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Multicomp-Pro Filament Settings for Ender 3D Pro?

ntewinkel

Hello,

I'm still very new to 3D printing, even though I've had my printer for a while. I finally have some time to really start using it now.

My printer is a Creality Ender 3D Pro, and the quality of the sample cat was really good, so the first roll of filament I bought was the exact same material, Creality's white PLA: "Creality 3D Official PLA". Pretty much everything I have printed with that actually printed quite well.
I had more trouble with some glow in the dark ABS I picked up second hand locally (new still in package) around the same time, but once I chose the default settings for "generic ABS", the results have actually been quite acceptable.

Then with a couple of recent shopping carts I decided to add a few more colours to my filament options, so I picked up Newark's Multicomp Pro PLA filament in black, red, and wood colour, and a gold e-Silk PLA

I didn't realize that the Multicomp Pro ones have a higher heat rating, from 205 to 225, instead of the wood and gold starting at 190 degrees. For some reason I thought PLA is PLA is all the same kind of heat rating. Shrug

So when I started printing with the new filaments I just haven't been able to get nice prints.
I'm guessing that heat rating makes a difference because the prints feel like they come out with mostly loose straw like layers that fall apart much too easy.

I realize my settings need adjusting, but this is where I'm getting confused - why are there not pre-made settings available (that I can find) ?  The cat sample was pre-done (g-code) and ready to print when I received the printer, and it came out perfect. So it was obviously already tuned to work well for the printer and the filament, nothing to do with my own personal location or temperature or whatnot.

All of the tutorials and how-to guides I have found so far say to test with heat-ladders and benchy models to tune the settings, by adjusting things like bed heat, nozzle heat, and fan speeds (and then there's a bunch of other finer details I don't think I'm ready for yet!)

So my questions are:

1. Is there a guide somewhere where I can find suggested best settings for various PLA filaments for the Ender 3D Pro?

2. Does anyone here have experience with (and suggestions for) the Ender 3D Pro and Multicomp-Pro PLA ?

3. What is the reason (if there is one) for everyone having to re-invent the wheel for themselves to find best settings for filaments?

ps, I'm guessing ambient temperature affects things, which is why I always pre-warm the art studio to room temperature of about 21 degrees. I'm not opposed to firing up the wood stove too if that helps! Smile

pps, Could this also be related to my semi-recent switch to using the Mac version of Creality Slicer (based on Cura)? Prior to that I used the Windows version (not Cura, very specific to the printer).

Thanks!
-Nico

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    Generally speaking, everyone has to do their own tuning with filaments for a number of reasons:

    - Filament batches can vary on material and on diameter due to manufacturing tolerances.

    - Temperature errors in hot-ends will vary from printer to printer due to thermistor tolerances and ageing.

    - Extruder errors will also vary from printer to printer, sometimes just by how clean you keep your filament drive.

    - Optimal printing can vary depending on subtle factors such as environmental temperature, nozzle size and printing speed.

    Rule of thumb is that if your prints are coming out too stringy and not bonding well, two things can be done - you can increase the hot-end temperature to make the material flow better and hopefully bond better; and/or you can increase your material flow compensation factor (e.g. from 100% to 102%, 104%, 106%, 108%) to compensate for the filament being slightly thinner than your printer expects or compared to what it was originally calibrated against. You can change this in the slicer, or for some printers during the print via the front panel or using Octoprint's Control tab.

    You should probably start by printing a few bed-levelling squares until the "squish" looks right, before graduating to larger calibration prints. Failing this, there is also the chance that your nozzle is clogged and that's reducing the flow rate somewhat, or the filament itself just isn't right (e.g. has too much moisture, isn't pure PLA).

    Every adjustment will have a downside - increasing temperature also increases the likelihood of stringing, for which you may have to tune your retraction/coast settings.

    - Gough

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    Hi! Usually the manufacturer specs give the correct temperature for the filament. But if it's not working for you, you can try printing the temperature tower. It helps to identify the optimum temperature for your filament.

    You can find the temperature tower model in Ultimaker Cura examples. However, you need to adjust the g-code setting to get a temperature gradient.

    You can find the setting here https://all3dp.com/2/temp-tower-cura-tutorial/

    I tried this on my Ender 3 V2 and it has helped me get good quality 3D prints. Earlier I was printing it at 210 deg C which used to cause stringing, I had no clue about it as I'm a beginner too. But after printing the temperature tower I got to know the correct temperature settings for my filament.

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    Thanks for the advice!

    I decided to start from the beginning, with the lucky cat they included on the SD card, already in g-code format. It came out perfect!

    I thought I'd blog the details separately, so this thread doesn't get too far off topic: /members-area/personalblogs/b/nico-tewinkel-s-blog/posts/learning-to-3d-print

    I'll try printing some little calibration cubes next, to see how that goes. Starting with Creality white as above, and then I'll try the new Multicomp black PLA.

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    Hi! I have the Ender 3 Pro for about two and a half years at this moment and it's still going strong. I've used it with Multicomp PLA, and what I found to work was around 210-215C for me, to get good strong prints. Just a few questions based on what you wrote, you said you've printed wood and glow-in-the-dark filament, what kind of nozzle are using, steel or brass? And for printing ABS, to what temperatures are you going with the hot end? Just a side note, ABS can have extremely harmful fumes, and the high temperatures needed for ABS can also degrade the PTFE tubing (if you haven't upgraded to a full metal hot end) which can cause even more harmful fumes.

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    ntewinkel I have one suggestion that will be cheaper in long run, build a wooden box lined with a thermal blanket you can use a solid door wood or plexiglass dealer's choice.  Most folks will put a small CCD or some old video camera inside the enclosure. -- Good Luck.