Constant Very Fine Stringing!  

RE: Constant Very Fine Stringing!

Did you originally have this problem? If not, it's possible your filament (yes, even PLA) has absorbed some moisture. A quick check is to try another spool or dry the current one out.

If the problem has been consistent with the same filament, several things to try:

• Reduce printing temps. Manufacturer recommendations are intended to work across a wide range of printers and nozzles, so tend to be on the high side. Try knocking temps back towards the lower end (or slightly below).
• Calibrate your extrusion multiplier for the filament.
• Measure, average and enter the actual filament diameter is slicer settings.
• Try disabling z-lift under retraction settings. This may result in scarring on large flat top surfaces, but may not matter much if you're not printing boxy shapes.
• Play around with retraction lengths. With my settings calibrated for a filament, I find 0.2-0.4mm sufficient. Keep lengths below 2mm (for a direct drive extruder).

RE: Constant Very Fine Stringing!

All of Bobs advise is good, all I would add is that its really easy to remove the very fine strings using a lighter as the heat just shrivels up the strands.  Very quick passes over an area keeping the flame moving is all it takes and unless your printed parts are really fine/thin then it doesn't effect them.

RE: Constant Very Fine Stringing!

@bobstro

Thanks for the help.  I had tried so many things that I could no longer see the wood for the trees!  Just reading through your advice has helped me leave the forrest so to speak.  Trying a different higher quality filament has helped and reducing the temp (and only the temp) seems to be improving things!

RE: Constant Very Fine Stringing!

Also recently I found having the K factor set incorrectly can make a massive difference to stringing, set this correct and you wont need to set Wipe while retracting and you should be able to use retraction and Lift Z: settings of 0.5mm or less without stringing.

Try it and see if it helps you.

http://marlinfw.org/tools/lin_advance/k-factor.html

RE: Constant Very Fine Stringing!

Oh and try to reduce your first line purge amounts, as this just leaves excessive filament as a blob on your nozzle so you get stringing right from the off. Also there is no need to force the purge line hard into the bed, so the head is slightly lifted, again helps to keep it clean.

In Printer Settings / Custom G-code find the intro line part and change it from G1 X60.0 E9.0 F1000.0 ; intro line
G1 X100.0 E12.5 F1000.0 ; intro line

Set it to the following:

G1 Z0.6 ; move slightly above bed for easy clean intro line

G1 X60.0 E6.0 F1000.0 ; intro line
G1 X100.0 E9.0 F1000.0 ; intro line

G1 X95.0 E0.0 F1000.0 ; -5mm intro line @ E0.0 to wipe other side of nozzle
G1 X100.0 E0.0 F1000.0 ; +5mm intro line @ E0.0

This is for a 0.4mm nozzle

For a 0.25 I find this works well:

G1 Z0.6 ; move slightly above bed for easy clean intro line

G1 X60.0 E5.0 F1000.0 ; intro line
G1 X100.0 E8.0 F1000.0 ; intro line

G1 X95.0 E0.0 F1000.0 ; -5mm intro line @ E0.0 to wipe other side of nozzle
G1 X100.0 E0.0 F1000.0 ; +5mm intro line @ E0.0

If your K factor setting is correct and everything else is good, there is no need for so much extrusion as an intro line, you print a skirt anyway so any pressure equalisation is going to occur here anyway.