Printing from Idaho

Thanks for the welcome.

So far I've printed numerous calibration pieces playing with the Slic3r settings to see the changes from print to print. I also wanted to see how well the printer bridges gaps, angled overhangs, etc. Otherwise I have been sticking with low-to-the-bed pieces like phone cases, bracelets and I've enjoyed printing a few carabiner designs. It seems when I try printing parts higher than a few inches the layer quality starts to degrade quickly and I start to get strings of small globs instead of a nice continuous extruded line...I've chalked this up to cooling (I don't have an enclosure yet…thoughts?)so once I get my hot end re-assembled I'm going to start printing parts for my enclosure design.

Once I'm satisfied with a highly functioning printer I am going to start to knock things off of my seemingly mile long "queued print" list

Thanks for the suggestion I'll try to get some pics posted soon into one of the threads to show what's happening.

To explain the issue a little bit more another thought as to the cause was a clogged nozzle (which is why I had dis-assembled my hot end). I was noticing in my last print that the stringed globs were forming at the start of a new layer and at the start of a new extruded line following a retraction command. After about an inch or so of extrusion the extruded line evened out and there was no more globs. In addition to that the extruder seemed to be slipping on the filament and the filament looked like it was getting backed up appearing slighlty bent in the jigsaw.  I adjusted the nozzle temp to 200C as well as tightened up the extruder tension arm but that only helped a little. After taking my nozzle apart there was no noticeable HUGE clog present, there was a little bit of burnt filament but I expected that. Anyway I decided the easiest thing at that moment was to clean the nozzle to alleviate that as a possible cause

Yea the overheating extruder may explain why increased nozzle temp didn't fix it however I know the fan is working (accidentally hit it with my finger) but I'm not sure if its at full power... I'll look into that.