Waving / Rippling / Low filament
Hello , I am new to 3D printing & I've been lucky to finally receive my Prusa Mini last week and have been printing non stop for the last week . Just recently I have been noticing some weird artifacts with my first layer's which have been causing failed prints . I've done a 2-3 cold pulls with no luck , in addition I have calibrated the bed repeatedly even dropping the Z axis extremely low past what I usually have done in comparison to previous prints . I am using a smooth PEI sheet due to only using PLA . Currently I have the Z Axis set to -0.860 . I usually start seeing this wave/ripple effect around the edges of a print rather than straight lines and It also seems that the amount of filament coming out of the hot end seems low . All help and criticisms are appreciated I will attach some photos below . Thanks !
RE: Waving / Rippling / Low filament
Hi,
The mini is my first printer too, so take my advice with a grain of salt. This looks like the underextrusion issue on the mini where after a certain amount of time the PTFE tube in the nozzle shrinks due to heat, causing filament to get stuck in the hot end and less of it to be extruded. There are a few solutions such as replacing the PTFE tube (there should be a spare that came with the printer), or moving the heaterblock up into the heatsink. Here is a video on how to do that: . Make sure you move the MINDA probe up after you do this.
However, I found these to be only temporary solutions. I just recently installed the Bondtech Heatbreak for the mini and I'm excited to see how it performs because I've heard good things about it. If it works, I think this is the best solution to the underextrusion problem.
I hope this helps, good luck!
RE: Waving / Rippling / Low filament
@classic
Finally A reply back I was losing hope for a moment , appreciate the help I'm also getting into contact with Prusa's live support chat . The button on the LCD screen just gave out also . I will check this out and give it a try !
RE: Waving / Rippling / Low filament
To me it looks like the nozzle is not low enough - you should not be seeing those lines. When you pull this first layer off of the bed, are those lines separating ? If so, it shows there is not enough squish as each of those lines should meld with the previous one as it is laid down on the bed.
Texy