Hi guys!
Since several months I can’t push any straight layer line out of my printer. I know that grey is always unforgiving but Its just really daunting not being able to hold up with a good quality.
I tuned the K Factor, E Steps, used different firmwares. I can’t wrap my head around that there isn’t something mechanically wrong. I did reassemble my machine and at least were able to get away this annoying scratching noise the linear rails did when running a print.
I upgraded my fan to a little stronger one that is 1:1 compatible with the single extruder one but that’s it.
If I understand you correctly, your layer lines are not of the same thickness? Did you check if the feeder wheel is undamaged and clean? Also, are you perhaps printing too cold and have inconsistent material flow from that? Is the filament path unobstructed and filament runs smoothly?
Perhaps if you describe the problem a bit clearer or send a photo the community may be able to assist better.
Hi all!
So yes the feeder is clean so far. I also suspected the Wear of the feeder wheel but for me it seems to grip enough.
What I suspect is the temperature swinging around the set point for ±2deg. Support tells me that it is totally normal.
I put some thermal paste into the heat blocks hole for the heating cartridge, Sensor is properly attached, nozzle is a Phaetus Tungsten 0.4mm nozzle but the problem occurs also with other hotends.
Sadly I can’t modify the PID values or run an autotune.
I was testing out the different speed settings after upgrading to the Speed firmware. It did made obviously a difference (probably because the flow wasn’t fast enough to feed).
Then I tried rolling back to stable version- no difference.
Then green one and the marble vase is also run with 60mm/s. There I recognized some wavy pattern. I think it’s the same issue with the benchys or any other print. Looking at it under the light you see these small layer inconsistencies.
From the photos I’d say you’re printing too hot and/or print cooling is insufficient, but you say 195-205°C, which is OK for PLA… Strange. Is the print cooling fan working actually?
Absolutely!
I even upgraded my cooling fan to one that runs a little higher than the stock one. Air is little more
Maybe that’s a reason. On some old printer I upgraded the fan duct and realized that it brought the PID to swing around the setting point.
Adding my hat to the “too hot” ring. Can you show your cooling set-up? My printheads improved a lot when I removed the side panel grates. They get completely clogged very easily. On the bed sensor side, particularly, which then led to heat creep.
So yes I’ve been using pretty simple matte PLA from Polymaker (Polyterra). It doesn’t really come down to which Filament. Sure does matte grey PLA is pretty unforgiving in terms of showing inconsistencies if there are any.
I used “normal” PLA at 197 deg and full Fan speed to check and the walls show exactly the same like before (also you can see small gaps in between the lines- maybe some nozzle pressure or so?!). Also removed both sideplates as @cgrantmccool suggested.
Now I use standard heatbreak, my heater is glued in with Grizzly thermal paste (350deg) and my fan is an upgraded one from (Slice Engineering Mosquito) that puts out maybe 10% more flow (2.95 CFM, 13k RPM). Nothing else is modded.
I realized how long the controller takes to swing into the set temperature when you change the nozzle setting. It was swinging around ±2deg and this would significantly change the material flow. My guess is maybe some loose contact on the adapter cable from the side board towards the hotend. I will ask to change this and also order a complete new raw Hotend to check.
Is your filament completely dry? I’ve learned after a few months, certain filaments can absorb moisture from the air and mess up the print quality. Some people even have a designated filament dryer to ensure it is completely desiccated. If not, you could try swapping out the nozzle for a new one. I’ve done that a few times already. Good luck.
+/- 2° swing sounds absolutely reasonable to me - that should not have such a pronounced effect! But in your benchy photo I guess there are indeed signs of underextrusion and overextrusion, so you have a filament flow problem… Still opaque to me what the reason might be. I’ve read reports that the pull from the spool can be an issue - did you check that you have a consistent, smooth filament path and no strong pull, e.g. the the spool moves in jerky steps?
I admit that I’m at a loss… Do other PLA filaments print fine?
Yes this was something I was thinking about as well but I see no issue on the external place. I use some curtain rod that hangs above the printer and pulls from the Spool. The blue filament from yesterday was even loose one without a spool.
My next try today may be to play around with the retraction. I’ve read some posts about the Retraction setting dragging the slightly soft filament back into the Heatbreak.
Otherwise I will play around with upgrading fans, ducts and hotends. Maybe a raw standard one does a different job
Just something came to my mind - when I saw your first photos my impulse was to say: “This guy is just printing too hot” - but you claim printing in a reasonable regime. But what if your thermistor is not OK? Perhaps you after all print too hot but temperature readings are off? Do you perchance have a second hotend lying around? Try that then! If not: Check if the thermistor is sitting well in the hole, and perhaps apply thermal grease.
That said, and totally unrelated, I’d also recommend two things: Adjust E-Steps or material profile - your benchies show clear underextrusion, and what I assumed is overextrusion might also be overheating. And: The chimney on the blue benchy suggests that your linear modules are due for a bit of maintenance - I see backlash effects, which may be due to a loosened slider.
I‘m going to buy a complete new hotend just to cancel out that both of my used hotends have a loose contact somewhere (cable break from often changing them).
Putting thermal grease to the thermistor doesn’t do favor I think but I may try it for fun
The thing is that my E Steps can’t be more perfectly right. Telling G1 F100 E180 puts out perfectly the amount of 18cm filament. I‘m sitting on a value of E260.1
I removed the linear rails last week because they were really noisy. I wasn’t sure on how to tighten them more to the rail. For me they looked fine, didn’t rattle around just sit snuck.
Is there any Instructions on how to do that?
That sounds reasonable btw. - it is even on the high side compared to what others have. Only comment: Some firmware updates resetted this value - I’d recommend to double check your’s is still in effect. If so, the main reason for underextrusion then might be that your filament is thinner than 1.75 mm. In this case, you’d need to crank up flow rate in the slicer.
