I upgraded my ender 3 with the direct drive microswiss hotend and am having great difficulty getting prints to work. The filament seems to curl and stick back on the hotend, regardless of the speed and temperature I use. I have run many tests and only 1 or 2 have worked, the rest have become big nests and clumps. I have fiddled with retraction, initial layer height , bed levelling and a host of other variables with little success. The bed is heated and covered with painters tape for adhesion/removability. Any tips/experiences would be really appreciated so I can start printing with this interesting filament.
That could be several things if you are taking about the print peeling off of the bed.
If it is peeling in the first few layers I would think that it is a bed leveling issue or how much squish your first layer has. Could also be a warped bed.
If the peel starts when the print of further along it could be warping from a draft. I had my printer in my office which was drafty and cold and had a lot of warping issues. After moving it to my warmer living room the issue lessened. I now have the printer in an enclosure and when my room is 20* the inside of the enclosure is more like 40*. The extra warmth and blocking of drafts very much improved my success rate with PETG.
I’m using a cr-20 pro with microswiss direct drive and hot end. Creality glass bed, magigoo, 70* bed temp, Sakata PETG.
Thanks for the reply. My issue is not so much adhesion to the bed, but the runny filament as soon as it leaves the MSHE extruder curls and sticks to the MSHE causing it not to adhere well at the start. I have been able to get a few rafts started but most fail as the PETG clumps before the print even has a chance to stick to the bed then the HE grabs more as this travels across the print.
I may try to dry my filament and see if I received a damp batch possibly next.
Did you set your esteps to 140?
Also, what petg are you using?
Petg from 3d printing I ordered online and I think the install said the esteps is 130 for the ender 3. That I did.
I find 140 esteps is best as well keep Retractions at about 2 mmeters if you getting string your over extruding
Unless I’m misunderstanding something, if your filament is curling back up and off the build plate as soon as it’s extruded, then it has everything to do with adhesion.
I think adhesion could be a reason but the curling occurs as soon as the hot end moves before it reaches the buildplate. I am playing with initial layers to get the petg to adhere properly .
I will give that a try. Thanks.
Are you saying the homing function hasn’t even finished and filament is already coming out? Could you post pictures? I’m confused. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that the bed has homed, the initial layer starts and filament is extruded onto the bed but begins curling (coming off the bed) immediately. Am I understanding this wrong?
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As the end heats, some petg extrudes and it curls back upto the hotend at the homed position.
Ah, OK. Filament oozing out as it gets the hot end heats up is normal. Preheat the hot end before you start printing, wait for the oozing to stop, then snip it off and print.
I 've never used anything other than the stock hot end for my E5Pro, but it’s my understanding that the MicroSwiss allows higher flow rates by beginning the heating process further up the hot end. That would mean you would have to increase your retraction settings to compensate.
I was reading that retraction should be reduced with PETG so the material doesn’t clog the feed. Then I have read the opposite working for other users. I am still having adhesion issues starting PETG prints with my direct drive micro swiss hot end. I have increased the printhead to print bed gap to 3 sheets of paper from 1 but still the adhesion to blue tape is not good. It’s frustrating as I have tried so many different temperatures, speeds and other variables and only had 1 semi successful print with a material I was really excited to start using.
Go back to 1 sheet of paper distance. Is your bed level? Usually retraction is low for direct drive extruder. Petg is sticky and gooey. maybe slow your first layer speed down. And I’d go to glue stick only because I have no experience with tape your printer has a heated bed right?
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I am with Glenn here. Back to basics I’d make sure the bed is levelled (trammed) and make sure you have calibrated the extruder. Then try a print smack in the middle of the suggested temps.
Is your space really cold?
Does pla print perfectly?
Do you have an enclosure?
Instead of using painter’s tape try glue stick the purple stuff from Elmer’s it’s washable works amazing. If that doesn’t work sounds to me like it’s a bad level thing and you need to have your 1st layer proper also also if you did not set your E steps to 140 this will create a big problem
My space is cooler and I don’t print with an enclosure but the bed is heated to the suggested range. I have good success with pla and soft pla. I will reduce the retraction and slow it down more. I remember when the print did work, the raft stuck really well but I can’t seem to get back to that setting. I will reset the esteps to 140 from 130 and try that after relevelling at 1 sheet. I just need that first layer to adhere properly and hopefully it will work fine.
Possibly I can try drying my filament in case it absorbed moisture?? Thoughts? Thanks
Yes you can try drying. Before you do that try a roll of PLA if it prints well, all our guesses of bed levelling are wrong.
Remember we are basing advise off what you can provide and our own experiences. It is imperfect.
IF pla is printing well now. it is not as likely to be bed levelling (tramming) but something else. I also like glue stick I use uhu or pritt but in all honestly many brands are very similar (Staples doesn’;t work well) But Pritt Elmers and UhU seem to in my experience.
In addition it could be warping caused by cooling off too fast. try Turing your part cooling fan speed down or off, and you could under absolute supervision place a bag over the whole printer. DO NOT LEAVE IT ALONE!!! this will cheap and fast emulate an enclosure and create a temperature difference between the printer and room. A big box, ikea bag (it is stiffer) some contrivance that insulates the printer and allows the enclosed printer space to increase the air temp some and keep all draft off the print surface.
I rarely dry Petg. It could be it needs drying but in my experience (I print more Petg than PLA) it is temperature sensitive more than moisture. It also likes good nozzles.
Not saying drying isn’t worth doing, but in my experience temperature is a bigger factor.
My pla prints are fine so I am thinking it has something to do with the ambient temp where the petg is cooling too fast before it can stick to the heated bed but I may try bumping the bed temp. Does petg like warm room temps? I am back down to 1 sheet bed distance but I have read that clear petg is the most difficult , of course that is what I have. I may try a roll of blue petg and see if there is any improvement. The difficulty of course is so many variables and changes to keep track of and try.
My esteps have been calibrated to 139 after measurements.