Fixing error "material isn't enough, please replace new spool" and Do you have enough material for afinia?

This blog post will explain how to ensure that you have enough material left to print a model given a certain weight. If you get the error below this blog post will also be helpful.

If you are trying to eliminate the error above and you are sure you have enough material left, the fix is simple. Simply go to 3D print>Maintenance from the Afinia software, then click the new spool button. Set the material type you are using and the weight to 700 g and click OK. This will reset the program's internal counter of material used.

If you would like to know if the material you have is going to be enough to print a model you can weigh it on the black scale in the lab and then enter this weight into the new spool dialogue box instead. If you are also weighing the spool, an empty spool weights about 280 grams so simply subtract this from your measurement. The stand for the spool weighs about 52.3 g so this can also be subtracted or the scale can be tared before placing the spool onto it.

TIP: there is also a 500 g calibration weight that can be used if the scale needs to be re-calibrated. Follow the instructions on the cover of the scale to tare and re-calibrate.

What to do if the max nozzle height isn't high enough

If are trying to set the nozzle height and the printer's max height isn't allowing the build plate to come up high enough simply type the maximum value into the 'to' field and click set nozzle height. Once this new height is set, the program then increases the max up by another mm. You can repeat this until you get the height you need.

Printing with Afinia H-series

TIP:to save time, you can start pre-heating the table by clicking 3D print>Maintenance table heat 1 hr.
TIP:If you are printing something over 50 centimeters tall on the blue tape then it may curl off the plate and cause a burn or jam, stopping the print.  Printing directly on the perf board makes tall prints more stable.

1.You can import your model from either an STL or UP3 file by clicking file>open (largest model allowed with yellow clips is 125.5LX140WX130.7H mm, see below for definition of Width and Length).

2.Press the Auto Placement button, this usually works pretty well. This places them off the build plate by 3mm to give space for the highly recommended raft (I think). The models should be as close to centered as possible and no closer that 12 mm to each other to prevent them from sticking.

3.If any of your models are red when you click on them, you will need to click Tools>Autofix. This will try and fix an STL file where some of the normal vectors are not pointing outwards. (To learn more about STL files, try wikipedia)

4.Once you are satisfied with the arrangement, check the printing settings by clicking 3D Print>Setup from the dropdown menu (or 3D Print>Preferences from the button). There are a lot of settings here that can be read in the manual on pg 22-24 but the most important one is the Fill. There is a trade off here between part strength and material/time used. The one that uses the most material and produces the strongest parts is the solid, then loose, then hollow and then big hole. Checking 'shell' will use the least material/time and weakest parts regardless of what fill option is pressed by simply creating a 'shell' of the part. Below you can see what each setting means. If you aren't sure what settings to use clicking 'resotre defults' should usually work.

5.Make sure that the table has been at 105 C for at least 10 minutes and that the build plate is level (very important for the print to come out right). Click 3D print up at the top left corner of the program (or 3D print>print from the menu bar). Quality controls how fast the print head moves, leave it at fine unless you are in a hurry or your print seems to fail at fine. Rafts are usually good. If you get errors trying to print an STL file, checking 'unsolid model' may help it print, otherwise leave unchecked.

6.Once everything is good, select print to send the file to the printer. If you will be printing another model after this, it is helpful to set "heat platform after finish" to a time greater than zero min. After it is sent, the computer does not need to be on/connected to the printer. To cancel a print click 3D print>Maintenance then click 'Stop All'. The printer will need to be re-Initialized after this button is pressed.

7 .Save this file to google drive LIBRARY/ 6-D Lab>3-D Team>Archived prints>Afinia Archived prints and record the necessary information on the sheet next to the printer--including what you saved the archive file as.

This is what happens when the tray is not heated all the way before a print is started:

Build volume

For the extruder to not bump the yellow clips, the Length dimension must not exceed 125.5 mm. This can be seen in the picture below.

 Or from the program:

TIP:There is also a extruder vent "wind barrier" that has the following effects:

Door Closed

• Each printed layer bonds to the previous layer better, making for a stronger part.
• The under sides of printed curves have a rougher finish.
• Recommend for large parts.
• Support material is harder to remove.
• The heated platform is not affected by the airflow, so reduces warping of the raft from the platform. Having the door open during pre-heating can cool the platform unevenly thus resulting in warping.

Door Open

• Each printed layer bonds to the previous layer less, making for a weaker part.
• The under sides of printed curves have a smoother finish
• Recommend for small and intricate parts
• Support material is easier to remove.
• Delaminating can occur in the model, try with the door closed.
• Recommend to keep the door closed during pre-heating of the platform, and open the door after the raft section has been com- pleted to reduce chances of warping.

Setting up the Afinia H-series printer

The user manual can be found in the lab or here. Useful information starts at page 11.
Here is the best way we found to set up the printer to print:
1.Turn on the printer using the switch on the back
2.Start the Afinia software, its logo looks like this:

3.Click from the menu bar 3D print>Initialize the printer should beep and the light should turn solid green (indicating printer ready).

4.It is best to start the table heat as long as possible. (so prints will stick to the build plate). To do this click 3D print>Maintenance then click 'Table heat 1 hr'. It takes about 15 minuets to reach the recommended temperature of 105 C. (This is the minimum time needed before printing, it should be on longer so the whole table)

5.put down blue masking tape on the FR-4 Board (Glass-reinforced Epoxy Laminate, shown below). I recommend 3M scotch-blue painter's tape for multi-surfaces #2090. It is nice and wide and you only have to put down two strips to cover the whole plate. In the picture below you can see one board covered on the left and another uncovered. The surface doesn't have to be perfectly flat but close.

6.Place the board on the (now heating) plate and secure with the yellow clips as shown.

7.If you happen to have moved the printer, changed build plates or your prints aren't coming out right, you have to level the build plate and set nozzle height. Follow steps 7.1-7.9 (reproduced from the manual) below.

7.1 Open the Maintenance dialog box from the 3D Print menu and click the Center button to begin the leveling process.

Maintenance dialoge box

7.2 We want to raise the platform so that it is 2 mm away from the nozzle. If you already know about what that height, should be, enter that height in the To: box, then click the To: button. If you do not yet know this height, Click the To: button to bring the platform to the displayed height, then slowly increment the height until the platform is about 2 mm from the nozzle, clicking To: after each increase.

7.3 Check that the platform is 2 mm away from the nozzle at the center point. If it is not, raise or lower the platform using the To: button so that it is. Then check all four corners and the center are the same distance (2 mm) from the nozzle. Use the blue or orange 2 mm indicator plastic pieces in the afinia parts drawer to determine this.

The 2 mm indicator strips

7.4 If the platform is not the same distance from the nozzle at all five points, you will need to adjust the platform until it is level. There are 3 screws under the platform that are used to level the platform. Loosening a screw will raise the related corner of the platform, while tightening the screw will lower the same part of the platform. So you don't burn your hands, use the short philips screw driver to adjust the leveling screws as shown below.
TIP: Start the table off by screwing the leveling screws all the way in and then loosening each one by 1.25 revolutions.

Adjusting the table level

7.5 Next we want to move the table up so that the nozzle is 0.2 mm away from the table. Once you are about 1mm away from the nozzle, increase the number in the text box by 0.1mm increments and click the To button. Repeat until you get 0.2mm from the nozzle.

TIP: An easy way to check the distance between the nozzle and platform is to fold a piece of paper in two, which will be about 0.2mm thick. Use this as a spacer to gauge the distance between the nozzle and platform.

Using folded paper as a 0.2 mm indicator

7.6 Once the table is 0.2 mm away from the nozzle, we have to set the nozzle height. To do this, click the Set Nozzle Height button to save the current height to the printer's memory.

Next see printing with the Afinia H-series printer to start a print!

Cold pause

A really cool feature of the MakerBot Replicator 2 is its ability to go into "cold pause", that is, to stop printing and move the nozzle off to the side. You can resume the build anytime you like later on. Presumably you could use the cold pause to change filament color, although I have not tried that yet. (The Replicator 1 and the Replicator 2X both have dual extruders but the Replicator 2 does not.) Here is a picture of a cold pause of a decorated cube; note the hexagonal fill that the MakerWare software automatically uses to fill the inside:

You might be wondering to yourself: Do I *really* need to put blue painter's tape on the build platform? The answer is yes. Yes, you do. I thought perhaps I could fly free without the tape at first and life was good until an error during a print of an astrolabe part caused me to change my mind. Here is what the part of my build plate I now call the "bottom" looks like, with some stuck-on pieces that are taking me forever to remove:

You might also be wondering: Is it *really* okay to cold pause and stop the printing, then restart again? Isn't it possible that pausing might cause an inaccuracy in the print job when I restart the print? The answer is yes. Yes, it might. At least if you bump the build plate with your hand when trying to take a picture of the hex fill inside your videogame die.

Filament

The building material for the Replicator 2 is PolyLactic Acid, or "PLA". It comes as filament wound on spools like the ones you see below. The half spool of naturally colored PLA on the top came with the Replicator 2. The MakerBot site sells a handful of colors for $48 each; the opaque green and semi-translucent blue came from there, and at the moment it feels like they will last forever, at least for the small objects that we've been printing. (The tiny TARDIS you see in the picture was printed in an opaque darker blue and my guess is that is was made from ABS material on a Replicator 1; it came from the Makerbot Retail Store's "Gumball Machine".)

So far the PLA has been working very well. My only complaint is that it is very shiny, which sometimes makes it difficult to see small details in a model. However, the overall look is very nice, especially for the more translucent colors.

You can get spools of PLA filament from many places online. Our Replicator 2 takes 1.75mm filament so we ordered some 1.75 filament from amazon.com. It works fine in the printer but the spool does not fit on the Replicator 2's spool handle. Nothing that can't be fixed with a pencil, rubber bands, and a box, though:

Of course, with a 3D printer one could also print a smaller spool holder:

Here's a hint about changing filament in the Replicator 2: Through the "Utilities" menu you can select "Change Filament" and then either "Load" or "Unload". The "Load" function heats the extruder and then runs the motor forward; you push the filament through until it starts extruding. (Basically this machine is just a giant glue gun, so if you've loaded a heated glue gun then you know how to load the Replicator 2.) The "Unload" function runs the motor in reverse so you can pull out the filament. One time we could not get the filament to pull out during the unload process. Under the assumption that maybe the filament had made some kind of ball or obstruction that we couldn't pull through, we ran the "Load" function, let it extrude for a couple of seconds, removed what was extruded, and then ran "Unload". It worked great and now I do all all unloads this way, with a quick "Load" to start and clear out anything that might be in the way.