Newbee here. Got my LZB Mini several days ago and printed the Roctopus. Switched to PLA (eSun) using default settings (205/60) and started printing prototype parts for my work. Trouble occurs right at the start of the print. On the round outlier circle (part is a gear) it doesn’t feed material until several loops, so only the last loop gets material. The filament is feeding all the time, so I don’t know why it doesn’t appear earlier. Then the first 10 passes or so are a mess. The material finally fills in and rest of the part is correct.
Any help would be appreciated.
2 Likes
SOC3D
2
Esun is generally hotter temps than other, better, filament.
Umake
3
Try to add this Gcode to ‘start gcode’ in your slicer software. Use copy paste and make sure the lines follow up each other. Works witch Cura and Simplify3d.
;M190 S{print_bed_temperature}
;M109 S{print_temperature}
G21
G90
M82
M107
G28 X0 Y0
G28 Z0
G1 Z0.8 F{travel_speed}
G92 E0
G1 F400 X15 Y3 E20
G1 F700 X18 Y3 E18
G92 E-2.5
G1 F{travel_speed}
;Put printing message on LCD screen
M117 Printing…
I would also try cleaning the extruder’s hobbed bolt and adjusting the tension (tighter).
tdhbtg
5
Thanks for all the help. I think I have identified two problems. One is filament trash accumulated on the drive gear, causing it to slip. This occurred from several failed starts that I aborted and the filament wind/rewind on the same piece of filament chewed it up.
The second problem may be incorrect initial leveling procedure of the print head to the bed. According the LZB, if there is any trash on the nozzle, it can’t correctly touch the pads electrically and that throws off the stage height calibration, wich can make a mess of the bottom print levels. I haven’t gotten back to check this out, but it sounds plausable. We will see if that is the problem.
I will keep all the suggestions above for future reference.
I’ve helped people with this printer model, and the plastic on the nozzle really is a problem for the auto-level.
Can you tell me what this code does? Thanks.
What filament do you recommend? Sources. I am using PLA for the mechanical strength.
To begin with, I wouldn’t call PLA “strong” (it’s a bit brittle and doesnt handle heat well). I use ABS for a lot of mechanical parts. There are also more exotic materials that are stronger still, but if you want one of the basic materials, I’d recommend ABS. I use Gizmo Dorks ABS from Amazon, as it’s inexpensive and works well on my TAZ 5.
Be careful switching to ABS if you choose that route. You want to make sure there’s no PLA in the nozzle when you go to the higher temperatures.
Umake
10
It flushes the nozzle with quite some filament, retracts a bit and extrudes slightly more that the retraction at the start of the actual print. You don’t need to print a skirt at all.
tdhbtg
11
Yep, this was the problem. On the same subject, after the Mini scrubs the print head on the (new) wipe pad I notice a lot of lint/fuzz sticking to the head. While it didn’t seem to affect the leveling procedure, I don’t like the nozzle not being clean.
Should this be a concern?
Now on to elephant’s foot. My bottom layer(s) are too hot and are collapsing. Everything above that is OK. I know there are settings for the bottom layer(s), but I don’t know enough about Cura to change them, or what to change them to.
RCole
12
There are a couple of things that you need to check. One is that the fan is enabled (in Cura - that’s on the advanced tab). Also, do you have a minimum layer time? The PLA may need extra time to cool before you put another layer of hot plastic on top of it. I like to set my minimum layer time to 20 seconds (perhaps excessive, but it works).
I run eSun PLA at 200/60 and most of my prints work great (most of my failures have been my fault).
Sra1
13
Nozzle Cleaning - make one of these cheap and automatic hotend nozzle cleaner / brush by Skimmy - Thingiverse
Elephants Foot - bring your bed temp down. Try starting at 40 degrees, and increase it in 5 degree intervals until you’re happy. If it helps, I’m printing PLA at 48 right now, but my sensor might be off, it could be 50 or 45. Thats why other people’s temperatures are not much use. See A visual Ultimaker troubleshooting guide - 3DVerkstan Knowledge Base for more info. The bed temp only really helps with the first few layers, if you’re printing something small and say 2cm tall, you can probably turn the bed off - it wont be totally cool by the time your model finishes printing. However, if you;'re printing something taller say 10cm tall, then you probably want it on the whole time really.
SBD3D
14
Check always closely the autocalibration process. If the nozzle is a bit dirty, then the electric contact between nozle and metal circles in the corners can fail, and first layer starts too low. So low, that it can damage your PEI bed surfdace.
Always check your nozle is perfectly clean before start printing! 
