Hi! I just purchased a CTC and I am having issues with printing quality. I have done all the basic setups including leveling. My first print was flawless… looked amazing! Then it went downhill. I printed the same file again and the rt ext started to make ghost prints. I checked to make sure it wasnt clogged, and it was not. I noticed that my fail print the right ext moving but nothing came out. Possible feeding issue? So I unloaded and reloaded the filament… even tried changing from Makerware program to Slic3r for my program but still having problems. my printer is 3 days old and I am concerned if I got a lemon or maybe I am not doing something right? Your input and help is very much appreciated. thank you so much.
I am using hatchbox ABS filament 1.75mm
Current temp I am using is 230
I appreciate any input/advise/tips that you all can share. Thank you so much.
Try to lower the temp to 215. Maybe you use a filament who needs lower temp.
Then check while loading filament from utilities "Change filament " on lcd is it comes out correctly?
Also have in mind that maybe does not load correctly the filament. To fix this you must upgrade the extruder.
I use spring load to feed filament and the factory one.
You may have an uphill struggle with the ctc. I know I did. 6 months of tweaking and messing around to get printing perfect every time. Good news is you have not bought a lemon just a poorly constructed machine.
Here is a list of things you should do first with the CTC.
1: With the extruder that comes with the machine the drive wheel and guide wheel assembly(little black box attached to stepper) has a lot of play in the screw
holes that connect it to the stepper and this can cause the drive nut to slip and not feed the filament.
2: If you hear the stepper clicking like it is trying to feed but can you have 1 of 3 issues
a: the cable that connects the stepper top the motherboard has a loose wire and as a result the stepper oscillates and stead of turning.
b: the hot end is not hot enough. it may read 230 but i found my original thermister was 20 degrees out and once i bought a new one online the issues was solved.
c: As the fan blows on that heatsink attached to the drive mech and stepper a lot air flow is directed at the hotend and heating and cooling occur more frequently. I solved this with some heat resint tape making sure there was no airflow anywhere near the hotend block.
I highly recommend you buy or print a a bowden extruder system this will solve 75% of you hotend issues.
If you want some more info feel free to ask. I suffered for 6 months to get my machine printing right every time. Now it does it print beautifully.
Thank you very much for your reply. Oh gosh glad I didnt get a lemon. So it basically requires a little extra tinkering to get it running right. Any suggestions on where to purchase these additional items? I appreciate your help.
I’ve adjusted temps and when I change filament it comes out but doesn’t appear to be gripping or feeding properly.
No worries. I never went the bowden route instead I did this Redirecting to Google Groups. Follow these steps to help out. As for the hotend, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Metal-DIY-Hot-End-for-RepRap-3D-Printer-1-75mm-Filament-0-4mm-Nozzle-hotend-/321314639984 I replaced the whole lot. After each print you will find a fault and then hours of googling will give you a fix. Suggestions. For prints sticking to the bed use http://www.dimafix.com/. It is amazing every print stick every time i can not recommend this enough. I only found out about it 2 weeks ago and nothing has warped or split. Also a big fix that needs to be made is thedrive belt that connects the stepper to the y axis needs to be given more tension. I did this by drilling a hole on the right of the 4 screws that hold the y axis stepper and running a bolt through with bearing on it. I will take a picture tonight and upload it so you can see what I mean. The final thing is to build an enclosure for the printer. an even heat through out helps out massively. I covered any whole or gaps with duct tape and surrounded it with cardboard and Tupperware (im cheap). I will take some pics and show you. Since all of these changes i can print comfortable at 0.1 resolution without issues. I can print for up to 16 hours without problem. Also I no longer need to use a raft and have just as much success with ABS and PLA. I do have to do maintenance on loose screws sloppy belts and clogged extruders every now and then but its the same for any machine. The best bit about this machine breaking all the time no means i can solve any issue almost immediately. The only annoying thins is I am stuck using Makerware as I blew up the usb on my printer, don’t ask its still a sore spot, lol. Again if you get stuck send me a message and I will see what I can do. Happy Printing
When you have a moment, I would absolutely appreciate your help in getting the printer to print properly. Thanks so much
Is this difficult to upgrade the extruder?
To get the printer to work properly you will need to do a few things first.
Test your 3D printer! by ctrlV - Thingiverse run this print with PLA. This is for warping issues.
Run at 220.c
0.2 res with default settings.
once the print is complete you will have a better idea of what is going wrong and where and how to then correct them.
If you get extrusion errors check cable and drive nut to guide wheel tension.
Will do that now, thank you.
In the red outlines is a m6 screw with 4 bearings placed in such a way the there is tension on that little best in the top right corner that solved 75% of my issues. Also thats a SSD over that took 2 hrs to print
All of these prints failed around 10%, same file. At about 10% ghost printing begins. I am using SD card to print using Slic3r. Left was first attempt middle second and third was today
Thank you… Wow that was printed on the CTC? Looks awesome
OK so extruder is the issue. Are there any noises from the extruder? Try using makerware to slice. This is the down side of the ctc finding out all rye kinks. Also at around 9% watch the print closely if nothing is coming out try pushing the pla into the extruder . If it start to come out again just let it keep going and put a little pressure on the cable connected to the stepper. What your looking for is any thing that might be causing the pla to not be pushed through the nozzle.
Finally reached 100%!!! Thank you everyone for all your help! It appears it was a feeding issue. But my first layer isn’t perfect and still some patchy spots but its printing now … No ghost print! Any suggestions on how to get a more solid print for the first few layers?
Hello again 
I finally got my ghost printing issue to get resolved, the suggestion of temp increase totally helped. Thank you bunches! But now I am having top layer issues. My top layer is left with very rough top prints. I have attached a pic of my fail and also my settings that I used to print. Any suggestions on how to get a smoother or less rough top surface print? Thank you again for your help and look forward to your reply.
Its looks like from your pics your diameters is set to 1.8. If that is the case the extruder will push said amount of filament. I have mine set to 1.7. When I experimented with above and below this amount I had the same issues with above and clogged below my base mark. of 1.7. The other is roof layer height. I use Makerbot software and I can set my roof and floor thickness. I have set mine to 1mm so there is a bigger difference. My suggestion for you is to print a cube 20mm X 20mm X 20mm. And for each print adjust your settings. This way you dial in each setting but you also understand what each one does. When you understand how the settings affect the print when you have future failed prints you can easily fix them. This was how I learned and after a week of cubes my prints were spot on .
