I have a Flashforge Dreamer 3d, printing PLA at 205 degrees for the extruder and 65 for the bed. The first 5 or so layers of all of my prints have a very subtle but strange blobbing and then everything after that is smooth. Any ideas? I’ve tread leveling not only with the printers leveling but also simplify 3d wizard. I also have retraction set at 2mm.
Attached is a picture of too prints up close…notice the first few layers are extra blobby then everything smooths out? Any thoughts or suggestions?
So, I’m new to 3D printing myself and by way of disclaimer, I have only printed with ABS so far. In your picture, it looks like the same effect I get when my machine is running too hot. I will be ordering some PLA in the near future, but as I have read up on it a bit, most folks seem to use PLA with the heated bed turned off (I’ll wait on some more experienced folks to weight in on that).
Try reducing the bed temp. 60c is quite high for PLA. 45-50c is more usual. Combined with print temp at 205 it could be causing this. The Dreamer is capable of far better prints than shown in your pic.
Try reducing the temperature of the extruder for at least 10 degrees, I always print pla with 190-192 degrees. Also check if your build plate is leveled
In general, it looks like it’s running too hot. Drop the temperatures on both the extruder and bed, but especially the bed. Open the doors to increase air circulation. Turn on the fan. It smooths out a bit after it gets several layers away from the bed because the temperatures are slightly lower.
Thanks…the reason my bed was so high is because my prints keep curling as if its cooling too quick…any ideas how to lower the bed temp but prevent the bottom of the prints from curling?
In addition I have simular with another brand 3D printer where I had to ensure to set teh extruder to 210 degrees celcius (PLA) but put an additional fan at the back of the building plate. The problem in my case was that the layers did not have sufficient time to cool down when the next layer was already put on top.
You can tweak your software to increase the total layer print time to 10 or 15 seconds minimum but this will dramatically increase print time. So not what you want. give it a try.
I would agree with most of the ideas here but I think you have a bit of over extrusion.
What slicer?
Lower the bed temp after the first layer by 10c or so. Also try going lower on the extruder maybe 190-195. Also slow it down some depending on how fast you are going and turn on the fans (more cooling).
Thanks everyone for the suggestions, please keep them coming. This community is amazing!! I’ll try to drop the temp of the extruder and plate and report later today.
Some more info and concerns: I use Simplify3D and have tempered glass on my bed. My cruising speed is 1200. Fan starts at 100% after layer one.
My concern about dropping the plate temp is that I’ve experienced curling in my prints from what I thought was the plastic was cooling too quick due to the plate temp being too low…I also don’t use tape (lines in my print) or adhesive like hairspray (don’t want my entire internal printer cavity to turn into a sticky mess) so I’m sort of stuck here as to how to prevent my print from coming off but still lowering the bed temp. Any suggestions welcome
Purple glue stick works good. In general you don’t need additional stuff for PLA but I always use it. If it is curling off the build plate then maybe double check the level and gap on the nozzle. Take a good look at the first layer to see how it looks and that you are getting proper “squish”.
One thing you can do is to have the first layer extrude 10c hotter then back it off to the temp you want for the rest of the print. Same with the bed.
Just a clarification, the rest of the print looks fine. It’s the first few layers I’m worried about…Since many are suggesting to LOWER the bed temp to avoid the blobbing, do you mean LOWER the temperature for the first few layers and then increase by 10? Thanks for clarifying…
I think that is the correct glue! I still use the ones supplied with the printer since I was using hair spray. A google search should come up with the one that works well.
I usually set the extruder to (only for example) 210 for the first layer of PLA then drop it to 205 or 200 depending on the brand. You could do 200 then down to 190. Same for the bed. If it is colder in the room I may start the bed at 65 for the first layer then walk it down 5 degrees for layer two then another five for the rest of the print.
By the way. Glue stick washes off the glass good with hot water and soap. I just put it in the kitchen sink and run the water then wash like any dish and let it air dry. Also put the glue stick on a cold bed.
I found one of the problems…for some strange reason I had Extrusion Multiplier set to 1.50. When I reset that to the default, everthing cleared up…thanks everyone!! The suggestion to set everything to default for Forge was the trick!
That issue is because the first layer is printed too close to the bed. Assuming a value of 1 gives you a calibrated extruder you are printing too close to the bed by about half.
