Sudden drop in print quality

[MartiniMini]

Hi all,

I am printing with a Wanhao Duplicator i3 V2. I’m working on a big project and have successfully printed a few pieces.

But now alll of a sudden I am having issues with the print quality. I did not change the settings in Cura, but it seems as if the printer is skipping layers.

This makes the walls pretty weak. I have no idea how this could happen. I checked the bed levelling and all is ok.

I thought maybe the extrusion percentage dropped in the settings, but this is still 100%

Settings:

[AuxeticNY]

Hey Joachim, Did you happen to catch the printer in action while this was printing? Was it making any weird sounds? It looks like it may be a vibration issue from printing too fast at that height - Check out this and the rest of the s3d guide on common printer problems, it should point you in the right direction https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/#vibrations-and-ringing

[SOC3D]

This does look like an extrusion issue so I think you are on the right track.

Which, without any further knowledge of your setup, this could be caused by a variety of things:

Filament issues: Your filament might be the issue, sometimes older rolls or even the end of a roll of filament will print odd or cause extrusion issues. I like to throw them in the trash to rule out the possibility. A lot of people on this forum have had luck with either baking their filament to remove moisture or rubbing some oil (3 in 1 or various other oils) on the filament to increase lubrication.

Hotend/nozzle clogged: I’ve seen similar issues with a clogged extruder. Overtemp the hot end and pushing filament through, clearing out the hole with a nozzle drill bit, or removing the nozzle and torching it will all clear different types of clogs.

Extruder clogged: A clog or issue with the extruder itself can cause intermittent issues. Calibrating the extruder by removing the hotend and extruding 100mm of filament three times then measuring. Cleaning the extruder gear and wheel of obstructions. Make sure your filament is not crossed or tangled and that the spool can turn and release filament easily and without twisting/spinning the filament.

Hotend temperature not stable: Check cooling fans, thermistors, wiring and reported temperature on the lcd during a test print if the temp is jumping around one of these could be the issue.

That’s the order I would normally check these issues (which is at least once a week with 6-8 printers running 24/7).

[MartiniMini]

Hi, I did not hear any weird noises during the print.

I see that sometimes it’s printing the model as if it’s a support. (Thin and sloppy)

I increased the temp of the extruded to see if this would help but without results

I’ll check the guide thx

[MartiniMini]

Thanks for your tips. I will definatly check this out!

[AuxeticNY]

Oh, thats kind of strange. Its hard to tell from the angle on the picture, but what is the wall thickness on the model?

[MartiniMini]

I did notice that the temp of the hot end tends to jump 10 degrees. The bed remains pretty much leveled.

i have a wanhao duplicator i3

[MartiniMini]

Is that the 0,8 in the settings under wall thickness?

[SOC3D]

You could try tuning your hotend temp. Wanhao i3 (Reprap) PID AutoTune - YouTube I’d still take a look nozzle cleaning and try a different role of filament.

[advanced]

There is a problem with the V2 wanhao i3’s. You need to solder a small cable to ground the temp sensor on the control board. See this video: