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Answered Inconsistent prints

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Avrution, Dec 27, 2017.

  1. Avrution

    Avrution Member

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    I'm having an issue with what I guess I'd call inconsistent printing with the first layers. As you can see in the picture, part of the object prints fine, but other parts seem like nothing is extruded or prints out blobs.

    I thought I had things dialed in as I can print a 20mm calibration cube without issue, but when going larger this is the type of things I end up with. If the prints was to continue most would end up looking okay, but the base is out of wack and "chunky"
     

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  2. Kilrah

    Kilrah Well-Known Member

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    Extruder way too close to the bed, adjust Z offset. If different in different places then the bed is also not well leveled.
     
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  3. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Try to level from left to right as evenly as possible by turning the leadscrews by hand. use a gauge of some kind (piece of paper or a feeler gauge to get the height consistent from side to side. That will make the auto level do less work and be more accurate. Also the Z Offset is too close as @Kilrah mentioned in his post.
     
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  4. Avrution

    Avrution Member

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    Will try that. I think that reversal of having to use M851 might be throwing off my height adjustments
     
  5. Avrution

    Avrution Member

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    Rechecked the bed level and everything seems pretty much perfect.

    Checking different offsets and small prints still seem pretty good. Is it better to print a lot of smaller squares over the whole area or a single large object? Doing single layer only right now.
     

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  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I usually take something like this (attached) and just stretch it to fit the entire bed.
    One-layer test
     

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  7. Avrution

    Avrution Member

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    I had already started doing a set of 56 squares - just finished. So inconsistent. I know part of the upper issue is the temps and I think the right side too, bed temps have a big gap. As for the rest, I just don't get it. Auto leveled and going over manual points with a piece of cardboard and it all seemed pretty spot on.

    Update - printed that circle layer test and everything looks really good.

    Second update - cranked bed temp to 80 and finally was able to print without having lifting in the upper half after 3 previous failures.
     

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    #7 Avrution, Dec 28, 2017
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2017
  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Sounds more filament specific than printer at this point. Some filaments are easy to print -- others not so much. PLA you can print with no bed heat and others are going to need a lot.
     
  9. Avrution

    Avrution Member

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    This is just normal PLA. I'm wondering if it could be the fact that the room the temperature of the room with the printer is about 50 right now. Oddly enough, the next thing I tried to print also lifted and I had to use a raft to get the thing to finish. I don't see how the raft holds to the bed, but not something that also makes huge contact with the bed.
     
  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Each slicer designs their raft to function in a slightly different way but the entire idea of the raft is to give the base of the model plastic to adhere to, not the bed itself. Then the raft is created in whatever way they have decided gives a good platform that will probably adhere well. The parameters for the generated raft and the model are wildly different.

    PLA does not want to warp* so if it does you can be sure that it is either:
    1) a bad spool of PLA
    2) a significant temperature difference when the plastic is cooling.

    Any filament will warp if the material cools too rapidly. You should always print a filament as cool as it can for proper interlayer adhesion (because the more heat you add to the material extruding it the more heat you have to dissipate). This is why the temperature test towers and other test models exist to see where a given spool best wants to be extruded.


    *some filaments like ABS will warp if it is a day of the week that ends in a "Y" -- more so without a heated chamber to print it in.
     
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  11. Avrution

    Avrution Member

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    Could the fact that the default temps set in the slicer are 210? Haven't heard of this temperature tower. I do know I have printed multiple brands of PLA with the default settings of 210/60 and all have had the same issues of lifting in certain areas.
     
  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    210 is hot (for me) for PLA. Mine normally do well at 190-200 (however, chasing temps can be a fools game because everybody has a different environment so my temps work for me). One printer I have (a delta) needs 225 and another one wants 175 -- so ... as you can see your mileage may vary

    Here are some example temperature towers.

    https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=temperature+tower&sa=&dwh=825a45c5252d137
     
  13. Avrution

    Avrution Member

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    Thanks, will be trying this tomorrow. It has already been a month and I'd love for some consistency by now.
     
  14. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Don't feel bad, my first 3D printer took several months before I could reliably expect that what I actually made was what I expected :)
    Even my first Robo took some getting used to and the newer ones are slightly more complex machines. The real downside to all of this is that it can be difficult to even understand how to approach solving an issue when you first get started and minor (or major) issues with the machine hardware make it hugely more difficult.

    We can help you figure out what is going on.
     
  15. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Right now for the past month (Dec 2017) I am sitting at a 47% failure rate. Granted some are intentional failures, but others aren't. You should never feel bad about not seeing every print come out perfect.
     
  16. Avrution

    Avrution Member

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    Do ambient temperatures affect prints as well? Things were about 40 degrees warmer outside when I first got the machine and right out of the box my prints were great. It wasn't until I started moving away from Mattercontrol and temps dropped that things went crazy. I will print a super complex item that comes out perfect and then the next thing lifts from the bed 3 different times before printing on the 4th.

    I do have my glue and hairspray, so maybe it is time to try them out.
     
  17. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Since the R1 series is about as open a frame as you can get, particularly bed heating can be an issue if ambient temps are very low. Especially if using a parts fan also, it might be cooling the layers too quickly which reduces intra-layer adhesion. In the winter months if your room/shop is cold try increasing bed and nozzle temps a bit and that might help some.
     
  18. Avrution

    Avrution Member

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    Printed out the temperature tower and that turned out well. Decided to try some of my "premium" PLA that I received for Christmas only to find out that one of the spools is so soft that it won't feed through the extruder. The other colors are hard like I have experienced before, but this is like soft rope - is this normal for some brands? I got $100 worth of this stuff so it is a little disappointing.

    Update - well, looks like they sent their "flexible" material instead of regular PLA. Still unsure why it won't run through the extruder.
     
    #18 Avrution, Dec 29, 2017
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2017
  19. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Flexible material is a pain to dial in, you simply cannot use normal profiles and you must print very slowly.
     
  20. Avrution

    Avrution Member

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    My wife will be disappointed that she got the wrong stuff. Already felt bad enough that she had someone else buy ABS instead of PLA. Hoping that won't be too hard to use since it did have a great blue color.
     

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