Increased failure rate with all filament  

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

It looks like your nozzle is too high.
One thing that might happen is that the pinda probe moved a bit so you might need to increase your z-adjust?

You can try to "resurface" the bed, like explained here: http://help.prusa3d.com/mk2-heatbed/pei-print-surface-preparation
You can also do a light wipe with acetone, it worked for me, then I use only isopropyl alcohol between prints.

Edit: Another thing, according to your pictures, I noticed that your fails are at the right side and you have a webcam attached there, maybe the load is making the right side lower?

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

It looks like your nozzle is too high.
One thing that might happen is that the pinda probe moved a bit so you might need to increase your z-adjust?

You can try to "resurface" the bed, like explained here: http://help.prusa3d.com/mk2-heatbed/pei-print-surface-preparation
You can also do a light wipe with acetone, it worked for me, then I use only isopropyl alcohol between prints.

Edit: Another thing, according to your pictures, I noticed that your fails are at the right side and you have a webcam attached there, maybe the load is making the right side lower?

Thanks for the fast reply. The pinda / Z-axis were among the first things I adjusted/re-calibrated with no change. I was also printing without issues for awhile.

The bed is like new and the PEI is in great shape without any kind of deviation that would cause these issues.

The web cam is currently on the left side (moved right after attaching it) - that's an older picture and all prints shown were printed directly in the middle of the bed. I've also checked to make sure the printer, and the bed itself, are level.

Thanks again for the reply. I'm really scratching my head as to what the problem could be and why it's sporadic but increasingly worse. I'd imagine if my configuration, calibration, bed, etc were askew I'd get consistent failures but every was fine up until a few days ago.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

Ive had a bit of an accident yesterday, by my own fault the nozzle buried itself into my print which I stoppen within a second. The consequences are bigger.

Belt off the x axis was squeeking, z adjustment was of by 0.120.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

I agree looks like the z isn't low enough....
Bob

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

I agree looks like the z isn't low enough....
Bob

It's definitely not that simple since the Z Axis was calibrated and printed great for several prints, failed, was successful again, failed, etc.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

I am sure you have done this but here is what helped me when I had an issue with prints all of a sudden refusing to stick and going nuts. Cleaned with Acetone instead of the usual alcohol wipes. Yes, the bed looked perfect.

Also found at the time the ambient room temp and humidity had changed from seasonal time. So I adjusted bed temp to accommodate.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

I am sure you have done this but here is what helped me when I had an issue with prints all of a sudden refusing to stick and going nuts. Cleaned with Acetone instead of the usual alcohol wipes. Yes, the bed looked perfect.

Also found at the time the ambient room temp and humidity had changed from seasonal time. So I adjusted bed temp to accommodate.

Thanks, I will give this a shot. I've been using Alcohol to clean the bed. My environment temps haven't changed much over the past month her on the northern east coast but I'm not going to rule anything out just yet. Let's say there's more humidity, I'd raise the bed temp - correct? Currently I'm using 100 but I've used 105 before as well for ABS. PLA I'm using either 55 or 60 and PETG I'm using 85 I believe.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

Northern East Coast?

You could go as much as 110 for ABS but back it off after the first layer. For smaller parts you really don't need more than 95-100.

I went up to 65 then drop to 60 when it got colder here for PLA.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

Are you doing cord pulls after changing filament types.

Are you raising the the print head to z=100 before heating the bed

Can you try to put down blue tape made by 3M only to see if it makes a difference

Can you print the batman from the SD card, 1st layer only and post photos

Can you print the vcalibration and post photos

Which slicer are you using, which profile, which vendor of filament

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

Thanks for the reply David.

Are you doing cord pulls after changing filament types.
Cord Pulls? I have no idea what this is but what I do for filament changes is pretty straight forward... preheat the nozzle (if it's not already heated), then on the printer I choose "unload filament", the stepper "ejects" the filament and I then remove the filament once it's finished ejecting. I do not "ripcord" the filament.

Are you raising the the print head to z=100 before heating the bed
At least 100.

Can you try to put down blue tape made by 3M only to see if it makes a difference
I can try this though I don't believe I should have to especially with PLA. I've also printed quite a few things without needing any tape or glue for PLA, ABS, and PETG. Doesn't hurt to try, however.

Can you print the batman from the SD card, 1st layer only and post photos
I certainly can. My previous photos show the first layer fails on "first layer" squares but I can definitely run the batman through.

Can you print the vcalibration and post photos
I have run through the v2calibration with similar results to the squares.

Which slicer are you using, which profile, which vendor of filament
Latest Slic3r Prusa Edition or Octopi (same results). I have also Printed straight from the SD with built in gcode from Prusa, same results.
profiles are built in from Slic3r
Filament: eSun for ABS, Prusa Silver PLA, Hatchbox PLA, 3D Solutions PETG - it does not matter.
I just want to reiterate that I've used all of these Filaments in this printer, settings, profiles, etc many times with success. It is only recently that this issue has cropped up.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

Cord Pulls a.k.a the Atomic Cleaning Method ( https://ultimaker.com/en/resources/149-atomic-method ).

When you print with higher temp material like PETG it will mix with other filaments and cause flow issues for lower temp filaments like PLA.

Load up some PETG. Does it print okay? You may want to get some eSun filament cleaner which may resolve the issue.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

Thanks for the info! I always thought forcing filament in or out of the extruder was a very bad thing to do. I will say that I did change the nozzle as one of the initial things I tried as well has printing a higher temp filament like ABS, which is a higher temp filament than PETG.

I also just tore the printer down to the Y-axis and re-measured and setup everything again. I'm going to re-calibrated again and try the things you've mentioned. I'll take some pics and post back when I can. Thanks again.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

Can you print the batman from the SD card, 1st layer only and post photos
Ok, here are my Batman first layer images and vcal images in PETG. It isn't pretty.

At first glance it isn't awful...

Looking a little closer and you can see inconsistent extruding:

Some under extruding:

...and major under extruding:

Can you print the vcalibration and post photos
Below are the first layer vcalibration images.

The most obvious thing to adjust is the Z-axis but I adjusted it very close as it is and when I use the live adjust and get this:

... and this:

I'm not an expert on 3D printing and I'm fairly new to the craft BUT this looks like under extrusion to me which is why I swapped out my nozzle to begin with. So I'm on a new nozzle and I did the "cord pull" trick you suggested (thanks again for that info) but the filament comes out clean and the hotend does not appear clogged. The stepper for the filament seems to be working fine and pulls in filament. One thing I did notice was the first margin line the Prusa does is only laying down about half the filament it should be:

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

At this point in time I think it would be worth a nozzle cleaning.

Since you have two nozzle you could do the following.

With the current nozzle, put the highest temp filament in and do the atomic cleaning method.

Unload the nozzle and remove it.

Place the nozzle in a jar of filled with acetone for a day.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

The first line it puts down is the same as mine with a narrow part at the beginning and a nice fat bead after that. This I believe is just priming the nozzle and is normal. Like I said mine does this and mine prints fine.

I am no expert by any means but running the V2 calibration mine looked like yours when printing the lines on the print bed and I adjusted the live Z until it started to squish. Ran it several times until I was happy that it was squishing it to the bed and I had good adhesion.

I have had to start each print with the Z axis 100mm from the bed otherwise it affects my Pinda when it probes the bed. If I do this then all is well.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

The spare part in red or orange that you printed successfully looks like to me that the live Z needs to be lower because although it was successful the bead around the outside doesn't looked squished enough to me.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

Can you now print the batman using prusa PLA.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

If you start any print and two consecutive lines are not squished ...Bonded together your z is still too high...Yes it can also be under extrusion ...Although your photos do not show that. The pinda probe seems to have accuracy issues with heat over time. I had trouble with it varying so much I quit using it on another printer. There are a few threads on the forum suggesting the very same. The pinda variance is why one print is ok and one is not. The recommendation seems to be make sure your probe is at least 100mm from bed when heating . This way it probes cold ...Instead of hot. Every probe I have tried suffers from this behavior.

Re: Increased failure rate with all filament

I've actually done all of this already. This was one of the first physical steps I took thinking I was under extruding. Right now, a new nozzle is in the machine and isn't clogged.