Problems with Prusa PETG filament, what am I doing wrong?
I have been printing with PETG almost exclusively since I assembled my kit a month ago. I am using Slicer PE. I found that this eSun black PETG works fantastically -- it prints well with the standard 0.20mm FAST MK3 print settings, at 230 degrees and the bed at 80 degrees. I have printed out the R3 extruder parts but haven't installed them yet, so running the printer with the R2 extruder body that came in the kit. The live-Z that works best is around -0.775mm.
I have printed eSun's other PETG colors (green and white) but it won't work without slowing down the infill speeds to about 60mm/s. First layer adhesion is not a problem at all at live-Z of around -0.800mm and same temperatures as above. At faster infill speeds, subsequent layers are are sometimes messed up by the nozzle movement.
I have printed a few things with the Prusa Orange PETG with standard Prusa PET temperature settings (235 degrees/85 bed first layer and 240/90 other layers), all of them add-on items for the printer itself, but it has been a real struggle. The extruder indicator printed well only at 0.05mm ULTRADETAIL MK3 speed settings. The issues are mostly with first layer adhesion. See below for an example.
I started on the bottom left support at -0.800mm live-Z, and you see the gaps after the first ten short lines of support, and then another two gaps in the long support lines, and two of the small circles in the middle of the pictures have gaps in them. I then ramped up live-Z progressively to reach -0.900. I didn't see consistent adhesion at any live-Z before I saw the lines being squished too much by the nozzle.
Here is a picture of another attempt with the same filament, same settings, after thoroughly cleaning the PEI sheet first with acetone and then 91% isopropanol. The problems are still present, just at different locations than the previous attempt.
Is this an under-extrusion problem? Does under-extrusion occur with only some types of filament but not others? Is it normal to need live-Z adjustments for different filaments of the same type (i.e. PETG)?
Is this caused by something else I am missing altogether?
Thanks for your help!
Re: Problems with Prusa PETG filament, what am I doing wrong?
Different filaments behave differently, but it seems that your Z level is too high. I think you can lower the nozzle 50 (or maybe 100 units).
Bear MK3 with Bondtech extruder
Re: Problems with Prusa PETG filament, what am I doing wrong?
Different filaments behave differently, but it seems that your Z level is too high. I think you can lower the nozzle 50 (or maybe 100 units).
Thanks. I noticed that if I lower the nozzle, there is more disruption in subsequent layers resulting in a blob. Is the solution to that problem slower speeds, more retraction, or anything else?
Re: Problems with Prusa PETG filament, what am I doing wrong?
It's hard for me to say because I have not had this problem.
Regardless of materials, I use Prusas standard profiles for PLA, PETG and ABS. I have only corrected the number of perimeters and for ABS the fan speed, the other settings are the default settings.
I've spent a lot of time calibrating and adjusting the bed and the Z level and I'm not experiencing problems when printing or replacing material.
Blobs are usually caused by too high Z levels when the filament is rolled up against hot end and stuck there.
Have you tried washing the bed with detergent and water? It usually does wonders.
Bear MK3 with Bondtech extruder
Re: Problems with Prusa PETG filament, what am I doing wrong?
It's hard for me to say because I have not had this problem.
Regardless of materials, I use Prusas standard profiles for PLA, PETG and ABS. I have only corrected the number of perimeters and for ABS the fan speed, the other settings are the default settings.
I've spent a lot of time calibrating and adjusting the bed and the Z level and I'm not experiencing problems when printing or replacing material.
Blobs are usually caused by too high Z levels when the filament is rolled up against hot end and stuck there.
Have you tried washing the bed with detergent and water? It usually does wonders.
Thanks, will try washing the bed. I thought I had my Z level and bed leveling all set because I had good quality prints with other filaments, but this one is really stumping me. I will redo my live-Z calibration and bed level calibration as well. As I look at my prints I am noticing small sections of missing material in upper layers also. I think I have to do an extruder calibration to figure out why the extruder some times doesn't send out enough material.
Re: Problems with Prusa PETG filament, what am I doing wrong?
I struggled for days before finding out that there is a custom code setting extruder to 95 instead of 100. That made it harder to get a first layer since it did not push out enough filament and my nozzle was to close. causing blobs, not sticking properly and other "strange" problems.
removing that line in slicer made it push out more filament and when getting the nozzle up to .970 or so instead of 1.080 made huge differ.
So make a 1line cube with walls only and check your extruder multiplier.
Also the auto bed leveling does not work perfectly, so you might also adjust left/rigt/front adjustment in the menu. Think it was under calibration
Re: Problems with Prusa PETG filament, what am I doing wrong?
I struggled for days before finding out that there is a custom code setting extruder to 95 instead of 100. That made it harder to get a first layer since it did not push out enough filament and my nozzle was to close. causing blobs, not sticking properly and other "strange" problems.
removing that line in slicer made it push out more filament and when getting the nozzle up to .970 or so instead of 1.080 made huge differ.
So make a 1line cube with walls only and check your extruder multiplier.
Also the auto bed leveling does not work perfectly, so you might also adjust left/rigt/front adjustment in the menu. Think it was under calibration
Thank you, I did not know about this custom gcode, just saw it! It looks like the percentage is set lower for layer heights other than 0.05mm!
M221 S{if layer_height==0.05}100{else}95{endif}
I am just printing more things with the black filament that seems to work well... I will then get around to properly calibrating the extrusion I guess.
Re: Problems with Prusa PETG filament, what am I doing wrong?
Hi pavan,
I had the same problem like you with black Prusa PETG!
My prints looked like yours!
Tried for hours to get the first layer right.
Z calibration up and down did not help, , slowed printspeed down, raising temperature for first layer made it a bit better (241° instead of 230°! by slic3r) but didn´t fix it in the end.
I tried Isopropy alcohol, aprintapro Printfix and the Prusa glue, nothing helped.
Very FRUSTRATING!
After all I think, the problem might really be underextrusion!
I printed Prusa PTEG before, but sliced with Prusacontrol.
No Problems there..
Re: Problems with Prusa PETG filament, what am I doing wrong?
I've printed successfully with both PLA and Amphora after some initial first layer issues that Acetone and/or a little wear on the PEI sticker seems to have fixed!
But I've also had nothing but trouble with the first layer with Prusa PETG Orange. I've tried changing live Z, using magigoo etc. The problem for me seems to be that it just refuses to stick in places, and then the nozzle tears up the first layer. I also got some weird blobs on following layers when it succeeded well enough to continue the print. Running with a fairly low speed on the first layer since the initial first layer problems. Here's a video of what's going on: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNUC_oOvuJkfGaBadP9MVfW-zX2wBHLreOQQ5DuWf9IOidvclupazv-b3GhqKBSnA/photo/AF1QipMlsLCdpZVN-6RxjPaJN0Fx08b6Y5tF3oClK5JQ?key=WFdpNUpEMWR6ZzNFUnFWLVBlaTZ6QjN5NlNjTUhn
Next time I'm going to start over with the default profiles and try to figure it out. I have also have some add:north black PETG that I'm going to try printing with.
Re: Problems with Prusa PETG filament, what am I doing wrong?
Yep same here, horizontal gaps as if it has no filament to extrude, ugly as sin.
EDIT: my issue was one defective bondtech gear idler trap door from Prusa, which led me to reprint it but in PLA, which worked just fine until I started printing PET, at which point it warped gradually eventually leading to print failures
Prusa support has taken care of this and 4 other issues, and I am now actually disoriented from the experience of being treated so well by a business.