[Solved: wet filament] Help me identify the problem: wet filament, bad z-height, or clogged nozzle?
[Solved: wet filament] Help me identify the problem: wet filament, bad z-height, or clogged nozzle?
This is a Prusa MINI+ that has worked flawlessly for 3 months. Suddenly the prints won't stick to the bed, the first layer is all messy and I cancel the print before anything worse happens.
- The printer has auto bed leveling so I would rule that out.
- The plate is cleaned with 70% IPA, so it's not dirty either.
- I have tried to adjust the "Live Z Adjust" while printing that first layer, but no setting works well.
- Each filament is printed at recommended temps (+/- 215C) and bed is at 60C.
- Out of my 5 spools, only 1 works well: RepRapper 3-color PLA. Even the Prusament PLA fails to stick well, and also eSun PLA+, and eSun matte PLA, and Tinmorry TPU.
https://i.imgur.com/MEpK37W.png
Update:
- Thank you all for your kind input.
- I washed the plate, and cleaned the nozzle (have no spare nozzle).
- I also did a fresh Z-test (with this object) using Prusament galaxy silver PLA.
- That was successful and showed that my height was already very close to perfect.
- Z-test result shows that -1.425 is best. I was off by only 0.025. Image
- Started printing an object with eSun matte black PLA but the result was same as in my original photo.
- Changed back to the Prusament galaxy silver PLA and the result is perfect. (image)
So it looks like my filament storage is not up to snuff! Good thing that I only have a few spools, so not much is lost.
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Scrub the bed with dish soap and a non stick scourer, dry it right away. Then print on that. Ipa only removes oils from your fingers, there's other residue it won't remove
This definitely looks like a bed cleanliness issue. IPA doesn't really remove oil, it mostly just spreads it around. Soap is needed to lift the oils off the surface. You shouldn't need a scourer, just a paper towel works fine.
I always use a fresh paper towel when washing my build plates in the sink, because I figure only Bel-Shamharoth himself probably actually knows whatever the hell might be all over the dish sponge, nor how old it is. Did it get saturated with bacon grease this morning? Is it full of grit just abrasive enough to fuck up my kapton tape? Who knows.
And if that doesn't work, use pure acetone (warning, this idea puts knots in peoples panties - frankly it's fine to do if you don't make a habit of it) or try a gluestick (the specialized ones for 3d printing are worth it, don't steal your kids art supplies)
Use pure acetone only if you know with 100% certainty that it won't eat whatever polymer your build plate is coated with. You don't have to worry if you use a glass build plate, though.
It does eat the pei sheets a bit, but that's good to even out tiny marks and dings in the sheet. Like the previous poster said. It's fine to do once in a while to refresh the surface, spring steel sheets are consumables anyway.
For PEI