My New A1 Printer

[Chris Savage]

Not sure what I did wrong, but I tried to print this with a blue background with white lettering. I used the PLA Basic Blue background, with PLA Basic White

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I thought I knew what was going on looking at the photo, and then I went to the MakerWorld page and looked at the preview of the model. This model only uses one color. That's why it printed like that.


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This implies that either the author painted the blue on after he printed, or  he used the second profile and changed the black to blue.


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This happened to me once before, so now I always "3D Preview" each model before I print, because they will often have variants. It also lets you see how big the print is on the print plate so you don't end up surprised. More on that in a later post...yes, I got bit by that this weekend!

P.S. - Now I am going to print this one: OHMS LAW Wheel - Lightbox (I already have the backlights for these)

[granz]

This implies that either the author painted the blue on after he printed,

I'm guessing that he did not paint the print - too many people posted that they got multi-color prints, also. Although, I could be wrong. It seems like it would be pretty bad for him to post a project requiring painting, without explicitly stating that it needs to be painted. 

or  he used the second profile and changed the black to blue.

Okay, let's assume that this is the case.

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I see where you outline, in red, the profiles. Am I right so far?

If so, I clicked on the second one ("Flipped version...") but nothing seems to have changed. How do I print from that second profile?

This happened to me once before, so now I always "3D Preview" each model before I print, because they will often have variants. It also lets you see how big the print is on the print plate so you don't end up surprised. More on that in a later post...yes, I got bit by that this weekend!

I clicked on the "3D Preview", and it showed the single-color print.

[granz]

While waiting to figure out what happened with my Ohm's Law Cheat Sheet, I started another print.

This print is for a USAF Challenge Coin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge_coin.) It comes from MakerWorld (https://makerworld.com/en/models/2221934-us-air-force-challenge-coin?from=search#profileId-2416513,) and is supposed to look like this:


I chose this coin because (I mean, besides being an Air Force vet ) it is also a multi-colored print. In fact, it even uses the same two colors that I wanted for my Ohm's law plaque.

Here it is, about one third of the way through printing:

Clearly, my printer can do multi-color without any troubles. So, it must be something that I did wrong (or used the wrong profile?) rather than my printer.

Doing multi-color print jobs is really killing the print speed. It prints for a bit in blue, then spends a crazy amount of time creating printer poop, then switches to white and prints that for a bit. Lather-Rinse-Repeat! This little (about 2-¹/₂ inches diameter) coin is taking a bit over an hour. I want to print a bunch of them so that Marilyn (also an Air Force vet,) and I, can carry them to hand out.

Maybe I'll shrink the design down a bit - check to make sure that the writing is still clear, then print the bunch. That will let me print several more per plate.

[Chris Savage]

I see where you outline, in red, the profiles. Am I right so far? If so, I clicked on the second one ("Flipped version...") but nothing seems to have changed. How do I print from that second profile?

Whichever profile is selected is what gets printed and what displays in the 3D Preview. The photos don't change...ever.

I clicked on the "3D Preview", and it showed the single-color print.

Are you sure? That profile can only be seen from the bottom, in which case, turning off the print plate switch on the bottom left makes it easier to see. You should be looking for the colors in the top right. If it's just showing white, that's the single-color one. If you see white and black, that's the one that prints face down.

[Chris Savage]

Doing multi-color print jobs is really killing the print speed. It prints for a bit in blue, then spends a crazy amount of time creating printer poop, then switches to white and prints that for a bit. Lather-Rinse-Repeat! This little (about 2-¹/₂ inches diameter) coin is taking a bit over an hour. I want to print a bunch of them so that Marilyn (also an Air Force vet,) and I, can carry them to hand out.

That's typical of any printer that is multi-color. It can't switch on the fly because there is filament in the extruder and nozzle that must be flushed when switching colors.

To print multiple units and save time, add copies in Bambu Studio. Instead of printing one, print four. It will still do the same color switching, but for all four, instead of one at a time.

[granz]

I see where you outline, in red, the profiles. Am I right so far? If so, I clicked on the second one ("Flipped version...") but nothing seems to have changed. How do I print from that second profile?

Whichever profile is selected is what gets printed and what displays in the 3D Preview. The photos don't change...ever.

I clicked on the "3D Preview", and it showed the single-color print.

Are you sure? That profile can only be seen from the bottom, in which case, turning off the print plate switch on the bottom left makes it easier to see. You should be looking for the colors in the top right. If it's just showing white, that's the single-color one. If you see white and black, that's the one that prints face down.

So, I select the profile by clicking on the place where it says "Flipped version...", and that section turns slightly gray. Then I click on the Preview and get this:

Except the color buttons on the right show white for the top button, and black for the bottom button. I clicked on the black button, and selected blue from the color picker. The above picture is what I get.

Unfortunately, as you can see that the preview image is solid blue - no text at all. And that is what ended up on the print.

Am I following along correctly? Or, am I missing something?

[granz]

That's typical of any printer that is multi-color. It can't switch on the fly because there is filament in the extruder and nozzle that must be flushed when switching colors.

I had heard that - it was just a bit surprising to see it.

To print multiple units and save time, add copies in Bambu Studio. Instead of printing one, print four. It will still do the same color switching, but for all four, instead of one at a time.

That is what I'm planning (actually probably more like 16-25 at a time.) I just want to make sure that it prints clearly at the reduced size before going large quantity. I will probably need to let it run over-night.

[granz]

Well, the challenge coin printed perfectly. The text is very legible, and it feels great. I gave that first print to Marilyn, and she likes it (she did say that she is not really sure what the idea was behind Challenge Coins, so I gave her a quick summary.)



The reduced-sized coin is now printing.

With this success, maybe I just need to find a new Ohm's Law plaque. Although, it does irritate me a bit that I cannot figure out what is going wrong, and/or how to fix it.

[Chris Savage]

Am I following along correctly? Or, am I missing something?

Unfortunately, I think you're missing something. However, describing it with screenshots and text isn't helping, so when I get home from work, I will do a video.

[granz]

Am I following along correctly? Or, am I missing something?

Unfortunately, I think you're missing something. However, describing it with screenshots and text isn't helping, so when I get home from work, I will do a video.

Appreciated, thanks.

As a test, I just downloaded the .STL file, and when I load it into FlashPrint, it shows as only a single color. That could be because my FlashPrint is set up for my Voxel, which is only a single-color printer.

[Chris Savage]

As a test, I just downloaded the .STL file, and when I load it into FlashPrint, it shows as only a single color. That could be because my FlashPrint is set up for my Voxel, which is only a single-color printer.

Standard STL files do not contain color or texture information. They are strictly limited to storing the 3D surface geometry of an object, described by a collection of triangular facets (vertices and normal vectors). That's probably why Bambu Lab uses 3MF as its primary, native project file type, which saves the 3D geometry, print settings, and color configurations.

[granz]

As a test, I just downloaded the .STL file, and when I load it into FlashPrint, it shows as only a single color. That could be because my FlashPrint is set up for my Voxel, which is only a single-color printer.

Standard STL files do not contain color or texture information. They are strictly limited to storing the 3D surface geometry of an object, described by a collection of triangular facets (vertices and normal vectors). That's probably why Bambu Lab uses 3MF as its primary, native project file type, which saves the 3D geometry, print settings, and color configurations.

That makes sense; thanks.

[granz]

That is what I'm planning (actually probably more like 16-25 at a time.) I just want to make sure that it prints clearly at the reduced size before going large quantity. I will probably need to let it run over-night.

Well, that was a bust - glad I opted for printing only a single copy.

(Ouch - my poor eyes!)

I kind of thought that this would happen. Maybe if I used a 0.2mm nozzle, rather than my standard 0.4mm one, it might be clearer.

Oh, well... When I duplicated the full-sized coins (6mm,) the most that I am able to get on a build plate is 14. That will take about 9 hours and 41 minutes - definitely an over-nighter.