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  1. #1

    Ender 3 - Poor printing of top layers

    Hi all,

    Relatively new to all of this stuff. I recently bought an Ender 3 as my first printer and so far have just been playing around with it, trying prints with different settings to see what the differences are. I've started from the default "Standard Quality" profile in Cura for the Ender 3 and have made only a single change so far, I increased the bed temperature to 65c as it seemed I was having bed adhesion issues. This has helped a little, although it's still not perfect. I've tested changing a few other settings, like the retraction, nozzle temperature and print speed but it seems the further I've strayed from the stock "Standard Quality" profile, the worse the results have been generally.

    I've had a couple of issues so far but the most common across all my prints is that the top layers (usually the final layers, annoyingly) are very poor quality from a structural perspective. I've actually found my prints to be very brittle in general. Mostly so far I've been printing mods/upgrades for the printer itself. I've attached an example of what I'm getting, it's like it lacks the density in the upper layers.

    Any ideas why this could be the case? The extruder slips sometimes too if that could be related, I've read that it's the printer struggling to push out as much filament as it would like but this only happens to my prints intermittently and actually usually only on the first few layers.

    I'm still having fun though!

    Thanks!
    Attached Images Attached Images

  2. #2
    Staff Engineer Roberts_Clif's Avatar
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    Post your Cura version number and settings profile.

    I will take a look.

  3. #3
    Sure, thanks. I'm on Cura version 4.8. I've attached screenshots of the settings, couldn't find a very complete way to export the profile in a txt file or similar... I've only changed the bed temperature and nozzle temperature slightly to match what was recommended by the Filament manufacturer.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  4. #4
    Staff Engineer Roberts_Clif's Avatar
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    Post the STL for me.

  5. #5
    This was the file that produced the prints attached as images to my initial post - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2047554

    I've had the same behaviour with others also.

  6. #6
    Staff Engineer Roberts_Clif's Avatar
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    Sliced with PusaSlicer 2.3.0 using modified Ender 3 Configuration as my Hictop3DP11/12 build area is not the same.

    Image2.jpg

  7. #7
    Yours looks good I think? Sorry, I'm not sure if I've missed something else you were getting at here.

    If this is proof that the file itself is OK, I was pretty sure that was the case. As I said, it's happened on multiple prints, different files.

    Maybe my printer is just defective then.

  8. #8
    Staff Engineer Roberts_Clif's Avatar
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    I do not believe your printer is defective.

    Post your Cura profile.
    We are eliminating from point a - z
    Run Cura Click on Preferences then on the Profile set to print > Export Post this exported profile...

    Something is causing the print to fail, does it always fail at the same height level, even on different models.
    Have you used the LCD Move Axis to see if the full X, Y, and Z axis is obtainable from the LCD.

    I am not in front of the 3D Printer an am walking you through trouble shooting the cause.
    Eliminating the simple problems is 1st then we go into troubleshooting the Mechanical movements.

    Sometimes we ask for you to print a small model an record Video showing the entire print. then Post to a share like Google Drive.
    This is how I help you fix your 3D Printer.
    Last edited by Roberts_Clif; 01-24-2021 at 07:15 PM.

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