I'll start by saying, your mileage may vary. I also suspect that my environment is a pretty major factor, so this may not be equally applicable. Of note here is, my 3D printer is currently setup in my basement, in a wide open room in Canada. Basement temps can be 5-7 degrees Celsius lower than the main floor, which in the winter time means ambient temps can drop to 17c (or even lower). Also, the wide open room layout means a lot of potential drafts. Especially when the HVAC is running.
That being said, a lot of the problems I noticed disappearing afterward also happened before, when the 3D printer was elsewhere in the house. Though, once again, Canada so likely lower ambient temperatures than most. If you've got a higher, more consistent ambient temperature then maybe this wouldn't apply.
Anyway, biggest problems solved:
Not a big list, but a pretty major problem. The most obvious way this manifested was corners lifting off the bed. Though, I imagine that the print itself was warping before it reached that point.
For context, I have a CR6SE. This particular printer has a strain gauge which is used for homing the Z-Axis and automatic bed leveling. It also triggers a light on the daughter board when it encounters enough strain. One thing I noticed, which I initially blamed on poor homing or bad bed leveling or just a crappy printer in general is that I would notice the strain gauge light going off quite often mid print.
I know that the strain gauge and light are functioning properly on my unit, and so I know that this meant that the print head was basically running into the print or at least closer to the print than anticipated.
Obviously, if the corners are lifting off the print bed, then some corners of the print may be a bit higher. So, I knew that was part of the reason that this was happening. However, it also happened in the middle of the print or on prints where the print hadn't lifted off the bed which is why I thought that the printer may be to blame. It always started happening and got worse at higher layers in the prints. Shrinkage, I had expected would result in the opposite if the print stuck to the bed. So I had assumed some drift in the Z-Axis.
But, our hamster passed last year, and we had this crappy little modular shelf thing. I took it, encased it around the back and sides of the printer and draped an old sheet over the front while printing. It doesn't get super hot in there. I don't have a thermometer inside, but at a guess, I would say it gets somewhere into the 30s Celsius. This is preferable to me as I don't want it getting too hot as the whole printer, including motherboard and PSU are inside as well.
Then end result? The printer is still a cheap one. I have issues with it from time to time. The strain gauge is not perfect for calculating Z-Axis offsets. However, when I see the strain gauge freaking out, it starts early in the print because the Z-axis offset is wrong. It doesn't just start breaking prints in the middle of the process anymore. And I love that.
And my setup is pretty cheap and simple. Not much more than a slightly breathable tent over the whole operation.
I'll still be replacing the thing somewhere down the line. This way I've managed to breathe some extra life into the current setup though. And that is worth something. It is also a bigger upgrade than things I actually paid for to upgrade the printer.
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