ABL = Automatic Bed Leveller. This is usually a device with a probe that pops out and touches the bed telling the controller how far away the print head is from the bed surface. It does this at several points and the computer then moves the print head up and down to compensate.
Having said that, when you look at the people that have problems with these things, I can’t help but wonder if it’s truly worth it. Once I got the hang of levelling (properly called “tramming”) the bed, things went well 90% of the time. This is where I learned 3D printing’s dirty little secret: the lower cost printers don’t have machined beds, they’re cut from (thick) sheet metal, but as such, it’s surprising how many of the beds themselves are not truly flat. Mine had a high spot in the middle. After going thorough several magnetic build surfaces, I bought a piece of glass from 3DPC and have nearly a 100% success rate now. Much cheaper than an Automatic Bed Leveller and without the added layer of complexity they bring.
I should point out that ABLs can be set to do level checks at fairly large numbers of points and as such, had I used one, it would have mostly compensated for the high spot on my bed.
Lastly, I’ve only had a printer since November, so it doesn’t take that long to get up to speed on these things.
I’m realising these question shoud probably have their own threads, otherwise it’s going to get confusing as to which answer goes with which question.
As for shutting down, just go ahead.
There’s no harm that I’m aware of, in keeping the printer off for weeks.
You don’t need to clean the print head manually unless it’s starts printing oddly (partial clog) or stops printing altogether (full clog).
Live by the rule: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I’ve seen so many newbies jump in there with “upgrades” without being intimately familiar with their printers. When something goes wrong, it’s hard to know if it’s because the printer needed tuning in the first place or if it was caused by the “upgrade”.
When you have the printer tuned up and running smoothly for a while, then you can consider an upgrade, one at a time. That way, if performance fails, you’ll know exactly where to look for a cause.
As for parts to stock: Nozzles, a length of Bowden tube, a pair of Bowden tube couplers, a tube cutter (I use a mini one for plumbing), isopropyl alcohol for cleaning the bed, a tube of Super Lube PTFE precision oiler.
Luckily the Biqu B1 comes with a lot of parts generally people upgrade to. for example the spring plate, Filament sensor, power failure recovery, (built in) and the metal extruder ect. so there not much you need to do. For spare part… fans … definitely fans… all of them. there is 3 on the print head and 2 in the base. Aside from that the usual wear parts are the Bowden tube and nozzles.
Wow, thanks for such a great response guys. A lot to digest here but my mind is more at ease about what I’m doing/not doing.
I’ll have a look at the Prusa slicer just to see how I like it. So far the 2 I have are doing the job and I usually give the same part to both if it’s a long job just to see what they predict for time.
I’ll try to locate some fans … maybe 3DPC has the ones I need … or better? Certainly one of mine (at the back of the base) has been running flat out since I first turned it on while all others are very quiet.
A glue stick was mentioned as an alternate adhesive … are we talking about a paper glue-stick?
And BTW I always take the metal plate off the machine and apply the spray away from the printer but thanks for the tip.
Bowden tube spare. I take it this must be a special tube then, maybe lined or something. Is it universal or will there be a specific tube for the “Beek” as I call it.
ABL device … what I wanted to hear. I’ll put it on “ignore” for now.
Cura … Extension feature. If you mean that it can replicate parts on the plate then yes it does and I’ve duplicated up to 50 small parts. IdeaMaker limits you to 5 dupes at a time … repeat.
Temp Tower … cool idea but not sure I grasp it yet. I’ll definitely look into it though.
Print speed. I figured it had to be taking a toll on the equipment to see it move like that. So OK, no Nitrous. I will start playing with layer heights soon though as I’d like to see what effect it has on quality.
Thanks to all who took the time to help me out. Greatly appreciated.
I haven’t actually seen any problems with running the machines at maximum speed. Mechanically, as long as the screws are tight, the machine shouldn’t shake itself apart. There will be oscillations. This is more pronounced in machines like the Ender 5 series where the printing action takes place far from the machine’s base (machines where the bed moves up/down and starts at the highest position) vs. Ender 3 type machines where the bulk of the movement is at the base, given that the bed itself moves along the Y-axis. Speaking of which, for machines where the bed is the Y axis, high speeds and tall prints can cause the print to snap off the build plate.
Be aware of one thing if you adjust the speed from the control panel: The faster the filament flows through the hot end, the more filament has to be melted per second. That means you also need to increase the hot-end temperature accordingly. I do not know if adjusting the speed at the control panel will make a corresponding adjustment in temperature. I doubt it. Just be aware that the two go hand-in-hand.
There is a further problem with trying to print quickly. The oscillations it induces in the machine can appear as defects in the print. Be aware that printing at high speed is not the problem; acceleration is. It’s the attempt to suddenly start and stop the print head that causes the frame to shake. The acceleration parameters are a separate setting.
Note also that printing at high speeds only really benefits you if you have a print that involves a large number of straight-line movements where the printer can get up to speed and stay there for a while. Prints with lots of tiny movements, like a lithopane, don’t benefit from it.
It matters when you want to make multiple prints. If you make the selection in the slicer, it gets hard-coded into the model’s gcode. If you do it from the panel, you have to remember what settings you used. Different filaments, printed on different surfaces will require different temperatures. By all means, experiment via the control panel, but once you find settings that work, put it in the slicer. It’s quite frustrating to re-print something you know you successfully printed before, walk away because it wasn’t a problem lasts time, only to come back to a mess because you forgot that last time you did a manual tweak.
Also, be aware that the printer has a default temperature because they had to set it to something. There is no possible way the manufacturer could know what filament you will be printing with, so the default to something “in the ballpark”. You should really be following the manufacturer’s label and even then, keep in mind that that can also be wildly wrong. If you look around here, you’ll find a post I made months ago about a new filament I was using (PLA-F) which was stringing like crazy. After much experimentation, I found it printed beautifully 40C BELOW the manufacturer’s recommendation. How the manufacturer could be that far off is beyond me, but that’s quality control for you.
The ideal printing temperature for a given filament is obviously dependent on the filament’s type (PLA vs. PETG vs. PolyCarbonate, etc.) but you should also be aware that it is heavily dependent on the additives in the filament. Whether it contains carbon fibre, wood bits, glitter, AND EVEN THE DYE seems to make a difference in printing temperatures. Yes, two PLAs from the same brand from the same manufacturer can print at different ideal temperatures if they are different colours.
Very sound advice there thanks. Hadn’t thought of the advantage being mostly for larger surfaces but it makes sense. As I said, I’m quite content to operate at a saner speed and get the best quality for this present project.
Personally, I like Cura. Having said that, I’ve only ever used IceSL previously. Cura has excellent “tree” supports which break off cleanly and easily. It also supports Pause at Height which allows me to change colours. There are better ways to implement changing colours, but my printer was ignoring them.
If you want a deep rabbit hole of options: Cura → Prefereneces → Configure Cura → Settings
I like how Cura hides the settings you haven’t activated so as to be less intimidating. I think if they’d thrown the whole set at me the first time, I probably would have been put off.