I bought me a Duplicator i3 Plus. Brought it home, leveled (poorly) then printed the unicorn. It came out beautifully. Then I read the rest of the manual, watched videos, read some of your posts and in other forums. Printed the vase, downloaded and sliced/printed stuff off of Thingiverse, modeled (all by myself!) a torus with writing on the outside, sliced and printed it fine. Look at me! I’m a happy 3D printer owner!
Then something happened. I don’t know what. The extruder and the bed are alternately ganging up on me - mostly the extruder. It doesn’t extrude straight and things don’t stick. I thought I may have printed something too closely (it left an gouge of outline on the bed). So I thought I must have damaged the nozzle. I replaced the scored bed (first with the extra bed cover, then with 1/8" glass). I think that eliminated the bed problem - esp after fixing a slight tilt in the Z-rails.
Nothing I do is working. All those successful prints when I didn’t know what I was doing - now I think I know more and I can’t even print that M3 thumbwheel. I’m ready to throw the thing out the window (not that that will damage it - I’m in the basement and the ground is 6" below my window). I have faith. You will see what I’m doing wrong and tell me and life will be good again.
I bought some new nozzles and tried the following (each number corresponds to a picture):
Brand spanking new nozzle. The old plastic throat thing, but clear of obstructions.
Insert the plastic throat thing into the nozzle all the way.
Cut a sheet of 1/8" thick glass to fit. Just plain old glass that used to be in my buddy’s window before the baseball incident. Cleaned it with rubbing alcohol until it squeaked.
Put in on the nicely cleaned aluminum bed with clips (I had previously tried thermal silicone, but it didn’t keep the glass immobile). I adjusted the clips after this pic to ensure they didn’t get in the way of the print head during levelling.
Preheated to ABS temps, then using a 0.40 mm thick business card, I leveled the bed with the built-in auto-leveller. Then I leveled it again. Did this until I went through the auto-level steps without making an adjustment. The way I did it is to place the card where the nozzle will go before the nozzle moved. Then I moved the card back and forth, narrowing the gap until the nozzle stopped the card. Then widened the gap until I could just feel the nozzle against the card as I moved it back and forth. Repeat for each of the five stops the nozzle makes.
Then I loaded the filament using the “Load filament” button. The filament came out in loops at first, then eventually started coming out straight. I didn’t catch it with the camera in time. You seen in this picture the loops that used to be bunched up directly under the nozzle - now at the end of a long filament. When this happens it’s as if the filament defies gravity. “I’m going down? Nope, lemme just turn around and go back up.”
Before trying a print, I checked the bed temperature. I’ve heard the glass makes it not warm up as much. With the LCD telling me the bed temp is 54°C, my thermometer tells me the glass is just under 51°. I’ve checked at different temperatures and the bed is consistently 3-4° cooler than the LCD thinks it is. I think this is okay.
Started a print, and blammo - happened again. The filament loops a bit, giving something to catch on until very quickly I get something like this picture.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a video? Well, I’ve got three:
After laying down a few passes in the brim, it immediately bungles up when trying to print the actual thing. Extruder problems vid1 - YouTube 41
By the time I hit it, the ooze has climbed back up and attached to the nozzle. I didn’t notice before I hit [+] E to extrude a bit. Kinda pretty, but definitely not helping print what I want. - YouTube
Another attempted print. You’ll see me clear away a bit of ooze before the print starts. In the brief time after that and before the print starts, you can see a tiny loop form - dooming the print. Extruder problems vid3 - YouTube 14
What am I doing wrong? I’ve tried thinner and thicker cards to level with smaller and larger gaps. I’ve checked the Z-axis rails. I didn’t do any of this for my first several prints - they were easy and hassle free. Now, nothing I do results in a successful print.
In my experience, most filaments will not stick to a clean glass plate, I use 3DLac on mine, but there are other things you can use, such as PVA and some types of hairspray. Regarding clearance, 0.1mm works best for me. For PLA I set the bed temperature to 50C and for ABS I use 100C…
I can’t wait to try calibration tests - I just can’t get past the first layer or two right now. Although I’ve not varied the flowrate - I’ll give that a try.
Thanks for the encouragement. What’s the best way to get that initial drip off before printing? I use a stiff card and just kinda scrape it off (usually works, sometimes pushes it more against the nozzle). If there’s enough hanging I chance using my fingers. Said “ouch” once or twice, but no real harm done.
I will probably try hairspray first. The skirt definitely looks like it should help (I said “brim” in my OP, but I meant “skirt”). As you see in my first vid, it didn’t work (not to say I will stop doing that! it still is a good idea)
I don’t even know how, yet, to make changes like this. There’s a menu called PID, but I don’t know what it’s for and am not going to mess with it until I do.
Yup, lots of reading, youtube watching. I am so happy with how eager to help and share the community is (just look at all these responses in less than a day!).
Definitely getting that feeler gauge! Thanks!
During the auto-level, the LCD says to level so the nozzle is 1 mm away from the plate. I know now that’s not correct, but for my first few prints I didn’t. I didn’t have anything 1 mm and I was impatient to print. So I used the spatula (0.7 mm). I printed the unicorn that came with the SD card, and it turned out fine - right out of the box. Weird.
Thanks! I guess I should build an enclosure. Is that to prevent drafts from messing with the temperatures? How much of a difference do you find it makes?
Thanks! I guess I should build an enclosure. Is that to prevent drafts from messing with the temperatures? How much of a difference do you find it makes?
Thank you everyone for your advice. I have a new hope (“Help me Obi Wanhao, you’re my only hope”). Got some playing around to do over the next couple of days. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Update: using 0.1 mm paper to level has, I believe, provided the most benefit. I also started using hairspray and increased the bed temp.
I now can reliably print! I can actually start a print and walk away, knowing it’ll be good. THANK YOU!
The only failed print I’ve had was a very tall model (Z-Alignment by LynchMob_Lerry - Thingiverse 7). I printed both a skirt and a raft, but about half-way up the raft started to curl then separate. Maybe a wider raft; maybe more hairspray. At least now I can tweak instead of hitting instant failure out of the gate.
Good to have you back. 3D printing takes a lot of patience and skills. I also have a Wanhao i3 that I almost gave up on, wanted to sell it on FB groups. My issues were changing/feeding filaments with the stock extruder which made it easier after upgrading to Micro Swiss nozzle and heater block kit. Then there was the bed adhesion issue, solved by proper leveling using guage/paper and sometimes using Tape. Another one was the quality of the print… Always a mess, prints look horrible, this one solved by switching to S3D. Right now, it has printed a Jade Riffle (myminifactory) and I consider it my top 2 printer at home amongst my other 5 printers in terms of quality. ? Every problem has a solution, it doesn’t have always to be the same but there’s always going to be a workaround.
I use a Maker Select V2 which is the same thing rebranded as the Wanhao i3. I’d suggest you switch to an all metal hot end. From my experience it’s easier than dealing with that liner tube. Also, after awhile of printing with it I had trouble with the gear slippage on the extrusion motor which was fixed with taking it apart and putting some threadlocker on the locking grub nut that holds it in place (be careful with the spring!) Just something to look out for.
From the videos I agree with the people on here that said you need some gluestick or net hair spray on your glass bed. That is what looks like might be a problem, the filament is curling and getting stuck on the nozzle and not adhering. Once you have printed a bit you won’t need to keep on using hairspray at least I don’t have to, unless I clean the glass thoroughly with rubbing alcohol.
You might have an easier time meticulously leveling one specific area of the bed and moving your prints to that spot instead of the very center of the bed and print testing to see if bed level issues are also creeping in. Or print a calibration circle and tweak the level as it is printing twisting the nuts gently. For that I used to slow down the print speed, before opting for a touch sensor and ramps upgrade.
It can also depend on the filament you are using and possibly the temps too. If you are entry level definitely stick to PLA just because it’s easy and lower temp. When you get into PET and even ABS you have a lot of factors ie ABS hates drafts. It wasn’t until I started using other filament types that I started understanding and really learning all about settings like layer height, extrusion rate. I think that aspect of 3D printing seems daunting, but it really helps understanding those settings, and there are great YouTube videos, Reddit posts and the like to help you in figuring it all out. Keep at it, don’t give up, we are all rooting for you and here to help!
Also, I wasn’t clear in the OP, but I’m using PLA.
