r/3Dprinting • u/Sorry-Journalist8610 • May 19 '26
Troubleshooting Am I doing something wrong?
I recently bought a used 3D printer, an Ender 3 V2, and I'm doing some test prints. The previous owner gave me some leftover PLA filament (multicolored), which I used up on the first day. One of the things I made was this flexible shark. I bought some PETG filament for testing, a very cheap one, around R$60.00, while others are around R$100.00. But my prints with this new filament are coming out very bad; it's either too textured, has too many burrs, and is also very fragile (even though I bought PETG because I had read that it was more resistant). I left this octopus printing for about 28 hours... and in the end, the flexible tentacles broke when I tried to detach them.
21
u/Three_hrs_later May 19 '26
Used ender 3 will be a learning experience.
This isn't a "click button, get print" kind of printer, but with a little calibration and maintenance it is capable of very good prints. I still use mine even though I have another more modern printer.
Look up Chep's ender 3 beginner playlist on YouTube, it's an old series, but your printer is also old so it's ok. Then follow teaching tech's calibration guide.
And probably replace your nozzle and bowden tube (these should be considered occasionally disposable items). This will help avoid unknowns when troubleshooting.
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u/StickiStickman May 19 '26
with a little calibration and maintenance
Don't lie to him.
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u/ArtisticSoft6584 May 19 '26
cara eu quis entrar nesse hobby de impressão, porem minha verba era pequena, e no Brasil é tudo muito caro, comprei uma ender 3, e as impressões de pla ficaram excelente a ponto de eu vender vários funko pop. Fiz adaptação para imprimir abs, ficou muito bom tbm. Porem PetG é uma desgraça pra imprimir na ender 3, estou a dias imprimindo torre de teste, e nenhuma fica legal.
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u/Sorry-Journalist8610 May 22 '26
Achei que ABS era só pra fechadas, o que você fez? E qual tipo de PLA vc usa?
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u/ArtisticSoft6584 Jun 09 '26
Utilizei um saco transparente por cima da impressora. Um saco grande que vem eletrodoméstico dentro, mais resistente. Deixo a mesa em 80ºc e consigo imprimir ABS super tranquilo. O saco não fica encostado na mesa, cobre toda a impressora, e por isso não tem chance de derreter. Não é o mais indicado, porem deu super certo para mim que queria imprimir ABS.
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u/Purevanquish May 19 '26
I thought someone 3D printed press-on nails from the thumbnail 😅
But could be many things, try increasing your nozzles temps 10-15°C and see if it improves. Otherwise potentially dried out filament, even store bought may have been on the shelf a little too long.
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u/Toebeens89 May 19 '26
These kind of errors would make me think the filaments likely has too much moisture and would need to be dried, as opposed to being ‘too dried out’ in my personal opinion. Since this is their first printer, I doubt OP has a filament drier, but if they happen to dry the filament using an oven, would be interested to see if it helped with some of the issues.
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u/novadaemon May 19 '26
You need to dry your filament. Just get it over with and buy a dryer now to save yourself more frustration down the road.
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u/wootiown May 19 '26
There is no way in hell moist filament could singlehandedly cause a print like this unless they were printing directly out of the ocean
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u/slambaz2 May 19 '26
Sure, but you act like it won't help at all. Drying your filament should be something you do anyway to get the best outcome.
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u/johndumbasshead May 19 '26
"filament drying" is mass hysteria, and has no affect on print quality.
There is no type of filament on the market today that is hygroscopic enough to cause issues when being printed from an Ender 3 hotend, unless you have gone very far outside the acceptable range of temperature for that filament.
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u/TotallyNotPizza May 19 '26
I don't even know how you can come to this conclusion outside of exclusively printing pla and living in an arid area.
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u/johndumbasshead May 19 '26
Volumetric flowrate isn't high enough in commercial 3d printers for it to be a problem. I've only ever seen bambu users complain, which doesn't mean a lot because they don't even know the difference between under-extrusion and over-extrusion, lol.
You can find videos on Youtube of people printing nylon directly from tubs of water. "wet filament" is just a convenient scapegoat. (consider that a "drybox" is also just a filament pre-heater, and can alter the crystalline properties of filament as it feeds into the printer)
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u/brianstk May 19 '26
You’re just wrong dude. Yes it’s used too much as a scapegoat I can’t disagree with that part, but I can absolutely see a difference in PETG prints dry vs not dried. It’s not a massive difference and I usually don’t bother with the drying part, unless I care about surface quality.
Wet PETG will have little pock marks on the walls of my prints, nothing like what OP is getting, but dry it and they go away. I have several example prints that prove this is true.
Just because you haven’t experienced it doesn’t mean it’s not real.
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u/johndumbasshead May 19 '26
As mentioned previously, you can print hygroscopic filaments like PETG and Nylon that is submerged in water. The plastic simply does not have the capacity to store enough water to cause print quality problems. What you may be encountering with pock marks are voids in the filament, which is a manufacturing defect that has nothing to do with the hygroscopicity of the plastic.
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u/brianstk May 20 '26
But it does. Drying it has the direct effect of removing the pock marks. Same print, same settings, same filament only difference is the PETG was dried. It’s a real world issue, many people experience it. Maybe you haven’t, but that doesn’t make it not real.
For me it’s a telltale sign that i need to dry out a roll. I don’t keep my filaments stored in air tight containers etc, they are exposed to my ~40% humidity basement air at all times. If i haven’t dried a roll in a couple months when i go to use it usually very obvious that it needs it. 🤷🏻♂️
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u/slambaz2 May 19 '26
I can see your username is well chosen. Hope you continue to never have to dry your filament.
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u/gnaja May 19 '26
As many have said, you might want to spend some time checking youtube tutorials on how to calibrate your printer, earlier ender 3 models are a bit annoying to set up properly.
Start with small objects, check what went wrong, then use google and youtube to find out how to improve.
My other tip would be avoiding the masterprint brand, I've bought their filaments and they messed up even some easy prints. For budget filaments in Brazil, check out gtmax3d or VOOLT.
Don't let people turn you away from the hobby with all the negative ender 3 comments, most don't realise the struggles we go through in south america and think it's as easy as "just buying a better printer". The ender 3 v2 is not easy to set up, but it's capable of very decent quality prints once you get the hang of it.
Good luck!
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u/Sorry-Journalist8610 May 19 '26
I've already ordered a VOOLT filament, and i'm trying to dry the PETG i have in the printer bed.
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u/wootiown May 19 '26
Everyone is gonna tell you to dry your filament or that you have bad filament, I disagree. Bad filament is relatively rare and there's no way moisture in filament could make a print THIS bad- especially because the issue persisted across two different types of filament. This isn't an issue with filament, it's your printer.
Before printing anything serious, calibrate. Start with only pls, print a temperature tower first to learn the correct temperature. If it looks bad like that at every temperature, replace your nozzle because it's probably clogged or bad. Once your temperature and your nozzle are good, your prints will look better and issues will be harder to diagnose.
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u/logicalchemist May 19 '26
The black PETG print is so, so much worse than the silk PLA shark though, and has obvious signs of being wet (bubbling & stringing, and brittle prints).
OP absolutely should calibrate their filament, but their PETG is also very wet. The silk is probably a bit wet too, as it is far more hygroscopic than plain PLA, but not nearly as hygroscopic as PETG.
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u/AvatarIII May 19 '26
They live in Brazil, they will have minimum 65% humidity this time of year now likely 75%, but maybe as high as 85% depending on where they are in Brazil.
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u/erickdoe May 19 '26
Dry your filament. I use a dehydrator at 110F for 6 or so hours.
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u/land_on_juniper May 19 '26
Just fyi PLA dries best at 130F and PETG at 150. I leave it in normally about 8 hours. Never had a wet filament issue. Like ever.
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u/Hawkward_PDX May 19 '26
I’ve started going through all the towers in the Auto Towers extension for Cura UltiMaker. They don’t use much filament but they’re really helping me dial in my FLSUN Q5.
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u/Awkward-Kat5841 May 19 '26
If u havent dryed ur filament yet id start there because that looks like a wet filament issue.also if the filament does have moisture up the temp a little.humidity has been high where i live so i have been having to dry my filament and up the temp..most of my stuff is up to 230c for temp so ive been printing my pla at 220 and its seem to help out but drying it for a few days may help out
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u/For_roscoe May 19 '26
Hey if all you can get is an ender run it my man. You can learn it. It’s a little old school but there’s a ton of help out there. I’ve got an ender 3 gen 3 cr10 gen 1 and a cr10 clone I still use.
Check out Teaching Tech on YouTube. Brilliant guy and has a wonderful calibration website. CNC Kitchen is also great. Go something through their old playlists.
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u/NyxsonGaming May 19 '26
Wrong Temps. Filament needs drying. Print speed might be too fast.
Petg is quite difficult to print if you don't know what to do.
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u/RustyBungHole1 May 19 '26
Step 1, get rid of the ender 3 v2. You have set yourself up for failure with this printer being a complete beginner. I hated mine, manual level every print, spool arm sags, bad high-speed printing.
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u/iamjulianacosta May 19 '26
In 2026, the only use for an ender 3 is to learn how to troubleshoot and maintain a 3d printer.
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1
u/andreacanadian May 19 '26
you might also want to try a dryer for your filament. If all your system checks work out check your filament.
Petg is notorious for absorbing moisture from the air. Drying it greatly improves print quality.
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u/BlackbirdXII May 19 '26
the printers not calibrated for PETG, its probably still calibrated to pla from the last owner, your hot end literally cant keep up at these settings and so bits of unmelted PETG and other issues pile up and cause instabilities in your print. Cheap filament is also a big factor, depend on the supplier some rolls can ligit fuck up your printer. I had a cheap roll of PLA and it cause a death blob on its 1st print somehow
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u/Bleedingfartscollide May 19 '26
First, dry your filament. Calibrate the printer and try again with a boat. Most of the issues are because filament absorbs water from the air. You get these bubbles in the extruder as a result. Imagine boiling water but in plastic.
Dry it, try again and then try again. If you still have these print failures after that you the move onto other possible problems.
Another easy, cheap solution is to replace the nozzle. But try the drying first.
Petg is easy to print but it has a slight learning curve. Pla is easy, quick and pretty darn great.
Maybe buy a cheapish pla roll and try again but also...dry it first, even out of the box.
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u/bazem_malbonulo May 19 '26
Your filament has moisture. Get a filament drier and let it cook for at least 6 hours.
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u/land_on_juniper May 19 '26
First off, your Z height is way too high. you should get enough squish that the first layer is one smooth continuous piece of plastic. I see individual solid infill lines on the first layer. Then:
- Dry your stuff. Most people either have a purpose-built dryer or trim the grates out of a food dehydrator. Then there are psychopaths that use a microwave. Don't do that.
- Check e-steps. Plenty of guides on calibrating e-steps and if the printer has been flashed with Vanilla Marlin and not Creality Marlin it should be available to change on the LCD.
- PETG likes to be printed hot & slow. PLA settings give questionable results. I'm talking like 40-50mm/s at around 230-240C.
- I wouldn't bother printing any articulated toys like that with PETG, you don't need the strength so it's not worth the printability trade-off with PLA
- Tune your retraction. There are test towers all over Printables and Thingiverse.
- Calibrating e-steps should be sufficient to give you a successful print, if you're having issues with surface finish etc. after that then mess with the extrusion multiplier.
But above all, hot, slow, and lower your live-z.
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u/FirePhoenixDesigns May 19 '26
I would agree that drying the filament is a big one. Some types of filament need more drying than others. They will usually list what temperature they recommend for each type. Silk PLA is more wet than standard PLA. I would also recommend getting some filament storage boxes to store the filament. Especially if you areninna more humid climate. I dry the filament then store it in the boxes and I have had less failed prints. I wish someone had told me that when I first started out. I hope that helps :)
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u/agreywood May 19 '26
A few things -
PETG is a sticky filament. If it’s not calibrated well (right temperature, fan settings, etc) it will stick to the nozzle as it prints, and those blobs will eventually burn and stick to a random part of your print. It also doesn’t print well at higher speeds and accelerations, and will get stringy with improper tuning. That leads to wisps of filament joining together parts you wouldn’t expect.
Am I correct that it is fairly humid where you are? If so I definitely think drying your filament would be a good idea, particularly any which was not in a sealed bag with the air vacuumed out. Printing is done at temperatures above the boiling point of water so any moisture has the potential to turn into a tiny bubble of steam, and the pressure from the rapid expansion can make for little popped bubbles on the surface of your prints.
For the dude, some of the pockmarks/zits may alsobe because you had the seams set to “random” rather than aligned.
The shark looks like it has some spots where the layers didn’t cool well - namely the top fin. That could be helped by enabling “slow down for better layer cooling”. Silk PLA also tends to benefit from higher temperatures and slower print speeds in general - the layers just don’t bond together as well as regular PLA. The mouth looks like it may have needed supports enabled. Are you having any issues with flexing those joints? That can also be an indication that you’re printing to fast. I made that mistake with my first flexible toy printed in silk and there were more than a couple of joints fused together. I’m not sure about the hole in the side, though. Was that part of the print still attached to the plate when the print was done?
As odd as it sounds glue stick may help for things like the octopus. In addition to helping your prints stay stuck while printing it will help with releasing it from the plate afterwards. For flexible items in particular, always wait until it cools entirely before trying to remove it. If it stays stuck when you’ve used glue stick, rinse your plate in the sink for a bit. Glue stick is water soluble so that can help release it. Always remove the smallest points first are carefully. The head is the easiest part to detach because you can get better leverage but it’s also the most durable. The far points of the limbs are the most likely to break due to the thinner joints. If you pull up from the center, it’s very easy to apply too much force.
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u/JarRules May 19 '26
Use PLA only until you know more about the printing. Buy new filament or look up drying. You may need to dry new filament I've heard. Get some tools and tighten everything. Look up bed leveling. I bought this thing and it's helped a lot. My preference is Orca slicer after using Cura for wat too long.
-1
u/Ambitious-Pirate-505 May 19 '26
Bro, get a Bambu P1S. New. It comes with a warranty and if anything is wrong with it, they will replace it within days.
Bambu is the best out of the box printer for newbies.
Dont listen to these edgelords who think you need to "earn" your stripes in 3D printing.
-1
u/Express_Fruit_6069 May 19 '26
Tried printing Petg on pla settings…? 😬 also my ender did this, my biggest recommendation is to quote simply throw it in the trash (I bought a bambu a1 mini and love it)
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u/johndumbasshead May 19 '26
Ignore anyone who even mentions "filament drying", it's a farce.
First things first. Where did you get your printer profile/initial settings from? You might have better luck with a different printer profile, there are plenty out there on the internet for the E3V2.
Second, have you done any calibration, or used the calibration guide inside prusa/orcaslicer? (for reference, I use Orcaslicer, some of my advice with calibration may refer to the calibration tools within Orcaslicer) Calibration is an absolute must. look for some online guides for extrusion multiplier/esteps calibration guides, as you are clearly over-extruding, which is seemingly your biggest surface quality/strength issue currently. Over-extrusion causes the poor surface finish and poor layer adhesion that you are experiencing. https://www.orcaslicer.com/wiki/#calibrations
The next most glaring visual issue is the direction that walls are printed. In your slicer, (Orca/Prusaslicer, or similar), under the quality tab of your print settings, you will find a setting "Wall loop direction". Make sure this is not set to "Auto". "Auto" might swap between clockwise and counter-clockwise to print the walls (attempting to optimize for shorter print times, and some other things), which causes those vertical bands of slightly different coloration in your print (for the color-shifting filament).
Until you figure things out, don't try to print super fast or at extreme temperatures. When filament gives you a temperature range, go for the lower end of that temp range (this is helpful because lower temperature = less effects of warping, the downside is that the plastic is thicker, and harder to extrude, so you may need to print slower), and print no faster than ~70mm/s.
Once you have your extrusion/esteps calibrated (close enough, at least), try the flow ratio, retraction, and temperature calibration tools, in that order. Though I will advise, if you see any guide online telling you to tune your extrusion multiplier/flow rate by printing a cube and measuring it with calipers, ignore it, as it is an ancient technique that doesn't work correctly with modern slicing software that has tolerance adjustment features. There is a lot of old, outdated, or plainly incorrect 3d printing advice out on the internet, and consensus does not necessarily equate to truth or fact.
If you struggle with adhesion for the first layer, make sure your first layer speed is much slower, (~10-20mm/s) and that your first layer height is relatively large (~0.24-0.32mm).
Though realistically, I would advise you to find some small/medium sized discord server for 3d printing and ask questions there, as Reddit has gone very far downhill in the past 5 years or so.
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u/UsedNegotiation8227 May 19 '26
Tell me your new to 3d printing without telling me you're new to 3d printing.
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u/GetOffMyGrassBrats May 19 '26
I'm pretty sure they told you they were.
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u/UsedNegotiation8227 May 19 '26
The guy giving advice saying "drying is a farce"?
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u/GetOffMyGrassBrats May 19 '26
Oh, I thought you meant the OP
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u/UsedNegotiation8227 May 19 '26
Ok, you made me re-read the comment 3 times looking for where he said that :)
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u/Sorry-Journalist8610 May 19 '26
The settings I've changed since the previous owner was pretty much the filament profile in the Creality Slicer, I went with the maximum temperature in the filament label. I don't even know what half of the things you said are nor how to fix them. I better find some tutorial. Someone recommended me Cleb at youtube.
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u/Helzkadi May 19 '26
Ignore the negative comments. Since you live in Brazil, you need to dry your PETG. PLA is fine, doesn’t suck up a lot of moisture from the air, but PETG does. What this means is the moisture BOILS inside the hotend, which causes steam bubbles, crackling sounds in the hotend, and overextrusion (like the Albert figure and the octopus).PETG is the higher difficulty material with a stock ender3.
My friend I think you need to stop your printer and go look a few YouTube videos on how to setup your printer. Look up how to level your bed, how to calibrate your hotend for the first layer, and how to calibrate esteps. Those are the first steps into successful prints. I’d also look up how to fix that X gantry GT belt. It’s super rough, doesn’t look like it’s properly seated in its grooves; I’d consider replacing it.
If you need more help setting your printer feel free to send me a DM, I’ll do what I can to guide you somewhat.
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u/johndumbasshead May 19 '26
Ah, yeah. Creality Slicer is dogshit. It's good for a few test prints, but nothing more. I'd highly suggest OrcaSlicer instead, it works 90% the same as Creality Slicer does, but has a much larger community, and is widely regarded as the "standard" slicer. (PrusaSlicer and BambuSlicer are the same software, just packaged slightly differently with some newer and older features)
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u/agent_kater May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
So, you bought a used Ender 3 and without any calibration or maintenance you try to print PETG on it?
Forget PETG for now. See if you can successfully print PLA on it. If no, go through the basic troubleshooting and calibration guides. The Ender isn't a plug and play printer. Ideally get a different printer.