GEEETech i3 3d printer

Created 2022-02-27

Construction

I'm currently babysitting a 3d printer, it's a "GEETech i3 Pro C" - apparently.

The end goal is to make the Penkesu Computer, but first I need to get the printer working as well as possible so I can print the case.

It's a fairly basic device from what I understand, manual bed levelling for example, but has a heated bed and two extruders. Aligning the nozzles for these to be exactly the same height off the bed is ... not fun.

After quite a few small burns (and one that really hurt and still hurt after 4 hours under water) I think I'm finally getting it dialled in to work well with both extruders simultaneously.

This is the latest "XYZ calibration cube" printed with extruder 0 (purple) for the perimeters, and extruder 1 (yellow) for the infill.

The slicer preview looks like this A purple sided cube with yellow top. X and Y on the sides and Z on the top

The resulting cube looks like this A purple sided cube with threads of yellow poking out of the Y side and some gloop on the X side

Photos of all the sides are at the end of the page, if you care or want to help me improve the results!

I think I'm trying to do something quite hard here, use both extruders on every layer, but I really want to have my computer case have purple edges and yellow middle, because if I'm making it as a one off just for myself why shouldn't I have it look how I want? Other than that being hard.

To answer the inevitable "yeah, but can it even print with just one extruder anyway?" - Yes, it can. These two cubes were printed with exactly the same settings but using only one extruder, the purple loaded into extruder 0 and yellow into extruder 1. The only difference is that I grabbed a nearby fan to aid general cooling for the yellow cube as the purple one had droopy soft warm infill.

Purple and yellow cubes, both are good quality prints on the sides. The purple has a messy top but the yellow is fine

I'm using "PrusaSlicer" with the following changes to the default printer configuration - using "expert" mode because that is required to unlock multiple extruders.

PrusaSlier Printer Settings

General

Capabilities - Extruders - 2

Extruder 1

Extra length on restart - 0.1mm (ensures the extruder is extruding when it re-starts on the next layer)
Retraction when tool is disabled - 15mm, 0.2mm extra on restart (ensures the extruder is extruding when it re-starts on the next layer)

Extruder 2

Extruder offset - x: 33mm, y: 0.5mm (because the firmware doesn't handle this)
Extra length on restart - 0.1mm
Retraction when tool is disabled - 15mm, 0.3mm extra on restart

PrusaSlicer Print Settings

I find these (nominally per print) settings essential too

Layers and Perimeters

Vertical Shells - Perimeters - at least 3 (to prime the extruder before it starts the first layer)
Quality - Avoid crossing perimeters - enabled (avoid ooze from the nozzles being dragged onto the model)

Infill

Fill pattern - Gyroid
Top/Bottom fill pattern - Octagram Spiral

Skirt and Brim

Loops (minimum) - 6 (primes both extruders before they start working on the first layer)

Multiple Extruders

Perimeter extruder - 1
Infill and Solid infill extruder - 2

Photos of the test cube

Every side of the cube, if you like that sort of thing.

Base (opposite Z) of the cube, a star pattern is visible in yellow with some gaps and splodges

X side in purple with a blob of yellow in the bottom left, some layers are uneven or have blobs or strings

Y side in purple with 19 little bits of yellow poking out and some strings, the purple is the same as on the X side

Back side (opposite X) in purple, a few layers are wavy and some are misaligned so you can see yellow

Left (opposite Y) side in purple has lots of strings of extra purple

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