What causes these holes on walls?  

RE: What causes these holes on walls?

This might be a filament problem.  It doesn't look like the classic damp filament flow interruptions but if there were popping or fizzing sounds during the print try drying it; I've no experience with damp ASA so I'm unsure of the diagnosis.

The nearest to this I have seen was caused when a certain young lady spilled milk (I think) on a spool of PLA without telling me but that discoloured around the bad adhesion spots which also were bigger.  If you had a light splatter of something onto a spool that interfered with layer adhesion it might look something like this.  Try a different spool of filament to see if it recurs.

Cheerio,

RE: What causes these holes on walls?

@diem

Hi and thank you for your insight! I am relatively new to 3d printing (got the mini+ and filament at the end of january) and wanted to avoid issues by getting the more expensive prusament.

I had fizzing and popping sounds with this white asa ever since I opened the originally packed spool about 3 weeks ago ☹️ and no, it never got wet. It has been in a closet and in a zipped bag (when not in use)

I guess i will have to look into how to dry it?

But it still makes me sad that i guess the quality is not that great?

RE: What causes these holes on walls?

@diem

Oh and may I ask how long a spool of PLA or ASA can usually be exposed to the open air before going "bad"? 

Can it be "wet" just because of not being in a vacuum sealed bag for about 3 weeks?

RE: What causes these holes on walls?

@chrisp

Try reducing the retracht settings. Do you work with octoprint? Hotend/nozzle clean, extruder Idler spring tension ok?

RE: What causes these holes on walls?

Posted by: @chrisp

 

I am relatively new to 3d printing (got the mini+ and filament at the end of january) and wanted to avoid issues by getting the more expensive prusament.

I had fizzing and popping sounds with this white asa ever since I opened the originally packed spool about 3 weeks ago ☹️ and no, it never got wet. It has been in a closet and in a zipped bag (when not in use)

The noises certainly suggest damp.

I guess i will have to look into how to dry it?

You will find several threads here dealing everything from the domestic electric oven to dedicated dehydrators.

But it still makes me sad that i guess the quality is not that great?

There are several possibilities: It might have been mistreated in transit.  Perhaps you need to use more silica gel in storage. And we're still not certain this is the cause, please retry with a different filament.

Cheerio,

RE: What causes these holes on walls?

@chrisp

Oh and may I ask how long a spool of PLA or ASA can usually be exposed to the open air before going "bad"?

I've never had damp ASA so YMMV.

In the winter, when windows are closed and central heating is on at least some of the time, I can leave PLA out indefinitely but not PVA or nylon.

In spring and summer when windows are open and heating is off the only exposed filament is that which is loaded to the printer else in a couple of weeks I can expect problems.  Damp PLA left open in the winter slowly dries without assistance.

PLA is one of the trickier filaments to dry in an electric oven as it is damaged barely above drying temperatures.

Cheerio,

RE: What causes these holes on walls?

@diem

In the 4 weeks I have printed plenty of things with PLA (Prusament) and that works fine but for outdoor use I wanted to use something more UV resistant - that's why I chose ASA. I have also successfully printed several things with exactly that white ASA spool and despite the fizzing and popping the results were OK. Only now that I am at the middle of the spool I get more and more of these imperfections on 1 side (!) of  walls. I just opened another ASA spool (also Prusament, black this time) and will print some tests...

RE: What causes these holes on walls?

FYI first test print with "Black EasyABS" is perfect!

RE: What causes these holes on walls?

@chrisp

FYI first test print with "Black EasyABS" is perfect!

That seems to confirm it is a filament problem.

I wanted to use something more UV resistant

Simplest: PLA with a coat of opaque paint.

Cheerio,

RE:

Hi, for the past few days I keep having similar issue. They are not seams and I have tried different filaments including brand new one. No pop sounds from filaments. There was no such problem in the past when printing the files. Suddenly the problem showed up for unknown reason. Could you please let me know which retraction setting should I change? What value do you recommend? What does Octoprint has to do with the holes?

RE: What causes these holes on walls?

In my experience, you always have to dry ASA. I can see a difference in quality if it sits out for a day. I have a food dehydrator and always dry the filament, then pull it out and immediately print. An enclosure is also a huge improvement. Both of those things always make it print better. Once you start tweaking settings you will find that they make some features better and other features worse. So, my recommendation is to dry the ASA in a heated dryer, desiccant is not enough, and use an enclosure. Then start tweaking settings.

Regards,

Mark

RE: What causes these holes on walls?

Sorry I am using PLA not ASA. Edited my post but it looks like it did not go through.

RE: What causes these holes on walls?

PLA is a very hydrophilic material, i.e. it easily absorbs moisture if the material is not stored on a dry place. A drying cycle can solve the problem.

wbr,

Karl

RE:

Perhaps my problem is different from the one mentioned in the original post. I don't think it is a filament problem because I tried different filaments including brand new ones. Moreover, the holes cluster in a region (say, 1/4 of a cylinder object). If it were a dammed filament problem, they should have shown up in different areas. I also changed the retraction from 0.8 to a default value of 2. No improvement al all. There seems to be some kind of spiral patterns. Not seams as I have all seams aligned vertically.

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