Problem Printing Spool Holder (Threads)
I have been printing in PLA and PETG since I got my printer a week or so ago.
All the prints and first layer calibration looks great.
I printed a couple of calibration cubes and they looked really good as well and are within .001 or so of the target.
HOWEVER -
I am putting together dryboxes and was figuring out how to do spool holders.
I printed this:
https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/30203-central-filament-spool-axis-with-bearings
and it was super hard to screw the ends on. As in I have marks on my hands from it.
I am assuming these types of things are not meant to be that tight.
What testing and dialing in can I do to try and resolve this?
Thanks!
RE: Problem Printing Spool Holder (Threads)
The ease or difficulty to screw these together will come down to two things: how precisely were the objects printed and friction between the mating surfaces.
Let's start with the quickest one first - friction. This is a common one for me. I try to print things very precisely and with minimal built in clearances. I print primarily in PETG and friction issues happen in closely mating surfaces. If you can partially get the parts threaded together, but screwing them together gets harder as you go, it is likely friction. I use a little grease on threaded and sliding parts to address this. The same grease used to lube the linear bearings will work. In my case it use SuperLube with success.
If it isn't friction, the there is a problem with the print. The creator of the print recommended 0.20mm layer heights. I'd assume his model works, so 0.20mm should work. There are also a lot variables affecting this -- speed of print, how accurately you have the temperature for the filament dialed in, etc. Usually if you need help diagnosing a print problem, it's best to upload the 3MF file of your print to this forum and someone will give it a look over.
RE: Problem Printing Spool Holder (Threads)
You may also try to print at 103% or so scale, which will make the gaps between the parts a bit larger.
From my own design experience it is hard to design fits that work for everyone and are not too loose or too tight. SoI usually design so that the models work on my printers and suggest others scale up or down by a small percentage as needed.