Newbie issues with first print

[lexis200]

Hi Advil,

Thanks for your continued help with this (Kaktus too), you must be nearly as frustrated as me!

The PLA filament is direct from Geeetech, PLA 1.75mm. Brand new and vacuum packed when I got it.

I re-levelled the plate and made sure to hit OK to save it, I'm not convinced that the system is remembering the Z axis offset so I'll keep an eye on that.

I downloaded Slic3r PE, and added the profile as you directed. I like how it prints the line down the side, so it clears the nozzle before the print, something I think my prints were suffering from due to snagging.

Now to the good news, I got something to print (well sort of). I opened the calibration cube, checked the profile was correct, then exported as a .gcode file. I copied that to the microSD card, and set it to print on the A30. I measured the temp of the plate and confirmed it was 59-60 degrees during the print.

The config cube started to print, but then after a few layers (maybe 6 or 7) it came unstuck again. So this time, I stopped the print then went straight to the levelling page, and sent the head to position 5. The nozzle basically stuck itself straight into the plate, and I had to increase the offset from 0.6 to 1.25 just to get the paper to move which I thought was a bit strange. I checked the other points a couple of times, then hit OK on the panel to save the offset. Then I tried the print again.

This time it got to layer 15 before coming unstuck I've attached a couple of photos

IMG_20181207_222302.jpg (98.6 KiB) Viewed 10347 times

IMG_20181207_222235.jpg (147.21 KiB) Viewed 10347 times

I rechecked the offset and it was still 1.25 so at least that stayed as it should.

I'm going to play around with the profile now, to try to emulate the settings gerryd646 had for his successful print in the link Kaktus posted earlier.

Back in a bit!

[advil]

Ok, I'm a little too new to just look at that and know what's going on. It'd be great if someone more experienced could chime in with ideas.


But let's start at the first thing that didn't work... the brim layers around the bottom of that didn't work at all. I've printed a dozen of those cubes and it should look worlds better.

It's like it's stringing up... and just looking at it maybe not extruding enough either? But for all the world I don't see squish. Like it's not close enough to the bed. I don't want you do run a scratch across the bed if you are swearing it's set correctly but the filament should be spread evenly in a line that's compressed a little of the top and bottom. That all stll look very ROUND like it never got compressed to begin with. Which could be because the head isn't close enough to the bed... OR because it's not enough being extruded.

It also looks like it might not be enough extrusion, but that's where my experience lacks here. That pic is messy enough I'm a bit lost.

So, you could as a sanity check use your LCD screen to heat up the filament to 210 or 220... just leave the head in the home position where it hangs off the bed, bring it up to temp and extrude quite a few inches of material. Just let it flow for a few seconds. Then stop it, remove it, and measure it with good calipers in several places in the middle of the extrude where it's consistently full diameter (not at the end where it's petering out and getting thinner). How big around is the extrusion? PLA will always swell a little when it comes out of the nozzle so you could get anything from say .4mm to .55mm+. But if you get something like .30 or .68 then we can be pretty sure it's not a .4 nozzle no matter what it's marked.

Also, of more importance maybe you should calibrate your extruder if you havn't yet. Use the smartto motor utility for the A30, hook up your computer to the control box on USB, and do the 100mm extrusion test and calibrate the number of steps. The G-code for the control line is:
G1 E100 F30 (extrude 100mm filament at feed 30). Just FYI I found the utility glitchy and I could only do that command once without restarting the smartto program then you can do it once more. No idea why. Not a big deal.
Maybe you aren't extruding anywhere close to the right amount. Mine was off a good 20+% under what it should have been. Maybe yours is WAY low. So low it's not laying down a decent line of filament at all. From what I've read pretty much all 3D printers need this calibrated out of the box before you get very far.

An idea for a a quick and dirty way to see if your extrusion steps is way off too low would be to turn up the extrusion multiplier in Slic3r to about 1.4 and just let it start printing the brim part of the cube again and see if it's suddenly clearly better. (IE: laying down a real bead and sticking... doesn't matter how good it looks yet.)

I'm just running off things I've read and learned recently. Again, I'm just a new user helping a new user. If someone here knows better, CORRECT ME please.

[lexis200]

OK, there's definitely something up with remembering the Z axis offset. I turned the printer off last night having not changed it from 1.25. When I turned it on this morning I went straight to the levelling page and sent the nozzle to position 5. The offset showed 1.25 on the screen, but the paper was very loose, and didn't start to make contact with the nozzle until I adjusted it to 0.95.

That said, following changes made using the settings gerryd646 used, and some other changes, I'm now printing successfully!

Advil, thanks for the pointers on calibrating the extruder, I haven't done that yet, but as soon as my current print finishes, I will, as I'm sure there's always room for improvement in the 3D printing world! Proof it's printing...

part pooh bear.jpg (84.36 KiB) Viewed 10307 times

For reference in the future and to help anyone else with problems here's what I've learned:

I use Slic3r Prusa Edition, and the A30 Slic3r Prusa Edition config (see posts above for links). It's worth playing around with settings in there, then outputting the gcode and seeing what happens.

I re-level after turning the printer on EVERY time now. For some reason, it seems to come up with a random Z axis offset each time so I just don't trust it. It nearly always tries to stuff the nozzle into the plate when I first go to position 5, and an adjustment of between 0.20 and 0.40 is always required. Annoying, but at least I've found the issue and it's an easy fix.

My plate doesn't seem to like sticking unless it's 60 degrees, so I've set that as standard in the Slic3r config

The profile extrudes a line down the far right of the plate before the actual print, that seemed to be the most critical thing after proper levelling of the plate, as it clears out the gunk from the nozzle and gets the flow going. I print at 50% speed for the first layer, and always have Brim turned on, but change the Brim width depending on the footprint of the item being printed (3mm for large footprints, 67mm for small footprints). First layer is at 225 degrees, dropping to 220 degrees for subsequent layers.

A big Thanks to all for their help, hopefully as I get more into it, I'll be able to help others and pay it back!

Cheers!

[_kaktus_]

Hi


Pooh Bear is great

[advil]

That's a good looking print. Glad you have it working.

Where's the info you got from gerryd646? I'm sure that would help more new people out.

[_kaktus_]

Do you mean the link from my post # 7 on this topic

[advil]

Ahh that was the poster's name from the other thread. Didn't make that connection thanks.

[lexis200]

Correct Kaktus

I think the most important change I made was using the the Slic3r PE profile from this thread: https://www.geeetech.com/forum/viewtopi ... 65&t=61905, and increasing the temps for both plate to 60C and nozzle to 225/220C. I'm using Geeetech PLA which states a recommended nozzle temp of 200C, but that just didn't work for me.

IMG_20181211_220203_Bokeh.jpg (157.68 KiB) Viewed 10272 times

Yes, Winnie the Pooh is awesome! Just need to paint him now, like this https://www.thingiverse.com/make:552502

[burgi400]

Hi, i have the same issues with manuel leveling (to close, to far, sometines leveling is not really possible), but this can't be the normal behaviour. Have you found a solution for that?