More challenges with Bronzefill  

Re: More challenges with Bronzefill

Your pic isn't showing, so it's hard to say for sure, but parts of your print are being dragged away, it's usually a first layer issue. The question that perhaps the picture would clear up is whether it's due to the nozzle dragging it away, or a bed adhesion issue. Since you've got experience with other filaments, I'll assume it's not due to your Live-Z adjustment being too low and colliding. Since you print other PLA materials, Live-Z adjustments shouldn't be any different.

Give the bed a good clean. Make sure it's clean. That filament is PLA-based, so use a good wipe with 91%+ IPA.

If that doesn't work, a simple test is to simply start the print, then immediately use the dial on the front to reduce the speed to say 50%. If this clears up the problem, then you need to tweak your speeds. I'd suggest reducing Filament Settings->Advanced->Maximum extrusion speed from 10mm^3/s to something lower, perhaps 5 to start. With that, you may not need to reduce print speeds under Print Settings at all. Slice the file, then open it up in preview and look at the speeds being used to print. Colorfabb suggest limiting that filament to 70mm/s, so see if the parts that are tearing away are printing faster. If so, reduce the extrusion factor or speeds to limit it to 70mm/s.

I've done a lot of testing recently with PLA-based copper, steel, iron, wood and coffee-filled filament. Slowing things way down always seems to be the key.

Re: More challenges with Bronzefill

Thanks for the advice -- lowering the speed to 50% from the printer dial was a great improvement. I didn't get a perfect 1st layer, but it was significantly better, so this is a big step in the right direction. What's happening with this print is that there are a lot of small perimeters (~4 mm circles) that are printed. The first set print fine, then a few larger perimeter circles are printed, then back to more smaller ones.

Things always start to go sideways when printing the second set of small circle perimeters. It always starts to fail at the same point, regardless of position on the bed. The material seems to be pulled away from the bed, but not because of nozzle drag. Even the initial perimeters that print well, show some signs of pull up when the perimeter completes. It looks a bit like when you're spreading frosting, and as you pull the spatula away, the tension / stickiness of the frosting sticks to spatula -- you end up with a smooth surface that ends in a little pull up. There's not a clean enough break as the extrusion stops and the head is moved to the next position.

I should also mention that this spool is not brand new / fresh, although it has been in sealed ziplock with desiccant. There could be some age issue here as well. I'm trying again with a slightly higher first layer temperature (215 vs 210) in search of 'the perfect first layer'. Any other thoughts / suggestions appreciated, but I think you're spot on - slowing things down seems to be key.

-Michael

Re: More challenges with Bronzefill

As it is a lot of small circle perimeters you could try the solution I found for PETG. It was to reduce the X-Y jerk values for the first layer and put them back to the default values for the second layer:-

Start G-Code till just before the temperature setting

M115 U3.2.1 ; tell printer latest fw version
M201 X1000 Y1000 Z200 E5000 ; sets maximum accelerations, mm/sec^2
M203 X200 Y200 Z12 E120 ; sets maximum feedrates, mm/sec
M204 S1250 T1250 ; sets acceleration (S) and retract acceleration (T)
M205 X2 Y2 Z0.4 E2.5 ; sets the jerk limits, mm/sec for the first layer
M205 S0 T0 ; sets the minimum extruding and travel feed rate, mm/sec
M83 ; extruder relative mode


After Layer Change G-Code

;AFTER_LAYER_CHANGE
;[layer_z]
{if layer_num ==2}M205 X10 Y10 Z0.4 E2.5{endif}; sets the jerk limits, mm/sec for the other layers


Regards,
Martin

Re: More challenges with Bronzefill

I fought getting a test model to print with a new filament, only to realize hours later the model had a 1st layer gap. After slicing 0.5mm off the bottom, it printed perfectly. Have you tried the same model with regular PLA to verify it's specific to your bronzefill? Check the first layer in slicer preview to make sure all those details are actually on the bed for layer 1.

I found with filled materials, slowing down to 15mm/s usually succeeds. Then it's a question of figuring out how fast you dare go. Most filament suggests < 35mm/s max.

You could try adding a brim if all else fails.