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What happened here?? (thelemmy.club)
submitted 2 weeks ago by amminadabz@sh.itjust.works to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
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Started printing this filament shrinkage test and had to leave the house. When I came back, the whole upper half of the part had shifted after the first few layers, and it left two solid blobs attached and one ball of spaghetti. The magnetic bed doesn't appear to have moved. Part is still solidly adhered to the print bed. How did this happen, and how can I keep it from happening again?

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[-] Grass@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I'm shocked at how much it recovered. I'm also glad I'm not the only one still running an ender 3.

Do you have a multi meter? You might have to adjust the little screw for the y motor. I'll see if I can find the instructions for that. The wires in my pic are from the uart mod so I can do it in software.

Edit: people called it vref adjustment. You want it low enough that the motors don't overheat but high enough that it can move the bed and the print without skipping. If you have an aftermarket board the procedure might be different and you might be able to do it in settings.

Also if you haven't already, I would also recommend unscrewing the wires one by one in the green screw terminals and clip off the soldered ends and strip off enough to put the bare wire back in and screw them down to avoid the fire risk. Crimped ferrules would be better but that needs a crimper and the ferrules.

1000030885

Here's what can happen with the stock soldered wire ends: 1000030886 And I caught this one as the electronics were off the printer and outside of my old ikea lack enclosure. If you dont notice it it could be really bad.

[-] abcdqfr@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

Test failed successfully. Excess material hit the bed, cooled, head collided on next pass, layer shift. Keep the head clean and fine tune to eliminate over extrusion. If bed is not level and first layer bungled, same story after leveling and cleaning bed

[-] amminadabz@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago

This is the first print I've done after removing and thoroughly cleaning the nozzle, unclogging the hot end, and adjusting the extruder clamping force. Guess it could be that the bed needs leveling, I haven't checked it in a while.

Honestly starting to think this blue filament is cursed, something goes wrong every time I use it. (I do dry it thoroughly every time I take it out of storage)

[-] natecox@programming.dev 1 points 2 weeks ago

You say you cleaned the nozzle, did you do a cold pull? Sounds like a potential clog.

[-] amminadabz@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

Not entirely sure what "cold pull" means. I unscrewed the nozzle while the machine was powered off and the hot end was room temperature. Blasted the living hell out of the nozzle with a small torch, scrubbed it inside and out with a brass bristle brush, ran one of the bristles through the end of the nozzle. With the nozzle and ptfe out, I heated the hot end to 60 C to loosen the remaining chunk of filament and pushed it out the bottom with the handle of a needle file. It came out in one solid piece. Shined a light through both hot end and nozzle individually and it looked clear.

[-] natecox@programming.dev 2 points 2 weeks ago

Cold pulling is where you heat the hot end up to just past the melting point of your filament and push a bit of filament through it by hand until an inch or so comes through, then you cut the heat and let the nozzle cool down a bit, then pull the filament back through the extruder side.

This basically traps all the little bits of semi-melted plastic left behind from previous prints, and pulls them out as one big glob.

Different guides will give different advice about the temp to cool to, but basically you want it cool enough that it puts up meaningful resistance pulling the filament back out by hand but isn't impossible.

You should probably do this on some routine, but at the very least after any clog and when you get print errors that you can't immediately diagnose. Partial clogs are responsible for way more issues than you might think.

[-] fhein@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Did you hot tighten the nozzle while putting it back? Don't think it caused your current failure, but cold tightening can lead to more clogs in the future.

I think layer shifts can be caused by many different things, but the first thing I'd check is that the bed carriage can move freely and there isn't something mechanically blocking it, like a wire or a misplaced screwdriver. The second thing I'd check would be the belt and gears, so that the bed can't move without the stepper motor also spinning.

[-] amminadabz@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

I hadn't heard of tightening the nozzle while hot, but I'll definitely give that a try

[-] abcdqfr@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Thermal expansion is real. Have experienced loose nozzles when only cold tightened. Also as others have said, ensure belts are tight. If they're floppy enough to skip teeth on the steppers you'll definitely get layer shift from a light breeze. Monitor the next test and let us know how it goes!

[-] marcos@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Not entirely sure what “cold pull” means.

You unscrew your extruder, heat the hotend up until you can barely push the plastic across (~170ºC for PLA, ~180°C for ABS), push a bit of it and then pull it out.

Cut the end of the filament and do it again, a few times.

[-] papalonian@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Why would it be a clog if they're over-extruding?

[-] TrapRag@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Looks like theres some other advice I'd try first but have you checked/calibrated the e-steps?

Esteps are easy to check, use a fine scale or calipers and a sharpie to mark the filament 100 & 110mm before it enters the hot end and then jog the extruder 100mm and measure how much it has actually extruded.

Tutorial here that covers pretty much every way to cal the steps but I suggest skipping from the set up down to the calculation and then to the "cowboy method" https://all3dp.com/2/extruder-calibration-calibrate-e-steps/

If that doesn't seem to be the culprit you could try keeping an eye on it when you have time to see if material keeps oozing a little when the nozzle reaches the end of a tool path or during a travel. If so you can try tinkering with coasting and retraction settings. If defects seem to occur more during travels there are settings to avoid traveling over printed areas or you can try enabling z-hops.

[-] amminadabz@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

I think I checked the e-steps when I upgraded the extruder (been I while, I don't remember) but I can check again

[-] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 2 points 2 weeks ago

Weird possibility! I once tried to lubricate my machine and put a drip or two on the threaded Z axis rod. BAD IDEA.

This lead to VERY minor slippage once the gantry hit a certain height, and it would do exactly this. Lots of loud collision, very scary.

...So make sure your Z rod isn't slipping, or slippery?

[-] PointyFluff@lemmy.ml -2 points 2 weeks ago

Ender 3, that's what.

this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
19 points (95.2% liked)

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