HELP: My Ender 3 is underextruding on small parts of the part.

[gorvor 0]

As you can see by the picture, everything is fine except for the small tower, which has underextruded. I have tried upping the temperature from 205 to 215, and its not working. I am quite new to this so I'm probably missing something. Anyway, please help soon!

Ender 3 (not pro) with some Compgrow white PLA. 215 Nozzle and 65 bed (Celsius)
 

I have attached the .stl file as well, just ask me for any more details and I will gladly provide them.

Top_Case.stl

[delta_ke 0]

is this only on small parts or also other (less noticeable) places in your model? (like the seam)

 

Im not an expert, but first places I'd try to test and make sure that are dialed in are temp and retraction. 

 

Im thinking if the issue is retraction related, you probably would see the issue presenting itself elsewhere in the model. 

 

 

 

[GregValiant 1,258]

I'm a believer in Top Skins telling the story on extrusion.  It could just be shadows in the image but your extrusions on that top skin look rounded and they should be flattened and welded together.  If you have a decent magnifying glass and check out that top skin I think you'll see what I mean.  It looks to be under-extruded by maybe 10%.

Did you calibrate the E-steps on the printer?  CHEP on YouTube has very good videos on the Ender's.

There are some very fine features on the model and the model itself is small.  I like the look of the preview much better with a 0.3 nozzle.

Edited August 14, 2023 by GregValiant

[gorvor 0]

7 hours ago, GregValiant said:

I'm a believer in Top Skins telling the story on extrusion.  It could just be shadows in the image but your extrusions on that top skin look rounded and they should be flattened and welded together.  If you have a decent magnifying glass and check out that top skin I think you'll see what I mean.  It looks to be under-extruded by maybe 10%.

Did you calibrate the E-steps on the printer?  CHEP on YouTube has very good videos on the Ender's.

There are some very fine features on the model and the model itself is small.  I like the look of the preview much better with a 0.3 nozzle.

Oh, yea I should probably calibrate that, thanks I'll look into this right away!

 

 

8 hours ago, delta_ke said:

is this only on small parts or also other (less noticeable) places in your model? (like the seam)

 

Im not an expert, but first places I'd try to test and make sure that are dialed in are temp and retraction. 

 

Im thinking if the issue is retraction related, you probably would see the issue presenting itself elsewhere in the model. 

 

 

 

I think what I'll do is calibrate the printer properly and then try to print the part again. And no, its only on that one piece of the model, the only piece that is small and an 'island' and it only seems to happen on that type of piece.

[GregValiant 1,258]

"   what I'll do is calibrate the printer properly..."

Don't forget the frame itself.  The Y axis on my Ender was running skewed by about 3° when I received it (a factory assembled part).  A carpenters tri-square and a steel straightedge are very helpful.

A regular maintenance schedule is important too.  Regardless of the manufacturer - these machines work hard and move for hour after hour after hour.  A close inspection every 50 hours of print time can catch developing problems.  

[gorvor 0]

I'm doing a temp tower right now, and I calibrated the E-Steps. I also made sure the frame is square. I just need to calibrate the other motors' steps then I'll try printing the original part again. Thanks for your help so far!

[gorvor 0]

So I tuned the printer (Did a temp tower, Adjusted the stepper motors, leveled the bed and made sure the frame was square) and I printed it again, it is a little better but the nozzle clogged halfway through and the extruder began to slip, so I stopped the print and took some photos:

 

Printed at 205 deg Celsius and the same white PLA, same gcode. Could it be the filament or gcode?

This is what the jam looked like: 

Edited August 15, 2023 by gorvor
more details

[delta_ke 0]

It could always be the filament. 

Do you get clogs often? Have you done a PID tune by chance? I recently had a problem where my thermistor was dying, and my prints quality were fluctuating, under extrusion in some places, over extrusion in others. But temp read normally on the display, however after I did a PID tune, the new numbers were far from normal. 

 

What layer height and print speeds are you using? 

Can you save this as a project file and post it for us? (in cura, file, save project)

 

And by chance can I see the bottom of your print? 

 

Ill try and print that section your having trouble with to double check if its the gcode for you. But im guessing its probably hardware related. 

[delta_ke 0]

Okay, so I just cut the model, and printed only the center part in question. But the STL looks normal in CAD and it prints normally, so atleast you can eliminate that from the list of potential problems. 

 

[gorvor 0]

1 hour ago, delta_ke said:

It could always be the filament. 

Do you get clogs often? Have you done a PID tune by chance? I recently had a problem where my thermistor was dying, and my prints quality were fluctuating, under extrusion in some places, over extrusion in others. But temp read normally on the display, however after I did a PID tune, the new numbers were far from normal. 

 

What layer height and print speeds are you using? 

Can you save this as a project file and post it for us? (in cura, file, save project)

 

And by chance can I see the bottom of your print? 

 

Ill try and print that section your having trouble with to double check if its the gcode for you. But im guessing its probably hardware related. 

Okay so yes i do get clogs often it really sucks, and the thermistor thing, well my printer is brand new so I doubt that is the case but I will still look into that.

 

I think the layer height is 0.12 or maybe 0.16, and 100% speed.

 

Here is the project file (As best as i could replicate as idk where the original is):
Top_Case.3mf

Here is a pic of the bottom on the part:

 

And here is the temp tower as well

Edited August 15, 2023 by gorvor

[gorvor 0]

I am trying to do the PID tune and my printer wont connect to my pc. I have plugged it in with a usb cable and it does not appear at all, its as if I have not plugged anything in at all. I have rebooted both devices, covered the 5v pin and I cant get it to connect.

[gorvor 0]

I also printed this to see if it can do some smaller details but it did not do very well:

 

 

 

[gorvor 0]

So I printed a calibration cube yesterday and I noticed It kind of looks like it underextruded in some places, weird. I also printed the thing again and watched it closely, it did everything correctly and there were no clogs, just underextruded, it might be the thermistor.

[delta_ke 0]

 

PID tune wise, are you using pronterface?

If so something people neglect to mention is make sure cura is closed otherwise for whatever reason the printer wont connect.

 

Then check the baud rate, if it still doesn’t connect. Heres the vid I usually reference whe I do it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG1Yvt02l1I

 

 

 

Clogs:

This was a big issue for me when I got my first printer. For me, it ended up being that my z nozzle height was too low to the bed. AND that my original filament choice sucked, and it kept clogging the nozzle.

 

For my ender 3 I landed on this filament and it rarely ever gave me any problems.

 

https://www.amazon.com/HATCHBOX-3D-Filament-Dimensional-Accuracy/dp/B00J0ECR5I/ref=sr_1_9?crid=QVRIKIQP8H78&keywords=pla&qid=1692139057&sprefix=pl%2Caps%2C245&sr=8-9

 

 

Its hard to tell from the pics if z offset is an issue, just because of the color of the filament, but you shouldn’t be getting clogs so often, once you get it sorted it shouldn’t be an issue in the future.

 

 

Actually. The last pic you posted, (I attached it below for reference)

See how some of the lines on your skirt is smashed, to where the line almost disappears? This usually means your nozzle is too close to the bed, (the z offset thing I was talking about).

 

 

 

Ill check out the project file rn,

[delta_ke 0]

the reference images for my last reply*

 

[gorvor 0]

I've tried another usb cable and still nothing happens

[delta_ke 0]

are you just using curas stock preset "super quality .12" profile?

[gorvor 0]

I'm pretty sure

[gorvor 0]

I'm heating it up and gonna check if it overshoots or does anything wonky

[gorvor 0]

Okay so it overshot by 3 degrees

[delta_ke 0]

As long as it maintains about steady you should be okay. 

 

What app are you using to pid tune?

 

[gorvor 0]

Pronterface, but the printer still wont be detected

[delta_ke 0]

screenshot pronterface and send it

[gorvor 0]

[delta_ke 0]

try just switching the baud rate to something wrong, and switch back to the current. Sometimes it connects like that, 

 

and nothing pops up on the terminal side on the far right?