New Filament Calibration
just wanted to know what you guys use to find near good/perfect settings for a new filament?
The new filament i have gotten, i have been able to use it a lot better now but i am trying to create a more effective and faster way to get down to the right settings. For example like create a 1) Temp tower then 2) Retraction Cubes 3) etc......., any printing i can run to get down to right settings or maby any physical/visual testing of the print to see if it holds. Any thing that works for you or that would be usefull? thanks!
RE: New Filament Calibration
With a new brand and type of filament, I try to do:
- Measure filament at 3 points minimum and average, enter diameter in filament settings.
- Linear Advance (K-factor) calibration. Set this in filament startup g-code.
- Print 20mm cube with 2 perimeters, no top layers and no infill. Measure and compare to actual wall thickness (read from gcode - 2Xperimeter thickness) and adjust the extrusion multiplier in filament settings. Measure at the center of each side (to avoid irregular corners) and only at the very top (to avoid 1 irregular line throwing it off) I find this helps a lot of with over-extrusion and z-seam appearance. Lots of variation on this, but after much research, this is giving me good results.
- Depending on the filament, tweak max volumetric rate in filament settings. This is important if I get extruder clicks mid-print.
- Finally, if time allows, I may try a temp tower. I rarely see a lot of difference in the towers. I find the Atom 80 degree overhang test more informative, but it can only test one temp at a time. It's a good way to see overhang performance, which is where heat matters the most IME. Otherwise, I just go as cool as possible for PLA and appearance, as hot as possible for strong parts.
Stringing is usually a question of temps and cooling. I just adjust those depending on the print and don't try it per-filament. I find very little (0.2-.4mm) retraction and equally little (0.2-0.4mm) z-lift helps with stringing. If your filament is well calibrated, you shouldn't need extreme retraction and z-lift settings.
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He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking. -- Spock in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
RE: New Filament Calibration
Wow, good info! Just curious why you two the two wall thickness calibration cube as opposed to a single wall?
For my calibration I normally start with a single wall calibration cube and then a temp tower. Sometimes i do linear advance but normally I just set this by filament type though. PETG vs. PLA etc.
RE: New Filament Calibration
Wow, good info! Just curious why you two the two wall thickness calibration cube as opposed to a single wall?
The theory is that more walls will give a truer average. I've read some recommending 3 or more. 2 works well for me.
I am sometimes surprised by the Linear Advance results, but most are close to the Prusa settings for each type.
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He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking. -- Spock in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
RE: New Filament Calibration
I know it is an old thread, but the info is still sound.
I just wanted to chime in that when I get a new filament, I will first use the Prusa generic profile for the filament type. I found some PETG filaments will ooze differently from color to color from the same supplier. So I will run a temp tower first to get my preferred look/base settings. Once I have my preferred temperature, I will run a wall thickness cube to adjust the flow. After all of that, I will print off a calibration kitty to make sure there isn't any crazy stringing (then I'll adjust settings like z-hop and retraction, if needed for stringing).