First layer suddenly not printing properly

[timselectronicslab 0]

I've been printing alot with my Anet A6. Upgrades, upgrades and more upgrades.

They went very well until I needed to replace the filament, I tried to do that whilest the printer was printing, bad idea. Things went wrong big time and when I finally got the filament in the nozzle again the printer wasn't printing properly anymore. The nozzle slammed into the sticker on the printbed a few times, pushing the heatbed down with full force.

 

I've replaced the nozzle, because the .4mm hole was C shaped, the shoulder piece of the printer (I slammed it) and the heatbed stickers.

I calibrated the printer by autohoming, lowering the Z axis until a piece of paper was tight and then entering that value as the new Z-offset.

That didn't work out as expected, so I started to print dry, leaving the filament outside of the printhead. Using that method I reached the paper tightness I wanted.

 

I felt like my printer was going to print again!

 

However, 4 or 5 hours later, I was proved wrong.

 

When printing something, the Cura adhesion improvement layers start at the outside and slowly move to the inwards. When moving to the inside more and more, the layers start to curl and bend and when continuing to print, they come lose from the heatbed and the nozzle will drag the already printed parts everywhere.

 

I've tried various things, add hairspray to the heatbed, recalibrate the nozzle distance, in- and decreasing the nozzle and heatbed temperatures by 5 and 10 degrees, decreasing the print speed, reslicing the model.

 

I am litterally about to throw the damn thing out of my window.

 

Could anybody help me?

 

[timselectronicslab 0]

These are the settings that I am using

 

Anet A6 with auto level upgrade

PLA

Nozzle: 205 degrees

Heatbed: 50 degrees

 

[Smithy 1,144]

Have you leveled your bed accurately at different points? The picture looks like that in the front the layer is squished to the bed, but in the back the nozzle too far away from the bed.

 

Also clean your bed surface with alcohol that everything is clean.

[timselectronicslab 0]

I've recalibrated it and it seems to be a bit better.

I tried 185 degrees for the nozzle and 60 degrees for the bed, printed using Pronterface instead of the SD card

 

A few weeks ago, I also noticed that my heatbed springs are not optimal so I ordered new ones and I expect them to arrive in a week or so.

 

I started to print something for the 8th time today, and it kind off worked.

When the first layer is good and doesn't warp, until know (knock on wood) the printing goes fine!

 

Do you have any future tips for calibrating the printer? I need to do that when the new heatbed screws arrive

 

 

[Smithy 1,144]

Generally you want to have the first layer stick very well to the bed, so normally the first layer is printed without fans and sometimes hotter. Your 185° seems quite low, but depends on the filament you are using.

 

Do you level your bed at three points? (middle back, left/right front) And how do you level it? With a sheet of paper and turn the screws until you feel a little bit resistance when you move the sheet?

 

You should also make sure your bed surface is flat, maybe your build tak or whatever you are using, is not flat anymore. Then clean the surface with alcohol.

 

You can also print a skirt with your objects and when printing the skirt, turn the bed level screws a little bit, the the layer is fine everywhere. Can help but if you level very carefully before, then this should be enough. And think about, that every time you remove your bed, glass, plate whatever, you have to feel the bed again.

[timselectronicslab 0]

I spoke to soon! Serial connection to the printer got lost and the printing stopped. ?

I am using PLA and the new print (and the one that lost it's connection) used 205 degrees at the nozzle and 50 at the bed.

 

I am printing from the SD card right now, that print that went wrong was the first and last Serial print for me.

[timselectronicslab 0]

I installed some new heatbed adjustment screws and springs and it works much better now. It still has some warping though.

 

I ran the G29 command 3 times, and the output of each autolevel sequence is a little different

 

First level:

 

Second level:

 

Third level:

 

I do notice that there is a correction coefficient of around 1 in the diagonal, but I'm not sure which points correspond to that.

 

I have calibrated and leveled the bed 5 or 6 times now and it got better but I am now at the point that it doesn't get better anymore.

 

Could it be my printer itself? Dirt and dust on the axis, microstuttering when moving or just a bed that is not flat?

 

 

EDIT: G29 V4 output

 

G29 Auto Bed Leveling
Bed X: 30.000 Y: 30.000 Z: 0.243
Bed X: 110.000 Y: 30.000 Z: 0.093
Bed X: 190.000 Y: 30.000 Z: -0.195
Bed X: 190.000 Y: 97.000 Z: -0.117
Bed X: 110.000 Y: 97.000 Z: 0.133
Bed X: 30.000 Y: 97.000 Z: 0.225
Bed X: 30.000 Y: 164.000 Z: 0.158
Bed X: 110.000 Y: 164.000 Z: 0.070
Bed X: 190.000 Y: 164.000 Z: -0.165
Eqn coefficients: a: -0.00229688 b: -0.00019279 d: 1.23052334
Mean of sampled points: 0.95916671
Bed Height Topography:
   +--- BACK --+
   |           |
 L |    (+)    | R
 E |           | I
 F | (-) N (+) | G
 T |           | H
   |    (-)    | T
   |           |
   O-- FRONT --+
 (0,0)
  0.10833  0.02083 -0.21417
  0.17583  0.08333 -0.16667
  0.19333  0.04333 -0.24417
Corrected Bed Height vs. Bed Topology:
  0.01083  0.10708  0.05583
  0.06542  0.15667  0.09042
  0.07000  0.10375  0.00000
Bed Level Correction Matrix:
+0.999997 +0.000000 -0.002297
-0.000000 +1.000000 -0.000193
+0.002297 +0.000193 +0.999997

 

 

Edited October 25, 2018 by timselectronicslab

[Smithy 1,144]

31 minutes ago, timselectronicslab said:

Could it be my printer itself? Dirt and dust on the axis, microstuttering when moving or just a bed that is not flat?

 

Sorry to say, but yes.

A friend of mine has an Anet A8 and he is more tweaking, tuning and repairing than printing. But if you invest time and some additional parts you can get quite good results with this printer. You should not forget, that these China Printers are built to be cheap, so all parts are not of high quality and the frame is unstable and got a lot of vibrations.  

 

But check some Forums about the Anet Printer and check Thingiverse, there are tons of parts you can print to make your printer more stable and more reliable, without a big investment except time.

[timselectronicslab 0]

Just now, Smithy said:

 

Sorry to say, but yes.

A friend of mine has an Anet A8 and he is more tweaking, tuning and repairing than printing. But if you invest time and some additional parts you can get quite good results with this printer. You should not forget, that these China Printers are built to be cheap, so all parts are not of high quality and the frame is unstable and got a lot of vibrations.  

 

But check some Forums about the Anet Printer and check Thingiverse, there are tons of parts you can print to make your printer more stable and more reliable, without a big investment except time.

 

The printer has already been upgraded with what I think are quite some good stability upgrades. Below you can find some photos of the upgrades I currently have installed.

 

I also installed Marlin Skynet3D V2.3.2 to allow the autolevel sensor to work properly

 

I'd love to print new upgrades for my printer, but I first need to get it to properly print again. The result is basically the same as in the first post, but less worse

[Smithy 1,144]

Ok, you are already working in it - looks good ?

 

Check if the build plate is really flat and clean it with alcohol. As far as I know the Anet Printers have 4 screws to level the bed which is also not so good, 3 are better. But level it again very carefully, double check it after leveling again. Do you use a sheet of paper for leveling?

 

And try to heat your bed to 60°.

 

Post pictures after doing that of the first layer of a new print.

[timselectronicslab 0]

31 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Ok, you are already working in it - looks good ?

 

Check if the build plate is really flat and clean it with alcohol. As far as I know the Anet Printers have 4 screws to level the bed which is also not so good, 3 are better. But level it again very carefully, double check it after leveling again. Do you use a sheet of paper for leveling?

 

And try to heat your bed to 60°.

 

Post pictures after doing that of the first layer of a new print.

I will! With the paper method, what is it that I am looking for? A bit of resistance or total stop of movement of the paper?

[Smithy 1,144]

A bit of resistance, that you feel the nozzle is touching the paper but you are still able to move the paper.

[timselectronicslab 0]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

A bit of resistance, that you feel the nozzle is touching the paper but you are still able to move the paper.

I've got the feeling that the plastic is cooling down to quick or something.

 

When printing the first layer, the first layer thickness seems to increase as the printing progresses. That is the moment when the rippeling starts and eventually when the print releases from the bed, which is a new thing to me.

 

Could it be that the auto level data is invalid or something?

 

EDIT:

 

I noticed that one side of the nozzle is very dirty (full of molten plastic) could that cause the rippling? The side that starts to ripple first, is the side that the molten plastic is at.

 

I've included some new photos of a full first layer, after I removed loads of warping brim.

Edited October 25, 2018 by timselectronicslab
Added new first layer prints

[Smithy 1,144]

Forget your auto level for the moment, turn it off if possible and concentrate just to the manual leveling.

 

Is the bed temp at 60° ?

Have you cleaned your plate?

Which temp do you print? It guess it is too cold.

 

Do you have something else as build plate? Glass? Is this a Build Tak sheet?

[timselectronicslab 0]

On 10/25/2018 at 9:03 PM, Smithy said:

Forget your auto level for the moment, turn it off if possible and concentrate just to the manual leveling.

 

Is the bed temp at 60° ?

Have you cleaned your plate?

Which temp do you print? It guess it is too cold.

 

Do you have something else as build plate? Glass? Is this a Build Tak sheet?

 

I redid the whole calibration thing, including a failsafe setting restore of my print settings. I am 10 minutes into a print and it looks better than the previous ones. Might be because the failsafe settings let the head move a little slower

 

I'll keep you updated

 

EDIT: I am pretty pleased with the result of this print! I'll print a few more things and I'll let you know if the issue is fixed

Edited October 27, 2018 by timselectronicslab
Added first print result

[Smithy 1,144]

6 hours ago, timselectronicslab said:

I am pretty pleased with the result of this print!

 

Yes, looks good!

And print slower is often the key to success!

[timselectronicslab 0]

24 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

Yes, looks good!

And print slower is often the key to success!

 

And when you think it's all good, my heatbed sticker starts to bubble

Great... now I do have something to do tomorrow

[timselectronicslab 0]

On 10/27/2018 at 7:15 PM, Smithy said:

 

Yes, looks good!

And print slower is often the key to success!

The first layers are ok now, but I started to run onto the delamination issues when printing was progressing.

 

I also changed the bed temperature back to 50 degrees, since the glue of a second sticker started to bubble.

Printing temperature is still at 205 degrees and fan speed is at 100% (as recommended by Cura)

 

Should I give the auto bed leveling a try once again?