Layer/Plastic Issue

Hey guys,

Thanks for taking the time to help me out. Attached is a picture of the first layer of our print from a mendel prusa 12x12 from MendelCraft.com.

Previously, we had issues of it not laying down enough plastic.. after adjust the hobbed bolt and tightening the necessary holdings for the ABS to grip onto the hobbed bolt, the prints we have tried are coming out like this now.

Is this considered a wet print? Any theories from anybody regarding this, what appears to be, influx of plastic?

Chris

It's kind of hard to tell from the pic and I'm not an ABS expert, but I would guess maybe temp too high, perhaps on both bed and exturder or maybe just one or the other. You have a temp probe on your meter? Verify hot end and bed temp if you can. If they are off check the thermistor config in your firware and make sure termistors are touching metal or glass where apprporiate.

I think your hot end may be too close to the bed too.

If this is your first printer I would really recommend starting out with PLA. Be sure to use a cooling fan blowing between the exturder and the hot end as well as a fan blowing on the part right where the hot end at.

Thanks for the response & recommendations. We definitely appreciate it.

We are operating at hotend temp of 240 deg c and heatbed 170 deg c. PID is enabled, but isn't calibrated.. so we it's about +-6.

Is this too hot you think?

The recommended bed temperature for ABS is 110.

I'm doing a test print now with 240 hotend, 110 bed.

Thanks for the responses.

The hotend seems to be digging into the layer it just set, causing the look in the picture I attached above. I am going to try running the nozzle a bit higher...

Any ideas anyone? It's almost like the layer it sets is higher than the hotend.. which makes me think too much plastic is coming out

Have you calibrated everything?

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Waitaki 3D Printer

This problem could be becuse your Z steps or E steps are off or both. Have you done the calibration guide?

This calulator from Josef Prusa will help you calulate a starting point for your steps. These are not the final numbers. Every printer is a little different due to variances in parts and being put together by different people by hand. You will more than likely still have to tweek them.

I believe I had this same issue, if you leave it to continue printing the item will finish fine, but the bottom surface is ruined (in my case).

I thought I had calibrated my machine perfectly, but I ran though it again just because I had exhausted all other options. Anyway going through the calibration again sorted it, I think the amount of filament being extruded had changed significantly since the beginning of the roll, as the new measurements were very different. (also the bed wasn't quite as perfectly level as it should have been).