I’m in progress of trying another print and the support structure looks like garbage for whatever reason. Maybe it’s printing too fast? But the actual model itself is actually looking pretty decent. Since I worked on the heatsink the extruder and filament isn’t popping as much as it was before but is still doing it unfortunately and that is probably not helping. I’m getting closer and I appreciate all the help you guys have given me. If you have any additional information on ways I can better cool the upper end of the extruder it would be appreciated as well. The current design just doesn’t have a lot of surface area for transferring all the heat. I thought about trying to add an additional fan somehow but I haven’t figured it out yet. Maybe there is some bolt on attachment. Can I just replace the print head all together and keep the same motor? I’m basically trying to polish a turd here. Lol
@Ryan_Carlyle I’d have to double check the speed but they are printed at the same speed of the solid objects but the walls are printed at a slower speed. I’ll try slowing the support speed down and see what happens.
Gear is clean.
Spring is brand new with lots of pressure.
Motor seems fine but the filament pops sometimes like I’m getting heat creep due to a poor cooling design.
@ThantiK yes, it’s a cheap turd I’m trying to polish. So far I’ve gotten it to a nice bronze color but it’s still a bit of a turd. Lol. But it’s much better than when I first got it! Plus it’s my first 3D printer and I didn’t want to invest too much money if I wasn’t sure how much I was going to use it. So far it’s still working though. Not an amazing print by any means but it’s working none the less.
I highly doubt that heat creep is the issue in your printer. Heat creep mainly effects printers with all metal hotends or early extruders with no fan whatsoever on the cold end. Printing at reasonable temperatures in an extruder like yours it rarely is a factor. I’ve had extruder fans fail before without effecting PLA prints in a similar extruder.
Your issue looks more to me like underextrusion at higher speeds. Most likely caused by either an obstructed PTFE liner in the extruder’s throat, or by printing too fast for the nozzle. Extruders have a limit at how fast they can transfer heat and melt the plastic. PTFE lined extruders usually top out around 8-9mm3/second. This limit will vary slightly by material (PLA is denser and melts slower than ABS), temperature, nozzle diameter, etc. But 8-9 cubic millimeters/second is a good starting point.
A gross ball park figure can be calculated by multiplying your actual extrusion width (not the nozzle diameter) in your slicing settings by the layer height and speed. (Ie. 0.5mm width * 0.3mm layer) * 80mm/s = 12mm3/s (too fast for most extruders)
(0.5mm width * 0.3mm layer) * 53mm/s = 8mm3/s well within the limit of most extruders.
Or vary the formula to … Max speed = 8/(extrusion width * layer height)
The max speed drops significantly when increasing layer height and vice versa. It is very common for people new to 3D printing to run into this problem as they try to push the limits of their printer and reduce the print times as much as possible. I fell into this trap myself.
If you are printing the same speed as you have all along and the underextrusion has gotten worse check the PTFE liner. PTFE breaks down at anything over 200°C so all will eventually fail. But it breaks down at a snails pace until you hit about 250°C. The closer you get to 250°C the quicker it will start to char and constrict, reducing the tubes diameter and how much semi-molten plastic cas pass through it effectinly reducing your extruders top speed.
Whether printing with an obstructed liner or trying to melt plastic faster than the nozzle can keep up, the result is the same. The nozzle pressure builds up higher than what the extruder can handle and you get the “clicking/popping” sound of the gear slipping or filament grinding.
Looks like a CTC i3.
I had this issue with my printer it end up being the PTFE tube imperfection.
Lower retraction as pulling hot plastic back in to the tube damages/clogs it.
I ended up replacing the whole extruder with a better quality Mk8 and hot had an issue since.
@Jason_D Now THAT sounds like an answer I needed. My nozzel is .4mm, the layer height is .1mm and it’s CURRENTLY running at about 35mm/s. This seems well below what you are talking about though. However, my printer is actually working right now and the filament isn’t popping very much, if at all. But as you can see in the picture my support material is all kinds of janky. I slowed the speed down and it seems to be printing better but the main object is printing pretty well so I’ve been letting it run. As long as the support material is there it should be able to do its job. Only time will tell.
@Kevin_Danger_Powers hope it helps. Again it is extrusion width not nozzle diameter that matters in the formula, but at 0.1mm and 35mm/s i wouls say either the ptfe liner is clogged or your temperature readings.are way off. At 0.1 layer height your nozzle should be able to print in the 120-160mm/s range and keep up fine
also, if you were printing other materials with a higher melting point in your printer like ABS before this started happening, you may have some residue left in the hotend from it that that will not melt when printing at normal PLA temperatures. Temporarily setting the nozzle temp higher and purging a good amount of material will probably remove it. As will a “cold pull”
Stainless steel, aerospace grade aluminum and solid brass. It weighs 1/5th of a pound.
