A person with way too many hobbies, but I still continue to learn new things.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 7th, 2023

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  • It’s been a long time since I used Windows myself, however one of the big reasons for switching was the inherent instability. At once point I was developing code in Visual Studio and constantly loading/closing quite a few different programs to test things out. Windows just didn’t seem to handle memory-recovery and I would have to reboot every week or two (usually because of the whole OS locking up). In comparison, I run a variety of software on my linux machines which can involve anything from testing code in multiple browsers to image editing to 3D CAD drawings. Sure that tends to drain the memory but when I close something I get that memory back. I’ll frequently get down to the last 100K of RAM, close a couple programs that may be holding large caches (Firefox really hates me having hundreds of open tabs), and then I’m right back up and running again. Reboots may occur about every 6 months.

    I have to support other people using Windows at work, which reminds me how much I’ll never go back to it. My biggest frustration is that Microsoft is constantly changing things. Hell you can’t even directly reach the control panel any more, you have to run searches to find the specific item you want. Want to check the settings of a certain printer? Good luck, that doesn’t seem to be available in the right-click menu any more. It’s just all these idiotic changes making it difficult to actually use or maintain Windows. Why should I have to google how to find something when everything used to be under the control panel or a right-click away?



  • Yeah you don’t want the arm TOO tight or you just create another friction issue. I generally find if you have a very consistent under-extrusion then it’s likely the E-steps, but if the issue seems more random (some layers are great, only certain corners are bad, etc) that it comes down to friction somewhere in the line. Good luck!


  • Note that the brass toothed gear can also wear out. Maybe check it to see if there’s a lot of ground-up filament in the teeth? Then check the fitting where the bowden tube goes into the extruder, make sure that isn’t loose (it will be seen moving back and forth during retractions in a print). Also worth checking the bowden tube itself, make sure it’s not causing a lot of drag on the filament passing through it. And for that PTFE mod in the hotend, check the friction there, it’s possible to over-tighten the fitting and partially crush that tubing. You should be able to easily push filament through the hotend by hand once it is up to temp.

    I assume you have something other than the stock setup for your filament roll to reduce the drag there so it’s not being pulled into the extruder at a 90-degree angle? There are a number of extension arms you can print to change the angle, but the best methods are either to move the filament spool off to the side (where the filament can enter the extruder in a straight line), or print a roller that uses a bearing for changing the angle in combination with a full bearing-supported roller that the filament spool itself sits on. I still have mine in the stock position on top of the frame but with the combination of bearing objects in the last option I have practically zero friction pulling the filament into the extruder.

    Finally, when was the last time you calibrated your E-steps? It’s likely you actually have underextrusion on all layers, but they’re getting smoothed over and are not as obvious on the alternate layers. Never hurts to check this step.

    tl;dr: eliminate all friction from the spool to the hotend, calibrate E-steps.




  • You never know. Old filament CAN be used, but it takes special care with the slicer settings and it helps a lot if you have a dehumidifier to dry it out. I live in a dry climate, and have filament at work which has been sitting on the shelf for about 7 years, but I can still get beautiful prints out of it. All of my filament at home is left in ziplock bags but it still gets brittle over time (if you can easily snap the filament, it probably has a lot of moisture in it).




  • Honestly at that point I would tear down the whole thing and use this video as a guide for reassembly. The most important thing to do is to make sure the framework is all squared up, otherwise all prints will suffer.

    As for bed leveling… A lot of people think the paper test is all you need, but really that only gets you close enough to start leveling the bed. First thing is to tighten all the springs to within 1 turn of being closed, then adjust the Z switch so that the head homes to roughly that same height. After that you use the paper method to get the bed roughly level, then move on to live testing with a 5-point bed-leveling test print to dial it in. Ideally you want the nozzle gap to be about 75% of the nozzle size, so for a 0.20mm tip you would want a 0.15mm gap to get your print to stick.

    As I mentioned to someone else, Creality’s QC is garbage. My first glass bed had better adhesion than PEI and worked beautifully for a few years until the coating wore out. My second glass bed was trash, I never could get anything to stick to it without using hairspray, and now it sits in its box. I have a PEI bed now, which seems to have solved the problem. If you decide to try using the printer again, don’t forget to clean the glass with 90% ISO. Worst case try flipping the glass over to the smooth side, clean it with ISO, then use glue sticks on that surface (you won’t get any adhesion on bare glass without the glue or hairspray).