Nah, I’d have had to work from home and then set it up straight away. In fact… that’s exactly what I did when my printer was delivered…
Living alone, I have stuff delivered to the office where there are people to sign for it even when I'm not there. They don't let me wfh since I was furloughed for the full 6 months of the plague times.
That… is horseplop... Lack of remote/hybrid working is a deal-breaker for me now. The push to “minimum 50% of time in the office” is about as far as I’m willing to go, since that averages out to 2-3 days a week. But… I am paid to sit in front of a computer screen all day (badly) hacking away at code, and remote/hybrid work is not unusual for professional nerds. I know I got it good in that regard.
I'm actually fine with it. Going in to work means I see other humans and commuting costs nothing as I can charge my EV for free on site!
Has anyone tried Elegoo PLA+? I’ve got a reel of the stuff in “Space Grey” and it just will not stick to the PEI bed. I haven’t calibrated this filament, I’m just using the OrcaSlicer/QidiStudio default profile for PLA+. But every other filament has worked out of the box with default profiles (or dedicated profiles where available). No adhesion issues with any other material I’ve used, TPU, PETG, PLA, or PLA Silk. In fact I have the opposite problem with PETG: it sticks too well. To the point where I’ve actually damaged the PEI surface trying to remove “purge lines”. I’ve got some Polymaker “PolyTerra” PLA and “Eryone” matte PLA on the way from the rainforest today, so I’ll see how they go in terms of bed adhesion. I’m working my way through different brands at the moment. So far I’ve tried Qidi PLA “Rapido”; Sunlu PETG, TPU, and PLA Silk; Elegoo PETG and PLA+. Honestly I’ve been most impressed by Qidi’s PLA “Rapido” so far, the finish quality was exceptional. But it’s comparatively expensive at about £21-£28 per kilo, whereas I paid £23 for 2kg of Elegoo PLA.
Yeah ok, so that's not the filament... This printed fine earlier But subsequent prints are doing this That's not a filament problem, because it happens with filaments that have worked before. And it's not a bed levelling or z-offset issue, because mesh bed levelling runs at the start of every print. So... time to check the extruder for clogs...
Indeed, freshly washed build plate (bit of dish soap and a thorough rinse), and freshly rubbed down with IPA.
Luckily, my prior ownership of a cheap 3D printer kit has prepared me well for these kinds of issues… because they used to happen every single time! With that old printer my first thought would be that the extruder isn’t close enough and I need to tram the bed. I’m not inclined to think that in this case; it sets the z-offset automatically, and an uneven bed is compensated by mesh probing. Both of those run before each print. Next would be bed adhesion, but again I’m inclined to discount that this time because I’ve never had that issue with this printer before. But what I’ve not had to deal with is a clogged nozzle, so I’ll check that first. I will also give the PEI plate another thorough clean before I attempt to print anything again. I’m not ruling out manual bed tramming either, but ideally I need a successful print before I do that because there’s some tools I need. Yep. New rolls get put through a drying cycle and then kept in (and printed from) a dry-box.
I've knacked the head on my Ender V3 KE. A stubborn nozzle, too heavy handed... Some wires are snapped. What are my options to replace? Buy a standard one from Creality? Or something else?
I suppose it depends on whether your current hotend is sufficient for your needs. If so then a replacement is £20 (non-Amazon link, if you prefer). An upgraded hotend could potentially improve flow, consistency, or possibly even handle more abrasive materials (with a suitable nozzle). There are some which claim to not require any firmware/config changes, but others may need modifications. There's also an upgrade to the hotend which has something called a 'Unicorn nozzle' - whatever that means - which seems to be an official Creality part. If you just want your printer back up & running ASAP then I'd say just replace your existing hotend.
Ok, so... Easiest thing first: wash the PEI plate. Pretty sure it was cleaned 2 days ago, and I know it was rubbed down with IPA before the failed prints. But it won't hurt doing it again, just to be sure I haven't contaminated the bed with schmoo from my greasy mitts. Next up, let's stop faffing with various PLAs, let's load some PETG. I know that stuff sticks to the build plate without issue - in fact it sticks so well that I've dinged the build plate trying to get the damn stuff off. Run another full bed probe from the printer, let's just be sure it's got a good mesh. Next, let's try printing some of the adjustment tools needed for manual bed tramming. The mesh isn't terrible, but it'd be nice to get it dialled in a little better - if I can get a successful print... (I don't think the tools are 100% essential, but they make life easier.) Fire up QidiStudio (fork of Orcaslicer) and notice that, "hmm, the layer height is set to 0.28, let's just do 0.2 this time; there isn't much difference in time unless I start faffing with extrusion widths, flow rates, blah, blah, blah..." Fire the gcode over to the printer, wait patiently for it to do all the pre-print gubbins, and watch the damn thing like a hawk when it starts going. (I already (carefully) yanked off the 'purge lines', 'cos if I try and do that when everything's fully cooled.... well... it sticks like poopoo to a blankie...) Now... I don't know about anyone else, but that doesn't exactly look like a printer that's having bed adhesion issues... If this is all because I just need to dial in the filament calibration in order to print at 0.28 layer height then I am going to scream. I'm gonna let this run finish ('cos it's printing tools that'll help with bed tramming) and then try another run in PETG... at a layer height of 0.24. And then again with PETG but at 0.28 layer height. And then (if/when I have time) I'll try a PLA at layer heights of 0.2 first, then 0.24, and finally 0.28.
