Hi again. Today I made a print that had quite a few “bumps, zits and imperfections”. I am really trying to understand why these things happen, so I printed a temp tower to try and dial in temperatures, before worrying about retraction, or retract
ion speeds.
Attached is a photo of that tower. The filament was PLA Pro, the bottom 230 degrees in 5 degree increments up to the top at 200. The tower was generated from Cura 5,7,1 which is to automatically adjust temperatures which while watching the printer screen showed these temperature changes happening.
So, what’s going on here? I see no appreciable improvements from 230 up to 200 degrees. The manufacturer says 210 to 230 as the recommended range.
An ideas where to go to figure this out before tackling retraction.
Hello Lion,
Moisture should not be an issue. The filament was brand new, straight out of the box and its sealed plastic bag.
I have retraction setting at 0.5, and retraction speed at 30.0 mm , Both as specified as the best settings in the paperwork that came with the printer.
My next thought is to print a temp tower and manually lower the temp in 5 degree settings and keep going down to experiment and see if it makes any difference.
Filament can still be wet out of the bag. If you don’t have a dryer or can’t afford one…you can heat the bed to 60, lay the spool on it’s side & cover it with a box. Dry it for 8-12 hours.
Also, try to print the tower again with the same gcode as before, but with a different filament.
If it prints better, than you know the other filament has issues.
Hi,
Lion asked you if you used the original settings that came with cura 5.7 or if you modified them.
If modified, what are they (print speed among others).
These informations helps us to help you.
I will be printing another temp tower this afternoon with filament that I am certain is dry.
I’ll use the same settings as yesterday and we’ll see what happens. I will post the photo when complete.
I’m certainly not going to insist that in all of my attempts to get prints working well i have not made any changes. IT IS POSSIBLE.
Lion, this evening I’ll make sure the print settings you have provided are changed to what you’ve sent.
I’ll also undo anything in blue back to a default setting.
Tomorrow with these changes I’ll try another print and see how it goes.
We’re just trying to get you on the right path.
Once you are printing normal again, things can be changed.
My Speed pic isn’t default, but it works.
I’ve changed things & have my profiles, you just have to learn what the limits are…trail & error, a little at a time.
Finally, I can see light at the end of this tunnel.
Both temp towers (Red-PLA PLUS) and (Grey PLA) are improving. Red-PLA Plus best at 205 degrees, Grey PLA best at 195 degrees.
For the first time on both, the “bridge” between the columns is fully formed. As you can see from the attached photos both have a fair amount of “heavy, thick extra filament” under those bridges.
Am I correct in assuming this extra material now needs to be addressed with stringing solutions? I don’t want to move on until I know the temp situation is addressed and is correct.
What do you recommend.I do next?
Also a question based on the settings you provided me. You suggested, and I used a print speed of 80mm/s. When I looked at the “recommended” setting in Cura 5.7.1, it had Print speed at 150mm/s
I had thought about setting everything to Cura recommendations, but did not! The difference between 80mm/s and 150mm/s seems very extreme and gave me pause.
As always my most sincere thank you for the help and next set of recommendations.
I’ve been keeping the spools in the zip lock bags they come in along with desiccant. They are returned to the bags immediately after use.
SInce starting this with you, I have now started drying in the cardboard boxes the spools come in, on top of the printer bed, at 60 degrees.
I have the “problematic” red filament on the bed right now for use tomorrow.I’m not fond of the idea of leaving a cardboard box on a heated bed overnight,
but if that’s what it’s going to take to know exactly where the problem is, I’ll do it!
Retraction is set at 5. It is what Sovol recommended in their minimalist instructions and I’m planning on keeping it there based on what I can see from the
retraction tower results.
My biggest concern right now are the thicker threads on the inside of each retraction tower post, and the spotty bridges on the temp tower. If it’s moisture
we’ll know from tomorrow’s towers when I print them.
Now, I’m not certain at all how best to continue our discussions with your enormous help. Should I continue responding to emails such as this, OR
should I respond with messages on the “Sovol Forum”. From what I gather, you’d prefer I post on the forum because it allows everyone to see and respond.
Lion suggested I post the photos of where this first started and the progress that has been made, almost entirely from Lion’s help by the way!
It will be obvious which is the starting point, and the midway. I’ve already posted where things stand as of now. If you’ve been following, Lion has made some very valid suggested settings for Cura which have work extremely well. The last conclusion now is moisture in the filament and after a lot of time on YouTube last night it appears Lion may very well be correct.
A brainstorm in the middle of the night occurred. I’ve taken the remote senor for my indoor/outdoor thermometer and placed it inside the box on the printer bed, 60C in which I’m trying to dry the filament. After all night, inside the box is 95F, with 70% humidity, despite keeping the filament inside the zip lock bag and box it was shipped in, moisture IS THERE!
I had planned to print another tower today to further mark progress but instead will wait until humidity in the box drops as far as it will and remains stable there for a while.
When I do print, I’ll share the photo and any progress.
