Have a CR-10s-pro i am working on dialing in with my son. Wrestling with a PLA print of an articulated slug where were are running 0.1 passes for the first time. Slowed the machine down to 30mm and the resolution of the print is ok with the big exception of the far side of the y axis … the back of piece if you are standing at the front of the print. Not the bottom. Trying to get my head around why/what would impact printing on one side of the part, that would cause it to degrade like this. Any direction would be appreciated. This is the first print with Pura Slicer. All others done natively in the CrealityCloud. Thank you
Can you post a picture? I’m not sure if you are referring to the horizontal or vertical resolution. I’m guessing the bed surface isn’t flat. Run a straight edge over the bed and shine a light from the the other side. Look for gaps and how the gaps change as you run the straight edge across the bed surface.
FWIW, my favorite site with information and how-to’s for calibrating an FDM printer is this one: https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html
Cheers
P.S. – I personally will not use the Creality Cloud because it lacks protections for content creators. People are uploading STLs purchased elsewhere and making them freely available for download.
Bed is definitely warped in the middle. Sunk down. I worked through a bit of the config/setup link today. Nothing terribly awry so far.
Not sure if the CR-10s Pro (not the V2?) has Automatic Bed Levelling, but it can help with situations like this.
It is the V@ with the ABL. I feels like that may be causing more problems than it is supposed to help. I spent yesterday doing all the configuration for the bed leveling, samples X’s, sample squares. Got it pretty dialed in except for the sunken area in the middle so I added some paper under the plate and that helped bring it up. Used Cura to slice a file and sent it over. It automatically added the mesh ABL command. The print head ended up being way to high and the print failed. Is there a setting in Cura or slicers in general that would set the head higher than what is setup at the machine? Other than the ABL I can’t figure out why the head would all of sudden be high after all that config.
An unlevel bed certainly doesn’t help. I recall some early Ender owners placing a piece of aluminum foil between the print surface and the aluminum bed, which might help if the ABL doesn’t fix the first layer.
Thanks for posting the picture. Are you printing PLA or PETG or ?? Also, who is the manufacturer of the filament? As you go through Teaching Tech’s calibration site, be sure to adjust the e-steps, print a temperature tower, and a retraction test. These all might be related to your problem–at least those are the places I’d start.
Cheers
P.S. – Teaching Tech has a number of YouTube videos on your printer, including upgrades/mods, that might be interesting. Hopefully, Creality has fixed the lack of thermal runaway protection in firmware updates since he did his videos.
I have heard others complain that ABL seems to cause them issues, but it really shouldn’t. It may be, because you have it enabled, that you need to readjust the Z Offset down somewhat. Have you done the test where 5 one layer squares are printed, 1 in each corner & 1 in the center?
Thank you. Polymaker PLA. Been working through those videos. Haven’t done the e step calibration yet. Yes done the 5 squares test a bunch along with the big X. That is how I got it set. Hollow single wall cubes printed great. I am going to pass the code over without ABL tonight and try again. I appreciate the responses.
Polymaker PLA – where there goes one hypothesis (bad filament). What temperature is the hotend? Maybe try lowering the temperature and slowing the printer down (to allow for more cooling).
I’ve printed that model but had to use a brim to keep it on the bed, so you are ahead of me there!
Cheers
Could be but it was printing well all day yesterday. The single wall open cubes for example were dead on. Running at 200 / 60 which is perfect (as best as I can tell) for all the test squares and pattern. Soon as I printed this it all went out the door. Going to try again, reset the bed and then run the file without ABL.
ABL just fixes broken (bend) print surfaces and supports laziness. 
I next to never level my print surfaces. Last time in march 2021.
Level when the printer is pre heated and before starting the first print on a cold printer, preheat again. -> no issues at all.
If the bed is not warped, the lack of pre heating a few minutes is the entire reason why first prints are of in one direction or following prints are of in the other direction.
If the bed is warped, then fix the bed. ABL will not magically repair your printer. It just prints a curved part to match it, which is not what I would want.
The printer simply deforms when being heated, so it should be calibrated in that state and prints should be started in that state to match the initial calibration.
Using the ABL sensor just as an Z-Endstop is fine and useful, btw. This allows you to swap types of bed sheets with different thickness.
Good that the printer is doing a good job making those prints. I have some Polyalchemy Elixir blend and think it suffered from more stringing and needed more cooling then other PLA, like Hatchbox or Matterhacker Build. A significant difference between the test squares and the slug model is the number of retractions. Were you able to print a retraction test? What are the print speeds, acceleration, jerk, and coasting settings (or linear advance)?
Cheers
P.S. – The only thing worse that no ABL is an ABL that doesn’t work properly (yes, I’m lazy ? but I wouldn’t keep a printer that required ABL probing before every print). I think that TeachingTech mentioned Creality’s poor implementation of the ABL in this printer in one of his videos. He loaded an alternative open-source firmware to fix the problem.
I don’t agree about an ABL being a lazy way to do things :D. Unless you’re prepared to install a 1/2" thick MIC-6 aluminum printbed, an ABL is useful. Yes, it could mean the bottom of a print is very slightly warped, but it won’t matter for most prints. Combined with Klipper, an ABL can work wonders. Also, Marlin can do it right too. The Prusa line of printers is proof. Its Marlin firmware is very highly tuned.
Agreed on eliminating the ABL on each print. Cura is adding the gcode that I am going to eliminate. A retraction test is on the docket for today. Did a few other fun prints with my son to get past the monotony of all the calibration test and the flatter the design the higher the quality. When we went to the big head octopus the top of the parts that were all curved were lower quality, fuzzy and not clean. I appreciate the engagement on the conversation.
Interesting, I recently went back to running a bed mesh on every print.
Did you ever solve the problem of one side of the part not being smooth? I’m experiencing it now on a vase mode print in PETG (on a well-calibrated non-Ender printer).
Cheers!