Ender 3 Pro continual issues after initial successful prints - Updated

Well I was really hoping that was the ticket, but.. I did remove it per your first post and couldn't find a crack anywhere, and i looked at it under a pretty decent magnifier. I will post pictures of it and successive failed prints tomorrow.

What is odd, especially after reading the other thread here about an Ender, is mine worked beautifully on the first print - really. Also on the 2nd, 3rd, and maybe 5 or 6 more after those.

Is it possible the filament, which is only 3 weeks old and i keep in a foil pouch with dessicant, has too much moisture? I'm grasping at straws now.

opalko said:

I did remove it per your first post and couldn't find a crack anywhere

My cracked extruder arm was pretty obvious, so I'm guessing you're probably ok.

Mine also printed well the first half a dozen prints before that issue. It's printing well again now that I upgraded to the metal extruder and popped on a new nozzle.

The other other thing I've seen mentioned by some YouTubers is that the hot end can break. I'm not sure what the symptoms of that would be though, or how to verify if that's the problem.

I meant to ask, where did youvfind the metal arm etc?

opalko said:

I meant to ask, where did youvfind the metal arm etc?

Amazon

it was about $30 (Canadian) total for the metal extruder and a set of nozzles. each was about half of the cost. I think you can get smaller nozzle sets for less.

So I have worked on this a bit more this week with no success.

As I mentioned in a post above I:

• re-leveled bed
• checked extruder arm for cracks (did not see any):

• check PTFE tubing (not mangled & no clogs)
• tried test prints at different temps and print speeds (bad to worse)

First I tried printing the bottom of the tester case (this one) again at 50% speed.  Initially it started printing beautifully with the bottom layer looking really good. Then as it got to the screw holders and the last bit of the top of the lower case half, the print quality went downhill. This was the result:

Then I rechecked bed, clogs,... and started with the 4-column retraction / test print. (This one) and it was a squidgy mess to start. So I tried it at a lower temp (fail), then a lower temp & slower speed (Better! but weird stringing), so then I tried the same temp at 50% speed (big time fail):

I think I am going to order an all metal extruder arm set and Capricorn tubing & different nozzle but does anyone think this is the problem? Is it possible the filament (PLA) is collecting too much moisture and causing these things? I store the filament in a foil pouch with desiccant when not in use, so it would have had to really absorb moisture fast to go from printing the bottom of the case pretty darn well to failing by the end.  I'm not quite at the wit's end the other fellow on this forum was with this printer but,.... suggestions?

I don’t think the filament is at fault. I’ve left mine on the printer for weeks and it still prints fine.

I also don’t think the extruder is the problem, as my prints looked stringy at all heat settings.

Maybe a new nozzle?

I’m definitely not an expert, so please do your own extra research, and hopefully others can comment, but my next step would be replacing the hot end assembly. It’s only about $17 CAD for the whole set that includes the nozzle, heater, wires and the tubing. Amazon link: https://a.co/d/f2T1nZy

One other thing to try might be to print one of the samples that came with the printer, like the cat. Just in case you suspect the software might be doing something funny.

Good idea, thanks!

Well interesting results to report now:

I tried printing the pre-loaded cat from the disk that came with the printer. The first time I tried to print it, it failed pretty badly but I noticed that the filament on the spool was tight and couldn't come off due to the fact that it was wound under itself. "A-ha!" I thought. It's been starved of filament, so I fixed the filament on the spool where it could unwind freely, (and changed nothing else) and this was the result:

As close to perfect as I have seen on this printer. Was it really that simple that all it needed was correcting the over / under knot on the spool? Wait I see the bed temp was only at 45 for this "factory print".  That goes against everything I ever read, but let's try the bottom of the case again at 45...and then again at 60:

Darn! Recheck bed, recheck for clogs, knots, check my horoscope,...reset the profile in Cura and I got this:

Not even close (I stopped all of these prints when I realized they weren't going to work) This is just too weird at this point. I wanted to "unslice" the cat model to see what the print settings were, but I learned you can't do that with a .gcode file.  Any other ideas!!?

PS I found a post on the interweb where someone asked what does the letters on the cat model actually translate to. Someone replied "it translates to: Good luck ever getting this printer to print anything again"