SUNLU PLA+ filament

[rochesb]

Thanks for your input Alwyn & Will...… greatly appreciated. As a total novice to 3D printing I need all the help I can get. Today is just day 2 of my 3D printing adventure, I blame this forum for getting me involved in these new-fangled inventions, when I was a lad printers struggled to print reliably in 2 dimensions

As it happens I think I may have made some progress this afternoon. The items I am printing are small, 2-3cm square footprint (nothing spectacular like a Centurion turret ) and are being printed individually. They are parts of filament guides to improve the 'flow' of filament on the Ender 3. I was concerned that the filament brushed the Z-axis threaded bar and was picking up grease.

Having an enquiring mind(!) I was doing some research on the Internet, looking for answers and came across a report from someone else with a Creality printer with similar print quality issues, they had tried all sorts of fixes, changing print speed, temperature, changing the Bowden cable, installing a new nozzle all to no avail. Eventually it turned out his problems were caused by an over-tight screw on the sprung extruder arm pivot preventing it from gripping the filament properly and causing under-feed issues.

As an experiment I slackened the same screw on my printer by half a turn and tried printing the standard 2cm XYZ test cube, to my delight it came out near perfect! Fired up with enthusiasm I set the printer away printing the items I was having trouble with earlier today and they have now been printed and they look and feel much stronger. I will test them tomorrow but I am quietly confident that progress has been made.

As things stand I am printing at 0.2mm layer temperature 198C, speed 60mm/sec with first layer at 20mm/sec. I might try cranking up the temperature a bit as suggested if they fail again.

Brian

[midlife306]

Hi Brian, glad you’re sorted!
I talked my boss into buying an Ender 3 (bad move) so I’ve been coaching him all over Xmas, a few things worth checking that you can easily miss if you don’t know to look for them:
Is the bridge level to the base?
Easy checked with a ruler at both sides.

If it’s out loosen off the eccentric rollers, check the nuts on the other rollers are nipped up & readjust the eccentrics.
Also, are you using the levelling programme from Thingiverse? Every video on YouTube uses a different method for levelling but they all have something between the extruder & the print bed, bad move! When levelling the bed the print head Z height is zero, so the print bed glass surface should be at exactly the same height as the nozzle. I do this by sliding the glass between the nozzle & the print bed and adjusting the gap until
You can hear a clicking noise of the nozzle hitting the glass, then back off until it just stops, do this at all 4 corners twice & you’ll be good to go. From that point on when the Z height says it’s at 0.3mm it actually will be
I know that Alwyn prints at 60mm per sec & at below 200c, but I’d suggest starting slow & hot & working faster & cooler as you go.
Thing to remember is that lower temps give a sharper & crisper print at the expense of strength, higher temps give strength at the expense of sharpness.
I adjust most settings dependant on what the print is & what it’s going to do.
Here’s the base settings I use in Cura.



Welcome to a whole new world of ocd
Cheers
Wayne




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rochesb]

Thanks Wayne for taking the time to screen print your Cura settings, you have given me further food for thought. I will check out your suggestions tomorrow. You have my sympathy for getting dragged in as your bosses '3D printer specialist', I hope it doesn't turn into an unpaid 24x7 role for life; I ended up being expected to provide 'free' PC support for my family 24x7

I can see that keeping a 'non-industrial' 3D printer in prime working order is not for the faint-hearted, there are so many things that can come loose, or be too tight, or wear or fail & that's even before you consider the software aspects. I spent my entire working life in IT designing, building & maintaining computer systems and software at both extremes (mainframe and PC) of the size spectrum so troubleshooting technology helps keep the old grey cells ticking over. Part of the problem with being a novice with any IT related technology is understanding what impact changing the various settings within the software.

Inspired by the efforts of other users on this forum I am busy teaching myself how to use OpenSCAD too, as I don't want to just use my printer to print the work of others.

Before I forget, what would folks recommend in terms of laying in supplies of spares & maintenance items for an Ender 3 printer?

Thanks again

Brian

[Will01Capri]

Nice work

Supplies, plenty of PLA in stock

Spare Nozzle

Spare PTFE Tube & fittings

Get yourself a glass bed unless you have already, always keep the original mat supplied as a spare in case.

Clips for holding the base on the heat plate.

Pritt Sticks for helping first layers of print to go down.

3D print some useful add-ons

I have more printers coming as my first is working overtime and i cannot keep up with things i want to print. Stop being so patient haha. Always wanting to print other things after i started another long print lol

[AlwynTurner]

Hi Brian, I must say with the Creality you should (in my experience) have very little maintenance to do. This of course is tempting the printer gremlins to attack immediately, but in the year that I have had my CR10 I have had very little need to touch the various settings or adjust roller tensions. Comparing this to my first generation printer which was a reprap prusa clone, I was constantly having to adjust/maintain/fiddle/unblock print heads to keep the print quality right. I think that once you have your bed levelled and everything tensioned correctly then you should find the Creality a trouble-free tool.

Good luck and happy printing

Alwyn

[rochesb]

I did think investing in a spare nozzle or two might be worth it, and some Bowden tube. I have seen suggestions that there are better Bowden connectors than the ones Creality provide so I have a bit of homework to do there.
It's an interesting thought about the glass bed, I had wondered about one but my Ender 3 Pro has a flexible magnetic bed which is working very well, I have had no issues (fingers crossed) with bed adhesion of my prints, and when the bed & print have cooled down its a piece of cake peeling them off the bed. It takes only moments to drop it back in place, wipe over with isopropyl alcohol & I am ready for the next print.

I will give 'spare' printers a miss for the moment, although I could see myself looking enviously at one with a larger print bed or even a resin printer someday but for the moment I shall be focussing my efforts on mastering OpenSCAD so I have something worthwhile to print.

My long term ambition is to create a near 1/10 scale replica of my now departed full size Series 3 Land Rover Air Portable (Lightweight) using Tamiya running gear. To do that I need a) mastery of OpenSCAD and b) some decent line drawings of the original vehicle.

It's strange, before I retired I was looking forward to having more time for my hobbies, instead I am developing more hobbies, so the time is still spread as thinly.....

[rochesb]

Thanks everyone for your ideas, suggestions & support.

Brian

[AlwynTurner]

Just got near the end of the roll of filament and having trouble printing, extruder blocking and bad print leading to print failure. Changed to a different filament and it prints fine. There is only about 20 metres of filament left on the roll so I will use it on simple straight print jobs. A little disappointing though as otherwise this filament has been pretty good with nice finish and strong prints.

Alwyn

[Will01Capri]

Just got near the end of the roll of filament and having trouble printing, extruder blocking and bad print leading to print failure. Changed to a different filament and it prints fine. There is only about 20 metres of filament left on the roll so I will use it on simple straight print jobs. A little disappointing though as otherwise this filament has been pretty good with nice finish and strong prints.

Alwyn

I had another type of pla filament recently and the last 30% of the roll was all bound up and locked into itself and get jamming so failing the prints. Luckily i got partial refund, but was very frustrating. I have put it to one side for the same if i want to make putlines for cutting templates

[wibblywobbly]

As far as spares are concerned I would suggest the following:

0.4mm drills.
Blowtorch.
PTFE tube.
A bag of spare nozzles.
I use a bottle of liquid PVA for adhesion and rarely have to re-apply it, just squirt a few drops onto the bed and spread it out with a brush.

If print quality is poor, check that the nozzle is properly tightened into the hotend, just pinch it up, too much pressure and they can shear off, too loose and they can unscrew whilst printing.

Clogged nozzles are a pain when they happen, and they don't last forever. Partially clogged ones will cause layers to go down too thinly. The easiest way to clear them is to unscrew it, and hold it in a blowtorch flame until the old filament melts and drops out. Gently run a drill through the hole and job done. If you have spares you can simply swap them out and carry on printing.

If the filament has jammed and nothing is coming out, it is often due to one of two things, hotend temp is too low, or bed levelling not right. If the nozzle is too close to the bed on the initial layer the filament can't come out, it backs up, heats up, cools further up, and solidifies in the nozzle and PTFE tube.

When removing the filament to clear a blockage give it a fast pull, this reduces the chances of the blob on the end cooling and stopping the end from getting jammed in the PTFE tube.

I use 210c with PLA nowadays, I use the cheapest I can find, and having it that bit hotter keeps it flowing more reliably, as well as helping the layers to bond.

As said, it's all a learning curve, and we have all been through it.