I am using two almost identical Dremel 3D20 printers (one has a few more hours on it), and one of them prints the same print fine, while the other leaves gaps in the top fill. I printed the good one at 0.1 layer resolution and approx. 20% infill, and the bad one at the same settings. Then to try to troubleshoot the issue, I changed the infill, no. top layers, and extrusion width multiplier, multiple times (there is no actual extrusion multiplier setting in the Autodesk Print Studio slicer) on the printer that made the bad circle, and have had no luck or improvements. Cold pulls was one of the first things I tried before I had the nozzle burned out. I have read many print quality guides and forum posts to try to fix this but nothing seemed to describe my problem well enough. Any advice to help fix this would be appreciated, but I will not have access to the printer to try anything out until the 24th. Thanks in advance.
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It looks like you are under extruding. It might be caused by bad filament (size smaller than the spec) or issues with the extruder (skipping steps, etc). I don’t have experience with the Dremel firmware, but other firmwares, you can adjust the extrusion rate to compensate. You can also play games with the setting if it has a setting for filament diameter. Instead of 1.75mm, you can change it to 1.60mm and it would extrude more material. I prefer to use Simplify3D for my slicing program. It has a lot more options and allows you to compensate for extrusion rates and also any dimensional problems if needed.
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Thanks for your tips. With some luck maybe I can get it to work properly soon. Do you think that this could be caused by a worn nozzle?
Not worn, but clogged. The clog could be caused by debris that got into the filament side or it could be damage to the nozzle. I had the nozzle slam into the glass a few times because of a bad setting or error and over time, the tip of the nozzle has a small dent or burr that stops the flow of the filament.
You need to figure out what is causing the clog to make sure the plastic is extruding smoothly. Another possible cause is high retraction settings on a bowden or direct drive setup with a fast retraction rate. What happens is the plastic did not get to cool down and its being pulled up to an area of the hot end where it may cause a jam. Since the heat from the hot end does not reach the area, the harden plastic restricts the flow of the filament. That is why you should keep the cooling fan on the hot end even after a print to prevent the plastic from melting up past the hot zone.
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Thanks for the advice. I am fixing to take a look in the nozzle and hot end and see if I can find a jam or any damage. If it all looks good, I’ll keep toying with the settings. It has been extruding “pigtails” which I know can mean a partial jam, but at the same time, I’ve gotten excellent prints with it when it “pigtailed” prior to printing.
