I’m reaching out in the hopes that someone might shed some light on a persistent issue I’ve encountered during my recent endeavors with my printer. After transitioning to the 0.4mm E3D ObXidian High Flow nozzle, I’ve been noticing troubling gaps between the infill and inner walls in my prints. Even with stock flow values at 100% speed:
Despite my best efforts at troubleshooting, including a meticulous examination of the hotend assembly process and reverting to an original, new and preassembled hardened steel nozzle hotend, the problem persists unabated.
Notably, the first layer consistently adheres well. While reducing speed to 50% mitigates the issue, it falls short of a permanent fix. Although adjusting for the volumetric speed of my PLA filament might seem like an intuitive solution, it’s puzzling given my prior successful experiences with the same setup.
Here’s a rundown of my troubleshooting efforts thus far:
Comprehensive machine recalibration following each hotend change
Full maintenance routine, including belt tension adjustments
Thorough filament drying
Experimentation with different filament sources and brands
Varied nozzle temperature settings
Incremental increases in flow rate (up to 1.1)
Adjustments to infill-to-wall overlap (up to 25%)
Completion of all Orcaslicer calibration tests, yielding no significant insights
Switching between different build plate surfaces (smooth and textured PEI)
Despite these efforts, the issue persists, leaving me at a loss. Printing at speeds below 10mm³/s feels like a temporary workaround rather than a solution, as it merely masks the underlying problem.
As this is my sole printer, I lack the means to test individual components on alternate machines. I’m turning to the collective wisdom of this community in the hopes of identifying the root cause of this vexing issue.
Your insights and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Yes, i swapped back to the original nozzle, well it is a new one as I had to disassemble the original one as the E3D nozzle came without fan, heater and cables:
I think @JonRaymond has the right diagnosis, but don’t just pick random “extreme” settings out of the air. Re-run the OrcaSlicer Pressure Advance calibration, following the Wiki instructions. Change the range of tested values if you wish, but a systematic test will produce the optimum result. You should see significant differences. If the best value turns out to be at the “extreme” end of the range, test again, using that value as the end point of a higher or lower range as appropriate.
After a real world test, I ended up using .012 which eliminated almost all gaps at 124% speed on the stock nozzle. K-factor was previously set to 0.025.
