Need help - Printing quality went horribly bad

[Geoff]

Now if this is the extruder fan then what is happening is the filament feed tube is gradually getting hotter the longer you print. softening the filament and causing dodgy filament feeding, the longer you print the worse it should get.

The fans are there for a reason :-)

I'd say that's what's happening yeah. The Nozzle is having trouble regulating heat because there is no fan too cool it, it needs both. I think people think they need cooling fans to just cool the print as its printing - On on a Kossel have 1 fan because it's easy to angle it at the nozzle and the print at the same time, other machines not so easy. But to have No fan? well you just wouldn't print or try because you could basically burn out the thermistor or ceramic heater - some machines don't have a failsafe (like the flashforge! lol)

I did this the other day, I ran my flashforge without the fan because I was trying to see where my blockage was. The thing could not keep it stable. Set it to 230c. Without the fan.. 238..... 242... 250... OK time to switch off now. The output from the print pretty much looked identical to his first pictures. Fat over extruded layers compacted because it printed so hot.

[zusanli]

So... thank you for all your replies, hints and tips!
I did a calibration, but it was indeed almost perfect calibrated - as I told, the problem was suddenly there.
But I'm a step further, I think.

I installed repetier host and when I'm using the Cura engine insted of the slic3r engine, the prints become better.
but they are not really good, the look is similar, but not as much as before.

And as I noticed before, there is like a click at the extruder, and in that clicking moment the filament isn't extruded. So this could be the cause of the lost filament inbetween.
I googled upon that clicking sound but I think there are different kinds of that click sound.
It is not a loud click, and in the beginning of a print there aren't such clicks. Most of the time.

Did someone have had those clicks ?

Greetings! Sebastian

[LuckyImperial]

So... thank you for all your replies, hints and tips!
I did a calibration, but it was indeed almost perfect calibrated - as I told, the problem was suddenly there.
But I'm a step further, I think.

I installed repetier host and when I'm using the Cura engine insted of the slic3r engine, the prints become better.
but they are not really good, the look is similar, but not as much as before.

And as I noticed before, there is like a click at the extruder, and in that clicking moment the filament isn't extruded. So this could be the cause of the lost filament inbetween.
I googled upon that clicking sound but I think there are different kinds of that click sound.
It is not a loud click, and in the beginning of a print there aren't such clicks. Most of the time.

Did someone have had those clicks ?

Greetings! Sebastian

Clicking at the extruder is a sign that it's skipping. This is typically due to some sort of jamming at the hot end. Usually heat expansion jamming. This is exactly what Geoff was saying in his post above.

You need to get a fan that points directly onto the hot end heat sink. Something like this:
https://fabing3d.files.wordpress.com...8/img_2808.jpg

Also, as stated earlier, you need a fan that points onto the print, since you are printing with PLA.
https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/p...ing-51468.jpeg

Furthermore, 210C for PLA is on the high side. Try 190C or 195C.

[zusanli]

Ok - so as I'm using repetier I can change the values "on the go", I use 190°C. A slowed down 40mm/s, for shell 31mm/s. I have such a fan to cool the hotend and the part, is now on to 100%.
Seems getting a bit better. But still some clicking.
Could it be that the layerheight is too small, I mean smaller than 0.2 when I choose 0.2 mm, so that the pressure of the noozle to the printed part jams the hole ?

The first layer height seems to be a bit too high, it only sticks to my heatbed (50°) when I use 210°C printing temp.
I found out that the problem is definitively the clicking, because for a span of time there is no extrudet filament. So when this problem is solved, my quality should be ok.

[LuckyImperial]

Well, there's two more things you can test.

1. Adjust your flow multipler down. This is the same as extruding less filament. Try 90-70%.

2. Slow it down. 20mm/s is quite normal for a Cartesian printer.

It's good that you got some fans.

[cjalas]

If your filament isn't getting into the hotend, make sure that the extruder nozzle/throat is all the way up sealing any gaps between it and the extruder drive. Any space between could be causing havoc on the filament guiding its way into the nozzle.

[TraceChaser]

3D printing is not plug-N-play. There are many aspects to producing a quality print, as we all know. As for me using and recommending American-made filament, it's a matter of confidence in the quality. It's knowing the specs and testing that went into manufacturing it and that the maufacturer is only a phone call away, if I have concerns. I can focus on other aspects when I produce a less-than-optimal (READ: crappy) print.
I don't have time to bounce questions about filament, off of the (typical) drop-shipper who also sells jewelry and shoes.
I know there are non-U.S. suppliers of quality filament; I happen to like U.S.-made filament.