Custom Profiles - Flow Rate
What are we aiming for?
This article specifically addresses flow rates. Ie the rate at which filament flows through the extruder.
If your machine is UNDER EXTRUDING your prints will be crumbly and may even de-laminate between the layers.
Assumptions
This article follows on from Custom Profiles - Getting Started, please refer to that article in terms of Creating your profile. We will assume you have.
Selections that relate to Flow Rate
"feedDiameter" (Millimeters)
This specifies the diameter of your filament. If this value is too low your extruder will extrude too much plastic. If it is too high it will extrude too little.
It defaults to 1.77
Simply changing it to 1.85, for example, will thin extrusion (if you are getting too much filament. Or 1.70 if you are not getting enough.
EG: "feedDiameter": 1.70,
"extruderTemp0": 230,
This sets the extrusion temperature. By default the Makerbot 5th Gen machines are set to 215, the 4th gen 230 degrees C
If you are getting excessive spider webbing try lowering the temperature by 5 degrees. If you are getting under extrusion raising thetemperature also helps flow rate increase. Try 220-225 for 5th gen machines.
We hope you found this helpful and have asked makerbot to return both these features to the standard "Advanced" options in Makerbot Desktop, as they were in the past.
UPDATE : 17 November 2014
We have attached a profile for the Replicator 5th Gen that has had the temperature changed to 220 degrees and filament diameter changed to 1.67mm. This should fix "under extrusion" It has 4 shells. 200 Micron (.2mm) layer height. 10% fill (ie Standard settings)
You can save this in your profiles folder or copy and paste all lines into your own custom profile as per the instructions above and in the previous fact sheet
Profiles are saved in your "My Things/Profiles" folder (under your user folder in windows). You will need to create a folder in this location called "R5 Std 10Fill 4Shell 2Layer RFT High Flow", and then save the attached file in there. Then the profile will appear in the profile drop down automatically.
All the best
Bilby 3D Tech Team