Issues with Hatchbox PETG
Hello!
I've been getting excellent prints with PLA, and decided to try some Hatchbox PETG. As I'm still fairly new to 3D printing, I'm not entirely sure how to identify different types of problems. I've attached a picture of what I'm experiencing, and I suspect it could be z height issue, or maybe a temperature or humidity issue? (I know PETG can suffer from humidity) This was printed at 250C nozzle and 75C Bed temp. 240C nozzle appeared to produce slightly better results. Though when printing with PLA -0.8mm seems to produce the best results, raising the z height from -0.8mm to -0.6mm also seemed to help. I'm not really sure if I'm on the right track or not. Any help would be appreciated. 😀
Hatchbox PETG
Recommended Extrusion Temp: 230C-260C
Build Platform Temp: 55C-85C
Re: Issues with Hatchbox PETG
I think you are on the right track. Fixing you Z-Adjust (for this filament) and getting the temperature dialed in.
Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage or loss. If you solve your problem, please post the solution…
Re: Issues with Hatchbox PETG
So I think I'm getting closer. I've been using these Bed Level Calibration Squares, and I'm getting much better results. I've lowered the live z adjust to -0.265 which is considerably lower than where I had it. And then noticed that the left side was still not sticking correctly. I went into the LCD calibration menu, and used bed level correction to lower the left side by 20μm increments until 40μm finally starting printing well. Does anyone know if this is normal or does it indicate a bigger problem with my printer?
Re: Issues with Hatchbox PETG
It all depends on the accuracy of the build. You could try to fix it mechanically, but as long as it is small and the mesh calibration can handle it it should not affect you much.
Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage or loss. If you solve your problem, please post the solution…
Re: Issues with Hatchbox PETG
I print almost exclusively Hatchbox PETG, Colorfab ngen and XT
I vary the temperature between 230C and 240C depending on layer height. First layer I print at 30% speed. I find that the Hatchbox can be very sensitive to Z-level has problems when the bed is not perfectly level.
Personally I prefer to print on glass bed with my Prusa. If you print a lot of PETG or related materials I would recommend switching to glass bed.
Re: Issues with Hatchbox PETG
john, care to share your ngen settings? I have some and would like to get it working well. I have got it working "ok", but I seem to either lose layer bonding on small parts or fine details and can't have both.
Also have Hatchbox PETG and tried my best guesses at settings based on the Colorfab XT settings published on github and other suggestions here. My first layers came out wonderfully but overhangs are terrible, so I have some tuning to do. So for Marcus I would recommend calibrating your live z with PLA using the supplied V2 calibration and then raising that (more positive) by .025 to .050 for a starting point with the Hatchbox PETG. I have mine set at .025 higher than I use for PLA and it worked great.
Re: Issues with Hatchbox PETG
Thanks for your help guys. After printing a few more of the bed level calibration squares and making minor adjustments, I no longer have any issues with my first layer. However, now I'm getting terrible stringing on my parts. I've been using this reference for troubleshooting issues as they arise now. I'm currently printing at the low end of the Hatchbox recommended temperature range: 230C first layer and 240C after that. I'm tweaking my retraction settings now. I started from the 0.7mm slic3r default and worked up in 0.2mm increments to 2mm, which is probably the maximum I feel comfortable with (influenced by this E3D V6 troubleshooting guide). I've also doubled the retraction speed to 60mm/s. Despite all this I'm still seeing stringing. I'm going to see if I can reduce the temperature of all layers to 230C, and I'll post again with my results. In the mean time, I'd love to hear any suggestions.
All current settings:
Skirt loops: 3
Retraction length: 2.0mm
Retraction speed: 60mm/s
First layer temp: 230C
Other layers temp: 240C
First layer bed: 80C
Other layers bed: 85C
Re: Issues with Hatchbox PETG
john, care to share your ngen settings? I have some and would like to get it working well. I have got it working "ok", but I seem to either lose layer bonding on small parts or fine details and can't have both.
Also have Hatchbox PETG and tried my best guesses at settings based on the Colorfab XT settings published on github and other suggestions here. My first layers came out wonderfully but overhangs are terrible, so I have some tuning to do. So for Marcus I would recommend calibrating your live z with PLA using the supplied V2 calibration and then raising that (more positive) by .025 to .050 for a starting point with the Hatchbox PETG. I have mine set at .025 higher than I use for PLA and it worked great.
For ngen
Retraction 2mm
Extrusion width 0.45
Retraction speed 2100
Extruder Temp: 228C
Bed: 85C
Cooling fan: 0 first layer, 50% 2 layer onward
The PLA calibration is a good starting point but remember skirts are your friend. I fine tune the Z level using the skirt and try to get the z level so the skirt layers just join together. Very careful to watch for any overlap in layers as you will get blobs form on higher layers.
Re: Issues with Hatchbox PETG
Thanks for your help guys. After printing a few more of the bed level calibration squares and making minor adjustments, I no longer have any issues with my first layer. However, now I'm getting terrible stringing on my parts. I've been using this reference for troubleshooting issues as they arise now. I'm currently printing at the low end of the Hatchbox recommended temperature range: 230C first layer and 240C after that. I'm tweaking my retraction settings now. I started from the 0.7mm slic3r default and worked up in 0.2mm increments to 2mm, which is probably the maximum I feel comfortable with (influenced by this E3D V6 troubleshooting guide). I've also doubled the retraction speed to 60mm/s. Despite all this I'm still seeing stringing. I'm going to see if I can reduce the temperature of all layers to 230C, and I'll post again with my results. In the mean time, I'd love to hear any suggestions.
All current settings:
Skirt loops: 3
Retraction length: 2.0mm
Retraction speed: 60mm/s
First layer temp: 230C
Other layers temp: 240C
First layer bed: 80C
Other layers bed: 85C
I did some tests tonight to try and reduce stringing with the Hatchbox Orange PETG. Changing retraction length between 1.5 and 2 didn't help much when I last tried so I was looking at temperature and extrusion multiplier.
Using Slic3r PE:
My first layer is at 230 degrees with 85 degree bed (90 degree bed after 1st layer)
First 3 tests (printing a 4 post retraction test from thingiverse) all had similar amounts of stringing:
No Z Lift, 1.5 mm retraction distance, 45 mm/s retraction speed, 1.0 extrusion multiplier, 240 degree temp
No Z Lift, 1.5 mm retraction distance, 45 mm/s retraction speed, .95 extrusion multiplier, 240 degree temp
No Z Lift, 1.5 mm retraction distance, 45 mm/s retraction speed, .95 extrusion multiplier, 230 degree temp
The last one was much better, but printing right at the bottom of the recommended temp for the filament:
No Z Lift, 1.5 mm retraction distance, 45 mm/s retraction speed, .95 extrusion multiplier, 220 degree temp