Help this is my first build,

3D Printing
, , ,
1

Help this is my first build, a prusa i3 and the first few layers it puts down when trying to print look ok, but after that they get worse and worse…

Attached some pics… any ideas what would “normally” cause this? plastic is ABS, bed temp tried a few changes bed from 100-110… extruder temp 220-240… It looks like the head of the printer starts to hit the top of the print and make it “ugly” and that makes it more uneven and hit more and get worse and worse.

Thanks for your idea’s!

6823c5d45609437221192ddddb2a4ee6.jpeg
6823c5d45609437221192ddddb2a4ee6.jpeg2448×3264 1.32 MB

d3e933b349bb3735b130bfa6597b3a86.jpeg
d3e933b349bb3735b130bfa6597b3a86.jpeg3264×2448 1.68 MB

ee4fae2bb738b51a0520380e07e8208a.jpeg
ee4fae2bb738b51a0520380e07e8208a.jpeg890×1581 177 KB

2

Have you calibrated your z and e properly?

3

A couple things.

  1. check your z steps per mm.
  2. the first layer isn’t good. You need to make the hotel closer to the bed. You should have a pretty much glassy smooth bottom layer on your prints. Calibrate it with a piece of paper to where the hotel just barely grips the paper. @Thomas_Sanladerer ​ has a great video on calibrating that.
4

@Aaron_Kable Z and E as per what the suppliers firmware was set too… its one of these http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6391928953.html?orderId=64966624908299, The Z and Y are set by me as they didn’t supply enough belt to use there pulleys so i used some GT2 and pulleys i had. 20 tooth

5

@Griffin_Paquette Ok, the gap i have at the moment is more like the thickness of a biz card, i’ll try and make it closer. I have a inductive probe/switch to mount to do “auto bed leavening” … but need to print a bracket first… and prints don’t work well enough for that yet… :-/

6

@Daniel_Farley ​ I use an inductive on my printer. It works exceptionally well 90% of the time. and yeah a business card is a little too high.

7

@Griffin_Paquette What is the 10% of the time?

8

@Ross_Bagley Not had a chanse to try with the bed closer, but the gap between head and bed is ~0.24mm first layer is 0.3

9

As long as your first layer is sticking, you should effectively ignore it in all other regards until you get your extrusion rate (e-steps/fil-dia/flow combined) dialed in at least five or six layers up from the bed. It’s very common to want to make adjustments to get a nice looking first layer (in part because it’s the only layer you see on every print when starting out), but the complicating factor of initial nozzle to bed height (as mentioned) makes it misleading to do so too early. I like Triffid Hunter’s calibration guide and in particular his 95% infill exercise for fine tuning extrusion. Get that (and temperature, etc.) dialed in for layers >5 or so first.

10

First steps on any printer. Print a 30x30x30 cube( before you take it off write on it for xyz sides).If it comes out smaller you need to adjust your steps per mm in firmware.

11

Just curious, but how many perimeters are you doing?

12

Ok, guys, thanks for the help. i had the wrong size filament set, with that changed it seems to work much better… Still have some fine tuning to do but should be able to print the parts to fix the things i need now. Like some belt tensioners.

13

@Daniel_Farley ​ glad to hear it was an easy fix. Always check that in your slicer because some like cura are set to 2.85 or vise versa