CTC DIY printer help please

[Gayhalo]

I am new. I have a very cheap ctc diy printer and I am having problems due to the zero instructions. Is the anyone out there who has experience to save me struggling with it?

[iDig3Dprinting]

what is your problem exactly?

[Gayhalo]

Hi, I cannot find the load filament control on the lcd.

[iDig3Dprinting]

I cannot tell you about these printers but they are a simple Prusa i3 clone.

My first thought would be does it have that functionality, I think that is unlikely.

Generally you would manually load them but pushing the filament into the ptfe tubing that runs to the hot end. Usually, depending on the extruder housing you may need to undo some bolts where the filament would pass against the hobbed bolt.

Then once it is in the pipe and you have done up the extruder idler again you use manual control of your printer either from a software client or from the lcd screen to:

1. Heat the extruder to the desired temperature for the filament material
2. to extrude a certain length of filament.

[Gayhalo]

Thank you for your help. Silly me I expected it to have a manual control. The only way to load the filament is to run the extruder..... no moveable bits in the gears. I guess I will have to write a piece of Gcode to heat the nozzle and extrude some filament. I could run it repeatedly as the wait for temp would go straight on. Then I have no idea what to do at the end of a print. Leave the filament in to get cold? Run the extruder backwards (I think it’s called retract).
I know it sounds like I have some idea about printing but in truth I have not printed anything yet.

[iDig3Dprinting]

so, if you are going to use the same filament you can leave it in. With our Prusa i3 to change filament we cut the filament just where it feeds into the hobbed bolt heat the extruder and then feed the new filament through, by hand. Then once it is in sufficiently we then manually extrude some until the old filament has been extruded through.

We don't know you extruder so we cant say exactly how this works with yours.

for manual control usually you would use a 3D printing software on your computer to run the printer if connected via usb or network. Something like repetier. than way you can control the printer from your computer. This has a manual control section.

Usually you can do this via the lcd screen. you can heat the extruder and then tell the extruder to extrude a certain length of filament.

[Gayhalo]

Thanks for your time. I have ordered a MK8 extruder so I can manually feed the filament. I am still not sure what to do when I finish printing. Can I let the filament get cold? Will it extrude again when I heat it up? Do I remove the filament and if so how?

[Gayhalo]

As an aside i cannot control from my computer(s). I have two del laptops. One is too old and Cura will not run on it as I do not have OpenGL and the other that runs Cura will not talk to the printer card as the PC it USB 3 and the card is USB 2. Aaaaarrrrgh.

[iDig3Dprinting]

can't do anything about your computers.
as to filament, yes when you have finished printing you can just leave it to get cold. next time you print the extruder heats up and doesn't start printing until it has reached the temperature set for the print.

[Gayhalo]

Thank you very much for your help.