Are people printing things like the x mount and z drive with supports?

We’re having trouble printing things like the z drive without a support for the top arc in the circle. Is this a calibration thing on our side or should we be putting supports in here? Looks like the print is getting caught up moving from right to left at some point and skipping steps. This is the third failure for the z drive parts trying it without supports.

No supports anywhere.

You have a layer shift that didn’t happen because of the parts. :frowning_face:

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I haven´t used supports for any of the parts.

This is what mine looks like.

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Perhaps print one of them at a time?

Might try that.
Pretty sure it will work with a support but knowing that it should work without one means there’s a gremlin somewhere.

Ryan is really good about not needing supports for his parts.

TeachingTech has an excellent tutorial on dialing in your printer, which can really help get great results every time. Waste a little plastic now, then no more.

Many of Ryan’s designs do a teardrop shape instead of an arch like that, but most 3D printers should be able to manage. Even my self-designed one with no part cooling could manage, once I had it calibrated well. (I have a tendency to print too hot, which makes bridging sag, but gets me solid layer adhesion.)

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Thanks Dan.
I’ve been looking at the Teaching Tech calibration site.
My brother is doing the printing so I’ve directed him there. He’s done some calibration already but he’ll go through Michael’s process now as well.

While he works on that…
Could this be a sign of over-extruding?

It looks like it happens at the end or beginning of an infill section.

I am not sure what I am seing, your brother is using a 0.6 nozzle?

0.5
It’s a little blob that rises above the print layer. We think it might be where the lost steps happened. The print head came along and bumped into cooled plastic that rose above the level of the next layer. He’s set layer height to 0.3

I have had prints come loose from the heated bed, often, the bed adhesion has been poor. And that poor adhesion causes the print head to move the print and thus making it useless.

I would try painters tape and/or a bed adhesive. Bed adhesion at the cost of quality on the underside of the print.

Try with 0.2 layer height? Maybe just the 0.3 for the first inital layer.

Hmmm…I think he’s been getting pretty good adhesion. The first photo where all 3 pieces have a shift none of the parts moved at all. Something made the printer skip steps before it could continue. But by then the layer is shifted.
The second photo looks like excess filament stuck to the top where the extruder finished an infill section.
If it went on to print other parts before getting back to this section then maybe it hit a solid piece and skipped steps. But I don’t know what causes blobs on a printer. Over extruding, or retraction settings maybe.
Anyways, in either case it seems like a calibration issue. Hopefully that will clear it up.

What are you using for layer height?

The brim probaly helps with the bed adhesion. I have almost zero of your blisters and I´m sure you get a better print.

At the moment I am using a 0.3 initial layer height at 210 degrees C and a bed temp of 45 degrees C (this makes my bed adhesive stick). I then lower the bed temp closer to the ambient temp in this room.

After the initial layer I am using a 0.2 layer height.

What retraction settings are you using? And what slicer software?

I have another printer with a 0.6 nozzle and there I also use 0.2 mm layer height.

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“Using 60c on the bed 200c on the 0.5mm nozzle as per the manf. Layer height is 0.3mm retraction is 4mm at 60mm/s on a Bowden printer. Slicer is prusa based on slic3r. The filament is new and vacuum packed but did not dry it out.” – My Brother, Feb 1, 2023

I should get him to get an account and get in the forum here. He’s going to be printing an LR3, I’m just assembling it :slight_smile:

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That looks like classic “temperature too high” to me. Happened to me quite often with overhangs like that because I often print at the high end of twmperature range.

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Thanks
I’ll pass that along.
He’s printing this part with a support right now to get it done but ideally his printer is tuned in correctly. We’ve got more parts to print so it’ll be worth it.

That’s what it looks like to me as well. Temp is too high, possibly also no part cooling.
PLA needs a part cooling fan.
Does this printer have one?
The temp and lack of cooling also hints to a source of the part warping off the build plate.

The zits are also either moisture or perhaps insufficient retraction.

Ask him to print something small using cura to slice. PLA has a 30 degree temp range (190 - 220). Everyone is different unfortunately as there are always different factors to consider. Also try printing a temp tower. can give alot of insight

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