well jeez y’all, I am STILL having the same issue, I have cleaned extruder and hot-end, level and releveled and relabeled and…, taken the bed off and tightened everything up. I’ve printed a new small extruder gear as well, since the original wood one was giving out and causing some pushing outward of large gear due to not being oboe to lockset on the motor shaft. I actually thought that may have been the problem when i discovered it, but no. The problem persists. i have tried temp variations, slicing adjustments etc. All with same results. SO, this morning i bumped the first layer speed, faster than i would ever normally do it, and found that it did not eliminate the problems(seen in pictures on previous posts), however it DID decrease the severity. This is really making me suspect that it is something in my X movement. Maybe resistance somewhere? moving it by hand, I do feel a little bit of resistance at some spots more than others. However it doesn’t seem noticeably more than i have felt in the last several months. Any thoughts here? I have once before, awhile ago, switched the linear bearings for new ones as i could tell something was wrong with one of them catching and grinding a little, i could see scratches on the x rod. this was months agog though, and i have had nice results since that. In fact, if i let one of these current prints continue, having the next layers smooth down the messiness of the 1st layer, the print turns out fine, the issue is ONLY evident on the initial layer. Watching carefully (hours), I can see the bed kinda vibrating as X is moving, as Y is doing its thing bk or forth while laying down first layer. therefor i am thinking along the lines of if Y is doing it’s thing properly(which for now we will say that it is), and X is trying to do it’s thing but it is having trouble somehow, then as it is making it’s coordinated movements, X is hesitating and allowing the nozzle to run into the previous line of extrusion, as Z moves. I am not sure how to explain or word that differently.
Until you get it sorted, can you add a raft to the prints?
Have you lubed the X axis rods? A bit of light grease might fix you up.
I have never greased- and yes, I can do rafts, so true- but wanna figure out why.
Why will raft lay down alright but not a first layer?
What sort of grease should I use?
Plain old lithium grease would work fine. Even light machine oil in a pinch.
Okay. Thanks!
I have had my printrbot since last September. while I have had many issues, I usually can resolve the problem quicker than this time- I am actually sorta frustrated!
So what is the actual difference between a raft layer ( extrusionwise) and a normal first layer?
A raft is a disposable first layer, used to make a level bed and extrusion-wise, is intended to have relatively poor adhesion to the real first layer. http://hydraraptor.blogspot.com/2012/08/peel-able-support.html might be helpful.
Thanks. I have definitely used rafts and understand what they are for. Am trying to find out what specifically is different between first layer and a raft layer. There has to be a reason that I can lay down a raft decently but not a first layer on a slice with no raft involved. Technical differences. Such as height and width differences. Thanks!!
Interesting article for sure, that link. Ty
I’m just feeling as if I should be able to figure out what happened, or went wrong to cause this issue that I wasn’t having. I’ve gone through all the things that I have dealt with before, and more.
Re checked level- printed same object, but with infill @180 angle to see if laying down only with Y axis would behave any differently, in comparison to both y and x moving as infill was extruded. Same poor results, this turns me back to thinking the extrusion is not constant. But I cannot figure out why. Time to disassemble and give a good look I suppose.