Ender 3 V3 SE issue

[daarre 0]

I have an Ender 3 V3 SE and it has printed flawlessly out of the box for a month and as of yesterday it has started to gum up the nozzle and it appears that it is from the material not sticking to the bed. So far I tried cleaning the nozzle(no change), installed new nozzle(no change) and cleaned the bed with isopropyl alchohol(no change) Nozzle temps and bed temp have not been changed. What else can I try??

[Dustin 130]

you will probably get better help with your issue by asking for help from a Creality community.

This is the UltiMaker / UltiMaker Cura community. 

[Slashee_the_Cow 267]

You could maybe try a cold pull, if you dare. There could be some leftover material stuck in the hot end assembly. Though I've never tried it on a direct drive extruder.

[GregValiant 1,254]

The thickness of the first layer is determined by a couple of different things.  The "bed leveling" (which is a misnomer as it should be called "setting the initial Z gap"), by the extruder calibration (E-steps).  A third consideration is the tendency of the material to stick to the bed.

 

If you are under-extruding the first layer then you don't get enough squish and the material wants to curl and it ends up on the outside of the nozzle.

Assuming that you have an ABL system, they work well but the "Z-offset" needs to be just right.  If your "Initial Layer Height" is 0.2, but when the printer moves to 0.2 the bed is actually 0.3 below the nozzle, then you are effectively under-extruding and you don't get any squish.  In general, if you change nozzles they won't be exactly the same length and consequently the Z-offset would need adjustment.  I have some nozzles that vary by up to .4mm in length (but I don't have ABL so I level for every print).

 

Some initial wear in the extruder gear can cause the extruder to go out of calibration.  If it isn't pushing enough material then you will get less squish.  Double checking your E-step calibration can't hurt.  Even with the number of miles on my Ender I still calibrate it once a month.

 

Since this is an initial layer problem you can do a quick test by slicing a calibration cube and setting the "Initial Layer Flow" to 110 or 115% and see if it makes a difference.  (You can abort the print after the first layer.)  If the flow change doesn't make a difference then the problem is probably not the E-steps or leveling/Z-offset.

Give the build surface a good cleaning with a dish detergent, dry it, put it back on the machine and then wipe it down with 90% isopropyl alcohol.

[Slashee_the_Cow 267]

25 minutes ago, GregValiant said:

Assuming that you have an ABL system, they work well but the "Z-offset" needs to be just right.

The E3V3SE is exclusively ABL. No way of levelling the plate manually whatsoever, unless you want to break the thing in the process. Its ABL process also sets the Z offset, it has force gauges under the plate in the home position and moves the head up and down until it gets it juuuuuuuuust right. You can change it manually, but I've never had to.

[jaysenodell 13]

13 hours ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

You could maybe try a cold pull, if you dare. There could be some leftover material stuck in the hot end assembly. Though I've never tried it on a direct drive extruder.

Just disassemble the creality extruder and "torch" the hot end. You really can't get a decent cold pull without winding up breaking the filament off in the extruder and ... disassembling then torching the hot end. 

 

I don't want to relive the swearing of that day.