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Help a Beginner with PETG?  

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Lupin
(@lupin)
Estimable Member
RE: Update

And I forgot to tell, that I dropped temperatures: 230 on first layer and 240 after it.

Posted : 31/08/2021 1:05 pm
norwegianblue
(@norwegianblue)
Active Member
Topic starter answered:
Thank you for the information and help!

OK, I really appreciate it!  Will keep trying a few things on my end. I've been able to get other things to print with the same filament a bit more consistently.  Did the 20x20 thin wall box calibration for extrusion and that helped things a but as well.  Still getting the occasional snot blob, though.   Will tweak temperatures a but more and try draft to see what happens.  I've ordered some different filament (atomic PETG) to try as well, just to see if there's something with this particular brand/color/batch that is giving me fits.

As to the mini itself: yeah, so far I'm really enjoying it.  With PLA, it has been pretty much plug and play, for me.  Default settings out of the box work beautifully!  Combined with octoprint (they really should embed that...), it's fantastic!

Posted by: @lupin

And I forgot to tell, that I dropped temperatures: 230 on first layer and 240 after it.

 

Posted : 31/08/2021 4:24 pm
Lupin
(@lupin)
Estimable Member
RE: Udate

Looks like I should not try to take photos late. All trash, Anyway. Most likely the temperature drop was effective. Fan speed does now do much, as there's a setting when to increase fan speed, default was "if layer print time is shorter than 15 seconds". Well, layer print time is longer than that, we are interested in one defined perimeter or shape on that layer. Also, the detect thin walls likely has not much effect.

I'll try to produce photos tomorrow.

Posted : 31/08/2021 7:47 pm
Lupin
(@lupin)
Estimable Member
RE: Update

Here's a rather poor picture of the right edge of the more complex part. The two tabs have slight deformation at the beginning. Higher up they are ok. This was printed with quality settings.

So what i think of this so far:

Lowering the temperature by 10 degrees (230 at first layer, 240 after that) helped most. If I print this in draft setting, especially with these lower temperatures, there are no deformations. Other settings don't make much difference. I have not tried to turn it 180 degrees, i.e. chin towards back, that might help with these side tabs (cooling reaches them more easily), but turning would likely cause similar defects near the top of the "head", where the continuous perimeter would shadow the tabs from cooling.

I'm at loss on how to get perfect print out without tweaking so many parameters and doing test prints ( I have done only 5, but I feel this is enough for now).

I don't know why the lower part of the tabs are worse, but can speculate. Maybe the print below and the heat bed warms up enough that these parts heat up too much, perhaps the coolers breeze does not reach near the surface so well (maybe redesign blowers output?).

Anyway, with these settings the part comes out good enough that it can be used, I think. Those deformations are very slight and likely won't cause any problems in use.

I will cease printing these unless someone comes up with a good suggestion on what to try next.

Meanwhile I likely change the nozzle to E3D Nozzle X, and replace PTFE tubing with Capricorn's PTFE tubing. (Slight tweaks to my mini). These changes have only little effect on printing (I hope). Most notably I need to raise the printing temperature 5 degrees or so because the Steel nozzle is not as good heat conduct as brass.

Posted : 03/09/2021 4:55 pm
norwegianblue
(@norwegianblue)
Active Member
Topic starter answered:
Thanks!

Thanks so much for the help!  I've lowered my temps 15 degrees each and printed with draft and was able to get a usable print as well.  There was deformation in the same spots, but not nearly as rough and as you said, usable, so I'm happy with that.  Will continue to experiment, just to see what all I can learn.  Again, appreciate your help!

Posted by: @lupin

Here's a rather poor picture of the right edge of the more complex part. The two tabs have slight deformation at the beginning. Higher up they are ok. This was printed with quality settings.

So what i think of this so far:

Lowering the temperature by 10 degrees (230 at first layer, 240 after that) helped most. If I print this in draft setting, especially with these lower temperatures, there are no deformations. Other settings don't make much difference. I have not tried to turn it 180 degrees, i.e. chin towards back, that might help with these side tabs (cooling reaches them more easily), but turning would likely cause similar defects near the top of the "head", where the continuous perimeter would shadow the tabs from cooling.

I'm at loss on how to get perfect print out without tweaking so many parameters and doing test prints ( I have done only 5, but I feel this is enough for now).

I don't know why the lower part of the tabs are worse, but can speculate. Maybe the print below and the heat bed warms up enough that these parts heat up too much, perhaps the coolers breeze does not reach near the surface so well (maybe redesign blowers output?).

Anyway, with these settings the part comes out good enough that it can be used, I think. Those deformations are very slight and likely won't cause any problems in use.

I will cease printing these unless someone comes up with a good suggestion on what to try next.

Meanwhile I likely change the nozzle to E3D Nozzle X, and replace PTFE tubing with Capricorn's PTFE tubing. (Slight tweaks to my mini). These changes have only little effect on printing (I hope). Most notably I need to raise the printing temperature 5 degrees or so because the Steel nozzle is not as good heat conduct as brass.

 

Posted : 05/09/2021 4:57 am
Lupin
(@lupin)
Estimable Member
RE: Thanks!

You are welcome. Had I had properly time to focus on this, I might have tried to modify the part cooler's mouth piece so that it would blow more efficiently. Likely would try to attach some sort of air guide first before fully printing new piece for mini.

Anyway, I got usable piece out of this while using quality settings and lower temperature. I had Prusament PETG which seemed to produce good enough result that way. Also, @norwegianblue if you want me to try something else, just ask.

If the more experienced forum readers have other good suggestions to what to try next, I'm willing to sacrifice more PETG for empirical testing.

This post was modified 3 years ago by Lupin
Posted : 05/09/2021 4:50 pm
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