Do people actually tune their printer for each new roll of filament?
Do people actually tune their printer for each new roll of filament?
I see a lot of people claim they tune/calibrate their printer any time they use a new spool of filament. But does anyone actually do this? It feels like a waste of time when filament is so consistent, even between brands. I can understand doing it for specialty rolls, but for basic pla? Seems unnecessary
I used to. Now I just put settings I think will be close, print a calibration cube, make some adjustments based on what I see, and go to town. I spent 2 entire weeks figuring out all of the optimal settings for my printer for PLA+. Most of those settings work well for everything and because I spent so much time learning about printer calibration, I have a pretty solid idea of what I need to change from looking at the cube.
I adjust flowrate(by printing a square in each corner & center) but that's about it unless I get issues which is practically non existent.
I don't do it for every spool, but I'll generally tune for each brand I have. Elegoo's PLA prints different than IIID Max PLA+, so I have profiles for both. I'll only tune a new spool if it's not printing well with the brand's profile
I didn't on my FlashForge CreatorPro unless I had an issue, but I do on my BambuLab X1C - but that's because it's a fully automated process using the built in lidar.
Automatic flow calibration is so nice. I don't use any of the other "smart" features, but it's worth the extra cost just for that.
I usually print a temp tower when I get new filament that I haven't used before. It doesn't take that long and if it prevents a failed print it's totally worth it.
I don't. But I do try and make sure my filaments are kind of similar.
I print a temp tower for every new brand I get and save that as a profile. Has worked fine for me for years
I'm a little more careful when I switch between PLA and PETG, mostly to prevent clogs, but I definitely don't recalibrate anything when switching spools unless I start having problems.
Reading the answers make me feel bad about myself.
I never really calibrated my printer. I have a BLTouch so I rarely have to level the bed, I correct the Z offset when my prints start failing, and that’s pretty much it.
I should probably start taking printing more seriously.
I tune whenever I start getting failures, or if I completely switch materials. For example, with petg, it works better to have a thicker initial layer so I'll raise the z offset a bit going from pla to petg, and the opposite going back.
But I've gone through multiple rolls without needing to tune.
I calibrate flow rate for each filament, and looking at my SuperSlicer profiles I have values between 0.95 and 0.99 for PLA from different brands/product lines. I also have different temp settings for some, but that's more a result of adjusting after prints than having actually calibrated it. I've been experimenting a lot though and have never bought the same filament twice but I would probably not recalibrate for a new spool of something I already have.
But if not calibrating works for you then there's ofc. no point in doing it.
Mostly I tune each type of filament. If using something new or haven't used in a while I'll do a calibration cube. After that I know to adjust or send it
Not for each new roll of filament, but I am relatively new (less than 1 month) and with the same roll I have some prints failing. Mostly because they detatch from the bed (Material is PETG, on an Ender 3 Max Neo). I've tried a lot of things already:
- Different nozzle temps
- Z axis offset calibration
- Cleaning the print-bed
- Leveling the print-bed (including the screws and the A4 paper trick)
- Heated bed vs. non-heated
- Printer placed in an enclosure to prevent drafts
So far it seems to go alright, but I still get detatching prints occasionally, or deforming mid-print. It's kind of frustrating :(
Oh, you poor thing. I made the same mistake. I know, I know, PETG logically makes the most sense - no fumes, higher temp tolerance, cheap - but save yourself weeks of misery and stick with PLA or PLA Plus/Pro/+ for a few months. PETG is a special beast. For all the shit PLA gets, it's not that bad and MUCH easier to learn printing with.
PETG is more viscous and sticky, and generally requires its own z-offset tuning and retraction tweaks. On top of that, it needs juuuuust enough heat to melt the Bowden tube, which happens to make it really tempting to pop a few prints. I'm pretty sure I invented new curse words while trying to clean out that mess.
PETG was the second filament I tried. The first was Silk PLA. It's PLA, but shiny, no biggie, right? Don't learn on Silk PLA either. Completely different set of problems. Silk PLA to PLA is like Frosted Fakes to cake frosting.
Just my $0.02. I know I was all excited to print mods for the printer right away, but I've ended up replacing all those mods with MUCH better ones 6 months later. Good luck!
Edit: Forgot to mention, make sure you use glue stick or hairspray on the bed. PETG will bond strong enough to take some of the bed surface with it!
I had the same problem with my CR-10. The issue was that the weak original bed springs were too weak to hold the bed. The vibrations of the printer allowed it to move, causing the first layer to not adhere very well. I also had filaments get moisture after a week or two.
When people say upgrade the Creality bed springs, they aren't kidding. PLA is forgiving enough on the first layer, but upgrading those bedsprings was necessary for me to print PETG. I made them stiffer by adding 5-6x washers on each post to pre-compress the springs. This makes them much stiffer and stay put.
I also bought a filament dryer. I put a new roll of PETG in the dryer and put it in continuous mode at 55°, and print PETG directly from the dryer.
I still have to print PETG pretty slowly compared to PLA or ASA (my favorite material).
To OP's original question: I do a full tuning of PETG with a new maker/roll. PETG is a co-polymer. Each manufacturer could have a different amount of glycol on the PET chain, or even a different distribution (e.g. ABABABAB copolymers behave differently than AAAABBBB copolymers even though both are 50% B). Colorants can also affect behavior.
PLA I really don't tune. I add 5-10 degrees when I'm printing quickly. That's about it. I recently was printing a spacer out of the last bit of a PLA+ roll I had. The filament ran out and the printer halted. I loaded a matte PLA to finish (I slowed the printer down and bumped the temp up manually by 5 degrees since this matte stuff has layer adhesion issues), and it also ran out before the print was done. So I loaded a roll of transparent PLA that I bought 9-10 years ago (and was stored in an attic for 2 years) and is very brittle, and it printed just fine. The print looks strange (tan to matte terra cotta to transparent purple) but works great.
Not really, I usually run a test print. But I have noticed that sometimes a different color will need different settings, even if it's the same material and brand.
One thing that I do for every roll is to put an ID number on it and weigh it, and put that into a database. That way I have a good estimate of whether or not I have enough filament for a project.
Yes and no. I run a few different tests for different filaments but i save the filament reqs by manufacture and color. If i buy the same filament later on then I use the preset I made for that color. Its tedious but I think its the right way to do it