Yikes. Gonna have to work with this material a bunch to learn how to use it.
Have you tried drying it (even if it’s straight from the factory)?
this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2024
93 points (96.0% liked)
3DPrinting
15839 readers
15 users here now
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or !functionalprint@fedia.io
There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml
Rules
-
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
-
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
-
No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
-
No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
-
Do not create links to reddit
-
If you see an issue please flag it
-
No guns
-
No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe/ may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is 
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Yep. That helped!
First rule of PETG-club is "dry your filament", second rule of PETG-club is "dry your filament"... Thrid rule? Nope, it's "store your filament dry"
Jokes aside, other things you could look at:
- nozzle, how worn is it?
- calibration tests: did you do a temp tower? Calibration cube? Retraction test?
- The vertical surface doesn't necessarily have that appearance as a result of wet filament. In my experience, wet PETG will result in more random variations than that. It looks too regular IMHO, is everything that should be tightened actually tightened?
- have you calibrated the extruder steps?
I would bet on retraction here. Dial that in and 90% of the stringing goes away.
Fourth rule… painters tape as bed surface will save your PEI sheets and holds PETG really well.
Or G10/Garolite
Or just use a textured PEI plate at the proper bed temperature. There is very little need for special adjuncts to print PETG.
I pop my PEI bed with finished print into the freezer for about 5 minutes. Pops right off, every time. No tape, no glue, I just wash the bed with soapy water between prints.
@mooklepticon I print almost exclusively with PETG and what I have found that works for me is to dry the filament, even if coming right out of the package. With some filaments, decreasing the nozzle temperature also helps.
Drying helped. temp tower is next!
I don't have issues with it stringing, but bed adhesion is a pain in the ass. Can't get it to consistently adhere
Your first step will be learning to dry it and keep it dry. I can recommend a scale that can resolve to at least 0.1g so you can measure the weight loss while drying. This will help in seeing when it's sufficiently dry (put it in dryer and weigh it every hour) and if it took moisture again.
And the surface quality will be enhanced with dry filament.
Honestly you are off to a pretty good start. As everyone will tell you, you need to keep this stuff really dry. If that still doesn't work, try different settings. If that doesn't work, try a different brand. Unlike pla that is pretty forgiving on manufacturing tolerances, I've seen big differences in quality with PETG. In my hands, Id consider your kitty a perfectly acceptable print. Butane torch the hairs and you'll have a perfectly clean model
Edit: also play with avoid crossing perimeters settings.
Looks fairly normal. You could tune retraction slightly.
@mooklepticon Just printing my first #PETG on #Ender
70°C bed
260°C nozzle on the bed
225°C nozzle afterwards
The difference from defaults is huge 😀
Edit: I also attached a pic, but for some reason it did not federated. Let's try a link then schmaker.eu/photos/schmaker/im…
260°C nozzle on the bed 225°C nozzle afterwards
Wow, that's a huge difference between 1st layer and later! I've never seen that big a delta.
@mooklepticon
I think my Z-offset is too high and I'm compensating it with temperature, but I don't care - nozzle cleans itself well, prints well and even structure is good.
When it works, don't touch it 😀
I generally print first layer at 260/250 and the latter ones 10 degrees colder. I do the same with the build plate - starting with 90, and leaving it at 80 throughout the ret of the print. With some plates you have to bee mindful of PETG sticking too well (possibly damaging them) but it works out really well with PET/PEO plates, letting the print retain the texture of the build plate. On PEI I either print it cooler, or use glue (in this case it makes it easier to separate the print from the plate).
@spitfire When I fine-tuned my settings I got a lot of stringing until I reached 225°C for some reason. Maybe it's vendor-specific 😀
Maybe you should try thoroughly drying it, that helps a lot with PETG.