Flow Issues?
Recently my printer has been having a behavior that I would associate with flow. Any short movements and the printer behaves perfectly but as the movements get longer, it's as if the nozzle is not able to keep up the flow rate necessary to lay down the bead of plastic. A tiny print comes out just fine but larger prints that require long movements have massive issues.
I am printing usually at 200-250mm/s at 7000 mm/s/s with Overture PLA Professional. All filament is stored in a dehumidifier chamber.
Ratrig Vcore 3.0 400mm with Mosquito hotend and orbiter 1.5
Pics are of long movement part vs smaller parts. I've also taken the short movement parts off the print to show the comparison in print quality to the rest of the part.
Things I've tried so far:
- Taking apart all extruder parts and cleaning
- Flow rate calibration test (all good)
- Reduce speed
- Reduce max volumetric speed
Thing I need to try still:
- Change filament roll
- Reduce acceleration
23 Replies
Slicer settings
can as mosquito even push 20mm3 flowrate with a 0.4mm nozzle? Assuming you are using 0.4mm nozzle. Have you run a max flowrate test? Orca has one built in. Suspect SS might as well
Their site says 35mm3/s is the max. I ran the orca calibration test and my current flow rate was the best looking of the bunch.
I'm wondering if maybe the orbiter is wearing out and not able to grip at those faster extruder speeds?
thats a different flow rate test
thats to determin how much flow I need to fill in a given space. I am talking about their max flow rate test.
Ah I see it. I'll give it a shot
as for Moquito saying 35mm3 I suspect thats downhill with a tailwind..... the faster you go the higher temp you probably need to go as well.
what temp you printing at?
205c for first layer, 200c for the others. I can bump it up to 215 or 220 without affecting quality
one quick way to see if it is flow based is to limit your flow to like 10mm3 and reprint one of your prints that is not working. From there you know if its flow and can see if higher temps or other things will solve it
I'll report back after the flow rate test. Printing it now
do the max flow test at your current temp and see how it goes and then you can try higher temps. I suspect you are going to have to be closer to 215-220 for 20mm3+ with that hotend. There could be other issues though so dont rule out it not being max flow.
good luck!
Thank you for the suggestions!
its a fun test to watch 🙂
The strange part is that I haven't had any problems up until a couple of weeks ago. Idk what changed
every roll could be a little different. I would not be surprised if a small bump in temp fixes it. Do you switch filament types at all or all PLA? if you switch maybe you have some higher temp filament stuck in the hotend and its limiting your flowrate. Its not a full plugged hotend but maybe just something constricting things
I strictly use PLA+ but I do plan to switch rolls as one of my next steps.
I switch between PLA, ABS, ASA and a PC blend so I have to make sure I flush out the higher temp filament well otherwise I get strange things. I also use a CHT nozzle which may be more susceptible to clogs as well.
Well, I'm definitely seeing improvements. Tested at 200C and 215C and saw a 1.75mm3/s improvement but more importantly, dialed the max down to 14.5 mm3/s from 20. Reprinting the part from the photos with a fresh roll of filament now.
awesome. How did the max flow rate test go?
I was definitely ambitious with the 20 haha
haha
I suspect going with a nozzle like a CHT and a slightly higher temp you could squeeze more out of it.
It's fascinating, I'll have to pick one up and try it out for myself.