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Heated print beds have become a staple feature on most 3D printers, even at the entry level. They help that all-important first layer remain in place, and prevent warping caused by a sudden drop in temperature once filament has been extruded.
For all the good they do, there’s only so much they can do to fix a “bad” print.
3D printing filament is hygroscopic, which means that it sucks moisture out of the ambient environment. Some filaments are worse than others, with PLA being less thirsty than ABS or TPU. Even though filament normally comes in a sealed wrapper with a sachet of desiccant, it usually needs to be dried before you first use it.
Too much moisture in your filament will cause the nozzle to produce steam as moisture evaporates and escapes at the point of extrusion. You might be able to hear the filament hissing or popping as this happens, which leads to print issues like stringing, uneven surfaces, poor layer adhesion, and weak final prints.
To dry your filament, invest in a filament dryer. Just make sure that the dryer you buy is able to reach the necessary temperature for the filament you’re hoping to print. for example, PLA only needs to be dried at around 45ºC, while some TPU variants can go as high as 70ºC. Once dry, you’ll need to store your filament properly.
The SUNLU S1 Plus can dry filament while printing to improve 3Ds model, reducing the impact of a humid environment on the printing of 3d filaments. Adjust the temperature of the filament dry box according to the data different filament requirements, ambient temperature, humidity and other factors. The adjustable temperature range of 35℃-55℃ is suitable for more than 20 kinds of filament.
The SUNLU FilaDryer S4 filament dryer is designed to actively dry up to four filament rolls at one time. There are digital controls on the side where you can choose what temperature you want it to run at and what type of filament you’re drying. There are even filament guides out both sides of this dryer so you can feed filament directly into your 3D printer while it’s drying.
Leveling the print bed on a modern printer is trivially easy. Calibrate your printer using the attached display or mobile app, or allow it to perform a simple leveling procedure each time you send a model to the printer (the default setting for Bambu Studio). It adds a few minutes to each print, but it’s worth it to avoid print problems and wasted filament.
You can sometimes get away with skipping this step, but any time you move your printer, you should run it again. If you have an older printer that lacks automatic bed leveling, consider upgrading to a more recent model to avoid the headache in future.
Your slicer has a lot of settings that you’ve probably never touched, but some are more important than others. There’s a handful of slicer defaults that you should consider changing before every print, but perhaps the most important one is making sure the filament profile is set correctly.
It’s not uncommon for slicers to include print profiles for specific brands and variants of filament, and it’s a given if you’re using a brand’s default slicer (like PrusaSlicer and Bambu Studio). RFID chips inside new spools of filament can automatically detect the right settings, but be prepared to change print speed and temperature settings if not.
For multi-filament prints, a purge tower can help overall quality by retaining nozzle pressure between swaps and cleaning the nozzle during the print. At the same time, making sure you’re only using supports if you really need them means cutting down on the number of unsightly contact points you’ll see when the print is finished.
You can also enable ironing, which will help smooth out horizontal layers by causing the nozzle to take a second pass with a lower rate of extrusion.
Even if you’re printing with the “right” filament settings, slowing down the print can help improve overall quality if you have the time to spare. Though not a golden rule—sometimes, slower speeds can cause more vertical fine artifacts (VFAs)—the fact that many small and detailed models call for slow speeds speaks volumes.
Reducing layer height can also increase perceived print quality, at the cost of overall time spent printing. It’s generally recommended for the layer height to be set somewhere between 25% and 80% of the nozzle size, which means you can go down to around 0.1mm on a 0.4mm nozzle.
You can go even further and swap to a smaller 0.2mm nozzle to achieve tiny layer lines, ideal for printing miniatures.
Over time, the belts that your 3D printer uses to move the print head (and in some cases bed) will work their way loose, and this can cause problems with print quality. Learning to re-tension or even replace the belts can help reduce print quality degradation over time. You’ll also need to apply grease to rails and lubricate gears to keep things running smoothly.
Making sure the nozzle is free of hardened filament that can eventually cause a clog is important, too. You can do this by performing a cold pull, where filament is melted and cooled in the nozzle to catch any debris that shouldn’t be there (a great use for any leftover ends of filament you have lying around). Though a clog means a total print failure, the early stages of a clog usually present as under-extrusion.
Enclosed 3D printers have a few advantages over open “bedslinger” models, especially if they come with chamber heaters. Even if a heated chamber isn’t on the spec sheet, an enclosed design still confers some benefit. With an aftermarket enclosure, you can even reap the rewards on an open printer like the Bambu Lab A1, Ender V3, or Prusa MK4S.
Heating the chamber means that the molten filament isn’t “shocked” by the cooler environment. By cooling printed filament more slowly, you reduce the chances of warping or cracking, and this can even result in stronger prints. It’s especially useful for materials like ABS, polycarbonate (PC), and Nylon, but less necessary for PETG or PLA.
If you have an enclosed printer, simply running the bed at a high temperature (think 90ºC or above) for a while before printing can help. If you’re really keen, you can buy aftermarket chamber heaters for many printers (like this one for the Bambu Lab P2S). Enclosures are even cheaper for open printer designs. Alternatively, you could upgrade to a printer that includes a chamber heater like the surprisingly affordable Bambu Lab X2D, which costs only $100 more than the P2S.
The Bambu Lab X2D Combo is a mid-range 3D printer with dual-nozzle 3D printing for faster print speeds and better support printing. The nozzle reaches 300°C while the actively-heated chamber hits 65°C which is perfect for engineering-grade filaments. The printer comes with Bambu Lab’s signature ease of use, AI fail detection, and has a maximum print volume of 256 × 256 × 260 mm. The combo package comes with the AMS2 multi-material system and filament dryer.
With a size of 25.6×21.6×29.5 inches, the Sunlu enclosure is compatible with most open format 3D printers with a heat-bed size smaller than 235x235x235mm. This enclosure helps maintain a constant tempeature which can provide a significant improvement to 3D prints, especially ABS filaments.
The point of this list isn’t to throw shade on one of the best features on modern printers that many of us take for granted, but to highlight some other areas you might want to look at you’re having print problems.