More Dashed Hopes

I met Braden from Robo today. We talked about my issues and I walked away with hope and a renewed excitement about getting my printer to work. The best news was next week they would be posting software that will automatically set the z position-no more business card nonsense. He also suggested the hairspray which I had planned on when I got home.
Armed with a can of Aquanet, I sprayed the bed, let it dry and was surprised that it wasn't as tacky as I expected. I ran a job and low and behold, the first 2 layers laid out nicely. The filament was flat and Robo went about it's job. I left for a few minutes and when I returned, the print was flying all over the bed as usual. I adjusted the z level a bit lower, same results. I put the card under the extruder it was tight. Maybe it was too low? I raised it a hair. Same results. As I tried different levels, up and down, the filament refused to stick at all. The first image is typical. As the skirt is being laid, when the extruder turns, the preceding line pulls up along with it. The other images are of a heart that really looks like junk.
I have re-adjusted the z level by hairs after each screw up. I know I have hit what is supposed to be the proper height.
I appreciate the offers from you guys to help, but I don't know what you can tell me that I haven't already tried based on the multitude of suggestions posted in these forums.

 

Unless that is a raft in those pictures, you are *way* under extruding. Check to make sure your hobbed bolt is not clogged. With PLA, for something with that much surface area, I have to whack the part with a rubber mallet to get it off the bed.

 

The Hobbed bolt is clean, however I don't know how much is supposed to extrude. I often thought it seemed like a pretty thin stream but I have nothing to compare it to and that's how it's been since day 1.

 

OK, then you need to run a test. Use a marker and mark a few distances from the entrance to the extruder (such as 90mm, 100mm, 110mm), heat the extruder and then use Repetier Host to extrude a set number of mm. I suggest 100. Verify that you extruded somewhere very, very close to 100mm. by measuring your marks.

 

Sorry, I don't quite follow you. I thought you meant the extrude amount as in thickness of the filament stream. I assume you mean to run a length along the table? I'm not at the machine now but I don't recall seeing a way for Repetier to extrude and move across an axis at the same time. Besides, the filament never comes out immediately. It always runs a few inches before it hits the table.

 

No, just heat it up and push the extrude button. No need to move X, Y or Z. You just want to see if the filament moves 100mm when you tell it to. You should also verify that you have your filament diameter set to 1.75mm.

 

Manual control tab On right half of repetier window Under the x y z controls there is a button to heat the extruder and under that is buttons to extrude or retract . Next to the extrude or retract Buttons you can type in the number of mm to ext/retr.
Id suggest you raise the Z axis up about 100 then do the extrude test