eSun PLA on new Lulzbot Mini

Recently bought the new lulzbot mini (think v1.04). Assume I am a beginner to the 3d printing world, although I have read a fair bit rather than just the manuals.

It came with the green filament, which I believe is polylite and I had initially bought esun pla (dirt cheap because of clearance), but obviously, I quickly realised that it was not as good as the pla that came with the printer. I used the same profile settings as polylite pla but reduced the flow to 90% (I remember seeing a post on here where someone else did the same). Prints were okay but sometimes a little inconsistent i.e. the first layer wouldn’t fully print and sometimes the pla would ooze out of the nozzle while it is in the corner heating up (does this near enough 190deg just before the printer moves to print). Enough to cause a build-up of filament so that it touches and sticks to the nozzle (doesn’t pigtail until the filament touches the table/surface and the filament oozing out gets pushed).

Is it worth buying more esun pla (clearance ones), if so how do I go about ensuring that I get decent prints each and everytime? Not looking for top-notch accuracy, but more consistency so that I don’t have to keep guessing and adjusting tolerances on fittings etc.

Any beginner tips would be appreciated.

Asim

PLA is subject to humidity. eSUN typically vacuum seals the bags, if that’s not the state of the filament… don’t buy anymore.

As for the ooze at the start of the print, use a skirt to prime and also help remove the start ooze. There are other ways to do the same through an extruded strip through custom start scripts. Not priming the nozzle, could also be the reason you’re first layer isn’t printing fully.

The first layer is the most difficult to get right. Partial printing could be caused by auto-level issue, layer height, model…

Leave the flow rate at 100% until you determine something is wrong with prints… usually dimensional accuracy. For instance, design a cylinder that has an ID slightly larger than a M5 socket cap (i.e. 9mm) to check. If it doesn’t fit, reduce the flow rate / multiplier by 2%… continue until it fits…


Hope that helps.

I manually pull away any filament that oozes out before the print begins to make sure it doesn’t 1) get dragged along and 2 doesn’t mess up the whole skirt. I print 5 lines now instead of just the 1.

Auto-level. I noticed on two occasions now, that the little fluff that ends up sticking to the nozzle during the cleaning process before the print ruins the auto-level. So I try to quickly remove any fluff that’s in the way with the tweezers prior to auto-level. Not sure if this is a bad thing to do.

Models have been fine as they have printed well in most instances.

I have set it back to 100% and will try the cylinder fit test and see what happens.

Many thanks for your help.