hey guys. In regards to my last post I belive that we solved the problem. It seems to have been just a temp issue I was printing at 175C and the ideal tempIi found seems to be 185C. im mid print right now and all seems good. Thanks for the helpš
or not it happened again the motor kept stalling and I was trier to see it happen. upped the temp by 10C and Iām trying again, boy this is really a trial and error thing isnāt it?
Even 185 is kinda low for most PLAās. I canāt get mine to extrude under 200 and it prefers 210. Up your temp more and see if that helps
Even crazier: The company I work for has a PLA that likes 230C. Find out from the manufacturer what the ideal temp is.
@ThantiK ya it used to luv 210 but then i switched hotends and now 210 makes it stingy like mad
195C is the lower limit of normal for me.
If you are getting good flow but more strings at the higher temps Iād take a look at your retraction distance and speed settings next. Iād try to speed it up first by 5 - 10 mm/sec. Listen for the sound of clicking which can indicate the gear grinding or chipping the filament at high retraction speeds.
And yes, it takes some trial and error to get a system dialed in. Changing something like the hot end can cause a chain of re-calibration steps.
Here are my steps after a head rebuild:
Run a PID tune if you change any of the hot end hardware.
Check the steady state flow of the filament through the nozzle to find a good temperature range for it.
Level the bed with the nozzle hot (cold filament in the nozzle tip can mess it up and nozzles are not exactly the same size)
Calibrate the filament for dimensional and thermal properties
Adjust the retraction speed
Adjust the retraction distance
Adjust print speed (Slower typically results in better print quality)
The last three can have some interactive play between themā¦
@Jeff_Parish Thanks! when i get home from work i will take a look at the print i left going. hopefully the printer is in one peice and hasent torn itself apart (that has actually happened to me on s 14 hr overnight print). once i see what uts like i will see is i need to go though the steps u listed. btw how much increase in retraction speed and distance should i increase by each time
nooooo! I just got home to find yet another print messed up. the cause seems to be the same as the last causing poor layer adhesion and tearing print apart. well Iām going to up it to 210 just to see what happens. I thought that was to much but I guess I was wrong, see how it goes.
@Matthew_Del_Rosso you said you swapped hot ends? What hot end are you using now?
@ThantiK e3d v6 i was using the ubis ceramic hotend but i wanted more freedom with fillaments
@Matthew_Del_Rosso Is the location of the mess-up changing location? Run a PID tune on the new assembly if you have not already. How stable are your temperature settings?
Btw with the E3D v6, the fan is not optional. And you must follow the instructions about sealing it (heating it up to 300c, etc) ā Itāll jam if you donāt have that fan on it.
@Jeff_Parish i thought at first that it was after a certain hight tgat thus was happening but it seems to be random. the temp of the hotend buffers about 1 or 2 degrees but thats not much to make a problem. im not sure what a pid tune is though, could enlighten me?
@ThantiK oh ya its always on i spliced the wires to my 12v rail for the main power. ya thats not a problem but i might put another fan as a sorta cooling hotend plus fan shroud
@Matthew_Del_Rosso One or two degrees is not enough to cause a problem but there could be some wild swings before it settles down. With this latest information Iād swing the cross hairs back to hot end cooling and take another look at heat creep. Iāve heard about a lot of issues with the E3D V6 concerning this. This still strikes me as a time/heat thingā¦
Another thoughtā¦ Could be an inconsistent additive blend in the PLA? I have had some bad PLAās that would āLaceā on me and then correct and recover. Also, if your PLA has ever been exposed to direct sunlight for a long period you can cook part of it and every full rotation of the spool will feed through a rotation of ābadā filament.
PID tuning instructions are here:
http://rigidtalk.com/wiki/index.php?title=PID_tuning
This just gets you a starting point. I always have to manually zero it in. I can do it through the LCD interface on my printer. If you don;t have direct access at the printer a program like Pronterface also provides a method to do so.
@Jeff_Parish im using printrbot brand pla and never had an issue before. thanks for thd info about pod tuning also
@Jeff_Parish also i was noticing a lace and recover type thing in my prints like u stated. it will always break off were the print is weakest and deastroy itself when i get back from school i will aet another print at 210 and see what happens
@Matthew_Del_Rosso Another test to help determine what is going on is to print a tall shell test. It will print quickly and show any lacing quite nicely as it occurs. Shifts in Z will also show up. At the same time it gives you a chance to change the temperature on the fly to watch changes in the filament behavior.
@Jeff_Parish thatās just a tall tower like structure right?
Yep. Something like a 2" diameter tube with single shell.
In Cura itās under Black Magic on the expert settings window Check Spiralize.