MakerGear Forum

My printer is starting to print thin areas that do not have much PLA and areas that are chunky. Please see pics. Any thoughts as to what could be happening? I am printing in PLA at 210.

where are the pics?

Had to change the pics they were hard to see. They should be posted now.

My first guess would be not sufficiently level bed combined with over-extrusion. Any time you get that "thin film" look on the first layer, it is printing too close. If it is only happening in parts of the first layer, that indicates that those sections are on the side of the bed that is too high. Check your bed level. What are your extrusion settings?

The settings are all stock for extrusion. What location can i find that number? To level the bed i folded a paper in two and used it to make sure it was snug but polled out from under the extruder. I do this on all corners to make sure it is the same.

Under the Extruder tab, your extrusion multiplier should be somewhere in the .80-.95 zone, try .90 to start out with. Extrusion width should be either auto, or manual with a value between .40 and .50. Under Other, the Filament diameter should be 1.75mm, but if you have calipers, measure your filament in a few places and take the average and enter it there.

Try some of the suggestions in this thread on bed leveling. There are two different methods presented, one using the SImplify3D wizard and the other a visual check. You can also use feeler gauges, as recommended here.

Once you have your bed leveled and your z height set, you can play around crudely with the effect of changing level heights by forcing the z knob a click clockwise (lower nozzle) or counter clockwise (raise nozzle) during the first layer.

Thanks I will try that.