Not Printing Perfectly Round Pets and Melted, Messy Finishing Layer
Hello everyone! I am desperate for help with my Prusa. I bought two of them fully assembled. The first one works pretty well but the second one hasn't had a good print yet. This is not so much for a hobby as it is my business and my business is suffering because of it. I so badly want it to work and don't want to switch printers but I feel like it's never going to work correctly.
I've been emailing them and live chatting with them at the company, sending pics, and videos...they are not helping at all. They keep suggesting the same things that are NOT the problem. I'm really at a loss. When I started these prints, I was using a Makergear M2. They all printed perfectly with precision but the printer was just a hassle and had lots of issues. I heard so many good things about the Prusa I decided to switch my operations over to them.
I need to buy a third printer to keep up but the 2 month wait is killing me...and the printers NOT WORKING right is really killing me. I'm in serious trouble here because of the constant run-around. Ahhhhh! If anyone here is really technical,let me know what you think. I'll post my previous email to Prusa with pics.
Thank you for any suggestions.
Re: Not Printing Perfectly Round Pets and Melted, Messy Finishing Layer
Here are more samples of what my prints look like. Before you reply please make sure you read ALL the emails I've sent since they all tell you what's going wrong and what I've already done to correct it.
The dk grey is from the first prusa. It's pretty good except that the outsides of the pegs are not completely round which prevents them from snapping into the tiles I have. I know the files are absolutely precise because I've printed hundreds of these on mt makergear m2 with no issues. I need to know why the circles aren't printing totally round.
The light grey is an example from my 2nd prusa that has NEVER printed correctly and arrived banged up and parts broken. You can see how severely messed up the top layer is. Squiggly and melted.
As I've said NUMEROUS times...HELP. I'm losing alot of time and money. This isn't a hobby...it's a business! I want to use your printers but I NEED THEM TO PRINT CORRECTLY.
The icing on the cake...I just got a bill for shipping from UPS for my 2nd printer...why?!
Re: Not Printing Perfectly Round Pets and Melted, Messy Finishing Layer
Well, if you want to hear a guess, here's mine:
I think you are overextruding filament, either your extrusion multiplier in your slicer is set too high, or you need to calibrate your extruder steps. I don't use Slic3r that comes with the printer, so i am not sure where that setting is located (nor what slicer you're actually using). There's guides on youtube on how to do E-Steps calibration.
With respect to pegs not being round, well in part this could also be a result of overextrusion as well, but i think it is possible that we are looking at either lose belts or lose motor pulleys as well. Re-tighten belts and the grub screws in your pulley and while you're at it, make sure one grub screw in each pulley is tightened against the flat side of the motor shaft.
Hope this helps
Re: Not Printing Perfectly Round Pets and Melted, Messy Finishing Layer
Please keep in mind this forum is mostly visited by fellow users. Some Prusa Research staff visits the forum, but keep in mind most of us cannot read the e-mails.
Now, to address your predicament, I find myself in agreement with stephan.k. The pattern on the top layer of your prints suggest a hint of overextrusion. This seems to translate to the "ribbed" walls I'm seeing in your second picture (and thus possibly also the not perfectly round parts).
Do note, no printer is 1:1 the same: it might be worthwhile to print calibration cubes on each printer, measure them with a sliderule and correct accordingly.
As for the UPS bill you received... Are you located outside the European Union? If that's the case, could it be UPS has processed import paperwork & paid import fees on your behalf and now sent you a bill for that service?