How to print PCTG with Prusa 4S ?  

RE:

I should note, I haven't printed with PCTG yet. My first two spools won't be arriving until Wednesday (UPS willing).

In PrusaSlicer (I assume that is the slicer you are using) these two settings are in the filament settings. This is a fairly basic setting, and if you are asking about them I can only assume that you are just beginning your journey in 3D printing. Welcome to the party. 😀 I found a fairly decent beginner's guide to PrusaSlicer. You should probably watch the full video, but in regards to this specific question, the section on filament settings begins at time 16:34 as stated in the chapter guide in the video description.

Additionally, 3D-Fuel supplies two profiles (MK4S HF 0.4mm and MK4S HF 0.6mm) that you can download from here:

https://support.3dfuel.com/hc/en-us/articles/22046343945495-Pro-PCTG-Print-Profiles  

And then import the downloaded .ini configuration bundle into PrusaSlicer. This will provide you with profiles for high-flow 0.4mm and 0.6mm nozzles. If plan on not using a high flow nozzle or a different size nozzle, you can use these profiles as a starting point to create a profile for the nozzle you intend to use.

RE: How to print PCTG with Prusa 4S ?

Yeah, aggravating that the print profile doesn't import correctly, or doesn't show the new PCTG filament in the list.

I supposed it's because I don't have HF nozzles? But even though I did the MK4 to MK4s upgrade supposedly the CHT nozzles are HF according to: https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/english-forum-original-prusa-i3-mk4s-user-mods/a-bit-confused-about-the-nozzles-cht-vs-hf/

Wish people would update their documentation, it's been more confusing than it has to be.

In the end I'm still unsure if the .ini import from 3DFuel is simply not working, or isn't working because I'm supposed to pick the MK4s HF profile, even though I'm not confident that's right.

RE: How to print PCTG with Prusa 4S ?

Posted by: @jpmakesstuff-2

Yeah, aggravating that the print profile doesn't import correctly, or doesn't show the new PCTG filament in the list.

I supposed it's because I don't have HF nozzles? But even though I did the MK4 to MK4s upgrade supposedly the CHT nozzles are HF according to: https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/english-forum-original-prusa-i3-mk4s-user-mods/a-bit-confused-about-the-nozzles-cht-vs-hf/

Wish people would update their documentation, it's been more confusing than it has to be.

In the end I'm still unsure if the .ini import from 3DFuel is simply not working, or isn't working because I'm supposed to pick the MK4s HF profile, even though I'm not confident that's right.

Yeah, the two profiles are intended for HF nozzles. If you don't use HF nozzles, but want to be able to access these profiles there are three ways that I can think of off the top of my head to do it.

1. Install the profiles for 0.4mm HF nozzle for the MK4S in the configuration wizard. Select this HF profile that you aren't going to use to actually create a gcode and then go into the filament profile drop down. The newly installed PCTG profile will be a the bottom in the "User Profiles" section. Choose it and go to the filament dependencies and change at the end of the Compatible printers condition string "printer_notes=~/.*HF_NOZZLE.*/" to "printer_notes!=~/.*HF_NOZZLE.*/". (Note the addition of the exclamation point before the equal sign.) Save this out as "3D-Fuel Pro PCTG @MK4S 0.4". If you don't like the clutter of unused printers in your printer profile drop-down, you'll need to run the configuration wizard again to remove the HF profile.
2. If you don't want to install a printer configuration that you'll never use, go into Preferences and in the General tab find "Show incompatible print and filament presets:" and enable that setting if off. When you go into the Filament profile tab there should now be a green flag icon, the 4th icon to the right of the filament profile dropdown. Click this flag to turn it red. Now when you open the filament profile dropdown you will see EVERY installed filament (this will be a long list that takes forever to scroll through). Scroll to the bottom to the "User Profiles" section of the list and select the 0.4mmHF PCTG profile. Make the changes to the dependencies and save the changed profile as described above. Now you should see the PCTG profile when the flag icon is green for your non high flow MK4S 0.4 printer.
3. Or, completely outside of PrusaSlicer, you can open the .ini file in a text editor (it's just and ASCII file, after all) and edit the dependency and profile name manually. Then re-import the ini file as before.

I'm not sure if there are any other settings tweaks to do for optimal performance on a standard flow nozzle. I used the compare presets to compare the Prusament PETG 0.4mm to the Prusament PEGT HF0.4mm profiles, and I only see a few differences. The max volumetric speed is 24 for the HF vs. 12 for the standard flow, but 3D-Fuel only specified a flow of 10 for their profiles. There are different ramming parameters, but I'm not sure how to decipher those to spot differences (I also don't use an MMU). There is the obvious difference in the compatible printers (basically the a similar change to what I instructed, above). There are some small tweaks in the M572 S values (like 0.053 vs 0.05), I'm not sure how big a difference that makes. And the HF profile has a max non-crossing infill speed of 200, where the standard profile that is set to 0 meaning no limit. But that might be because this parameter was added to PrusaSlicer between when the two profiles were created.

RE: How to print PCTG with Prusa 4S ?

I am also making my first steps with printing PCTG on an MK4S, 0.4 mm ObXidian nozzle (non-HF). I have FormFutura AthenaX filament, which is PCTG. I found the following profile for PCTG in PrusaSlicer: Fiberlogy PCTG. I am currently calibrating the tolerances for it, because the parts I am printing require matching sizes between parts from PLA and PCTG. To get the same size matching as between PLA to PLA parts (which is very good, I am using FormFutura MattPLA, printing with the profile for Polymaker Polyterra PLA) I have to increase the "Shrinkage compensation X/Y" for the PCTG parts, as they came out a bit too small and the fit was too loose. I have increased the value from 1% to 2%t and think that 2.5% (which I am currently printing) will be correct, the parts with 2% were just a little bit too small. Otherwise I have not changed any other parameters in the Fiberlogy profile and the prints come out fine.

RE: How to print PCTG with Prusa 4S ?

Small detail not answered yet: CHT is high flow (HF) nozzle

RE: How to print PCTG with Prusa 4S ?

Posted by: @strjan

Small detail not answered yet: CHT is high flow (HF) nozzle

I thought it was answered... But to be more clear, CHT is a type of high flow nozzle, just like a Toyota Tacoma is a type of pickup truck and a MK4S is a type of 3D printer.

RE:

Posted by: @walter-layher

I am also making my first steps with printing PCTG on an MK4S, 0.4 mm ObXidian nozzle (non-HF). I have FormFutura AthenaX filament, which is PCTG. I found the following profile for PCTG in PrusaSlicer: Fiberlogy PCTG. I am currently calibrating the tolerances for it, because the parts I am printing require matching sizes between parts from PLA and PCTG. To get the same size matching as between PLA to PLA parts (which is very good, I am using FormFutura MattPLA, printing with the profile for Polymaker Polyterra PLA) I have to increase the "Shrinkage compensation X/Y" for the PCTG parts, as they came out a bit too small and the fit was too loose. I have increased the value from 1% to 2%t and think that 2.5% (which I am currently printing) will be correct, the parts with 2% were just a little bit too small. Otherwise I have not changed any other parameters in the Fiberlogy profile and the prints come out fine.

Interesting. I didn't realize that there was another PCTG profile supplied with PrusaSlicer. For the peanut gallery, here is the comparison between Fiberlogy PCTG as supplied with PrusaSlicer and 3D-Fuel PCTG as supplied from 3D-Fuel (the only change is I added the spool weight based on one of 3D-Fuel's blog entries):

A couple big differences that I see is the fan speeds and the max volumetric flow(MVF). 3D-Fuel seems to like much faster fans, but is super conservative on MVF.

I expanded the "Start G-code" line to see what the differences are and it just appears to be one specified nozzle [0] and the other specified nozzle [filament_extruder_id] in the nested if statement. The M572 S values for the different nozzle sizes are the same (and AFAIR are the same as the PrusaSlicer provided generic PETG preset so I don't know if anyone tuned those values).

It would be interesting to compare the performance of the two profiles on 3D-Fuel's filament.

RE: How to print PCTG with Prusa 4S ?

I can't say a lot yet about how the parts are fitting together, because the printer is in the middle of a 2-day print job, but the bed adhesion for this filament is excellent. After over 24 hours no lifting off of the corners for parts with long straight lines, no glue on the bed. Sorry for the image quality, but this is a screenshot from a moving printer. I won't touch it unless I absolutely have to! 🙂

RE:

Update after the job was finished: None of the parts came loose on this 49 hour print job with PCTG, not even one corner was detached or curled up. Happy with the results.

Screenshot showing the parts on the bed. It is from the 12-bay NAS case from MakerUnit. It is a paid model, so posting a link would not get you access to the file, that is why I just have a screenshot.

RE: How to print PCTG with Prusa 4S ?

Posted by: @walter-layher

Update after the job was finished: None of the parts came loose on this 49 hour print job with PCTG, not even one corner was detached or curled up. Happy with the results.

Congratulations. Out of curiosity, what filament preset did you use? The Fiberlogy PCTG or 3D-Fuel PCTG? And this was with x-y correction of 2.5%? Any correction on the z?

RE:

I used the Fiberlogy profile, I only heard about the 3D-Fuel one after I had already started. I printed some calibration parts first that are part of this model and got up to 2.5% for x/y correction. Then I printed the joining bracket for the tiles for mounting the motherboard and that one was too big to insert into the slots in the tiles. So I went back to 1% and that one had a tight fit. I used no correction for the z value. Tomorrow I will test how the other parts fit together and begin to assemble the parts that I have printed so far. This is the link to the model, the assembly instructions are accessible without paying for the model:
https://www.printables.com/model/1278847-12-bay-atx-nas-case

RE: How to print PCTG with Prusa 4S ?

Thank you for your answer and sorry for delay, I wasn't at my Office since view days.

RE: How to print PCTG with Prusa 4S ?

3D-Fuel updated the published PrusaSlicer profiles. They split the two MK4S HF profiles into individual files and added a CORE One profile. I don't think they exported them properly because I'm unable to import them properly now and get a new profile. Instead they seem to be importing as a modified version of the profile that they modified...

RE: How to print PCTG with Prusa 4S ?

Hello everyone,

Thank you again for your contributions. I now understand how to set Prusa Slicer, especially with Walter’s solution

However, there is a question: when I load the PCTG wire, the printer asks me what type of wire. And the PCTG profile does not exist in the proposed list. How would you do it?

RE: How to print PCTG with Prusa 4S ?

You can add user profiles for new filaments in the display of the printer, I think it is under Filaments > Manage Filaments. In this menu you scroll down to the end, there you can enable additional filament types, called "USER1", "USER2" and so on. I am quoting from memory, both of my MK4S are busy at the moment, the names could be slightly different. After enabling, e.g "USER1" you can go to the menu "'Edit Filaments", scroll down to the just enabled new type and there change the name, e.g. to "PCTG", deleting the "USER1" part, as the max. number of characters for the name is limited. You can also set up the required temp values for the filament, i.e. hotend, bed, preheat (temp for bed probing).
After that procedure the filament type is selectable when you load new filament.

RE: How to print PCTG with Prusa 4S ?

In between prints I made some photos of the screens. Hope this helps. 🙂