My regular print head module died about 6months ago and haven’t printed since. But I recently got the dual extruder module and tried to set it up, ran through the usual calibrations, steps, linear acceleration, ect. But I can’t even get a benchy to print no matter what I do or tweak or calibrate.
On the old single extruder module, I could easily print at 0.08mm with no difficulty, but as my attached photos show this isn’t happening for my dual extruder.
The first two photos I’ve posted show how the features of the windows just… extended out? The circle window is a square on one side, and the front window extends to the edge.
The third photo seems to be some weird bulging?
If anyone has any suggestions of what to try I’m all ears.
As far as settings go, I’m printing at 30mm/s, with 205c(temp tower showed this was best) as my temp for my pla+ .
Are these bumps/extensions visible in the slicer preview? Honestly, I can only think of a slicer failure here - if it was a mechanical problem, it would show up in more places. Perhaps try a different slicer just for comparison?
I tried a different slicer. Originally I used Cura, now I sliced a DIFFERENT Benchy stl in Luban. I also brought the acceleration down from 1000 to 400, so it printed extremely slowly.
Unfortunately, even using a different model and a different slicer, these strange issues and failings are still present. Bringing the acceleration down to 400 helps reduce the ghosting, and issues but it’s still an issue.
At this stage I just don’t know what to do… I can’t even print a Benchy…
Looking at your latest pictures, my guess would be that we look at a nasty case of stringing here. If I’m right, behind the defect in the highlighted area below there should be a gap, the material not being connected to the hull except for the start and end of the move:
Already in your first pictures I thought I see effects of too high temperatures, and only kept quiet since 205°C do not really sound very high. But too hot may cause stringing, so what about trying with 195°C?
Also, do you happen to have another filament brand at hand? I have one roll of PLA that behaves totally nasty, while every other PLA prints are just fine.
So I had big issues with stringing and blobs and all sorts of defects, altho nothing like the bumps you have. I ran teaching tech’s calibration and found that normal retraction of .2mm was much better. Since I’ve changed that (down from 1.5mm in the standard profile) my prints have been clean and no issues. I was ready to trash it before I discovered this. I’m using Inland PLA. I’m using Cura. Good luck!
I followed everyone’s advice so far, still no good. I had a mate bring over his perfectly printing single extruder module to try to print with it, using his settings that he prints perfectly with, and it printed some pieces smoother but overall it still had the identical flaws, even had the extra rectangles at the windows and bulges, so I guess that rules out the module being faulty.
I am currently using 3DFillies PLA+, dried it as per usual, I have used this many times in the past and it’s been amazing to work with. Considering the failure with the normally perfectly fine single extruder, I am going to get some fresh eSun PLA to try that to see if it’s just messy bad batch filament causing these weird issues.
While I wait for the brand new filament to try, is it possibly anything wrong with the rails? The fact I keep getting extra rectangles on the benchys and even on the calibration prints is still so weird.
I think your friend bringing his module was really a good idea - it indeed suggests that something is wrong with your linear modules. Perhaps print (or laser?) a simple circle and look if it is really round. If something is loose, your steppers miss steps or the controller is faulty, it should cause the circle not being round, or the start/end of the printing moves not to connect.
Another question: You said your previous printing module died. Can it be that it somehow damaged your controller while doing so? How did it die?
I just received brand new filament, and tested the same few calibration prints both with the confirmed to be fine single extruder, and the dual extruder. Both of them across the calibrations prints exhibited the exact same flaws as the previous tests. So on a good note that rules out the filament being the suspect.
However on a recommendation of @Hauke, I tried to print some circlular calibrations. And these showed a very suspicious issue.
But instead, it had multiple locations there were not only straight up not round, but often had jaggered curves and nearly straight edges where they should be clearly CIRCULAR:
I tried this across a variety of speeds, layer heights, and temperatures, event tried using Cura vs Luban. They all came out the exact same.
What does this suggest to people? Rails being faulty? Controller?
To answer other questions that others asked while I was waiting for the filament:
Hauke, it died of heat issues from a failed print that I wasn’t watching properly.
Boxite: The calibrations tests showed what needed changing were K from 0.04 to 0.07, Extrusion from 212 to 226.
Rwide: Checked the cooling was working on both single and dual extruder yeah. Event tried manually setting the gcode to just blast 100% the whole time.
Baldchap: Got a new filament yeah, and the replacement door is coming, but the issues still showed with the single extruder that my mate showed working in his snapmaker.
XChrisd: I’ll try one with 0.2mm in a bit, it’s just I use to successfully print benchy’s without a single issue event going down to as small as 0.04mm layer height, as I use to print figures and minis.
Share your gcode to replicate, please?
I guess it’s oozing material dragging with the nozzle around because of
-printing too hot causing model expansion
-too near to the last layer, maybe because of wobble by x and or Y axis.
