JUST got my MK2, prusa brand PLA works awesome, switched to colorfabb FAIL. Please help!
OK, just got my MK2 this week. Printed a full drone with the PLA that came in the box "free" with no problems at all. Printed some of the SD card loaded files with out problems as well.
Just got some new colors today from ColorFabb (sky blue, intense green) and CAN NOT get green to print with any setting. I've been messing with heat bed and temps and just can't get it right. Tried many various settings at .15 optimal and .20 normal but nothing seems to do the trick. Can't get past the first layer with out gumming up or round sections turning into straight lines.. Had bed up to 75c and extruder to 245c while slowing down the speed to 60. Still no good.
Does anyone have any suggested settings to get this to print? And yes I tried the recommended settings on the Colorfabb box. I also went back to a file I printed yesterday with the prusa black and it didnt work with this dang green... HELP! I'm about to toss this crap out the window and order from this website from now on.
Re: JUST got my MK2, prusa brand PLA works awesome, switched to colorfabb FAIL. Please help!
Very strange. All Colorfabb PLA/PHA colors should print with the same settings (more or less). So your settings for Sky Blue should work just fine for Intense Green. Colorfabb is actually a pretty good brand (and pricey at that), many folks seem to really like it. I'm printing colorfabb at 200°C on a 55°C bed, nothing special about it really, the slicer default for PLA should work.
I am unsure about what you meant with "slowing the speed down to 60", 60% of the standard speed? Or down to 60mm/s (which is pretty fast for a first layer) - I'd try a first layer speed of 40mm/s.
Round lines ending up straight sure sounds like not enough bed adhesion, which would indicated you should lower the nose a bit more, but I guess you tried that already as well.
Did you check if the green stuff is actually PLA/PHA and not some other Colorfabb co-polyesters like XT, HT or NGEN? Starting to wonder if it got mislabeled maybe.. Was the spool properly vacuum sealed when you got it?
Re: JUST got my MK2, prusa brand PLA works awesome, switched to colorfabb FAIL. Please help!
I would suggest using blue painter tape. Also, what is the air temp of the room where the printer is located?
Re: JUST got my MK2, prusa brand PLA works awesome, switched to colorfabb FAIL. Please help!
It'll probably help, yes..
... but..
It doesn't explain why the blue color works. And it's a crutch that shouldn't be necessary with the PEI sheet on the heated MK2 bed. That's a big part of why I bought an MK2, cause PLA is meant stick well without having to mess with tape, hairspray or glue, which i find rather annoying.
I guess i'd also send email to colorfabb and have them try to make sense of it. If somethings wrong with the spool, they will replace it.
Re: JUST got my MK2, prusa brand PLA works awesome, switched to colorfabb FAIL. Please help!
I have read that different colors of filament from the same vendor have different properties.
I have another 3D printer with PEI and blue painter tape works much better, but I have not tweaked the settings for each of the filaments I use.
PEI seems to work pretty good for most 3D objects that I print, but for objects I know will be a challenge I just put down blue tape since I hate restarting a failed job.
Could you post a photo of the 1st layer of the object you are having an issue with?
Re: JUST got my MK2, prusa brand PLA works awesome, switched to colorfabb FAIL. Please help!
Adjusting settings a bit for different colors sure, happens.. Or speeds even. I usually end up having to tweak settings for white a small amount, +/- 5 degrees usually does the trick. But such a difference to the point where one wouldn't stick no matter what given what he said he already tried? Sounds odd to me. Maybe he was "overshooting" in his attempts to find the proper settings? I don't think if i tried Colorfabb PLA/PHA at 75°C/245°C i'd get any usable print but I never tried. The highest I ever used for PLA was 225°C and then at speeds around 100mm/s
Supposedly some resellers use completely different filaments from different manufacturers for certain colors within their PLA line and sell them as their "brand", but i highly doubt Colorfabb is one of them.
I'm using PLA on heated glass for the Ultimaker, heated PEI with the MK2, even on cold glass you usually get away with for smaller parts (BQ Witbox2). Never had to resort to any adhesion tricks. Only my old Dremel with his cold plexiglass is useless without blue tape or Buildtak. If things are working right and the print is not terribly demanding, it just shouldn't be necessary for PLA, especially if the same part printed fine with blue.
Eh, i guess all we can do is speculate till Nicholas comes back. Sure would like to see a the picture you asked for as well. And as you said: room temperature / drafts / humidity perhaps..
Re: JUST got my MK2, prusa brand PLA works awesome, switched to colorfabb FAIL. Please help!
When in doubt, go back and print the Prusa logo from the SD card.
Then if there's a problem, upload a photo of the first layer.
You will be told very quickly what the problem is.
In the meantime, make sure the build plate is clean.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: JUST got my MK2, prusa brand PLA works awesome, switched to colorfabb FAIL. Please help!
Hey guys, thanks for all the help. I'll try a few things you've all suggested and see what happens. I was thinking about it this morning and maybe I need to run the calibration file again with the green. I wonder if I'm too high compared to black that prints easier?
To answer some of the questions, the printer is in my living room. Same conditions as when I was printing the "prusa free black" that came in the box and did awesome. No problems at all. The blue and the green came in air tight bags and i've only tried the green. The blue is still wrapped up. And again, I tried to print with the exact same file that I printed with the black, but with the green and after it didn't work I worked my way up till I just figured that going hotter wasn't making it better (worse in fact).
I did read from someone though that said if the filament comes out and sort of hooks upwords before it drops that your nozzle might be clogged. Which to me kinda made sense since I just swapped colors and basically hit print. So after reading that I hit the load button until the filament basically came straight down and that still didn't work. I think i'll try and recal after work and see what happens. I'll post up pictures of the first layer as well should I run into more problems.
Thanks again everyone for your help!
EDIT: Oh, when I say I slowed it down I mean I went from speed 100 to speed 60. That just seemed to make it even worse. Circles turned into squares. It's like this stuff just doesn't want to stick to the bed! And yes it was cleaned and I even kicked on a tiny bit of hairspray afterwords. Maybe that is working against me? Seemed to help with the black however. That's why I think maybe I'm a touch too high? Fan isn't on either (I don't think).... Now i'm second guessing myself
Re: JUST got my MK2, prusa brand PLA works awesome, switched to colorfabb FAIL. Please help!
Yorn nozzle is probably too high.
Do not use hairspray on the bed; most hairsprays contain aromatic oils which prevent adhesion. Clean the bed several times with IPA.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: JUST got my MK2, prusa brand PLA works awesome, switched to colorfabb FAIL. Please help!
Yorn nozzle is probably too high.
Do not use hairspray on the bed; most hairsprays contain aromatic oils which prevent adhesion. Clean the bed several times with IPA.
Peter
DOH! 😯
Guess I just got lucky with the black then cause I used a few dabs of hairspray for all of those prints and they turned out great. Something in the green maybe doesn't like it? I'll triple clean it and recal as soon as I'm home. Thanks for the info!
Re: JUST got my MK2, prusa brand PLA works awesome, switched to colorfabb FAIL. Please help!
This material says it can print on a cold bed so this may have nothing to do with it, but when I touch the bed at 55c, should it be hot? Sounds dumb I know but when I place my finger on it its barely feels warm. I ask because i think my problem is the material isn't sticking. And because it isn't sticking it's getting stuck on the hot end and then clumping up almost instantly. I've done all the calibration over again and I can't really tell where my live z height is. It's hard to really get a good look at it.
Re: JUST got my MK2, prusa brand PLA works awesome, switched to colorfabb FAIL. Please help!
Can you verify the led is blinking on the heater bed? Have you checked the connections to the rambo board? It should feel warm, like when you get a hot coffee in a paper cup from starbucks.
Re: JUST got my MK2, prusa brand PLA works awesome, switched to colorfabb FAIL. Please help!
After reading up on live z height and doing some testing, I finally got a good solid print going. Changed my live z from around the -250 mark to -442. Which is odd cause the black worked fine in the 200's but apparently this new stuff doesn't like that. Anyway, i'm going to keep watching it and making sure all is well.
Though now that i'm looking at the drone I printed earlier with black, i can make out every single line. Using the same setting on the new green but at the much lower z height, I can't see any of the lines. It appears to be more flush and smooth. Interesting. Maybe im too low...