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I have been printing on and off for years. Generally, I have had no issues until recently. Upon thinking back I don't think I used the Z-offset at any point and only manually leveled my Ender 3 S1 Pro.

I'm not sure if it's material or me, or both.

I have to learn this. I bought a new, expensive printer which is ABL only. No knobs, only Z baby-stepping in software. The card reader in my S1 broke so I bought a new board and discovered I needed to do this process again. Since I purchased a Sonic Pad, I changed over to Klipper and printed TPU for 2 weeks fine.

I bought a spool of Overture PLA, it's been a disaster. Before trying to dial this in last night the spool had been drying at 45 °C for 12 hours. Doesn't seem to print any differently.

Instead of the config steps, after manually leveling and getting the mesh, I made a one-layer print of concentric squares with a solid 1" box in the center. I'm baby stepping trying to find the sweet spot and think I do. I begin printing my model, 5 copies, layer 1: 1 - doesn't stick; 2 - sticks; 3 - sticks; 4 - sticks. I stop and clean the bed with IPA. Copy 1 - sticks; 2 + 3 - doesn't stick. Stop printing, manually level, and find no resistance with paper. Re-level manually only, print, skirt doesn't lay down right.

Tried the Creality "BuildTak" bed first, and worse.

  • Printer: Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro - Sonic Pad (Klipper)
  • Nozzle: 0.5 mm Hardened Steel @ 215 °C
  • Bed: 60 °C PEI and "BuildTak"
  • Layer Height/Width: 0.3 mm 0.5 mm
  • Filament: Overture PLA Highlight Yellow
  • Speed: 25 mm/s

What's the process? 1) Manual 2) Probe 3) Mesh? Does the order of 2 and 3 matter?

Mesh and manual are easy enough. I won't be at my printer until 7 pm Central be eager to read any advice during the day. I have Googled this also; obviously, I missed something.

Photo of a series of models on the buildplate with only the second, third and fourth sets printing reliably

Photo of only the first set in a series of printed models printed reliably

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  • $\begingroup$ As I was z-baby stepping down with my concentric boxes, I assumed when it not sticking well or looking good the z-offset was too high. When looking good it was okay. And continuing down, it started to come off the bed in some areas... I assumed to low. But this seems to allow the paper when manually levelling to have zero resistance under the nozzle. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 28, 2023 at 13:50
  • $\begingroup$ Elephant's foot compensation, could this be the problem? It was at 0.1 mm and now at 0.05 mm. Leave it at 0? $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 28, 2023 at 13:57
  • $\begingroup$ I printed a temperature tower beforehand: 190-230 at 5 degree increments. It broke off the bed during 195. All overhang areas severely curled up. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 28, 2023 at 14:12

1 Answer 1

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I'm not claiming this is the definitive answer but I made a successful print with these changes.

There were several things I did that may have helped but I don't think solved the problem. I eliminated the elephant's foot compensation. I brought up the flow ratio to 1.01. Even though I had indicated no cooling on the first layer, I unchecked the box that indicated fan Always on.

The real solution I believe, increasing the nozzle temperature to 230 °C and bed temperature to 70 °C for the first layer and afterward dialing it back to 210 °C and 60 °C respectively.

I've had rolls of PLA for a long time. Perhaps the formulation has changed over time but I didn't have to go through such steps before, nor print so hot on layer one.

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