Layers don't stick together

Hello,

I am having this problem as displayed on the attached image. Layers just don't stick together.

This ABS material was printed at 220°C, heated bed on 100°C, first layer just sticks ok. Nozzle diameter 0.5, layer height 0.3. The printed object is hollow cube 6x6x6cm with 5mm thick walls. Sliced with Slic3r with 3 perimeters, 3 solid layers.

The walls were build(printed) just by the perimeters, no infill, whereas there is small empty space inside of them, about 1mm thick.

I am wondering, if such a bad result is caused solely by the fact that ABS warps or if I can improve something on my side. Do you have some experience with this? What would be your recommendation?

Try printing hotter, if you have a fan blowing on it, turn it off.

I print ABS at 240c. I got my material from reprapsource and they were clever enough to put a sticker on the side with their recommended temperature.

I get best results with no fan on

Your settings are almost exactly the same as mine, expect I've been printing at .4 layer height and I've done the Pink Panther Woman at .2 both with no seperation problems like in your picture.

With ABS from Makerbot and Makerfarm I find 230C to be too hot and 220C to be about right with an ambient temperature of 23C (initial thermistor readings.)

Where did you get your ABS? It definitely seems to be on that end other than from your settings, but like Polygonhell suggested just try printing hotter.

Your thermistor could be off as well.

-Tom

I found that printing with a desk lamp and a 75W light bulb as close to the extruder eliminates about 90% of what was going on with my prints. They looked the same. I do also print ABS @ 250c but that is partially to account for how the thermistor is placed.

Careful with that. Printing at 250C could damage the PTFE tubing inside the hotend. I think the max it can handle its 260C before it becomes butter, so 250C might soften and deform it over time.

---

-Tom

I found that when I was using Pronterface the same plastic from the same spool was being extruded at 230°c just fine but once I switched to repiter-host I had to increase the temp setting. I firmly believe that there is a measurement difference somewhere that I can not find. Also my adopted makergear prusa does not seem to have a tube in the hot end. Just a hollow threaded brass rod that screws into the PEEK at the top and some Teflon tape for the treads at the tip. The only PTFE that I have is right at the top as an insert in the PEEK . Is that the piece you are referring to? Perhaps mine should have a tube but it does not and seems to be working fine. The only clogging I have had (and this is how I know there is no PTFE except at the top) is when I switched from ABS to PLA and there was some residual in there as well as I had just finished my Bowden Mod so there might have been a bit of PTFE chip from drill enlarging the tube. Hard do tell though. Bringing the temp up to ABS for a second did not clear it so I had to tear it down and clean it. A situation I am going to remedy by building a set of hotends that can be quickly swapped out on a custom X carriage I am working on. I want to have various tip sizes in both 1.75 and 3mm. A set exclusively for ABS & one for PLA. Excessive... perhaps but I often switch between the two materials, like having extra tooling, and if I find a good buy on 3mm or vice versa sweet.

Mike

Sweet. If it isnt too bulky then I'd love to use a design like that. Quickly swapping out nozzles from .5 to .25mm for larger or smaller prints would be useful.

Here is the tube I was referring to. Its usually used in J-head hotends though others like the Ubis hotend may not use one.

---

-Tom