3DPrinting

Reading the answers make me feel bad about myself.

I never really calibrated my printer. I have a BLTouch so I rarely have to level the bed, I correct the Z offset when my prints start failing, and that’s pretty much it.

I should probably start taking printing more seriously.

God no, way too lazy for that lol. It probably does help though.

I print a temp tower for every new brand I get and save that as a profile. Has worked fine for me for years

I don't do it for every spool, but I'll generally tune for each brand I have. Elegoo's PLA prints different than IIID Max PLA+, so I have profiles for both. I'll only tune a new spool if it's not printing well with the brand's profile

I rarely ever do, honestly I use the "Prusament" defaults in prusaslicer for all of my rolls of various types, and never really have any issues. Unless it's something like a silk or specialty type of filament.

Could be semantics but I configure (tune?) my profile to brand and color and leave it unless a roll is printing oddly. Basically, I’m looking for adjustments to flow, retraction speed and distance. Overture black and white are the same but recently used a hot pink and bright green from two different manufacturers where my Cura Overture Black/white profile sucked.

Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Being a lazy type, I only do it per-material, and then only crudely. Which is part of the reason my PETG prints tend to be a bit on the stringy side, I'm sure—I've just never bothered to tune the retraction properly.

Heck no. I've got a baseline profile that's good enough and tweak if something is obviously wrong.

These days I just want to print with as little fuss as possible. Think a BambuLab printer is in my future.

Not unless I notice it printing poorly

Not really, I usually run a test print. But I have noticed that sometimes a different color will need different settings, even if it's the same material and brand.

One thing that I do for every roll is to put an ID number on it and weigh it, and put that into a database. That way I have a good estimate of whether or not I have enough filament for a project.

I tune whenever I start getting failures, or if I completely switch materials. For example, with petg, it works better to have a thicker initial layer so I'll raise the z offset a bit going from pla to petg, and the opposite going back.

But I've gone through multiple rolls without needing to tune.

I just start printing with a profile that looks close enough - I'll see soon enough if I need to change something, and more often than not it comes out good enough. (Not just for PLA - I pretty much don't print that anymore - but any material)

Mostly I tune each type of filament. If using something new or haven't used in a while I'll do a calibration cube. After that I know to adjust or send it

Just each brand and type unless a particular color or roll is printing weird. Some color formulations can we weird from some brands.

I just do it for new brands or colors. Though if a roll is giving me a hard time I'll do some checks.

I didn't on my FlashForge CreatorPro unless I had an issue, but I do on my BambuLab X1C - but that's because it's a fully automated process using the built in lidar.

Not for each new roll of filament, but I am relatively new (less than 1 month) and with the same roll I have some prints failing. Mostly because they detatch from the bed (Material is PETG, on an Ender 3 Max Neo). I've tried a lot of things already:

• Different nozzle temps
• Z axis offset calibration
• Cleaning the print-bed
• Leveling the print-bed (including the screws and the A4 paper trick)
• Heated bed vs. non-heated
• Printer placed in an enclosure to prevent drafts

So far it seems to go alright, but I still get detatching prints occasionally, or deforming mid-print. It's kind of frustrating :(

Only if it’s a specialty filament or something tricky; like Proto-Pasta can be. If I’m just running another spool of Hatchbox or Overture I just use my generic PLA profile and send it.

I calibrate flow rate for each filament, and looking at my SuperSlicer profiles I have values between 0.95 and 0.99 for PLA from different brands/product lines. I also have different temp settings for some, but that's more a result of adjusting after prints than having actually calibrated it. I've been experimenting a lot though and have never bought the same filament twice but I would probably not recalibrate for a new spool of something I already have.

But if not calibrating works for you then there's ofc. no point in doing it.

Yes and no.

I use a ton of different brands, so I always print a temp tower and a swatch card. I can't keep track of which word salad brand on Amazon is rebadged SunLu or eSun. I could totally see people that stick to only a couple brands doing a full calibration for each type and brand (maybe not color always, but I would do a quick comparison white-gray-black and anything exotic).

I usually print a calibration square at whatever the filament's recommended nozzle/bed temperatures are. From that I will fine tune the extrusion multiplier until it's a perfect first layer. I prefer to do this instead of adjusting the Z offset for each filament.

This seems to keep my nozzle cleaner and my prints looking better because the nozzle doesn't drag through printed lines or drop buildup in a random place. Printing the square only takes 11 minutes, so it's worth the time.

Here's a helpful article about this: https://help.prusa3d.com/article/extrusion-multiplier-calibration_2257

I use multiple materials from multiple brands, so yes, I do some calibration for each filaments.

I usually limit myself to the flow factor by printing a cube in vase mode and then adjust by ±2% after a print if I feel like it is needed.

For the temperatures, I go for the normal recommended values (200°C hot end and 60°C bed for PLA) without any calibration, unless there is a problem. (I think last time I printed one was for ABS because it kept curling up..)

Retraction and Linear advance seems to always give roughly the same value for each type of materials, so I ended up using an average which work well enough.

I usually print a temp tower when I get new filament that I haven't used before. It doesn't take that long and if it prevents a failed print it's totally worth it.

I used to. Now I just put settings I think will be close, print a calibration cube, make some adjustments based on what I see, and go to town. I spent 2 entire weeks figuring out all of the optimal settings for my printer for PLA+. Most of those settings work well for everything and because I spent so much time learning about printer calibration, I have a pretty solid idea of what I need to change from looking at the cube.

Define “tune” and “calibrate”

I do somethings, yes. Specifically I print off a temperature test- either the full tower (new color/brand,) or a cut down version that’s one tier high (for something I’ve printed with before)

It’s possible that the brand changed formulations or whatever. I’ll also run a micrometer over some of the filament to check it’s thickness.

Finally, I it’s a good time to take the opportunity to give the printer a once-over looking for wear and tear, and it’s a reasonable time to refresh the lube on the z screws, etc.

But no, I certainly don’t do a full recalibration every roll. there's some things I do most every print (checking my first layer, wiping down the bed with IPA or ethanol, for example,) but then there's some things I do occasionally (re-leveling the bed, probing a fresh mesh, , and then there's only things I do when I change something (esteps, checking the belt tension.)

I've only really printed different PLA flavors but I really only change print settings if I have an issue on the first print. I just shoot for the smallest thing I need printed first just in case.

As for stuff like leveling and offset I only mess with those every 3 or 4 prints, or before a really big print I really need to not fuck up.

I will gladly open a new roll mid print and continue a print with an untested roll. I simply don't print things that need that level of fiddling.

Nah. Every time I buy a new roll I print a calicat with it to make sure my current settings are good, but that's about it.

I adjust flowrate(by printing a square in each corner & center) but that's about it unless I get issues which is practically non existent.

I mostly print in pla+, but when I change I'll print a quick sacrificial print, like a baby grogu, or the like. Just to see how it runs. Sometimes I'll print off a quick pegboard accessory. This is really just to check the temps and see if the normal 207/60 will work out. I change on the fly.

I'm only like 3 months in but have about 150 prints behind me, so don't take anything I say as gospel.

I will say that I do maintain my printer after every session. At least purge the hotend, wipe down the bed with IPA 99.9%, and blow out the dust, etc. I also prime every print by heating the hotend and extruding 50mm of filament than wiping off the tip of the hotend.

I don't. But I do try and make sure my filaments are kind of similar.

Yes and no. I run a few different tests for different filaments but i save the filament reqs by manufacture and color. If i buy the same filament later on then I use the preset I made for that color. Its tedious but I think its the right way to do it

Nah, but I will print a temperature tower if it's a new filament - even if it's very similar to a filament I've had before. (As long as it's not an identical replacement. If it's an identical replacement and the previous isn't ancient, I won't even do that.)

I'm a little more careful when I switch between PLA and PETG, mostly to prevent clogs, but I definitely don't recalibrate anything when switching spools unless I start having problems.

For PLA I set set it as prusiment in my slicer and forget it. That's hot enough to do silks and fancy filaments. It's hot enough to have good layer adhesion.

For octoprints I print the first layer at 215°C to help with adhesion then turn it down to 205°C to avoid stringing.

Special non-pla filaments I do what's suggested.