Help me identify the problem: wet filament, bad z-height, or clogged nozzle?

Submitted ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨3dprinting@lemmy.world⁩

This is a Prusa MINI+ that has worked flawlessly for 3 months. Suddenly the prints won’t stick to the bed, the first layer is all messy and I cancel the print before anything worse happens.

The printer has auto bed leveling so I would rule that out.
The plate is cleaned with 70% IPA, so it’s not dirty either.
I have tried to adjust the “Live Z Adjust” while printing that first layer, but no setting works well.
Each filament is printed at recommended temps (+/- 215C) and bed is at 60C.
Out of my 5 spools, only 1 works well: RepRapper 3-color PLA. Even the Prusament PLA fails to stick well, and also eSun PLA+, and eSun matte PLA, and Tinmorry TPU.

i.imgur.com/MEpK37W.png

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Comments

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Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Scrub the bed with dish soap and a non stick scourer, dry it right away. Then print on that. Ipa only removes oils from your fingers, there’s other residue it won’t remove

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- stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This definitely looks like a bed cleanliness issue. IPA doesn’t really remove oil, it mostly just spreads it around. Soap is needed to lift the oils off the surface. You shouldn’t need a scourer, just a paper towel works fine.
  
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  - dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I always use a fresh paper towel when washing my build plates in the sink, because I figure only Bel-Shamharoth himself probably actually knows whatever the hell might be all over the dish sponge, nor how old it is. Did it get saturated with bacon grease this morning? Is it full of grit just abrasive enough to fuck up my kapton tape? Who knows.
    
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- Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  And if that doesn’t work, use pure acetone (warning, this idea puts knots in peoples panties - frankly it’s fine to do if you don’t make a habit of it) or try a gluestick (the specialized ones for 3d printing are worth it, don’t steal your kids art supplies)
  
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  - dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Use pure acetone only if you know with 100% certainty that it won’t eat whatever polymer your build plate is coated with. You don’t have to worry if you use a glass build plate, though.
    
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anguo@lemmy.ca ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Are you perhaps using the new input shaper mode? That one needs higher temperatures (220-230) in order to get proper flow for it’s increased speeds. Try the default Generic PLA settings.

I second washing your plate with dish soap before you try anything else. Alcohol just kind of pushes stuff around. It’s usually enough, but I wash the plates with dish soap once in a while and it really helps.

I also believe that the z-height looks like it’s a bit close. Try the built-in Z-height calibration instead of doing it on your actual print. Even better, print a rectangle with horizontal rectilinear bottom layer infill.

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Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m not familiar with this printer, but is this a direct drive or fed through a Bowden tube? If Bowden style, then check each end of the tube where it goes into the fittings to make sure there is no play. Clogging is definitely a possibility considering how uneven the skirt printed.

As for your adhesion issues… NEVER rule out bed leveling just because you have an automatic system. Everything can fail, I’ve actually had to troubleshoot our printer at work before because the nozzle was too close to the bed due to the auto-leveling not reading correctly. Do you have a 5-point bed leveling test print available? Get one and let it try to print, then measure the thickness of the prints to see where you’re at. My own guess is that you’re too far away and the nozzle needs to be closer.

It would help a lot if you could take a much closer show of your test print at that front curve where it did stick to the bed, and at a higher resolution so we can zoom in and see the details. Without a good photo this is all just guess-work.

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roofuskit@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Nozzle is much too close. It’s obvious even from that blurry photo.

What kind of bed surface is it? Some are actually damaged by cleaning with alcohol.

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- Dkarma@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Nozzle dragging was my first guess too. I’d guess bed isn’t level. See how the skirt disappears half way around…touched there and dragged.
  
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  - Dkarma@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Could also be the alcohol. I don’t see any glue so it may just be wet or otherwise releasing.
    
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IMALlama@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
A follow up to your edit: there are multiple methods to dry your filament. Even if you bought an appliance, the cost of doing so is probably less than buying new spools and you could use it in the future.

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- PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I agree. First I used vacuum sealed bags (one per spool) with dessicant, now I use a big plastic tub with 1kg of dessicant. It seems to help, but slowly. I might buy one of those Sunlu drying devices for 2 spools at a time.
  
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Thanks4Nothing@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
My money would be a clogged nozzle. But a better photo (close up) may be helpful. Things I wonder…

Does the filament come out and curl back up during preheat?

Is your heat block messy with residue?

Have you tried a cold pull, or pulling the nozzle and cleaning/replacing it?

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- Thanks4Nothing@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I forgot until looking at your photo that the mini uses a Bowden tube, not direct drive like the MK3S+. Did you replace/switch the nozzle around the time this all started happening? With Bowden tubes, there are a few problems that can arise that you don’t see on direct drive. The end of the Bowden tube (that is inside the extruder/hote end assembly) can get deformed or clogged. If you can check that, you may find an issue. Other than that, when swapping nozzles I always had to put the nozzle in part of the way, then push the Bowden in further, then tighten the nozzle.
  
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