What’s wrong here? Creality Ender 3 Pro

Hi, I’m a newbie, first week of printing, with a brand new creality ender 3 pro. In this object I have lots of random supports that are failed and don’t really understand why, when the main support lattice is largely printing fine, there are these seemingly unnecessary extra ribs which are ragged and have loads of gaps. In the same vein, the very bottom of the object shows poor adhesion between lines and layers, can see the plate through it (still printing). Similarly some supports are only partially attached to their neighbours. I imagine this is basic stuff and would appreciate some tips.Attachment 14150

Attachment 14151

It's hard to say as the image is very small, but looking at the external walls, it could be under extruding.

As a newbie, I am presuming you have not yet heard or learned about calibrating the extruder. It's not a dig we have all been there at some point.

I have posted a few links below that I have written that you may find useful.

Start with PID Tuning the heating element
PID Tuning Extruder Calibration

Then do the bed (You might as well while you are at it, it is worth doing)
Heated Bed PID Calibration

Then calibrate the extruder motor
Calibrating Your Filament Extruder

Hope it helps you out

Hi, much appreciated your reply, no, I hadnt even realised I ought to calibrate the machine so I'll try that, as the explanations in the links do sound like that could be at the root of it. Another question, if I may; I've used the OEM slicer software, simply called 'Creality Slicer', would I get a better quality print, with like for like settings, if I used Cura?

Obviously a lot for me to learn!

Regarding Creality Slcier vs Cura probably not, cure has good Ender 3 / Pro profiles keep the layer speeds the same to start.

Things to change in cura

Temperature for heated bed 60c is a good starting point

Filament temperature depends on the filament but most of the cheaper filament tends to be around the 205c mark and then print a temperature test Look at thingiverse for those

Flow Rate change this with the new value after calibrating the extruder

Retractions will vary even between same machines sometime, but start at 6mm with a speed of around 60mm if possible if not lower speed.

Hope it all helps.

I've just looked at your "Steps to take when you first get your 3D printer" page, very useful, thanks

Cool, hope it helps. All the best.

those extra threads look exactly like the lines in an .stl file that come from curves and circles.... I wonder if they are showing up in the slicer file as real parts.???

Hi, funnily enough when I learned how to see the layers in the slicer I could see those lines are actually present as part of the fill, so that part of the issue is solved. I’m still not sure what is causing under-extrusion but have a possible culprit; the hot end cooling fan wasn’t working. Once I’d calibrated everything following the earlier responses, I started getting severe blockages in the hot end so a test cube would be okay for the first 2mm or so but then start to fail such that, within another couple of layers, nothing was getting laid down. The retailer has sent me new hot end fans and once I’ve fitted these and some Capricorn tubing (The original is now a bit short, from cutting off the irretrievably blocked section) I’ll see what happens..

And for anyone finding this thread with similar problems, it looks like it was probably 1 of 2 things, or a combination of both;
- the broken fan
- the filament feed tube not being seated tightly against the nozzle, as I found a thin ring of cooked plastic inside the Bowden fitting.

either way, it’s fixed now and I’m able to once again get complete, reasonably good prints, especially after calibrating the paid head and filament feed.

thanks again for the helpful responses

I think your printer try move without lift. You can try "liftt z when retracting" on slicer software. Hope it hepls..

I don't think you can get a better quality print. I tried it, see nothing special, actually. Firstly, it was quite good, but than was slower and slower. Maybe problem is with my equipment. Have no idea, btw.