3d printer help!

propmainiac

propmainiac

Sr Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Hi all...been dialing in my printer and I think I finally have gotten good quality prints started. Was printing a grenade body for my obi wan project. Was going great till the end. I left it on over night printing. In the morning the grenade body was on it's side and plastic balled up around it like the printer knocked it over. My alignment seems good but not sure how it happened. I was told to check my vertical axis and it could be binding. So far it looks and moves smoothly. Any suggestions?
 
It could be several things,
first layer not good enough, low temp and the nozzle scraping over the previous layer, a blob on a layer.

A pic of the last good layer good help maybe identify the problem.
 
yea, the two most likely things are going to be

1. That the first layer wasn't sticking well enough to the print surface, and just regular side to side pressure exerted during the print knocked it over

or

2. the Z axis is printing lower than it should. the taller a print, the more a small error in Z calibration will add up over time, and can eventually cause it to just slam into the side of the print (possibly from extruding too much material)

there are of course other potential causes, I'd just slate those as the top 2.

As Xeno said, seeing the last "good" level will help folks point out the problem.
 
If you don't have z hop enabled in your slicer, you can turn turn that on as a precaution. It will lift the print head slightly when moving over the model.

The geometry of the model could have an effect also--if the top is very small, sometimes the plastic isn't cooling enough between layers and it can start to creep upward, possibly impacting the nozzle. You can set a minimum layer time in the slicer, but that tends to lead to oozing and other problems. I've had best results just manually lowering the temperature and opening my enclosure if the top of a model gets very small.
 
Ok Zeno here you go. IMG_20180620_173315.jpgIMG_20180620_173244.jpg
 
That melted bit makes me think the print head stopped moving at some point, and then restarted. any evidence of a power outage or brown out at your place? is your printer one of the ones that can fire back up after a power outage?
 
I have a Anet a8....yes first time it has done that. I'm still learning this machine so I'm trying new prints all the time. The peice I'm printing is only about 3.5 to 4 inches tall. First time printing something of that height. Readjusted some things and made it worse. Reversed my adjustments and trying again. No no power outages as far as I know..
 
propmainiac said:
Ok Zeno here you go.View attachment 825785View attachment 825786
Click to expand...

That last layer looks fine, and no blobbing or problems on the lower layers,
best guess is that this high up the print came loose, and the nozzle buried itself a bit where that molten blob is, and dropped it at higher layers, and kept on going.

Make sure the temperature of the bed is the correct temp, and the first layer is a littlebit squished on the surface..
You also might want to try to use a wider brim or even a raft.
 
I have fought failed prints that have come loose due to poor bed adhesion. Even though I have a heated bed with plenty of hairspray, the part would come loose from the bed. It turns out the culprit was the location of the printer...out in the garage where the temps were lower (low 60s F). Since the Makerbot I have is an open printer, the first couple of layers were being cooled by the ambient air and curling up off the bed. Eventually it would break loose and the whole print would be a rats nest of filament. Rafts improved things, but brims were ineffective. After taking the printer back inside and running the same prints, sliced the same way, they printed perfectly.

tJ
 
So I readjusted the vertical axis and success! Printed perfectly!download_20180621_100048.jpgdownload_20180621_100053.jpg
So looks like a little wet sanding and it's good. Thanks for the help and advice!
 
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