Pause/Wait to let a layer cool down

[gelly]

Hi,

How can i add a delay or pause between layers, so i let the previous layer cool down a little before i continue, is there a setting somewhere ?

[BaudR8]

One way you can do it is by editing the G-Code and adding in an M0, which will cause the print to pause and then you can manually jog the hot end away from the print, wait for it to cool, jog the head back to its original position prior to pausing, and then resume the print.
Doing this can be quite tedious, time consuming, and requires constant monitoring of the print.

If I'm doing a very small print that requires time to allow a layer to cool, this is what I usually do:
- Import my model as well as a hollow cube.
- Scale the cube to be the same or taller than the model I want to print.
- Manually move the model to one side of the build platform and the hollow cube to the other side.
- In the process setting, turn off optimized start point and instead do choose start point closest to and make it close to your hollow cube, that way when the layer finishes on your model, it won't move up and print on top of it, instead it will travel back to the hollow cube and print on that instead.

Should look something like this:

If you scale the cube, and turn of uniform scaling, you can scale the z to be tall and keep the x and y scaling the same.
then slice and print.

This way it will print a layer of the model, then travel away and print a layer of the hollow cube, hopefully giving the model enough time to cool before printing the next layer.

With this, I was able to print a really small Dorus Dragon (from thingiverse) on a printrbot simple!


With the second method, you don't have to babysit the print and constantly resume the print

[gelly]

very good idea! thanks, maybe this should be an added feature to the SW

[jimc]

Here is a little tip and much easier. In your process set the skirt for maybe 20mm offset, 3 or more perimeters then set the number of layers to 9999. That number will make s3d print the skirt the same amout of layers as your model. This will auto generate your box or whatever without having to scale or model anything. Of course its always most efficient if you can print multiple items that you need at the same time

[dsegel]

Go to the Scripts->Layer Change tab and enter something like "G4 P200" - the G4 command is for "dwell" and Marlin uses P for milliseconds and S for seconds. Thus P200 makes it sit and do nothing for 200ms; S2 would make it wait for 2 seconds. Non-Marlin FW just supports the P option, so use something like P2000 for 2 seconds.

This makes it do an actual wait and doesn't waste filament.

[KeyboardWarrior]

Go to the Scripts->Layer Change tab and enter something like "G4 P200" - the G4 command is for "dwell" and Marlin uses P for milliseconds and S for seconds. Thus P200 makes it sit and do nothing for 200ms; S2 would make it wait for 2 seconds. Non-Marlin FW just supports the P option, so use something like P2000 for 2 seconds.

This makes it do an actual wait and doesn't waste filament.

The only reason I don't like this idea, is that the extruder is 230C, and would have direct contact at the point you're touching, which would mean that it would be melting and changing the shape of the plastic at that location.

How about layer change-->
G91; change to relative mode
G1 Z1 F3500; move up 1 mm
G4 P2000; wait 2 seconds
G1 Z-.8F3500; goes down .8 mm *assuming .2 mm layer height being used*
G90; go back to standard absolute mode

[gelly]

would it be better to move in the X or Y axis instead ?

[dsegel]

would it be better to move in the X or Y axis instead ?

That's not a bad idea, but it could lead to stringing. I think KeyboardWarrior has the right idea - just lift and pause in place, then continue. I'm not sure about the values, though. It depends on whether the layer change code is called before or after the layer height change that happens with the new layer, or whether that height change would happen in other parts of the code.

[3Drasle]

Here is a little tip and much easier. In your process set the skirt for maybe 20mm offset, 3 or more perimeters then set the number of layers to 9999. That number will make s3d print the skirt the same amout of layers as your model. This will auto generate your box or whatever without having to scale or model anything. Of course its always most efficient if you can print multiple items that you need at the same time

That is a great tip. Thank you

[tutti2000]

Hello,

would it not be better to move the hotend in x or x direction to move the part cooler to the place where cooling is needed instead of moving the hotend up? My hotend cooling is mounted aside of the extruder and can only blow downwards and not in nozzle direction. Due to space limitations. So in my opinion it would be better to moxe the extruder 20mm in x-direction to get the part cooled down?

Kind regards
Stefan