I’m not sure what info is needed, as this is my first problem printing. Just opened my P1P, found an STL that I needed and started printing with the default green PLA Basic filament. I printed like 10 pieces perfectly and ran out of filament. I switched to the black PLA Basic I purchased with the printer, and tried printing. I got two failed printed about 10 lines in, then the model ended up off the hot plate and I got a string of garbage.
I didn’t need to dry the green PLA basic or do anything special, just loaded it and started printing. I took the new black PLA basic and set it within a dehydrator for about 10 hours at 150 degrees but that didn’t seem to do anything to the second print. So what is the secret with the black PLA basic? It’s supposedly the same exact stuff i thought. Do I need to kick the nozzle temperature up? I can upload pics of the prints and the bambu file if that would help.
PLA basic should stick great. Make sure your print bed is very clean. Use Dawn dishwashing soap, scrub with your hands, rinse really well and scrub with your fingers under clean water until it feels like sneakers on a basketball court. Dry the bed, do not touch it, do not use rubbing alcohol, do not use hand soap, do not use baby wipes.
It looks like you have some edge curling (either directly or as a result of warping) which can explain the print failures. And indeed, different colors can occasionally print differently due to pigment effects on rheology. I have found black to generally print well but be a bit more “runny”, with a slighlty increased likelyhood of stringing, oozing and curling. Black coloring agents tend to be particularly small and therefore have a larger effect on rheology due to the much larger overall surface area of the particle load.
Since you have already dried the filament, you should then make sure to calibrate it at least for flow.
If it still gives trouble after that, you can try to slow down the edges (i.e. reduce accellerations) and/or reduce the layer height to counter curling.
You could also try a slightly lower nozzle temp but in my experience, the following rats tail (layer adhesion, flow reduction,…) is not worth the hassle.
Also, try to keep the chamber temp in the sweet spot at 35°.
And go for non-crossing infills and surfaces.
Those pictures tell a different story than what I was originally looking at. That almost looks like you have a partially clogged nozzle or some other issue with extrusion due to flow.
It would have been nice to know different color of filaments produce different results. I just purchased two rolls of green because I don’t really care what color the pieces are and that stuff worked.
I’m not sure if there is a specific filament calibration, but I did the normal calibration through the app that took about 26 mins. That didn’t help anything. Also, my p1p isn’t enclosed yet so keeping the temperature at 35 is going to be kind of tough. That was going to be my next print after these pieces.
Anyway, thanks for the heads up, black = more work.
Well, with PLA, differences between colors are usually small. Provided that the filament is dried and well calibrated.
26 min sounds right for the manual flow calibration.
Pressure Advance can also be helpful to tailor feed to accelerations. It is isually first seen on surfaces or seams but is also effective at sharp corners. PA is quicker than the flow calibration, but flow needs to be done first.
As for enclosure, in a pinch, a tent or box can already help. As well as - don’t laugh, I successfully did this with an ancient Tarantula - cranking up the rooms heating
When printing the enclosure for the P1, you may want to move to a higher material (PETG as a minimum). These are also usually more prone to curling and warping. It definitely needs very good drying and calibration as well as a cozy print environment.
That’s good to know. Perhaps I should have bought PETG instead. But I’m guessing that would need calibration and adjustments and such. And I actually like the default color green that came with it - the same shade of green on old monitors.
But you’re saying don’t print the enclosures with PLA, use PETG. I was actually hoping to print black enclosures, so once I am done with these pieces I will probably circle back to this thread to figure out the black filament.
It is good practice to start learning with PLA in any case. It is much more forgiving and helps to get into the hobby as it keeps the motivation up and frustrations down.
PETG has a few peculiarities making it much more sensitive. There are quite a few threads in the forum on the past and present challenges when going for PETG (and beyond).
If you are not in a rush, you could of course also try to print an enclosure in PLA first and later replace it with PETG. But you need to be aware that it is likely to develop distortions if you allow chamber temps to get to high.
Here is a link to the Wiki that walks you through a filament calibration. As always, make sure your filament is dry, your build plates is CLEAN, and your nozzle is not clogged. This is a good process to know as filament varies brand-to-brand, lot-to-lot, and even color to color.
It sounds like you did a machine calibration not a filament calibration.
