Underextrusion on the side?

[finite mauve]

After being a long and loyal user of Cura, I tried Orca slicer today. One thing I immediately loved is the built-in calibration models.
I'm running the temperature tower for PLA as we speak.
One thing I noticed is that it appears I have underextrusion on the outer walls, but not on the top? That's odd? (See pics)
What could cause this?
Note that I'm using these settings: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrintedMinis/comments/1fp3b5a/fdm_miniatures_how_i_print_them_and_my_workflow/#lightbox albeit slightly less extreme (a lot lower speeds and a thicker layer height)
I have an Ender3V2.

[rapid flicker]

Have you ever hottightend your hotend ? Because creality are stupid and often assembly the hotends only at 190°c

[finite mauve]

What do you mean "hottightened? Inserting the nozzle at a high temperature?
I always heat it up to 260° when screwing it in, then when it cools it's as if it was welded in the hotend.

[rapid flicker]

correct way to assemble a hotend includes hottightening 🙂 if you suddenly start getting gaps at higher temps its usally because you got a gap in the hotend at that temp or super moist filament.

you could remove the slilicone sock and check for leaking

[finite mauve]

Mhmmm, but shouldn't I be seeing filament leaking on the sides then?

And... wouldn't I also see it in the solid infill? Because solid infil is near perfect.

[rapid flicker]

my guess would be it slows down there

the leak looks usally something like this

or on top of the hotend

[finite mauve]

I have had that before, yes. I unscrewed the nozzle, cleaned up the inner threads and reinserted it. Problem was solved after that.
I checked it just now, both on top and below the hotend: couldn't spot any leakage.

[rapid flicker]

Thats good. Do you have a allmetal heatbreak or one where the tube goes all the way down?

[finite mauve]

I think it's one with a tube that goes all the way down. The extruder is a stock Ender3V2.

[rapid flicker]

okay then all the way down.

did you check if its degraded? the v2 is now what? 5 years old?

[finite mauve]

It's quite old, yes. I don't know how I should check for degradation. What would be the tell signs?
That said... I'm starting to wonder if there's something off with the Calibration models in Orca slicer. I now printed a CalibrationCat (manually added as an STL) and it didn't suffer from these odd lines at all?

[rapid flicker]

Its possible that the slicer changed somethingelse too? Like speed or so

Degraded looks like this

Had the calicat stringing too?

[finite mauve]

Probably, yeah. But no idea what. It asked me what settings I wanted to copy over when loading the model. I selected what I wanted, made some more changes, and then printed. I didn't notice anything obvious that the slicer had overruled.

[finite mauve]

I'd have to open it up for that. I wouldn't be surprised if the tube looks like that by now. I don't think I have ever replaced it on this printer.

[rapid flicker]

That might be a reason.

Do you have a metal extruder or one of the old plastic ones?

[finite mauve]

Nope. The Calicat was near perfect. No stringing at all.
I also printed a retraction-test afterwards. That one was also near perfect. (at least on everything with >2mm retraction)

[rapid flicker]

Hm

[finite mauve]

I have a dual gear metal one. I think it was even you who once recommended it to me 😄

(Also non-bowden)

[rapid flicker]

Maybe its simply wrong speed or so. I gave up on cura with orca etc. Beeing so much advanced

[finite mauve]

Well yeah, that's also why I'm trying Orca now. It's only my first day using it, buy boy.... it has soooo many more options and my prints are already looking way better!

[rapid flicker]

Great 🙂

[rapid flicker]

i did? i get old i cant remember

[finite mauve]

Yeah, I remember your name. I think you helped me out a couple of times in the past already 🙂

Unless it's me who is getting old and whose memory is failing ^^

[rapid flicker]

you are here a while where i was more active aka roughly 70% of all support requests so there is a high chance i did

[opaque bluff]

Looks like a full printer calibration is required here

In Orca make sure retraction is active (inside filament settings) as a start try 3mm at 45mms, you can tune it better later.

Have we tried Esteps calibration as yet?

[finite mauve]

I
It was done in the past. Didn't do it when this issue popped up.
Do you think it's still required when seeing this (50%) CaliCat?

(ignore the messy brim leftovers)

[opaque bluff]

If your extruder is clean an good, along eith hotend being clean as @rapid flicker said.
Then checking steps is a good start, then you can start on all of the other calibrations, each will improve the end result

[finite mauve]

Okay, I'll have another look at the esteps.

Thanks!

[finite mauve]

Wtf...? The E-steps seem about 35% off?! How is this possible?! I've been printing with this printer for years?!
Nevermind this, I made a dumb mistake while measuring the extrusion 🙂

Nonetheless, I redid it and it appears I'm about 4% off 🤔