Print / Excluder Failure During Print
Quote from Matthew Cox on 2022-01-02, 03:25I am new to the scene and received a Craftbot + for Christmas. When I am printing, the print fails if the excluder is working towards the front right part of the opening. To the right of the "HOT" sticker. It can do it in the center and the left. It is basically the worse that closer it prints towards me. It looks like the excluder tip catches on the PLA when laying it down at time and ruins that area.
I have rebalanced it multiple times using the spacer card. I used the CraftPro software and Cura. I have tried different prints. If an item in centered and smaller then I don't have a problem. It is about 90% of the time. Usually in the first few passes.
Also, sometimes the excluder doesnt get anything out on the first few seconds of the print. Is this normal?
I am new to the scene and received a Craftbot + for Christmas. When I am printing, the print fails if the excluder is working towards the front right part of the opening. To the right of the "HOT" sticker. It can do it in the center and the left. It is basically the worse that closer it prints towards me. It looks like the excluder tip catches on the PLA when laying it down at time and ruins that area.
I have rebalanced it multiple times using the spacer card. I used the CraftPro software and Cura. I have tried different prints. If an item in centered and smaller then I don't have a problem. It is about 90% of the time. Usually in the first few passes.
Also, sometimes the excluder doesnt get anything out on the first few seconds of the print. Is this normal?
Quote from Norbert Fekete on 2022-01-03, 14:44Hello Matthew and welcome!
I moved this post to the "Craftbot" section as it is more of a hardware than software topic.
The bed leveling is still not correct, based on what you wrote.
When printing the first layer, the filament should be a bit "squished" by the nozzle to the bed, but not too much.
- If the extruder is too close to the bed, it will squish the filament too much, which will look like a thick line, and it may curl up on the sides of the line because it doesn't have enough space to extrude to. If it is too close to the bed, there may not be enough space for it to extrude, resulting in no extrusion, and the extruder may give a "click-click-click" sound.
- If the extruder is too far from the bed, it will look more rounded, and won't stick properly to the bed, which may cause the print to come off, sometimes even during the first layer, so it may gather up on the nozzle.
I use an alternate method for bed leveling, which does not include the spacer card. It is more manual, but if you get the hang of it, the leveling will be perfect.
First I warm up the head and the bed, then wipe off all the filament which is coming out the nozzle, until absolutely nothing comes out.
Then I do something similar to the assisted bed leveling, but using the manual head and bed movement on the LCD.
Move down the bed, move the head above the front knob, then move the bed fully up.
Then I look to the nozzle from the side so I can see its reflection on the bed.
Turn the knob until the nozzle and its reflection are not touching each other.
Then turn the knob in the other direction until the nozzle and the reflection just barely touch each other. You can play with small turning movements to find that sweet spot when the nozzle is barely touching its reflection.
Next, move the bed down, move the head above another knob, and do this again with that knob. And then do it again with the last knob.
I usually repeat it once again, just to be sure.The perfect leveling is when you can move the head freely when the bed it at its highest point, and when you look from the side it looks like the nozzle is always barely touching the reflection. If it is starting to scratch the surface of the bed, immediately stop and adjust the bed a bit lower.
Also, make sure the bed is clean before printing, as dust and grease can gather on it, making the filament less likely to stick to it.
"Also, sometimes the excluder doesnt get anything out on the first few seconds of the print. Is this normal?"
Yes, this is normal.
When a print is being started, there is not yet enough pressure in the extruder. To make sure there is enough pressure, the "Skirt" is usually used in slicers. It is just a small line printed somewhere close to the object, before printing the object itself.
In CraftWare Pro, when you use the "Easy" strategy (that is the one used by default), you can see the "Adhesion" drop-down, where you can select "Skirt".Hope it helps!
Hello Matthew and welcome!
I moved this post to the "Craftbot" section as it is more of a hardware than software topic.
The bed leveling is still not correct, based on what you wrote.
When printing the first layer, the filament should be a bit "squished" by the nozzle to the bed, but not too much.
- If the extruder is too close to the bed, it will squish the filament too much, which will look like a thick line, and it may curl up on the sides of the line because it doesn't have enough space to extrude to. If it is too close to the bed, there may not be enough space for it to extrude, resulting in no extrusion, and the extruder may give a "click-click-click" sound.
- If the extruder is too far from the bed, it will look more rounded, and won't stick properly to the bed, which may cause the print to come off, sometimes even during the first layer, so it may gather up on the nozzle.
I use an alternate method for bed leveling, which does not include the spacer card. It is more manual, but if you get the hang of it, the leveling will be perfect.
First I warm up the head and the bed, then wipe off all the filament which is coming out the nozzle, until absolutely nothing comes out.
Then I do something similar to the assisted bed leveling, but using the manual head and bed movement on the LCD.
Move down the bed, move the head above the front knob, then move the bed fully up.
Then I look to the nozzle from the side so I can see its reflection on the bed.
Turn the knob until the nozzle and its reflection are not touching each other.
Then turn the knob in the other direction until the nozzle and the reflection just barely touch each other. You can play with small turning movements to find that sweet spot when the nozzle is barely touching its reflection.
Next, move the bed down, move the head above another knob, and do this again with that knob. And then do it again with the last knob.
I usually repeat it once again, just to be sure.
The perfect leveling is when you can move the head freely when the bed it at its highest point, and when you look from the side it looks like the nozzle is always barely touching the reflection. If it is starting to scratch the surface of the bed, immediately stop and adjust the bed a bit lower.
Also, make sure the bed is clean before printing, as dust and grease can gather on it, making the filament less likely to stick to it.
"Also, sometimes the excluder doesnt get anything out on the first few seconds of the print. Is this normal?"
Yes, this is normal.
When a print is being started, there is not yet enough pressure in the extruder. To make sure there is enough pressure, the "Skirt" is usually used in slicers. It is just a small line printed somewhere close to the object, before printing the object itself.
In CraftWare Pro, when you use the "Easy" strategy (that is the one used by default), you can see the "Adhesion" drop-down, where you can select "Skirt".
Hope it helps!