Fusion3 Design F306 Generation I User manual
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Affordable High-Performance 3D Printers
Operation Guide
F306 Generation I
Revision 5 | 12-31-2014
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).
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While we have carefully designed your F306 to operate in a safe manner, accidents can happen. Your F306 should
NEVER be run unattended or overnight.
Your F306 contains components that operate at 110VAC. These components have been shielded to prevent
accidental access. These guards are marked with the warning below. Do not remove these guards while your
machine is in operation, or plugged into the wall.
Your F306 also contains components that pose a pinch hazard while in operation, such as the linear motion
carriages and the extruder feed system. Take care to keep fingers, hair, other body parts, and clothing away from
these components while your F306 is in operation.
Your F306 is a high-precision piece of equipment that is precisely constructed, aligned, and calibrated at our
factory. Refrain from subjecting your printer to shocks, drops, or heavy forces that may cause misalignment of the
components.
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.
2.1.Inspect Your System
If you had your F306 system shipped to you, see Appendix A for inspection instructions. If anything has been
damaged in shipping, it’s important to catch it now before it might damage something else!
2.2.Level the Print Bed
See section 5.2 for instructions on how to level the print bed.
2.3.Load Filament & Prepare to Print
Every F306 comes with a free roll of high-quality PLA. We highly recommend using this included material for your
first print. Not only is PLA an easy material to work with for beginners, but your SD card includes a pre-prepared
print file that is configured to be run with PLA.
Load the filament into your F306 using the “Load filament” script in the “Prepare” menu. See section 5.3 for more
information.
First, we need to prepare the print bed for printing.
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Fill the included spray bottle with normal tap water. If the print surface is dirty, use the spray bottle and paper
towels to clean it. DO NOT use cleaners such as Windex, acetone, or rubbing alcohol to clean the print surface.
Using these chemicals can cause print adhesion problems.
Once the print surface is clean and dry, it’s time to apply the included purple gluestick. Hold the stick vertically and
wipe back and forth to apply a single, even layer of glue to the bed. Since this is a small part we don’t need to coat
the entire surface, just a roughly 6 inch by 6 inch section in the center of the bed. See section 5.4 for more
information.
2.4.Print!
Now we’re ready to print! Navigate to the “Card Menu” on the control panel and select the “getting started
prints” folder. You should see one file called “Twisted_Bottle_PLA.gcode” (the file name might be truncated).
Press to select it, and your F306 will automatically begin the print!
First, your printer will move all three axes towards their minimum positions until it bumps the limit switches. This
is called “homing the axes”, and is how your F306 knows where it is in 3D space.
While it’s homing, it will begin heating the print bed to the correct temperature for PLA (45oC). You can watch the
temperature climb on the control panel.
Once all three axes are homed, your F306 will finish heating the bed. Then it will begin heating the print head to
the correct temperature for PLA (205-215oC). The print head will take 2-3 minutes to come up to temperature and
stabilize. It’s normal for the temperature to oscillate around the set point 2-3 degrees before it begins to print.
Once both the head and bed are up to temperature, your F306 will begin the print by dropping the bed about
10mm. It will then pump out about 30mm of filament. This is to ensure the melt chamber in the print head is
completely filled with plastic before beginning the print. Then the print head will move over and the table will rise
back to the 0 point. The print head will then perform a rapid “wipe” move to the right, in order to wipe the purged
filament off of the head.
Then the print head will move to the center of the bed and begin to print your object! First, it will draw an outline
around the part called a “skirt”. This is a single extrusion bead offset by about 5mm. The main purpose of this is to
stabilize the flow rate of plastic before beginning the actual part. It also allows you to make sure the height of the
first layer is correct, and that the material is laying down correctly.
After the skirt is complete, it will start printing the actual part. The first layer is always done at about 40% of
normal print speed, to ensure the material bonds to the print bed correctly. Your F306 builds parts by tracing one
or more outlines (default is 2) around the perimeter of the part, then filling the rest of the cross section with a zig-
zag infill. The 3 top and bottom layers are done solid, and the rest of the interior is a mostly hollow lattice (all of
these settings are adjustable in Simplify3D).
After the first layer of both pieces is complete, your printer will speed up to the default printing speed of 100mm/s
for the rest of the part. The twisted bottle is a 2 piece print (body and top). It should take about 30 minutes to
finish.
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!
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For PLA, you should be able to pop small parts off easily by hand. Large parts may need to have the table
heated to 70oC in order to make them easier to release by prying them off with the included part scraper.
For ABS, wait for the table to cool to ~50oC and the parts should self-release (sometimes accompanied by
a loud “pop”).
You should be able to thread the top and body together. The first couple of assemblies can be tight. Also be sure
the top doesn’t cross-thread the first couple times you assemble it.
Congratulations! You’ve finished your first print on your F306!
As a final step, remove the skirt and priming pile of filament from the print bed. Remove the used gluestick from
the bed using the spray bottle to wet it down, then use the part scraper to remove most of it. A paper towel or
two will finish the cleanup.
3. 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. We’ve selected Simplfiy3D Creator because it combines
excellent usability with a powerful, intelligent slicing engine. A 2-seat license to Simplify is included with your
F306.
The basic steps of the slicing and printing process are shown below:
Figure 1: Slicing & Printing Workflow
3.2. Simplify3D Tutorials
Simplify 3D has provided tutorials to cover operation of their software at:
http://www.simplify3d.com/support/tutorials/
Setting up Simplfiy3D
As part of the delivery process you should receive an email from Simplify with your license key and instructions for
downloading and installing their software. At the end of the installation process you will be presented with a
couple of windows to set up your 3D printer. In the type of 3D printer, select “other” (bottom of the list), and
simply hit “next” to skip through the remaining screen. When we import the settings for your F306 it will
automatically set the software up correctly.
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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”
section, click “Add.” In the dialog window that appears, you will see an “Import” button at the top. Click that,
navigate to where you copied the files, and select the each configuration file one at a time. They will be added to
the drop-down list, at the bottom.
Figure 2: Add a Process
Figure 3: Click "Import"
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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.
Where Can I Get Models to Print?
If you don’t want to design your own parts, there are many sites on the Internet with freely available models
designed for 3D printing. Here’s a partial list:
http://www.thingiverse.com/
https://www.youmagine.com/
http://repables.com
https://cubehero.com/
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4. General Info—Hardware
4.1. Machine Overview
Figure 5: Front View
Figure 6: Side View
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Figure 7: Axes Layout
Figure 8: Control Board Detail
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Figure 9: Print Head Detail
Figure 10: Extruder Cold End Detail
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Figure 11: Control Panel
1. Print head current temperature
2. Print head set point (0 means the heater is off)
3. Heat bed current temperature and set point
4. Print head position in XYZ space
5. Feed rate (turning this knob will increase or decrease the print speed in real time
6. Indicates % complete while a print is running
7. Print elapsed time
8. Message row
4.2. Precautions
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.
Particularly on the print head, do not use the cooling fan as a grab point. The proper method is to grasp the sides
of the carriage with your fingers as shown.
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