Hi! Looking for some advice here from friendly local experts.
I’ve printed this with Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro, 0.4 nozzle, Elegoo PETG filament, no enclosure. Using PrusaSlicer.
This print is basically all walls - the hex grid is thin. It’s 2mm thick and each segment is 1.5mm wide. I set 3 layers for walls in slicer. It was printed vertically, just as seen on picture.
The solid part of the print (back wall) came out just fine, but the hex grid part came… dirty. On the picture, there are a few hex segments that just broke off during the print at the base of vertical segments. And the rest of them have small loops of filament that stick outside of the intended surface, to the sides.
My suspicion is the print temperature is too low. I’m printing at 230, which is the low end of 230-260 range of the filament. But in my previous tests I noticed stringing that starts around 240, so I did a few other prints that were just fine at 230, and I made it my default temp for this spool.
Or is it just too fine detail for my printer with PETG? Or something else that I am missing?
Late to the party, but…
How well tuned is your printer? This whole print is a torture test with lots of retractions and thin walls. For things to go well you will have needed to dial in flow rate, print temperature, cooling, and retraction. As someone else said, if the nozzle catches on an unsupported lever arm (aka one of the vertical pieces before a horizontal bridge has been completed) it can/will break it off.
If your printer has never pulled off this type of print before I suggest running through some basic tuning tests before worrying about potentially wet filament unless you live in a very humid environment. I live in a temperate climate where it doesn’t generally get that humid. My printer and filament live in my basement, which has a dehumidifier in it. I’ve never dried a role of filament and I leave spools unfinished for 6+ months. That’s not to say that you never should dry your filament or that doing so won’t improve print quality. I’m just trying to say that I have not experienced a higher rate of print failure with older spools.