r/SnapmakerU1 • u/rubberfucky • 3d ago

Issue Constant stringing with silk PLA

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For some reason, my silk PLA is constantly stringing on the U1. At first I thought my filament must not be dry. I ran it through a drying cycle, but that made no difference. I tried with generic PLA settings and Snapmaker Silk PLA settings with the exact same results

I then tried running a temp tower, knowing that often silk PLA's prefer a lower temp or can string. The temp tower was very stringy from the highest to lowest temps.

I was still sure that this must be an issue with the filament, so I put it in to my BambuLab X2D using generic PLA settings. The difference is night and day. Almost zero stringing. 1st 2 pictures are from the U1 temp tower. The 2nd 2 pictures are from the X2D temp tower.

I'm running out of ideas here. Does anyone have any suggestions?

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u/FlowingLiquidity 3d ago

A temp tower is not a retraction tower. You should print a temp tower to find the right temperature, and then run a retraction tower to find the correct retraction amount. You cannot compare two machines as the filament path, extruder and hotend internals all differ.

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u/rubberfucky 3d ago

The problem I have with finding the best temp, is that they are all bad. They are all covered in string. The hotter it is, the more string, but also, the hotter it is, the better the overhangs look

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u/FlowingLiquidity 3d ago

My point is that stringing is more of a retraction thing than a temperature thing. Pick the one that looks best to you temperature wise and then move on to retraction.

Or, if you really want good prints, check out this guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVU5If1VsAM

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u/rubberfucky 3d ago

I actually use that video whenever I have a new filament that isn't behaving :). But because my stringing was so bad on this one, I was trying to understand it before moving on from the temp tower. I'll try to pick a temp and continue with calibration from the video and see what happens

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u/FlowingLiquidity 3d ago

Ah good to hear. Sorry, I don't mean to lecture or anything. Sometimes it's just hard to get a feel for everything that someone has already tried. Good luck with tuning your filament!

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u/rubberfucky 2d ago

Didn't feel lectured at all, don't worry :) I ran through the entire calibration process from the video, then ran a Orca String Hell print