Trying again to get past Benchy

I have a Snapmaker A350, which has given me nothing but trouble. Namely strings all over my Benchy, as if a horde of spiders attacked it. I am using Snapmaker PLA. I live in a rainforest, so I am assuming myfilament is simply too wet. So it has been sitting in a vacuum bag for a week with 8 pounds of resuable dessicant beads. I hope to try again this week or next.

What settings do y’all recommend for my next Benchy test? I am using Snapmaker’s Luban, so I figure with the collective wisdom here I can at least find a decent place to start.

Here are some recommended standard settings that you can compare with your values:

  1. Temperature:

    • Nozzle Temperature: Try starting with a slightly lower nozzle temperature. For PLA, you might want to start around 190-200°C. Higher temperatures can increase stringing.
  2. Retraction:

    • Retraction Distance: Increase the retraction distance. Start with a value around 5-7 mm.
    • Retraction Speed: Increase the retraction speed to about 40-60 mm/s.
  3. Print Speed:

    • Reduce the print speed slightly. A slower speed can help with better retraction and reduce stringing. Try around 40-50 mm/s.
  4. Cooling:

    • Ensure that the cooling fan is on and set to 100% for PLA. Proper cooling helps solidify the filament quickly, reducing stringing.
  5. Travel Speed:

    • Increase the travel speed to minimize the time the nozzle spends moving between print areas. A travel speed of around 120-150 mm/s is a good starting point.
  6. Layer Height:

    • Use a layer height that is appropriate for your nozzle size. For a 0.4 mm nozzle, a layer height of 0.2 mm is a good starting point.

If stringing persists, you can try further increasing the retraction distance or speed, or slightly lowering the temperature.

In my understanding, others out there feel to correct me, desiccant alone will not dry the filament. You need to warm the filament to drive out the absorbed moisture. Desiccant will help with moisture reabsorption once “dry”.

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This high retraction would clog the nozzle.
1mm is enough for normal retraction settings.

Post Ai generated?

Whenever I get a lot of stringing, it’s usually due to printing temps.
I live in a high humidity area too, but I have dryers to keep the stock dry…

Sadly I don’t have an enclosure. I bought one, it was delivered, but I never got it. I suspect porch pirates.

It’s not the ambient air temp that needs adjusting. Try bumping your print temps by 10 Degrees or so. See how that goes.

Thank you all. Next attempt is tonight!

Not much luck, sadly. It looks pretty awful. Ideas anyone?

Print a temp tower and dry your filament.

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Actually, aside from the blobs and strings, your benchy looks decently good! Did you check the retraction settings? To me it looks a bit like the printer does not retract filament, but spits out extra filament… Which would be weird…
Perhaps start trying one of the Luban default profiles for PLA? That should give resonable values to tweak then.

And yes, what the others say: Dry the filament, and a temp tower might help.

Drying filament - what MarkJ says: Just putting it into desiccant beads will be a painfully slow process - at least I assume so. If you do not have a filament dryer, then a simple oven will do the trick:

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I tried a retraction distance of 1mm, but even at 190C the nozzle is drippy. I will build a drying tower and oven bake my filament today.

I agree the layers look tight and straight. It’s just this one issue I feel is holding me back.

Do you use single Extruder? Then you should follow this: