SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — Test cube problem

Re: Test cube problem

2013-02-21T22:06:12Z

My retraction settings in Skeinforge are:

Extruder retraction speed (mm/s): 10.0
Retraction Distance: 0.6
Restart Extra Distance: 0.05

nickythegreek wrote:

Length: 1.15mm
Lift Z: 0
Speed: 75mm/s
Extra length on restart: .03mm
Min travel after retraction: 0.5mm

I can't tell you which one, to me it looks like your speed is too high but I see others are running that high too in Slicer, just search for retraction and put together an average as a place to start. It's obvious from the test that it's the root cause, you just need to keep tweaking it to work for your setup and filament.

Re: Test cube problem

2013-02-21T21:48:45Z

what does it do if you print a 2 or 3 shell piece?

Re: Test cube problem

2013-02-21T20:52:35Z

I tested it. With no retraction it doesn't have the spaces in the first line but starts to blob up on that particular corner and doesn't look good. I also tried reducing the retraction to .3 but get the same results as before.

Re: Test cube problem

2013-02-21T17:59:45Z

Change your retraction settings to test the theory

Re: Test cube problem

2013-02-21T17:45:25Z

I tightened the screw but same results. It appears that retraction is happening when the Z axis moves. Is there a place to disable retraction on a Z axis move if X & Y don't move?

Re: Test cube problem

2013-02-21T13:49:44Z

This is similar to that cogwheel on the motor shaft rotates about the axis of the extruder motor. See if it is well seated on the axis? There is a need to tighten the screw that is stronger

Re: Test cube problem

2013-02-21T13:19:46Z

Make sure your extruder gear is not slipping on the motor shaft. Had that happen last night. It was not putting out enough plastic and was starting to look like a clog.

Test cube problem

2013-02-21T07:17:13Z

I've had my SD3 for a few weeks now and all I can say is that I have learned a lot and haven't slept much. Even though I was printing out of the box OK but I was having problems with prints as they got larger so I finally went back and started calibrating my printer like I should have in the first place. Things are working much better now, and even my larger prints are sticking like glue to the platform (glass and hairspray). My problem right now is in my test cube and cylinder. When it goes to start a new layer it's not extruding enough plastic. The picture below is by far the worst of the ones I have as they were printed together. When I print them alone they look better as there aren't any drips moving from part to part. I'm guessing that this can be corrected later with good retraction. My main concern now is getting the cube to print properly. My settings are below and the thickness of the 2-4th sides of the cube measure right around .42 mm in thickness while the first side comes in closer to .34 and has the visual gaps you can see right through. It seems like upon moving to the next layer it's retracting filament and not getting enough to start that layer. I just don't understand as I'm not telling it to retract upon moving up a layer. I copied my settings from my EEPROM below and told them to SAVE but is there anything else i have to do to have these settings take effect? I pressed a reset button on the back of the SD but I'm not sure if that was needed.