Category: Filament

I switched filaments. I’ve been meaning to change my nozzle, so while I was in there I did that too. When I printed a test print to make sure everything was good my first layer had holes in it.

Here is what I had to do to fix it.

  • my new nozzle doesn’t necessarily have the same height as my old one, so I releveled the bed and reestablished my mesh bed leveling.
  • my new nozzle probably doesn’t have the same heating characteristics as the one that I replaced, so I tuned PID.
  • my new filament may not feed in quite the same way as the old one, so I updated my e-steps.

The final intent of the part is going to drive a lot of decisions in the 3d printing process. 3d printed parts have become very useful in improving prototyping and developing new products. However, as the cost of 3d printers has come down significantly over the past decade, or so, many hobbyists (like me) have also started buying 3d printers. I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but I use my 3d printer for all kinds of stuff. I make figurines for my kids’ games. My wife wants a new decoration for her curtains and can’t find any that she likes in the store, 3d printer to the rescue. I also use if for functional parts.

End use drives many decisions, such as:

  • material selection: for functional parts, I tend to use ABS. For the figurines that I create for my kids or decorative items that I make for my wife, I tend to use PLA
  • layer height: for decorative parts especially, I like to use a very small layer height to allow my components to be as smooth as possible in the Z direction. If I’m just creating a quick prototype and don’t care if there are obvious stair steps on the model, I might increase the layer height
  • speed: in my experience, higher speed = more vibrations, and more vibrations = lower part quality. There are a few things that you can do to dampen vibrations in your printer, but you will need to adjust your speed based on the final use of the part

 

 

During the summer, many places are hot and dry. As the weather cools off and most places start to have more rain, your filament can pick up some moisture too. This can cause stringing, zits, blisters, or voids in your print. You can avoid this by making sure to store your filament in a dry location and dehydrating it before you put it on the printer for use. 

I saw a question from a new 3d printer who was asking about their filament not being pushed through, but they were definitely able to see the gears on the extruder turning. It is possible that the filament tensioner at the extruder end is not tight enough and not gripping the filament. The other possibility is a clogged nozzle. If you end up with this condition, an easy way to unclog your nozzle that works 75% of the time is to heat up the nozzle to 260 and then push the filament through by hand. Usually this removes the clog. If this doesn’t work, you will need to unclog it by following the steps in one of my previous posts: https://www.3dprinterrx.com/clogged-nozzle/

I see a lot of people wondering why their 3d prints have little zits and voids in them. One of the potential reasons is because their filament has collected moisture. Filament is porous and collects moisture over time. Most filament manufacturers do a pretty good job of ensuring that filament is dry when it gets to you, but not always. Usually, moisture is absorbed when filament sits around in the house for a while.

When water is heated to 200 °C, like when you are printing with PLA, it turns to steam and then escapes, leaving little pockets on the surface of the project.

To ensure that you don’t have to worry about this, make sure that your filament is dry. You can do this by vacuum packing your filament if you aren’t going to use it for a while, using a filament dryer or food dehydrator to dry out filament before use, and keeping desiccant near the filament to absorb the moisture from your filament.