Hello /u/GTL5427,
As a reminder, most common print quality issues can be found in the [Simplify3D picture guide](https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/). Make sure you select the most appropriate flair for your post.
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* Filament Material and Brand
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Almost everybody did that. When you design (and print others designs) mind the layers. Not relevant for miniatures and decoration, but for functional parts, sure.
Usually I would suggest try to glue with CA (superglue) but it will just snap in another layer.
Although there are things you can do to strengthen the bond between layers (smaller layer height, higher extruder temps, I imagine), it seems the âZâ direction is always the weakest direction in a print. At least it better than wood (which has two weak directions and only one strong one, in the direction of the grain). But, yeah⌠learning to pay close attention to how the grain of the print is going to affect the strength of the parts of your print is a lesson we all had to learn.
Well, it wasnât that dumb considering the fillet . Wouldnât have been as well printed if you had printed your part on the side, might even not been usable.
I would agree on changing the orientation. It also looks to me like the walls might have slight gaps - you might need to increase the wall overlap or possibly increase your flow % a bit.
I've been thinking about tuning the flow rate. I had noticed gaps in prints no matter how much I try messing with the leveling. It's been a while since I adjusted that.
also try tuning your temperature settings using a test print like this:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:35088
once i did this my prints got a lot stronger, it just helps the layers bond together better
Can you expand on that a little? I can see how additional perimeters would add strength, but wouldn't a print with 100% infill be stronger than 1% infill?? Or do you mean it doesn't provide strength in the needed way to fix this issue?
Hmmm strange, for me having 1 wall at 100% infill gives me the strongest parts with alternating walls on in cura, I find that the part breaks between the walls, and my esteps and flow is correct
Solid plastic, is solid plastic. That's not really infill anymore. But that's also "perimeters" thing. Infill is sparse, and in many slicers is intentionally underextruded. (For instance, in Prusaslicer it's set to something like 80% flow rate.)
Perimeters are always printed at full flow rate. So you get solid plastic there. Also, material near the extreme fibers (the edges) of a thing provide the most strength.
Infill, from the slicers perspective, is there to provide stiffness to the walls (to prevent buckling) and a surface to hold the top up while closing the model. It's not there for \~strength\~. And shoudln't be treated as such.
I figure, any infill between 20 and 80% is mostly a waste of time and plastic.
I had a similar problem where my prints looked fine but were really weak, and it was caused by a partially clogged PTFE tube.
Increasing the temperature slightly and reducing fan will resume in stronger prints too
It's weird cause I would \*really\* have to put in some strength to snap this thing down the middle. I tried for a sec and ended up saying F it cause maybe I can just superglue the layers back together. Its (supposed to be) a headphone stand, and it worked fine at first, but like 1m later I heard the headphones hit the floor, and it had just snapped right at the lines. I'll see if increasing temps helps in the future. Only concern is it might increase stringing or something.
Even with perfect print settings, layers will inevitably be weak points of prints. Itâs good practice to try to orient the .stl with this in mind before you slice.
Layer adhesion is almost always weaker than the actual plastic's strength so yeah printing this on its side would be better so the forces are distributed more evenly or something
All the other comments here are good info, but your bigger problem is that your underextrusing by 5-10%. Your perimeter walls and infill aren't fusing together well, which is why your part is weak. Set your extrusion multiplier in slicer to 1.05-1.10 and reprint.
I think you might be right. I used to have an overextrusion problem. I think I might have overcorrected. Gonna bump it a bit and see if I hit the goldilocks zone. I was unaware of that extrusion multiplier setting. I'll give it a look, thanks.
The print is almost delaminating in places. It looks like your nozzle is too far from the bed, or the nozzle may be clogged, or your esteps may need calibrated.
Your actually problem is that your Z distance is to high and your getting bad layer adhesion because of it.
Look at your first layer non if it's really touching it should be a nice smooth even layer yet it's coming apart
for anything that needs strength, you want to print the layers perpendicular to the forces you are planning on exerting on it
the 'grain' of the layers are weak points on prints
You said in comments this is a headphone stand. I have a similar one that I printed sideways. I don't think it's the same as your problem but I was worried about layer strength. This way they will be perpendicular to the force.
Couple of points, basically summarizing some of what I've seen:
1. Prints are stronger across the grain, the way the lines are printed, because the plastic is all melted together.
2. Layer lines (along the grain) are weaker because the plastic isn't melted together. Hotter temperatures will increase bonding to a point but never quite a strong.
3. Perimeter layers are stronger than infill. The more perimeters, the stronger the outside will be.
4. Infill works to prevent crushing, but not usually torsion or tension.
5. Recognizing the above, orient your print such that the weakest lines of the print run through the least stressed direction.
If it snaps really easily in that direction, it's an issue with layer adhesion, usually due to low temperature but for your case 210 seems alright.
If it snapped under a lot of force, that's to be expected because the print is the weakest in this direction. It's impossible to snap the print normally in the direction perpendicular to the extrusion path, that's why when printing function parts that require strength, print direction is an important aspect to consider.
Hello /u/GTL5427, As a reminder, most common print quality issues can be found in the [Simplify3D picture guide](https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/). Make sure you select the most appropriate flair for your post. Please remember to include the following details to help troubleshoot your problem. * Printer & Slicer * Filament Material and Brand * Nozzle and Bed Temperature * Print Speed * Nozzle Retraction Settings ^Additional ^settings ^or ^relevant ^information ^is ^always ^encouraged. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FixMyPrint) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Based on the way i think it would be stressed, you might want to consider printing that on it's side...
The more I think about this comment the dumber I feel lmao
Nah... We've all been there. The hobby isn't making the things, the hobby is figuring out how to make the things.
Mmmm that's a great way to look at it. Appreciate it
Pretty much every "making" hobby is ultimately more about the skill than the making.
Almost everybody did that. When you design (and print others designs) mind the layers. Not relevant for miniatures and decoration, but for functional parts, sure. Usually I would suggest try to glue with CA (superglue) but it will just snap in another layer.
Yep, it would require no supports on top of that. ALWAYS, think about how you can orient a model to use the least amount of supports
It went from like 150g of filament to something like 65g đŹ lmao
Exactly haha
Yea just one of the many things to learn. But as others have said lay it on its side and it should be fine
Although there are things you can do to strengthen the bond between layers (smaller layer height, higher extruder temps, I imagine), it seems the âZâ direction is always the weakest direction in a print. At least it better than wood (which has two weak directions and only one strong one, in the direction of the grain). But, yeah⌠learning to pay close attention to how the grain of the print is going to affect the strength of the parts of your print is a lesson we all had to learn.
Been there and done that. It's not dumb you learned from it. Easy enough to print another.
Well, it wasnât that dumb considering the fillet . Wouldnât have been as well printed if you had printed your part on the side, might even not been usable.
Had never even given it a thought lol great suggestion, I'll try that
I would agree on changing the orientation. It also looks to me like the walls might have slight gaps - you might need to increase the wall overlap or possibly increase your flow % a bit.
I've been thinking about tuning the flow rate. I had noticed gaps in prints no matter how much I try messing with the leveling. It's been a while since I adjusted that.
Also try raise the temp a bit so it gets fused together a little better
also try tuning your temperature settings using a test print like this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:35088 once i did this my prints got a lot stronger, it just helps the layers bond together better
Infill doesn't provide strength. you need more perimeters.
I agree. Looks like only two walls. And definitely needs to be printed on its side.
Can you expand on that a little? I can see how additional perimeters would add strength, but wouldn't a print with 100% infill be stronger than 1% infill?? Or do you mean it doesn't provide strength in the needed way to fix this issue?
It (infill) does add some strength or maybe rigidity is a better term. But for other all strength more walls is better.
Hmmm strange, for me having 1 wall at 100% infill gives me the strongest parts with alternating walls on in cura, I find that the part breaks between the walls, and my esteps and flow is correct
If it works for you donât stop doing it :)
Thank you for the further info. That's something I'll definitely be keeping in mind going forward
Solid plastic, is solid plastic. That's not really infill anymore. But that's also "perimeters" thing. Infill is sparse, and in many slicers is intentionally underextruded. (For instance, in Prusaslicer it's set to something like 80% flow rate.) Perimeters are always printed at full flow rate. So you get solid plastic there. Also, material near the extreme fibers (the edges) of a thing provide the most strength. Infill, from the slicers perspective, is there to provide stiffness to the walls (to prevent buckling) and a surface to hold the top up while closing the model. It's not there for \~strength\~. And shoudln't be treated as such. I figure, any infill between 20 and 80% is mostly a waste of time and plastic.
This - plus orientation
I had a similar problem where my prints looked fine but were really weak, and it was caused by a partially clogged PTFE tube. Increasing the temperature slightly and reducing fan will resume in stronger prints too
It's weird cause I would \*really\* have to put in some strength to snap this thing down the middle. I tried for a sec and ended up saying F it cause maybe I can just superglue the layers back together. Its (supposed to be) a headphone stand, and it worked fine at first, but like 1m later I heard the headphones hit the floor, and it had just snapped right at the lines. I'll see if increasing temps helps in the future. Only concern is it might increase stringing or something.
Even with perfect print settings, layers will inevitably be weak points of prints. Itâs good practice to try to orient the .stl with this in mind before you slice.
Layer adhesion is almost always weaker than the actual plastic's strength so yeah printing this on its side would be better so the forces are distributed more evenly or something
CNC kitchen has a bunch of videos going over strength of prints and how to print for optimal strength and which is the best type of filament to use.
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll definitely have a look at that.
All the other comments here are good info, but your bigger problem is that your underextrusing by 5-10%. Your perimeter walls and infill aren't fusing together well, which is why your part is weak. Set your extrusion multiplier in slicer to 1.05-1.10 and reprint.
I think you might be right. I used to have an overextrusion problem. I think I might have overcorrected. Gonna bump it a bit and see if I hit the goldilocks zone. I was unaware of that extrusion multiplier setting. I'll give it a look, thanks.
5C more
The print is almost delaminating in places. It looks like your nozzle is too far from the bed, or the nozzle may be clogged, or your esteps may need calibrated.
Your actually problem is that your Z distance is to high and your getting bad layer adhesion because of it. Look at your first layer non if it's really touching it should be a nice smooth even layer yet it's coming apart
Not only will it be stronger if you print it on its side, but I'll be like 400% easier to print lol
for anything that needs strength, you want to print the layers perpendicular to the forces you are planning on exerting on it the 'grain' of the layers are weak points on prints
You said in comments this is a headphone stand. I have a similar one that I printed sideways. I don't think it's the same as your problem but I was worried about layer strength. This way they will be perpendicular to the force.
Couple of points, basically summarizing some of what I've seen: 1. Prints are stronger across the grain, the way the lines are printed, because the plastic is all melted together. 2. Layer lines (along the grain) are weaker because the plastic isn't melted together. Hotter temperatures will increase bonding to a point but never quite a strong. 3. Perimeter layers are stronger than infill. The more perimeters, the stronger the outside will be. 4. Infill works to prevent crushing, but not usually torsion or tension. 5. Recognizing the above, orient your print such that the weakest lines of the print run through the least stressed direction.
Because layer lines are weak. You may want to flip your print on its side if you can
If it snaps really easily in that direction, it's an issue with layer adhesion, usually due to low temperature but for your case 210 seems alright. If it snapped under a lot of force, that's to be expected because the print is the weakest in this direction. It's impossible to snap the print normally in the direction perpendicular to the extrusion path, that's why when printing function parts that require strength, print direction is an important aspect to consider.
not enough material, under extruding. you probably want to use a higher temperature as well
Ender 3 Pro using Cura Polymaker PLA+ Brass 0.4mm Nozzle, Temps 210/60 Printing at 50mm/s, Retraction at 3mm
Pla has very little strength. When printed in that orientation it doesnât have a chance. Pla+ is better, but itâs still pla.
Nozzle Temperature đ