1 Topic by Sanren

  • Sanren
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Topic: CTC printing issue

I got a CTC printer just over a week ago and have been having an issue with thin walled prints at about 1/2 an inch high.
Standard CTC firmware, not updated yet.  Using PLA bought from e-bay.  Printing at 200C with bed at 70C.  Bed is covered with blue painters tape.  I have not done any of the upgrades yet as I haven't had much time to play to much with it.  The black PLA that came with the printer seemed to have better prints than the red PLA I bought.  tried to print a cookie cutter (frosty), no raft, support not needed.  It prints a thicker base then the walls of the cutter.  base prints out fine, and the beginning of the walls print fine, then in the middle its almost like the extrusion lessons to half for a few layers then goes back to normal and finishes the print.  This is a first post, so I can't upload a pic.  I have it set at .2 layer, 2 walls, 80% infill, using RepG for slicing.  I have tried the print a few times, and it happens at the same point every time.  printing at 40mm/s and the first print I had it at 40mm/s feed rate, tried the second print at 48mm/s feed rate to see if that was an issue but it made no difference.  Just wondering where I should be troubleshooting.  not sure if its the RepG slicer, feed rate, print rate, wobble on the Z access since it happens about half an inch up in the print and looks like its only a few layers, may 1/16 of an inch, then back to normal.  any guidance of what to check or things to try to be greatly appreciated, as this is my first jump into 3d printing.

2 Reply by Sanren

  • Sanren
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Re: CTC printing issue

Make that shells set to 2 not walls.  3d vocab is still building.

3 Reply by carl_m1968 (edited by carl_m1968 2015-12-24 16:39:09)

  • carl_m1968
  • carl_m1968
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Re: CTC printing issue

Try slowing down to 35mm/s or raise your temp 5 degrees. Sounds like under extrusion or low temp. You may be printing too fast for the heater to keep up and it cools enough at the point you see that the filament is no longer coming out as melted as it was. My CT'c had a nozzle temp that was 20 degrees lower than reported temp. It was that way till I was able to swap the board and use firmware that can be modified. The I was able to run a PID and set display offsets to get my temps closer to reported.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

4 Reply by Sanren

  • Sanren
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Re: CTC printing issue

Thanks Carl.  I'll try upping the heat first then slowing down the print.  I like making one change at a time so I can see the difference it makes.  I was putting off updating the firmware to sailfish until I started to know a little more about the printer and the variables, would be it best to just go forward with the firmware then start all the troubleshooting? such as extruder temp, speeds, HBP temp etc..?

5 Reply by carl_m1968

  • carl_m1968
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Re: CTC printing issue

Sanren wrote:

Thanks Carl.  I'll try upping the heat first then slowing down the print.  I like making one change at a time so I can see the difference it makes.  I was putting off updating the firmware to sailfish until I started to know a little more about the printer and the variables, would be it best to just go forward with the firmware then start all the troubleshooting? such as extruder temp, speeds, HBP temp etc..?


To be honest there are some limits with this printer as it is. Due to it be based on a Mightyboard, even with Sailfish there are limits to what you have access to. The main issue is you are not able to send gcode commands such as those needed to run PID and then save those values and such so fine tuning the temps is out of the question. In RepG there are settings and those are all you have access to. I believe they are called machine settings. Same with Sailfish installed. I had to swap the mainboard for an Azteeg X3 Pro in order to get the flexibility I wanted.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

6 Reply by DonJuanito

  • DonJuanito
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Re: CTC printing issue

Hi. I had the same problem that you describe a few days ago. Thin extrusion on some layers, extruder clicking. After checking all usual causes like filament geometry, tube/nozzle obstruction, PTFE liner aging, I found yesterday that the culprit were bad solder joints on nearly all the pins of the five stepper driver modules. After redoing the solder joints, the extrusion problems disappeared.
Hope this information can help some CTC users...
http://soliforum.com/i/?h04AWqp.jpg