Ridges on first layer and noob advice?

[elfin depot]

Hi, I just got my printer a couple days ago so I'm a total noob.

Ender 3 with bl touch, Comgrow tempered glass plate, and I think direct drive and filament sensor? Got it second hand already modded from someone from someone else.

Printing PLA (white from Comgrow)
Bed temp: 50
Nozzle temp: 200

I had a lot of trouble getting anything to stick at all so I levelled my bed, checked my probe offsets over and over again, checked the frame is level with a spirit level. I did a hot and a cold pull and cleaned the nozzle with a needle.

Finally I tried a glue stick and I managed to print an XYZ Calibration Cube with a raft and it turned out (IMO) great. I did make a tiny adjustment to bring the nozzle lower and I had to slow down the speed on my printer to 10 (in the printer menu, I went Tune then Speed).

Then I tried printing Benchy. It was printing the raft and the first layer seemed okay but then it started getting ridges and turned out really rough. When it got to the middle and tried to print around the letters on the bottom layer, it seemed like the printer was moving too fast and nothing would stick again. Now on my last attempt there's also stringing, which I didn't have a problem with before.

In Cura, I brought down the travel speed which seemed to help with the letters a little, though the speed is also still on 50 on my printer.
My Cura speed settings (working off the default Standard Quality profile for Ender 3) are now:
Print speed: 50
Travel speed: 80
Initial layer speed: 20
Initial layer travel speed: 50
Number of slower layers: 5
Initial layer line width: 115

I'm guessing the nozzle is too low, but when I try baby stepping I'm not sure if it's even doing anything. I tried changing the z offset between prints and didn't notice a difference, but maybe I didn't move it enough.

[light wing]

AI Help

It sounds like you're on the right track. Here are some things you can try:

1. Check your nozzle height again. If the nozzle is too close to the bed, it can cause the filament to not extrude properly and result in a rough finish and stringing. Try adjusting the z-offset a little at a time until you find the sweet spot.

2. Adjust the print speed. Since you've already slowed down the speed to 10 during your calibration cube print, you can continue to reduce the speed in Cura. Try reducing the print speed to 40 or lower and see if it helps.

3. Increase retraction. Stringing can be caused by not retracting the filament properly between moves. Try increasing the retraction setting in Cura to see if it helps.

4. Check your filament diameter. Make sure your printer knows the correct filament diameter you're using. If it's set incorrectly, the printer may be extruding too much or too little filament, causing issues with the print.

5. Clean the bed surface. Even though you're using a te...

WARNING: This response is AI generated and may contain errors.

[rich glade]

had a lot of trouble getting anything to stick at all
I'm guessing it's a smooth glass plate (as in, not textured or coated)? Yeah, those are very difficult to maintain good adhesion with. Glue stick is pretty much a requirement with smooth glass beds, even if your first layers are perfect.

checked the frame is level with a spirit level
That's not what level means... It's a bad term from early on in the hobby that stuck. When we "level" we're actually just tramming a machine, or in the case of a frame, making sure it's fully square. In other words, we want to make sure all 3 axes that the printer moves in are perfectly perpendicular with each other and not skewed / twisted / warped / etc.

As for the pics, it 100% looks like the nozzle is too close to the bed

I'd keep raising it until the ridges disappear, and don't be afriad to use gluestick with that build surface. If you don't like adhesives, you might consider switching to PEI or textured PEI

[elfin depot]

Thanks!
I'll do the z-axis checks again. I think when I was doing the cube I lowered it a little to help it stick and might have messed something up trying to work out how z babysteps work lol.

I thought that making sure the frame level would be something to do with that but I wasn't sure where to begin 😅 I'll watch some videos on tramming. I got it assembled so idk how it was before but it could have also been knocked around in transport.

The glass bed is textured. I don't really know how to explain it, but here's an Amazon link to what looks like the same plate (it says composite coating, but the bed looks pretty well used): https://www.amazon.com.au/Comgrow-Surface-Tempered-235x235x3mm-Creality/dp/B07HFMC9KQ

I tried cleaning it really well with a microfibre cloth with water and with isopropyl alcohol until it looked clean and free of dirt and oil, but the prints were just flying away instead of sticking. The glue stick definitely seems to help

[rich glade]

Ah, that's textured then. The coating is usually some form of ceramic, and it does wear off / lose it's grip over time.
When they're new, coated beds (common name for it is ultrabase) usually say to only clean with water or mild detergent; isopropyl alcohol can break down the coating pretty quickly, and so can using adhesives.
But if the surface is already looking worn then you might as well just use glue stick on it or just flip it over and use the smooth side. Can't hurt what's already hurting.

[little hound]

came here to ask the same question. just got my ender 3 pro running klipper and installed a bed and extruder+hotend and im seeing something similar only in sections of the bed

not sure whats causing it

im printing on a textured pei springsteel on a magnetic sticker applied to the aluminum bed

[rich glade]

Looks like it's not level or is warped and has a high spot on that one part

If warped, only fix is replacing the bed with one that's flat or using ABL to compensate for the warp

[little hound]

yeah the bed is definitely warped

when i leveled the bed manually using the corners the center was ~0.2mm below the nozzle

ABL sensor is being shipped but wont be here for a few weeks

layer 2 just went down and i looks like it smoothed it out a bit

so i think its okay for now

[light wing]

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[elfin depot]

?solved