Infill Failures

I own a TAZ 5, and lately I’ve been having issues with printing infill walls where instead of depositing a clean line of filament, the printer leaves a broken, dotted line instead. I haven’t experienced any other issues with printing outside of this one, and I need help finding what some causes of it might be.

Sounds like an extrusion problem but photos and other information would help.

What software?
What filament?
What temperatures?
What speed?
If it’s PLA what fan speed?
Any other changes at the time this started?

  1. Cura
  2. ABS
  3. 230/90 for hot end and bed
  4. Practically all speeds; it happened even when my fastest speed was 17 mm/s, which was only for travel

The print overall comes out fine, but I’m wondering what the cause of this might be, since if it worsens my prints’ surface quality could be compromised.

It really sounds like under extrusion.

Could be partially blocked nozzle (do a couple cold pulls). I don’t use Cura but many slicers have an infill extrusion width setting, you could see if it’s low, a good starting point is 100%.

You could also extrude in air and see if A. the filament is coming out straight down or curling off to the side or B. too slow of extrusion.

Also check your tensioner (maybe the filament is slipping).

You’ll need to define infill walls. If this is the bottom surface, then you’re initial nozzle height is too close to the bed. A quick experiment would be to try a .1 - .2 Z-Offset in your slicer settings. If this helps, give your Z-endstop a quarter to half turn.

If you’re referring to the build up of infill walls, then I’m with tmorris9 on under-extrusion. Try bumping up flow rate/multiplier or increase infill extrusion percentage of your slicing software allows. Slowing down the print may also help.

230 is on the low end of extrusion temps for ABS, and you may want to bump it up to 240-245. It could be possible you are trying to push the filament through the hot end before it is fully melted, preventing a smooth extrusion.