Anyone had filament just randomly snap? I opened a brand new roll of 3D Solutech PLA, and while it prints ok, a few hours after the printer shuts down, the filament just snaps right before the extruder. I’m so far at 4 breaks for 4 prints. Did I get a bad roll?
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What is it?
I’ve had the occasional more brittle roll… but it tends to be more niche or lower quality stuff. Extending the arc into the extruder so it doesn’t undergo too much bending works. As long as it’s printing well and doesn’t need to be dried out.
3D Solutech PLA, my second roll of this stuff, albeit a different color.
See that’s the weird thing, the filament isn’t brittle at all. It bends rather than snaps compared to my previous Overture filament, and my old 3D Solutech filament also hasn’t done this before. The filament is loaded directly from the side, so there is no bending past the roll. It’s also fresh out of the vacuum sealed bag with silica gel in it, so it shouldn’t have been wet. It’s annoying because the first 6" or so of the print doesn’t have any retraction due to the break and Bowden tube length, so it tends to be messier.
That’s def annoying. If you can’t add any more capricorn tubing between the roll and the extruder, idk what else would help. Once it snaps though, I’d just push it all through the extruder until the roll is back at the hot end.
I think/read somewhere that it snaps when the moisture is very low. It makes the filament brittle.
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I keep track of the weight of the printed parts, especially when printing with Alloy 910. So this print should complete, but it’s making me a bit anxious. I could always pause and change filament, but i am always doubtful about the layer adhesion in that situation.
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I agree. If I pause, it is sometimes a micro step off on the resume and looks a bit different.
I have better results changing as it runs out, feeding in new filament but if your ptfe isn’t lined up, it can be tough… Especially if it’s retracting while loading
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I almost turned it on for the first time like this. 
Good thing I stepped back and observed… I was as anal as possible through the build, but I guess not enough.
Off to level bed, wish me luck! 
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So trying to upload Marlin one more time and I have no idea if I’m doing this right
I downloaded the Marlin folder
Transferred over the proper configuration files for my CR10S Pro
Went into VSCode to use Auto Build Marlin
Ran Build
and this is the result
Can anyone verify I did anything right? and if I did, what to do with the firmware.hex file?
This is what I found for your printer…
"You’ll find the firmware file at Marlin/.pio/build/mega2560/firmware.hex. You can use this with Firmware Updater to flash the firmware to your printer.
If the computer you’re building Marlin on is connected to the printer by USB, you can upload the firmware by running: ./buildroot/share/vscode/auto_build.py upload."
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I almost lost badly there, probably would’ve retired b4 I began.
How is it doing?
Inland PLA+ Demo cat print
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I’ve always had the firmware come in as a bin file. But I also just put it on an SD card by itself and boot the printer up and it auto runs the update.
Looks pretty solid. I see a tiny bit of evidence of oozing so you might want to turn up your retraction just a hair.
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Thanks dude, I have a lot to learn. Gonna dig into cura tonight as well as calibrate e-steps/flow.
My little man helped with assembly and am trying to make this a joint venture so he doesn’t think it’s just click and print. He’s got Legos and nerf guns on the mind.
Speaking of, @Arzamenable, do you have files for that Lego dude you posted last week? My boy would get a kick out of it.
Here’s the first 2 prints I out of the box fully stock.
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I blew it up by 2x in cura and printed it slow in pla+
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Awesome, thank you!
Are these perpendicular infill discontinuities due to bad retraction settings or under extrusion?
Not on direct drive yet. Printing slowish.
If they just happen on the first few layers but not on other layers, you can blame it on the bed not being level. If it happens on the top layers then the flow% needs to be reduced. It is overextruding.
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@mishrasubhransu or anyone else using pancake steppers for direct drive:
What torque rating did you use?