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Forums › Home Workshop DIY › What went wrong? (3D Printing mishap)
askelon

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#319792 3-Jun-2025 08:20
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I finished printing the last parts for a box last night, the top and the base.  The base is fine, the 4 sides are fine but the lid is all sorts of screwed up.  Taking it off the build plate its like it delaminated into three bits.  Most unusual. I have printed the top previously without any issues on a previous roll of PLA - both rolls are creality branded, the current one first opened Saturday. 

 

I'll try redoing it later when I get home.  Or just not bother!  I did change the infill / pattern from default but I wouldnt have thought that would make a big difference, at least it never has in the past. 

 

The printer in question is a Ender3 V2.  I print at 210 with a bed of 60. I have found that works well for that particular PLA after lots of trial and error.  

 

The actual print looks correct on the top and the bottom.  Maybe the STL was a little iffy. Not sure if I used that one the first time or another. The plan next is to print the whole box as one piece rather than 5 and the top separate. Just dont want to get to the end of a 24 hour print for it to fail! 

 

 

 

 

What it should look like: 

 

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tehgerbil
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  #3380121 3-Jun-2025 11:02
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Hey there Askelon,

 

I've just given my Creality V3 a birthday after putting several thousand hours through it, here's what I can see from your print and what I've done on my printer which may help your situation too.

 

Just from your pics - Your bed levelling is off based on pic 3 having gaps in the first layer.
And your prints display ringing/ghosting caused by loose pulleys/loose frame.

 

 

 

-For the Z-offset make sure you're doing this with a hot bed and print head. For the love of God don't burn yourself, but a hot calibration will be more accurate than a cold one.

 

-Run a microfibre rag along all of the gantry V guide rails even miniscule print dust can build up and cause wavy prints too.

 

-You should be able to pluck your belts and they all make the same dull 'Dung' sound. If they don't sound even, tighten/loosen until they do.

 

-All your wheels should be able to be turned (with resistance) by hand, if you move your head, check for any wheels which don't rotate and loosen them. If there are any bald spots you'll need to replace them.

 

-Nozzles are consumable items, if you haven't replaced your nozzle after at most a few hundred hours of printing it's likely out of spec and likely larger than the original .4, you can try lowering your layer width to .38 and see if this helps compensate if your head is old and you don't have a spare.

 

-A little more complex, but personally worth it was dismantling the head and feed mechanism, my stepper motor cog was full of plastic dust and was causing inaccurate flow rates. I sprayed WD40 on an old toothbrush and went to town on that bad boy.

 

-Check your resistance screw and loosen it way the heck off then a few rotates to firmly but not tightly grip the filament. These are often way too tight from factory and cause big serrated chew marks in your fed filament which doesn't melt right. 

 

-Run an e-steps calibration if you haven't already, it's really easy if a bit daunting at first.. Just measure 90mm, 100mm, 110mm and 120mm on the filament (a sharp knife V-notch works well) and then use the printers move menu to feed 100mm, measure the results and whack it into a free calculator in Google to get the right E-step calculation.

 

I hope all this helps a little. :)

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