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Fusion3 Design F306 Operation Manual

Generation i
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1. Table of Contents

1.
Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................. 1
2.
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1
2.
Your First Print ....................................................................................................................................... 2
3.
General Info-Software ......................................................................................................................... 4
4.
General Info-Hardware ........................................................................................................................ 7
5.
General Tasks ...................................................................................................................................... 14
6.
Troubleshooting & Advanced Techniques............................................................................................. 24
7.
Maintenance ....................................................................................................................................... 39
8.
Further Support ................................................................................................................................... 44
9.
Glossary............................................................................................................................................... 44
APPENDIX A: Unpacking & Setup.................................................................................................................... 45
APPENDIX B: High-Precision Flow Rate Calibration ......................................................................................... 54
APPENDIX C: Notes for Dual Extrusion Owners ............................................................................................... 58

2. Introduction

Thank you for purchasing Fusion3's F306 3D printer!
This manual is designed to familiarize you with your F306 and its use and give you the tools to get the most out of
your new printer. The F306 has been engineered for many years of trouble-free operation and outstanding output
quality.
1.1. Warnings
Your F306 contains parts that reach high temperatures during operation, such as the print head and the print bed.
Take care not to touch these components while the F306 is in operation or while they are at an elevated
temperature (see Front View figure below).
Operation Guide
F306 Generation I
Revision 5 | 12-31-2014
1

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Summary of Contents for Fusion3 Design F306

  • Page 1: Table Of Contents

    Thank you for purchasing Fusion3’s F306 3D printer! This manual is designed to familiarize you with your F306 and its use and give you the tools to get the most out of your new printer. The F306 has been engineered for many years of trouble-free operation and outstanding output quality.

  • Page 2: Your First Print

    2. Your First Print This section will guide you through the steps to get your F306 printing for the first time. We highly recommend using the included roll of PLA filament, and printing the pre-prepared file on your SD card. These instructions will walk you through how to accomplish this.

  • Page 3: After The Print

    2.5. After the Print After your F306 is finished building the part, the head will move to the back left corner and the print bed will drop to the bottom of the machine. You can then remove the parts!

  • Page 4: General Info-Software

    3.1. Software toolchain overview The job of the software toolchain is to convert a 3D model file into a list of commands that the F306 will follow to build the object. The central piece of software in this process is called the slicer. While there are many slicers available to perform this task, they are not equal.
  • Page 5 Importing the F306 Process Settings You will need to import the F306 configuration settings into Simplify in order to properly configure the software for your printer. First, copy the configuration files off of your SD card to your local hard drive. In Simplify, in the “Processes”...
  • Page 6 Figure 4: Select each preset We provide a separate configuration for each printing material. It’s important to make sure you select the appropriate preset for the material you’re using. IMPORTANT: In Simplify’s options it will give you the ability to select English or metric units. Please leave the units as metric, as English units appear to be broken in the software.

  • Page 7: General Info-Hardware

    4. General Info—Hardware 4.1. Machine Overview Figure 5: Front View Figure 6: Side View...
  • Page 8 Figure 7: Axes Layout Figure 8: Control Board Detail...
  • Page 9 Figure 9: Print Head Detail Figure 10: Extruder Cold End Detail...
  • Page 10 Moving Components By Hand If you need to move the print head, X crossbar, or Z axis by hand, you should do this with your F306 powered ON, but the stepper motors disabled (Prepare -> Disable Motors). Move components gently and do not move them too quickly.
  • Page 11 Figure 12: Print Head Recommended Grab Points On the Z axis, use the toothed belt to move the platform up or down. DO NOT attempt to move the Z axis by pushing or pulling on the platform directly. When moving the Z axis up, take care that you don’t move it too far up and collide with the print head.
  • Page 12 Lifting and Carrying To move your F306, position the print head and crossbar at the rear of the machine (remember, move them slowly by hand) and position the print bed at the bottom of its travel. Use the “Drop Table” file on your provided SD card.
  • Page 13 4.3. Filament Quality Matters During development of the F306, we tested filament from multiple suppliers all over the globe. We found that the quality of the filament matters a surprising amount. Even with an excellent 3D printer, poor quality filament resulted in poor quality parts.

  • Page 14: General Tasks

    5.1. General Menu Information The LCD screen attached to your F306 contains a set of menus that allow you to perform basic functions without needing a PC attached. For instance, you can load and unload filament, home the axes, and set the temperatures of the print head and bed.
  • Page 15 Note: With the bed cold, it is normal for the center of the bed to have a smaller gap than the corners. Your F306 has been designed so that when the bed heater is on, this gap will be the correct distance.

  • Page 16: Loading Filament

    Important: The small pressure switch mounted to the upper rear rail is the end-stop trigger. Do not adjust this Z endstop trigger. This is set at the factory to the correct distance from the bed and should not be adjusted by the end user.
  • Page 17 Figure 19: Extruder Ready for Loading Filament NOTE: Some older machines do not have firmware equipped with the filament loading and unloading scripts. These users should use the manual load procedure described below. NOTE: Only use the automatic loading procedure for PLA, ABS, and Bridge Nylon. Other materials need to be loaded manually.
  • Page 18 Figure 20: Filament Fed Across Hobbed Gear Figure 21: Disengaging the Idler Bar Springs...

  • Page 19: Unloading Filament

    After the print head is up to temperature, your F306 will automatically feed the filament through the tube and purge the print head. When that is done, the F306 will turn the heaters off, and you are ready to print! IMPORTANT: The automatic load script does not “know”...
  • Page 20 Important: Only use water to clean the print bed! Cleaners like Windex, acetone, etc. will leave a residue on the glass and adversely affect print adhesion. Preparing the print bed for printing is very simple! Your F306 uses a water-soluble glue stick to coat the glass and help objects stick. This has many advantages: ...
  • Page 21 Figure 23: Bed Prepped for PLA Figure 24: Bed Prepped for ABS Miscellaneous Notes  If you are printing a small part, you only need to coat the section of bed where the part will be printed.  You want to apply the glue to a cold bed (<40 C) shortly before beginning a print.
  • Page 22 5.6. After a Print Completes At the end of a print job, your F306 will automatically lower the build table to the lowest position and turn off the heaters. It is normal for the small 30mm hotend cooling fan to continue to run (this fan runs continuously).
  • Page 23 Removing Nylon Parts Wedge the part scraper under a corner of the part and slowly slide it under the part at a shallow angle. Too much angle can cause the part to bend permanently. Nylon is fairly flexible so typically it is easy to get the scraper under the part.

  • Page 24: Troubleshooting & Advanced Techniques

    Figure 26: Using a paper towel to wipe the print head Figure 27: Clean debris-free nozzle 6. Troubleshooting & Advanced Techniques This section covers how to troubleshoot some common problems and some more advanced techniques. 6.1. Simplify3D Guidelines While Simplify3D is easy to use, there are certain rules to keep in mind that will ensure you get the best results. Part Orientation The most important thing to keep in mind is the orientation of the part you are trying to print.
  • Page 25  Has no or minimal overhangs The pictures below show the ideal and poor orientations for a particular part. In this first example, we have satisfied our criteria for a large face to sit on the build plate. However, the entire upper flange is unsupported and will not print properly without support structure.
  • Page 26 This orientation is doing everything wrong. We have a very small amount of the part in contact with the build plate, and the entire part is an overhang! This is the correct orientation for this part. We have a large flat face on the build plate, and overhangs are minimized.
  • Page 27 Figure 29: Problems highlighted on the model The easiest way to fix these errors is to use an automated cleanup tool, such as Netfabb cloud (cloud.netfabb.com). This is a free service that will fix 99% of all STL issues without any user input needed. It does require a Microsoft online account, however.
  • Page 28 If we preview the toolpath, we quickly see there is a problem. Note that the skirt does not outline the whole object, and the first layer is a tiny fraction of what it should be. You can correct this by manually playing with the model’s rotation in Simplify until you get the first layer to cover the whole object like it should.
  • Page 29 Figure 30: Generate Support toggle More advanced control of support generation options can be found on the “Support” tab in the Process Settings dialog window (click “show advanced”). Figure 31: Advanced Support Options When in doubt if your part needs support, leave it on and let Simplify figure out where it’s needed. It may sometimes generate support where it’s not actually needed, but that is the safer option.
  • Page 30 Figure 32: Bracket If we instruct Simplify to generate a preview of where it thinks support is needed, we see it generates the following: Figure 33: Bracket with Support It’s important to note that if you left support turned off for this part, Simplify would not give you an error message when you prepared the part for printing.
  • Page 31 Figure 34: Layer Height is set on the Layer Tab Figure 35: Print Speed is set on the Other tab Layer Height Limits Too tall of a layer height will result in poor intra-layer adhesion because they are not “squashed” together enough. In general you should not exceed 0.3mm tall layers.
  • Page 32 Low layer heights have a different constraint. At or below 0.1mm layer heights, the ability of the extruded plastic to bridge over small gaps becomes degraded due to the low flow rate. Depending on the geometry you’re making, this can range from not an issue at all to ruining the print. In general I don’t go lower than 0.15mm layers, because the increase in surface finish quality is not worth the additional hassle.
  • Page 33 Figure 37: First Layer is Too Close This image shows a first layer that is too close. The infill traces are bonded to their neighbors, but we can see excess plastic that accumulates above the infill traces. This is less of a problem than a first layer that’s too tall. But in extreme cases, the print head and bed can be so close than no plastic is extruded at all.
  • Page 34 6.3. Temperatures & Other Information Printing temperatures for the most common materials: PLA:  Print head: 200–220  Bed: 45  Coat bed with light coating of glue stick  For slow prints or prints with many successive retractions, reduce temperature to ~200 ...
  • Page 35 Miscellaneous Notes  Lower temperatures may be needed for slower print speeds. The above temperatures have been tested to work with the stock F306 print speeds.  Higher temperatures will result in better layer-to-layer bonding and increased part strength. ...
  • Page 36 6.5. Printing Small Parts Theory With small parts and short layer times, excess heat may build up in the part and prevent the plastic from solidifying adequately before the next layer is laid down. This will result in poor output quality and in extreme cases, may result in failed prints.
  • Page 37 6.7. Z Axis Noise Your F306 Z axis is lubricated with a noise-damping lithium grease on the leadscrews and guide rods. In general you should not hear any noise from this system. Some degree of humming or buzzing during long movements is...
  • Page 38 IMPORTANT: Do not use any other type of lubricant on the Z axis system. Use of other lubricants may void your warranty. 6.8. Experimental Materials Your F306 comes with presets for the most common plastics such as ABS, PLA, Nylon blends, etc. However, it is capable of printing nearly any thermoplastic that is available in filament form. Please contact support@fusion3design.com for assistance in working with other materials.

  • Page 39: Maintenance

    7. Maintenance 7.1. Extruder Idler Bar Springs In order to ensure the extruder maintains good grip on the filament, it’s important to periodically check the springs that clamp the extruder idler bar in place. Recommended service interval: once per month or every 40 hours of run time Use the 2.5mm wrench in your toolkit to tighten the two bolts as far as they will go.
  • Page 40 7.2. Drive Cable Tension The X and Y axes are driven by a pair of high-tensile-strength spectra lines. These lines are tensioned with moveable idlers on the rear of the machine. Check for tension by gently “plucking” the cables in the center of the rear span.
  • Page 41 Figure 42: Re-aligning Idler Bracket If the brackets are properly aligned but the cable tension is still too low, you can adjust the moveable idlers. To do this, you will need a 4mm hex wrench and 10mm socket. Loosen the bolt on one of the idlers, and slide it in the slot to achieve proper tension.
  • Page 42 The angle the X crossbar makes with the Y rails is determined by the relative cable tension in the two XY drive cables. In order to get dimensionally accurate parts from your F306, the crossbar must make a 90 angle with the Y rails.
  • Page 43 7.4. Z Axis Rods and Leadscrews The Z axis leadscrews and smooth rods on your F306 are lubricated at the factory with a long-life lithium-based grease. This lubricant should provide thousands of hours of trouble-free use. The rods should not be lubricated with any other lubricants! Doing so may void your warranty.

  • Page 44: Further Support

    For proper performance, it’s important that the heat break be fully threaded into the heat sink. The easiest way to ensure it’s fully seated is to leave the print head installed on the machine and grasp the heater block with your thumb and forefinger (while it’s cool, of course).

  • Page 45: Appendix A: Unpacking & Setup

    Your F306 is shipped on a pallet inside a 3-piece box. This ensures your printer arrives undamaged and ready to print. Remember to save your packing materials in case you need to return your F306 to us—they fold flat for easy storage.
  • Page 46 Figure 46: Top Foam Blocks Now you should be able to remove the sleeve from around the printer. Lift straight up, taking care not to hit the F306 as you lift. The sleeve folds flat for easy storage.
  • Page 47 Figure 48: After Sleeve Removal It’s time to remove your F306 from the pallet! Carefully grasp it in the middle of the Y rails and lift it straight up to clear the foam blocks. Set it down on a firm, stable work surface. Refer to section 4.2 for lifting and carrying instructions.
  • Page 48 Figure 49: Remove the small box There is a spare print bed plate taped to the print bed with blue tape. Remove the tape and remove the spare plate. Remove the zip ties that hold the X axis and print head in place. They are marked with blue tape. There are two on the left Y carriage and two on the X carriage.
  • Page 49 Checking for Damage Before powering your F306 up for the first time, thoroughly inspect it for damage. This section will cover the major things to look for, but keep an eye out for anything that looks abnormal anywhere on the machine. These sections should be done in the order they are listed below.
  • Page 50 Position the F306 at the front edge of a table as shown. There are 2 bolts installed in t-slot nuts (they slide inside the slot in the frame) in the bottom front frame member. Remove them from the nuts and install them in the holes on the back of the LCD unit.
  • Page 51 Power Up Now we are ready to power your F306 up for the first time! Remove the power cord from its bag in the small box and plug it into the socket next to the power supply on the left side of the machine. Connect the other end to a 3- prong outlet.
  • Page 52 Figure 55: Moving the Z Axis by Hand While you are doing this, watch for these things:  The resistance of the belt to your movement should be consistent. You should not feel more than a small amount of “lumpiness” as the leadscrews rotate. ...
  • Page 53 If the platform is level, congratulations! Your F306 is now set up and ready to go. Make sure you follow the bed leveling procedure (section 5.2) before attempting to print.

  • Page 54: Appendix B: High-Precision Flow Rate Calibration

    APPENDIX B: High-Precision Flow Rate Calibration Each F306 is precision-calibrated at our factory before it’s delivered to you. This calibration is generally accurate within 5% with most spools of material. However, for those times where you need parts as close to perfect as possible, the method described here will allow you to get the amount of extruded plastic perfect.
  • Page 55 Figure 58: Measuring Filament Diameter The spreadsheet will then calculate an average diameter, which you input into Simplify as shown below. Figure 59: Input Filament Diameter Step 2: Prepare test object Next, set up Simplify to slice a simple object with the following settings: ...
  • Page 56  1 perimeter  Make sure the “extrusion width” in Simplify matches that in the spreadsheet. It should be equal to or 0.05 larger than the nozzle size (currently 0.4mm).  We include a 40mm box that works well for this test. Slice, save, and transfer the file to your printer.
  • Page 57 In general, you should be able to get within 1% of the correct flow rate with 3 trials.

  • Page 58: Appendix C: Notes For Dual Extrusion Owners

    APPENDIX C: Notes for Dual Extrusion Owners This section outlines changes in the hardware, software, and operation of your F306 if it is outfitted with a second print head. While dual extrusion does provide additional powerful capabilities, it is not as easy to use as single head machines.
  • Page 59 These work similarly to the scripts for the single head systems. Simplify3D Depending on what your goal is, there are a variety of ways to set up Simplify with your dual head F306. The most common uses are: 1.
  • Page 60 Operational Changes First, we strongly recommend you use your F306 as a single head printer for your first prints. This will allow you to become familiar with the system before adding the additional complexity of a second print head. The standard single-head Simplify profiles are fully compatible with your system;...

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