Volcano users: Any tips and tricks for successful prints? I’m just starting with mine (1.75mm, PLA), and am looking for anything to get better results. Mainly I’m having issues with first layer adhesion, and delamination. Overall successful, but could be better. Thoughts?
I had to slow my speed down a ton. To like 30mm/s becaue the extruder just can’t keep up.
Thanks: I’m currently at 30mm\sec as well, 200deg, with a heated bed at 60. If I don’t heat the bed it really hates sticking on the initial layer. But even later layers tend to want to delaminate sometimes: And my filament cooling fans don’t seem to be doing their job, I get a lot of small detail’s ‘wicking up’ that doesn’t happen on my normal .4mm nozzle. More powerful cooling fans needed?
I actually blogged here about my current setting specifics for the detailed oriented:
http://www.akeric.com/blog/?p=3269
The first layer needs to be 30mm/sec. I tried the 0.6mm nozzle at 80mm/sec and noticed the curl up too. I wrapped the hot end in fiberglass and kapton tape and the installed an external cooling fan that blows on the whole bed. The first two solid layers on top of the infill needed to be slowed way down too.
When drastically changing nozzle size like this, it helps to think in terms of flow rates instead of linear speeds. Multiply your feedrate times layer height times extrusion width to get the nominal flow in mm^3/sec. What flow rate do you usually print a first layer with your other hot ends? Subsequent layers? The rule of thumb is that the Volcano can do 2-3 times the flow rate that a typical hot end with 0.4mm nozzle can do. So scale your normal print conditions appropriately.
For cooling and detail, it will help a lot to use shorter layer heights. That improves the surface area to volume ratio and make cooling much more effective.