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1.
- If an object appears warped due to coming partially or
fully loose from the build plate during the print, take steps
to improve adhesion; see Section 14.4 for some ideas. Also
check printer calibration and that the build plate is level.
Printer features such as a heated bed and and an enclosed
print chamber (or even better, a heated print chamber) can
be very helpful when printing a type of filament (e.g., ABS)
especially prone to shrinking as it cools; you may also wish
to disable any printer “Cooling Fan”.
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2.
- If your print degenerates into a tangled snarl of extruded
filament, that may have been triggered by the object (or
a portion of it) coming loose of the build plate: the later
extruded “layers” no longer have the earlier portion of the
object to rest upon and bond to. Another cause can be
attempting to print without (or without sufficent) support
for protruding or bridging portions of the object: again,
layers extruded without earlier material to rest upon and
bond to are likely to become simply a tangled mess.
First determine whether the problem began with a portion
of the object coming loose of the build plate (in which
case, improve adhesion, see Section 14.4; and check that the
build plate is well leveled), vs. whether it began with an
unsupported area of the print (in which case, see the build
plate’s “PRINT SETTINGS”, “BASIC”, “Support” and/or
consider printing the object in a different orientation).
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3.
- If an object’s bottom edges are curling up, perhaps coming
loose, from the build plate, extra attention to adhesion
(see Section 14.4) may help. With PLA filament, another
contributor to edge curl could be that you are printing at
too high of a “Temperature”; see Section 14.4.4. If you are
using ABS filament, however, edge curl is quite a common
issue: besides the suggestions already mentioned, see also
the tips for ABS printing in Section 14.5.1.
Printing with a brim or raft may also help keep the object
adhering to the build plate; under “PRINT SETTINGS”,
“BASIC”, see “Platform Adhesion Type”.
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4.
- If intended voids or gaps in an object have curled up
bits where extrusion was supposed to stop, or smeared
edges where extrusion was supposed to stop or start,
then besides looking bad (see item 28), curled up bits
can even result in the extruder “catching” on a lip of
previously extruded material and actually knocking the
print loose of the build plate when the extruder comes to
a section and resumes extruding! In such cases, in addition
to checking your filament retraction settings (see item 27)
you may also need to set a Z hop to raise the extruder
nozzle (actually the entire print head) during non-extrusion
moves. For adjusting the Z hop if printing through
the Polar Cloud, under “PRINT SETTINGS”, “ADVANCED”,
“Retraction”, adjust the “Z hop”.
If printing with ABS, reduce (or eliminate) use of a
“Cooling Fan” as ABS edge curling is exacerbated by
excessive cooling.
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5.
- If the sides of an object towards the bottom of a print
seem to be collapsing inwards, shrinking or warping,
the temperature may be staying too high towards the
botttom of the print. If you are printing on a printer
with a heated bed, consider reducing the bed temperature
somewhat; under “PRINT SETTINGS”, “ADVANCED”, see
“Platform Temperature”. Also try to achieve better cooling
of the early layers of the print; for a printer with a
print cooling fan, under “PRINT SETTINGS”, “ADVANCED”,
“Cool”, “Cooling Fan”, check the settings for “Cooling
Fan speed min”, “Cooling Fan speed Max” and consider
increasing them, and check the setting for “Starting
Layer Number” and if it is rather high then consider
decreasing it. Especially if the object (more importantly, if
its bottom footprint on the print bed) is fairly small, then
as usual, printing multiple small objects simultaneously
may be one of the most satisfactory solutions for achieving
better cooling.