I am newish to 3D printing and am having trouble with my first layer. I am using a Taz6 printer. It will print 1/2 way then stop extruding and start chewing through the filament where it feeds through. I have done cold pulls and it comes out clean, I cannot figure out why it keeps eating the filament at this point through the print. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
This looks like a classic case of heat creep crawling up your filament to the filament driving gear thus making your filament too soft for the teeth to grab the filament and push it through. Let me guess, the filament is PLA.
Even if all the above is true it’s happening very quickly, you should get at least 45 minutes or better of print time before heat creep causes a problem.
What printhead are you using? Is it the standard basic printhead?
You might be using too high of temps.
What temperature is your initial layer? Temperature of your print layer?
Try printing at the manufacture’s minimum recommended temperature. The initial layer can be set to the minimum also, or set your initial layer to the minimum +5C.
What’s your bed temperature? For PLA it should be set to 65 or 60C. 60C works for me.
Is the cooling fan on and working? The fan on the heat sink, not the one pointed at the nozzle. A non spinning cooling fan certainly will make your heat creep upward fast.
It’s also highly recommended to use a silicon sock on your nozzle’s heater block. Pick one up in the future for better printing reliability.
Thank you for your help! I am using the standard basic printhead with ABS. I didn’t change any of the settings on Cura, it is set at 230C for initial printing temp then increases to 245C for initial layer. Build plate is at 110. The cooling fans are on and working. I will order a silicone sock for the heater block today.
Hhhmm interesting, I wasn’t expecting ABS. Perhaps your tensioner is too tight?
Also another thought, how close is your nozzle to the bed? What is your Z offset set to? It’s possible it’s too close to the bed and you are experiencing too much back pressure. It’s suggested to adjust the offset in .5 increments. Give that a try today.
Also watch the nozzle temperature on the LCD screen, make sure it isn’t dropping too far below that initial layer temperature. I think about a 5C ± variance is normal as the sensors lag and the system reacts to adjust. Your initial layer temperature should be higher than your printing temperature. You wrote:
“ it is set at 230C for initial printing temp then increases to 245C for initial layer”
Which is a little confusing cause both values mention “initial”
A hotter initial layer is used for better adhesion to the bed, then the temperature can come down a bit for the rest of the print. Printing temperature. However, you’re not getting past that initial layer. 230C is a bit low for ABS. The general recommended value is to print between 240C and 270C. Set your initial printing temperature to 245C and your printing temperature to 240C as a minimum. It won’t hurt to use higher values, in fact it’s better to use higher temperatures for stronger strength between the layers. Too low of an initial print temperature I think is where the real problem is.
So after double checking the problem was my fan, it wasn’t running. Somehow the wire came loose in the box. I’ve now run into a new problem, my first layer is not adhering to the bed. I am printing with the bed at 115 and nozzle 240. Z offset is -1.25. I put purple glue stick down hoping it would help with adhesion but no luck.
ABS doesn’t require a glue stick layer like PetG, you should be printing directly on the pei sheet. Remove the glue with a wet sponge and rag or paper towel then wipe down with isopropyl alcohol. I would also suggest roughing up your surface with a thousand grit sand paper or finer, I’ve used up to three thousand grit, seems the finer the better. Wet sanding is also recommended but don’t over do it with the sloppiness of the water or alcohol.
Your pei sheet looks a bit dated with all the bubbling, it may be time to replace it. After obtaining the appropriate size replacement pei sheet disconnect and remove your bed, put it in the freezer for an hour then go about removing the old pei sheet, it should come off fairly easy; you’ll have a tougher time removing the adhesive left behind with a razor blade and alcohol. The process sounds a little overwhelming but it’s not too bad overall.
Ok I’ll give that a try, thank you!