3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: !functionalprint@kbin.social or !functionalprint@fedia.io
There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml
Rules
-
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
-
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
-
No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
-
No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
-
Do not create links to reddit
-
If you see an issue please flag it
-
No guns
-
No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
view the rest of the comments
For one thing, the paper method only gets you so close. I find you actually have to watch your first layer go down and adjust that way. If you have a Prusa, there is a menu where you can make adjustments as it's printing and it has a first layer calibration tool built in.
Second, check the slicer and see what it's calling the very top layer vs what it's calling the part that looks messed up. I'm willing to bet that the clean looking part is called top layer, whereas the messed up part isn't. Prusa slicer ads additional material when it knows that it's the very top of a print so that it looks better.
Either that, or is say you had a clog which caused under extension, but that may have worked out by the end of your print.
The paper method only ensures that you get the nozzle-to-bed distance reasonably consistent in all the places your printer checks it, to ensure that the bed is trammed, i.e. straight relative to the X and Y axes of the printer, or "level." It doesn't guarantee that your Z offset is actually correct to produce a good first layer, and depending on how your particular printer runs its bed leveling/Z offset program it may in fact guarantee that it is incorrect every time.
If you're going to use some manner of gauge material (paper, one of those plastic cards, a feeler gauge), step 1 is to determine what, exactly, your printer does to set its Z offset and whether or not that's taken into account when you're sliding your piece of paper or whatever under the nozzle. Some printer firmwares further compound things by calling their Z offset adjustment program "bed leveling" when that's not what it is. (My old Qidi was guilty of this. "Fast leveling" was actually just Z offset adjustment in the center of the build plate, and "Full leveling" was actually a four-points bed level check operation.)
Thanks, i'll check those things. Sadly, I don't (yet lol) have a Prusa, only an Ender 3 pro. According to Prusa slicer, it's all top solid infill. Here is the STL file if anyone is more of an expert at prusa slicer than I. https://www.printables.com/model/700351-guitar-pedal-light-switch/files