How do I fix these uneven walls?
I just purchased a Mk3S+ assembled, and it arrived a few days ago. I have a few Ender 3's and a Prusa Mini+, so I am not new to printing, but I don't know how best to troubleshoot mechanical issues with the Mk3.
Printing some card holders for a board game, the walls are very uneven. These should be long straight travels, and clearly something isn't right. I've added a bit of the prusa lubricant to the rods, on either side of the moving parts, but that didn't make any difference.
Can anyone suggest some troubleshooting tips? I purchased the pre assembled unit because I was really tired of troubleshooting and fixing my Enders, and was hoping for a good print straight out of the box.
This is using Overture matte grey PLA, printing at 210 (possibly 205). I also printed one other thing in a different PLA with similar results, although I didn't get a picture of that one.
Additionally, while not as big an issue, the printer is louder than all of the other printers. Not the fans, but the stepper motors, even in stealth mode, are not stealthy, unless it's going really slow. I put the printer on paving stones to help reduce resonance, and that helped to a certain extent, but my Enders aren't on anything like that (they're all on the same set of shelves), and their stepper motors are way quieter (with a silent motherboard). I don't know if this could have anything to do with it.
Anti Vib Feet.
Try these ones, they worked a treat for us. I have to double check the machine was working.
https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/1727-anti-vibration-feet-for-prusa-i3-mk3s
As for the uneven wall. I could only wish I had wall like that. I am dealing with walls that look like a my MK3s is drunk when it prints.
Not necessarily an answer to your concern but I thought that it was worth commenting...
I found that walls printed slightly cleaner on my Ender 3V2 than they did on my Prusa. That being said, everything else was better on the Prusa to the point that I never used the Ender again after my Prusa arrived!
Problems.
Not necessarily an answer to your concern but I thought that it was worth commenting...
I found that walls printed slightly cleaner on my Ender 3V2 than they did on my Prusa. That being said, everything else was better on the Prusa to the point that I never used the Ender again after my Prusa arrived!
I have found most of the problems that are less on the ender than my Prusa are due to PrusaSlicer.
--------------------
Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog
And it would not help that the default Cura profile for the Ender 3V2 is probably printing the walls more slowly than the default PrusaSlicer profile for the Mk3?
1
In slicer settings , the speed 180 -200 make this 100,the high speed is not needed, it makes noise and pulls very hard on the roll of filament.
Check all screws and bolts on printer, feel at extruder if it is not to loose.
Check spring of extruder gears.
Check belts id not to loose or to tight!
Check the whole printer, you need to do this in the future also, if you do maintenance then the printer keep printing.
Print calibration stl, then you can compare with others or see what axis is a problem.
Try different filament , do this first.
Still not working well
OK, I've gone over the machine with the allen keys and tightened everything I could see and reach (nothing was loose), and it hasn't fixed anything. It still is loud, there is still a rattling sound I can't nail down, and it still is printing walls terribly. What do I do next?
RE: How do I fix these uneven walls?
Check belts, and to tight is not OK, to loose is not OK.
Check if belt from x axis is not hitting something wen it is moving. Look left and right side.
I had a gear from the x axis broken(right side), that could make noise, move all axis separately, and check for noise, could be bearings from x or y or z axis. try to make the noise and hold your hand against parts of the printer.
Bad bearings?
I think the belts are good (although it's quite difficult to figure out exactly how to test the tension if you don't have their prusa PETG to print their little tester), when I ran the self test the numbers were good.
I'm working with customer support through email, but after doing some more tests, it seems to me like I might have some bad bearings. I'm getting noises when moving the bed (and a little when moving the X-axis), and even with the belt removed, there is a strange grindy/vibration sound, and the bed doesn't move super smoothly. I didn't want to have to really take much apart, this was supposed to be my "don't tinker with me" printer, but I have a feeling I'm going to have to replace some of the bearings. If any of you have done this, I'd appreciate a little insight, all of my tinkering has been with Ender machines, with the roller wheels.
Prusa has a manual, for the x axis, and how to put it together again, and do exactly like in the manual.
The bed is not to difficult, check the manual before putting it together.
Get all your tools , get tie wraps.
Most important, check the rods(do this now, then you can order new ones).
Most important, clean bearings , put new grease inside. In forum you can read that some bearings are not greased how it should be, you could check your bearings if it is needed.
602
Well. This is the same on my Prusa MK3S+. This is (with high confidence) 602 inconsistent extrusion problem: https://github.com/prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware/issues/602. Yes, my Ender 5 prints nicer walls especially on 0.3mm DRAFT.
I personally improved greatly by installing 3:1 gearing ratio to improve extrusion accuracy: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/17584-bondtech-bmg-prusa-mk3smk25s-v2-fdm-printable-rhd-. My prints are significantly better because of that, but not all of these effects are removed yet.
There was also this posted recently: and I did not test the proposed improvement myself since I moved into BMG style extruder on my MK3S+.
So, TL;DR this is expected. Prusa is much better in every other angle, but due to very short direct drive this is how it prints on 0.3mm.
bad bearings
I was definitely able to confirm at least one bad bearing, even after removing, cleaning, and regreasing, one feels grindy and sounds bad. Customer service is working with me, and are going to send replacement parts. Hopefully this will fix the quality issue as well as the noise issue, but I have a feeling it may be the 602 issue shown above. My results seem to match some of what I'm seeing when I search online. My guess is it will be close to a week before I can install the new bearings, and then we'll see. If I had known I'd be spending this much time with it, I would have just purchased the kit and built it myself, but I'll keep that in mind if I get another one in the future.