For the people that are having trouble with PETG, like I did, this kind of first layer is possible.
@Duncan_Gunn Normal settings didn’t work for me at all. The PETG seems to swell a lot coming out of the extruder. So it seems to like to ‘AirPrint’ . A very low extrusion width factor works, no retraction, but stopping the feed a little bit before travel helps, and printing at least 10 degrees hotter than recommended by the filament supplier. This way I get great results, no warping, and extremely strong parts.
With ‘normal’ settings I got a lot of blobs, and awful looking parts. A common advise you will hear is to print slowly with this material, but I print at 100mm/s with no problems. The top layers I print at 50mm/s, for a smoother surface.
Ya, I had blobbing problems from what I think is back pressure build up. I had to reduce the multiplier to 93% and boost extruder temp. Still get a little build up on the nozzel, but the parts print better and faster after that multiplier change.
@Jules_Hoehn
It’s not back pressure. It’s over extrusion, which leads to your nozzle ploughing trough the printed layers.
What slicer are you using that you can stop the feed a little before travel?
Yeah, print it hot (I go from 255 for the first layer to 250 for the rest) and and the blobbing goes away. Which brand of PTEG are you using? It sounds like they’re all quite different.
At the moment I’m using Real, after using 2 Kg of Esun previoulsly. Apart from the different colors, there is no difference.
I’m printing 0,3 mm layers, with a 0,4 mm nozzle (E3D) and parts are super strong.
My general rule of thumb when printing with PLA is ‘what would I do with a tube of toothpaste’?
With PETG, it’s more like ‘what would I do with a sticky grease gun?’