First Layer Issues After Installing Original Hardened Steel Hotends
I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced the same issue.
After replacing all four original stainless steel hotends with original Snapmaker Hardened Steel hotends, my first-layer quality became noticeably worse.
Before the hotend replacement:
Firmware: 1.4.1
Original stainless steel hotends
Perfect first layer
Same printer
Same BIQU CryoGrip Frostbite build plate
Same Bavafil PLA
Same slicer profile
After installing the Hardened Steel hotends, I have tried the following:
Heated Bed Leveling
Multi-toolhead Offset Calibration
Extrusion Flow Calibration before every print
Tested several Z-offset values:
-0.02
-0.03
-0.04
-0.05
-0.07
Increased Flow Ratio from 0.98 to 1.00
Increased nozzle temperature to 225°C
Updated firmware from 1.4.1 to 1.5.2
Performed the complete calibration process after the firmware update (except Manual Bed Leveling, because my bed flatness is already 0.252 mm)
Results:
Firmware 1.5.2 did not improve the first layer.
Changing the Z-offset improved the first layer up to -0.05, but going to -0.07 made virtually no difference.
The printer produced significantly better first layers before installing the Hardened Steel hotends.
I have already used almost 600 g of filament just for calibration and troubleshooting.
At this point I’m running out of ideas.
Has anyone experienced similar first-layer problems after upgrading to the original Snapmaker Hardened Steel hotends?
Did you have to recalibrate all filament profiles manually, or did you find another solution?
If you are new to profiles, this is a highly useful guide you can follow along with:
Here’s my settings which /may/ get you within the ballpark - I still get a small 1cm square bald spot front left corner, but I rarely need to print full bed so don’t worry about it - If you tinker with these settings alter ONLY ONE at a time so you can see the effect and not confuse yourself
My Z offset is -0.04 so you finding the standard -0.05 is just fine, can always play with it again if my settings below get you better results (hopefully)
Thank you very much for the tips. I have now applied your settings and am running the flow calibration. After that, I will print the first layer test again.
However, I suspect that the problem is related to the hardened steel (HS) hotend. With the standard hotend, I adjusted the Z-offset on the BIQU build plate to -0.02 and achieved an excellent first layer.
For my last test, I switched back to the original Snapmaker PEI plate. The result was slightly better, but still not good. We’ll see.
That is also why I asked whether anyone with an HS hotend has performed the same test. I suspect that Snapmaker tests with the standard hotend rather than the hardened steel hotend.
If you’d changed nozzle sizes I could maybe think it was to do with them but .4 SS vs HS /shouldn’t/ be an issue, have you tried more than one of the new nozzles to see if its the same across heads?
I would also manually re-calibrate the bed regardless - I do believe its something SM recommends on nozzle change(s)
Just thinking out loud, but if you’ve only tried one toolhead then perhaps the nozzle isn’t seated correctly when installed? but could be tosh if you’ve got the same issue across the board
Yes, I have tried two brand-new hotends, and the results are exactly the same.
That’s why I would like to avoid manually re-leveling the bed again. I spent days getting the bed calibration down to a value of 0.240, and I really don’t want to lose that.
Unfortunately, it didn’t help. In fact, the results are even worse now.
I changed the flow to 0.95 and applied all of your suggested settings, but the first layer quality has not improved.
At this point, I’m out of ideas. I’ve already opened a support ticket, so now I’ll wait and see what they suggest. So far, they’ve only told me to update the firmware to version 1.5.2, but that didn’t solve the problem either.
It would not surprise me if everything needs recalibrating when changing nozzle material. A different specific heat capacity and thermal resistance must affect the trimming for how any specific filament performs.
As is my mantra, FDM printing relies on balancing so many competing factors that it is a near miracle it works at all. I can’t think of any other field so complex.
That’s a shame, was hoping it would get you started in the right direction - I think you’ll most guaranteed that SM will want you to manually run the bed levelling
Lowering the flow seems to be going in the wrong direction to me? If you had too much (ripples) then yes, but you don’t have enough - I’d be tempted to try 1.02?
Keep the updates coming as this might help someone else in the future
@Artur777 Looking at that first layer, the most striking thing is that the under-extrusion is not random. The missing lines form large patches and streaks while other areas look nearly perfect.
When you printed it the second (or even third time) were the under extruded lines, on the exact same place? Or random elsewhere? - I think that information would help finding out, if it is a physical something with the heatbed/z-offeset. Or that it is something completely different, perhaps flow/nozzle setup related etc. Just my 2cents. (and was this second or third try, with the same bedsheet. or on the backside ot the same sheet or a total different sheet, etc - because it would help diagnose if it was 2 times with the same bedsheet, same side/orientation etc).
The settings you have are pretty standard. Have you tried adjusting the first layer height to 0.3mm? I have mine at the standard 0.25mm and it has been ok. It looked like your setting was 0.24mm. I realize this gets frustrating and probably feeling a bit pointless of tweaking tons of different parameters. If you are at that point I would start over at defaults and do a full filament profile calibration. I would also try a direct feed from a filament box and bypass the auto-feeders. They seem to giving inconsistent feeding to a lot of people, myself included for PETG.
When I replaced my SS nozzles with hardened steel ones all I did was run the nozzle offset calibration & bed leveling. Firmware Pax12-20 v1.4.1 My U1 has been printing fine.
I moved the original discussion to a new topic so it’s easier to find. I’ll also summarize the key points here and add them to the ticket notes, so our engineer can see the steps you’ve already tried.
i would like to summarize my situation before I installed the Hardened Steel hotends.
Before the hotend replacement, my printer configuration was as follows:
Original stainless steel hotends
Standard Snapmaker slicer settings
BIQU Glacier build plate
After installing the BIQU build plate, I only adjusted the Z-offset to -0.02 mm
No other changes or special calibrations were required
With this configuration, the printer worked perfectly. I had excellent first-layer quality and successfully printed both PLA and PETG without any issues. The first-layer test was also perfect.
The problems only started after replacing the original stainless steel hotends with the original Snapmaker Hardened Steel hotends
Here’s a quick update on what I have tried so far:
Updated the printer from firmware 1.4.1 to 1.5.2.
Performed all recommended calibrations (except Manual Bed Leveling, because my bed flatness is already 0.252 mm).
Tested multiple Z-offset values.
Increased the nozzle temperature to 225°C.
Increased the Flow Ratio from 1.00 to 1.02.
The biggest improvement came from increasing the Flow Ratio to 1.02. The gaps between the extrusion lines are now almost completely gone.
The attached photos show my best results so far:
Photo 1: Flow Ratio 1.02, Z-offset -0.05
Photo 2: Flow Ratio 1.02, Z-offset -0.02
Both results are much better than all my previous tests.
However, I still find it strange that I had to increase the flow at all. Before installing the original Snapmaker Hardened Steel hotends, I was using the original stainless steel hotends with the same BIQU Glacier build plate, the same filament, and the same slicer settings. Both PLA and PETG produced perfect first layers without any adjustments.
I’m now wondering whether the original Hardened Steel hotends require a different flow calibration, or if all filament profiles should be recalibrated after switching from the stainless steel hotends.
In my case, the only change was replacing the original stainless steel hotends with the original Snapmaker Hardened Steel hotends. Everything else remained exactly the same:
Same printer
Same BIQU Glacier build plate
Same filament
Same slicer settings
Same Z-offset
Before the upgrade, I had perfect first layers with both PLA and PETG. Immediately after installing the HS hotends, I started getting visible gaps between the extrusion lines.
After many hours of testing, the biggest improvement came from increasing the Flow Ratio from 1.00 to 1.02.
I’m not saying the hotend material itself is necessarily the cause, but something clearly changed after the upgrade. At the moment, I am trying to understand what changed and why the printer now requires different settings.
I’m also looking forward to Snapmaker’s official response. As far as I know, neither the documentation nor the hotend replacement guide mentions that any slicer settings or filament profiles need to be adjusted after upgrading to the original Hardened Steel hotends. If such adjustments are required, it would be helpful if Snapmaker documented this for users.
Heated Bed Leveling
