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Hi guys, I’m new to printing, I have about 200 hours of printing, but only about 50 of those are of my own models in Onshape (mostly for robotics at school) and one project I’m doing is making a more sturdy frame for a drone, Ive never done PETG and I’ve seen that it could work well for drones, so I bought a spool and tried it out, But my prints always fail within the first few layers. Right now, I have 80C bed temp, 250C nozzle, 0% fan for Aux and Part but 70% for chamber, and I can never get good first layer adhesion…
could someone maybe give me some settings to work best for PETG??
Thank you!
(Btw… I don’t know any cleaning/maintaning techniques for my printer except checkups on my nozzle & bed, so maybe that might play a part)?
It would help us help you if you can share a couple of photos regarding what you consider a “failed” print, definitions can vary. However, if I interpret your question correctly, it seems like you may be experiencing lifting at the edges of the print. If that is the case, then you may want to focus on three areas.
Use brims to secure the edges of your model to the plate. With PETG, this is almost essential.
Monitor your chamber temperature using an external thermometer to ensure it stays warm inside. Keeping it above 35°C is critical for PETG.
A dirty plate is the most common reason for models not sticking properly. If I had a dollar for every time someone said, “I made sure the plate was clean… I even used IPA…” Cleaning the plate is like cleaning glass—the simplest methods work best. Use very hot water and a basic dishwashing detergent like Dawn or Fairy liquid. Avoid soaps with fancy additives like skin softeners. Apply a generous amount of soap to the plate, then rinse it off under high-pressure, very hot water. Repeat this process twice. Ignore advice about scrubbing; cleaning is only meant to remove fingerprint oils. Scrubbing the plate can damage it without improving cleanliness.
Model placement is another key to successful printing. Sometimes, rotating the model to a different angle, such as from 12 o’clock, or flipping it onto a different axis can significantly improve model-to-plate adhesion.
If you’re making a flying drone and your class assignment allows alternate materials, consider lightweight filaments designed specifically for drones. These PLAs may not be as durable as PETG, but their strength-to-weight ratio is ideal for flight. Plus, since they’re PLA, they’re easier to print and don’t come with the same challenges as PETG.
Some of these filaments foam during extrusion, though I haven’t worked with them directly. From what I’ve read, the foaming process creates a structure similar to puffed rice or a cheese doodle, which could present its own learning curve.
Bambu’s PLA Aero is one option, but it’s pricey at $42 per spool. You’ll find better deals on the open market. And hey, as a college student, I know budgets are tight—if it comes down to class supplies or beer money… well, choose wisely!
Here’s an Amazon search and you will quickly see that you can purchase eSun’s PLA-LW, Polymakers’ LW-PLA and Overture Air PLA for half the price of Bambu and approaching what Bambu charges for their PETG. They are between $24-$32. A ■■■■ of a lot less expensive than Bambu. It is also rumored that eSun is one of the foundries that supplies Bambu filaments although we have not been able to prove that.
Thank you!
I might try PLA LW as per your recommendation as it’s the same price and after looking at a lot of videos on it, I can save a good amount of weight at the same strength roughly.
I tried brim and it kind of had some issues, but after cleaning my plate with hot water and some dish soap, it works perfect!
Thanks again!
Here’s my frame, this is the bottom of it. I used a smooth plate but definitely should’ve used my textured pei. I put brim but there’s a few blemishes on the first layer, nothing serious, purely aesthetic.
Thank you! @Olias
Your model is small and I’m guessing that this is no more than 1-2mm in height so that may present other challenges due to the sparse nature of the filament.
I might suggest performing a manual calibration of your filament. There is a lot of room for improvement based on what I see in these photos. I would focus on these three areas.
Temperature - I would use a properly Calibrated Temp Tower(Orca Slicer)
Flow rate - I would do this after verifying the correct temps. Your flow rate is way off in this example.
Pressure advance - Again I would use the Orca Slicer PA Tower utility as it will give you the greatest accuracy. It will help a lot with stringing.
In case you haven’t tried Orca, it is a recompiled version of Bambu Studio with baked-in Calibration tools. You can run both slicers on the same machine. Don’t bother with downloading calibration models off the web, they are static models and lack the Gcode needed. Orca incorporates the Gcode variations to create proper calibration models on the fly. This is where you will find the Orca Calibration sub-menu missing from Bambu Studio.
You may want to experiment with using a thicker print and increasing the wall loops while decreasing the infill. While a thicker model may seem counter intuitive, here’s how that works.
Using a 30x15x5mm Circle primitive ellipse with default settings.
By increasing the height of the model and increasing the walls, we make a far sturdier structure who’s strength:weight ratio is greater. Try creating a few cube primitive blocks and experiment with bend strength vs height and wall loops and you will find that you will quickly zero-in on the sweet spot of what will work for your project.
Quadcopter frame, printed in PLA. For something like this, strength is actually more important than weight. PLA is not a good choice. Breaks too easily. I actually prefer Nylon. You want plastic that can flex in a crash. But for quick tests of the design, printing in PLA is fine (and less expensive).
This was designed to see how long I could fly on a single battery. I get 25 minutes on a 18650 Lithium battery cell.
Thank you for putting so much time in helping me! All of this seems super new to me, so I’m gonna try to use orca calibration and ease into the rest.
Thanks
I definitely agree, as most micro quads I have bought have 3k woven carbon fiber, and are able to withstand lots of crashes because they aren’t brittle, and flex instead.
I think I’ll still buy a spool of LW as for my own projects, I also make printed rc planes, and I think LW with a few carbon rod inserts for strength could suffice.
Btw, that looks like a cooler version of the rekon3 quad lol
Yeah. Someone came up with the idea and posted about it in the RCGROUPS forum a few years ago, where I saw it and decided to make my own. I’ve gone through a number of iterations using both FDM and SLA printing, and even one with SLA printed “fuselage” and laser cut thin plywood motor arms.
A couple of companies came out with a production version. But the design is so simple, I don’t think they sold very well, easy enough to spit one out with a FDM printer.
This one is SLA, with the battery holder integrated in to the print, and laser cut ply motor arms.
Literally, the first thing of my own design that I printed with my X1C/AMS, this goggle case.
The little quadcopter is for racing. The canopy (the part that says HD Zero) and the antenna holder at the back, and the bumpers on the motor arms are all 3D printed (Nylon).
Racing is tough on these things. Crash in to something when you’re flying at 60-70MPH, not a lot that can survive the impact forces. Gotta have spares if you’re hoping to spend the entire day at the track. We race outdoors in a big field.
Here’s a cool little video I put together a few weeks ago. Me and another racer “duking it out” in a race. His video feed is on the left (what he was seeing), my video feed is on the right. His video feed is what we call “analog video”, standard def and 30 frames per second. My feed is HD Zero digital video at 90 frames per second, which is why my slow motion looks so smooth and his is so jerky.
Really nice drones! I like HD zero and other cams by walksnail but they’re soooo expensive.
I just started to get into quads so I only got a rekon 35 and a crux 35,
This frame I’m working on will be my first scratch built quad so it will definitely be a challenge…
