I am a freshman K2 owner and I am working to learn the ways around Creality print and how to get the K2 to print the best possible way with the filaments that I already have.
I have an interesting issue with a spool of PETG that I would appreciate your opinion on. For the record I don’t think this filament is good, but it works and has worked well in my old printer and at this point in time I just want to use my old spools before going to new filament.
The PETG is kind of not sticking and fragmenting as the printer prints it. I am not sure if I need to dry it again or this is just too bad to be used.
See the photos please. A few parts didn’t stick to the plate properly but that wasn’t the issue. The issue is generalised. I deleted the parts that had issue from the slicer so the printer would stop printing those.
So many parts. I have had a few multi object prints fail but that was 10 objects not… 50? My issue was support and rafts on one or more objects that caused it/them to detach, stick to the hot end and then go and a tour of wanton destruction around the plate. For the filament concern, I would print one or two by themselves to see if it actually will print well and then gradually approach vast arrays of parts, To start I would pick objects with no overhangs starting large and going smaller. If you know which one failed first, after a successful test print, have a go at that one by itself. Unfortunately the larger the number of parts the worse the odds of one letting go and ruining the lot. Coming from a long line of bed slingers, I am gaining faith in my K2 but I am unsure when I would be confident enough to print that much on a single plate. Props and cudos to you for breaking trail!
You did not mention which type of PETG you use and which filament profile you use.
The general profile is not good and need to be corrected for most of my PETG, either with higher or lower print temperatures or/and slower printing (lower max flow rate). It does not like also cooling, especially on so many parts cooling of side/auxiliary fan need to be turned off completely.
I also saw that you did PA/flow rate calibration. This is OK but if you generate a filament profile you should dial in correct values instead running calibration on every print.
The lines for the PA calibration are pretty wide which tells me that you would need an Z-offset because the nozzle is too close to build plate and PETG does not like that at all! I need to add 0.025mm to Z-Offset for my PETG prints!
p.s.: The retracts are OK, they do not cause problems, I just would not do Z-Hops on retracts and you can switch that of in your personal print profile as well, like you could with Z-offset.
Thanks for the reply, I expected no less than that when I sent that many parts to the K2. I used to print all i could fit on a Flashforge Creator pro 2 which a much smaller build plate than that. So I cant only expect the K2 to find it a breeze. I think the filament is bad, really bad. I will try some single flat parts to see and will report back.
Thanks for the input, lots of interesting points there.
The profile is the generic problem, I haven’t done anything at all with that profile to customise it. I am still trying to get my head around how to add custom filament profiles and how to do flow tests and with printing those test pieces and then store that info in the profile. If this makes sense?
I assumed the printer would scan the calibration lines and use that to get the flow right. But based on what you are saying, that is not the case?
The type of PETG, as in? It is just PETG from a company that makes that here in australia and their products aren’t very good. But I didn’t know that at the time I bought it. So I am trying to make it work the best possible way.
How does the printer define what temperature to use? The filament profile has a range and the printer seems to pick a number within the range.
Last but not least, what is the side/auxiliary fan?
I also explained how I set temperature for first prints with a new filament: I) look at the temperature range of the vendor, lets say its 230-260 for PETG and then I multiply the higher value by 4 and add the lower value and divide the number by 5 and round it to the next 5. Example 260*4+230 = 1270 / 5 = 254 rounded = 255° is what I would enter in the profile. This was 95% fine for the K2, if print is still not nice or generates stringing I run a temp tower to find right temp.
For some of the other PETG’s I had to reduce the maximum flow rate to 12 mm³/s because the 16 from the generic profile is sometimes too high but to set this rightfully you need to do a max flowrate calibration test print with already right temperatures.
I myself found 6 rolls (70-90% of full roll, not originally sealed in a box with some silica) of different colors which was 8 years old and printed 4 rolls from them (the other 2 colors I did not need so far) without any problems on the K2 after creating the right profile.
My setting I used for this old filament was:
You see on the left side a part of my different filament profiles and all of them print well on K2.
I print PETG without chamber and side fans but the top cover is opened a view cm and the door as well. The chamber temperature is set to 35° to start chamber fan if temperature is going above the 35° (PETG & PLA don’t like these hot chambers) but with my open doors this would never happen because chamber stays <=33°.
