Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

Hi everyone!

So I have been trying to print this model paint holder http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1000772. The first time I tried to print it the print became separated and giant blob formed.

I cleaned it up and tried again last night and it looked ok until I touched the print and could just about push my finger through it. The print is ultra fragile layers just pull apart. I printed with 30% infill with Simplify 3d.

Any ideas were to start?

Settings
Pla
Medium Quality
30%infill
190 hotend
60 bed

These settings have worked perfectly for everything I have printed thus far.

If your layers won't adhere to each other I would try increasing the temperature.

Check this video, it's a good and simple test to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POaL2GGBHGM
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POaL2GGBHGM[/youtube]



Share a picture if you can, it could also be a partially clogged nozzle... or the layer cooling fans are too powerful... or you are printing too fast.

I would also check to see if your extruder is blocked... After it is heated up extrude 10cm of filament a few times and make sure it extruders freely without any pesky clicks...

Discovered the ezstruder is grinding filament. Apparently this is common with the .35 nozzel.

What would fix this a fan or heatsink?

Some things can help with the issue:

Increase print temp (Except PLA, until you get to a slightly nuts PLA temp, it doesn't help_
heatsink/lower current to extruder stepper. Basically, you want to reduce the heat on the extruder motor.
Reduce printing speed.
Larger nozzle size

The name of the game is to make the properties of the filament match what's needed to move it. Increasing print temp, lowering speed, and a larger nozzle will reduce back pressure. The cooler extruder motor will keep the filament harder until it gets past where much of the strain is.

I personally like the Bondtech QR, which through having two drive gears, can side-step many of the issues, but it's not cheap. You might also have success with a higher spring force, or the EZR-struder, which is newly released from SeemeCNC.

You have set the slicer to a .35 nozzle?

Yep everything is set correctly in simplify 3d. Printed 4 large prints and no problem prior to last print that peeled up and wrapped around the hot end.. Noticed the hob was filled with pla shavings must have built up during the prints.

Waiting for a new hotend with .5 tip mayb this will fix the problem.

Isn't a .5 nozzle standard equipment with the kit? It was when I did mine.

I bought mine used and .5 tip was ruined so I threw the .35 on.

The lower the nozzle diameter, the slower the print speed. For a .35, I wouldn't go much higher than 30mm/sec.

g.

If the print is a bit crunchy that indicates under extrusion.

I had that problem and needed so solve it fast. It was a bit complicated for me untill i found the cause.

Too much resistance extruding, if you cannot manually (by turning with your hand) extrude then you have a problem with the bowden tube or the nozzle.

I did not mess with the motor as i also ended up grinding the filament when spinning the knob on the extruder.

I increased the temp of the hotend to the max. This helped a little bit.

I put olive oil on the filament thinking that it was the bowden tube that was problematic. It did help a little (and my problems were appearing about 2-5 cm from the bottom of the print so i thought resistance in the bowden tube). You do not need to use any oil in the tube. Some do but the gurus do not recommend it. Olive oil does remove the paint/coloring/pigments from the filament. I dont use it anymore.

But the problems quickly reappeared. I switched to a bigger nozzle. Which only helped a little bit more.

Going much slower also helped a little bit.

With all of these i was able to get the parts done, they were still not really good. But with glue, tape, shit and shizzle i was able to use them.

Finally i took the hotend apart (standard seemecnc). And the piece of teflon tube inside the hotend had burned and was swollen. I replaced that with a new piece of tube (identical to the long bowden tube) and it started working again.

Oh, measure your filament aswell.

Had the same happen when i was experimenting with factory reject filament, which suddenly increased in size to 2mm.