Irratic extrusion(?) on modified Ender-3

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ExDes
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Irratic extrusion(?) on modified Ender-3

Post by ExDes »

Hello All,

I am dealing with what at first glance appears to be an under-extrusion issues with a modified Ender-3. I have recently upgraded the main board with the MKS-Gen-L v1.0 and the latest Marlin firmware. I have installed the BL-touch and upgraded the the extruder to the Creality metal extruder; replaced the bowden tube with a Capricorn; and the bowden tube fittings with higher-end units that have eliminated any tube slippage; and the hot-end with the Micro-Swiss all metal. I have confirmed the hot-end temperature is accurate using a thermocouple. All PID values have been generated for both the hot-end and the bed, so I am confident that the printer is thermally accurate. Many things have changed and all seems to be working well individually.

I have a clean install of Cura 4.6.1 and am using the default settings for "Standard Quality - 0.2mm" and the default settings for Generic PLA filament. The filament used is 'Solutech - Teal Blue'. I have tried the same print with an 'AMZ3D Silk-Silver PLA' with much worse results. The AMZ3D filament has been reliable in the past, and I tried the print using this filament to eliminate the Solutech filament from the equation.

Current settings are 200 degrees for the hot-end and 60 degrees build-plate. I have repeated the print with hot-end temperature settings of 195, 205 and 210 degrees C. Quality did change, as expected, but the underlying gaps in the print remain. The extruder does occasionally pop, but the filament flows freely. I do not suspect a nozzle blockage. I did try to increase the flow to 110% and 120% with no noticeable improvement.

From the symptoms it appears that the nozzle's motion is not always parallel with the previous layer of the print; sometimes pressing against it and blocking the flow of filament, other times leaving a gap. Suspecting a flat spot in the gantry rollers, I replaced the wheels with a new set. There have been grooves worn into the tapered edges of the delrin wheels which indicated some wear. If anything, this made the problem worse (worse even from the attached photos).

I added the gcodes to perform a 6x6 point automated bed level prior to starting a print. A test print around the perimeter and through the center of the print indicated that the levelling seems to be good. One thought I had is that the ABL is compensating where it shouldn't.

I am running out of ideas... any suggestions would be much appreciated.
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IMG_20200619_160155.jpg
IMG_20200619_160107.jpg
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LePaul
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Re: Irratic extrusion(?) on modified Ender-3

Post by LePaul »

I'm wondering about your extrusion multiplier (also called Flow Rate)

Have you checked your esteps on the extruder? If you manually extrude 100mm of material, do you get 100mm? More? Less?

I used Simplify3D and generally run an extrusion multiplier test print on every new filament I use.
I use this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2490893
Then do the measurements and adjust accordingly.
ExDes
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Re: Irratic extrusion(?) on modified Ender-3

Post by ExDes »

LePaul, thank-you for the suggestion. I did run the 100mm extrusion on the filament used and it was spot-on. As for the cubes you kindly linked, I printed one of these as well, and it was almost exactly 0.80mm on average per side. In fact this cube printed flawlessly. Perhaps one of the finest prints ever produced on this printer. I did also use a z-hop as I noticed a very slight clicking of the nozzle over the infill of other print attempts. This seemed to clear-up other issues. When reprinting the part in the attached photos again, there was no improvement in the print quality. I will continue experimenting with settings...
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LePaul
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Re: Irratic extrusion(?) on modified Ender-3

Post by LePaul »

How interesting that the same model is still giving you such awful results?

I also use a z hop on my printers, especially my Ultimaker 2+
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