Prusa i3 calibration

Hi everyone!

I've recently bought a Prusa i3 from aliexpress (link) and I'm now trying to get acceptable printing results. Unfortunately, this is still not the case as you can see in the attached pictures.

I'm printing with PLA with nozzle temperature of 210° and heatbed on 55°, since the heatbed only goes to 80° and my ABS prints won't stick to the bed. The heatbed is coated with blue painters tape from a 3d printer store, so I guess this should not be a problem.

Can anyone give me some tips what settings I should change in slic3r to get better results? Or do I need to change something on the hardware?

Thank you very much for your expertise!

Lower your temperature for PLA. 210c is a good starting temp for ABS.
What nozzle size and layer height are you using? It looks like either your layer height is too high, or you have a loose hot end. Make sure it is not wobbling and your layer height is set lower than your nozzle diameter.

Lower?

I am using 215° for PLA with reference on the pack 210 to 230°
As per the pics, it seems the filaments haven't stick together. If too cold, they could be not sticky enough?

Moreover, it seems from the pictures the head is not always following exactly the same path. Have you checked the hot end is not loose?

As for the bed, it seems high to me I use 65 for the first layer and 55 afterwards.

I am clearly a newbee so don't take may comments to the letter.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2015 01:41AM by fdf.

Quote
KingRahl
Lower your temperature for PLA. 210c is a good starting temp for ABS.
What nozzle size and layer height are you using? It looks like either your layer height is too high, or you have a loose hot end. Make sure it is not wobbling and your layer height is set lower than your nozzle diameter.

I tried with 190°, but the results were even worse. Layer height is set to 0.3mm with 0.4mm nozzle diameter. Is that too high?
Not sure how to check for a loose nozzle, it doesn't feel loose, but then I can't say I can feel wobbling at .2mm.

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fdf
As per the pics, it seems the filaments haven't stick together. If too cold, they could be not sticky enough?

That's what I assume, probably something wrong with the temperature sensor. I've now ordered a new hotend and will try with this one, in case something blocks the filament flow and alters the direction, at which the filament comes out of the nozzle.

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fdf
As for the bed, it seems high to me I use 65 for the first layer and 55 afterwards.

80° is the maximum temperature, I'm printing at 55°.

Thanks for the help so far!

i also got one from aliexpress different then that one but still a prusia
did u have to install and configure the firmware or is that the way its printing out of the box

i am printing abs at 95deg bed (probably dont need to be that hot) and print head 215 ish

i got a pc of 1/4 in lexan to print on and use elmers glue stick on it works very well only thing i really changed in slicer is the birm perimiter 5mm i think

i am no expert by any means gawd it took me over a month to get mine printing right but am just wondering if it is calbrated right

Nickrage