I got an Ender V3 S2 a month ago to build a darksaber for my kid for Halloween. Came out looking great. No complaints. I then did a couple of upgrades (bed springs, converted to direct drive, Klipper/Mainsail rather than stock firmware/UI) and it’s a lot easier to dial in bed tramming.

Now he wants a “drill sword”, a project that’s requiring much tighter tolerances. Things are sticking together, which is fine, I’m here for the process of adjusting settings and dialing in things like retraction and wiping and that sort of thing.

Problem is, all the calibration tests I’m doing - the retraction test built into Orca most notably, but also the pressure advance tests (tower and lines) - all seem about 90% dialed in no matter what I do. No retraction, tiny wispy lines I can wipe away with my finger. 8mm retraction at 60mm/s, same tiny wispy lines I can wipe away with my finger. Pressure advance test prints look nothing like the images on the Orca tutorial page, where there’s a clear breakdown in quality at a certain point where you can measure and say, “A-ha, there’s the right setting.” They’re all just mostly good but not perfect. But this drill sword, if it’s not perfect, will seize up and not telescope correctly. I’ve mucked with about 15 different settings and the pre-print tests always come out stuck together when they should be free from one another.

Is this normal? Is there some safety setting that’s keeping me from screwing things up?

Thanks for helping a noob out.

  • @moodyEnglish
    12•8 months ago

    Have you tried a temperature tower? It’s possible you’re printing too hot and getting stringing as a result. If that doesn’t help, I found this video a while ago for dealing with some cases of stringing that might help.

    I’m still pretty new to all this, but I know there are tons of variables that can affect the print quality, and stringing is a symptom of lots of different things.

    • TheBirdWasHereEnglish
      2•8 months ago

      I also found that changing the nozzle on my Neptune 2 pretty much solved my stringing issue, although since this printer is only probably a month old that shouldn’t be an issue yet, so just throwing it out there. Although there are a lot of variables that affect it too, it probably took me several months off and on to tune my printer (on klipper firmware) with help.

      • @moodyEnglish
        3•8 months ago

        I’m pretty sure a partially clogged nozzle can cause stringing issues as well. Brass nozzles are cheap, so it’s a pretty easy thing to check.

        • TheBirdWasHereEnglish
          1•8 months ago

          yea, not sure if it was clogged or what, but filament seemed to string from the side of the nozzle, almost like there was a tiny pinhole or something. I also ended up replacing the connector that goes between the hotend and the Bowden tube and also removed a small section of the tube that was in the hot end. Haven’t had issues since (I think we tried tuning it the best we could, and the nozzle was just the final step that got rid of the stringing fully)

    • Nanomerce English
      1•8 months ago

      yeah temperature then flow calibration should solve over extrusion problems that will cause your parts to stick to each other or otherwise bind.