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Aug 2016

Since I bought my printer I’ve been printing ABS without any issues using the default settings:

Feedrate: 40

Travel Feedrate: 55

Bed temp: 100

Print temp: 220

Infill: 10%

Now I ran out of my ABS roll and have had trouble ever since with most prints using PLA, half way through the printer will start creating a layer of stringy mess, I’m not too sure what is happening exactly maybe under extrusion, maybe the PLA is cooling too quickly or temp isn’t right and is melting the PLA filament further up than it should.

Here are the settings I’ve tried (All Infill: 10%):

Feedrate: 40

Travel Feedrate: 55

Bed temp: 60

Print temp: 220

Feedrate: 40

Travel Feedrate: 55

Bed temp: 60

Print temp: 205

Feedrate: 50

Travel Feedrate: 80

Bed temp: 60

Print temp: 205

All result in the same mess around the same layer, then I noticed on ReplicatorG one of the Gcode lines “something will be printed but there is no guarantee it will be the correct shape”. So thought ok it must be the software, but in between all these failed prints I’ve managed to print a door stop perfectly fine which has confused me even more, using the exact same settings as above.

I also checked for the same line in the Gcode for the item in the picture that is still in the printer and could not see it mentioned anywhere, but still it created a mess. The printer almost doesn’t seem to follow the usual route for printing like something is misaligned suddenly half way through.

Is there alternative free software I could try?

Any thoughts guys? Your help would be much appreciated!

See attached pictures.

Your extruder temp is very high for PLA. The most likely cause is that the PLA is getting warm/soft too soon and getting stuck.
-Jesse

I think your layer height may be to large. Double check and see if its between .1 - .3 mm.

I used to use nothing but ReplicatorG. But i discovered flashprint and never went back. 3.12.0 works very well.

It has great options and slices super fast. I also think the quality of the prints has improved due to flashprint.

http://www.ishare3d.com/3dapp/public/FlashPrint-ii/ 6

MindFuLL may be correct.

Last night I finished an 11 hour print with black esun PLA. Brand new roll that was opened 1 day ago. The print came out flawless.

.1mm layer height

I printed at 200 C nozzle

bed was 60 C

Cooling Fan ON @ 2nd layer

NO Hood and my door has been removed since I mainly print PLA.

Travel was 40 mm/s

Flow was 100% (repG wont show flow)

So yes you may have been to hot.

HI @Harisahmad, @MindFuLL I’m not sure the extrusion temperature is the problem - I print PLA at 217 all the time and it’s fine - and Harisahmad has tried it at 205, which I’d think was getting on the low side… The only obvious difference I can see between the doorstop and the two failed prints is size. Both the failed prints are printing towards the edges of the bed, so I’m wondering if it’s a calibration issue? That doesn’t really explain why the first few layers seem OK though.

Can you upload the .stl files? It’s hard to see what the print should look like from the photos and I’m also wondering if it’s the model itself. Have you run it through netfabb?

Thanks cobnut, I followed these recommendations for printing PLA which I thought were reasonable: Flashforge 3D Creator forum. 15 But when the print messed up I reverted to the default. Yeah that’s what’s confusing, it prints perfectly accurate and then half way through it goes wrong. I’ll upload a .STL file tonight Thanks for the help!

2 years later
26 days later

Hi @mjh410 what are your print head temperature/fan settings? What material are you using?

Jon