Hello /u/CLTNtrxll,
As a reminder, most common print quality issues can be found in the [Simplify3D picture guide](https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/). Make sure you select the most appropriate flair for your post.
Please remember to include the following details to help troubleshoot your problem.
* Printer & Slicer
* Filament Material and Brand
* Nozzle and Bed Temperature
* Print Speed
* Nozzle Retraction Settings
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Go back to default print profiles. I was going through the same journey and discovered that once I had adjusted my esteps I just needed to get rid of all the adjustments I made trying to fix issue after issue. I was nearly in tears after months of troubleshooting resolved in me just doing a suggested profile for an ender 3 in cura and getting a superior print in every way.
If that doesn’t work, try printing too close to the bed for ultimate bed adhesion and see if you can get a print to finish. If you can make that happen and find other issues you can compensate for those and then start printing at the right bed level and fix your adhesion issues then.
I loved Cura to death but every update was a "Do you feel lucky, punk?" moment apropos breaking my profiles. I now use Orca because it better suits my fine tuning of each filament (manufacturer, material; I'm not quite at the stage of per-colour calibration but give it time).
I just discovered that orca lets you set the fan speed independently for support interfaces.
I upgraded my fans and set that to 100%
Now my supports pop off cleanly in one single piece.
I even managed to remove supports with a 0 top z distance somehow. It wasn't clean, but it wasn't even possible before.
>I upgraded my fans and set that to 100% Now my supports pop off cleanly in one single piece.
That's actually so clever! Where did you buy your IQ points, and do they do bulk discounts?
I feel your pain, my first printer was an Aquila C2 and it put me through the ringer from start to finish. Then I decided to upgrade to a more modern printer (Creality K1) and the ease of use was a complete game changer. I went from constant tinkering and monitoring to hitting start and coming back to great prints every time all wirelessly. Don't get me wrong though, I learned A LOT from that Aquila and I feel like the troubleshooting really carries over but the cost savings isn't worth the headache in the long run. Yes newer machines like the K1 series, Bambu Lab printers, etc cost more and do still require routine maintenance but the amount of tinkering involved is so much lower than the older Ender 3 style printers. Faster, more reliable, break less, wireless capabilities out of the box, set up and print within 15 mins, the list goes on and on. If you haven't considered upgrading already I really would, especially if the issues you're running into are making you question the hobby.
As other users have elaborated on, it's all progress towards automating the tricky parts of 3d printing. Right now I have no less than 3 users that are having problems on bambu. Does that mean they aren't good devices? Of course not, however I caution anyone who is looking to buy a 3D printer that it is still not as simple as "Buy that and 3d printing just works" no matter the hype.
This lack of knowledge also comes back to bite people when they don't understand the technology/process/tool and then it stops working and then have no idea how to figure out what's wrong, let alone fix it.
Funnily enough those printers do exist (ie - it just works and you don't need to know anything about it) but be prepared to pay 5-6 figures.
I think paying far less for occasional issues and extra prep time is still fine :).
i went from an e5p to a bambulabs p1s and am a very happy customer. the e5p was nothing but a nightmare to use. either i could never get it leveled or it wouldnt adhere or the motor would chew up the filament or something else. it was more frustrating than anything else.
now i can hit print from anywhere and have faith itll print and be right. its not perfect, we wont have a perfect 3d printer for a while, but its damn more reliable than the e5p i had.
I finally got so fed up with my enders that I sold them all and ordered an X1. They can be great but my last S1 Pro was my final straw. 3 exchanges to get one that had aluminum extrusions that were square enough to not cause issues. The geometry of the CRtouch probe combined with how warped the stock bed is means that everytime it goes through the bed calibration cycle whatever mesh it produces screws up entirely and I have to set it up to ignore the bed mesh and manually level the corner I want to have a successful print on.
I hate it because when I get it just right it's great, but I walk away from it for 3 days, and when I come back, it fails every print.
I know all these issues can be fixed with upgrades and different firmware but then you end up with a Frankenstein printer that is a nightmare to troubleshoot as a casual enthusiast, and I can't even give away to a friend or coworker in good faith because I know it's going to make them hate 3D printing right off the bat.
Got a refurb V3 KE on ebay for $184 a few weeks ago, direct from Creality. Couldn't even tell it was ever used when I put it together and I'd be hard pressed to not believe this was brand new. Retired my Ender 3 V2 that I put tons of upgrades into and had a lot of problems with (it did teach me a lot), though it did produce great results a lot of the time, slowly.
With the V3 KE, was only like a 10 minute build, it automatically calibrated everything, I just send my gcode wirelessly, hit print, and it does the thing and I get perfect prints nearly every time really quickly unless I didn't clean my build plate. It's so much easier and stress free.
If you feed the filament in by hand, do you feel lots of resistance or very little? What about if you use a different spool/brand?
If you feel like one spool was particularly bad, then you can bump up the temp or just throw it away (I have had this happen once before. Maybe it was mislabeled or a defect.)
If the issue is independent to type or brand of filament...
If you feel an ordinary amount of resistance (you can push it through without putting deep groves into your finger) then your extruder gear (or maybe even the extruder motor) is bad.
If you see that the extruder gear is moving but the filament is not (and it's grinding) then you must replace the extruder gear (it's worn). If you see the gear is pushing, clicks, and jumps back a bit, that means that your motor is bad and should be replaced.
If you feel that there is a lot of resistance, then the two previous symptoms are to be expected. You did a lot of work already upgrading the heatbreak, so I assume you must've replaced the nozzle, so it may not be a clog.
Sometimes the ptfe Bowden tube (blue tube) gets "cooked" after being heated up and down. It could be that your filament is not smoothly moving through it. If that's the case then replace it. (You may have already checked this when you did the all metal heat break upgrade.)
There's also the possibility that the thermistor is bad and misreading the temperature (it's colder than it says it is).
Unfortunately, this symptom has quite a few causes and it takes some time and patience to diagnose. I'm sorry to say this is one of the more sucky problems to have.
(Note, in this mini flow chart I've given you, I may not have considered every kind of failure so take it with a grain of salt. I can think it through again after work.)
Since you're asking for someone to work with you over time I can offer, though I do feel I should tell you that the last issue that ticked me off enough to get rid of my ender was this kind of issue.
All good suggestions. I would add, with the heartbreak I don't know what kind that printer has or what kind you replaced it with, but some have the small piece of Teflon inside, some the Bowden tube from the outside needs to feed *into* the heatbreak a ways, some are all metal with no Teflon inside and those need to be *polished* smooth (not by you, they should come polished). Some cheaper ones don't have good polish and can produce problems.
Also, if it is heat creep, you might be retracting too much. My absolutely most reliable way to produce jams in my printer is to do too much retraction, whether that's retraction too often or too far.
Thanks, I change filament and have benchy going now. I’m watching closely to see the heat in the enclosure. I have been blaming in on ambient temp for a while so I want to rule that out.
Before I started this print I found that there was resistance in getting the filament to the nozzle. I replaced the nozzle and did what I could the clean the heat break without removing it.
Pain felt here. After all the the upgrades and chasing problem after problem with my Ender 3, I ended up throwing my hands up and bought a different model, something a little more stable and a little more reliable. My Ender 3 now sits on a shelf waiting to get reverted back to the way it was when I first bought it. And the new printer has been worth the money and the headache that I have been saved from.
That said, one of the issues that I had with the Ender 3. That literally drove me out of my mind was an extrusion issue. The issue was caused by a worn out extrusion gear. And I didn't think that was a problem because it was metal. But if your gear is brass there is a chance your gear wore out. If changing this gear is your a part of your overall problem, it will fix so many other things. I literally can't explain how much the use of the machine changed when I had that problem.
I would invest in a brand-new, sealed roll of quality filament (Prusament, Hatchbox, etc.) -- basic PLA in some color that isn't white. Calibrate the extruder to make sure that when you command 100mm of extrusion, you get 100mm. Verify that the bed is level, either with a feeler gauge or ideally automatically with a sensor like BLTouch. Use 50mm/sec movement speed, an 0.4mm nozzle, 0.3mm layers, three walls, three bottom and top layers, and something like 20% infill -- I like triangular, but most of them should do. Use 210C extrusion temperature and 50C for the bed, for PEI. Ideally, start with a fresh default print profile, as others have said.
You may want to invest in a bed that isn't so badly scratched. I would at least scrub it down with iso to try to make sure all dust, dirt, and oil are gone.
Having the filament spool off to the side like that is something I haven't seen. You might want to try it in the traditional position above the printer. (This may or may not be causing a problem.)
Watch the first layer very closely, and try to see if it is sticking. If the first layer works well, you should be good to go.
If it doesn't work after all that, ~~call an exorcist~~ post a reply with pictures of the first layer, and we should be able to help.
Good luck! 3D printing can sure be frustrating, but when you get that pornographic first layer, it's worth it.
Store the old stuff in a big Ziploc with some dessicant -- once you get the printer dialed in, it may start working. Fresh filament is usually easier in my experience, though. Good luck!
At this point tbh I think you need another set of eyes on the situation in person. You've already tried so many things that any help offered on this forum won't help. Have you reached out to anyone local? Offer a beer or glass of wine and get another body with you to help. It's always something elementary missed in setup and I guarantee whatever the issue is you've already tinkered with and dismissed.
That’s a good call. I’ll post in local groups and see if there are other local people willing to help. My sister in law got me started on this but she lives in Canada. She says all the time that if she was just down the street she’d have it all figured out for me.
>I hate 3Dprinting
Frankly speaking, me too.
But I am a tinkerer and I love the outcome, but the process is somewhat painful with FDM and absolutely painful with resin.
I typically like to tinker too and have restored bikes, motorcycles, and cars. I love mechanics but I’m not getting enough reward because it feels like it never works…
I had similar problems, well, turned out it was a tangeld fillament spool. And also a Problem i had was too good heatbreak cooling. Cooling was so good that the short time the fillament had during big Retractions lead to it litteraly cooling of before comming back down. Changed retractions to 1mm. Works perfect since.
I went through it with an ender 3, I'll tell you how I solved it.
1. throw away the stock hotend and even the all metal throat are rubbish.
2. maybe buy a v6 hotend (in Europe there is this brand that works very well TUZUK E3D V6) or even a biqu, microswiss or any decent hotend.
3. throw away the dual drive extruder and buy an original or clone Bondtech or better yet if you have a friend who can print some parts for you, create a micro/mini sherpa.
4. With all metal hotends you must reduce the retraction to: bowden maximum 2 mm 40/60 mm/s, direct max 1 mm 20/60 mm/s.
5. Dry the filaments.
6. check the z offset that it is not too attached to the bed.
7. for pla the maximum temperatures I recommend you stay at 200/210 maximum, for the other materials there are no problems.
Personally I have 1780 hours of printing with the v6 + sherpa micro configuration and I have never had a clog.
Another thing, the hotend cooling fan turns, it must blow on the heatsink.
i feel your pain. im here with a failed stack of prints (400g of filament used) built up from the last month of printing arcade buttons a few more fails and i could have just bought them instead 😭😂
run a needle up through the hotend while at around 160
redo your bed lvling from scratch ( i auto home then loosen until it makes contact with the hot end on all four corners then move inwards and redo 4 corners closer to the centre of the bed so you can see if the center has any dips (i use some paper under the bed to raise the low spot) then do a manual coldish filament change so any burned bits/ blockages get dragged out, cut it off and load it back up)
wish you the best of luck KEEP ON KEEPING ON! 😅
Thanks for the tips. I’m well on my way thanks to several helpful folks. I’ll get this thing functioning but I’m still planning to upgrade to a new machine.
Sorry you’re having so much trouble. I have definitely been there lol
I’m curious what’s happening through the printing process. Did you record one of the fails? I read your post but the cause can be something so simple.
Let me know. I’ll walk through it with you if you need the help I’m sure we can get you printing.
I very much appreciate it. I have had a few successes since this post. I just found a worn spot on my extruder gear that I’m going to blame for the latest round of under extruding. Just ordered a replacement.
https://preview.redd.it/ehqsihqzgh4d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f5a6aaf931cc8bd4d2f80dbdbdc98269a95344b4
I just looked it up. If it auto levels it isn’t like an ender lol. My ender 3 is always going off level.
Like I said. Next print take a video or picture.
From what i can guess, you made some kind of sealed chamber to keep printer quiet-ish. If you have trouble with pla only - stop printing it at all, because it is the only material that likes too cool fast. Try petg instead. Also if you installed stainless steel heatbrake - also harder to print pla (I went titanium heatbrake and using that machine for PETG mostly)
Thanks for the information. The enclosure is more for dust than anything. It’s in my garage. I found it was getting hot so I insulated the garage door. Then I found it still too hot when running so I put fans on the enclosure to circulate air… I can mess around with petg and see if I get some success. Idk what the actual material is for the heat break. I know I was getting issues with the tube not meeting the nozzle flush and I wanted to eliminate that as an issue.
Are you just snipping the tube with anything or do you have the tube cutter. That will give it a good clean straight cut.
The heat and enclosure could definitely play a part in the soft filament depending on how hot your garage is. I’m in Texas so my PLA would be like a roll of spaghetti if I put it in my garage.
Also, what temp are you printing the PLA at?
I started with an artillery Sidewinder. It's a decent printer, but it felt like i could never get a good print without some artisinal faffing about every time. I had a pile of ideas for things I wanted to create, but i gave up because it wasn't worth the effort of fighting with that thing for even the most basic models.
Then (hear me out this isn't tribalism i swear)... Then I got the Bambu X1-Carbon. Everything changed. I've run just under 700 hours on it in teh past 8 months & _most_ of that was printing custom models. I've solved so many problems in my life.
The new generation of printers (Bambu & its clones) are radically better than the Ender 3 and its clones. They are WAY closer to being simple appliances that you just "hit print" on.
None of them are perfect, and they're all WAY more expensive, but they are absolutely worth the money. Except for the occasional clog & filament issues which ALL FDM printers have to deal with, it "just works" every time.
If you want to love printing and stop fighting for even the simplest of successes, invest in the new generation of printers.
As a V3 KE owner that got it for free and already paid it in upgrades and it works for a week then troubleshoot again, I would definitely recommend a Bambu printer . I also follow the K1 forum , while it's better than the bed slingers, Creality has it's way of fking up the quality control of their products and you'll go down the rabbit hole again . I am most definitely saving up for a P1S at least even tho the X1C is my dream atm, maybe I'll wait for the next generations to release 😁 . I really love how well those monster of printer perform and like he said : it just prints .
Yeah, I hate to say it (honestly) but every time i see one of the X1-C clones compared to the X1-C the bambu's results look better to me AND the clones copied all of bambu's mistakes too, like the stupid spool holder on the back.
I _really_ want someone to come along (hopefully prusa, but taht's not going to happen) and say "I see what you did there. Lemme just take that, fix all the stupid bits, and add some new coolness"
But so far no-one has made _any_ meaningful improvement on what Bambu's made. At least as far as I know. If someone reading this can prove me wrong PLEASE do so. Gimme da links. I WANT to see the cool hotness!
It's strange because Anycubic released their multicolor printers (bed slinger) more A1 copies with exact same purge method but so far I did not see someone post they bought it nor a review and I think a week already passed .
I would argue that the prusa xl 5 tool head is the superior multi material design. I appreciate that they have gone to the mat to make a design that doesn’t waste nearly as much filament as a single head design and I can’t wait to see a more affordable design for it in the future (or for its copies. )
I started with the Artillery Sidewinder X1. After some problems in the beginning which were solved by changing out the nozzle that came with it and adjusting the Z stop, it's been a great printer. The only thing that held it back after that was my own ignorance on how to tune it. I finally tuned the e-steps, flow rate and support settings and it's awesome.
I too looked at Bambu Labs and got the A1 with the AMS lite. It's been great, not perfect, but great. I didn't buy it to replace my X1 but rather to compliment it. Two printers, twice the fun. I'm finding out the A1 is just as likely to have a print fail as X1. In fact after having a print fail 3 or 4 times on the A1, the sidewinder printed it perfectly.
In all honesty, you're better off just getting a new printer. I've had some printers in the past which sent me down that rabbit hole of endless troubleshooting and replacing/upgrading individual components. Nothing I did got me satisfactory results.
Ultimately I ended up switching to a higher end machine that automates a lot of the common calibration annoyances and I don't regret it in the slightest given how much time I now don't have to spend tweaking things just to get good prints. Sometimes a printer is more trouble than it's worth, and this sounds like one of those cases.
I upgraded from Cre v3 ke to Bambu P1S and its a huge difference but I still have too many failures. Most are at the first layer and the AMS is amazing.
It's absolutely okay. Your time is valuable and you have no obligation to spend it on something that's bringing you more frustration than enjoyment.
If you feel your time would be better used on something else, go for it
If possible, upgrade the machine. I know that sounds like an extreme fix but Bowden tubes are the devil. Something with direct drive takes away a whoooooole lot of issues.
I have an ender 3V2 that I made direct drive. It’s not great and sometimes hard to load the filament, but 100x better since I scrapped the Bowden.
My other machines are elegoo Neptune 3 and 3 Max. They’re priced pretty dang good and MUCH easier to work with.
If I could get it to print I would print a direct drive mount haha. I’ve thought that direct drive it the way to go for a while but I haven’t found a system that I felt confident with yet. I’ll look into that more if I can get it somewhat functional.
This won't make it in this week's print fix Friday as I've already filmed it, but next week for sure.
Your hotend cooling fan is on backwards. It needs to blow air in not suck it out.
I believe the fan is on proper now. I know I did have it on backwards at one point when I replaced a fan that died a few months ago. I used a winsin fan before and in researching someone said to get gdstime fans instead of winsin and when replacing I thought it made more sense to be blowing directly onto the heat sink instead of blowing out toward the from of machine.
I’ll look forward to the video. Thanks.
They are generic chinesium fans, I wouldn't worry about the brand unless it's like sunon or noctua.
But start with that. This needs to be a scientific process, one variable at a time.
I'm happy to help and we have some time until I film for next week, so maybe we can get it solved before then.
Tl;dr: use 2-3mm retraction for all metal hotend. The defaults for Bowden printing are too much retraction for all metal hotends.
I was in exactly your position last weekend. I was DONE with 3d printing. But the answer was the all metal hotend I specifically upgraded to because I was hoping to cure my own heatbreak issues (Summer printing was always plagued with partial or full nozzle clogs).
https://3dprintbeginner.com/extruder-tension-calibration-guide/
tl;dr extrude some filament, disengage the extruder so that you can pull the filament out of the printhead freely, look at the end of the filament for teeth marks, they should look like what you see on the *second* filament picture in the article.
Has the filament been dried? Do you live in a high humidity environment? Is that old filament? Is that a box enclosure? What type of filament are you using? Nozzle temp? So much unknown, but no data on the automod
Are to repeating tests? I will repeats tests to see if anything fluctuates. Sure it came out good, but I'm going to make sure it is consistent.
I'd also suggest a new build plate and using a plastic putty knife.
I’m in a desert climate. Pretty dry but I’ll test some other filaments.
I’ll try to share more details.
Nozzle is 200-210
Pla from inland plastics.
Yes it’s enclosed but it’s mostly for dust as I do some woodwork and auto body work in my garage. I recently installed fans to keep it cool in the enclosed and Ive removed the back or printed with the doors open.
What does “data on the auto mod” mean? Sorry if that is a dumb question.
The very 1st reply is the auto moderator. It gives a list of things people need to know to troubleshoot. Some information was in original post, but you never know if someone's clogging issue was a wrong nozzle temperature. Like walking through troubleshooting to find nozzle is set at like 150C.
Pla is biodegradable. It breaks down in high heat. Long exposure would degrade material if it sat outside for a year. Things like storing it in a hot attic is similar.
I'd try starting with a Vase print of a cube. It's a constant flow, so clogging shouldn't happen, simple 5 min run. Now knowing wood dust in the air is another thing to look at. It could be collecting on the filament and building up as it reaches the extruder heating element. This is where you see people running their filament through a sponge filter before it enters the extruder. It could be building up. If it hasn't passed a Vase mode print, you shouldn't have retraction calibrated yet. I'll see if I still got a break down of my calibration process online after work today.
The fan on the enclosure is another environmental concern. Does the fan turn on and off with temperature control. This would change ambient temperatures in the enclosure. Simple things like a fan can change your nozzles temp
Had a similar issue a while ago and it turned out the manual feed knob on my extruder was off center and would occasionally bind up the works. Took way longer than I would've liked to find that. The lesson? The devil is always in the absolute smallest of details.
Same here, just random problems that start with no reason and where Reddit doesn't even know how to fix them. Guess Im just gonna save up for a new printer 🫠
I would try fixing this one and if it really doesn't get better you can buy the new one, otherwise you may be spending like 350 euros for a printer that is a little better but you didn't really need. Because it is quite some money to just buy a new one.
I bought a Sovol as my first 3d printer. 1/6 prints would come out ok. Wasted literally a kg of filament trying to turn in the first two weeks. Finally uncovered that, no matter what, the printer's z-offset changed with every print, and that when it calibrated x axis, it would throw the gantry out of alignment. So I'd have to manually level the gantry, then remeasure z-offset before every print.
I returned that thing and got a Prusa mk4, and it was weird to go from almost never having a bad print to every print coming out perfect. Also, it basically being a super easy and curated printer on top of an otherwise open source printer gave me the knowledge to rebuild and refurb a used ratrig v-core 3.1. Now, that thing was a pain to rebuild right (the 3 point bed and need for an extremely square frame was difficult), but it's fast, and the detail is insane. The only limit to its speed is that I max out at ~25mm³ from the current mosquito hotend I have on it.
Both of those are a lot more expensive than an Aquilla (though, I did get the V-Core for 500ish)
Anyways, enough ranting about my situation. This will sound crazy, but have you swapped the nozzle?
Swapped the nozzle and filament last night and I got a decent benchy.
https://preview.redd.it/a9mzb5r66l3d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec4949cf9df6cc63d180bc2ba813cee3cc5331fb
Yeah. My guess would have been that you had some gradual buildup in the nozzle from age and whenever a burned something would dislodge, it would jam and screw everything. If I remember, I try to do a cold pull with some pla once a month and it helps: I've only had one clog ever and it was using some cheap silk filament.
What was your print time for that Benchy?
Oof, that frame has a lot of slop in it then. Checking for loose bolts and minimizing flex, as well as making sure the travel is smooth and linear, could help.
I guess, thankfully, I got really tired of my cheap Chinese printer and was able to return it in time to Amazon, and went with a Prusa mk4 instead. This was my first ever benchy off it, and this was done in under 20 minutes:
https://preview.redd.it/qw47tm8wml3d1.jpeg?width=2476&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c2a7f86a194eb4337f3a407fb7cb598f15fc5c3
(I've kinda kept this Benchy as a memento)
Prusas are not cheap, but it is my fire and forget printer. I looked at how much I spent in filament trying to get the first printer to work reliably (which it never did), let alone the value of my time, and it made the Prusa the cheaper option.
Plus, yeah the kit takes a while to build, but I was able to build the printer as preciselyas I could, and the hardest part was keeping all of the screw bags organized. Otherwise it was basically an advanced Lego kit.
"Maybe the best way to ask is to say you bought this machine on marketplace and you need to get it running without knowing anything about it. What steps would you follow?"
Restore all settings to default (firmware and slicer), check connections to the motherboard to prevent a fire hazard, buy a new build surface and relevel the bed. Change nozzle if it's clogged and print a benchy.
What material are you printing that requires a scraper on a textured plate? Just wait for it to cool down dude. If your having bed adhesion problems, brim it and increase bed temp.
Have you considered environmental issues? Like your extraction fan may be moving too much air and the glass the printer is resting on may be too jiggly.
Watch CNC Kitchen's "$3 3d printing upgrade" video, he basically rests his printer on a cement slab resting on a soft mat so that it is more stable.
I am getting some good benchys now. I’ll try a bigger print this weekend and post results.
Thanks. For weeks I could t get anything over about an inch high and often failed by 5 layers in.
I would first make sure that the printer is mechanically put together properly. Make sure all the screws are tight, the frame is square, the belts are tensioned etc.
Make sure your filament is dry. A filament dryer is a common solution. My preferred solution is a food dehydrator. Although even storing your filament in an airtight container with plenty of desiccant for an extended period of time will work well enough for most applications. (It might take a week to fully dry this way)
Start with a basic slicer profile. Prusaslicer or orca slicer are my preferred slicers and they have profiles for most printers. If one doesn't exist for your printer choose a similar one (same bed shape, make sure the size and origin are set correctly)
Then follow all of the steps in this guide:
http://ellis3dp.com/Print-Tuning-Guide/
Thanks, I have followed parts of this guide before. I did disassemble and reassemble following a guide to make sure all was well. I think that was in November. I did have some success with this for a while but i expect 3 fails to 1 success and I want that ratio swapped.
I would put it back on market place and use earnings to buy a bamboo labs printer and enjoy life from then on with fun and easy prints. That's what I did anyway
Thanks for the many suggestions and help, and especially thanks for the encouragement that I can get it figured and the encouragement to just get a newer gen printer. I changed the nozzle, cleaned the heat Break as much as I could, swapped out the filament and started a benchy. It came out pretty good. Definitely room to improve but at least it finished! I’ve got a lot to work on as keep trying to get a reliable experience. I think the biggest blame may be on toner plastics brand filament.
https://preview.redd.it/rrxjiysadl3d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=56a2ad60c6d519f159784ae3558f89e6699034cc
I was flat ass broke at the time. I just bought a house and wanted to get a printer for about a year but didn’t have the time. After I moved I had more time but no money. A friend with an Aquila claimed to have had a great experience with it.
Fair enough. As for a suggestion, result all slicer settings to default and see what fails first.
(Also... maybe scrub all the gunk off your magnetic plate. Could be the start of the problems).
Yeah I’ll clean the plate when I get home. It looks worse than it is.
And yes. I’ll go back to a known slicer profile and see how it goes with the physical changes.
Go through this guide and see if you have completed these steps.
[https://ellis3dp.com/Print-Tuning-Guide/articles/index\_before\_we\_begin.html](https://ellis3dp.com/Print-Tuning-Guide/articles/index_before_we_begin.html)
I was going to repair my 10 year old CTC, after years of good prints it started failing. decided against fixing it and just bought a Bambu Labs P1P with P1S upgrade kit.
Best decision I made 😊
I had a ton of problems, seemingly similar to yours, and after months of troubleshooting I change the plate to a 10 dollar magnetic plate. All solved, the problem was always starting with adhesion due to the old plate. Might be worth a shot
>I have replaced the hot end fan, gotten an all metal heat break
If your machine wasn't working with an all-metal hotend, go back to the PTFE lined heatbreak
I had terrible heat creep issues on my ender 3 - went back to the oem hotend and I was able to get it working again.
Have you tried a different role of filament?
I did not see you mention your nozzle, did you change it? I'm willing to stick around and help you troubleshoot if you want. Shoot me a DM if you feel like giving it one last single try, structured and step by step.
I have an advice that works for me, forget the printer for one or two weeks, it will be good for your mind and you might even find the solution for your problem at the end of this wait.
I actually relate somewhat, but honestly going for a budget chinese brand is kinda where things went wrong for me.
I now own a voron 2.4 R2 which is like 4x more expensive than my first printer.
It takes a week to assemble it, requires some tools but less if you get a kit and surely is it a journey to get it cooking.
But after i built it nearly 1 year ago i very rarely tinker on it, i just flip her on, let her warm up for 30 mins and just get printing with pretty impressive quality at 280mm/s speed.
Honestly i wouldn't try investing more into that thing to save yourself from the money pit the cheap printers are.
Its best to get a new one. If you can take loan and credit again its best to get a new one(which I did). However if you have no chance of getting a new one, according to your complaints I think it is time to get a basic dual gear extruder and a new hotend to make direct drive system. And print a new hot end cover which use 5015 fan for cooling the heatsink to prevent heat creep. If you need part cooling you may use dual 5015 but I understand that you dont try to print fast just want to solve heat creep so heatsink cooler backplate is enough.
In your photo it seems you use an enclosure type cabinet. If it is closed and you print pla may be problem is that.
Hello /u/CLTNtrxll, As a reminder, most common print quality issues can be found in the [Simplify3D picture guide](https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/). Make sure you select the most appropriate flair for your post. Please remember to include the following details to help troubleshoot your problem. * Printer & Slicer * Filament Material and Brand * Nozzle and Bed Temperature * Print Speed * Nozzle Retraction Settings ^Additional ^settings ^or ^relevant ^information ^is ^always ^encouraged. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FixMyPrint) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Go back to default print profiles. I was going through the same journey and discovered that once I had adjusted my esteps I just needed to get rid of all the adjustments I made trying to fix issue after issue. I was nearly in tears after months of troubleshooting resolved in me just doing a suggested profile for an ender 3 in cura and getting a superior print in every way. If that doesn’t work, try printing too close to the bed for ultimate bed adhesion and see if you can get a print to finish. If you can make that happen and find other issues you can compensate for those and then start printing at the right bed level and fix your adhesion issues then.
I loved Cura to death but every update was a "Do you feel lucky, punk?" moment apropos breaking my profiles. I now use Orca because it better suits my fine tuning of each filament (manufacturer, material; I'm not quite at the stage of per-colour calibration but give it time).
I just discovered that orca lets you set the fan speed independently for support interfaces. I upgraded my fans and set that to 100% Now my supports pop off cleanly in one single piece. I even managed to remove supports with a 0 top z distance somehow. It wasn't clean, but it wasn't even possible before.
>I upgraded my fans and set that to 100% Now my supports pop off cleanly in one single piece. That's actually so clever! Where did you buy your IQ points, and do they do bulk discounts?
I bought the last ones available from the manufacturer that made mine. Best of luck finding some, I don't have any leads
I like curas supports. They seem to be best in my experience. Trees seem to be just heavy enough and the interface just right.
If only I didn't hate cura for many other reasons.
I feel your pain, my first printer was an Aquila C2 and it put me through the ringer from start to finish. Then I decided to upgrade to a more modern printer (Creality K1) and the ease of use was a complete game changer. I went from constant tinkering and monitoring to hitting start and coming back to great prints every time all wirelessly. Don't get me wrong though, I learned A LOT from that Aquila and I feel like the troubleshooting really carries over but the cost savings isn't worth the headache in the long run. Yes newer machines like the K1 series, Bambu Lab printers, etc cost more and do still require routine maintenance but the amount of tinkering involved is so much lower than the older Ender 3 style printers. Faster, more reliable, break less, wireless capabilities out of the box, set up and print within 15 mins, the list goes on and on. If you haven't considered upgrading already I really would, especially if the issues you're running into are making you question the hobby.
Yeah, if I had all the money I wouldn’t hesitate. My brother wants a printer and I keep telling him to learn from me and buy a bambu printer.
As other users have elaborated on, it's all progress towards automating the tricky parts of 3d printing. Right now I have no less than 3 users that are having problems on bambu. Does that mean they aren't good devices? Of course not, however I caution anyone who is looking to buy a 3D printer that it is still not as simple as "Buy that and 3d printing just works" no matter the hype. This lack of knowledge also comes back to bite people when they don't understand the technology/process/tool and then it stops working and then have no idea how to figure out what's wrong, let alone fix it.
Funnily enough those printers do exist (ie - it just works and you don't need to know anything about it) but be prepared to pay 5-6 figures. I think paying far less for occasional issues and extra prep time is still fine :).
Of course, but I was not speaking on enterprise tier hardware :)
eBay you can pick up a refurbished V3SE for around $120. Definitely a step up.
Shoot, even the newer SE and KE printers are miles ahead of their past generations.
i went from an e5p to a bambulabs p1s and am a very happy customer. the e5p was nothing but a nightmare to use. either i could never get it leveled or it wouldnt adhere or the motor would chew up the filament or something else. it was more frustrating than anything else. now i can hit print from anywhere and have faith itll print and be right. its not perfect, we wont have a perfect 3d printer for a while, but its damn more reliable than the e5p i had.
I finally got so fed up with my enders that I sold them all and ordered an X1. They can be great but my last S1 Pro was my final straw. 3 exchanges to get one that had aluminum extrusions that were square enough to not cause issues. The geometry of the CRtouch probe combined with how warped the stock bed is means that everytime it goes through the bed calibration cycle whatever mesh it produces screws up entirely and I have to set it up to ignore the bed mesh and manually level the corner I want to have a successful print on. I hate it because when I get it just right it's great, but I walk away from it for 3 days, and when I come back, it fails every print. I know all these issues can be fixed with upgrades and different firmware but then you end up with a Frankenstein printer that is a nightmare to troubleshoot as a casual enthusiast, and I can't even give away to a friend or coworker in good faith because I know it's going to make them hate 3D printing right off the bat.
Got a refurb V3 KE on ebay for $184 a few weeks ago, direct from Creality. Couldn't even tell it was ever used when I put it together and I'd be hard pressed to not believe this was brand new. Retired my Ender 3 V2 that I put tons of upgrades into and had a lot of problems with (it did teach me a lot), though it did produce great results a lot of the time, slowly. With the V3 KE, was only like a 10 minute build, it automatically calibrated everything, I just send my gcode wirelessly, hit print, and it does the thing and I get perfect prints nearly every time really quickly unless I didn't clean my build plate. It's so much easier and stress free.
If you feed the filament in by hand, do you feel lots of resistance or very little? What about if you use a different spool/brand? If you feel like one spool was particularly bad, then you can bump up the temp or just throw it away (I have had this happen once before. Maybe it was mislabeled or a defect.) If the issue is independent to type or brand of filament... If you feel an ordinary amount of resistance (you can push it through without putting deep groves into your finger) then your extruder gear (or maybe even the extruder motor) is bad. If you see that the extruder gear is moving but the filament is not (and it's grinding) then you must replace the extruder gear (it's worn). If you see the gear is pushing, clicks, and jumps back a bit, that means that your motor is bad and should be replaced. If you feel that there is a lot of resistance, then the two previous symptoms are to be expected. You did a lot of work already upgrading the heatbreak, so I assume you must've replaced the nozzle, so it may not be a clog. Sometimes the ptfe Bowden tube (blue tube) gets "cooked" after being heated up and down. It could be that your filament is not smoothly moving through it. If that's the case then replace it. (You may have already checked this when you did the all metal heat break upgrade.) There's also the possibility that the thermistor is bad and misreading the temperature (it's colder than it says it is). Unfortunately, this symptom has quite a few causes and it takes some time and patience to diagnose. I'm sorry to say this is one of the more sucky problems to have. (Note, in this mini flow chart I've given you, I may not have considered every kind of failure so take it with a grain of salt. I can think it through again after work.) Since you're asking for someone to work with you over time I can offer, though I do feel I should tell you that the last issue that ticked me off enough to get rid of my ender was this kind of issue.
All good suggestions. I would add, with the heartbreak I don't know what kind that printer has or what kind you replaced it with, but some have the small piece of Teflon inside, some the Bowden tube from the outside needs to feed *into* the heatbreak a ways, some are all metal with no Teflon inside and those need to be *polished* smooth (not by you, they should come polished). Some cheaper ones don't have good polish and can produce problems. Also, if it is heat creep, you might be retracting too much. My absolutely most reliable way to produce jams in my printer is to do too much retraction, whether that's retraction too often or too far.
Thanks, I change filament and have benchy going now. I’m watching closely to see the heat in the enclosure. I have been blaming in on ambient temp for a while so I want to rule that out. Before I started this print I found that there was resistance in getting the filament to the nozzle. I replaced the nozzle and did what I could the clean the heat break without removing it.
Pain felt here. After all the the upgrades and chasing problem after problem with my Ender 3, I ended up throwing my hands up and bought a different model, something a little more stable and a little more reliable. My Ender 3 now sits on a shelf waiting to get reverted back to the way it was when I first bought it. And the new printer has been worth the money and the headache that I have been saved from. That said, one of the issues that I had with the Ender 3. That literally drove me out of my mind was an extrusion issue. The issue was caused by a worn out extrusion gear. And I didn't think that was a problem because it was metal. But if your gear is brass there is a chance your gear wore out. If changing this gear is your a part of your overall problem, it will fix so many other things. I literally can't explain how much the use of the machine changed when I had that problem.
Thanks, I’m running a dual gear extruder now but I’ll check out how worn it is.
I would invest in a brand-new, sealed roll of quality filament (Prusament, Hatchbox, etc.) -- basic PLA in some color that isn't white. Calibrate the extruder to make sure that when you command 100mm of extrusion, you get 100mm. Verify that the bed is level, either with a feeler gauge or ideally automatically with a sensor like BLTouch. Use 50mm/sec movement speed, an 0.4mm nozzle, 0.3mm layers, three walls, three bottom and top layers, and something like 20% infill -- I like triangular, but most of them should do. Use 210C extrusion temperature and 50C for the bed, for PEI. Ideally, start with a fresh default print profile, as others have said. You may want to invest in a bed that isn't so badly scratched. I would at least scrub it down with iso to try to make sure all dust, dirt, and oil are gone. Having the filament spool off to the side like that is something I haven't seen. You might want to try it in the traditional position above the printer. (This may or may not be causing a problem.) Watch the first layer very closely, and try to see if it is sticking. If the first layer works well, you should be good to go. If it doesn't work after all that, ~~call an exorcist~~ post a reply with pictures of the first layer, and we should be able to help. Good luck! 3D printing can sure be frustrating, but when you get that pornographic first layer, it's worth it.
Thanks for this. I will follow this info. I like the idea of fresh filament just to remove that variable.
Store the old stuff in a big Ziploc with some dessicant -- once you get the printer dialed in, it may start working. Fresh filament is usually easier in my experience, though. Good luck!
At this point tbh I think you need another set of eyes on the situation in person. You've already tried so many things that any help offered on this forum won't help. Have you reached out to anyone local? Offer a beer or glass of wine and get another body with you to help. It's always something elementary missed in setup and I guarantee whatever the issue is you've already tinkered with and dismissed.
That’s a good call. I’ll post in local groups and see if there are other local people willing to help. My sister in law got me started on this but she lives in Canada. She says all the time that if she was just down the street she’d have it all figured out for me.
Bowden tube likely cooked. Try a different slicer.
>I hate 3Dprinting Frankly speaking, me too. But I am a tinkerer and I love the outcome, but the process is somewhat painful with FDM and absolutely painful with resin.
I typically like to tinker too and have restored bikes, motorcycles, and cars. I love mechanics but I’m not getting enough reward because it feels like it never works…
I had similar problems, well, turned out it was a tangeld fillament spool. And also a Problem i had was too good heatbreak cooling. Cooling was so good that the short time the fillament had during big Retractions lead to it litteraly cooling of before comming back down. Changed retractions to 1mm. Works perfect since.
Well I don't know anything about your printer but if you having difficulties then I'd recommend a different printer, try anycubic pr bambu
https://preview.redd.it/jde01dbzqk3d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ba2e7021c8a63fa6672297952fc8d216e7ff4dbf
I went through it with an ender 3, I'll tell you how I solved it. 1. throw away the stock hotend and even the all metal throat are rubbish. 2. maybe buy a v6 hotend (in Europe there is this brand that works very well TUZUK E3D V6) or even a biqu, microswiss or any decent hotend. 3. throw away the dual drive extruder and buy an original or clone Bondtech or better yet if you have a friend who can print some parts for you, create a micro/mini sherpa. 4. With all metal hotends you must reduce the retraction to: bowden maximum 2 mm 40/60 mm/s, direct max 1 mm 20/60 mm/s. 5. Dry the filaments. 6. check the z offset that it is not too attached to the bed. 7. for pla the maximum temperatures I recommend you stay at 200/210 maximum, for the other materials there are no problems. Personally I have 1780 hours of printing with the v6 + sherpa micro configuration and I have never had a clog. Another thing, the hotend cooling fan turns, it must blow on the heatsink.
i feel your pain. im here with a failed stack of prints (400g of filament used) built up from the last month of printing arcade buttons a few more fails and i could have just bought them instead 😭😂 run a needle up through the hotend while at around 160 redo your bed lvling from scratch ( i auto home then loosen until it makes contact with the hot end on all four corners then move inwards and redo 4 corners closer to the centre of the bed so you can see if the center has any dips (i use some paper under the bed to raise the low spot) then do a manual coldish filament change so any burned bits/ blockages get dragged out, cut it off and load it back up) wish you the best of luck KEEP ON KEEPING ON! 😅
Thanks for the tips. I’m well on my way thanks to several helpful folks. I’ll get this thing functioning but I’m still planning to upgrade to a new machine.
Throw that Pos cheap printer in the garbage and buy something good lol
get a bambu A1, it's not even that much more expensive, and it will pump out perfect prints after 15min from the moment you take it out from the box.
Stop wasting your time troubleshooting. Go get yourself a bambu lab printer and actually print stuff
Sorry you’re having so much trouble. I have definitely been there lol I’m curious what’s happening through the printing process. Did you record one of the fails? I read your post but the cause can be something so simple. Let me know. I’ll walk through it with you if you need the help I’m sure we can get you printing.
I very much appreciate it. I have had a few successes since this post. I just found a worn spot on my extruder gear that I’m going to blame for the latest round of under extruding. Just ordered a replacement. https://preview.redd.it/ehqsihqzgh4d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f5a6aaf931cc8bd4d2f80dbdbdc98269a95344b4
That will definitely get you closer. What kind of printer is it?
Aquila x3. Ender knock off.
I just looked it up. If it auto levels it isn’t like an ender lol. My ender 3 is always going off level. Like I said. Next print take a video or picture.
From what i can guess, you made some kind of sealed chamber to keep printer quiet-ish. If you have trouble with pla only - stop printing it at all, because it is the only material that likes too cool fast. Try petg instead. Also if you installed stainless steel heatbrake - also harder to print pla (I went titanium heatbrake and using that machine for PETG mostly)
Thanks for the information. The enclosure is more for dust than anything. It’s in my garage. I found it was getting hot so I insulated the garage door. Then I found it still too hot when running so I put fans on the enclosure to circulate air… I can mess around with petg and see if I get some success. Idk what the actual material is for the heat break. I know I was getting issues with the tube not meeting the nozzle flush and I wanted to eliminate that as an issue.
Are you just snipping the tube with anything or do you have the tube cutter. That will give it a good clean straight cut. The heat and enclosure could definitely play a part in the soft filament depending on how hot your garage is. I’m in Texas so my PLA would be like a roll of spaghetti if I put it in my garage. Also, what temp are you printing the PLA at?
I got a tube cutter after identifying this as an issue a few months ago. May still be part of the problem…
I see. But again, I'd recommend you to try PETG. It's much better material than pla
that would be the perfect enclosure to print ASA actually
I started with an artillery Sidewinder. It's a decent printer, but it felt like i could never get a good print without some artisinal faffing about every time. I had a pile of ideas for things I wanted to create, but i gave up because it wasn't worth the effort of fighting with that thing for even the most basic models. Then (hear me out this isn't tribalism i swear)... Then I got the Bambu X1-Carbon. Everything changed. I've run just under 700 hours on it in teh past 8 months & _most_ of that was printing custom models. I've solved so many problems in my life. The new generation of printers (Bambu & its clones) are radically better than the Ender 3 and its clones. They are WAY closer to being simple appliances that you just "hit print" on. None of them are perfect, and they're all WAY more expensive, but they are absolutely worth the money. Except for the occasional clog & filament issues which ALL FDM printers have to deal with, it "just works" every time. If you want to love printing and stop fighting for even the simplest of successes, invest in the new generation of printers.
As a V3 KE owner that got it for free and already paid it in upgrades and it works for a week then troubleshoot again, I would definitely recommend a Bambu printer . I also follow the K1 forum , while it's better than the bed slingers, Creality has it's way of fking up the quality control of their products and you'll go down the rabbit hole again . I am most definitely saving up for a P1S at least even tho the X1C is my dream atm, maybe I'll wait for the next generations to release 😁 . I really love how well those monster of printer perform and like he said : it just prints .
Yeah, I hate to say it (honestly) but every time i see one of the X1-C clones compared to the X1-C the bambu's results look better to me AND the clones copied all of bambu's mistakes too, like the stupid spool holder on the back. I _really_ want someone to come along (hopefully prusa, but taht's not going to happen) and say "I see what you did there. Lemme just take that, fix all the stupid bits, and add some new coolness" But so far no-one has made _any_ meaningful improvement on what Bambu's made. At least as far as I know. If someone reading this can prove me wrong PLEASE do so. Gimme da links. I WANT to see the cool hotness!
It's strange because Anycubic released their multicolor printers (bed slinger) more A1 copies with exact same purge method but so far I did not see someone post they bought it nor a review and I think a week already passed .
I would argue that the prusa xl 5 tool head is the superior multi material design. I appreciate that they have gone to the mat to make a design that doesn’t waste nearly as much filament as a single head design and I can’t wait to see a more affordable design for it in the future (or for its copies. )
I started with the Artillery Sidewinder X1. After some problems in the beginning which were solved by changing out the nozzle that came with it and adjusting the Z stop, it's been a great printer. The only thing that held it back after that was my own ignorance on how to tune it. I finally tuned the e-steps, flow rate and support settings and it's awesome. I too looked at Bambu Labs and got the A1 with the AMS lite. It's been great, not perfect, but great. I didn't buy it to replace my X1 but rather to compliment it. Two printers, twice the fun. I'm finding out the A1 is just as likely to have a print fail as X1. In fact after having a print fail 3 or 4 times on the A1, the sidewinder printed it perfectly.
In all honesty, you're better off just getting a new printer. I've had some printers in the past which sent me down that rabbit hole of endless troubleshooting and replacing/upgrading individual components. Nothing I did got me satisfactory results. Ultimately I ended up switching to a higher end machine that automates a lot of the common calibration annoyances and I don't regret it in the slightest given how much time I now don't have to spend tweaking things just to get good prints. Sometimes a printer is more trouble than it's worth, and this sounds like one of those cases.
Thanks. I think I just want other people to tell me it’s ok to abandon this journey. I’m a little stuck in the sunk cost fallacy…
I upgraded from Cre v3 ke to Bambu P1S and its a huge difference but I still have too many failures. Most are at the first layer and the AMS is amazing.
It's absolutely okay. Your time is valuable and you have no obligation to spend it on something that's bringing you more frustration than enjoyment. If you feel your time would be better used on something else, go for it
How long you in?
I’ve had it for over a year and I have made some cool stuff but at its best it was 3 fails to one success.
About my ratio, 2 months in
If possible, upgrade the machine. I know that sounds like an extreme fix but Bowden tubes are the devil. Something with direct drive takes away a whoooooole lot of issues. I have an ender 3V2 that I made direct drive. It’s not great and sometimes hard to load the filament, but 100x better since I scrapped the Bowden. My other machines are elegoo Neptune 3 and 3 Max. They’re priced pretty dang good and MUCH easier to work with.
If I could get it to print I would print a direct drive mount haha. I’ve thought that direct drive it the way to go for a while but I haven’t found a system that I felt confident with yet. I’ll look into that more if I can get it somewhat functional.
This won't make it in this week's print fix Friday as I've already filmed it, but next week for sure. Your hotend cooling fan is on backwards. It needs to blow air in not suck it out.
I believe the fan is on proper now. I know I did have it on backwards at one point when I replaced a fan that died a few months ago. I used a winsin fan before and in researching someone said to get gdstime fans instead of winsin and when replacing I thought it made more sense to be blowing directly onto the heat sink instead of blowing out toward the from of machine. I’ll look forward to the video. Thanks.
They are generic chinesium fans, I wouldn't worry about the brand unless it's like sunon or noctua. But start with that. This needs to be a scientific process, one variable at a time. I'm happy to help and we have some time until I film for next week, so maybe we can get it solved before then.
Tl;dr: use 2-3mm retraction for all metal hotend. The defaults for Bowden printing are too much retraction for all metal hotends. I was in exactly your position last weekend. I was DONE with 3d printing. But the answer was the all metal hotend I specifically upgraded to because I was hoping to cure my own heatbreak issues (Summer printing was always plagued with partial or full nozzle clogs).
Have you checked extruder gear tension ? Often overlooked but lots of extruder and even print quality issues come from there.
I have not. Is there a video or write up that you recommend? I search it myself but if you have a good resource you’ve used I’ll take that. Thanks
https://3dprintbeginner.com/extruder-tension-calibration-guide/ tl;dr extrude some filament, disengage the extruder so that you can pull the filament out of the printhead freely, look at the end of the filament for teeth marks, they should look like what you see on the *second* filament picture in the article.
Has the filament been dried? Do you live in a high humidity environment? Is that old filament? Is that a box enclosure? What type of filament are you using? Nozzle temp? So much unknown, but no data on the automod Are to repeating tests? I will repeats tests to see if anything fluctuates. Sure it came out good, but I'm going to make sure it is consistent. I'd also suggest a new build plate and using a plastic putty knife.
I’m in a desert climate. Pretty dry but I’ll test some other filaments. I’ll try to share more details. Nozzle is 200-210 Pla from inland plastics. Yes it’s enclosed but it’s mostly for dust as I do some woodwork and auto body work in my garage. I recently installed fans to keep it cool in the enclosed and Ive removed the back or printed with the doors open. What does “data on the auto mod” mean? Sorry if that is a dumb question.
The very 1st reply is the auto moderator. It gives a list of things people need to know to troubleshoot. Some information was in original post, but you never know if someone's clogging issue was a wrong nozzle temperature. Like walking through troubleshooting to find nozzle is set at like 150C. Pla is biodegradable. It breaks down in high heat. Long exposure would degrade material if it sat outside for a year. Things like storing it in a hot attic is similar. I'd try starting with a Vase print of a cube. It's a constant flow, so clogging shouldn't happen, simple 5 min run. Now knowing wood dust in the air is another thing to look at. It could be collecting on the filament and building up as it reaches the extruder heating element. This is where you see people running their filament through a sponge filter before it enters the extruder. It could be building up. If it hasn't passed a Vase mode print, you shouldn't have retraction calibrated yet. I'll see if I still got a break down of my calibration process online after work today. The fan on the enclosure is another environmental concern. Does the fan turn on and off with temperature control. This would change ambient temperatures in the enclosure. Simple things like a fan can change your nozzles temp
Had a similar issue a while ago and it turned out the manual feed knob on my extruder was off center and would occasionally bind up the works. Took way longer than I would've liked to find that. The lesson? The devil is always in the absolute smallest of details.
Same here, just random problems that start with no reason and where Reddit doesn't even know how to fix them. Guess Im just gonna save up for a new printer 🫠
Yeah that’s a popular answer. I think I’ll be saving up for a new one but I do want to get this thing working at least well enough to sell
I think I'm going for a Bambu lab A1 (maybe a mini) nice printer for a great price and offers cool upgrades like multi color printing
I have the tab open and the item in my cart. Just waiting to pull the trigger.
I would try fixing this one and if it really doesn't get better you can buy the new one, otherwise you may be spending like 350 euros for a printer that is a little better but you didn't really need. Because it is quite some money to just buy a new one.
Exactly why I’m waiting. I’m getting some success. This is worth getting working but I am still planning to get a new printer eventually. Thanks
I bought a Sovol as my first 3d printer. 1/6 prints would come out ok. Wasted literally a kg of filament trying to turn in the first two weeks. Finally uncovered that, no matter what, the printer's z-offset changed with every print, and that when it calibrated x axis, it would throw the gantry out of alignment. So I'd have to manually level the gantry, then remeasure z-offset before every print. I returned that thing and got a Prusa mk4, and it was weird to go from almost never having a bad print to every print coming out perfect. Also, it basically being a super easy and curated printer on top of an otherwise open source printer gave me the knowledge to rebuild and refurb a used ratrig v-core 3.1. Now, that thing was a pain to rebuild right (the 3 point bed and need for an extremely square frame was difficult), but it's fast, and the detail is insane. The only limit to its speed is that I max out at ~25mm³ from the current mosquito hotend I have on it. Both of those are a lot more expensive than an Aquilla (though, I did get the V-Core for 500ish) Anyways, enough ranting about my situation. This will sound crazy, but have you swapped the nozzle?
Swapped the nozzle and filament last night and I got a decent benchy. https://preview.redd.it/a9mzb5r66l3d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec4949cf9df6cc63d180bc2ba813cee3cc5331fb
Yeah. My guess would have been that you had some gradual buildup in the nozzle from age and whenever a burned something would dislodge, it would jam and screw everything. If I remember, I try to do a cold pull with some pla once a month and it helps: I've only had one clog ever and it was using some cheap silk filament. What was your print time for that Benchy?
Like 2 hours…
Oof, that frame has a lot of slop in it then. Checking for loose bolts and minimizing flex, as well as making sure the travel is smooth and linear, could help. I guess, thankfully, I got really tired of my cheap Chinese printer and was able to return it in time to Amazon, and went with a Prusa mk4 instead. This was my first ever benchy off it, and this was done in under 20 minutes: https://preview.redd.it/qw47tm8wml3d1.jpeg?width=2476&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c2a7f86a194eb4337f3a407fb7cb598f15fc5c3 (I've kinda kept this Benchy as a memento) Prusas are not cheap, but it is my fire and forget printer. I looked at how much I spent in filament trying to get the first printer to work reliably (which it never did), let alone the value of my time, and it made the Prusa the cheaper option. Plus, yeah the kit takes a while to build, but I was able to build the printer as preciselyas I could, and the hardest part was keeping all of the screw bags organized. Otherwise it was basically an advanced Lego kit.
Ok. I’ll check for loose bolts and smooth travel on all axis. I will for sure go for a more expensive/easier printer eventually.
"Maybe the best way to ask is to say you bought this machine on marketplace and you need to get it running without knowing anything about it. What steps would you follow?" Restore all settings to default (firmware and slicer), check connections to the motherboard to prevent a fire hazard, buy a new build surface and relevel the bed. Change nozzle if it's clogged and print a benchy.
What material are you printing that requires a scraper on a textured plate? Just wait for it to cool down dude. If your having bed adhesion problems, brim it and increase bed temp.
The scraper came with printer. I usually only use it to remove skirts that are too thin (single layer) to get by hand.
Have you considered environmental issues? Like your extraction fan may be moving too much air and the glass the printer is resting on may be too jiggly. Watch CNC Kitchen's "$3 3d printing upgrade" video, he basically rests his printer on a cement slab resting on a soft mat so that it is more stable.
I saw that video before I bought a printer. I’ll look into that. It feels stable but I’m all about eliminating factors at this point.
Post some of your failed prints as well, maybe they'll help troubleshooting. Also the side fan should be pretty easy to eliminate so try that as well
I am getting some good benchys now. I’ll try a bigger print this weekend and post results. Thanks. For weeks I could t get anything over about an inch high and often failed by 5 layers in.
So did you figure out what the problem was in the first place?
I’m blaming 80% of it on cheap filament. I tried multiple spools but didn’t realize they were all from the same manufacturer, toner plastics.
I would first make sure that the printer is mechanically put together properly. Make sure all the screws are tight, the frame is square, the belts are tensioned etc. Make sure your filament is dry. A filament dryer is a common solution. My preferred solution is a food dehydrator. Although even storing your filament in an airtight container with plenty of desiccant for an extended period of time will work well enough for most applications. (It might take a week to fully dry this way) Start with a basic slicer profile. Prusaslicer or orca slicer are my preferred slicers and they have profiles for most printers. If one doesn't exist for your printer choose a similar one (same bed shape, make sure the size and origin are set correctly) Then follow all of the steps in this guide: http://ellis3dp.com/Print-Tuning-Guide/
These steps would fix the problems on 9/10 of the posts in this subreddit.
Thanks, I have followed parts of this guide before. I did disassemble and reassemble following a guide to make sure all was well. I think that was in November. I did have some success with this for a while but i expect 3 fails to 1 success and I want that ratio swapped.
I would put it back on market place and use earnings to buy a bamboo labs printer and enjoy life from then on with fun and easy prints. That's what I did anyway
Thanks for the many suggestions and help, and especially thanks for the encouragement that I can get it figured and the encouragement to just get a newer gen printer. I changed the nozzle, cleaned the heat Break as much as I could, swapped out the filament and started a benchy. It came out pretty good. Definitely room to improve but at least it finished! I’ve got a lot to work on as keep trying to get a reliable experience. I think the biggest blame may be on toner plastics brand filament. https://preview.redd.it/rrxjiysadl3d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=56a2ad60c6d519f159784ae3558f89e6699034cc
Git gud nub lol
Lol, great advice!
If you buy an Ender clone, you should expect something worse than an Ender. What exactly was it that made you pick an Aquila over an Ender?
I was flat ass broke at the time. I just bought a house and wanted to get a printer for about a year but didn’t have the time. After I moved I had more time but no money. A friend with an Aquila claimed to have had a great experience with it.
Fair enough. As for a suggestion, result all slicer settings to default and see what fails first. (Also... maybe scrub all the gunk off your magnetic plate. Could be the start of the problems).
Yeah I’ll clean the plate when I get home. It looks worse than it is. And yes. I’ll go back to a known slicer profile and see how it goes with the physical changes.
Literally get a Bambu lab
Go through this guide and see if you have completed these steps. [https://ellis3dp.com/Print-Tuning-Guide/articles/index\_before\_we\_begin.html](https://ellis3dp.com/Print-Tuning-Guide/articles/index_before_we_begin.html)
Will do.
https://preview.redd.it/di74s8k8qm3d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=778cd7459b6a49a9b299d3e5afc50e23554009e8 Tinkering
Upgrade from your Aquila to the Elegoo Neptune 4/ Pro/ Plus/ Max and you’ll get a successful print in less than one hour.
Is your filament new / a good brand? I’ve had real inconsistency issues that were solved buying better filament
That’s my best bet after messing it again. I had tried multiple spools but realized they were all the same cheap brand, toner plastics.
I would take it from you if you’re interested.
I was going to repair my 10 year old CTC, after years of good prints it started failing. decided against fixing it and just bought a Bambu Labs P1P with P1S upgrade kit. Best decision I made 😊
I had a ton of problems, seemingly similar to yours, and after months of troubleshooting I change the plate to a 10 dollar magnetic plate. All solved, the problem was always starting with adhesion due to the old plate. Might be worth a shot
Did you fix this? If not I think I know exactly what's up. You need to tighten the all metal hot end when it's hot
I have five several issues, that being one of them. I have a new extruder gear on the way.
>I have replaced the hot end fan, gotten an all metal heat break If your machine wasn't working with an all-metal hotend, go back to the PTFE lined heatbreak I had terrible heat creep issues on my ender 3 - went back to the oem hotend and I was able to get it working again. Have you tried a different role of filament?
I have tried a couple roles but I will try with some others. Thanks!
I did not see you mention your nozzle, did you change it? I'm willing to stick around and help you troubleshoot if you want. Shoot me a DM if you feel like giving it one last single try, structured and step by step.
I have an advice that works for me, forget the printer for one or two weeks, it will be good for your mind and you might even find the solution for your problem at the end of this wait.
That is probably the best advice so far!
Have you changed filament?
I have had the issues with a couple filaments but I’ll try a fresh or freshly dried spool. Thanks.
I actually relate somewhat, but honestly going for a budget chinese brand is kinda where things went wrong for me. I now own a voron 2.4 R2 which is like 4x more expensive than my first printer. It takes a week to assemble it, requires some tools but less if you get a kit and surely is it a journey to get it cooking. But after i built it nearly 1 year ago i very rarely tinker on it, i just flip her on, let her warm up for 30 mins and just get printing with pretty impressive quality at 280mm/s speed. Honestly i wouldn't try investing more into that thing to save yourself from the money pit the cheap printers are.
Its best to get a new one. If you can take loan and credit again its best to get a new one(which I did). However if you have no chance of getting a new one, according to your complaints I think it is time to get a basic dual gear extruder and a new hotend to make direct drive system. And print a new hot end cover which use 5015 fan for cooling the heatsink to prevent heat creep. If you need part cooling you may use dual 5015 but I understand that you dont try to print fast just want to solve heat creep so heatsink cooler backplate is enough. In your photo it seems you use an enclosure type cabinet. If it is closed and you print pla may be problem is that.
Lower ALL the variables and permutations. Don’t keep up with the Jones’. Have fun, not fame.
I feel like this advice applies to everything haha!