I’m trying to figure out the reason my prints have become very brittle. I have two working printers. My delta is printing great. Parts ar nice and strong. However, when I print the same part with the same filament on my cartesian, they’re very brittle, and easy to break. I’ve adjusted temperature settings with no luck. The print settings - perimeters, infill, layer thickness - are all the same between the two. Anyone have any insight on this?
Thank you in advance,
When the brittle parts break, do they do it along layer lines, or does it break apart across the layers?
I can only think of the hot end being the significant difference. (possibly print speed). Temperature is monitored by measuring very subtle changes in voltage. Solder joints, connectors, etc. can cause a non-trivial difference (I think I’m about to have issues with my printer - spotted some weird swings this morning that might point to a poor connection).
That said, maybe get a temperature probe and compare the two printers at various settings. You might have to make bigger adjustments as a result.
LJ
Generally it breaks along the layers. Like the plastic’s not adhering to the previous layer.
The only thing different as of late is the thermistor. I had to change it out, and I had to update the new thermistor settings in Marlin. I thought I grabbed the right one, maybe I didn’t. I’ll have to play with it again, I think.
Are you printing in ABS? If so, it sounds like the actual hot end temperature is lower than its reporting. ABS doesn’t like to stick to itself if the previous layer is too cold. You can get similar effects in PLA and nylon too, although not usually as bad as ABS.
Might be obvious, but just to rule it out… Got any cooling differences between the printers? Stronger nozzle blower on one, or heat sink fan wash hitting the print? Air conditioner vent aimed at the printer?
Failing that, I’d guess thermistor calibration/placement differences. Tune the print temps by results, not necessarily so they match.
Yeah - the fan on the cartesian is much stronger. I toned it down, it only runs at 50% peak power. Maybe I have to lower it even more.
Is your printer extruding the right amount of plastic? Make sure your e-steps are configured properly in the firmware and make sure you set the proper filament diameter in your slicer. It would make sense if the layers didn’t stick together because not enough plastic was extruded.
Just a hunch, but sounds like your nozzle size is different. Are the hotends exactly the same, produced from the same batch and with the same nozzle size? Over time nozzles could wear down so the hole gets bigger, especially if you use exotic filaments.
Post a picture of a top layer from both printers, and you can tell if you under extrude. Upping extrusion multiplier is a crude but effective way to test for this.