User manual

TROUBLESHOOTING

FILAMENT VARIATION

Does it seem like there’s too much or too little plastic being used in your prints? This can

happen when your ﬁlament doesn’t look or behave exactly how the slicing engine expects

it to. Sometimes 1.75 mm plastic ﬁlament is actually closer to 1.65 mm or 1.85 mm. Your

extruder can handle this range of sizes, but the slicer requires an accurate description of

your ﬁlament to create a good toolpath.

To compensate for ﬁlament variation, you can create a custom proﬁle. See Using Custom

Slicing Proﬁles at www.makerbot.com/support/new/Desktop for instructions.

1. Unspool a couple of feet of ﬁlament and use a caliper to measure it at several

dierent points. Average out those measurements and note the averaged value.

2. Create a custom proﬁle and click the Edit Proﬁle button to open the conﬁg ﬁle in a text

editor. Then ﬁnd the correct “feedDiameter” setting. You will see two “feedDiameter”

settings, one enclosed in each of the extruder proﬁles. Change the ﬁrst

“feedDiameter” setting if you are printing using the right extruder on your MakerBot

Replicator 2X and change the second “feedDiameter” setting if you are using the le

extruder.

3. Save the conﬁg ﬁle and use your new custom proﬁle to print.

If you are having trouble with the amount of plastic being extruded and the value entered

for “feedDiameter” is accurate, look at the “feedstockMultiplier” setting. This setting

compensates for any dierence between the calculated volume of plastic going into

the extruder and the actual amount of the plastic coming out of the extruder. Like the

“feedDiameter” setting, the “feedstockMultiplier” setting appears twice in the conﬁg

ﬁle – once in each of the two extruder proﬁles. When changing the “feedstockMultiplier”

setting, make sure you choose the setting for the correct extruder.

DIAGNOSING PRINT QUALITY ISSUES CONTINUED