6.3 Setup before printing

Place the printer to the horizontally stable position, best place is a workbench where there is no risk of draft.
Attach the filament holders to the upper frame.
Unpack the filament and check the loose end for any damage. If the string is bent, cracked or damaged different way please cut the damaged part with scissors or pliers.
Attach Filament to the holders. Make sure the filament spool doesn’t jam and can move freely.

Filament is a common term for the plastic rod - material provided on spool, from which 3D objects are printed.

6.3.1 Glass preparation

The printed object will not attach to the heatbed properly if you do not prepare the bed correctly. Different materials require different glass preparation - you can find more in the chapter Materials. Common steps are:

Glass always has to be prepared cold, not preheated.
Put a smooth even layer of Kores (or regular glue stick you can source locally) glue provided with the printer. One thin layer is enough.
Let the glue dry and then apply one layer of ABS Juice provided with the printer in plastic sprayer.
When the glass is dry attach it firmly to the bed with the binder clips.

The glass provided with the printer (both assembled and kit) is already prepared with the Kores glue and ABS Juice so you can use it for the print without any further preparation.

6.3.2 ABS Juice preparation

Acetone is extremely flammable, rapidly evaporating liquid. Handle it in a well-ventilated area only, protect your eyes and skin from splashes. Never operate with acetone near open flames or other heat source; especially in areas where a spark can occur - acetone vapors are easily ignited.

When you run out of the ABS Juice supplied with the printer, you can easily make your own mix. You will need a container in which you can retain pure acetone and an ABS filament. ABS Juice is made by dissolving ABS in pure acetone 34 cm filament (thickness 1.75 mm) to 30 ml of acetone. Original ABS juice container is 100 ml, so you need a filament length of approximately 114 cm. Cut the filament into shorter pieces to fit comfortably into the container and then cover it with 100 ml of acetone. Close the container securely and shake for several minutes. Before first use, let the mixture stand for several hours to ABS filament completely dissolved in acetone.

Prepared juice can be also purchased in our e-shop. Unfortunately, UPS service does not allow to deliver any acetone-based products due to shipping constraints. In that case you get only the bottle and ABS from our e-shop and you have to source the acetone locally. You can also use the alternative solution, e.g. hair spray - always choose non-perfumed spray and look out for extra hold with ingredients including Acetate, Copolymer and Vinyl.

6.3.3 Plugging the AC power

Check the glass placement and attachment to the heatbed.
Plug in the AC power cord.

6.3.4 Calibration

You need to calibrate the printer before the first print. If you transport the printer or manipulate with it excessively you should check and eventually calibrate it again. For the successful calibration you need to have the printer heated - both nozzle and heatbed. Temperature can be set through LCD panel.

Press the LCD-knob to enter the main menu on LCD. Rotate the button to choose Preheat option and confirm by pressing the LCD-knob. Next you choose the material you will print from. Choose a material then confirm with LCD-knob. Nozzle and heatbed will heat to the requested temperature.

Pict. 4 - LCD panel controls

You need a common business card for the calibration. Choose Settings in main menu then Auto home option. This step sets all axes to [0, 0, 0] positions.
Try to put and move the calibration paper (business card) between the bed and nozzle. You have to feel a slight friction between the paper and the nozzle. Nozzle-bed distance is set with Z-adjusters. This step is repeated in all four corners of the printbed. You can move the extruder and heatbed to other corners manually - just be careful not to burn your fingers because nozzle and printbed are already heated!

Calibration paper is attached to the package with with the heatbead and the glass. If you don’t have the calibration paper you can use any common business card paper (250 g/m²).

Pict. 5 - Printer calibration using the calibration paper, small orange wheel bottom right corner is a Z-adjuster (one of four).

Figures 6a to 6c show the first printed layer. Pict. 6a shows the result when nozzle is too far from the bed, 6b is correctly calibrated printer and 6c shows the print when the nozzle is too close to the heatbed.

Pict. 6a - Nozzle is too far from the glass. Filament couldn’t attach properly and tears out.

Pict. 6b - Calibrated printer shows continuous filament layers.

Pict. 6c - Nozzle too close to the glass. Layers are too compressed.

6.3.5 Loading the filament into the extruder

If you follow the manual you should have the nozzle and the bed preheated.

You need to preheat the nozzle before inserting the filament (and the bed too if you like to print right away). The temperature depends on the material used. Detailed information about nozzle and bed temperatures are described at chapter Materials.
Press the LCD-knob on the LCD panel to enter the main menu. Insert the filament to the extruder, choose the Load filament option in the menu and press the button to confirm. Filament is then loaded to the extruder by the extruder stepper automatically. You should cut the top of the filament as shown in the picture below (pict.7 - detail).

Pict. 7 - Loading the filament to the extruder

Check if the filament flows from the nozzle.
If you change the filament for a new one do not forget to completely release the old filament before the printing.