Hi, I’m fairly new to 3d printing and could really use the help of some people who have experience. I built a Hesine Prusa i3 (I know, a cheap printer) and I got the thing working. However my 3d prints seem flimsy since the layers of PLA don’t stick to each other even though I tried printing at 220 degrees and the belts are fairly tight. The edges of all my prints are sloppy and the infill is very weak.
I expected to do some tweaking and trouble shooting to this printer but I don’t know where to go next.
Thanks, Adam
It’s possible you’re printing pla too hot. Have you tried lowering the head temperature?
I tried at 190 also, and the temperature change didn’t seem to change the outcome. Could it be the extruder motor or a cheap or flawed hotend?
It looks like the layers aren’t stuck together. You’re either under extruding, or your calibration is off, or since it’s self built your Z calibration might be off. Measure the box and see if it fits the dimensions intended. Keep us updated please. Thanks.
Or maybe u need to do the whole 3d print at once and not try to stick thing’s together?
@Jeff_Motter He’s saying the layers aren’t sticking together when printing, not that he’s printing multiple pieces and sticking them together.
Thanks, I appreciate your help. I hope the z-axis is calibrated correctly since the first layer is sticking to the blue tape and it wasn’t a home build, but a kit from a small company named Hesine. I suspected the extruder was under extruding but wasn’t sure how to fix it?
The Z axis could still be calibrated wrong but the bed calibration is right. For example your origin might me right but the steps of the motor for the Z axis is off. But like you said its probably under extruding. You change the extrusion multiplier in your slicer to fix this but its better to calibrate your extruder. Watch this video for a how to https://youtu.be/YUPfBJz3I6Y
Take it back and get a new one
I’ll try recalibrating it
That’s a very poor result. It looks like mechanical wobble. The X-Y positioning is all over the place.
My first reaction was that the belts needed tightening, but you have already tightened them, so some other mechanical part seems loose.
What steppers are you using? I have seen images showing poor positioning when someone used super-cheap steppers with an internal gearbox like these:
I’m sure you don’t have anything that small in your printer, but maybe there is a sloppy gearbox in the ones you actually have?
I got a similar result the first time I used my printer.I used slicer the first time.
When I changed to cura the cube came out fine (I have a rigidbot and slicer didn’t have a setting for it then).
Could come down to the slicer. But honestly looks more like you have a calibration issue. I would print out two belt tensioners from thingiverse and put them on. I had been using my printer for months and the belts must’ve started to stretch (downsides to buying cheap parts). So all I did was print the belt tensioner, put it on, and my issue was immediately solved.
Also looks like you have the z steps wrong. Can you tell us what size threaded rod you are using??? I just helped build a cheap i3 kit the other day that came with m5 rod.
What it seems everyone is doing is commenting with speculations becuase we don’t really have enough information. If you could post the slicer software you’re using and all the settings we can help much better. Also answer any other hardware questions.
@Nathan_Walkner It doesn’t necessarily have bad layer adhesion because it doesn’t look like the layers were printed to far apart for the plastic to get the chance to adhere which make me think it’s the calibration.
I don’t necessarily want it to be the slicer, I just think it’d help to know the settings.
I’m using slic3r at .4 mm resolution using repetier. I have a heating bed I don’t use when printing PLA. I don’t know what type z axis rod I have but I figure it out if I had a guide or something. I’ll start will recalibration the z-axis and extruder. Hopefully that will do the trick.
@Adam_Potter 0.4 mm layer resolution? Then I’d have to agree with @Nathan_Walkner that you’re underextruding. Let me know how the recalibration on the extruder goes.
@Adam_Potter no I bet your issue is that you have too high of a layer height. You shouldn’t go over 80% of the nozzle size per layer height.
I use a .4mm nozzle and if I go about .3 I get terrible results. Drop down to .2mm layer height and share another picture
@Adam_Potter
@Griffin_Paquette has a point but the X/Y dimensions still don’t have enough extrusion. Even printing 0.4mm you should get decent X/Y adhesion but you’re severly lacking. I’d still go through with the extruder calibration just to make sure.
@Adam_Potter I suspect you have tried to sprint before you learned to crawl here. Can you write up a detailed description of what you have done for calibration.