Delamination no matter the settings

Snapmaker 2.0 (3-in-1)
1

I’ve had my Snapmaker 2.0 A350 since the kickstarter, but unfortunately not had the opportunity to use it very much. Other than a few attempts at 3D printing something rudimentary, like cubes or geometric shapes, it’s been mostly standing waiting for me to get the time to invest in setting it up correctly. (Side Note: Does filament age? Considering the kickstarter was almost 5 years ago!)

That time is now, but I’ve been having countless challenges with the print layers delaminating. I’ve tried replacing the filament with another spool (both SnapMaker Black PLA), altered the level height/thickness, line width, print speed, all resulted in the print coming apart fairly easily at the seams/layers.

Recently I’ve installed Cura because I found they have an extension that can generate test towers, so I printed a temperature tower, and after that a flow tower, but on the temperature tower from 215 to 185 °C they all look pretty much the same, with equally weak later adhesion, and on the flow tower, the 115% extrusion has some blobbing and 85% some gaps, but other than that, fairly consistent. I’ve also done a single line wall test cube at 0.4mm (using the standard extruder hot end), and it measured at pretty much 0.4mm, so i’m not experiencing a large variation in the extrusion amount from what I could tell.

I’m out of ideas on what to try to improve my prints, as I’m trying to make some more structurally sound adapters and fittings, but the slightest sideways or upwards force (basically the force to grasp onto or pick up a print) causes the layers to split. this happens even on completely solid sections, not just those with walls or infills.

I’ve also had the unfortunate situation where prints that finished adhere to the print bed to strongly, that I can barely get them off, even when using the scraper, and by that time the rest of the print has already been torn or shredded by the effort.

I’m at my wit’s end here. Any help or suggestions are welcome. If I need to provide any test prints, photos, parameters, I will gladly make or give them, as I feel that I have a machine that is wholly underutilized sitting in my room, waiting to become a valuable asset.

2

Clean the surface with soapy water. Dry it and use some alcohol like isopropanol, i use break cleaner.

Then try again. And try higher Platform temperature. Filament can and will alter. Especially when not stored in Vacuum bag. You can try to dry it or simply buy some new role Pla of any brand.

Do you have an enclosure?

Tried to swap the printing surface to print on other side? Same problem there?

3

I have prints adhere to the bed strongly as well, usually when my Z offset is a touch low.
Start a print with a brim or Skirt, look at how it’s coming out.
Too flat and thin, raise the Z a little.

4

Try a hot bed leveling with 6x6 matrix, maybe your settings are not up to date.

Let the bed expand for at least 30min at 60°C.

Clean it well with isopropyl alcohol like @Wyphorn suggested.

Yes, filament can get old. This means it gets brittle or prints a ugly surface, mostly because of moisture. Dry it or use a new role (not a new 5 year old roll, this would be also wet..).

Show us some pictures of your printed bottom surface.

This is how the first layer should look like:

17555400624803183492773135922425
17555400624803183492773135922425474×266 32.4 KB

5

@Wyphorn I don’t have the enclosure, however the room where the printer is located is small and closed/without a draft for most of the time, I don’t suspect any atmospheric changes large enough to impact the print itself. My print bed got ugly on the one side from various print attempts (which I suppose happens eventually) and I turned it around, but after 2 or 3 it looks mostly the same, so I’m not sure how it should react to multiple prints.

@xchrisd I start the bed leveling every time I switch on the printer before starting a print, but I have not heated the bed for an extended duration before. The bed doesn’t explain the layer adhesion higher up in the print, though. I read that desiccant can only keep filament dry, not lower the humidity, so I will have to see if I can heat the spool somehow and then try the desiccant container.

@TK4132 normally when I set my z-offset during the bed levelling, it is barely catching the reference card, so it should be a few microns away from the bed itself.

I will try to clean with soap and IPA (if I can find some) and check again.

Is there any way I can test print a single/first level to test and photograph to share?

6

Perhaps just do one of your prints. Pause the printer when the first layer is printed, and take a photo. Then continue the print and take a photo showing the layers. Finally, perhaps show a photo of the gear that feeds the filament, opening the flap on the print module.

7

Hi @Hauke, okay I’ll do that on a next print tomorrow morning. I ran a quick 20mm ghosting test cube, and this is what I ended up with:

20mm Ghosting Cube
20mm Ghosting Cube1920×1192 265 KB

8

The print itself looks rather decent. The most likely reason for your problem IMHO is underextrusion. Did you calibrate your extruder? The stock calibration for the single extrusion toolhead is not good and causes underextrusion. Paired with the thin walls you chose, I can imagine bad stability.

9

From those pictures, it does look like your filament may be wet, try a brand new spool. It also looks like your over-adhesion is due to the z offset being too low, this is also what would cause the bed to get damaged, with a proper z offset, the bed should not get damaged at all. When you calibrate the bed, try setting the z offset slightly higher than you think it should be, if this causes under adhesion, increase your first layer nozzle temp.