Finally printing well!

Hey everyone.

Just wanted to share an update that after many stops and starts, I have FINALLY been getting some reliably good prints on my Prusa Mendel I2. I had some under-extrusion problems dogging me for a LONG time, and after looking in all the wrong places, I finally noticed the "wobble" in my Wade's Accessible Extruder gears...the teeth weren't reaching a consistent depth. So I ordered a nice Greg's Wade Reloaded from Ultibots (http://www.ultibots.com/gregs-wade-reloaded-extruder/) and some new PLA from Makergeeks (http://www.makergeeks.com/pla3dfilament.html) and now everything is working really, really well.

I'm posting this just as a kind of inspirational message to those who are frustrated or confounded in their search for what is causing your prints to fail. It's so rewarding to finally get the problem solved, and now I can get to the part I've been excited about: making new things.

This forum has offered me many lines of investigation and helpful advice (along with a huge amount of help from my brother, Jeff Keegan). So thanks, and don't give up! Great prints are right around the corner.

Congrats! That print looks really good! Goes to show how good quality parts (printed or otherwise) is important to get good results.

What did it look like before the new extruder?

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Newbie with Folgertech 2020 i3.

Here's an AFTER (left) / BEFORE (right) image, of a calibration print. I had my fan disconnected, so the AFTER shot is saggy, but shows the difference with the under-extrusion solved.