Bad Initial Layer, Hairy Prints, Inconsistent Thickness, ABS Doesn't Succeed.

[Peter.uPRAX 0]

Hey all,

 

So we've been attempting to print recently on our Ultimaker 2+, with PLA, and we've had many issues. I've attached images of the latest print.

 

As you can see, the initial layer quality is very poor. I had changed the initial layer height from 0.27mm to 0.2mm and this improved it from previous iterations but is still not great. We already use glue to stick all of our prints down. This could all be due to the nozzle we're using as we switched from a brass to a steel nozzle, both 0.4mm. But why would this cause everything to go haywire?

 

Additionally the quality of the print itself is pretty bad. There's a lot of hairy parts where some of the hairs are 0.7mm and some of them are very very fine - all from a 0.4mm nozzle. Parts of the geometry of the print didn't print properly either. Any ideas what could be causing this kind of behavior?

 

We've printed a lot over the past few months but the reliability of the printer has been getting worse and worse.

 

We've also had issues printing with ABS. Nothing we try seems to get ABS to print well. It always cracks in multiple places, might start randomly producing spaghetti or just completely clogs up the nozzle. We've tried maybe 6 or 7 prints with ABS since we got the printer last year and we've never managed to get it working.

 

We use the default settings in Cura most of the time for both PLA and ABS, though I've adjusted the temperature of the bed in the past to get better adhesion for the ABS - still no success though.

 

Any suggestions would be great.

Many thanks.