Print Settings for PETG: eSUN Solid Black Filament

[jereywolf]

I just ordered a new roll of eSUN Black PETG for the first time in 5 months and it's different than it was before.

The filament on the roll is completely shiny and smooth....it used to have a texture and the surface was flat in color.

If I flex the material by hand it seems to have the properties of PETG, it does not turn white where it's bent like ABS, so I don't think that it's mislabeled.

I ran a few calibration prints, then started an over night print. In the morning, I found that it had only completed about 25%. Something jammed. Iv'e been through more than 20 rolls of PETG and only had one jam....this is troubling.

Has anyone else seen this?

[jimc]

over time i have had their stuff vary from textured to smooth. its just an external they put on the filament. nothing more. the texture does allow smoother sliding through feed tubes but with hard plastics it really shouldnt matter much . thats more important for flexibles like ninjaflex

[MGuser]

The earlier stuff from 2015 is textured.

[weirdaljr]

Hello,

First let me start by thanking you for this thread, it was very helpful and I am making some successful PETG prints now thanks to you. I just had a few follow up questions for tweaking I hope you all could help me with.

Currently I am still getting a lot of fine strands in any area where their are gaps in the model. Not causing much of a build up problem, but I wanted to know how to reduce them more? Would I up my ooze control retraction speed or distance? Just wondering which settings to try first and how and how large of a change to make. Maybe someone who has had success limiting the strings more could chime in.

The other thing I wanted to ask about is print surface and related settings. In the guide I saw information for pei on glass, kapton on glass, and others. I have a aluminum heated bed with kapton tape that I usually use painters tape on for PLA/ABS. Whats recommended for PETG with a aluminum HBP like mine? Just go right on the kapton? Add painters tape? Is the aluminum bad idea all together?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Again, great thread!

[MGuser]

More retraction, faster non-printing travel, and lower nozzle temps are the main things to reduce stringing.

[Jules]

Haven't tried printing on an aluminum plate (yet) but it should just be whatever you normally do. On Kapton is fine, with adhesive if you need it. (PETG isn't nearly as bad as PLA and ABS for warping up.) I've never tried it on painters' tape either, but there's no reason not to give it a shot if you want to.

[intservo]

In the past (and still in transition), the surface might be smooth or textured. Both print fine no difference. However there were always questions from customers about why we have textured surface, especially new users. Based on feedbacks, most users prefer smooth surface (probably because it is prettier:)). We have as such started to produce smooth surface only. You might want to tight your drive gear a bit more. The smooth surface certainly has less traction than textured surface. A good reasonable teeth mark should be enough.
PETG has not had formula changes ever since its debut 16 months ago.

[scampa123]

I've spent a good portion of today setting up PETG based on the info in this post. My PETG is a translucent red from eSUN.

In the picture below I have a small duck I printed in ABS and again in PETG...

What I notice about the PETG print (may not be noticeable from the photo) is that the duck is not as smooth as the ABS one. I can feel a tiny bit of roughness when brushing my fingers across the layers. In some spots a few small bumps...

I had spent most of the day calibrating, printing test squares, etc....I'm wondering what I can do to smooth out the print...

I should be getting a spool of the black PETG this week, and I'd like to print some spare M2 parts in that, but I'd like to be sure I'm getting "expected" quality prints from the PETG settings...

Any advice would be appreciated!!

Thanks!!

[Jules]

The little blobs are the curse of PETG. It's a very sticky filament, and it leaves tiny threads that the nozzle travels through, picks up, and later deposits on your prints. Unfortunately PETG is never going to be as smooth as ABS - they're different filaments with very different properties. But you can probably smooth it out a bit more.

i generally find that when i start to pick up a bunch of tiny threads, it means that the nozzle is too close. Try adjusting your Z-Offset by adding a positive +0.02 mm to the value that you currently have now. Check that out and if needed, you can add another +0.02 mm. (It also needs to be under-extruded a little bit, so adjust your multiplier.)

I'm afraid the only way to smooth things out is to print with it, and try different things, (one change at a time), until you get it looking the way you want it. PETG unfortunately doesn't have "one-size-fits-all" characteristics.

[jimc]

yeah first off, translucent filaments are very difficult to tune with because its difficult to see the surface and your also picking up irregularities from within the print as well. when you get your black, that will be a much better filament to dial things in with. you can get petg pretty darn smooth. abs will always looks sightly cleaner as jules said but you should be able to get it close. more so with opaque filaments. here is an fff for you. try this out. you should just need to change the nozzle dia, extrusion width back to auto and set you filament dia.

esun petg.fff.zip

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