3D printing noob here. I have a Taz 5 that a friend of mine is letting me borrow to play around with. I set it up and printed the octopus just fine. One project I’ve always wanted to do was to print the parts needed to build a cnc machine. Does anyone have an idea as to what would cause this? I had the temp set to 230 and the bed was at 50 printing at 100% speed. If I tried to print at 200 it acts like it struggles to get any material to come out of the extruder. I’ve backed the material out and pushed it through manually to make sure there wasn’t a full blown clog.
I assume I’ll need to physically check them? Is there a setting I should check as well? I’m going to update the firmware tonight and see if that helps with anything too.
I think I may have found an issue. I downloaded the latest Cura software and added a Taz 5. I was saving the gcode files to an SD card and printing from there. If I try to connect Cura to the printer it tells me the wrong printer was detected. Looking at the serial number this is not a Taz 5 but a Taz 2. I don’t see Taz 2 in the Cura add printer section. Do I have to use a different piece of software since Cura doesn’t have a Taz 2 option?
There should be a setting in cura that allows you to specify the nozzle size and filament diameter. Typically, Taz printers use 3mm so you can safely put 2.85 mm and go from there.
Also check that the E-steps are set correctly. This value is printed on the back of the (older) tool heads. If you can’t find it, then you may have to calibrate it yourself.
You might also mention what kind of filament you are using. We can’t tell if 230 degrees is too high, too low, or just right without knowing what the filament is.
I did some more reading and found the settings. Both look correct. I have a spool of white pla 3mm from lulzbot. 230 was way too high. I was just playing with dropping temp then printing the first few layers. I got down to 188 and the filament stopped coming out. It’s running at 201 right now and seems to be going smooth. Fingers crossed… hopefully I didn’t just jinx it. I switched to a smaller part too. I’ll post a pic of it’s current progress shortly. I read something somewhere that 3D printing is a lot of fun and frustrating. I can understand the latter part… lol
Something is definitely still off. I started a print of the original part and it was doing the same thing as before. Does the software used to create the gcode play into print quality? I checked that I had .35 set for nozzle diameter and 3mm (2.89mm) set for filament size. Is 201 degrees still too hot for PLA?
One thing to note on this thread, it appears you are using a TAZ 3 perhaps? The pictures you have posted show a Budaschnozzle without a cooling fan, which was last shipped standard on a TAZ 3. Is there any chance you can post a photo showing the whole machine?
Yup, I’ll post one when I get home tonight. The screen shows Taz 2.1 during boot. I do have the shroud that was sent by Taz but it’s not installed. Something I’ll be doing shortly, as soon as I find a fan to put on it.
Ahh, thanks for that! This is likely going to be your issue with PLA. PLA likes to have a lot of cooling, and will help give crisper prints along with helping out the “droopiness.” To test this in the mean time while searching for the fan, I would suggest to point a desktop fan at the build area while printing. This should help confirm that this is where the issues lies.
That fan angle does look a little off, and could be that mount was for the TAZ 5 with the hexagon extruder.
One of the issues with the older Budaschnozzles, was insufficient heat sink cooling when printing long PLA prints. One of our resellers had re-designed the fan mount in order to provide better cooling. This was a go to recommendation in support before we added dedicated heatsink cooling fans to all tool heads. I would recommend downloading and printing out this mount instead, and keep it running at 100% except for the first layer when printing PLA. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:374906
I ran another print of the original part on this thread but turned it 180 degrees. I left in a hurry this morning and forgot to snap a pic to post. It still had some sagging on that curve but it printed a ton better. I’ll get this duct printed tonight and report back the results.
