hello
i am completely new here in the forum. about my situation: our company has bought a 3d printer and i have been assigned to learn how to print models with various materials for our company (and customers). I am still on PLA and have printed a vase via the Youtube Chanel. This was not done using the vase mode in Cura but using the extra settings so that the wall thickness is better and the printing is faster. now there is a kind of branching on the inside of the vase. can someone tell me why?
I use a Ultimaker Connect 2+ and (for now) the regular PLA sent with the printer. The settings were according to the YouTube video.
Thank you very much in advance
Kind regards
First, welcome.
Second, it’s much easier to diagnose things if you post photos. For example, the term “branching” could mean different things to different people.
I see what you mean. It doesn’t look like it was done in vase mode for sure.
What you have there, from what I see, is stringing. It can be caused by a number of things: temperature, retraction, amount of cooling, type and brand of filament. I think what we need now is some particulars on the settings you used: what temps (hotend and bed), what retraction value was used. You already said it’s PLA. Also, is this a direct drive or Bowden Tube printer?
I’m by no means an expert in FDM printing and have had relatively good luck with my models. I’ve been printing in PLA for a little over a year and wanted to try TPU and PETG. I added some mods to my printer and then went down that rabbit hole
There is a YouTube Channel call ‘Lost in Tech’ that has a real good video on using several Cura calibration shapes to help with tuning for stringing and temps. This is the link How to improve printing TPU on Ender 3 V2 and other Bowden Printers - reduce or remove stringing. - YouTube
I know in the video it is for TPU, but maybe it can help you with your PLA situation. I took me several hours to run through these steps, but I am please at how it helped with configuring my settings for both TPU and PETG. If you try this my suggestion is to take the results of the first calibration test and use that setting in the config for the next shape and so on.
Good luck
Larry
being able to name the issue already helps a lot.
its a Bowden Tube printer. I used the PLA that came with the printer - it’s the Ultimaker PLA Silver Metallic 2.85mm.
As for the settings: I used standard settings for temperature, speed and travel speed.
printing temperature 210°C
build plate temperature 60°C
print speed 50mm/s
travel speed 120mm/s
I read that I should lower the temp, and reduce the printing speed, maybe also increase the travel speed. By increasing the printing temp is 5°C enough or too much or what scales are we talking of?
thanks BTW also for the link, I’m gonna watch it now
StudioL
In reading your original post it sounds like you’re experiencing first hand the last bullet point on your job description “and duties as assigned”. I experienced the same thing. My post high school training was as a draftsman. At my first job I was set in front of a ‘computer’ and told to learn to program it…
Before printing different models with different settings and questioning the results lets take a step back.
First, by any chance was there an SD card or flash drive that came with your printer? If so there are probably print files on there that should be specifically tuned to this printer. Try printing one and see how it looks.
Second since this is an Ultimaker machine I’m assuming your using Cura. Was the correct printer selected for the profile? I had a bad stringing/bridging issue a few months ago and it turned out that with all the fiddling I was doing on the profile I was using really making my models worse. Going back to the default printer settings improved my models and then I could adjust the profiles to tune in results.
Cura has an obscene amount of settings that can be tweaked. And making multiple tweaks at the same time makes it really hard to figure out what the real problem is so it’s best go back to a fresh start and try the calibration models first to at least get the temps and retractions established and then move on to other issues and their related settings. I found YouTube can be your friend, but only make one change at a time to verify the results.
Lastly, I don’t use an Ultimaker, but they do have a support forum that looks really good. If not a member maybe join that forum and ask questions there too.
Good advice to print some of the models that came with the printer. Also, I had no idea this printer uses 2.85mm filament. Hardly any do anymore. I am not sure how that might affect your models.
You mentioned in your last about increasing the temperature by 5C, rather than lowering it. I would suggest you print a temperature tower. There are many available on Thingiverse and Printables. Be aware, most do NOT automatically set the temperature changes. You have to do that in the slicer. There is a Post Processing addin for Cura that lets you tell Cura to change the temperature at specific layers.
Hello
Sorry for my late reply… Im in quite a hurry with a lot of urgent projects.
Indeed you are right Larry, ‘teach it yourself’ is kind of the attitude. For such a complex field like 3D printing it is rather challenging without some sort of course.
I did print ‘benchy’ the calibration model provided with the printer. It printed smoothly which is why I changed to more challenging things. However after watching the video that Ender5r suggested I will definitely take a step back and start with Cura’s calibration Models to figure out where the problem might be.
As for the selected printer: It is the right printer. and I am also a member at Ultimaker forum. I joined here since I the problem occurred after following the steps of one of the YouTube videos.
Why is there two different types of filaments anyway?
There is more difficulty heating 2.85/3mm filament quickly enough to be extruded at the speeds people want to use these days. You wind up with melted filament on the outside and semi-solid filament at the core. At one time this wasn’t such an issue since the printers were very slow.