I’m brand new to 3D printing and picked up. FlashForge Finder to use with my daughter. Out of the box we’ve leveled, loaded filament and updated the firmware. We’ve tried to print the test cube but it doesn’t work.
First, when the Nozzle warms up is it supposed to leak melted filament out before it starts to print? Mine has a strand curling down and when it goes to lay down its first layer it gets it gunked up.
We haven’t printed anything. We put down a layer of blue Painters tape and releveled. Still haven’t printed anything!
All the reviews are so glowing and beautiful prints. What am I doing wrong?
is my nozzle too close to the plate? Too far away?
Enza3D
2
Hello and welcome to the world of 3D printing!
What you’re seeing isn’t uncommon for the first couple of prints; it takes time to get used to your machine and understand what it means when different things go wrong.
First off, it is completely normal for the extruder to ooze as it heats up. The printer takes time to get warm, so you end up with this window of time where the plastic is warm enough to start melting and ooze, but not yet hot enough to be extruded. If you give me some more information about how you’re printing (material, temperature, software, etc.) you might be able to reduce this by either lowering temperature or editing the commands that get sent to the printer so it will wipe the nozzle before laying down the first layer.
Next, I’d check the leveling again. Use a thin piece of paper (notepad paper works really well) and adjust the extruder so that it’s high enough that you can easily wiggle the paper when the extruder is above it, but tight enough that you feel it pull on the paper slightly. It takes a bit of practice to get good at leveling, so be patient here. Once you’re done leveling start a new print and watch how the first layer goes down. If the filament isn’t sticking to the bed at all and starts curling right away, your nozzle is too far away from the bed. If the extruded filament stick, but then is pulled up by the nozzle as it moves around, your nozzle is too low.
Also, try using a glue stick along with the painter’s tape. After leveling, take an Elmer’s glue stick (or any other cheap brand) and coat the build plate with a thin layer of glue. Let it dry, then try printing again.
Hello fellow FF Finder owner,
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I too, am also fairly new to the world of 3D Printing, but am learning more and more with every day of use and with every print I make. I had a very similar problem the very first times using this printer, and according to your post, this seems to be the problem; When leveling, it says “tighten screws” or “adjust screws” and doesn’t really explain what that means. When tightening the screws, the plate lowers, and when loosening the screws- it heightens the plate. Be sure that you tighten all screws together, not separately, and don’t make them too tight (all 3 of mine stripped at one point).
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Next, when leveling, it says to adjust screws. You will now loosen the screw it tells you to until you hear a loud noise coming from your printer. At this point in time, as still as possible, you are to tighten the screw until the noise stops (sometimes I tighten slightly more). Continue for the remaining screws and you should be golden for printing.
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One of my first errors was not knowing how this leveling process worked. I tightened the screws, but never made sure to loosen them to the point of hearing that noise, which helps you level the build plate. This should fix your current problem. Be sure to ask if you have any more errors, as I have run into some along the way, but have fixed them.
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You could always level your printer twice to be sure, just make sure you tighten all screws a few times before the second leveling. It’s also a good idea to level after as many prints as you feel comfortable with. As long as you don’t see many errors, you should be okay.
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Sometimes the bottoms of your prints may curl up at the edges, using a raft when making your .g file will help significantly with this, along with some light glue stick on the tape.
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When using extremely low print layer heights (~0.1mm) for added smoothness, your leveling needs to be as precise as possible. I always make my first layer thicker, such as 0.3mm base with 0.1mm or 0.15mm layer height.
I apologize for the long post, but this information should be very helpful!
Hope this helps, and happy printing! 
-Brandon
