Tall long term 3D print failure after several hours

Snapmaker Original
1

Good afternoon,

I am fairly new to 3D printing, just got my Snapmaker last february and have been learning about design softwares and printing since then, which I find very interesting.

However I am facing a frustrating situation which hope any of you can help me to sort out.

A few days ago I decided to go for my largest project so far and I think it did work well. The projects lasted a bit more than 14 hours and there were no issues with the process at all.

IMG_4011
IMG_40113024Ɨ4032 1.44 MB

However as you will see from my next picture

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IMG_40122080Ɨ3464 890 KB

The surface of the printing got some holes so I decided to try Simplify3D, which provided very good results in terms of quality of the walls, I believe it is due to its different way of structuring the printing but unfortunately I have not been to finish the project again.

Its starts very well, the walls look very nice but around 70% of the project the Snapmaker stops extruding printing material.

When it first happened I read some articules and figured it was a clogged nozzle, replace it with the replacement I received and felt relieved that the Snapmaker worked again.

I thought it was maybe because the head was the one I was using since the printer arrived so I decided to start to print the project again with the new head.
Again it started beautifully and after several hours of nice printing the same problem occurred. Suddenly there was no more material coming out of the nozzle. Which is very frustrating after having spend all that time.

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IMG_40092168Ɨ3187 1.14 MB

I know now that the nozzle clogged because I was able to clean it with a thin wire using the procedures described in this forum and others and the printer is working again.

I have also been reading about this kind of problem in various places and they talk about the temperature, the quality of the filament, the dirt on the filament, but do not really think I have seen the solution or what to try in order to commence the project once more.

I do not know if the issue if the height of the project?
Why with the yellow PLA it worked and now with the white it does not? Both are from Snapmaker, i.e. the same manufacturer
I do not know if this is because I am using now Simplify3D to generate the G Code?

Any information you can give me on the subject would be very much appreciated!

Thank you

2

Hey @jesuza, welcome :slight_smile:

The issues on the second picture of the yellow print are maybe coming from following parameters:

  • printing too hot or too low cooling
  • printing too fast
  • walls are too thin

The gaps are from the beginning, not that much but from the beginning of the print.

The pla you have used is not bad i guess but from colour to colour there could be differences, even from roll to roll are differences in print settings possible.
Printing a temp. tower may help to evaluate the right printing temperature.

Stopping issue:

Over which device did you print the white one?- PC, thumbdrive, print server? (Just to make sure your pc didnĀ“t got to sleep mode for example)
Is your spool winded correctly,- no overlaps of the outline?
Is your spool easily rolling?
What retract speed did you run?
Is the filament grinded down if you pull it out after failed print?

The easiest way to figure out what happens is to look at the printer when the issue happens.
Hint: disable retract between each layer in s3d

Hope this helps!

3

You could also have a feed issue. The white part looks like some of the infill is missing before it stops completely.

The original snapmakerā€™s filament holder location can cause the filament to bind up when the print head moves in certain directions, and (for me) it got worse as the print head gets higher. With enough binding, the filament feed gear wonā€™t be able to pull filament at all. This sometimes clogs the nozzle as filement sits in hot end for a long period of time without moving.

Next time you print, check in occasionally. If you notice the surface issues, watch a few layers print. If you notice the filament getting some tension, then relaxing, you likely have a feed issue. Iā€™ve even heard mine ā€œclickingā€ as it binds up, then releases quickly.

I solved my binding issue by printing the YASTH and moving my filament holder, but there are plenty of other filament routing prints on thingiverse.

4

xchrisd

That you for your comments, I really appreciate them

On the first subject and your views, which I have noted, what think that happened is that SnapmakerJSā€™ way of generating the GCode makes that all the surrounding layers of the walls start at the same point and if at that point there is no support from the infill or the wall, because it does not make any overlapping then you will end up with that kind of failure in your printing. It is something that S3D does better. The surrounding layer starts always at a different position with some overlap over the previous layer therefore it does not create that kind of problem in the printing.

Following your advice I am printing now a temp. tower in order to learn about that calibration for each filament.

Regarding the stopping I was printing from the memory stick in order to avoid what you said.

I am going to revise the spool as you suggest and also bearing in mind clewis comments, that makes sense to me and although I unfortunately did not check th filament after taking it out I believe it was grinded down.

Will check retract speed later, I read somewhere that I should also eliminate any retraction distance.

What is the reason for that?

Thank you for your help.

5

Clewis thank you for your comments. I will use them as well.

6

The thing with retraction is, use it as less as you can and so many as you need.
If you Retract too fast it also could grind your filament (described clicking of the extruder) , especially at soft filaments like semiflex or flex pla. BTW with semiflex or TPU, turn retraction off.

Normally in s3d it starts on the same points at layer change but there is the option to take various points at layer change.

What speeds do you print the outline, infill, etc with js? (luban is also compatible, try it out :wink:)

Feel free to ask again!

7

xchris

On the JS I was using
Outer wall speed 20mm/s
Inner wall speed 25 mm/s
Travel speed 35mm/s

Retract speed 20mm/s
Retract distance 6.5mm

I noticed that retract speed in S3D was set at 30 mm/s and retract distance only to 1mm

8

xchris and clewis,

Wanted to thank both of you for your advices.

I just finished a successful print of my project.

I printed the spool holder for better feed of the filament, increased the temperature following what I saw of my temp tower, reduced the retraction speed to 20 mm/s and used a little piece of foam on the filament entrance to avoid dust in the extruded.

It all worked great and with a layer of 0.25mm the quality was very nice.

Here are some pictures

image

image

Thanks

2 Likes
9

I see you have your snapmaker on your workbench. Be careful to keep the print bed clean. Even a little bit of dust on it will cause adhesion problems.

The enclosure would be your best bet, but I didnā€™t buy one. So I designed and printed a v1 build plate cover.

10

Clewis thank you. Before every print I clean the print bed with isopropyl alcohol and since I do it I have not had any adhesion issues.

Regards.