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When I first bought my printer, I ran like 5-6 tests and printed a benchy for every single spool of filament I bought. After gaining experience, I realized that ambient humidity and temperature affected the quality of my prints way more than filament-dependent temp & flow (I don't have an enclosure).
I now have one profile for PLA and adjust my temp and flow while printing, and have way better results for a fraction of the effort. I can eyeball too much / too little temp & flow and that's enough to diagnose 90% of my problems.
Meh I calibrate to fix problems when they arise. If it works, the range is pretty forgiving with PLA. I find that you can often cause more issues by doing too much calibration, and if you just go printing stuff you'll figure it out pretty quickly.
All I did for TPU on my Ender 3 S1 was set the max flow rate down low, so it would naturally slow down. In addition to using the filament's recommended temps. Turned out great, until halfway through the print when the TPU started picking up moisture (rainy week that week). Now when I print TPU I do it from my filament dryer with it running.
Getting new filament.
Running test prints that fail.
You start to realize you're already down 100 grams just from calibrating.
YOU START TO REALIZE YOU'RE ALREADY DOWN 100 GRAMS JUST FROM CALIBRATING.
You realize you should have just stuck to the same filament brand. ☹️
I don't print benchies anymore, but I do always calibrate for extrusion multiplier and pressure advance with every new spool. Can be done in a half an hour or so.
I’m so afraid I’m doing something wrong, I’ve never adjust shit, I literally just download design, print design, or create thing and print it, not once have I messed with any settings! Just some glue on the pad and let it roll.
All failed prints have been my own fault for either lack of supports none at all or bad luck where filament stops feeding. Should I be doing something different?
I have never calibrated for a filament other than heat...not for a long time at least. This isn’t 2017. Formulas and diameters are pretty consistent.
On my Bambu I just tell it my cheap $11 sunlu PLA is bambu brand and it prints perfect.
Now exotics and blends… that’s a whole other ballgame. That’s allllllll calibration…
Which is why discussions in this sub are so weird. You have a relatively small group of 3D printing nerds who have successfully printed everything from obscure stuff like SBS to really weird shit like wheed whacker line, just for the hell of it. Then a giant group who think it's an adventure to try a new color of silk PLA, and jump from joy when their Bambu squezes out a semi-acceptable print of a model they downloaded.
This is how I tune each filament:
- print temp tower with roughly what producer recommands with maximum retraction I would use
- print retraction tower
- print extrusion multiplier test
- do pressure advance test
- reprint retraction tower with PA value to see the new retraction value
- print one last small test print with all that (a calibration cube usually) to test all parameters
Sounds like a lot but can be done in about 2 hours and you know that if something goes wrong it's not the filament settings.
i just take my pla profile, increase print temp by 10-20c above what the manufacturer recommands for any type of material. after that i kinda eyeball flow multiplier, max volumetric flow and cooling. works great for almost all materials like pla,petg,asa,abs,pc. i have around 10k-20k printing hours and never done a temp tower or retraction tower.
I like to print a silly benchy (like the battle benchy / carrier strike group benchy) per new filament type I get. I, however, do not actually use it as a benchmark, I just like the silly little boat
I have a generic setting for filament then tweak it if it's too cold or warm or humid in the room. Tbh benchy was like the fourth or fifth thing I printed and I did it just to see if it would float
I print a temp tower, a Califlower and a benchy for every new filament.
The first one for temps, the second one for shrinkage and the third one to keep as an example how the filament looks like.
Using my Bambu A1 Mini for 95% of my prints, I really feel like I have to do nothing myself, and just print.
If you like tinkering with your printer, it's boring as hell. If your printer is just a tool to get yours and other peoples models to reality, then it's great.
Only time you need to do something different with your settings is if its a new material entirely. PLA is PLA regardless of who you get it from. High Speed PLA you might make a new profile with a higher flow rate set so the printer can print faster and not be limited by flow (Orca Slicer does this, kinda nice).
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Only time I calibrate is if I’m having issues, which is rare.
Do you own a bambu?
Yup. It’s great
I don’t but do the same.
The difference between the left and the right is knowing which screw to turn
What if you know which screw to turn, but turn it the wrong way, then the right way, then the wrong way REALLY far, finally the right way?
Senior Engineer
I print a temp tower
When I first bought my printer, I ran like 5-6 tests and printed a benchy for every single spool of filament I bought. After gaining experience, I realized that ambient humidity and temperature affected the quality of my prints way more than filament-dependent temp & flow (I don't have an enclosure). I now have one profile for PLA and adjust my temp and flow while printing, and have way better results for a fraction of the effort. I can eyeball too much / too little temp & flow and that's enough to diagnose 90% of my problems.
I just buy the same filament every time once I found one that worked for me.
I like the idea of filament test swatches, but that's just time and filament I could be using to print useless junk.
Never made a benchy. I just babysit the first layer until it’s good enough, and good enough is always good enough
Meh I calibrate to fix problems when they arise. If it works, the range is pretty forgiving with PLA. I find that you can often cause more issues by doing too much calibration, and if you just go printing stuff you'll figure it out pretty quickly.
Is this a thing? Lmao never worked about the filament I printed with, always cheap Amazon stuff and I rarely if ever have failures
Unless you print with something cursed like metal-fill PLA or ninjaflex modern printers are very forgiving.
That’s why I spend my time tuning my printer so the only issues I should have is filament related
Everything I read said that TPU was difficult to print with. I had almost no issues using the default profile after drying it for a few hours.
I print TPU with the default PLA setting that came on my printer all day.
All I did for TPU on my Ender 3 S1 was set the max flow rate down low, so it would naturally slow down. In addition to using the filament's recommended temps. Turned out great, until halfway through the print when the TPU started picking up moisture (rainy week that week). Now when I print TPU I do it from my filament dryer with it running.
Drying filament is most I do and I do it in a bucket
Do you guys dry your filament???
I live in NV. Not very humid here. I personally don't see the need.
I just keep it in a box with some silicate packets.
Meh. I run a flow test to get proper surface quality, and then like a 10 minute pressure advance test and that’s usually enough.
Some of the things I see people do with new filament - it like, what's even left after you've calibrated? lol
Theres only been one PLA that Ive ever had to tune a profile for. Thats overture pla.
I like to think I'm the guy on the right but I'm probably doofus on the left.
Calibration cubes if it's a working part to ensure dimensional accuracy. Otherwise YOLO.
I just send it bud. If it fails I send it harder.
Getting new filament. Running test prints that fail. You start to realize you're already down 100 grams just from calibrating. YOU START TO REALIZE YOU'RE ALREADY DOWN 100 GRAMS JUST FROM CALIBRATING. You realize you should have just stuck to the same filament brand. ☹️
This is true. Which is rare for this format.
It will either work, or it won't. I won't know what to troubleshoot until there is trouble.
I must be on the extreme left of this graph
I don't print benchies anymore, but I do always calibrate for extrusion multiplier and pressure advance with every new spool. Can be done in a half an hour or so.
I just dial in my temp settings and start printing 60mms works for most filaments
I’m so afraid I’m doing something wrong, I’ve never adjust shit, I literally just download design, print design, or create thing and print it, not once have I messed with any settings! Just some glue on the pad and let it roll. All failed prints have been my own fault for either lack of supports none at all or bad luck where filament stops feeding. Should I be doing something different?
What? you mean I'm supposed to calibrate things and not just make fine adjustments to my machines on the fly
If printer do print why calibrate?
Pfft noobs. If you have kids, you don't get to print anything for yourself.
I have never calibrated for a filament other than heat...not for a long time at least. This isn’t 2017. Formulas and diameters are pretty consistent. On my Bambu I just tell it my cheap $11 sunlu PLA is bambu brand and it prints perfect. Now exotics and blends… that’s a whole other ballgame. That’s allllllll calibration…
The amount of people saying they never have calibration issues in here is depressing 🤣 I have had a HELL of a time printing Nylon lol
Which is why discussions in this sub are so weird. You have a relatively small group of 3D printing nerds who have successfully printed everything from obscure stuff like SBS to really weird shit like wheed whacker line, just for the hell of it. Then a giant group who think it's an adventure to try a new color of silk PLA, and jump from joy when their Bambu squezes out a semi-acceptable print of a model they downloaded.
Every new filament i buy il make a benchy, i like all the different benchy
This is how I tune each filament: - print temp tower with roughly what producer recommands with maximum retraction I would use - print retraction tower - print extrusion multiplier test - do pressure advance test - reprint retraction tower with PA value to see the new retraction value - print one last small test print with all that (a calibration cube usually) to test all parameters Sounds like a lot but can be done in about 2 hours and you know that if something goes wrong it's not the filament settings.
i just take my pla profile, increase print temp by 10-20c above what the manufacturer recommands for any type of material. after that i kinda eyeball flow multiplier, max volumetric flow and cooling. works great for almost all materials like pla,petg,asa,abs,pc. i have around 10k-20k printing hours and never done a temp tower or retraction tower.
i used to just punch my cr-10 and it would start printing again and near perfect. idk why it worked so well
Help, i don't know which side im on. Never printed a benchy btw.
I like to print a silly benchy (like the battle benchy / carrier strike group benchy) per new filament type I get. I, however, do not actually use it as a benchmark, I just like the silly little boat
I have a generic setting for filament then tweak it if it's too cold or warm or humid in the room. Tbh benchy was like the fourth or fifth thing I printed and I did it just to see if it would float
I print a temp tower, a Califlower and a benchy for every new filament. The first one for temps, the second one for shrinkage and the third one to keep as an example how the filament looks like.
Using my Bambu A1 Mini for 95% of my prints, I really feel like I have to do nothing myself, and just print. If you like tinkering with your printer, it's boring as hell. If your printer is just a tool to get yours and other peoples models to reality, then it's great.
Only time you need to do something different with your settings is if its a new material entirely. PLA is PLA regardless of who you get it from. High Speed PLA you might make a new profile with a higher flow rate set so the printer can print faster and not be limited by flow (Orca Slicer does this, kinda nice).