Hi all,

I am hoping someone can help me. I am trying to print a holder for some Li-Po batteries. I have made the design and it all checks out. However, when it print’s the infill it seems to either miss parts or drag the infill with it. Also when it comes to put down a base layer on the infill it seems to just drag everything about. The edges print find and are smooth so is the first 5 layers it put’s down before the infill.

I am using a stock CTC 3D printer and the software I am using is Simplify 3D and I am printing in PLA with the following settings:

Layer Height 0.2mm

Top Solid Layers: 5

Bottom Solid Layers: 5

Outer Shell: 2

Rectilinear Infill

Infill at 20%

Extruder Temp: 220C

Bed Temp: 60C

Print Speed: 3600.0mm/min

Thanks

1 Like

Is the print surface level? You should level it before every print.

Also, does your printer have a part cooling fan that blows at the hotend tip? Having that turned on greatly improves the print quality of PLA parts, as it allows the plastic to solidify as soon as it leaves the nozzle, rather than oozing and collecting on the nozzle as it seems to be doing here.

I hope I was of some help.

I think you may need to turn your temperature way down, like 200 or 190C. It may be that it is overheating and melting inside the throat.

Thanks for the info. I don’t have a cooling fan for the hot end, it’s one of the things I need to print but until I can get better prints I fear that the vent gaps will be clogged if I try. I will try putting the temp down to 200 and then from there down by 2C increments.

The bed is level, this is something I do before every print. Took me a while to figure out what “Level” was but I think i have got it now.

Thanks

temp 205, bottom solid 2 top 6//8 infill 40% outershel 2 will do

what did you set for cooling?

I had a print that looked like that, was working fine and then went like the top of yours, turned out the nozzle was blocked. Unblocking wasn’t straight forward but its completing prints again. Perhaps also re-download the file and put it back through your slicer, it could be that the stl file is slightly damaged.

Some of my best PLA prints are printed with 220/60 temps, but I also use the best available PLA material and professional printers. Usually 2 bottom and 2 top layers should suffice unless you need this to be extra strong for some reason. The only issues I possibly see are: the print speed, extrusion multipliers, clogged nozzles and or possible bad extruder/feeder motor… In some areas it looks like the motor is pushing more material through the hot nozzle then in some other areas. This could be an extrusion multiplier or bad motor or connection to the motor. My first layer printing is always at 30% print speed, with the cooling fan off. Looking at the picture you might have an issue with the extrusion multiplier… This is different on every machine and material and you just need to experiment to find the right balance for your machine. When I print PLA with 220/60 temps, and the stated speeds and cooling settings, my extrusion multiplier is set for 0.90 on a 0.4mm nozzle, and I have NO issues…

Once I can get the card reader problem sorted out I will test these suggestions out.