Guess which is which…$189 Ender3pro vs Snapmaker A350. I’m just tired of it…
I mean no offence as you appear to have quite a bit of 3D printing experience having used the Ender3pro but I have recently purchased my A350ENT in the last week to get into this new 3D printing lark. Based on my limited experience with it so far which has given me good results, I would say your issue may be down to the hotbed not being high enough in temperature for the filament to adhere to it, hence the bundle of mess. Also a recalibration of the bed may help too.
I had similar on my first print and did the above which solved it all.
Regards
Andy
Hello,Anbro…I’ve had the A350 from the beginning, being an original backer.
I’ve made some terrific projects with it and have enjoyed using it…But often times it is a crap shoot when I go out to the shop in the morning as to whether or not I’ll have a birds nest or a semi-nice product. Oh, and I’m using the Gen 2 print head which is far superior to the Gen 1, fyi…
In this particular case, you can’t really tell from this photo, but the build was well over half way finished when, I suspect, the print head swiped the project off the build pad and it was squiggle-city from there on…I was building on an 80c degree bed with a 210 degree hot-end. The Ender was similarly set up but I think I had the bed set at 70c degree…not positive about that though…
Anyway, thanks for your nice reply. I wrote the original note when I was pretty frustrated, as the Ender worked well right out of the box and the SM just takes a lot of fiddling with my CURA settings and still does not get as smooth a product as the Ender.
Regards,
Bob
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Bob, Is it possible that your CURA settings may have something to do with this! I say that as I have read elsewhere that the CURA software can be difficult to fine tune and can cause printing issues. At present I have stayed using Luban until I am more familiar with configuration and use of 3rd party products.
I must admit that a recent print (Darlek) does have some imperfections on printing which I put down to using the default settings. In time I will experiment further to fine tune it.
It’s sad that you have had this bad experience and I feel for you.
Oh, I haven’t given up on the SM machine… I just find it ironic that the Ender, right out of the box with minimal set-up is able to make prints that the SM can only do with much fiddling and adjusting. I found that CURA is much easier to use than Luban and haven’t touched Luban in months and months, ever since the wi-fi from my iMac to the SM quit working after one of the SM updates…
Regarding Cura and the settings, yes there are a gazillion of them but if you get frustrated you can always just mash the “recommended” tab and transfer to a stick for printing…
See ya,
Bob
Someone recently pointed out 80 may be too hot. I hadn’t really thought about it as often hotter gave me better results, but actually I’ve had more failures at over 70c bed than lower. I now do 70 first layer and drop to 60/56 depending on material.
Both luban and cura offer one click go style printing, but I get far better results from both by tweaking the profiles according to what I’m printing and my desire for speed/quality. Surprising how often cura makes a really poor gcode slicing decision, but they both feel painful at times and godly at others.
Couple of issues. 80 is too hot for pla, it can cause elephants foot and the print to deform making the head hit. Second, the ender will be good out of the box yeah but it soon starts having issues with belts and the bed is far smaller so it doesn’t have the inherent problems that larger beds do, like edge falloff
Looking at reports from many SM2 users on Facebook or here in the forum, I’d carefully make an assumption on what the reasons for repeated spaghetti prints might be specifically on the SM2, which is a unique design that has it’s strengths and weaknesses:
- Bed wobble: There are many reports of the bearings of the Y-axis modules getting lose. As a result the printing bed tilts when it changes movement direction. This results in a up/down movement of the print. The higher the print, the more likely it gets that the print nozzle at some point will run into the cooled down parts of the print and shove it aside, sometimes along with the print sheet.
- Missed steps: There are reports that the cooling pad in a linear module is missing. This may cause the stepper driver chip to overheat. Result: Missed steps. Visible as layer shifts or spaghetti.
- Backlash compensation (currently only “confirmed” for the old modules): The strength of the backlash compensation nuts seems to be a bit on the weak side for the heavy construction of SM2. The faster you go, the more it shows. Not sure if this may get so severe that it may cause print issues beyond imperfections.
- PCB heated bed expansion: Heated beds in general, but PCB-style heated beds in special deform when changing temperature, resulting in the center of the bed moving up or down in relation to the outer regions. Not specifically for SM2 but in general there are reports that this may cause the nozzle running into the print. With a large bed like the A350’s this may be pronounced. However, with the many screws that hold down the bed I may be wrong.
Possible solutions are:
- Bed Wobble: Tighten bearings in linear rails or add guide rails
- Missed steps: Replace linear module
- Backlash: Don’t go too fast (~60 mm/s max) or replace nuts
- PCB bed: If it really is an issue, a glass bed with its larger weight might help
Also, fixing the print sheet with paper clips to the heated bed seems to make the print more resilient against lighter collisions of nozzle and print.
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