Can't print anything, filament won't stay on the print sheet.
Hey, I've been struggling to make sense of why I can no longer print the way that I used to (previously had many successfully prints). Nowadays, the printed filaments keeps sticking and clinging onto the nozzle and creates this ball of a mesh onto the nozzle and hot end itself. Over the years I had to lower and lower the nuzzle closer to the sheet to even make sure it sticks properly
I had tried many things, replace the nozzle, washing the print sheet with hot water and dish soap (which helped fix the issue whenever I use the 'First Layer calibration test,' but failed whenever I print something for real), replacing the print sheet, readjusting the z-axis/distance between the nozzle and print sheet (currently at -1,750 just to successfully cling onto the sheet (leaving a rough first layer print), until it scraps off for getting too close. Anything higher is "too far" away for it to stick to the sheet) and re-adjusting the nozzles distance from the hotend.
I honestly really do not know what to do. I'm sure there's something I'm doing wrong. The only thing I can think of is the cleaning the screw in part inside of the hotend, but the nozzle (below) and metal pipe (above) can't be screwed inwards any further (unless some filament got stuck in the grooves of the screw) or setting up the distance between the nuzzle and the sensor bit, but I'm always unsure.
Is there anything else I can try to do or look into doing?
Thank you
RE:
Please provide detailed photos of the first layer, filament type (when it was bought), ambient conditions you print (such as temperature, humidity) of bed and first layer temperature ( or the best export project with all Paramus az 3mf file and zip it and attach to the post)
You know that some print sheets and filaments will not stick no matter what?
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.
RE: Can't print anything, filament won't stay on the print sheet.
Hi,
Sorry for the late reply.
I tried the basic 'First Layer Calibration test' again , this time failing completely. I don't know why it's failing after the tiny bit of success I had in the last Calibration test I had.
While it's printing out during this test (it always seems to be random), the filament didn't even touch the sheet, it clings onto the edge of the nozzle. Therefore pulling it out midair.
As for the material, I used the PEI sheet that came with the printer, I've been using the official Prusa PLA filament (woah, it's actually bought from 07/08/2020), and you can see the temperature after it's finished of all of the parts below in the picture. Just from the standard temperature for PLA definitely.
I'm guessing it's to do with the out of date filament?
RE: Can't print anything, filament won't stay on the print sheet.
Look into squaring your mini. The leveling algorithm can only compensate for +-1mm. https://help.prusa3d.com/article/squaring-your-mini_158518
You should also be able to raise your PINDA probe a bit. This way you can lower the Z-offset number a bit to get more headroom so you can get closer to the bed.
Printer: Original Prusa Mini+
Nozzles: E3D 0.25, E3D Nozzle X 0.4 , E3D 0.4, Bondtech 0.6 CHL
Printables: Tysonsw
Mastodon: [email protected]
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RE: Can't print anything, filament won't stay on the print sheet.
I'm going to follow up on what Tysonsw posted. It's hard to tell, but it almost appears that your Pinda probe is at the very same level as your nozzle. Prusa recommends that the Pinda be at least 1mm above the nozzle as measured with the thickness of a the zip tie they provide in their kits, if you find that you have to lower your nozzle more than 1mm to dial in your Z offset that you might want to raise the Pinda 1.5mm to 2mm to give you more control.
You talk about the filament spooling up under the nozzle, this tells me your nozzle is way to high above the print surface. If you look at printers that don't use auto bed leveling they typically tell you to set the nozzle about the thickness of a piece of paper above the bed. Your typical sheet of printer paper is about 0.1mm thick which is about 1/4 the thickness of the filament as it leaves the nozzle. To curl like you say it is, then there has to be significant distance between the nozzle and the bed, it has to be greater than 0.4mm otherwise it would contact the bed before being able to curl. Now this assumes that you're using the standard 0.4mm nozzle that comes with Prusa printers. If you've changed out your nozzle to something smaller than 0.4mm then you can get a curl while lower to the bed than with a 0.4mm nozzle.
This page from the Prusa knowledge base does a good job of explaining this: https://help.prusa3d.com/article/first-layer-calibration-i3_112364 when you use the standard Prusa pattern look at the trailing filament and see if it has the right squish, I use a jewelers loop to do this, they're fairly inexpensive, but a good magnifying glass should work also.
Cheers
-Bob
Prusa I3 Mk2 kit upgraded to Mk2.5s, Ender3 with many mods, Prusa Mini kit with Bondtech heat break, Prusa I3 Mk3s+ kit