Extruder pressing into print

Hi All,

I was hoping I could get some input with my prints, I'm very new to this. When printing it seems as if my extruder is dragging over the print and I'm not sure which setting to change to resolve this, I'm using Slic3r if that helps.


Thank you,

Slic3R has a Z lift function setting which raised the nozzle as it moves from one print area to another to avoid the problem you are talking about. Sorry but I cannot tell you exactly where it is at the moment - if you cannot locate it, post back and let us know which version you are working with. If I use Slic3r, I generally set a z lift figure of 0.25mm.

Alan

A Picture would help.

If you mean the nozzle is dragging through the print when doing fill, it may be that the Extruder isn't calibrated right or your filament diameter isn't set right in Slic3r.

How dose it do on the 20mm solid cube test?

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Komb'
Glankonian Protoforms

Hi Komb, Alzibiff,

I'll take a photo of my test cube tonight and post it. I did a Z calibration with a sheet of paper yesterday and I did verify that I'm printing 3mm filament.


Thanks again!

Mine does that from time to time and it is sometimes because of bad bed leveling. As my z-endstop is the standard one, it moves, causing the be level to be too high, whihch will lead the extruder to drag the printer.

Make sure you bed is leveled and you can hardly move two sheets of paper between the extruder and the bed.

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Cheers,
Franklin Dattein

I think you'll probably need to measure the filament diametre with a micrometre. 3mm will just be a nominal size, most likely.

I have a set of electronic claipers that indicates 1/100mm. You can enter it in slicer to tenths. The usual advice is to take measurements at several places on the filament and take the average. However, with one brand of filament I discovered that it wasn't actually round - so measure, rotate the calipers and measure again the diametre at 90 degs to the first measurement and average. If your filament is wider than slicer thinks it is it will extrude too much plastic.

Even with a good consistent filament and measured acuratly the extruder still can drag through the filament. The upper layers are still going to have expanded. I was printing a part last night and after about 30 layers the extruder stalled as it ran into the part. (the part was very well stuck down.) The Y axis was then out a few steps. I resliced it with lift activated (1mm) and on the next attempt I got a good part. (after a 5hr print)

Printing with 3mm filament doesn't mean plugging 3mm into the slicing program.

I'm using good 3mm filament. is has a listed variance of "2.81-2.89mm". I have my Slic3r 9.8 set to 2.87 for a smooth top finish.

However, last time I printed on the Blue spool, I had signs of over fill in areas where solid fill was necessary, (Usually print with 20-25% fill), So, I'll have to bump the setting up until it comes out right.

Some Bad filament can actually get larger than 3mm. I had some I had to run at 3.2 or about for good prints.

(Reads TerryKidd's reply)

I find that averaging the measurements just gets me in the ballpark. (Latest Slic3r seems to need higher values...)
So, I usually run some test-prints and adjust the values from the results.

Some Filament will even drift over the length of the roll.