Extruder Issues?
Hello,
I have not posted much on here since I got my Prusa i3 MK2S kit in late July (too busy printing :mrgreen:) , but you guys have been my go-to resource when I encounter issues (which have been thankfully few, until now). Last week, I moved across town to my new apartment and very carefully transported the printer in the back seat of my car (not in the moving truck). After getting some of the basic unpacked, pretty much the first thing I did was set up 3D printing space. 😉 I still have about half a spool of the original silver Prusa PLA, although I primarily use Makergeeks PLA, which has produced some great prints.
As a matter of due diligence, I ran through the XYZ calibration routine again - the nozzle was hitting so I had to adjust the PINDA height. After further reading on here, I followed the procedure outlined in the "Before you ask" thread. The tip on setting the PINDA height with a credit card was particularly helpful, although I had to add a piece of paper to get a reasonable number for the initial live adjust Z setting (-0.820mm). I did a few runs with Jeff's V4 gcode for life z adjustment and came out with good first layer results around -0.700mm, with the total first layer thickness was about 0.25mm.
Then I went to print the pre-sliced gear bearing model and got the following result. Looks like it is overextruding at the bottom, underextuding at the top, and a little bit of both in the middle. I am thinking that it might be either a worn PTFE tube or something wrong with the extruder gear. What do you think?
Re: Extruder Issues?
Try an extruder calibration.
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Re: Extruder Issues?
Didn't think of that. Are you talking about the extrusion multiplier calibration - where you measure how far the filament travels relative to how far the machine thinks it is travelling? Or is there another way to calibrate the extruder?
I went through the former procedure just now and got an extrusion multiplier of about 0.95. Does this number tend to vary significantly by the spool (for the same material and filament manufacturer), or is it primarily related to the operation of the extruder mechanism itself?
To be honest, I have been using a default extrusion multiplier of 1.0 for pretty much all of my prints to date, but have not any significant extrusion issues until now. At least, none that I have noticed.
I'll have to try out another test print with 0.95 when I get back from work tomorrow. I don't mind running prints while I am at work, but I want to be around to observe this one. The good news is that I ran the V4 gcode a few more times and dialed in the life adjust z to -0.690mm. That first layer looks great now! Thank you for your guidance on this (in the thread I referenced earlier)!