Hi All, Hope this is the right place to post this. 5 Days in with my new Taz 6. Still getting the hang of 3D printing. Some of my prints have been great; some have been disappointing.
The base layer of recent parts has been poor, almost like guitar strings. See the attachment (the bottom of the part).
The part was created in Autodesk Inventor, exported in .STL in fine format. This particular part was printing in the current Cura/Lulzbot in high-speed format. 240 extruder temp, 110 bed temp (I think). Printing on a new 1kg spool of Hatchbox black ABS I bought from Amazon. No support or brim, but this is just a flat surface against the plate before I cancelled it.
Could someone point me to the most likely thing to change, to diagnose and make better parts?
This is due to the Z height being too high. It starts printing above the bed and not really touching it. I don’t have a 6 so I am not sure about the adjustment but it’s likely in the manual you received.
If this is new, and you used the same filament as before… Could be an auto leveling fail, though usually that puts you too close to the bed. Heat the nozzle to print temps and wipe it down with a scotchbrite pad. That helps clean things up to prevent that issue. If you’ve used PLA, it can make this worse, or so I’m led to believe. Maybe hit the washers with the pad as well.
Try measuring the diameter with a micrometer and enter that in the slicer settings. It could be slightly off from the current setting.
To move closer to the bed for the first layer, adjust the Z-offset in the machine settings (assuming Cura). Use a small negative amount, -0.2 or so. Watch to make sure you don’t get so close you gouge the PEI. If it looks like you’re getting too close, kill the machine power and try less offset.
That pic shows more than the first layer, if you keep having problems, try printing just the first layer and show us a pic on the bed. That can help narrow things down.
As you’re new to 3D printing, make sure you do the testing with known good designs. It’s pretty easy to have something be a little off in the design that makes it basically impossible to print.
I think for this one the answer is more easy than the two first posts might think
Have a look at the lower left area of your print. There are two small perimeter circles that seems to be the true first layer, the rest of the part is then starting at layer two or above. That means, your part is not realy flat at the bottom and not printable this way!
Ensure your part is completely flat on the lower side in Inventor
Sebastian is correct and your model as designed will not print. The sphere’s extend below the flat base of the model in the orientation you are trying to print at.
Also without support your print will also fail with the overhangs.
Cura has a mode where you can view each layer as it will print, so you can verify what sebastian says. Look at the first layer. If it’s not a full layer of the entire part, there is your problem
