Fixed: Wonky PINDA & bed levelling issues
After the toasty last few days, my MK3 started with bed mesh levelling issues - a mixture of too much and not enough squish on the same build plate.
After printing ABS (250C/100C) in the 38C heat of Cambridge UK, the lower part of the extruder housing (nearest the heat-block), as well as the part cooling duct, got a bit soft and sagged causing two problems:
- The P.I.N.D.A. mount ended up not quite vertical, and the probe base was not parallel to the bed
- The thin tab on the RHS of the "extruder cover" part that completes the encirclement of the bottom-ring of the cooling fins on the hot-end curled upwards.
Nice simple fix:
- Take off the part cooling fan, duct, and hotend fan as well as the extruder cover, remove the PINDA and sling it over the top x-rod.
- Gently heat-gun the PINDA bracket and bend it back so that the base is parallel to the bed - wait for it to cool, remount the probe.
- Heat the part cooling duct in the same way and press onto a flat surface & wait for it to cool, straightening up any buckled walls in the process.
The hot-end fan obviously wasn't providing enough cooling to the RHS of the extruder housing (while the Noctua fan is quiet, it's a bit wimpy) - I am considering putting a more powerful fan on there, or reprinting the extruder housing in ABS to give it some temperature resistance.
Is this kind of problem common if you have an enclosure? I would have thought that the machine should be able to cope with temperatures in the high 30s and was planning to start printing ABS in a 50C enclosure!
Psy
RE: Fixed: Wonky PINDA & bed levelling issues
yes it's common. the parts are printed in PETG , so if you run in a heated environment trying to print high temp plastics they are prone to softening. the trick is to reprint the parts in higher temp plastic. you can work the way up in temps as you move to more exotic filaments. you normally are safe printing with parts made of the same filament you are printing