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@93levya my extruder motor mound cracked and was not putting enough pressure on the filament so it was not retracting like it should’ve. I clamped it down and it’s working great till I print and improved mount. thanks everyone for their feedback. Everything noted here has helped me and will hopefully help others.

The tube is fine on both ends, very tight.

It was doing this with Ziro filament too. I can’t remember if the Bamtack did this too, but it used to not. i will definitely check the tube. I didn’t even think about that. thanks.

I got an Anet A8 about 6 weeks ago and after tuning it I was quite happy with the prints. But you know how it is, you're never happy enough for long. I wanted better prints and more reliable and easier to use stuff so I converted to a bowden setup moving my stepper off the carriage and making it as light as possible for speed and quality. For a while my prints were turning out incredible with minor strings and little cleanup. Lately though, after installing Marlin and a bed level sensor and upgrading to Cura 3.2, I noticed all my print jobs had more and more string. I've also been using different filament. One thing I noticed was if I did not print in the 210-220 range my nozzle clogged. I removed it and cleaned it thoroughly and even added a tiny bit of oil to it to make it extrude better. The strings started way before this though so I know the oil is not my issues. This is what I've done and noticed. The higher the temps, the less I can retract as it cools further up and gets stuck. I'm using hatchbox black 1.75 mm PLA that is actually closer to 1.7 mm for my string test. I've put the diameter in Cura too. I went from 120 mm/s travel speed, 2 mm retract at 50 mm/s and 210 degrees to 200 mm/s travel speed, 3.25 mm retract at 70 mm/s and 190 degrees with little to no difference in stringing. My final test was at 190 degrees and 3.5 mm retract and it looks exactly like all the other tests. I tried going to 4 and 5 mm retract but it just clogged my nozzle. Good thing I was right there to unclog it quick or it may have been more difficult. When I first got this and did the string test I could make a small change in Cura 15 and actually notice a difference. Is Cura not sending all my retract settings or is my bowden setup not allowing it to retract good enough (possibly pressure in the tube uses most of the retract to relax before retracting) or is my nozzle jacked up or can my firmware be interfering? I'm actually very confused why I cannot get any improvement at all.

It was a bucket, but then I realized I couldn’t see when the tip was touching so I took out 4 sides so I could see position. The tip touches the bottom and the rods going through keep it stable when printing.

This is what I designed to hold those pieces in place. It works great!

I'm using Cura 3.2. I went ahead and made my own support and it works perfect!

Its just PLA, all the same color. I'm not cool enough to have a dual extruder... yet

I've done a lot of experimenting with supports and I love all the settings that can make them better. There are 2 models I've tried to print that have sharp points hanging down and a support tower is made to start those points. The problem is when the print area starts at the top of the support, there is a 1 mm dab of filament starting the print area at the top of the support then the print gets larger and larger with nothing but that 1 mm piece holding it. Before that part can connect to the rest of the print area (maybe 1/4" or less up) it breaks off that 1 mm piece holding it to the tower. In the attached photos you can see the tower with the pointy part on it. On the third photo you can see where it joins the other pointy part that barely has anything holding it. This is not the only model I have this issue on. On a different model, if I get to it on time, I can put a dab of super glue and kicker on there and it has a stronger support to hold it and the superglue pops right off with the support at the end of the print. This (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:582834) is what I'm trying to print, but scaled up 245%. Any help is appreciated.

I had no idea how challenging it would be. I've had a few mechanical issues, but I'm hashing those out. Everything was good except the arm hanging down was only connected by the fingernail tips. It's so high up that it got unstable before the arm attached to the body and the arm fell off twice. I've slowed the infil and inner edge speeds, increased the supports size, adjusted the angle of the support "roof", decreased the distance the support is from the model and had it make a thick interface between the support and model. It's going again right now. The only other thing I can think of is pause the print when it's almost to the arm and attach the tower support to the body with tape or something before it gets to the arm so it does not move when the arm is printing. I'm having fun learning, but this thing is testing the limits of my printer and my patience... :/

Ok I got this almost perfect by importing the obj, mtl and png files into Windows 3D Builder then smoothing it out then exporting the STL. It looks a heck of a lot better now and will make a more acceptable print. Thanks for all the input guys.

Lol with as many hobbies as I have, I am an expert at being a noob ?

@kmanstudios yep it was a bit of a surprise on the one I am currently printing, but it’s no big deal on that one. But that’s why I asked the question. Now I know what to expect. And yep, I’m a noob ?

Thanks guys! Thais definitely helps me understand the file better. It makes sense that the normals in the obj file make it look smoother. I just wish t would slice the normals. It is the exact same file in both versions and that’s why I was confused. @gr5 it’s not the most challenging I’ve done, but I did want it with as little vertices showing as possible. I’ve had great luck with the supports in Cura 15 and am experimenting with Cura 3 so hopefully this one will turn out good. I did a gyarados last week with it curling over itself and the supports on that were crazy lol. It turned out perfect... imo ?

Ok so I did some searching but not quite sure what wxactly to search for. I’m new to printing and kind of new to 3D software. I’ve downloaded a couple of items that have stl and obj files. I can load the obj into Cura 15 and you can see all the flat areas like a lower poly object. In Cura 3.1 it looks perfect and smooth like I want it to print, but when I look at the layers it looks like it sliced the lower poly that Cura 15 showed. I’ll attach images. If you look at the image of the top view sliced, you can see the tail shows the blocky look is takingaboutas well as the body have flat edges instead of round. 2 questions 1. How do I print the high quality smooth obj that I loaded? 2. Why does Cura 3.1 show it smooth but not slice it like that? thanks for any and all help ?