Can' get the support to print correctly. Sometimes

[Sk7500 2]

I am having trouble on my S5 getting my breakaway support that's loaded as Extruder2 to print a good first layer. The PLA material in extruder 1 works great. But it seems like Extruder 2 is higher than Extruder 1. I have leveled the bed about a million times. I have cleaned the drool that comes out of Extruder 2 before it self levels. I have moved my parts to a different part of the glass. I have changed material spools. I have cleaned the glass. Eventually it works but I can't pin down what fixed the problem. Are the print nozzle heights being set when the bed self levels before the print? in other words if some of the drool that comes out of the support nozzle holds the support extruder up slightly will that nozzle be too high? Hope this makes sense.

Thanks

[jones4642 0]

Not sure if this is the same problem, but it sounds like a fairly common problem on the S5. Many of us have had issues where the support material oozes during the active leveling process. The problem is that if it is extruder 2 then it is mostly hidden from view during the long leveling process for extruder 1. It just takes a small bump of material to completely thrown off the leveling. If this happens, the nozzle will be too far from the plate and the support material on the first level will not stick.

 

Interestingly, I have two S5s, and only one of them has really suffered from this. Every time I would start a job, I would end up aborting 3 or 4 times until I finally got a good level (hint - if you see the problem during leveling and abort before the leveling finishes, it is pretty fast. If you wait until leveling is finished, abort takes several minutes). This printer had older FW. I just updated FW, and at least on the first print, it seemed to be fixed. Will see if this was a coincidence.

[Sk7500 2]

Thank you for your post. I replaced the nozzle thinking maybe something was sticking. I thought I had it fixed. No such luck. I keep the Firmware updated anytime there is a new one available. I have this feeling that the support nozzle oozes a little and throws of the leveling for that nozzle. I usually open the extruder motor and retract the material until it finishes leveling. It's pretty time consuming. It usually happens when I'm pressed for time. 😞 

 

Thanks again.

 

[Sk7500 2]

Just an update.

 

I switched support to extruder # 1 and material to extruder #2. So far so good as the material does not seem to drool when the bed is being leveled.

[Adri-an 1]

Hi @Sk7500, 
we have the same leveling issues with our S5 described [here] I'll keep that in mind and give it a try. It's not solving the main problem, but maybe it's a suitable workaround, thanks for the hint.

 

[Emerald 1]

Hey @Sk7500 and @Adri-an,

 

I had a similar problem a while back. It seems that ultimaker and breakaway need some "baby sitting" during preparation of a print. I keep an eye on the temperature of the nozzle and as soon as it reaches 150°C I brush away any oozing material with a wire brush. Just be careful not to hurt yourself with the temperature of the hot end and moving parts.

 

Additionally I print a skirt with breakaway. This helps a lot, because I can identify immediately if there is a calibration offset as a skirt or similar adhesion is printed first. 

If there is a offset I cancel, clean and try again.

 

(In this thread I described the problems that I had with PLA and Breakaway. I don't use prime blob anymore btw.)

Edited January 30, 2020 by Emerald