Okay yeah you were either grinding on the print or grinding on your bed. I’d recommend changing your nozzle.
@Nicholas_ScarabCoder
The z-offset is the difference (in mm) between the tip of the extruder and the trigger point of the magnetic probe. Essentially it sets the ‘zero’ level that defines the first layer.
M212 is the correct command to set the Z-offset
… but…
the M500 command must be issued to SAVE the offset value.
If you do not save the value with M500, then the next time you power up, the previous value will be used.
Here is an example when I set my z-offset to -0.7 mm:
M212 Z-0.7 ; change Z offset
M500 ; store setting
To read back the saved value, use the M501 command:
M501 ; read settings
And, obviously, it is possible to have offset value that will crash the extruder tip into your plate, so be slow and methodical when tuning the z-offset.
I changed my Z-offset value in increments of 0.2 mm to test for a reasonably close value, then adjust by 0.1 mm to fine-tune it.
I think there are a couple of issues here. It looks like there’s some over extrusion and the head is getting dragged through the filament.
You can see where old, burnt filament is probably getting pulled off the head as it makes contact.
It also looks like there’s an adhesion issue. I had similar stringing like this when I realized the filament just wasn’t sticking well.
Consider setting z height like others have mentioned as well as checking extruder steps. Wiping a little bit of rubbing alcohol on the painter’s tape will also get the PLA to really stick (sometimes too well).
Get the heated bed option, it does wonders for your prints. I have it and it’s awesome.
@Tim_Sills Let him fix Z height first. You shouldn’t speculate various problems like that until he fixes the obvious one.
@John_Car I have it already, actually. @Adam_Steinmark Maybe I did a bit too much of a squish, would that be it?
@Nicholas_ScarabCoder Definitely if your nozzle was grinding against the bed. But that doesn’t appear to be the problem in this picture.
Whoa, easy there Adam, the whole point of this forum and process is to help someone out. And in part there will always be a bit of speculation.
@Tim_Sills I understand but you’re kinda speculating problems that we won’t even know exist until he fixes Z height so suggesting these problems that may or may not exist might cause him to change settings that will cause more problems. I just don’t want that to happen
I have no idea what you guys are complaining about, Adam was very helpful. And I didn’t even expect that much out of one person with my constant (and probably really dumb) questions.
Your bottom layers don’t look fine. They shouldn’t be that blobby, and you’ve got burn marks in your filament.
The raft layers will come out a little stringy, but not THAT stringy.
I would check the temperature, flow rate, and z height calibration again.
Just wanted to say, I fixed this. I just had to calibrate it a bit, and it works fine. My biggest problem before is that I was calibrating and testing with the raft on, which starts a bit lower then normal.
Sounds great. Happy printing!
Oh definitely. Thanks a lot for the tips on my other posts, I got it to work by simply using the PrintrBot .ini config file for Cura. However, I still get a few blobs (very rarely), which I think is because the reel of plastic wasn’t been stored properly (I wasn’t using it for a few months).
I thought it might have been that you didn’t load the .ini profile. The few blobs could be from the filament or from retraction settings. I still don’t have mine fully dialed in but I just got the all metal Ubis 13 so I have to test that out now 
Awesome, I saw that. Tell me how that hot end works out, I may get one.
I have a couple upgrades I made to the machine, I’ll post a new topic to this community detailing it all when I’m done (probably sometime this weekend). The assembly is a little complicated (no more so then building the printer) and the nozzles are so much smaller.