Bad Print Settings? - Nope......Nozzle
Lately I have been getting horrible prints. The problem was most evident in the sidewalls that were very irregular, wavy, rough, and very inconsistent; almost like fuzzy skin. The odd thing was the top and bottom flat surface area looked fine. In addition the infill looked very bad too; broken lines, gaps and any internal bridging often broke and failed to cover even short distances. Stringing was also very bad.
I went back to my tried and true filament, PolyTerra PLA, and tried to resolve the issue, printing a simple 25mm cube I changed temperatures, extrusion rates, speeds, etc.; and while some settings helped a little I could never resolve the issues.
Pictures here show what I was getting.
4 Replies
After many failed attempts to fix with print settings. I then tried a new nozzle. Amazing, all the problems went away. Prints that looked much better..
Here is what the nozzle looked like. Doesn't look to bad does it? But look at the cleaning wire. The gap around the 0.4 mm needle and the hole is HUGE. It is obvious that the brass nozzle was worn, but how and in such a short time.
Well, lately I have been printing with a lot of Marble PLA filament. I really like the look. What I didn't realize is how abrasive this PLA filament is.
So... it isn't always about print settings; hardware can also cause major problems. This was just a new one for me, and a hard learning curve.
I know that this channel is mostly looking for getting help on fixing problems but I also think that posting problems and solutions can also help. Hope I did not violate any rules but if I did, please let me know.
extended-salmon•9mo ago
My advice is to put some decent abrasive resistant nozzle in and never think about this again. Had the same issue at some point and never looked back after using something else than brass and plated copper 🙂