotend should not be dragging on the previously printed layer. This means the z stop is still a little off and your hotend is still too close to the bed. You said adjusting it made the clicking go away and the filament is now coming out and it 'seems' like a perfect first layer. Try raising it a little more and you should see a much better first layer and that should eliminate the drag on previously printed layer. You do not want any mechanical stress on your hot end and continued rubbing of the hot end over cold plastic (previous layers) will cause the whole carriage to raise slightly to get over the plastic or force the hot end through it which WILL loosen the clamp over time. When it happens once or twice it's no big deal, but when it occurs over and over again over multi hour prints, it will loosen the clamp. Better to adjust your endstop/fix the problem then to 'live with it'.
FYI - I print my first layer widths between 120-150% depending on the print/object size. First layer height at 110% They are nice fat tracks. I print directly on unheated 2.5 mm glass from home depot with Aquanet hairspray as a bed adhesive. I also use a 2 loop brim for better first layer adhesion. This is accomplished by going to the additions tab in Simplify and entering:
1 for skirt layers,
0 for skirt offset and
2 for brim loops. This will give you 2 nice outer loops that get laid down first with your object then printed in the confines of the loop. The 2 loops are easily removed from the print by simply peeling them off. In the injection molding world, its commonly known as flashing. With PLA, I've found those settings to be optimal.
I use Simplify3D almost exclusively now. The issue you're having is not in your starting gCode block but rather in the temperature settings . Double click the process and go to the Temperature tab. Uncheck 'wait for temperature to stabilize before beginning build'. This is what is causing your issue. Simplify will insert an M109 Sxxx Txxx command BEFORE your starting gCode block. This causes the nozzle to wait until the specified temperature is reached before your starting gCode is executed.
After you uncheck the box that should solve the problem of the nozzles not raising before heating but that now creates the opportunity for the printer to start printing before the nozzles get to temperature and if the nozzles are not hot enough the printer will prevent a cold extrude but will continue processing the code without spitting out any plastic. In essence, that's bad so we need to reintroduce the M109 in the starting gCode.
This is what your staring gCode should look like. A line beginning with a semi colon is not processed and any comments after a semi colon are ignored.
G21 ; set units to millimeters
M107; Fan off or M106 S0 works too.
G90 ; use absolute coordinates
G92 E0
M82 ; use absolute distances for extrusion
M204 S500; Set default acceleration (I keep my accelleration pretty low)
G28; Home all
G1 Z5; Raise nozzle 5 mm
M109 S199 T0 ;wait for extruder to reach target temp before continuing. (change 199 to the desired target temperature value)
It's difficult to stop the hotend ooze completely but you could create a small wipe routine that primes and cleans the nozzles right before the print starts. This is done with gCode commands to move the hotend to an unused portio n of the bed (rear corner) at a very low height to wipe away the oozing filment right after the M109 has completed.
Hope this helps.
ShaqFoo