I made this part, it is supposed to be the top part of my patio string light part. Several things are problems so I will ask 3 different questions. Should I ask them in 3 threads or in a single thread in the future?
The base of the part printed with what looks like individual strings and not like a solid piece.
The issue is more pronounced at the top of the picture. Is this because the nozzle starts too high from the bed? I will check this on a different sample to zero in on this.
when it was printing the top the nozzle seemed to get stuck on the piece and started dragging it around. There are several pieces of string that didn’t attach because of this.
It seems like I will be printing a lot of wasted parts, is there a known less expensive filament that generates reasonable results, something to keep the budget at a reasonable level?
Hi, you need to do a lot of testing what is best for the combination of your printer, your filament and your model. Don’t worry, keep printing, you get better at it.
Some say that white filament is the hardest to print.
Do you have a Creality Ender-3 S1 Pro? Then you have the Sprite Pro extruder with CR Touch and Spring Steel PEI bed?
They say to use 0.8 mm extrusion, some Youtubers say 0.9 mm and I have the best results with 0.4 or 1.2 mm for the Sprite Pro, using the Teaching Tech site: https://teachingtechyt.github.io/
Yes, your first layer is too high or too cold or too thin or too fast or your bed is not clean.
Wipe the bed with some kind of alcohol. Check that your bed and hotend temperatures are what the manufacturer says. For PLA, I use 62 for the bed and 215 for most PLA filaments. For PLA, 60 is the maximum, but I wanted to make it stick a little better.
As a beginner, use a raft. When you are good at 3D printen, then a brim or raft if often not needed.
Check that your CR Touch is working, use it every time before printing. Did you also manually level the bed?
Use the newest slicer (the Cura slicer or the Prusa slicer), set the lowest layer to 0.2 and not lower. Use a lower speed, for example 20mm/s. Set the fan slow (10% or 30%) for the first few layers.
Same problem, not enough bed adhesion.
Don’t buy just any cheap filament.
In Europe it is possible to buy filament with free shipping (if buying enough) for a reduced price. AzureFilm has “UNSET” and Aurapol has “2. quality” mix. I have less good experience with cheap filament, but the “UNSET” PLA and PETG from AzureFilm is my favorite. I did not use Auropol filaments yet.
Printing inside a overhanging round corner can be hard. If you make the filament wider (for example 0.5 with a 0.4 nozzle) and thinner (for example 0.16 layer height) then overhang is easier to print.
Cura has a setting to lower the speed for overhang, I print at 50% speed when the overhang is 45 degrees or more.
Perhaps less fan (50% instead of 80%) will also help.
Hopefully someone with more experience will jump in, I am very much a newbie. Have you set you Z offset? I was getting very frustrated with similar issues and I had forgotten to set my Z offset. Bed adhesion issues perhaps.
