I’m having a little annoying printing issue with Polycarbonate on my x1c that I’m hoping someone could point me in the right direction.
I have been printing with PC for a bit without any major issues, but mostly large or flat objects. This time, I’m printing small objects that are really thin (using PC because I need the strength and flexibility of the material). I’m using black PC on engineering plate with a glue stick layer, .16 layer setting
I noticed in all the times I’ve used PC, that in the first layers, it has a tendency to leave these filament fragments when moving from part to part. These are normally about the same thickness as the extruded filament itself (so it is not quite stringing, they are not really stretched out like what you see with that). Doesn’t happen on all the parts every time, but randomly (I’ve printed several plates and it seems to move around) and usually just one of the parts would experience this problem.
In this particular project, these little fragments are being caught by the tip of the extruder as it moves away and lifting up the layer that it just printed. In the past I really didn’t worry about them as the larger/flat objects were not really affected by this, the print would finish normally at good quality and I’d find these little fragments here and there on the bed.
I tried a thicker/more consistent layer of gluestick, still lifts a random print off the bed. Used a .20 layer, which seemed to work better (not as many fragments) but would still have the issue. Moved to textured PEI plate, and although the issue still occurred, the textured plate seemed to keep the parts on the bed better. (I don’t want the texture though). If it manages to get through the first 3 layers or so, it normally completes without a problem.
Tried calibrating the filament, but as it is a shiny black, the auto calibration fails so had to use my poor eyesight (even with glasses or magnifying glass) to calibrate it as best I could.
Is there a setting somewhere I could adjust that would eliminate these fragments?
Your help and advice is greatly appreciated.
Bryan
Don’t know if this may help but in order to have everything that comes out of the extruder adhering to the plate I usually disable the part cooling fan for the first 2 or 3 layers and reduce speed for about 20%. This, for my (limited) experience, reduces having fragments and stringing wires adhering to the extruder tip.
PC is painful to print with on any “off the shelf” printer, I use it for one thing and it’s on a purpose made printer with a purpose made cabinet I made about 8 years ago, the chamber gets up to 76-80 degrees
I’ve tried printing it on another printer I could passively get to 55 and the layer adhesion simply was pathetic, one of the things PC tends to do in low temperature enclosures is bunch up when it retracts to move to another part, these used to be called antenas no idea what people call them now - this seems to get worse when the ambient temp is low, I’ve never been able to get an X1C anywhere near the chamber temp for a good PC print
You will never fix the first layer peeling off on an x1 because it’s contracting due to the low chamber environment, again, I’d never print it lower than 75 degrees, it’s an actual industrial filament and needs a purpose built machine for anything other than basic prints that don’t need structural stability
If you really want to persist with it, I’m afraid you’re into old school territory, PC is an ■■■, retraction test is a must for printing it, but you can get rid of those antennas if you do one and a quick flow test, a mixture of proper flow % and retraction amount kills your antennas.
The lifting, you can mitigate it the wrong way by going bigger on the first layer, change layer one to be 0.28 or even bigger if you need to, but you’re just fighting the inevitable, the x1 isn’t pc compatible an never will be without retrofitting a ptc heater that takes the chamber above a temperature the mobo is rated for.
Thanks for the response @Oddity3D this explains why at .20 layer height the results are much better, while at .16 i couldn’t get a full plate without something failing. I’ll give the even higher first layer a try.
As other than this I’ve had good results and I need the tensile strength that PC gives me, I’ll continue trying and take a look at the other recommendations.
Thanks again
Bryan
