Hi everybody, I'm completely new to 3D printing. Bought my printer about 2 months ago, and able to print a couple of small pieces by downloading model. However been having problem lately. 1. 1st layer didn't stick, tried different tricks and kinda working but not quite as good .now the biggest problem is filament between layers look terrible. Can anybody tell me what could have cause this.
What material are you printing and what is your bed made from?
What software are you using as the slicer?
Printing with PLA, its glass bed for my ender 3 pro. Software ,I'm using ideamaker. I tried to install Cura, but don't know why it would not install.
Would you be able to share slicing settings?
i have ender 3 pro as well but never had the problem like this
About bad printing: Looks like you have an unscrew pully (axe X or Y, depending of bad printing direction).
To stick on bed, you can try several procedures:
Hope it helps.
I would agree with Alvero, looks like you have a loose belt on one of your axis, only other thing I could think of quickly is that you may have a partial blockage in your hot end.
Is this kind of consistancy in the print all the way through or only on shell layers? Could be a slicing issue, you can eliminate that by going back to your origional sd card and try to print the dog. It's a longer print but will tell you pretty quickly if you have a mechanical defect or a slicing issue
Yes, I'd love to. But do I take screen shot on all the settings. Its gonna be like what? Up to 10 pages. Would that be ok?
Over three years of 3d printing, the material which took away virtually all bed issues was a PEI sheet stuck on. Works well with materials that need heated bed as well like PETG.
Agree with Jason and Alvero, something loose in one of the axis.
Infill setting
temperature settings
speed also did you enabled ironing option ?
No, I did not enable ironing option. If I do, what rate should I put it on
try speed 80
enable ironing
temperature 205
bed temperature 60
Also make sure your line width matches with nozzle size I personally prefer 0.16mm
also I don’t think you have to put rate for ironing you have to just enable i an using cura as slicer
Just tried to print the dog from the file came with the printer. It was a disaster. Didn't even finish it
Is it possible the nozzle is damaged?
Change nozzle, or take it out when hot, burn it on the stove at above 600 Celsius to evaporate content than clean it inside with a nozzle calibrated needle. Buy spare needles and spare nozzles. Always have spares.
Check all your belt tensions and do the corrections.
calibrate the bed leveling manually screw by screw
make sure the first layer is squeezed to the bed, not just a round line of thin filament deposited.
work at the high temperature range for the product, for sturdiness,
stop fan cooling to enhance sticking of the layers, especially the first 10 layers
over extrude a bit like 120% to force extrusion onto each-other.
calibrate again
run some 10 tests of printing (many of them you need to stop after the first layer or two) until all calibrations done manually result in a good print.
Do that every some 10 to 20 printings regularly.
Yes is a full time hobby, like a sports car or motorbike, this is not your laundry machine.
The dog is a good slice. You have mechanical issues with your printer,
Looks like it was sticking to the bed ok, at least for now you can rule it out.
Have a quick look over the belts, they need to be tight enough so that there is no chance of slipping. However not to tight to cause binding on the idlers. If you move the x axis all the way to the left, if you pickup the x belt gently it should deflect no more than 5 to 10 mm. Any more than that and it's too loose.
Going on the assumption here that your print right before the blue one was ok?
I'm still leaning toward a clogged nozzel though or your ptfe tubing has slipped in the fitting. If you heat up the nozzel maybe 230, let it stay warm for about a min, attempt to extrude 50mm of material through the nozzel, if your extruder motor starts clicking you for sure have a clogged nozzel.
There are alot of videos on youtube about unclogging nozzles, trust me you will become a master in no time,
Let us know how it goes.
I guess so
you have 1or 2 extra nozzle that came with the ender pro when you bought try using one of them
Thank you all so much for the help. I've been trying to get opinions or help for long and never able to. Thanks again everybody.
So I guess it is the nozzle. One replacement nozzle came with it. But I did try take off the nozzle after watching some videos on youtube. I did heat up the nozzle and took off filament and try to unscrew it but it didn't move at all. And even strip it a little. Is it supposed to go counter clockwise like regular bolt.
On the pulleys, I did check and make sure it was decent tension on both X and Y way back before this happened.
I got the stock glass bed for reality, and when I level the bed from 4 corners, I realize the nozzle has bigger gap to the middle of the bed. To me it looks like the middle of the bed is lower. That why it is not squeezing the 1st layer on it. Do I sound crazy?
Again, thank you very much for all this.
normal administration, before any printing run a mesh leveling to compensate for bed deformations.
Buy nozzles, they are cheap, buy tools, real tools, not that cheap, but trust me, it will save you time, headache and...money.
hi chris
Yes the nozzle does screw in like a normal bolt, You will have to hold the heater block with another tool to prevent it from moving when you try to unscrew it. you could try to heat the nozzle and pull the filament from the back of the machine. Again you may want to double check that the PTFE tubing is not moving in the pneumatic fitting. If you have any amount of movement here is will cause the problem again, this PTFE must be seated as far as it will go, any space between the bottom of the PTFE and the Heat break will cause it to happen again. I usually do mine by unscrewing the fitting maybe 3 turns (1-2mm) then push the PTFE in, now tighten the fitting, after its in make sure you insert the blue clip on the fitting to prevent it from moving again. the whole time you are doing this have the hot end at about 200 deg.
Was able to change the nozzle, and also raise the bed to be closer to nozzle. It looked like the 1st layer went on better. However when try to print the dog, still didn't turn out good. I guess one problem at a time
Ok, this really looks like z axis stepping issue to me. I'm not sure about your Ender 3 pro, but the z axis on most printers can have different values of twist. this looks like you are getting too much space between layers. either your software is set to too large a layer height for the nozzle diameter or the software is set up for z axis rod that has less height per rotation. the only other thing is the stringing and crooked layers could be due to to high temp on your hot end. what nozzle and layer height are you using?
Please also try and print a known model like a benchy to see if it comes out different.
Thx Mark. I believe my nozzle is 0.4mm and layer was set at 0.12 with all other models that i sliced. but this dog was printed from the file that came with the printer on the memory card. does it mean it could be the settings of the printer itself on top of slicer setting?
benchy? will I find it here or other sites?
Found it, gonna try it now
Failed. Looked like the raft went on very nice, but 1st layer on top of it didn't stick. My slicer gave it supports, none of the support sticks and also 1st layer of the boat looked like this after raft taken off
What seems like the problem?
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