How I Successfully Print with PETG (fighting curling perimeters)
I've finally had success with printing PETG here's what I did. Screen shots - https://imgur.com/gallery/v0u0DTn
I'm using the MK3s+, nickel nozzle, Textured powder-coated plate. Filament: PETG 1.75 transparent Orange. Brand: Inline
Main issue: thin/small perimeters would curl up and cause the nozzle to snag the part and rip it out of the support or get the nozzle messy.
Im located in the south, its very humid here. USE A FILAMENT DRYER! I wasted 2 days problem solving only to realize the filament had sucked up the humidity and the filament was too wet. Unless you live in Arizona, I'd recommend a filament dryer at 145 degrees for at least 2 hours. I run my dryer while it prints since its so humid here. I made mine from a food hydrator. It was super cheap and easy. Follow some "how to" vids on YouTube.
Get that Z height right! Make sure your really understand getting that live Z correct. A little adjustment goes a long way. Watch vids on YouTube until you feel like a live Z calibrating god.
I wouldn't attempt to adjust anything until these two things are locked in.
Keep the nozzle clean! Brass brush it if it gets dirty. I got a nickel nozzle coated nozzle because it helps prevent the PETG from sticking to the nozzle. I don't think its necessary to get one unless you plan on printing a lot of PETG. Super easy and quick to swap nozzles.
When you check up on the printing process, say nice things to the printer to encourage it to continue doing an amazing job. A light kiss on the printer head after a good print always goes a long ways. A happy printer is a happy human.
Good luck! I hope I saved someone a lot of time and frustration.
RE: How I Successfully Print with PETG (fighting curling perimeters)
I print a lot of PETG as well.. and am on the Atlantic Ocean, but it is likely cooler so I have few days that are at 100% humidy.. but I dry my PETG then I've made dryBoxes with desiccant that will keep the filament below 20% for at least a month.. (50g). I use gasket sealed cereal containers.
RE:
I found printing PETG with the lowest fan speed you can and taking it easy results in much better stronger prints rather than fast and lots of cooling.
Lots of cooling and speed can lead to better dimensional accuracy but results in weak layer bonding, the molten PETG has to melt into the layer below so cooling goes against this.
At the end of the day it also depends what you are printing for, in my case very strong functional parts where fine detail is no so important.
Firmware updates ar a PITA as I have to go through the complete calibration of everything to make sure any changes the DEV's have made do not affect my printing., but once done it's all plain sailing.
Most important thing is getting that first layer dialled in properly. I also have the first layer bed temperature at 85 then 90 for the rest and with this I never get curling.
Normal people believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.
RE:
I just tried to print with low and no fan (yesterday) and it makes the thin parameters curl up. I'm currently running the fan at 204/255 and everything looks perfect. I heard that transparent PETG can be tricky, I guess this is the solution. If someone else can test this theory, id be interested to see if you get the same results.