Trouble with 50 micron PLA prints on previously proven Gcode
Hi All,
I have a Prusa MK2S which has been trouble free for years. I have a design, which I have printed numerous times successfully before. However, lately, I am unable to re-print this same design. This is troubling to me, because nothing has changed. I have been using the same SD card and have not changed the gcode since the design was originally sliced. I had printed several of this same object using the same Prusa PLA silver roll still on the machine less than 2 weeks ago. However, lately, I all my re-prints have been unsuccessful.
The prints always seem to start off great. The first 5mm (out of 6.4mm) of the object looks exactly as expected. After the 5mm, the extrusion look very rough / un-smooth and the top layers are somewhat non existent.
I searched around and here are the things I have already tried:
1) Cold pulls on the nozzle. The nozzle seems clean. (The first 5mm or so always print great)
2) Removed the left side heatsink fan, blew out minor dust for possible heat creep. It didn't look that bad on the heatsink fins.
3) Started another print and changed the print temperature live on the prusa's LCD from 210 down to 200 degrees, bed from 60 to 50 degrees.
None of these worked. Any other suggestions on what to try? I have not really performed any real maintenance on this machine other than cleaning the bed. All the parts are original and have not been modified. Are there parts that would fail over time that could cause this.
-J
Best Answer by Jared:
I solved the problem. It was not the printer at all. It was the filament absorbed too much water. I purchased a food dehydrator (Presto 06301) and dried the same Prusa PLA silver roll of filament I was using before for 12 hours @ 45C. Then using the same original G-Code I was able to print the design and it came out perfect like before. I am a little surprised that such a difference in print quality was observed after the two weeks of the filament in open air. I guess the filament absorbed just enough water to make it too difficult to print.
So the lesson is keep your filament dry. If you haven't been keeping your filament dry, get a food dehydrator.
-J
RE: Trouble with 50 micron PLA prints on previously proven Gcode
I solved the problem. It was not the printer at all. It was the filament absorbed too much water. I purchased a food dehydrator (Presto 06301) and dried the same Prusa PLA silver roll of filament I was using before for 12 hours @ 45C. Then using the same original G-Code I was able to print the design and it came out perfect like before. I am a little surprised that such a difference in print quality was observed after the two weeks of the filament in open air. I guess the filament absorbed just enough water to make it too difficult to print.
So the lesson is keep your filament dry. If you haven't been keeping your filament dry, get a food dehydrator.
-J