3D Printing Discussions, Questions and Debugging

nope can go to around 300c

stock heater from e3d

i dont think much air is getting on the hotend but i can do a test
no silicone sock but i can get one

one other question
on both the pla and petg prints i wasnt getting good layer adhesion
could this be related to some water ingress in the filament?
or is it due to layer height?
on the pla i had the layer quite squished but still the adhesion wasnt great

no

yes, the initial layer height. adjust nozzle height, and then possibly adjust initial layer flow
increasing initial layer width also helps (0.6mm wide for a 0.4mm nozzle and 0.8mm for a 0.6 nozzle)
Increasing nozzle size also help (because the layer line automatically increases in width… pretty obvious)

to squished won’t do any good either, you really don’t want to squish it. adjust height using paper (the nozzle must barely grip the paper), then flow like i said above if the height didn’t fix anything. PLA and petg don’t need adheasion spray. make sure you are printing hot enough and that the fans are off for the first 4 layers

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Kk thanks
I heard pla likes the first layer squished for bed adhesion
I am going to be moving up to a larger nozzle today so will make all those changes and try printing

What size can people recommend for nozzle sizes if I want quick and strong prints most of them are relatively small

Mine isn’t a glass bed (PEI) but I print PETG between 70-80, usually closer to 80. I know there’s unit to unit variation in those temp sensors though, so it’s not absolutely accurate

For what it’s worth basic pritt stick or other PVA glue is very easy to clean, it’s water soluble so just drop the build plate in a container of water and go do something else for 10 minutes or splash it down in the sink. If the printer is used regularly I’m only cleaning like once a week

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I’m attempting to print the BOTY trophies, and I’m running into some quality issues.

  • Prusa i3 MK3s
  • 0.4mm nozzle
  • Silk PLA
  • 220°C nozzle
  • 60°C bed
  • 100% cooling after the first layer
  • In an enclosure for consistent temps (not heated)
  • PrusaSlicer, nearly stock “Generic PLA” slicing settings (only adjusted wall thicknesses, etc.)
  • manual supports added for supporting the balls only

I’m getting some serious zits on the layer changes. Im thinking I’ll try setting a fixed z-seam position and aim for the back of the legs.

I’m getting really poor overhangs on the back sides of the legs and tail. I dont have any ideas for this.

Any suggestions on how to fix these quality issues would be greatly appreciated! These are the BOTY trophies so I’m aiming to get the best quality I can.

Thanks!

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All of the silk filaments do this weird thing where they puff up and stay stretchy and malleable for a few seconds out of the hotend. Imagine it like a petg/pla hybrid.

I’ve noticed that I have to turn flow down a few percent and turn fan speed down a bit to avoid those wavy zits. I find 98% flow, 210° C nozzle, and 75% fan works best for me with gold silk. Turning speed down a bit helps with the puffy filament issues. I do about 50mm/sec overall and I think 25mm/sec on the walls.

Keep me posted!

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Zits are a result of not enough retraction, or a retraction speed issue. (overextrusion on layer changes).
Ugly overhangs are a cooling issue. Probably not getting enough airflow to the back side.

Silk filaments are just more fussy and can bring out tuning issues more than other types.

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I noticed this, particularly when loading the filament. My Prusa has an autoloading sequence where it rapidly shits out a bunch of filament when you load something in, and normally that comes out as like 100mm of string the same diameter as the nozzle.

This silk stuff, however, comes out as less than 50mm, and nearly 2mm wide :joy: it was super weird when I first saw it, I had never seen a filament “puff” like thay before.

I’ll give these settings a shot. Thanks!

Would you suggest increasing the retraction speed, distance, or both?

Either or both could improve things.

Improving cooling, implementing coasting, and playing with shell settings can all also help.

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I’ve found this to be super helpful as a band-aid for zits. It doesn’t fix them, but it’ll at least put them all in the same place for easier removal.

Seam position: Aligned

Also, this website (https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html#retraction) is far and away the absolute best one-stop-shop of printer tuning guides I’ve seen. (credit: @DeadLightning) The retraction tuning in particular should help with your zits problem.

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Man, I have the same issues with Sunlu Silk PLA but way more intense… the purge line looks like a seismograph:

This never happened with ~5kgs of PETG :frowning:

I have a feeling that the nozzle is either partially clogged or the PTFE tube went bad…

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I got those effects for a long time too and drove myself mad thinking parts were going bad. I had just got a brand new ender 3 at the time and noticed it behaved pretty identically to a stock one that was a whole year older.

I found increasing retraction distance and speed did not help. When it exits the hotend, if does not like being retracted. It gets weirdly stretchy like a tpu almost. Turning the flow down a few % cleaned almost all those layer lines up for me. I think the puffiness of the filament doesn’t get shown while printing low layers or infill so everything looks good for a bit until it starts puffing on itself on the outside wall moves.

I’m on my 38th kg of silk pla. Inland, sunlu, yousu, cc3d, reprapper, eryone, shengtian, and DO3D are all normal brands to me and they ALL behave this way.

It can be fixed :grin:

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@BenjaminF issue update? If things aren’t going well, I can give it a go.

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I haven’t had time to reattempt yet, been slammed with battery building. I’ll get back on it tonight :metal:

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Ok, trying again. We’ll see!

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Hi, I had a printing problem that the broader internet seems not to have answers for. I tried printing a part in petg, about 20 mm * 100 mm in footprint, and it started peeling the magnetic Pei bed up off of the magnetic substrate. As in, it was still attached to the build plate at the end of the print, the build plate got pulled up with the part along its long axis.

I’m printing with the Ender 3 Pro, 0.4 mm nozzle, 240 on the hot end and 80 on the bed, reducing to 70 after the first few layers. Any ideas? Pretty sure I can’t just take the pei off and print on the refrigerator magnet underneath.

I use a glass bed, with something called prevailent its a 3d printer adhesive, in addition eleminate drafts in the room and try increasing bed temperature to allow a more gradual cooling.

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I don’t want to replace my bed right now if I can help it, worst case scenario I’ll just glue it permanently in position and sacrifice the removability. What bed temperature would you recommend? Should I stop doing the thing where I drop the temperature?

Im really not sure about your temperatures, 240 seems high, and the bed temp also seems a bit high. But it really depends on your enviornment. Maybe try lowering the nozzle and keep bed temp the same? Im thinking if the petg comes out at a lower temp it wont have much time to warp while cooling. Best of luck!

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