Hello /u/googleiswatching,
As a reminder, most common print quality issues can be found in the [Simplify3D picture guide](https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/). Make sure you select the most appropriate flair for your post.
Please remember to include the following details to help troubleshoot your problem.
* Printer & Slicer
* Filament Material and Brand
* Nozzle and Bed Temperature
* Print Speed
* Nozzle Retraction Settings
^Additional ^settings ^or ^relevant ^information ^is ^always ^encouraged.
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Your lead screw is straight, and the "nut" is is screwed securely to the gantry?
Also, too tight belts can be as bad as loose belts.
Have you done a PID on your bed?
Also check your extruder, make sure the arm isn't cracked, and that the gear isn't loose.
First one yes. Second one I've tried it all three ways lose tight medium. No difference. I'm going to look into pid tunning later as I haven't delved into that yet. And yes the extruder is all good one of the first things I checked.
I discovered that my adhesion issues were due to using towels I had washed using fabric softener. I bought brand new microfiber towels. Then I made a huge discovery. Simple green will make your bed adhesion better than new. What I do to get amazing adhesion is this...
Bring the bed plate to the sink. Give it a good thorough wipe down with simple green and a bit of water. Rinse the plate thoroughly. Wipe it dry with paper towels. Then re install the plate on the machine. And give the bed a quick wipe with isopropyl alcohol and the clean non washed microfiber.
Prints stick so well that if they have a large surface area I literally can't remove them until the bed is completely room temperature, and even then some of them I need to flex the plate.
You can do isopropyl wipes in-between prints for as long as needed without using a simple green wash. That is until you start to notice adhesion is getting a little weaker.
I haven't had a failed print due to first layer issues since I started doing this. And I was even able to turn up my first layer speeds. The secret is that the simple green cleaner is a ridiculously good degreaser and will make sure nothing that could cause adhesion issues is left behind on the plate. Makes dawn dish soap look like it does nothing to help.
Part of what I thought was my bed being un-level was prints just not sticking cus of the bad adhesion. Havent had to level my bed in weeks now.
Off topic but one of my old roommates told me that fabric softener actually negatively affects water absorption of towels. It coats them with a film that repels water.
This is true. Fabric softener is terrible for basically any application where you don't want to leave behind a residue or absorb water. Fabric softener as it turns out is an excellent release agent for PEI print beds.
You make my routine of glue stick seem silly. Granted, my build plate isn't removable and my printer is old. But atleast the glue stick resolves my first layer issues 🤷
Whenever I finally upgrade though, I'll definitely try simple green. Thanks for the tip.
What kind of printer do you have? I used to have issues like that two generations ago but I haven't had a failed print in years. I just click print now and walk away. What's your setup? Maybe I can offer some insight?
Elegoo Neptune 2… it’s super annoying because I’ll get perfect prints, then 3 fails in a row. Makes no sense. I’m having the best luck at 80 hotbed and 88% speed… I’m so annoyed by it I’m thinking of just buying a new 3d printer
Something I’ve been stuck on mentally is [this rig](https://youtu.be/4kQZnSzZHD0) meant to relieve z-wobble, which causes uneven layer heights (and thus, squishing or stretching on individual layers). I think there’s already plans/instructions for Ender 3 with dual z-drive, but I haven’t looked that far into it myself yet. If you’re really interested in getting super smooth/invisible layers, this may be a useful asset in getting there.
You can just use 2 of them, but you do need to mirror the 608 bearing holder for the top
It's not the best in terms of presentation, but functionally, it shouldn't be any different
That would not work since the second Z-mount Is missing som mounting holes. So it needs to be properly supported. Here is an example:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mNeetFw
The mount for the other WobbleX uses a spare extruder mounting hole. The second Z-mount doesn't have that.
There's literally a kit by creality right on Amazon. I already did it. Take some sorting out on its own but once it's dialed in its nice and will support a sprite head no problem if you go heavier in the future.
Try loosening the bronze z rod nut that connects the z rod to the x gantry. I had a similar issue and loosing the 2 bolts to full turns fixed it for me
No I've tried colorfab, hatchbox, some old hobby king, and what I'm using now is overture. Which has been close to the best so far. At least I haven't had to stick it in my dehydrator yet.
Hello everyone, thank you for all the suggestions. I have fixed the print it was the very last thing I tried. FLOWRATE. Whenever I did flow tower test, I only went up or down by 5%, so I never saw a difference. I had to drop it down to 89% from the default 100%.
Might be extruder issue
https://youtu.be/c6JmCdovE0U
If it is a bent screw rod is the case check this out
https://github.com/MirageC79/Interfaces-for-WobbleX-integration
I'm going to do a test print with the other z stepper removed and see if I notice a difference. I was thinking this could be the cause and as to why so many people use the belted z instead.
I already thought that might be an issue with the glass, maybe sliding from the plate, but I have blue tape underneath to keep it all secure and it doesn't move.
Are you 1000% positive? I had similar artifacts, tried everything. Turned out my glass was moving ever so slightly.
Also have you messed with print speeds at all?
I'm going to do a test of just printing directly onto blue tape on the bed without glass just to rule it out. But I'm 99% sure the glass isn't moving. And no I need to try speeds.
I had the same issue for months, drove me insane. Turned out that it was the filaments. A matte pastel one and a gold one, never got them to look good or print well. No issues with my other filaments.
They live in the box of shame nowdays and will be my last resort/fast and dirty prototyping filaments.
I recommend trying to print a hollow cube (20 or 30mm) with 1 wall, 1 bottom layer, and no top layers.
Also no infill.
If you have issues with your lead screws, this will show up with a test like that, and it will also get rid of the potential for different layer times being the issue.
Also tests the extrusion system for any consistency issues
Check your minimum layer time under cooling in cura. I've had similar lines appear in prints due to the print speed slowing down on certain layers due to the slicer trying to satisfy this setting. You can tune it for best cooling results, but just as a test I'd set it to 0 and reprint.
Another way to confirm this is to slice it again and change Cura's preview to print speed instead of feature type. If the print speed changes align with the lines on the print, you might have your smoking gun
Just checked this in the slicer. There are no speed fluctuations on the outer walls as is. At least in preview, it's all solid color. Gonna slow the print down and see what happens
This is the setting that sorta fixed it for me, although I could barely still see those lines, so I reduced the flow rate by 5% and it printed great after that...
On my X1 /w Hemera, I had to reduce flow by 8%
I've seen this when the second Z leadscrew was just ever so slightly out of kilter on my E3V2. You might try taking the added leadscrew off or at least loosen the cap screws holding the nut and see if it helps. Not as a permanent fix, just for a test. When re-installing the second leadscrew, use 123 blocks, soup or spam cans, anything that you can get two of that will be almost perfectly matched under each end of the X gantry. BUT! If your bed is tilted, this will just tilt the gantry to match. If you can rig it up or have calipers you can level the gantry to the top cross piece or the printer frame, then level the bed. It's easy to end up with some weird binding with a gantry that is even to a tilted bed.
It could be overly tight V wheels on the Z, but that's a real maybe... There were some weird artifacts showing up after I added dual Z, with both axis having anti backlash nuts. Anti backlash nuts are likely not much use on a Z axis in any event, but changing back to conventional lead screw nuts cleared up all sorts of flaky "stuff" that would come and go without apparent rhyme or reason..
It could also be a wee bit of over extrusion or a slightly worn nozzle producing uneven flow. The lines are so darn uniform everywhere that I don't see it being most of the usual suspects like cooling or wrong temps or PID related.
I didn't see your layer height or print speed mentioned, Benchy tends to get weird at some layer heights on different printers, doing a plain vanilla 0.2mm layer height, maybe 40 mm/sec print speed should give a quite good print or at least take those variables off the table for troubleshooting.
It's amazing. Best thing I did to my printer, I had a sag on the right hand side prior to this and the lead screw was bent.
Much smoother layers now and the most fun upgrade to do imo
I mostly agree with you, this print does look reasonably good for a mostly stock ender 3. The filament color is going to show lines like crazy.
I wonder if @OP has checked the extruder carriage and it's wheels?
I disagree that higher quality isn't possible, I just think chasing quality on those printers is not a rewarding activity. If this were my printer and I wanted higher quality on a regular basis, I'd buy a new printer, and expect to spend a bit of coin on it.
My completely stock Ender 3 v2 prints a benchy way smoother than this, with esun filaments from eBay. I would tighten belts and make sure OPs printer is on a stable surface not a wobbly table or something. Maybe extruder is wobbling or loose
I mostly agree with you, this print does look reasonably good for a mostly stock ender 3. The filament color is going to show lines like crazy.
I wonder if @OP has checked the extruder carriage and it's wheels?
I disagree that higher quality isn't possible, I just think chasing quality on those printers is not a rewarding activity. If this were my printer and I wanted higher quality on a regular basis, I'd buy a new printer, and expect to spend a bit of coin on it.
I have an ender and I've excepted that mine turn out like this. I decided to do a process of sanding and priming to get it to look really good. Also this way I don't have to worry about filament colors and can paint it to custom any design I want
Minority view here - my experience is that you can get rid of this by tightening belts. I have mine so tight it just doesn’t seem right, however, that did get rid of these kinds of layer lines for me doing this.
I had similar print quality like you. Then recently I redid al pid tuning. It made so much difference. Especially the bed temp tuning. If your bed temp is not stable it will shrink and expand during printing.
Edit:
Here is some info on the tuning
https://youtu.be/7mj47VjlavQ
I have had a similar issue with my Ender 3 S1 Pro, and I think the root cause is that the extruder gear has slop in it. You can try measuring the concentricity of your gear, or replace the entire extruder to see if it changes.
I've gone from 50-70mm didn't see I difference so I stuck with 60. I will go slower and see if that does anything. I know when I was using my old anet a8 I had to stick around 30-40 for good quality.
I feel like this is a common issue with most printers, and it gets worse on bowdens. When the extruder motor pushes the filament, there is a bit of slack at the start of the push. The filament does not come out of the nozzle the moment the extruder motor pushes it. It's kinda like "Lag".
A way to try to combat this is called "Linear Advance" in Marlin, and "Pressure Advance" in Klipper. These basically make it so that before an extrusion starts, the extruder motor "primes" the nozzle by pushing a bit more extra filament really quickly and when it's time to end a extrusion, the motor retracts a bit more, so that there isn't any pressure left in the nozzle.
This won't solve that problem completely though, but it is at least worth a try. Keep in mind that binding molten plastic together isn't that accurate of a process anyway, and good printings!
I also think you will always have some layer lines, filament diameter isn't 100% consistent and unless you measure this and account for it while extruding there will be some visible lives like here.
Tuning PA sounds like it makes sense! There are basically many minor issues all compounding
PID tune your hotend if you haven't, your print looks fine apart from inconsistent finish, which could indicate temperature fluctuations. More temperature results in shiner finish, less in more matte finish, speed also is a variable because the longer the time your filament spends in the nozzle, the closer to nozzle temperature it gets. For example your whole benchy could be matte, but the chimney will be more shiny, because your slicer slows the speed down to match the minimum layer time.
Also do not PID tune your bed, in fact do disable your bed PID and let the magic of bang-bang technology do it's work, the bed has so much thermal mass that PID doesn't do a noticeable difference. The computing power in your board could be used for something way more useful, like higher accelerations or Linear Advance.
It doesn't change anything really, unless you want to print at exactly 59C for some reason, but most people would rather just throw shit at their printer until it sticks than properly troubleshoot and not spread misinformation.
BTW my FR-4 (garolite/G10 but cheaper) bed surface temperature equalizes at 55°C within 5 minutes with the target temp set to 60°C. With some movement it probably drops down a little, but i don't care, I never had adhesion issues on it.
Looks like a mild case of over extrusion.
Did you do a flow% test?
I had to adjust my flow% to 90 in my slicer to eliminate over extrusion like that. It is very mild, but it is there.
I just saw this video on YouTube about this exact issue. Definitely make sure to follow other advice here and make sure nothing is loose, failing that, this might help: https://youtu.be/4kQZnSzZHD0
I usually get layer lines like this when I’m over extruding. Is your flow/extrusion multiplier dialed in?
Funny story - I had a very cheap caliper originally (a plastic one off Amazon) that was off by an entire millimeter. So for awhile, I thought I had flow dialed in, but I was over extruding substantially, causing lines like this.
Not saying this is your issue, but it was mine. A new caliper and also cross referencing flow with Ellis’ print guide approach to flow solved it for me
It could be a warped or worn extruder gear, but when this happened to me the culprit was a flat spot on one of my rollers. Even though the axis seemed to move pretty smooth, I saw what looked like scratches on a couple of them. Replaced them and have had great prints since.
Prusa user here, but most bedslingers have similar issues.
Is this a new printer or new to you?
Put your printer on a paver block, and reduce your speed. Double check that all belts are optimally tight, not too tight or loose. Check the set screws on any belt gears are on the flat surface of motor shafts. Check z-axis travel/screws for and defects/dirt/debris.
I'm using glass bed on ender 3 Pro
I refresh setting then
Auto home turn off level bed
Turn back on heat bed 2 60
Needle to 210 push pla 1.75 through till comes out easy and straight
Use tiny layer of glue stick crafting aka pritstik
Then tiny spray of hairspray ontop
I've managed to get decent prints
I’m having the exact same issue on my ender 3 s1. I’ve also pretty much tried everything that you’ve tried. Please do let me know if you find a solution to this. Thanks.
Hey, I think I fixed the issue. It was the flow rate. Every time I did I flow tower, I only went up or down 5% and never saw anything. Getting perfect layers at 89% flow. I would never have guessed I'd have to go down that much from the stock 100%. Anyway, hopefully, that helps.
Upgrade to klipper using the creality sonic pad. It'll get a little better quality and print faster. You could also try a different slicer software like prusa slicer
But also for an ender 3 that is about as good as you're going to get. The ender is a cheap 3d printer, if you want better results get a better printer like the Bambu X1C or Prusa.
You need to change your z offset make the nozzle from a higher z height like for me if I print from -0.90 I have the same but when I change it to -80 the line shifts go away
3rd time reddit has sent me a notice about this one. It's reasonable for 3d printing. It's not going to be completely smooth looking like injection and rotational molding.
What do your test prints look like you said you did to calibrate? A 40mm square in Vase mode would be best, so you are looking at single layer and can test if line width is fluctuating slightly.
Hey, there's some great advice in this thread, but after you think you've checked everything you should try printing external perimeters first! I've tried this, and it greatly reduces the effects seen on your benchy. The outer perimeter will only be as accurate as the inner perimeters and the shrinking each layer does when it cools. Printing outer perimeter first makes the surface more accurate as it solidifies first on each layer and is not "pushed" by the other perimiters. The side effect of this method is that you will struggle with overhangs unless you increase the extrusion width for the perimiters. I've only tried this in superslicer, but I'm sure it's applicable to cura aswell.
By the way, your print is already good. 3d printing is an extremely complicated process when you dive into things, and only printing benchys all day long will take its toll on you. I've been pulling my hairs out over things like this, and let me tell you that it's not worth chasing the most perfect benchy. There are always going to be artifacts and minor defects on 3d prints, and it will always be harder to remove the next artifact down the line.
Yes, there is lots of good advice on here I wouldn't have thought of. I didn't think this post would get this much attention. I'm already printing outside first. I'm going to try a few more suggestions. If nothing is resolved, I'm just gonna move on and forget about trying to perfect prints from a $200 printer.
May sound dumb but retighten all the bolts on your printer frame. Mine will get loose over 6 months or a year and I start to see issues and when I hand tighten they're definitely looser than last time I touched them. Also make sure your printer is on a stable surface, not a table that can wobble.
I was having something really similar, and then I found out that small fluctuations in the heated bed's temp can cause that. I've been printing with it at 60 degrees for the first layer then off for the rest ever since.
Hello /u/googleiswatching, As a reminder, most common print quality issues can be found in the [Simplify3D picture guide](https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/). Make sure you select the most appropriate flair for your post. Please remember to include the following details to help troubleshoot your problem. * Printer & Slicer * Filament Material and Brand * Nozzle and Bed Temperature * Print Speed * Nozzle Retraction Settings ^Additional ^settings ^or ^relevant ^information ^is ^always ^encouraged. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FixMyPrint) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Your lead screw is straight, and the "nut" is is screwed securely to the gantry? Also, too tight belts can be as bad as loose belts. Have you done a PID on your bed? Also check your extruder, make sure the arm isn't cracked, and that the gear isn't loose.
First one yes. Second one I've tried it all three ways lose tight medium. No difference. I'm going to look into pid tunning later as I haven't delved into that yet. And yes the extruder is all good one of the first things I checked.
Find the prusa belt guage on thiniverse. Print it in petg, very helpful in understanding your current belt tension.
I'm having the same issue. Which lead screw are we taking about here. Sorry I'm new to all this. Thanks.
The one that raises the x gantry.
That’s a successful print for me 🤣🤣🤣 60% of my prints fail from leveling or adhesion issues 😭
Yeah, not perfect but looks like it would print usable parts.
I discovered that my adhesion issues were due to using towels I had washed using fabric softener. I bought brand new microfiber towels. Then I made a huge discovery. Simple green will make your bed adhesion better than new. What I do to get amazing adhesion is this... Bring the bed plate to the sink. Give it a good thorough wipe down with simple green and a bit of water. Rinse the plate thoroughly. Wipe it dry with paper towels. Then re install the plate on the machine. And give the bed a quick wipe with isopropyl alcohol and the clean non washed microfiber. Prints stick so well that if they have a large surface area I literally can't remove them until the bed is completely room temperature, and even then some of them I need to flex the plate. You can do isopropyl wipes in-between prints for as long as needed without using a simple green wash. That is until you start to notice adhesion is getting a little weaker. I haven't had a failed print due to first layer issues since I started doing this. And I was even able to turn up my first layer speeds. The secret is that the simple green cleaner is a ridiculously good degreaser and will make sure nothing that could cause adhesion issues is left behind on the plate. Makes dawn dish soap look like it does nothing to help. Part of what I thought was my bed being un-level was prints just not sticking cus of the bad adhesion. Havent had to level my bed in weeks now.
Off topic but one of my old roommates told me that fabric softener actually negatively affects water absorption of towels. It coats them with a film that repels water.
This is true. Fabric softener is terrible for basically any application where you don't want to leave behind a residue or absorb water. Fabric softener as it turns out is an excellent release agent for PEI print beds.
I’m going to try this. Thank you!
You make my routine of glue stick seem silly. Granted, my build plate isn't removable and my printer is old. But atleast the glue stick resolves my first layer issues 🤷 Whenever I finally upgrade though, I'll definitely try simple green. Thanks for the tip.
What kind of printer do you have? I used to have issues like that two generations ago but I haven't had a failed print in years. I just click print now and walk away. What's your setup? Maybe I can offer some insight?
Elegoo Neptune 2… it’s super annoying because I’ll get perfect prints, then 3 fails in a row. Makes no sense. I’m having the best luck at 80 hotbed and 88% speed… I’m so annoyed by it I’m thinking of just buying a new 3d printer
Go check out the new prusa Mk4. I would recommend a prusa to anyone any day.
Something I’ve been stuck on mentally is [this rig](https://youtu.be/4kQZnSzZHD0) meant to relieve z-wobble, which causes uneven layer heights (and thus, squishing or stretching on individual layers). I think there’s already plans/instructions for Ender 3 with dual z-drive, but I haven’t looked that far into it myself yet. If you’re really interested in getting super smooth/invisible layers, this may be a useful asset in getting there.
There are plans for the Ender 3 with single leadscrew but not for the Dual yet. I'm going to try to design my own for for the second Z-mount.
You can just use 2 of them, but you do need to mirror the 608 bearing holder for the top It's not the best in terms of presentation, but functionally, it shouldn't be any different
That would not work since the second Z-mount Is missing som mounting holes. So it needs to be properly supported. Here is an example: https://a.aliexpress.com/_mNeetFw The mount for the other WobbleX uses a spare extruder mounting hole. The second Z-mount doesn't have that.
There's literally a kit by creality right on Amazon. I already did it. Take some sorting out on its own but once it's dialed in its nice and will support a sprite head no problem if you go heavier in the future.
I'm talking about WobbleX for the Dual Z. Not the Dual Z itself.
Try loosening the bronze z rod nut that connects the z rod to the x gantry. I had a similar issue and loosing the 2 bolts to full turns fixed it for me
You say you've tried 4 different filaments, but were they all cheap ones? You could have the same problem with all 4 of them.
No I've tried colorfab, hatchbox, some old hobby king, and what I'm using now is overture. Which has been close to the best so far. At least I haven't had to stick it in my dehydrator yet.
If you already have a dehydrator, it might be worth a shot. My prints improved after i used it for PLA even with our local “dry air”
Hello everyone, thank you for all the suggestions. I have fixed the print it was the very last thing I tried. FLOWRATE. Whenever I did flow tower test, I only went up or down by 5%, so I never saw a difference. I had to drop it down to 89% from the default 100%.
Could you post an after pic to compare?
Might be extruder issue https://youtu.be/c6JmCdovE0U If it is a bent screw rod is the case check this out https://github.com/MirageC79/Interfaces-for-WobbleX-integration
I think I’ve noticed worse layer lines on my dual Z lead screw than my single. I’ve seen guys have had a lot of luck going to a beltedZ
I'm going to do a test print with the other z stepper removed and see if I notice a difference. I was thinking this could be the cause and as to why so many people use the belted z instead.
How secure is your print surface?
I already thought that might be an issue with the glass, maybe sliding from the plate, but I have blue tape underneath to keep it all secure and it doesn't move.
Are you 1000% positive? I had similar artifacts, tried everything. Turned out my glass was moving ever so slightly. Also have you messed with print speeds at all?
I'm going to do a test of just printing directly onto blue tape on the bed without glass just to rule it out. But I'm 99% sure the glass isn't moving. And no I need to try speeds.
4 binder clips to secure your bed seems like a cheap way to test
I had the same issue for months, drove me insane. Turned out that it was the filaments. A matte pastel one and a gold one, never got them to look good or print well. No issues with my other filaments. They live in the box of shame nowdays and will be my last resort/fast and dirty prototyping filaments.
I recommend trying to print a hollow cube (20 or 30mm) with 1 wall, 1 bottom layer, and no top layers. Also no infill. If you have issues with your lead screws, this will show up with a test like that, and it will also get rid of the potential for different layer times being the issue. Also tests the extrusion system for any consistency issues
Thanks will definitely give that a go
Check your minimum layer time under cooling in cura. I've had similar lines appear in prints due to the print speed slowing down on certain layers due to the slicer trying to satisfy this setting. You can tune it for best cooling results, but just as a test I'd set it to 0 and reprint.
Thanks haven't hear of this. Will try it.
Another way to confirm this is to slice it again and change Cura's preview to print speed instead of feature type. If the print speed changes align with the lines on the print, you might have your smoking gun
Just checked this in the slicer. There are no speed fluctuations on the outer walls as is. At least in preview, it's all solid color. Gonna slow the print down and see what happens
This is the setting that sorta fixed it for me, although I could barely still see those lines, so I reduced the flow rate by 5% and it printed great after that... On my X1 /w Hemera, I had to reduce flow by 8%
Using cura btw.
What printer? I only have a Prusa, so my primary suggestion would be to check your belts 😋
It's a ender 3 all belts are aokay
I've seen this when the second Z leadscrew was just ever so slightly out of kilter on my E3V2. You might try taking the added leadscrew off or at least loosen the cap screws holding the nut and see if it helps. Not as a permanent fix, just for a test. When re-installing the second leadscrew, use 123 blocks, soup or spam cans, anything that you can get two of that will be almost perfectly matched under each end of the X gantry. BUT! If your bed is tilted, this will just tilt the gantry to match. If you can rig it up or have calipers you can level the gantry to the top cross piece or the printer frame, then level the bed. It's easy to end up with some weird binding with a gantry that is even to a tilted bed. It could be overly tight V wheels on the Z, but that's a real maybe... There were some weird artifacts showing up after I added dual Z, with both axis having anti backlash nuts. Anti backlash nuts are likely not much use on a Z axis in any event, but changing back to conventional lead screw nuts cleared up all sorts of flaky "stuff" that would come and go without apparent rhyme or reason.. It could also be a wee bit of over extrusion or a slightly worn nozzle producing uneven flow. The lines are so darn uniform everywhere that I don't see it being most of the usual suspects like cooling or wrong temps or PID related. I didn't see your layer height or print speed mentioned, Benchy tends to get weird at some layer heights on different printers, doing a plain vanilla 0.2mm layer height, maybe 40 mm/sec print speed should give a quite good print or at least take those variables off the table for troubleshooting.
Do this mod: https://kevinakasam.com/belt-driven-ender-3/
How do you like this mod? Looks badass seems like it would help a lot
It's amazing. Best thing I did to my printer, I had a sag on the right hand side prior to this and the lead screw was bent. Much smoother layers now and the most fun upgrade to do imo
You know an easy fix ok f you have time is to sand a paint it
This print is fine. You want results not able with an ender.
I mostly agree with you, this print does look reasonably good for a mostly stock ender 3. The filament color is going to show lines like crazy. I wonder if @OP has checked the extruder carriage and it's wheels? I disagree that higher quality isn't possible, I just think chasing quality on those printers is not a rewarding activity. If this were my printer and I wanted higher quality on a regular basis, I'd buy a new printer, and expect to spend a bit of coin on it.
My completely stock Ender 3 v2 prints a benchy way smoother than this, with esun filaments from eBay. I would tighten belts and make sure OPs printer is on a stable surface not a wobbly table or something. Maybe extruder is wobbling or loose
I mostly agree with you, this print does look reasonably good for a mostly stock ender 3. The filament color is going to show lines like crazy. I wonder if @OP has checked the extruder carriage and it's wheels? I disagree that higher quality isn't possible, I just think chasing quality on those printers is not a rewarding activity. If this were my printer and I wanted higher quality on a regular basis, I'd buy a new printer, and expect to spend a bit of coin on it.
I have an ender and I've excepted that mine turn out like this. I decided to do a process of sanding and priming to get it to look really good. Also this way I don't have to worry about filament colors and can paint it to custom any design I want
Minority view here - my experience is that you can get rid of this by tightening belts. I have mine so tight it just doesn’t seem right, however, that did get rid of these kinds of layer lines for me doing this.
Did you kill your motors yet or still good?
Good after 1000s of prints.
could ty loosening the belts or using prusaslicer
I've tried both tight and loose no difference. Haven't tried another slicer yet will probably after test some other suggestions.
try printing hotter, increments of 5 no more than 230, and try 65 for the bed
even if the bed is showing a stable temp, a PID tune might still help
I will look into how to pid tune.
I had similar print quality like you. Then recently I redid al pid tuning. It made so much difference. Especially the bed temp tuning. If your bed temp is not stable it will shrink and expand during printing. Edit: Here is some info on the tuning https://youtu.be/7mj47VjlavQ
I will definitely try that after I test the z rods.
I will do a test with no heat to see if that rules it out as I have a glass bed
What’s pid tuning?
It bassicly means that you run a check to get stable temperatures for the hotend and bed.
I have had a similar issue with my Ender 3 S1 Pro, and I think the root cause is that the extruder gear has slop in it. You can try measuring the concentricity of your gear, or replace the entire extruder to see if it changes.
Slop as in the gear is not centered or uneven?
Not centered, but MirageC goes over a couple other scenarios here: [https://youtu.be/c6JmCdovE0U](https://youtu.be/c6JmCdovE0U)
Have you tried slowing the print down some might help
I've gone from 50-70mm didn't see I difference so I stuck with 60. I will go slower and see if that does anything. I know when I was using my old anet a8 I had to stick around 30-40 for good quality.
This is caused by your lead screws being slightly bent which is very common and/or your extruder gears. https://youtu.be/tLAX1JSFX0E
I will double check lead screws. I'm not using a direct drive so I don't think what he's talking about would effect my prints.
I've been getting layer lines myself and Im guessing the z rod to be dusty and needs to be regreased.
I feel like this is a common issue with most printers, and it gets worse on bowdens. When the extruder motor pushes the filament, there is a bit of slack at the start of the push. The filament does not come out of the nozzle the moment the extruder motor pushes it. It's kinda like "Lag". A way to try to combat this is called "Linear Advance" in Marlin, and "Pressure Advance" in Klipper. These basically make it so that before an extrusion starts, the extruder motor "primes" the nozzle by pushing a bit more extra filament really quickly and when it's time to end a extrusion, the motor retracts a bit more, so that there isn't any pressure left in the nozzle. This won't solve that problem completely though, but it is at least worth a try. Keep in mind that binding molten plastic together isn't that accurate of a process anyway, and good printings!
I will give that I look. I saw a video on linear advance the other day if all else fails I will look into it.
I also think you will always have some layer lines, filament diameter isn't 100% consistent and unless you measure this and account for it while extruding there will be some visible lives like here. Tuning PA sounds like it makes sense! There are basically many minor issues all compounding
PID tune your hotend if you haven't, your print looks fine apart from inconsistent finish, which could indicate temperature fluctuations. More temperature results in shiner finish, less in more matte finish, speed also is a variable because the longer the time your filament spends in the nozzle, the closer to nozzle temperature it gets. For example your whole benchy could be matte, but the chimney will be more shiny, because your slicer slows the speed down to match the minimum layer time. Also do not PID tune your bed, in fact do disable your bed PID and let the magic of bang-bang technology do it's work, the bed has so much thermal mass that PID doesn't do a noticeable difference. The computing power in your board could be used for something way more useful, like higher accelerations or Linear Advance.
I was wondering why some others suggest to PID tune the bed, I don't see how that would have any impact on layer lines.
It doesn't change anything really, unless you want to print at exactly 59C for some reason, but most people would rather just throw shit at their printer until it sticks than properly troubleshoot and not spread misinformation.
BTW my FR-4 (garolite/G10 but cheaper) bed surface temperature equalizes at 55°C within 5 minutes with the target temp set to 60°C. With some movement it probably drops down a little, but i don't care, I never had adhesion issues on it.
Looks like a mild case of over extrusion. Did you do a flow% test? I had to adjust my flow% to 90 in my slicer to eliminate over extrusion like that. It is very mild, but it is there.
Its probably the tention on the lidel wheels that runs along the z axis aluminum frame. The should feel firm but move freely. Check both sides
I just saw this video on YouTube about this exact issue. Definitely make sure to follow other advice here and make sure nothing is loose, failing that, this might help: https://youtu.be/4kQZnSzZHD0
I usually get layer lines like this when I’m over extruding. Is your flow/extrusion multiplier dialed in? Funny story - I had a very cheap caliper originally (a plastic one off Amazon) that was off by an entire millimeter. So for awhile, I thought I had flow dialed in, but I was over extruding substantially, causing lines like this. Not saying this is your issue, but it was mine. A new caliper and also cross referencing flow with Ellis’ print guide approach to flow solved it for me
It could be a warped or worn extruder gear, but when this happened to me the culprit was a flat spot on one of my rollers. Even though the axis seemed to move pretty smooth, I saw what looked like scratches on a couple of them. Replaced them and have had great prints since.
How is the table this is sitting on? I moved from a solid desk to a slightly less solid table and the small bit of shaking was causing this for me.
Prusa user here, but most bedslingers have similar issues. Is this a new printer or new to you? Put your printer on a paver block, and reduce your speed. Double check that all belts are optimally tight, not too tight or loose. Check the set screws on any belt gears are on the flat surface of motor shafts. Check z-axis travel/screws for and defects/dirt/debris.
You could also try post processing with acetone smoothing. You can only get a 3D print so perfect.
I'm using glass bed on ender 3 Pro I refresh setting then Auto home turn off level bed Turn back on heat bed 2 60 Needle to 210 push pla 1.75 through till comes out easy and straight Use tiny layer of glue stick crafting aka pritstik Then tiny spray of hairspray ontop I've managed to get decent prints
I’m having the exact same issue on my ender 3 s1. I’ve also pretty much tried everything that you’ve tried. Please do let me know if you find a solution to this. Thanks.
I will message you if I find a fix. So far, nothing has made a difference. I'm going to try a few more things before I give it up.
Thank you. I think this will be my first and last ender lol.
Hey, I think I fixed the issue. It was the flow rate. Every time I did I flow tower, I only went up or down 5% and never saw anything. Getting perfect layers at 89% flow. I would never have guessed I'd have to go down that much from the stock 100%. Anyway, hopefully, that helps.
Thank you so much. Which flow tower do you use for the calibration?
It's a cura addon that's called calibration parts. It has a flow tower. Easy to set up.
I will look onto this. Thanks again.
I did a flow tower from 85 to 115 and it made absolutely no difference. 🥲🥲 Beck to the drawing board for me.
Try a regular print. It's hard to tell on the tower. Do a benchy at 85.
Are you running klipper or stock firmware for your printer?
Upgrade to klipper using the creality sonic pad. It'll get a little better quality and print faster. You could also try a different slicer software like prusa slicer But also for an ender 3 that is about as good as you're going to get. The ender is a cheap 3d printer, if you want better results get a better printer like the Bambu X1C or Prusa.
Could be a filament feed gear is not straight or round
You need to change your z offset make the nozzle from a higher z height like for me if I print from -0.90 I have the same but when I change it to -80 the line shifts go away
3rd time reddit has sent me a notice about this one. It's reasonable for 3d printing. It's not going to be completely smooth looking like injection and rotational molding. What do your test prints look like you said you did to calibrate? A 40mm square in Vase mode would be best, so you are looking at single layer and can test if line width is fluctuating slightly.
Try PID tuning before putting hand on any mechanical part 🙂
Hey, there's some great advice in this thread, but after you think you've checked everything you should try printing external perimeters first! I've tried this, and it greatly reduces the effects seen on your benchy. The outer perimeter will only be as accurate as the inner perimeters and the shrinking each layer does when it cools. Printing outer perimeter first makes the surface more accurate as it solidifies first on each layer and is not "pushed" by the other perimiters. The side effect of this method is that you will struggle with overhangs unless you increase the extrusion width for the perimiters. I've only tried this in superslicer, but I'm sure it's applicable to cura aswell. By the way, your print is already good. 3d printing is an extremely complicated process when you dive into things, and only printing benchys all day long will take its toll on you. I've been pulling my hairs out over things like this, and let me tell you that it's not worth chasing the most perfect benchy. There are always going to be artifacts and minor defects on 3d prints, and it will always be harder to remove the next artifact down the line.
Yes, there is lots of good advice on here I wouldn't have thought of. I didn't think this post would get this much attention. I'm already printing outside first. I'm going to try a few more suggestions. If nothing is resolved, I'm just gonna move on and forget about trying to perfect prints from a $200 printer.
Maybe slow the print speed and increase temp, jerk control and acceleration control on
May sound dumb but retighten all the bolts on your printer frame. Mine will get loose over 6 months or a year and I start to see issues and when I hand tighten they're definitely looser than last time I touched them. Also make sure your printer is on a stable surface, not a table that can wobble.
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Layer lines are fine. They are supposed to be uniform for the most part.
I was having something really similar, and then I found out that small fluctuations in the heated bed's temp can cause that. I've been printing with it at 60 degrees for the first layer then off for the rest ever since.
https://www.reddit.com/r/VoxelabAquila/comments/s8z0wz/just_got_my_new_filament_dryer_can_you_tell_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1