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Unresolved Printing issues

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by JWW, Jul 21, 2021.

  1. JWW

    JWW Member

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    Yes, it's me again. Looking for suggestions on fixing this. For several years I've always had excellent prints with my Robo R1 plus, so I've never needed to tweak anything. Ya, that may be hard to believe, but it's a fact. This is a PLA print using the default 210 temperature setting. I have bumped it down to 200 as well. I've started printing this twice then canceled the print. There's a large bump/lump created at the same spot on the print, which I thought was odd. Plus, there is a lot of micro bumpiness or roughness on the hatch. Oh, I'm using MatterControl. I'm not interested in using another slicer at this point in time.

    I do macro/micro photography (Microscopy) as one of my hobbies. I'm trying to print a camera part for one of my microscopes. A couple of the images below are macro images.

    Thanks in advance,
    -JW:
     

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  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    At a glance it appears that you are still printing a bit hot.
    Every environment/printer is a bit customized so exact figures are a guess until you test -- that said, ...

    Most of mine are closer to 190 for PLA .
    Try bumping down a little bit and watch to see if there is any improvement.
    The one with the volcano extruder is 180-ish :) but that is a larger heat block and a higher wattage heater core.
     
  3. JWW

    JWW Member

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    If I recall I usually print PLA at 190 on my machine. When I bumped it down, a few minutes later I got a warning that the temp fell too far. Never seen that before. I'll give it another shot.
     
    #3 JWW, Jul 21, 2021
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2021
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    The temp fall error is not really related to temperature. It is caused by the thermistor readings not being stable. If they suddenly raise or fall (jump) you will be warned and the hotend shutdown. If you were using a host program (like MC or Cura -- whatever) you will probably NOT see any variation in the temperature graph (because the jumps were too fast for the software to see -- but the firmware did...)

    This in in the FAQ, but (sadly) once it starts it will usually continue. Either the thermistor is going bad (internally cracked perhaps) or there is a loose connection in the wiring from the RAMPS to the thermistor. By default there are several connections in that set of wires.

    With it not printing and at temperature try wiggling the wire harness and see if you can cause it to happen.
     
  5. JWW

    JWW Member

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    Thanks, will do. After 5 hours of babysitting, I finally have a couple of good prints. Yes, it was worth it. I kept getting these PLA dingleberries and had to keep an eye on everything for 5 hours. I had to watch the first couple of layers because there were a lot of problems. I had PLA build-up on the horizontal holes in the base. I had to pause the print several times and carefully remove the high spots. I've never had to do that before—naturally, a PITA. The infill printed perfectly, as did the outer top layers. Regardless it was a success. Thanks to all those that help out. It's appreciated.
     

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  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    You may be able to de-dingleberry it with more retraction, worth a try at least. If those are the zits in your second pic -- that is impressive. Never seen zits that size
     
  7. JWW

    JWW Member

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    So what could be causing this? I noticed it on previous layers, but nowhere as THICK. Meaning globs of PLA. Sort of like a slug crawled across the layer in spots. The temperature setpoint was 190. Obviously, I shut the printing process down. This was a new hotend and thermister. I only used it on two prints.
     

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  8. JWW

    JWW Member

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    WTF, I think I found the problem. This was a new Hotend and thermister. How can this happen? Ok, so what's the proper procedure for removing all of the filament from the Hotend? Do I snip the filament, fire up the printer, preheat the Hotend, then extrude all the filament out of the head? Seem like it got clogged last time I did it that way, maybe not.
     

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  9. JWW

    JWW Member

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  10. JWW

    JWW Member

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    I slapped a new Hotend and thermister, and it printed absolutely beautifully. No clean-up whatsoever. :)
     

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  11. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yea, those clogs/leaks are a pain to fix. I'd suggest on the one that was leaking you needed to seat the nozzle against the bottom end of the heatbreak. That is where the "seal" for the filament is. People think the nozzle seals against the heater block (nope -- it doesn't)

    If the nozzle goes all the way flush against the heater block you need to thread the heat break a little further down into the top of the heater block and try again until the nozzle butts against it.
     

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