Bad Infill, clicking, but fine outline?

[Bassna]

Last night I was printing something and when it's doing the infill, it's making a clicking noise when doing it. The outline looked fine, and the print still came out looking fine. But the infill was very shotty.


Not much different than I usually print infill, Simplify3D, with these settings.

I tried changing the temp pretty high while it was printing, and it was still doing it. I'm thinking maybe there is a small clog in the extruder? When I get home today I plan on taking it apart, I have yet to have to clean it out or have it jam on me, so maybe that could be the issue?

Thanks!

[jfkansas]

That 200% is trying to push too much filament, try 150%. Definitely check the nozzle though. I pop the nozzle off before all really long prints just to check condition and condition of the PTFE. Worst thing is get 5 hours into a piece and it stops going right. Lots of filament waste.

[Bassna]

Update: I have cleaned out the extruder, and lowered the 200% to 150%. Here's a photo of the next part I'm printing. The clicking is not happening now, but the infill is just pretty bad still. It's not AS bad as the first picture, but it's still not great.

I'm not sure really what else to do to make S3D's infill better, without going back to 200% maybe. Any idea's?

[jfkansas]

Why so worried what infill looks like? It is infill and doesn't show.

I usually run my infill at 20%, 45, -45, 0 and 90. 150% extrusion. 10% might be a little light, it will still be strong once the top layers are laid down. You aren't gonna do any structurally strong parts at 10% infill. That needs to be done at 30-50% to start.

[Bassna]

Doing another part (it's a 14 part thing i'm making) and it's clicking again, at 150%. I'm running it even slower than before, I honestly see no reason why it should need to go slower than it's at. Next part I will change my settings to your 45, -45, 0, 90 and give that a shot. And yeah I understand it's not going to be super strong or anything at 10%, or how it look's, But as weak as those layers are looking....just seem's like they should be more connected, ya know?

Basically clicking mean's that my extruder is having trouble feeding the filament down, correct? It's slipping, or is it possible that maybe I need to remove the nozzle itself and maybe check that out?

[jfkansas]

The filament feeder doesn't slip, it either pushes or eats a hole in the filament, else the stepper gets overloaded and clicks. The click is like a clutch in an electric screwdriver where it won't over torque. I guess it could slip if it was caked in shredded filament, but you cleaned all that out right? Try printing at .2 layer height, that picture looks like .3mm. Thicker layer height has to push way more filament through to fill the gap. Also the infill would be a little tighter with smaller layers.

[Bassna]

Yep doing 0.3 mm to save some time. I suppose I could drop it down to 2, think I'll try 0.25 first and see how that does. And yeah cleaned it pretty good the other night, but not the nozzle.

[curious aardvark]

you have to go up to 250% width before s3d creates decent infill - ie: every layer bonded with the one above and below.
It's the single worst aspect of the program that it just won't create solid infill.

For things that need to be strong I use makerware. A 10% infill with makerware is stronger than a 60% infill with s3d. Because it forms a solid interior mesh. Each layer bonds with the ones above and below.

Given how simple a thing this would be to implement - I just don't understand why s3d don't do it.

[SpragClutch]

you have to go up to 250% width before s3d creates decent infill - ie: every layer bonded with the one above and below.
It's the single worst aspect of the program that it just won't create solid infill.

For things that need to be strong I use makerware. A 10% infill with makerware is stronger than a 60% infill with s3d. Because it forms a solid interior mesh. Each layer bonds with the ones above and below.

Given how simple a thing this would be to implement - I just don't understand why s3d don't do it.

So true! I've been having the same problems. On small prints its easy to get a solid infill with S3D. But as soon as you try and print something bigger, the Infill looks just like the above pictures. Its frustrating. I just want a good layer on layer infill option in S3D. And not try to mess around with infill width. If I increase the infill width, the first cm looks nice and strong, then it starts to build peaks and ridges. Then when the peaks and ridges get high enough, it strings the infill. And now I don't have a solid infill. And now I have an object that looks good on the outside, but cant take any force with out crinkling.