FLASHFORGE Finder 3 3D Printer User Guide

FLASHFORGE Finder 3 3D Printer User Guide

Notes

1. Do not make any modifications to the printer. To avoid personal injury or property damage please ensure your operation followed by the Manual.
2. Dress properly. Do not wear loose clothing or jewelry. Keeping your hair, clothing and gloves away from moving parts.
3. Do not directly touch the nozzle and build plate to avoid high-temperature burn.
4. Do not expose the printer in flammable liquid, gas or dust environment (The high temperature generated by operating printer may react with dust, liquid, and flammable gas in the air and cause fire).
5. Do not put the printer on a shaking place. It may affect the printing quality.
6. Children and untrained personnel are not allowed to operate the printer alone.
7. Operate the printer in a well-ventilated environment. Some materials may emit odors during the printing process.
8. Do not manually move the nozzle or printing platform while booting up, lest printer damage.
9. Never use the printer for illegal activities.
10. Never use the printer to make any food storage.
11. Never put the printed model into mouth.
12. Lower the build plate before loading/unloading filament. The distance between the nozzle and build plate should be at least 50 mm.
13. Ensure regular maintenance for the printer; use dry cloth to remove dust and adhered residues.

Legal Statement

• The user has no right to make any modification to this user guide.
• Flashforge will not be responsible for any safety accidents caused by disassembly or modification of the equipment by the customer. No one is allowed to modify or translate this guide without the permission of Flashforge.
• This guide is protected by copyright, and Flashforge reserves the right of final interpretation of this guide.
• Flashforge reserves the right to modify the guide due to subsequent equipment upgrades.
• First Edition (January 2022)
  @Copyright 2021 Zhejiang Flashforge 3D Technology Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Equipment Parameters

connection printing
Slicin g software| FlashPrint / Cura / Simplify 3D
Power specification| Input AC 11 5/ 230V 50/60Hz    Outpu DC 24V
Total power| 350W
Hotbed tempera ture| 5110°C
Noz zle temperature| 5260°C
Resume pri nting funct ion| Yes
Filament detection sensor| Yes
Screen| 4.3″ colorful touchscreen
Language switch| Chine se / English /Japanese/ French /Spanish/ German
Supp orts(OS)| Windows 7/10 / Mac OS
Print speed| 5l 80mm/ s, 50-80mm/s normally
Positio n precision| z-axis 0.0025mm, X/Y-axis ±0.011mm
Output file| .gx I.g I.geode

Unpacking

1. Open the box, take out the user manual and the USB flash disk.
2. Remove the foam.
3. Lift the printer and put it on the desk, then take Finder 3 out of the plastic bag.
4. Remove the top foam, there should be a power cable included.
5. Take out the foam under nozzle.
6. Hold the platform and lift it carefully to remove the foam below it.
7. Discard the protective tapes all around.
8. Cut the cable ties which for fixing X-axis and Y-axis synchronous belt.
9. Cut the cable ties that used to hold the rods in place.
10. Cut the cable ties that used to hold the platform. Discard the protective tape around it.
11. You’ve unpacked your printer. Please keep the kit and packing for future use.

Chapter 1 Equipment Introduction

Product Introduction

1. Y-axis Guide Rail
2. X-axis Guide Rail
3. Z-axis Guide Rail
4. Limit position assembly
5. Glass platform
6. Clip
7. Leveling Nut
8. Touch Screen
9. USB Stick Input
10. Power Voltage Switch
11. LED Light
12. Nozzle
13. Turbofan Baffle
14. Power Switch
15. Power Input
16. Spool installation port
17. Filament detect sensor

Kit Contents

3D Printer

|

Power Cable

|

Filament

---|---|---

User Guide

|

Material Rack

|

Nozzle

USB Flash Disk

|

Remove Tool

|

Wrenches and Screwdrivers

Needle

|

Grease

|

Flexible Spring Sheet

Glue

Chapter 2 Preparation for Printing

Assemble filament

1. Install the material rack on the back of printer.
   

2. Insert the filament into the intake, pull out the PTFE tube from extruder; Then press the handle to push filament into filament feeding roller.
   

Build Plate

Finder 3 is installed with the glass platform by default, while users can also use the flexible removable platform.
Glass platform: The bottom is flatter, but the removal of the model requires a scraper; If the glass platform is used when the ambient temperature is low, it is recommended to apply glue on it before printing to increase the adhesion.
Flexible removable platform: It adopts magnetic adsorption, thus the model can be easily removed by removing the flexible steel plate and then bending it.

Installation method of the flexible removable platform plate:

1. Remove the glass platform.
2. Stick the magnet above the heating plate.
3. Then the flexible steel plate can be absorbed on the magnet.

Note
If you switch from the glass platform to the flexible removable platform plate, it is necessary to perform leveling and calibration.

Power On

Plug in the power cord and toggle the switch to turn on the power. Do not disconnect the cables when Finder 3 is powered on.

• Damage might occur if voltage setting is incorrect. Make sure the current input voltage matches to your local power supply (115/230V).
• Plug in power cord and turn power switch to 1 to turn it on.

Leveling Build Plate

Click [settings]-[Language] to switch the language.

How to use the nuts

• Rotate the nuts clockwise
  
  Raise the build plate to reduce the distance between the nozzle and build plate.

• Rotate the nuts Anticlockwise
  
  Lower the build plate to increase the distance between the nozzle and build plate.

1. Put a piece of A4 paper on the build plate, tap the touchscreen [Control] – [Level] and wait for the extruder moving to the first leveling point.
   

2. Lightly pull the A4 paper and feel the friction. If the friction is too big to move, tap [↓] to increase the distance between nozzle and build plate; if the friction is too small, tap [↑] to reduce the distance between nozzle and build plate. It is better that pull the paper to feel the significant frictional resistance until the slight scratches appear without damage. Tap [Next] to do the second level point.
   

3. When the extruder moves to the second point, pull the A4 paper to feel the friction resistance. If the friction is too big to move, rotate nut anticlockwise to increase the distance between nozzle and build plate; if the friction is too small, rotate nut clockwise to reduce the distance between nozzle and build plate. It is better that pull the paper to feel the significant frictional resistance until the slight scratches appear without damage. Tap [Next] to do the third level point.
   

4. The third leveling point repeats the second point leveling operation until the three-point leveling is completed.
   

Loading Filament

Note
Please ensure that the filament has been loaded in an appropriate approach.

Tap [Control] – [Load]. It starts to load the filament when the targeted temperature reached. Do not stop loading when the nozzle extrudes the filament. It is suggested that extrude the filament evenly then tap [OK] to back to the homepage.

Software Installation

Method 1:

Find the FlashPrint installation package in the USB disk and select the version corresponding to your system to install.

Method 2:

You can download it from https://www.flashforge.com/download-center.

Chapter 3 First Print

Suggestions

1. Ensure that the build plate has been leveled before printing.
   

2. Please clean extruder before printing (Load the filament for a while to extrude all the melted filament you printed last time out of the extruder).
   

3. Do not leave the printer unattended during operation.

Print

Decompressed the slicing software package in the USB flash drive and install it to your computer. Open the software, load the stl file for slicing, then saved the sliced file to the USB flash drive. Insert the USB flash drive.

Tap [Build] – [USB Device], select model – [Build].

Unloading Filament

Please follow steps below if you need to unload filament in daily use.

Tap [Control] – [Unload]. When the filament unload out of the filament feeding port, the unload operation is finished.

  Note
After unload completed then load again, it is filament replacement.

Wi-Fi Connection

Tap [Settings] – [Wi-Fi], open the WIFI function. Choose the Internet and save the password.

Connect Printer by Wi-Fi

1. After the Wi-Fi connected successfully, tap [Info] and check the IP Address.
   

2. Open the FlashPrint 5, click [Print] – [Connect Machine], input the IP address and click the connect.

3. Click [Tools] – [Multi-Machine Control], you will see the statue of device.
   

Firmware Upgrade

Method 1:

Get the firmware files:
Connect with aftersales and send email to support@flashforge.com

1. Copy the firmware into the blank USB flash disk.
2. Plug in the USB flash disk into the USB port of printer and reboot the printer, waiting for the upgrade process finished.
3. Plug out the USB flash disk after hearing three beeps, reboot printer again.
4. After the upgrade completed, please delete the firmware file in the USB flash disk to avoid upgrading repeatedly next time.

Method 2:

1. . Connect the WIFI successfully (Refer to 3.3 Wi-Fi Connection);
   

2. Tap [Settings] – [Upgrade], check the latest firmware; if there is a new firmware need to be upgraded, please tap [Yes] to upgrade.

Printing Notice

1. The adhesion of glass build plate may decrease after long time using. Please apply proper amount of glue to keep and improve the adhesion.
2. Warping issues may occur when print ABS filament in cold environment, you may use glue to enhance the adhesion. It’s not recommended to print ABS filament at extremely low temperature environment, as print will fail when printed model getting away from the build plate.
3. There is a certain quivering on the build plate during the printing which may cause flatness changed. Thus please pay attention to the adhesion of the first layer when printing model; if the distance between build plate and nozzle is improper, please re-level it.
4. If printing effect is not accurate enough, check the tension of synchronous belt and make it neither too loose nor too tight.
5. If there is an error in the height of the Z-axis, please adjust the compensation of the Z-axis accurately.
6. Optimal temperature for printing is 18~30℃. Too high or too low temperature is not good for printing effect.
7. The lubricity of the X-axis guide rail will decrease after long time use, please apply an appropriate amount of grease to increase the lubricity.

Chapter 5 Support and Service

Flashforge team is on standby and ready to help you with any challenges you may have with your 3D printer. If the issues or questions are not covered in this User Guide, you can seek for solutions on our official website or contact us via telephone.
There are solutions and instructions to common issues that can be found in our knowledge base. Have a look first as most basic questions are answered there. http://www.flashforge.com

The Flashforge support team can be reached by e-mail or phone between the working hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PST Monday through Saturday. In case you  contact us during off-duty time, your inquiry will be answered the following business day

Note : Because of changing different filament the extruder maybe blockaded. It’s not owing to quality issue, and outside the scope of 400 hours life. If users encounter this problem, please contact our after-sale department and finish clean work according to their instruction.

Facebook Official Group Address : Flashforge Official User Group
Email : support@flashforge.com
Address : No.518 XianYuan Road, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, China

Note: Please provide the product serial number which is the barcode at the back of the printer before contacting our after-sales department.

Customer Support

Zhejiang Flashforge 3D Technology Co., Ltd.
Address: No.518 XianYuan Road, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, China
Service Hotline: +86 579 82273989
support@flashforge.com

Chapter 4 FAQ

Q：What if the files are garbled and cannot be read?

A. 1. The format of files after slicing is not compatible;
2. Repair the model before slicing.

Q: What if the model warps or is unable to stick to the build plate?

A. 1. The temperature of the build plate was too low; please rise its temperature;
2. Filament failed to adhere to the build plate, use glues to enhance the adhesion;
3. Distance between the build plate and the nozzle is too far or the build plate is not leveling enough; re-leveling the build plate accordingly.

Q: What if the screen turns dark?

A. 1. Please check whether the screen flat cable has those questions: loose, plugged in reverse, plugged in wrong position, tilted plugging;
2. Refresh the firmware to see if the screen can recover to normal;
3. Contact the after-sales personnel if necessary.

Q: What if the build plate cannot be heated?

A. Please check the digital display of the temperature. If the temperature is improper, please replace the thermistor. Otherwise, please replace the heating plate wires.

Q. What if the nozzle cannot be heated?

A. 1. Please check the temperature on display screen; if the temperature is shown abnormal, it is in the reason of thermistor. Please replace the thermistor and try again;
2. If the temperature is shown normal, it may be in the reason of heating cable. Please replace the heating cable and try again.

Q: What if the accuracy of model is not good?

A. Please ensure proper tension of the synchronous belt, neither loose nor tight.

Q: What if the axis cannot be moved?

A. 1. Check the wire of the electric motor;
1. Contact us by email listed.
Email: support@flashforge.com

Q: What if the files on the USB flash disk cannot be identified?

A. 1. Clean and wipe the USB flash disk;
2. Format the USB flash disk;
3. Replace the USB flash disk.

Q: What if knock and noise occur when nozzle returning to zero point?

A. 1. Check whether the zero sensor is knocked and broken;
2. Check the lines and see whether the noises stop when pressing the sensorby hand;
3. Contact us by email.
Email: support@flashforge.com

Q: What if offset occurs on the finished model?

A. 1. Check the tightness of the synchronous belt and ensure it is correctly installed;
2. Slice the model again;
3. Reduce print speed;
4. Make sure operating temperature doesn’t exceed its assigned set-point temperature 30℃.

Q: Printer gets broken at the time of turning it on?

A. It might be caused by dialing error from switch power supply, please check whether the voltage is set to the correct value.

Q: Too much filament oozing?

A. 1. Drop the print temperature by 5~10℃;
2. Increase traveling speed, or increase the retraction length and speed.

Q: No filament coming out during printing?

A. 1. Lower the retraction length to avoid abrasion;
2. Check whether the extruder is clogged, use a needle to clean it if necessary.

References

• Flashforge® Official Store
• 浙江闪铸集团有限公司 - 工业3d打印品牌-闪铸3d打印厂家【官网】

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