Bad print quality [Advice needed]

Hi.

I cant understand what is wrong with my printer.

My prints are always having an horrible print quality.

What could be wrong?

Check the pics: [www.dropbox.com]

That's 3mm ABS with 235-250° and 100-110° in heated bed. And its this part: [www.thingiverse.com]

Main problems:

- First layer never sticks on glass
- Remaining layers have dificult to stick to each other
- We can see layer lines on the side. This wasnt supposed to be visible, i believe

I have tested same thing with small and simple pieces to make the calibrations, but same thing always happened.

I am using repetier host + slic3r and latest marlin firmware from [github.com] and a 0.4mm nozzle.

I am using ABS from [www.3dprinters-shop.com]. Is this a good quality material?

Same thing happens on PLA with 185-200° and 60-70° in heated bed.

I can provide any adicional information. I am desperate on making this work. Its been about 20 hours of calibrations, and no success at all.

Thanks in advance

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2013 09:00AM by Crux.

what hot end are you using, and what are your settings for slic3r. it seems like your feedstock is slipping? can you slow down your print?

HI. I didnt understand the "feedstock is slipping" expression. Could you elaborate it?

I am using G3D Buda-style HotEnd v1.2 [gadgets3d.com]. I installed a fan on it, to direct the air to the upper part of the hotend.

Here are my slic3r settings: [www.dropbox.com]

And here is my configuration.h from Marlin: [pastebin.com]

Any ideas on what to do next?

What are the most common reasons for this? So i can have a focus. At the moment I dont even know where to change values, so I may change them in the wrong place.

Hi Crux.

It's obvious from the photos that you're trying to print a whistle with support enabled. If you want a functional whistle, you'll have to turn support off. You'll also need to ensure that bridging works for you. In other words, you're probably best off using something like a 20mm box for your initial prints, and coming back to your whistle later.

One thing you need to work out is getting your print's first layer to stick. I can tell from the photos, if I'm interpreting the bottom correctly, that you don't have your initial z-height down low enough. On the first layer, your filament should come out "smooshed" and look somewhat flat.

Even when your prints are perfectly calibrated, you'll still be able to see layers in your borders. But yours are particularly bad. What you might have there is a bit (large bit) of z-wobble. When you move your printer through z, do you see your vertical rods wobbling back and forth at all? If so, find what is allowing them to do that and make it stop.

And listen to james. If it's reasonable to slow down your print, do so.

And here's a test you can try. Move your nozzle high up in the center of the bed. Extrude 100mm of filament. Watch what comes out. Does it do so steadily, or does it come slow/quick/slow/quick? Adjust what you need to (looser or tighter extruder idler, maybe? bad hobbed bolt? wrong extrusion temperature?) to make it come steadily.

Once you can extrude steadily, you can make sure your e steps are calibrated. There are a couple different ways to do this. Try a couple.

Do these things one at a time, and slowly advance towards a better print. And remember, all this troubleshooting is just part of the fun!

Good luck.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2013 03:28PM by Karmavore.