That’s super weird, my surface releases PLA perfectly on my Sidewinder X1. I bet your nozzle was too close to your bed
I will try increasing the distance for the next print, but I don’t think the distance here was too close (I am new though so I am probably wrong). There’s no visible elephant footing though.
Weird. I’ve had fairly good luck with my surface since the beginning, only printed PLA+ and PLA on it
That’s weird. Maybe the nozzle might have been a bit too close then. I did a few prints before that were smaller, and I could remove those, but those did have elephant footing. I increased the Z offset quite significantly for this print, but maybe not enough then
I’ve got it off! Sharpening my spatula was the way to go. It didn’t need too much convincing with the sharpened spatula, it’s as sharp as a knife now though, I will definitely cut my finger in the future lol
Alrighto new try.
Re-leveled the bed after removing the loctite i put on the screws
And cut bowden tube.
I am happy with the overall looks apart from the first layer and the edges as they have curled up.
Adhesion was crap, didn’t use any additives. Might be the cause.
The top layer of the inside looks nice, as well as the walls.
Accuracy is meh again. Though more precise than previously but still one side is off.
Measurement is basically
0.80 x 0.76 x 0.80 x 0.76
Goal is 0.80 all-around.
E: Forgot to adjust flow and my e-steps again since i’ve installed the Silent board. Doing it now.
Print 2 with adjusted esteps.
And current cura profile.
Previous print was… I don’t know what profile or settings it used.
The one with my profile doesn’t looks as clean and has stringing.
First layer looks better but is lacking filament.
The adjusted one is accurate in a different way.
The thickness is worse?
0.85 x 0.85 x 0.85 x 0.74
BUT the outer dimensions are almost spot on. 20.05mm on all sides where as the first one was 19.80ish.
Left new, right old.
One thing i’m for whatever reason missing is for my printer to raise the Z height before it starts traveling to the middle/Start of the print position. G-code seems to be gone but i haven’t found what i need yet.
So printer heats up - check
homes - check
draws a line - check
raises the Z height - not check
moves to print and starts printing - check
Could it be: G1 Z2.0 F3000 ?
I’m using PETG to print the loop key holder and the preview is showing some pieces without support and not connected to the part. Any thoughts on how to tell Fusion 360 to support that area?
Ok I’m confused, why does he stop and then hop to the next layer so awkwardly on the bottom left corner.
hm. It stops, retracts, does the hop and then feeds back the filament.
While we at it. Here’s basically all the settings i use. Maybe someone finds something needing improvement.

I’ve heard this happen for the emergency power loss recovery function. It would think for a moment to save layer information before continuing the print so it had a record of where it was if the power cut unexpectedly.
This was my guess. This and the retraction maybe.
Gotta look up if i can disable it because i never had an outage in the last 20 years.
I’m glad you caught it and posted that video, I was mentally imagining this happening.
You’re using a 0.4mm nozzle so set line width to 120% of that = 0.48mm
I don’t think it’s direct drive iirc but I think your next focus ought to be on finding the right retraction settings. I’d up the retraction speed to 60mm/s. Ideally, you want the retraction distance to be the lowest possible without it oozing out still on retraction moves.
We getting close baby!
nope, regular stock ender 3 bowden setup.
i’ve used the stock distance of 5mm and 45mm/s and just upped it to 6mm and 55mm/s because i’ve read that bowden requires a larger retraction distance.
would this fix my first layer gaps?
just a few days ago i was cursing about how much i hate this printer. Now after resassemby, shortened bowden tube and silent mainboard upgrade im lliking it again Prints look awesome so far.
My biggest issue so far is my first layer, the lines are way too thin, but the second layer is thick as it should be.
First layer:
Second layer
It will definitely help but your bed likely also needs to be a tiny bit closer. I’d do a quarter turn of each knob. I actually run 0.6mm line width on my 0.4mm nozzle because speed.
My cura version is a bit older because I’m scared of change but I don’t have a retract at layer change option… Only a retract before outer wall. I feel like that may cut down the pause between layer changes a bit too.
totally get this. My cura usually is a few versions behind because the updates always seem to break the Z-height for me.
Printer works fine with current version
I try new cura version and it prints in the air.
For the rebuild and unfortunate loss of profiles i decided to start fresh on the latest.
i also noticed a thing.
This chart helps to explain it
my first layer is like this
but the second and so on layers are like this
Also adhesion doodoo
A bit closer to the bed will help with adhesion too hopefully. I use a bit of hairspray every few prints on a glass bed.
My start g-code looks like this:
G0 Y10 X150 Z0.4
G1 X100 E500 F1000 ; Extrude 25mm of filament in a 4cm line
G92 E0 ; zero the extruded length
G1 E-1 F500 ; Retract a little
G1 X80 F4000 ; Quickly wipe away from the filament line
G1 Z0.3 ; Raise and begin printing.
G0 is a rapid move, the machine will go as fast as its settings will allow. G1 is a modal feed move, so you have to give a feed rate.
Yup, you need to raise your bed/lower the nozzle for the first layer, it’s too far away.