So more work on dialing this in. This was at 210c and 60c. Obviously I’m getting some stringing but also it seems like the nozzel isn’t stopping in the right spot. Any suggestions on how to make this better? I am currently printing another but I set the hot end to 200 and the bed at 50c. It seems to print ok but only time will tell. Also, I’ve tried retraction settings. From 50mm/s to 150mm/s and retraction from 2-7mm doesn’t really seem to make much of a difference. I also set the re-prime to spit out .15mm³ because I was having issues where it would retract but wouldn’t spit out plastic fast enough and I had weak, incomplete parts if they were small enough.
Have you tried lower retraction speeds? If it is too fast, the stepper will skip steps and not retract at all. This was my problem with a geared extruder. This could help with the globing too.
I might be misremembering, but I think I got best results in the teens.
Looks like your retraction isn’t.
Not the best piece to calibrate on. It’s meant for testing stringing and cooling. It looks like you might have a combination of issues.
Try also smaler retraction length from 0.5 to 1.5mm. helped me with my “china prusa”-copy with direct extruder.
@Matt_Harrington it started at 50mm/s. As for skipping, I’ve held onto the filament as the machine prints and it feels pretty solid. I may try this if I still can’t figure it out.
@Duncan_Gunn it’s definitely retracting but just not properly.
@Stephanie_A yeah, stringing is an issue and I think cooling is as well. I’m working on getting a fan on this thing. Currently I don’t have one and i think that this is the root to many of my issues.
@Karl_Schlacher I’ll give it a shot because that’s what I have, a CtC prusa i3. It’s cheap but I’m slowly polishing this turd. I know it’ll never be amazing but I’m not looking for perfect. I’m just trying to have some fun.
Update:
So my part finished and this one came out worse… More stringing and the part didn’t look as good. Well the top didn’t look as good. The base of it turned out great. 50c seems to work better than 60c for the bed. I do print my first layer at 70c though. It really helps with adhesion as I don’t put ANYTHING on the bed when printing. Straight to the glass. With the right temps, bed adhesion isn’t my problem anymore and I don’t have to mess with tape or anything.
@David_Sherwood not THAT slow. That would make it take forever. But if that’s what it takes, I’ll try it out.
It doesn’t help much to go that slow. Heat will radiate from the nozzle and warm up the print. You need a cooling fan.