Deformation during printing

1_rick

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This is Inland PLA on the PowerSpec branded Duplicator i3. Bed is set to 60 degrees, extruder to 200. Ideas? I'm still new to this and have only printed half a dozen things.

A keyboard plate I printed, about 149x120mm, with a bunch of holes in it, and 3mm thick, didn't do this, although I printed it on a raft.
 

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What's the temp like in the room where the printer is? Cold? is there a draft that kicks on like a vent or A/C? I found the corners lifted up my ender3 with that scenario and solved it by making an impromptu enclosure out of the box it came in.

Anything change recently that would need esteps or extrusion multiplier to be updated?

Has the filament been sitting out in a humidish environment for a long time?

https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/
 
What's the temp like in the room where the printer is? Cold? is there a draft that kicks on like a vent or A/C? I found the corners lifted up my ender3 with that scenario and solved it by making an impromptu enclosure out of the box it came in.

Anything change recently that would need esteps or extrusion multiplier to be updated?

Has the filament been sitting out in a humidish environment for a long time?

https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/

The printer's on the floor in the corner of a bedroom, with no fans on. It's possible there's a draft, but I hadn't noticed one, and the AC vent's on the other side of the room. Temperature's about 75 degrees, and pretty close to 50% humidity. The plate I mentioned printing was done more or less in the same location, except it was on top of a table. I don't recall making any settings changes I've made in Cura or the printer other than raft->skirt between the two projects.

Edit: And the filament was unsealed about 2 months ago and has been in the printer all this time. Temp & humidity don't fluctuate much, although I had the room open to outside a couple weeks ago for a few hours and the room got up to maybe 80 degrees & 60% humidity.
 
Also, I didn't show the whole thing in the pictures, only about 60-70%, but the rest of it is unwarped.
 
Is your concern the warping, the stringy spaghetti gaps of the print, or both?

Do you have a good picture of the whole thing?
 
Both, I guess, although the gaps and stuff seem to only be in the first maybe 3 layers. After that it prints much more uniformly except for the warping.

I'll take some more pictures & upload them in a minute.
 
So here is the whole thing from multiple angles. Sorry about the blurriness, this is the best I can get my phone to do. The last picture shows the top; the lines of filament don't show well in it but they're pretty uniform in size and placement, except for a bit of cupping caused by the bottom being warped. I would say about the first three rows tend to come out badly: the lines are a bit thicker and less flat, then it tends to settle down. And of course there's the warping.

Fortunately, in this case, what was messed up was basically just a handle, so the part's still usable. The piece is a diode leg bender, and that part, while not super pretty (the PLA is pretty close to, but not perfectly flat; it looks just the tiniest bit swollen, I guess is the best word I can think of) came out well enough.
 

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Odd. I would almost think it's a heat issue. Is this PLA PRO+, regular PLA?

Pro+ PLA has a temp arnge of 205-225
https://www.amazon.com/Inland-1-75mm-PLA-Printer-Filament/dp/B081S2ZMMK/

white pla has a temp arange 215-230
https://www.amazon.com/Inalnd-PLA-Printer-Filament-Spool/dp/B07T7Z4GSJ

It may be worth going up about five or so degrees, reprint, and see. Repeat as needed.

Also check the leveling and make sure it's really down there.

I would still think about a modified enclosure. Mine is just a box with the printer mostly inside.. and the back open away from the nearest vent.
 
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As far as I can tell, it's the same stuff as your first link: here's the page on Micro Center's website (where I got the stuff): https://www.microcenter.com/product...-pla-3d-printer-filament---1kg-spool-(22-lbs)

I can look at an enclosure, but that may have to wait a bit--I'm moving in a month. I'll try bumping the temp a bit & reprinting; this thing doesn't take long to print.

I can also move it under the table it's next to for now. If I do that do you think I should re-level the bed? I didn't do it before printing this this morning, but I did before the last thing I printed, a few weeks ago. I'm not in love with the way you do it on this printer, although maybe that's just me.

If I use a piece of regular 60lb or so printer paper, it should slide between the head and the bed, but not as freely as if the head weren't there, right? Or should there be a bit more friction?
 
Ok, so I just moved the printer a couple of feet so it's under a table, and re-leveled the bed, and raised the extruder temp from 200 to 205, and it printed out much better. The first row was a bit thicker than all the rest, and there was a tiny amount of turn-up at the various corners. The first row is actually slightly better-looking than the top, actually, so thanks! Oh, I also rinsed the bed and put down a fresh layer of glue stick glue.
 
Awesome! Yeah these open air printers get weird and I hate the wasted time of leveling and fiddling with heat for filament.
 
Awesome! Yeah these open air printers get weird and I hate the wasted time of leveling and fiddling with heat for filament.

I think this is the first time I've heard of enclosing them, tbh.
 
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