Help about the filament feeding

[morganfree]

Hello, good afternoon.
I'm new with 3D printers; actually I've received mine 2 days ago.

Yesterday it was a good day, I guess: I could print the models for calibration with some problems at the beginning, later I could resolve them (adherence of my platform).

Today, I was trying to configure S3D for PLA following the unofficial guide posted here. I changed the Filament width in OTHERS properties to 1,6 (that's what I messured), changed the T° 195/190 and 60 °C and that's it... for what I remember.
The printer started to print the skirt, It printed quite bad, but it was worst when it started the first solid layer: I saw how the extruder was getting out of plastic and grabbing the first layer once it went to the second...

I stopped everything and reloaded the filament with the same result: the extruder extrudes some cms then it stops feeding. Some noise starts.

I've read and watched some videos and tried many things, but I can't resolve this issue, so far.

- Tightening or loosening the tension, didn't worked...
- Reloading the filament MANY times with different tensions, didn't worked
- Adjunting T° (+ or -) for the extruder, nothing.
- I thought that I had a problem in the Z Height thus the first layer was obstructing the extruder so I cheated Z-height in S3D, but happened the same. When I extrude in the air, I also get the same result. Some cms of extrusion and the stops.
- I've opened the filament feeder and the engine is working fine (I found a lot of plastic in the gear teeth).

Could be some problem with the filament itself? (1,6 seemes quite little diameter)
Is it something inside the noozle?

I Really need help with this issue, please.
I'm attaching some pictures for you to see.

Thank you very much for your help.

Greetings!

[morganfree]

Problem resolved: The T° I was using for PLA was too low. I increase to 205/200C and is working back again.

The only question remaining is if it's normal to have some filament with 1,60mm of diameter when it should be 1,75?
I receive that roll along with the used machine I bought. It is the original roll that came with the machine from Makergear. The guy that sold the machine didn't specify when did his son (!) bought it... so I don't know what care they had with the filament... Those 1,60mm could be related to any kind of condition that affected the roll? Could that affect in anyway my printings?

Thank you very much

[Jules]

You have two issues that I can see from the pictures....

1. Your filament drive tension is too high. The tooth marks on your filament are too deep. Loosen the tension on the Filament Drive Screw a little.:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2694

2. The gap between the bed and the nozzle is now just a little bit too small, based on how thin and transparent your first layer is. You can afford to widen that gap just a little bit.

[morganfree]

Thank you very much!
I've loosen the filament tension and adjusted the gap of the table. Geeting better!

Anyway, I'm having another issue when I'm printing for a while, let's say 20 mins.

The noozle is getting stucked. I guess because he extrudes more than the necessary or because he's dragging plastic from the part (I guess is the first option).
Fortunally I could continue the prints from an specific layer, after reloading the filament and extruding a bit of plastic to unstuck the noozle.

You can see in the pictures the threads that are all over the part and plastic glued in the noozle.

Again, I'm using PLA at 205/200 and 65 bed, 3600 mm/min global with 70% underspeed for infill, 25% outline overlap...

Is the overlap too high?
Should the T°be lowered?
Will it help if I work with some retraction? (actually 1mm and 0,20mm vertical lift)

Thanks again for the help.

Best regards,

[Jules]

Again, I'm using PLA at 205/200 and 65 bed, 3600 mm/min global with 70% underspeed for infill, 25% outline overlap...

Is the overlap too high?
Should the T°be lowered?
Will it help if I work with some retraction? (actually 1mm and 0,20mm vertical lift)

Yes, the outline overlap is a bit high - try outline overlap - 15%.
You can increase the vertical lift to 0.4 mm
Temperature is fine at 205°.
Your threads look a lot better on the plate in the new pictures, and I see you are using one of the old V3B nozzles. (You might want to consider upgrading to the V4 nozzle some day - they make it a lot easier to set the Z-Stop.)

If you have warping of the print at all, it might be hitting on the nozzle and causing it to stick. Make sure you are using hairspray or gluestick on the bed to keep the PLA stuck down during the printing. PLA tries to curl up at corners as it cools.

You can get a small desk fan and point it at the bed while it is printing, to cool things off faster. That helps with the warping problem for PLA. Or remove the fan guard for the bed fan, to increase the air intake for the bed fan.

Use the tweezers to clean off the little globs of PLA on the nozzle after a print, while it is cooling.

Your prints are looking a lot better - the rest is just tweaking the settings a little bit.

[morganfree]

I'm "slowly tunning" my printings but I'm really glad with the results. Thanks a lot for the advices!

So far:

Yes, the outline overlap is a bit high - try outline overlap - 15%.
You can increase the vertical lift to 0.4 mm
Temperature is fine at 205°.

Done, overlap set to 15%, vertical lift at 0,4mm, BUT It seems my PLA works best at 215. I Don't have any more oozing or stringing. I don't have more nozzle clogging neither. Therefore I assume the 215C are much better than the 205 that I was using. I swear I tested a lot until I tried with the T°.

...and I see you are using one of the old V3B nozzles. (You might want to consider upgrading to the V4 nozzle some day - they make it a lot easier to set the Z-Stop.)

I would really love that, but I just bought this one (used one) and for I can see, buying from Makergear will cost me a lot of many in shipping to Brazil... I'll look forward for an alternative (amazon, ebay, whatever) sometime.

If you have warping of the print at all, it might be hitting on the nozzle and causing it to stick. Make sure you are using hairspray or gluestick on the bed to keep the PLA stuck down during the printing. PLA tries to curl up at corners as it cools.

I don't have more problems with the first layer adherence. In fact, I'm freezing my glass to unglue the parts. BUT this problem continues in other layers. You can see the pictures, I do have some partial layer separation in superior layers... I read in the S3D troubleshooting that increasing T° (even more!!???) could resolve this?

You can get a small desk fan and point it at the bed while it is printing, to cool things off faster. That helps with the warping problem for PLA. Or remove the fan guard for the bed fan, to increase the air intake for the bed fan.

Maybe that can be the solution to my splitting... I don't have guard in my bed fan, so it's fully applied to the part...
Ahh!!! I noticed that the splitting is ONLY on the side where the fan air is reaching. The other side is fine...

I'm pretty close, some splitting resolution and I'm ready to print something bigger, heavier, complicated...

Gracias, Obrigado for the help!

[Jules]

Yes, try increasing the temperature a little bit for the splitting. Other than that it looks pretty good.

[morganfree]

Ok Jules! I've increased the T° a little bit more and that's it...

Some little/minimum blobs to resolve and I'm totally happy.

Thanks a lot for your help!

[Jules]

De nada!

[morganfree]

Well, I thought everything was going to run smooooth... but no. hahaha
I have problems with square shapes, like in the pictures.

I've increased cooling by adding an extra fan (3/8" 24V) to the bed... and I'm working with 225C for PLA!

First layer, OK. It continues glued to the table. But the subsequent layers... The shape I'm printing know is almost splitting in half at 3-4 mm from the bed. The problem allways starts from the same side where the fan is, at the corners. But gradually is going around the shape.

Rounded parts are OK (as I posted yesterday a picture of a fan shape).

Don't know how to follow:
- More T°?
- I really suspect my PLA has some problem... 1,6mm diameter seems to low, isn't it? Maybe it's too dry. Should that be the reason why I'm using 225C to paste one layer to the other? But it seems is still too low T°...

Thanks a lot for the answers!