Print quality declines during printing?!

[SPeachey]

Hi,

I have recently been given an Anet A8 and have spent quite a few days trying to wrap my head around it and the Cura software. I have managed to get it to reliably start and complete a print without completely failing but I have noticed that the consistency isn’t great.

I am currently doing a print job now that’s about 80mm tall and you can see at the beginning the quality is almost perfect (ignore the supports). However, eventually it turns to crap and leaves a lot of gaps. I’m not sure what it’s called or what I can do to prevent this either. I’m printing at 30 mm/s at 0.2mm thickness. Fan speed is 70%. Not sure what else to include but let me know.

The other image is of another completed print which has the same issue at 0.1 mm thickness and similar speed. I printed some small support things which I placed over the Z axis rods to stop them wiggling around, so I don’t think it’s to do with those. I have ordered a glass bed and some new filament as I am not sure how old the current filament is.

https://ibb.co/mhgJ6yz
https://ibb.co/hd2bswG
https://ibb.co/PYXd62Z

if anyone could help that would be awesome as I am trying to design and print a model rocket for a personal project.

Thanks!

[curious aardvark]

the z axis is - apparently - supposed to wigle.
I Know, I made some tops to stop them doing it and it made the prints worse :-)
Basically they use really cheap parts and the screw rods just aren't that straight - so you need to let them wobble :-)

The other thing is to make sure that the z gantry is straight, bound to be a youtube video on that somewhere.

You've got under extrusion in the print.

where is your filament ? It needs to be on top of the machine to reduce the drag on the spool.
Also what temperatures are you printing at ?
what slicer are you using ?
And what filament are you using :-)

[SPeachey]

the z axis is - apparently - supposed to wigle.
I Know, I made some tops to stop them doing it and it made the prints worse :-)
Basically they use really cheap parts and the screw rods just aren't that straight - so you need to let them wobble :-)

The other thing is to make sure that the z gantry is straight, bound to be a youtube video on that somewhere.

You've got under extrusion in the print.

where is your filament ? It needs to be on top of the machine to reduce the drag on the spool.
Also what temperatures are you printing at ?
what slicer are you using ?
And what filament are you using :-)

Thank you for the response, I will look into those! Do you know why the under extrusion wouldn't be happening at the very beginning of the print though?

My filament is on top of the machine, but if I don't print anything for a couple days it will snap and I have to re-feed it. Is that a sign that it's too old? I should be getting some new PLA today though actually as its almost run out.

It has been printing PLA+ at 200 C but it fluctuates between 197 and 200 so I figure its more like printing at 198.5. Also I am using Cura for the slicer!