Printing advice needed for newb 🙂
Hey all, I just set up my new MK3S printer and first two prints went really well, the tree frog, 150um and 50 um. My third print i tried an elephant from thingiverse. It went great until about the last hour then it went poorly. Im not sure if its under extrusion, layer separation or a problem with my slicer settings or something else. Im using pla prusament, 0.15 quality settings in slicer from prusa, 210c hotend, all other settings were default i believe. Any advice as to how to correct this would be greatly appreciated.
RE: Printing advice needed for newb 🙂
Did you pause the print? There is some event at this level that is indicating something changed. Print speed, temps, or ??
Or, it is possible your Prusament had a fleck of something in it that is now clogging the nozzle. You may want to try your hand at performing a cold pull. Prusa has a procedure you can follow. Essentially, heat to 210c, open the idler door, set temp to 0c, then feed filament manually by hand until it stops melting as you push, let the printer continue cooling to room temp, after it has fully cooled, set the nozzle to 85c, then using pliers pull the filament straight up out of the hot end. This will pluck any large particles out of the nozzle.
RE: Printing advice needed for newb 🙂
Welcome David. My first thought is that you had/have a feed issue/blockage in your filament. That can be caused by lint/dirt/filament in your feed assembly. It can get into the gears and cause slippage. Also the spring tension may not be adjusted correctly. Go back thru the feed adjustment and either increase/decrease pressure accordingly. The only other thing I can suggest is increase your temp 5 to 10 degrees. My room is cooler than average and I run 215 to 220 based on the print or filament. The nozzle temp may drift a little cooler and if cools enough the filament may jam in the nozzle until the nozzle reheats to allow the filament to continue to flow resulting in a missed layer. Hope this helps. Let us know if further assistance is needed.
Original Prusa I3 MK2s with 2.5 upgrade; Original Prusa I3 MK3s; Slic3rPE; FreeCAD
RE: Printing advice needed for newb 🙂
Ok thanks for the replies, I have a feeling something is partially clogging my nozzle, I’m going to remove it and take a look. If not that I’ll try the cold pull, Will post back afterwards.
RE: Printing advice needed for newb 🙂
Don't remove the nozzle unless you carefully follow the E3D-V6 procedure to the letter. If you don't, your concerns are just starting.
A cold pull is the easiest solution to a plugged nozzle.
RE: Printing advice needed for newb 🙂
Ok update, I saw somewhere about just heating up the nozzle without any filament in it, I heated the nozzle up to 265c I think it was, and while I was watching I saw a bit of pla come out, then 2 blobs came out, I let it sit for 5 more minutes and nothing more came out, so I put filament back in and ran the first layer test just to print something easy and it worked!, I’m printing an object now so fingers crossed. I really appreciate all your responses, this community is awesome. I’m new to this and learning a lot.
RE: Printing advice needed for newb 🙂
Hi Tim, I tried to do the cold pull but I just can’t get the pla into the hole. I take the door off and try to feed it in but it won’t go , I did print a raven and it went well but now it’s back to not extruding anything again.
RE: Printing advice needed for newb 🙂
Filament for a cold pull goes in the top feed hole as if you are printing normally.
1) Do a normal LOAD cycle to fill the nozzle with melt.
2) Turn the printer off and let it cool down to ambient.
-- if there is oozing, wipe the excess off the nozzle with a paper towel as it cools
3) When the printer is cold, open the idler door.
4) Set nozzle temp to 85.
5) Immediately start pulling up on the filament as soon as the nozzle is heating, pliers can help. Don't twist and turn: pull straight up.
-- filament should pop loose from the nozzle and slide up and out the extruder.
Here's a video ...
This almost follows the Prusa method, but not quite.
The cold pull works best starting with a COLD printer. Starting warm will cause the filament pull to stretch and possibly break without getting the nozzle clean.
RE: Printing advice needed for newb 🙂
Thanks Tim, Ill try this when i get home tonight 🙂
RE: Printing advice needed for newb 🙂
Hey Tim, I did your pull method twice and I unclogged the nozzle! Woot thank you very much. When your done printing do you leave filament loaded or unload it? What’s the proper way to store the printer when not in use to prevent clogs?
RE: Printing advice needed for newb 🙂
I do a normal unload so I can put the filament spool in a ziplock bag with desiccant. When I want to use the printer again I do a normal load, and go right to printing. Nothing special.
ps: gratz on getting it to work! When things fail, it is usually very simple to get back to normal.