Extreme under extrusion

[nerdwarrior 19]

Hello,

I was printing my first print (a marvin), and my initial layers turned out horrid, like spider webs!

This was one of the nastier ones, but my first marvin had it as well, but it did go away once it reached the top. Does this have to do with the puddle of molten pla I found on top of my heater block? I'm currently using a UMO+

If you've got any tips, please reply!

So far, the one solution I've thought of is giving each print a nice, big brim so that it uses up all that horrible printing on that, and once my print starts, it is fine.

[nerdwarrior 19]

Okay, the brim failed.

I've tried temps from 190-215, heated bed from 55-60, and I've adjusted the bed height multiple times. Also, it works fine when I just manually turn the extruder.

[nerdwarrior 19]

I've tested a few marvins with different settings, with one success and one successful to about the waist. It seems like it's a problem with the feeder. While printing, I see it rotating continuously, but filament isn't coming out. Tips?

[nerdwarrior 19]

Tried printing at 230 degrees at 120% flow

turned out great for the bottom layers, my dream come true

then everything stopped extruding and i found it printing in midair

no, not printing.

just moving

[Labern 774]

It sounds like you have an issue with the heater block. It should not have any plastic on the top of it.

This means there is a leak somewhere or something is not aligned or installed correctly. Have you tried doing an atomic pull to make sure the nozzle is not blocked? If you do this you may see where the issue is.

[nerdwarrior 19]

I'm not too far away from the bed

that I know for sure cuz i've already scratched it on my third day of using it

[nerdwarrior 19]

Hello Labern,

Sorry, I didn't see your reply before I sent that comment just now

I'll try an atomic pull, but I've noticed that the leaking has stopped.

I think it's just that the filament doesn't extrude. It keeps grinding the filament, and when it doesn't, it still doesn't come out smoothly. I thought that maybe it was too far away from the bed, but I ended up going so close the nozzle scratched the glass.

I've put some oil on the feeder, and stuck a small kleenex wet with oil onto the bottom so the filament going into the feeder gets lubricated.

It just seems so unpredictable!

How should I fix the feeder?

[nerdwarrior 19]

Like I got one amazing/perfect print, but it stopped extruding halfway thru:

(sorry about the horrible quality. My SD card slot is broken so I'm stuck with my computer camera)

Now, it seems like the filament is going up the tube (it seems like it, but i could be wrong).

When I turn it by hand, I can usually get nice, beautiful, even strings, but they never show up in my prints!

[nerdwarrior 19]

I just looked at the nozzle

It seems to be clear

[Labern 774]

You don't want to lubricate the filament going into the feeder. That may just cause more issues and my introduce slipping. If the feeder is grinding then it probably means that it's not tight enough pushing onto the filament or really tight. Or there is a problem in the hotend so the filament can't push through.

[Labern 774]

What temps and speeds are you trying to print with?

[nerdwarrior 19]

Oh, okay.

I'll get rid of the oil. Can I put it in the bowden?

I'm printing at 230 and 50 mm/s (I don't remember exactly, but that's about it)

The 230 because I thought it would flow better. 50 to match it.

I don't know if it's the hotend. The odd thing about it is that every time I manually extrude, I get 2 puffs of smoke each accompanied by a sizzling sound before any plastic comes out.

And thank you so much Labern for replying!

[nerdwarrior 19]

oooh

and it seems like my filament is stretched out (in the bowden tube).

Do you think it will help if I reassemble the feeder, remove the filament with an atomic pull, then snap off all the stretched out parts?

I can't really tell, because I've only had my printer (assembled) for a few days, and my experience is near zero.

[Labern 774]

You can put oil in the bowden tube but this is normally done with flexible filaments like ninjaflex and you only need 1 drop.

You may need to accompany some of your descriptions with some photos. What is the impression from the knurled feeder wheel into the filament? it should have between 2-3 indentations from the feeder wheel side by side.

You should really remove all bad sections of filament.

What filament are you trying to print with?

The smoke sizzling may be coming from the oil, it can also be from high temps (maybe bad temp sensor) or you may have bad filament.

[nerdwarrior 19]

I'm using the silver pla that came with the machine.

I don't know about faulty sensors, because mine is brand new.

I'll send filament pics once I'm done removing filament. In the process now.

[nerdwarrior 19]

Sorry, this pic isn't very clear, but u can kinda see the bit marks and grounded parts.

However, from what I can see, there doesn't seem to be a lot of plastic flakes in the feeder.

[nerdwarrior 19]

In some places the filament has regular dashes on it, and in others, it is just simply ground out and feels flaky.

[Labern 774]

Sorry but i cant see anything in the picture.

If you remove the bowden tube out of the hotend and heat the nozzle up can you easily push filament though?

[nerdwarrior 19]

O man

I tried an atomic pull, and it started leaking like crazy and all the leaked pla smoked like never before.

[nerdwarrior 19]

yeah the flilament goes thru.

Except it's kinda hard in the beginning, because all of the plastic comes out from the top of the heater block. Once thru, it comes out just fine.

[Labern 774]

Which one looks like yours after it pass through the feeder? It should look more like the one on the right

[Labern 774]

the plastic should not come out the top of the heater block. only the end of the nozzle.

Can you try to take a good picture of your hot end?

[nerdwarrior 19]

looks like the left one, sometimes a bit more roughed up.

the leak:

[nerdwarrior 19]

oooooooo right hotend srry:

[Labern 774]

if its like the left one then you need to increase the feeder pressure.