I printed a Marvin months ago as a test print when I got my Original Prusa i3. Now I’m trying again to verify my hub, and it’s not looking as good.
Below you can see the results of 4 print attempts. The first one (on the far left) was the test print I did months ago. The others are the ones I did today. Notice how the original one looks smooth and the new ones look rough. I have 2 hypotheses:
- I’m printing in drafty room and that’s making them look bad or
- The filament has been exposed to the air since I got the printer in February and is now starting to go bad
I had a space heater going when I printed these: the room was pretty warm (like 75° F), so I’m thinking it’s not a temp issue.
Could it be how long the filament has been exposed to the air? Or maybe some other problem?
Thanks!
If you want to check to see if it is the filament, you could put the spool in the oven at like 180 deg F, for an hour or so, to remove moisture. Are you printing in ABS or PLA?
I use an i3 as well. The fan settings for the print cooling fan (the one that blows below the extruder) seems to change randomly for me when starting a print. Might see if yours is working as needed. Looking at the last 2 prints, it appears that the material is ‘dragging’. The lower left edge around the eyes is very rough, where the right is sort of pulled back. Too high print temp?
jfield
3
When I worked in a injection molding plant, before we bought a $5000 moisture analyzer, I used to use this method to check for moisture in the plastic pellets: Heat a hot plate up to the melting point of the plastic. Place a glass slide (the kind used for microscopes) on the plate. Put some pellets on the slide. Use a second slide and place on top of the pellets and apply pressure to ‘squish’ the pellets. Look for bubbles forming in the pellets, this is moisture.
I’m printing the first layer at 215 then the remaining print at 205. When I printed that original Marvin it would have been with the stock PLA setting of 210.
EDIT: Yes, I’m printing with PLA
