u/AxeEngineer00

I've been struggling with mine since I got this printer and I'm at the point where I'm doubting that the unit I got doesn't really have a defect. All my top layers come out with a strange surface, looks like it's underextruding but at no point the lines it produces are actually straight all the way, dialing filament has been very complicated. Anyone has pics to share of their top layers?

Pics are the sharpie test of the closest I got to a properly smooth top layer but I still can't produce the flat shiny straight lines I had on the A1 mini (pic 3, bottom piece)

Hello, I bought an X2D as an upgrade for my A1 mini, so far everything seems fine, machine works like a charm but there is one thing that's making me freak over. Calibrating my filaments. Right after going with the archimedean chords test for flow and then the PA pattern for the K factor I started to work on the shrinking %, as you can see the piece came out with a very weird overextrusion on where the top surface meets the walls, almost as if the K factor is completely wrong. To fix this I increased my K factor and went on with the calibrations printing the 20mm cube you usually make to test if the shrinkage is correct (photo2).

You can see that the top surface is clearly overshooting the corner where the monotonic line turns around, never saw a thing like this, moreover the top surface was kinda rough ish again (200mm/s).

To make a test I tried to slow down the top surface to 50mm/s and it sort of helped, it's less rough but I can definetly feel ridges when going around with my nail on the top wall where it meets the top infill.

Confronting the presets between the Mini and the X2d I found this option(photo 3 and 4) on by default on the slicer which wasn't found on the mini, reading the description seemed pretty much to be the cause of my problems, lo and behold I set it to 0% and the top walls and corners are smooth again and there are no ridges (photo 5) but I'm getting some holes now in some areas of the test piece (200mm/s-5 top layers). So now my question is: What does that setting actually do? I want the smooth walls but if it starts to make holes in my top surface that's a problem. Please do not recommend ironing since that would be like putting a plaster on a gun wound before doing any fancy extra steps the base print should be near perfect, or at least equal to what a machine that costed 600 euro less could do

I've been trying to find a brand of milk that works fine for cheesemaking that I can simply buy from the local supermarket. So far what I got is that the milk needs:

•To be whole milk, at least 3,6% fat content

•Non uht, at most pasteurized at no more than 72c for no more than 13 seconds

•can be homogenized

And that should be it in theory.

My first try was with a local brand, their email told me that the milk was at 4% fat content and was pasteurized at 72c for around 10-23 seconds. 4 liters later and the curd was hardly setting even after adding cultures and CaCl. Took a hour and 10 minutes to set a curd plus an extra dose of rennet, useless to say it was bitter and the texture was almost like what you usually see when someone here tries to make that vinegar mozzarella recipe (photo 1)

Second try I go with another brand, bought a single bottle just to not spend too much and poured 500ml in a small pot, again, bringed to 36C, added no cultures, added CaCl diluted in non chlorinated water(diluted since my bottle calls for 1 drop per liter so I needed to split a drop in half) and the amount of rennet required(i diluted this also but I think I didn't need to do It and it may have caused problems). 25 minutes later no curd, 25 minutes more and I had something like this (photo 2) curd was cutting with neat edges but it was still a bit soft even after adding cacl (maybe the diluted renned weakened it). After heating it up to 40C and stirring a bit the curd became like (photo 3) and once clumped together they became like in (photo 4), technically curds should do this but if I'm not mistaken if pressed lightly they should just bind together and unbind back, in my case it was more like they clumped and refused to let go. So this milk is better than the first one but I fear that cutting the curd in small pieces and heating it will not produce the result needed to make most semi hard/hard cheeses I aim for.

So now I have 500ml more of the second try milk, what should be my procedure to properly test the milk and see if it produces a good curd?