Awesome!

[taggedzi]

Got the glass for the bed in today and fired up my first prints and they have come out awesome! Just 2 test cubes, but far better than I expect. The first had a few deformities, the second came out much better. I noticed the X axis belt slipped just a bit and fixed.

I have 2 questions, and since I'm new to both 3d printing and the RMax, I'd like some guidance if i'm asking the wrong questions...

During my first and second prints I noticed the extruder motor making a clicking sound ONLY during the first layer, and that the first layer is razor thin. Much thinner than the other layers. Is this normal? Do I have this calibrated wrong? Or is there a setting in MatterController I need to tweak?

The prints came out amazing, just a few defects, I have to look for them.

Matterial: PLA
Noz Temp 210
Bed Temp 180
Standard setting (.2 I think for height)
Hex fil 10% infil

Side

Side View

Bottom

Bottom

Top

Top View

Any tips on making better would be great. If you say it doesn't get better I still love the print.
Thanks much.
Matthew (TaggedZi)

[Dale Eason]

Yes the hot end is too close to the bed. Yes you need to fix that on the printer and not mattercontrol. However you can use mattercontrol to fix it by adjusting values in the EEProm. Usually this is done by adjusting the z probe height until you get a first layer at the correct thickness.

Dale Eason

[Glacian22]

I hope your bed temp isn't actually 180

[taggedzi]

LOL, yes 180 was a typo. The bed temp is 60, I'm not sure where I got 180 from.

In an attempt to fix on my own, here's what I've tried. I tried to print something larger. I noticed that the first layer was un/even. It was very short in some places and just right in others. I loosened the screws in the blue clips (also holding the base) to lower the platform in the areas that were too close to the nozzle (visually guessed how much based on how much smaller the layer was on that side... not very scientific like, I know). This significantly improved things but they were still a little off. So I decided to auto calibrate now that I thought I had it more level. I waited for it to cool, and it auto calibrated without problem. I started the next print, something with a larger foot print, and it was the smallest layers yet all the way around, and was impacting in some places.

What's the "better" way to fix this issue? Software in the printer, ie calibration adjustment? or Physically adjusting something to move the nozzle further up? or Physically adjusting something to move the bed further down? Willing and able to do any/all of the above.

As a side note earlier this evening I did try to do run through the Calibration Wizard https://www.seemecnc.com/pages/delta-calibration-wizard on the site. Perhaps I got something off there? I'm tempted to reset my eeprom back to stock. I did back it up prior to running the update so it should be too bad. I'm not sure if that has any direct bearing on this or not, but figured I'd mention it.

Thanks much,
Matthew (TaggedZi)

[taggedzi]

Scratch my last question... just read 2 comments up... yep found my answer. Setting in the EEPROM. Ok. Thanks. I'll tinker away.

G'night ladies, and gents,
Matthew (TaggedZi)

[vrenlos]

Just to chime in - make sure you run the calibration with the bed at room temp!

[djarmag]

Another thing you can try is having 3 clamps instead of 6 to reduce any warping at each clamp. Verify the clamp is not pushing down on the glass to deflect it much but enough to prevent the glass from moving around. Then do another cal from there.

The first few layers are "elephant foot" where the bed is keeping the bottom soft to prevent peeling but the upper layers are weighing down and squishing the bottom. Your nozzle temp is quite high so try using a lower temp like 195 or do a test to figure out that specific filaments max feedrate and lower temp to print.

The clicking sound is indeed the extruder as the filament has nowhere to go from being too close. so once you get a good cal, do a first layer print and measure the thickness matches your "first layer" setting in the host.