History - Day 2

Emboldened by a good cat print,  I installed Cura from the micro SD card.  On a Windows 10 PC. Followed the instructions on the PDF on the micro SD card and added my custom printer.  Went to Thingiverse and downloaded the Pagolin and loaded the front and hind feet and generated the .gcode, copied it to the micro SD, moved the SD to the back of printer and clicked print, selected the .gcode file and it promptly moved the head down tapped the 3 corners to auto-level then drove the head off the bed and into the "Do Not Touch" label where it got hung and vibrated very loudly until I could navigate to the cancel button and select it.  Then I selected to home it.

Double check settings and try again.

Same thing...

Triple check setting and try again.

Same thing...

So I decide something must be screwed up.

I install the Repetier software on the SD card.  I don't remember exactly what happened with it but after setting up it also missed the bed.

So I try downloading Cura from online which is a totally different version number, and set it up.

Same thing but hangs the head so hard home won't retract it and I have to pry it back into a position that it will retract with a home...

I look online for other 3D slicing programs and the first hit is for Slic3r so I download it and try it.  I setup the printer matching the PDF settings as close as I can and try again to print the Pagolin feet.  I copy the .gcode to the SD and move it to the printer and it starts printing.  It prints about 1cm high and then breaks loose.  So more glue stick it prints maybe 1.5cm high and breaks loose, Bump up the bed temp and print again and Bingo!


Kind of rough looking but it must just be a setting to tweak.  I think I'm in business.

I pick another body section of the Pagolin and copy the .gcode to the SD and move it to the printer and click print.

After a while maybe 30 min or so it breaks loose.


I am obviously missing something so I figure the bed is too gooped up w/ glue stick so I find out you can put a wet paper towel on it and heat the bed and it comes off.  So I clean it up and put a new thin layer of glue stick and try something smaller.  I download a chess piece and scale it down to like 25%, and click print.

Boom!


A perfect teeny tiny little chess piece.

With high hopes I go to bed dreaming of the cool things I will be printing tomorrow...


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