3D Printing with defects

[chenci 3]

Hi, just got the Ultimaker 2+ extended and start tinkering around. I download this nozzle-mag and i tried to print the mount (see last picture from the author). I set it up to 0.08mm layer height and 35mm/s of speed as the author suggested. The result is this picture. I don't know where to begin to fix.

I'm using 3.0mm PLA with 195°c/65°c and 67% flow rate. I got this setting from my PLA supplier.

Using 0.4mm nozzle. Do i have to use a small nozzle? I have these nozzles: 0.25 0.8 0.4 0.6

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edited April 11, 2017 by Guest

[SandervG 1,518]

Hi @Chenci,

Thank you for your message and welcome to the forums!

'I'm using 3.0mm PLA with 195°c/65°c and 67% flow rate. I got this setting from my PLA supplier.'

Are you sure it is 3.0 mm, or is it actually 2.85mm? If it is 3.0mm there is a chance it is too thick and somewhere in the bowden tube or hot end there is added friction which can cause under extrusion. The Ultimaker generally uses 2.85mm. The internal diameter of the bowden tube is 3.16mm, so if there is some thicker area or deformation of the filament it could be enough.

If it is 3.00mm and there is no friction you can change the diameter of your filament in Cura from 2.85 to 3.00. If you use Cura 2.4, click the top right box next to Nozzle & Material. In the drop down, click 'Manage materials'. Select PLA, duplicate it and click Edit. In Edit you can change the name to PLA 3.0 and change the diameter to 3.00mm (I would recommend to measure it to be sure).

This would be a better approach than reducing the flowrate.

Your flowrate seems too low, and the temperature also seems kinda low, which both could explain the under extrusion. .. If the filament is not just too thick to begin with

Good luck!

[geert_2 556]

In addition to checking the filament diameter and adjusting the settings accordingly in Cura as Sander said, I would suggest you begin with 100% flow rate, 0.1mm layer height, 50mm/s, 210°C nozzle temp, and 60°C bed temp for printing PLA, thus about the default values, and see if that works well.

Then you can try to manually lower temp to see how that affects the print. If you print slower, you can print cooler too (e.g. 20mm/s at 195°C), since the filament then has more time to heat up in the nozzle. And vice-versa. But I almost never had to change flow rate.

Expect a learning curve in finding the best balance between speed and temp for your models and circumstances; it may take some trial and error.

[chenci 3]

After several days of trials and errors, i have a perfect print. I change to another brand of filament (3.0mm i measured​ it) and the result is astonishing. 100%flow, 200degrees, 0.4..

The problem that i have now is that sometimes the noozle gets clogged and you have to use the atomic method. I think is because the flow is too high right?

Edited April 17, 2017 by Guest

[SandervG 1,518]

Not necessarily, it could be due to a variety of reasons. But are you sure it gets clogged in the first place?

What are the signs that make you think so?

Too much flow would make your feeder grind probably more than nozzle clogging, but too high of a temperature can lead to clogged nozzles yes.