I bought a second hand Ender 3 v2 Neo. I’ve spent 2 days leveling, replacing a clogged nozzle, fiddling with Z-offsets, nozzle temperatures and I cannot get a decent print going.
Whenever the printer starts it drags filament from the bottom left hand corner to where it starts printing. Filament has trouble sticking to the platform once it does start printing.
Is this rubbish filament or do I have the Z offset set wrong? I home the nozzle and did the paper friction adjustment - but I don’t know how tight the paper should grip. Should it slide as if just starting to touch? Should it grip a little bit?
I just wish I knew what I was doing wrong - the previous owner has been of little help and I’m wasting hours on achieving nothing. Is there something wrong with the extruder or is this just normal setup experience? I’m sick of seeing Youtube videos where people unbox, setup and it just works.
The paper grip should be just enough that you can pull the paper but not push it, that’s what I do with my Ender 5 plus. Then I will print a either a wide skirt or brim as you might need to adjust the z-offset on the screen in 0.05mm increments until you can see the filament is squishing into the bed, takes a little practice . From your picture I would say 0.15-0.2mm would be close to where you need to be. Also make sure that the bed is perfectly clean using dish soap (dawn/fairy, same stuff different country) and water, let it dry and then wipe over with IPA, try to avoid touching the build surface with your fingers, there is enough skin grease to stop a print sticking.
Thanks for that. I will give it a try. I’ve ordered a glass plate - I don’t know if that’s a good or bad idea but I’m concerned about the scratches that are on the existing plate. I’ll give it a good clean down, try what you suggest and see how that goes - and I’ll report back for anybody else reading this post.
I’ve used glass but it can be tricky to remove prints, some stuck so well that it took chunks out of the surface. I much prefer a flexible PEI plate, my tip is to remove the plate so it cools quicker before trying to remove the print, I would let it get cold, the print should pop off easily, the exception being TPU where I would use a glue layer as a release agent.
I found that the other side of the PEI plate had no scratches so I flipped the plate over.
I set the printer to auto home, Move Z axis to 0.0 and then I adjusted the Z-offset so it would grip the paper but couldn’t push the paper under.
I’ve been setting the nozzle temperature to 208, but I left the temperate of the model at 200 degrees to see what would happen. I was wondering if the filament was too hot since it seemed to be oozing our everywhere. . Sun PLA filament is rated 205-225 so I probably set the temperature too low this time?
I noticed that I didn’t get the “hair” being dragged from bottom left to print start but when the printing did start, the filament looked as though it was printing int beads/chains - a bit like glow-worm chains. It looked as though the head was way to far above the plate when printing and filament just seemed to be building up around the head and not sticking to the board.
I thought I’d find the default rabbit model that comes with the Ender 3 v2… That has a nozzle temperature of 200 C as well… and that’s cooler than the quoted temp for my PLA. So what’s the recommendation here - change the model to 205 C (lowest PLA temp) ?
After watching this video, I may have figured it out! I took the direct feeder off and cleaned out the hot end. I changed the rabbit project to print at 205 C and I appear to be getting somewhere!
I’m not sure how the rabbit is supposed to turn out. Does this look about right or should it be smoother?
I guess the next thing I need to try is printing out a model for a small enclosure that I had printed by JLCPCB. That might give me some idea. I know they sand them when finished but hopefully I can get somewhere close.
So… I tried printing the attached model… After printing the oval base, the head moved into thin air, maybe a couple of mm above the plate and started dropping filament from up above as if expecting to lay it in the air.
Is this model supposed to be printed in a different order or something?
I found the glass plate that came with my ender3v2 was useless, Make sure that the bed is clean by using isopropyl alcohol and wipe with paper towel or lint free cloth. If you stall have trouble, use glue stich on the bed. The quality of the finish is generally controlled by the settings in your slicer.
From the above pictures you need to rotate the image or use supports.
When you guys talk about “supports”, do you mean placing a block/plate onto the bed or do you mean generating (printing) some stalks within the model itself to support the overhangs?
I’m loading .stl files into Ultimaker Cura if that’s of any help.
The latter, they are printed blocks/trees to support overhanging material. You can’t print into bare space thus supports are needed. Analogous to squeezing toothpaste, unless there is something to catch it (toothbrush) it will just fall to the floor. The model shown would be better printed the other way up and the supports would be on the corners where the hole bosses are.
