Newbie issues with first print

[lexis200]

Hi,

I've just bought my first 3D printer, the A30. I viewed several videos of other people unboxing theirs and I should start by saying that there wasn't a box of accessories present when unboxing my printer although there was a ziplock bag instead. Also, I have an instruction booklet rather than several foldout pamphlets as shown in the videos, and I don't have what looks like 2 rectangular black molded supports. Don't know if they're important, but I don't have them and they aren't in my package list in the instruction book. Maybe my box is a newer or older version.

I've manually set the bed levels several times, I've also reset the A30 several times to try and level it properly. I used the technique with the paper (I've used both 80gram and 160 gram paper) in-between the nozzle and the bed and I can feel slight resistance at all 5 points, so I think it's set properly. Firmware is V1.35.56.

I've set it up as per the instructions, trawled through the forum, and looked at loads of youtube videos, but can't seem to get a successful first print. The problem is that when it tries to start the print, it doesn't look like it extrudes the filament immediately, and after 10-15 seconds of head movement when it does start extruding, it doesn't stick to the plate. Sometimes it sticks after a little while, but it's just a mess at that point so I have to stop the print.

So, first question, is the head setup completely out of the box? In the bag of tools and other bits, there was a nozzle. Am I supposed to use that, or is the nozzle already attached and the one in the bag is a spare? It looks like there's a nozzle already in place but I can't find anything about a spare in the instructions.

Second question, I'm using Geeetech PLA 1.75mm filament, and I'm trying to print the A30-1.gcode file on the supplied SD card. With no settings changed, it prints at 200 deg nozzle, and 50deg bed/plate. Are these settings correct?

Third question, will increasing the bed make the filament stick more or less, similarly increasing the temp of the nozzle, will that change the stickiness? Also, raising or lowering the plate by 0.5mm, what difference will it make either way?

Sorry for the wall of text, I don't know how much info is required to get the best help.

Thanks in advance!
Dave

[Lexan]

Please do a picture of the first layer.

Yes you have a newer Version, please tell us your hardware version from the LCD
system -> about

pls tell us how do you level your bed, step by step

[lexis200]

Hi, Thanks for the reply.

I can't take a pic of the first layer, there isn't one. All I get is some spaghetti filament around the nozzle as it just doesn't stick.

The hardware version is V2.1-null.

I followed both these videos on YouTube for the levelling.
https://youtu.be/i0fho-5Gyfk at around 13:35, and

https://youtu.be/toKVMLWjTn8

I don't think it's the levelling, but more than happy to be proved wrong if it means I can actually print things reliably!

Thanks
Dave

[gamura]

Hi Dave,

those two rectangular black molded supports are not needed to operate the printer. Their only purpose is to have two things with identical height to adjust both sides manually of the z-axis before printing/leveling.

You told that the PLA would not stick to the bed and extrusion would start after some distance. A friend of mine had a similar issue despite having another printer. As it turned out, there was some kind of protective film on top of his build plate. Thb I cant remember if my build plate had such a film attached to it when it came .

Maybe your nozzle is to close to the build plate so that the filament cant get out. And when it comes out, it will be dragged by the nozzle itself. Sorry for my bad english^^. You could try increasing the distance while leveling a bit.

The stock nozzle on the A30 is fine. I replaced mine after it got clogged heavily... and i was too lazy to clean up all the mess. But when I remember correcly there was no spare nozzle in my A30 package aswell.

I hope i could answer some of your questions.

Gamura

[advil]

Hi,

I've just bought my first 3D printer, the A30. I viewed several videos of other people unboxing theirs and I should start by saying that there wasn't a box of accessories present when unboxing my printer although there was a ziplock bag instead. Also, I have an instruction booklet rather than several foldout pamphlets as shown in the videos, and I don't have what looks like 2 rectangular black molded supports. Don't know if they're important, but I don't have them and they aren't in my package list in the instruction book. Maybe my box is a newer or older version.

Did you actually level the Z axis rail at some point before using the printer? I have a machine shop so I had a couple of precision blocks just put one under each side of the rail on the bed (with the bed already leveled) and turn the two z screws carefully by hand (they turn easily) and lower the rail onto the two blocks. Done. Level. You can get the same job done with only one block of just about anything sturdy but you have to go back and forth between the two sides until the thing slides perfectly the same under each side. That's fine too. Don't obsess about having a pair of precision blocks. I've seen a video where someone set it with a glue stick container.

I've manually set the bed levels several times, I've also reset the A30 several times to try and level it properly. I used the technique with the paper (I've used both 80gram and 160 gram paper) in-between the nozzle and the bed and I can feel slight resistance at all 5 points, so I think it's set properly. Firmware is V1.35.56.

Let's make sure you understand how it works. First you do the middle. Notice there are TWO buttons on the screen .05 and .5 they can be hard to push for some reason but when selected a red box will appear around the button and a beep to let you know. That controls how far each arrow button press will move the head. You'll use the fine setting (.05) only for paper calibration. The coarse movement option is useless for fine tuning. Once you have the middle set make sure to hit the ok button and hear it beep. That should (hopefully) lock in the Z height offset so the firmware remembers it. You'll see the Z height offset number on the screen. THEN do all 4 corners with the wheels. Use standard printer paper. It's always about .09mm thick. (.0035 inch)

I've set it up as per the instructions, trawled through the forum, and looked at loads of youtube videos, but can't seem to get a successful first print. The problem is that when it tries to start the print, it doesn't look like it extrudes the filament immediately, and after 10-15 seconds of head movement when it does start extruding, it doesn't stick to the plate. Sometimes it sticks after a little while, but it's just a mess at that point so I have to stop the print.

Sounds like the print head is too high. If you've only been adjusting with the coarse movement option and not the fine movement that would explain it. Also someone mentioned taking off the factory protective plastic on the bed. Yes mine came with it on it. I'm assuming you found it obvious to remove it... but if not... you can't miss it. Just like the stuff that covers the plastic on a new TV or whatever it peels right off.

So, first question, is the head setup completely out of the box? In the bag of tools and other bits, there was a nozzle. Am I supposed to use that, or is the nozzle already attached and the one in the bag is a spare? It looks like there's a nozzle already in place but I can't find anything about a spare in the instructions.

The head "should" be set up out of the box. The nozzle on mine was fine. I ordered a spare nozzle and it was in a bag with the printer. They may have just tossed one in for you anyway. But if a nozzle is installed that should be the correct one. Remember, these types of printers are not always set up correct out of the box... just most of the time.

Second question, I'm using Geeetech PLA 1.75mm filament, and I'm trying to print the A30-1.gcode file on the supplied SD card. With no settings changed, it prints at 200 deg nozzle, and 50deg bed/plate. Are these settings correct?

The files might vary depending on when you buy your printer. For me the A30-1 is a large budha statue. It takes WAY too long to print for a test (many hours) and might use mroe filament than they sent you. Try the A30-2 file... mine was the dog. Still sizable buy way smaller and faster to print than the budha statue. The stock settings SHOULD work. 200 or 210 degrees, bed temp I might do 55. But those are my prefs and printers vary from one to the next. Stock settings should produce a surprisingly decent print.

Third question, will increasing the bed make the filament stick more or less, similarly increasing the temp of the nozzle, will that change the stickiness? Also, raising or lowering the plate by 0.5mm, what difference will it make either way?

As I posted above try 55 degrees on the bed. Maybe 60 if you are still having issues. If the PLA filament still won't stick something else is going on. My super plate is holding on to PLA super well. I have to let the bed cool down to 30C or less just to get the prints off at all even with a plastic scraper. Make sure you give the bed a gentle wipe with a clean rag with a small dash of alcohol between prints.

Sorry for the wall of text, I don't know how much info is required to get the best help.
Thanks in advance!
Dave

No problem. I've only had the printer about a week now but have gotten a half dozen good prints done already. Just wanted to pass on what I learned during set up. The test prints are a good start. The factory g-code in those files should produce a reasonable print with the standard .4mm nozzle and you can rule out making your own mistakes with a slicer program for now. Get the samples to at least print ok first before diving into the slicers so you don't end up with so many issues going on at once that you get discouraged. You don't have to print the entire sample each time. Just look at the quality. If it's great, let it finish one. If it's not... stop it and fix whatever is going on first then try again.

[lexis200]

Hi Gamura and Advil, and thanks for your replies.

I didn't level the Z axis rail as the instructions didn't show that, I didn't have the identical supports, and neither of the videos I followed showed that it had to be done I have now done that, using 2 cans of coke as they should be pretty similar in height.

I started again with the levelling, starting at point 5 as Advil suggested and used the Z height adjustment controls on screen to get it exactly right using a piece of standard 80gm paper. (Note to anyone reading this later with the same issues, don't relax the 4 outer screws fully, as you then won't have any wiggle room to adjust the corners upwards! Also check there isn't any extruded hardened filament sticking out of the end of the nozzle otherwise you'll get false readings.) After going round and round the 4 corners, and then re-checking with point 5, I'm pretty sure that the bed is now level. I have an offset of 0.30 when I finally hit OK, and after turning it off and on again, it now reads 0.00 so I guess it's compensated for the offset.

There was a protective film on the bed which I took off when I first unpacked it. I've since cleaned the bed with isopropanol.
So, onto the good news... I've managed to do one print! A30-1 for me was a small boat. I manually changed the settings to 55C bed and 210C nozzle, however that took many attempts as the control panel seems to have a mind of its own. That is the only print I've managed to do though, I've tried to replicate it loads of times and the results are always the same, no adhesion to the plate, so the filament gets dragged around by the nozzle until I stop the print.

I then tried another tactic. I found another small model to try, and put that into Ultimaker Cura. Having never used Cura before, it took a while to understand, but I found instructions to add the A30 profile, and selected that for the printer. I then changed the Materials settings to a custom one, and changed the Print Settings to 210C nozzle and 55C plate. Saved that, and exported it to a gcode file. When I set the print going, it started heating the plate to 55C. So far so good. Then it heated the nozzle to 210C. The other two settings showed 100% 13.30 speed and 0/924, not sure what that is... number of layers it needs to print?

As soon as the nozzle came to 210C, the settings changed by themselves. The plate went up to 60C, and the nozzle went down to 200C. This caused a slight pause before printing as the settings adjusted, then it started printing as per normal, didn’t stick, and just left spaghetti around the nozzle once I killed the job. This is exactly what was happening before, just that I could control the starting temps using a different model. I tried it again,
and when the settings changed by themselves again just before the print started, I adjusted the settings manually. Same spaghetti result.

I went back to the levelling screen (which now showed the offset as 0.30 rather than 0.00 as described earlier) and changed from 0.30 to 0.40, cleaned the nozzle and plate and tried another print. Same spaghetti result.

The solution seems to me to be that the print needs to start by having the print head move to the correct starting position, extrusion starts, pauses for a second or two until the filament comes out and hits the plate, then the rest of the print starts. My printer seems to move to the right place, then start the print before the filament comes out, so when it does it doesn’t have time to stick and just gets tangled up.

I’m at a loss to know what to do now. I don’t want to give up, but I must have tried 50 or more prints now, and only 1 came out. There must be something blindingly obvious that I’m missing, or I’ve just got a faulty printer. If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know.

Thanks
Dave

[_kaktus_]

Hello.


Although you haven't presented the photos, I think it's a problem with the adhesion of the filament to the ground.

Do you know this subject?

[lexis200]

Hi kaktus,

Thanks for the link, I haven't posted photos, as there is literally nothing to photo apart from some tangled filament at the end of the nozzle, there's nothing on the plate to take a photo of, unlike the plate in the link you posted. I'll try and take a video and link that somewhere, is there a preferred format for posting or linking videos in this forum?

I'll go through the linked post again and see if there is anything I've missed, but I would have hoped that as long as the plate was level, the test files on the SD card would just work.

I'll report back soon.

[_kaktus_]

Links are inserted by default, when creating a post.

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[advil]

Hi kaktus,

Thanks for the link, I haven't posted photos, as there is literally nothing to photo apart from some tangled filament at the end of the nozzle, there's nothing on the plate to take a photo of, unlike the plate in the link you posted. I'll try and take a video and link that somewhere, is there a preferred format for posting or linking videos in this forum?

I'll go through the linked post again and see if there is anything I've missed, but I would have hoped that as long as the plate was level, the test files on the SD card would just work.

I'll report back soon.

Unless the test PLA filament you got is just bad (unlikely), or it's not PLA... (also unlikely), and provided your nozzle is at 200C or better, and your nozzle is within a normal sheet of paper's distance from the bed... this should be at least sticking. Easily.

So who knows... maybe the test files on your card are wrong?

You could always try the Slic3r PE profile from this thread: https://www.geeetech.com/forum/viewtopi ... 65&t=61905
With Slic3r PE: https://www.prusa3d.com/slic3r-prusa-edition/

And try anything simple. Like a calibration cube: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1278865

That Slic3r profile does a couple of things automatically at the beginning of every print. First by default it extrudes a line down the right side of your print bed to get the nozzle flowing and to let you easily see you are getting good adhesion and squish. It ALSO has brim turned on by default which will put 3 thin layers around the outside of the base of the part that peel right off after you remove the print from the bed. But you aren't even that far you. You havn't even got a single line of filament to stick to the bed yet.

Which still makes us all think you aren't getting the distance calibrated. After you calibrate the middle position there should be an offset number on the screen and it should stay there while the machine is on. Just in case it isn't remembering your Z offset between power cycles, double check your Z level after each power on and off of the box just in case.

Also you said there was an extra nozzle in the box. Have you put calipers to a piece of extruded filament? Are you sure you have a .4 nozzle installed and not a .25 by some mistake of parts provided?