Howdy, I’m a relatively new user looking for some advice on what could be causing my issue. I suspected heat creep causing extrusion issues but no matter how low I go with my temperature or adjust my retraction I cant seem to get it right. I have also messed around with the tension knob to make sure my extrusion gear wasn’t eating up the filament.The printer was working flawlessly before. Any advice is appreciated! Heres some info below that might help. In the picture attached is the latest attempted prints skirt. Thank you for any help you may have to offer!
That skirt is extremely squished, Z offset is much too low. Did you update the firmware recently? It may have lost the proper Z offset and gone to a default, which is set for the standard printbed. Where you have the Octograb, the Z offset should be somewhere around +0.25 to +0.32
If you didn’t have the octograb, it would be around -1.25.
If your offset is somewhere around +0.25 to +0.32, you’ve probably got some plastic on the nozzle causing it to detect the bed late, making it print closer to the bed.
These seem like positive changes. Ill get to printing something with more than 1 layer and make sure everythings good. Thank you for the tip! I never would have thought about the octograb needing extra offset. I got this printer secondhand recently so Im still not super familiar with it
It looks pretty good from the lines, but lines are very easy, as there’s space on either side for excess material to go. Filled-in 30mm squares are my go-to, as it’s enough that you’ll see the ridges in a first layer to start judging the offset.
I started having some issues again and looked into the filament. I got it with the printer and it was stored in a garage for 3 years. Got a fresh roll coming in a few days. It looks like filament is getting gunked up in the extruder teeth and its struggling to push more out. Im sure old, saturated filament could be a contributor to heat creep.
Yes I saved it. When i did a test swatch I thought it looked too high at 0.29 so I brought it down 1. It looked good but when I tried it again it struggled. Ill go back to 0.29 and run this again
Ok, if it’s still at +0.29, that should be at least enough to get a good print, if not a perfect first layer.
I could check the nozzle again. Any bit of plastic can completely ruin that initial layer… Which is why I’m a big proponent of going to BLTouch instead of the washer-based leveling.
Your printer’s automatic bed leveling procedure is done by electrical contact. The most common way this will fail is due to a dirty nozzle that prevents this contact until the filament is “pushed” to the sides and electrical contact is made. This will cause your printer to think the bed is lower than it actually is, and can create a lower than intended initial layer.
Please ensure your wiper pad is clean, and that you do not have any filament accumulated on the nozzle or corner washers.
If you do see a deflection during the probing sequence, please turn off the printer and restart the print.
Do not try to adjust your offset for a leveling sequence that pushed the bed down.
If you do, then if the next print it does not push down, your offset is going to be off again and you will be chasing your z-offset print after print.
If you have a hardened steel nozzle (which that appears to be), scotch-brite isn’t a bad choice, just make sure after raising the temp that you power off the machine. And don’t use the stuff with cleaner impregnated in it, or you’ll have that dust all over. I have red pads that are for cleaning outdoor barbeque grilles.
I’m curious if the whole washer leveling sequence would work better with a high heat and slow speed. Just assume there’s old plastic and move slow enough it gets mushed away instead of hoping it wipes off at a temp low enough it still can interfere. I assume that was tested years ago, but wonder about it.
I would go under cura settings & slow it down from the original that’s what do also since it’s a lulzbot don’t be scared to heat flush & what I mean by heat flush for example heating PLA to 245•c for cleaning the extruder by forcing more PLA though you probably want to do to do this with another color but this should not take more than a few minutes then pull out the pla
(Note the 245•c is for cleaning not printing & should not be more then 15 minutes before turning off the 3DPrinter & I just used PLA as a example because it’s a common material & know the temperatures for PLA)
I just first want you the clear the chamber in the toolhead first that way you can have a empty chamber & then work from that point & let that be a reminder for lulzbot technical issues & anyone watching trying to fix their lulzbot
If you’re sure it’s an HE tool head, you will want to print a lot hotter than 195C for PLA. If you have a silicon sock on the hot end you might be able to avoid adjusting the temperatures. The printing temperature for PLA on the HE tool head in Cura 4.13.10 is 230C so if you haven’t manually changed the temp, I’m assuming that the SE tool head is active in Cura.
