Maker Rep 2 Print Issue

[stevanpierce]

I've been having an issue with my rep 2. When printing I have poor adhesion of the filament to the print bed, see pics. If i let the print continue after the initial issues most of the defects have been "worked out" but the final product is not as pretty as I've seen of other prints with same hardware.

To date I have tried, cleaning the stepper motor, adjusting print temps, changed the painter's tape (2 different kinds), took filament off the spool and let it feed freely (make sure it was not a tension issue), and tried a couple of different colors. Also forgot to add that I have leveled the print platform. I do get a small stream of filament coming from the extruder as it heats up for the next job which is not a significant issue but would appear to be gravity fed.

It would appear to me that it is a clogging issue and have done a so-so job of cleaning the nozzle. I've found a couple of videos which I have followed but doesn't appear to be a clog, no tell tail curling of extruded filament that I have read about and seen in a video.

Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated. It is frustrating to a newbie to have issues from the start, used printer btw with about 110 hours on it.

The following files are legit...I don't have a dead uncle who has millions of dollars that died in a plane crash and needs you to Fedex your entire personal information....blah blah blah. I'm human...I have brown hair and today is 2/18 Wednesday.

Many thanks!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5oZBjU_l62HM3pyc3o1b3dhWm8/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5o...ew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5o...ew?usp=sharing

btw-I could not upload the pics in IE, Firefox, and/or Chrome using either the java or standard file manager. Nor could I have attached them otherwise.....I could go off on a tangent but you should see where I am headed with this.

[3dkarma]

Looks like the nozzle is a bit too far away from the bed. The first layer of filament should be smooshed (technical term) into the bed a little. Heat up your hot end, place a piece of paper beneath the nozzle and home the Z axis. If the paper moves freely, your nozzle is too high. Not at all and the nozzle is too low. If you can move the paper easily but feel drag from contact with the nozzle, you're about right.

Make sure you heat the hot end so there isn't and solidified plastic at the business end ruining your setting.

[stevanpierce]

Looks like the nozzle is a bit too far away from the bed. The first layer of filament should be smooshed (technical term) into the bed a little. Heat up your hot end, place a piece of paper beneath the nozzle and home the Z axis. If the paper moves freely, your nozzle is too high. Not at all and the nozzle is too low. If you can move the paper easily but feel drag from contact with the nozzle, you're about right.

Make sure you heat the hot end so there isn't and solidified plastic at the business end ruining your setting.

Good suggestion and will try that later along with my additional finding last night after posting. I looked at the stream of filament it lays prior to starting a print and saw there were little squiggles on the end of it, end being located at the end of the closest corner to the left as you face the printer....not that I would be looking at it from any other side mind you.

I went on the hunch that my x-axis gear needed to be greased and moved it back and forth to see if it would lube itself since I did not have any grease in the house. As it turns out this happened to resolve some of my print issues initially. It laid a good bed for a project I am starting but messed up in the middle of the night. I plan on greasing all components recommend in the following video along with a few other parts which I believe will need to be oiled, despite their making claim of oil impregnated bearings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLF-mms5l7w

The guy I bought it from had about a 100 hours of printing on it and didn't dust the printer or use it on a regular basis. I had to remove a lot of the dust/lint but obviously didn't get all of it. I get the feeling that he performed no maintenance on it as recommended from Makerbot.

I will reply to this posting later in the evening and let you know what happens.