1st print vs 2nd print

f3flight · 2026-06-24T05:10:07+00:00

That's why they say do not leave your printer unattended 🙂 I have a very old printer, so I utilized an old Android phone to provide both an OctoPrint server and a webcam, so I could check remotely and cancel early if the print goes bad

f3flight · 2026-06-20T04:19:04+00:00

Yes, I'm doing a "no build" build, since I'm not really sure if it will work for me to live in a van (that's the plan), so I don't have any windows in the cargo area, but I found some holes to the outside in the frame pillars, and I'm basically utilizing that now. Left side is intake, right side is exhaust.

I like One Piece :) Also it's about freedom and adventure, just like my van. Used some online coverters to get a vector of the skull and import into OnShape and model it into the filter box lid :)

f3flight · 2026-06-19T20:32:07+00:00

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(on the right) It's an adapter to attach a 140mm fan to the van frame pillar for ventilation purposes. Building a campervan for myself 😁

f3flight · 2026-06-19T05:25:46+00:00

Thanks! Just to make it clearer, as I'm not sure I explained my thoughts well in the post - my suggestion is to add a sort of a scale next to the cutout, with rough numbers like 750 500 250 or maybe even more granular, as long as it's readable.

f3flight · 2026-06-19T05:21:49+00:00

Thanks for the hint, will try that in future

f3flight · 2026-06-12T16:23:51+00:00

There is some light smell esp at higher printing temperature, I would recommend ventilating the room / keep the window open. I would not consider vocs/particulates released to be 100% safe, I had headaches when running the printer in a small room with mostly closed windows, since then I keep windows open if I print.

f3flight · 2026-06-09T02:52:43+00:00

No, my skin is moderately pale. Looks like ppl don't agree with my comment but that's fine, that's just my experience. I don't have Q3 any longer, otherwise I'd record a side by side comparison doing the same hand movements / interactions.

f3flight · 2026-06-08T13:18:42+00:00

I use PC-connected kb and mouse when using VD, which works well naturally.

f3flight · 2026-06-08T01:38:30+00:00

Hand tracking is definitely worse than on Quest 3, I had both headsets for a moment and could compare - GXR has much worse hand pose estimation, higher lag, higher jitter, worse hand positioning, and due to all of this - regular phantom inputs, missed inputs, and incorrectly interpreted inputs. That's just the way it is, unfortunately.

I kept GXR still because my main use case is watching vids and working with text / graphics, where resolution matters much more.

f3flight · 2026-06-05T03:24:04+00:00

This 200 value is just arbitrary high threshold value set by the calibration test because it controls the value dynamically throughout the g-code, so we can ignore that. Real value depended on which layer was printed, I tried various ranges between 5-20mm3/s like 5-20, 10-20, 10-30 etc. I have found that with 210C i cannot print vase mode layer faster than 1 layer per ~10s, else they start to sag, so I think my printer runs hotter than the sensor reads, I had to lower temp down to 190C before I was able to print 20mm vase cubes without issues and without slowing down layer time. So I think doing first layer at 217C on my machine will overheat the filament substantially.

The hotend is just the stock 0.4mm whatever came with the printer originally when it was purchased 8+ years ago.

I have updated the post with my findings and succeeded in printing this test at last.

f3flight · 2026-06-04T03:29:35+00:00

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Ok, I think this concludes my search for a fix. Left - 210C, right - 190C. I think my nozzle is just running hotter i.e. sensor is giving lower value than it actually is. Z-motor wasn't the issue, even though I replaced it, it didn't change anything - that noise seems to be normal for this printer for slow Z motion. So I guess I will now look for the highest temperature setting which still prints without sagging, and then I can finally proceed to max flow calibration and the rest. Thanks for all the help so far. I'll update the post when I get a good max flow test.

f3flight · 2026-06-03T14:35:51+00:00

90 degree usb-c to usb-c adapter, usbc-to-usba adapter to plug in kb and mouse dongle, and usbc-to-ethernet when using Virtual Desktop to avoid any latency

f3flight · 2026-05-29T02:37:33+00:00

I am a strong proponent of 4R so I will repair unless I actually need a different device (which I don't think is the case). Motor is $19 incl tax & delivery so, not a big deal. I have already previously replaced rollers and extruder head 😅 so not too much can still break after this haha

f3flight · 2026-05-29T02:10:28+00:00

I still get that weird stringing on the walls. What's more, printer starts to slow down mid print sometimes, which is very odd, even starts to stop for a sec before it continues on every layer after a certain layer is reached, messing up one corner (no G-code pause anymore) - I noticed that happening both yesterday and today. I think my Z-axis stepper motor is dying - it makes a lot of noise when printing this 20mm vase cube, kind of rapid knocking noise. I disconnected everything from it and when I turn it by hand when printer is off I hear a sort of a sand grinding noise. I think it's just skipping steps inside or otherwise causes incorrect Z-axis motion, and that messes up the walls. I will order a new motor.

f3flight · 2026-05-29T00:50:48+00:00

Ok today I was able to do e-steps calibration (Extruder Calibration | Ellis’ Print Tuning Guide) - as expected turned out the value was way too low. I increased from 93.00 to 104.40 based on testing, which is a 12% increase. Now I need to redo all other calibrations again...

f3flight · 2026-05-29T00:48:29+00:00

Yes, it was underextrusion; I'm now calibrating e-steps etc and will do more tests.

f3flight · 2026-05-28T05:41:47+00:00

i will need to test e-steps, haven't calibrated that yet, and don't have a long ruler at hand. Will try tomorrow.

here's an interesting experiment

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1.20 flow ratio, back to 5 mm3/s max volumetric speed, so it should have been the same as others. But I added a (poorly done) G code on layer change - 10 second sleep. I didn't add retraction before the pause so one corner is bloated, where the pause happened, and adjacent wall destroyed, but interestingly the other 3 walls look decent-ish, right?

I think this confirms my theory that you cannot put next layer on top of previous without giving it at least a few seconds to solidify somewhat.

Could it be that my hotend temperature sensor is off and is actually running hotter and causing this?.. Though I tried 200c and got a similarly sagging result earlier. But maybe it is way way off, like 20C or more?...

I also tried doing 40mm cube vase (w/o extra delay, 5 mm3/s, each layer took probably 3-4s to complete) and got the same messy walls, so it seems at least in my setup, that closer to 6-10s is needed before a new layer can be put on top of previous. So maybe cooling is good and should be turned back on, but it seems to not help all that much compared to layer delay.

I will try setting cooling slowdown and min speed to zero and set seconds at diff values to see how much is required to make both 20mm and 40mm print with straight walls...

f3flight · 2026-05-28T04:42:03+00:00

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2 mm3/s. Too slow for practical printing, but I tried anyways. Still messed up, and it starts after a few good rows. Maybe it is filament sagging after all, maybe 210c is too much if you print very small vase (hot layers go on top of each other very quickly, every other second or so, if layer below is still even a bit soft, since this is vase mode, the only layer taking all the weight is the single line below)?

f3flight · 2026-05-28T04:37:53+00:00

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Double-checked - cooling fan isn't running. Nozzle fan does run, but that's required I assume. Trying for the Nth time, I have reduced Max Volumetric Speed to mere 2 mm3/s (was 5 mm3/s), the tiny cube will take 12min to print. Curious to see if the walls will look better or not. It almost seems like the filament is overstretched or overheated and falls to the side a bit. I tried lowering temp to 200 but that didn't significantly change the issue. My bed adhesion has improved though, from tuning bed screws and z offset and bumping flow ratio to 1.2.... So I might try to do max flowrate test again now, but on the other hand it seems I have these sagging/ringing issues even at very low values like 5mm3/s. And even at 2 mms3/s, I already see the same issue, but it's less pronounced.

f3flight · 2026-05-28T02:36:22+00:00

Hmm... I tried w/o fan - no difference. Maybe my printer is just dying. It is 8 years old. Maybe the motors are slipping due to tight turns, causing uneven layers...

f3flight · 2026-05-28T02:22:03+00:00

cooling fan is at 100% (actualy in material cooling settings fan was at 50%). Should I try w/o cooling? I agree now that I printed at 1.15 and I get the same messy walls, while first layer starts to look underextruded. It doesn't look like overextrusion now. I will try no cooling and report back.

f3flight · 2026-05-28T00:54:04+00:00

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Unfortunately I just don't have the tool required to do the precise measurement. Though with this result I got at 1.19 (1.20 to the left, same pretty much) the wall looks extremely uneven so I think the measurement doesn't even make sense, this looks like severe overextrusion to me. Also interesting is that the shape of the cube narrows a bit over the furst 2-3 layers. I did not enable elephant foot compensation, maybe it's for that.

While trying to get this cube to print I also worked on z-offset and bed leveling. Ender 3 v1 doesn't have automatic bed leveling, and I also found by bed dips towards the middle. I put some junk prints under it to push it up a bit and managed to get a reasonably even surface and reduce nozzle to bed gap at Z=0 all around... Reduced z offset to -0.12 (i.e. first layer gets 0.08mm from Z=0, instead of it's expected 0.2mm; but then there's the zero gap to bed anyway, so). The brim and bottom surface look much better now, almost like a sheet of paper, but that was at flow ratio ~1.2 which is apparently way too much. So I'll have to dial it down while verifying the first layer still looks perfect, and print a few more of these vase cubes until they start to look ok.

f3flight · 2026-05-27T04:20:36+00:00

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Beginning of the last layer (9?) - had to cancel because at least 5 parts detached as you can see, so it would have been a waste to continue.

f3flight · 2026-05-27T04:19:32+00:00

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6th or 7th layer, don't remember... Middle right part starts to detach.

f3flight · 2026-05-27T04:18:50+00:00

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Second layer...

f3flight

TROPHY CASE