Answered I have all the problems. Anyone have solutions?

I have been fighting with this printer for weeks. I can't seem to get it to do anything right. I have encountered all of the common problems I read about with 3D printing, but I haven't been able to solve any of them. I've had warping, bed adhesion problems, skipping, ringing, elephant feet, and it's all been inconsistent to boot. There's been a couple times where I manage to print a single Lego brick twice in a row with the same settings and gotten the same result. Other times, I print the same thing twice and they come out totally different. I've attached a couple pictures showcasing the different things that have failed. I have not been able to print anything successfully aside from a couple Legos that I think came out OK by random chance. Can anyone take a look at the pictures and offer suggestions? Here's what I've been using for settings, etc:

Printing on blue tape
Hatchbox white PLA
Modified fan shroud
Repetier with Slic3r
Fan off for 1st layer, then 75% after that
1st layer temp 215C
other layers 200C
bed temp 60C
Layer heights 0.1-0.3
Bed leveled
Using auto level and z offset as recommended in forums
retraction 2 mm at 40 mm/s

I've tried adjusting temperatures, Z offset, cooling, speeds, retraction, using brims, skirts.

I'm really at a loss here. Is there something wrong with the extruder? A friend of mine just got a Prusa i3 Mk3 and it's worked perfectly right out of the box. I can't seem to get the Robo to work for me. Any help is appreciated.

 

I was trying a non-heated bed for a while with no success until I had some very limited success with the bed heated. I tried this same spool holder print with the bed reduced to 40C. I also cut the extrusion temp back to 210 for the first layer, trying to follow your advice. The first layer wasn't great, but it was good enough to let the print run. Unfortunately it popped off the bed in the middle of the night and warped like crazy.

First layer:


Warping:


I tried to print a 1inch cube with the bed at room temp. Here's the first layer from that:


My thought was Z offset was set too close to the bed. Does that sound reasonable?

 

Here's my startup Gcode.

G28 ; home all axes
M565 Z-0.9; set z offset
G29; auto level
G1 Z5 F5000 ; lift nozzle

I'll try setting temp to 190 and do a few different Z offsets.

 

I started with the Robo3D brand filament and had warping issues with a 1inch cube. I bought a spool of Hatchbox just because that seems to be fairly widely used, but the warping issue remains.

 

I tried 190C and 195C with a few different Z offsets. None were good. I would say a z offset of -1.1 looked best.

190C, Z-0.9:


190C, Z-1.0:


190C, Z-1.1:


190C, Z-1.2:


195C, Z-1.0:


195C, Z-1.1:

 

Just finished the temperature tower. There wasn't a huge difference between the temperatures until it just totally failed at 185. I'd say 190 through 200 looked best, but I wouldn't say they were good. It just doesn't seem to be consistent. The first layer actually came out really good at 210.

 

My old steps/mm was 723. My new one is 754. I changed it by adding M92 E754 to my startup Gcode. Now when I print, the extruder doesn't actually lay anything down. I can see the stepper motor is turning super slow. I reset it back to the original 723, and it's still doing it. I must have screwed something up...

 

Status update. I recompiled the firmware with the new extruder steps/mm value. No noticeable difference in print quality. I also ran out of blue tape and bought some more on Amazon. Couldn't get anything to stick to it at all. I decided to ditch the tape and switch to putting glue on the glass bed. That seems to have taken care of the curling problem. Then I started printing more stuff, that is more than just cubes and temperature towers. Has some pretty serious z ribbing going on (picture attached). There's substantial wobble in the lead screws. I decided to print some of the Z brackets that are on thingiverse. I printed one, and then I went to print the second one, all of a sudden I can't get the extruder to get anywhere near the bed. It just stops about 2" above the surface. I did an M119 and it shows that the Z switches are "open," so it's not that. I also recompiled the firmware, so it's not that either. What gives?

 

So you're saying adjusting acceleration might fix the ribbing? That's a good thing to try. I'm kind of dead in the water though since I can't get the extruder anywhere near the bed.