Hi everyone,

I’m having a weird issue with text such as the one in this image. Big or small, fancy or regular, all text comes out looking like it does in the image - cracked and hollow. I’ve spent the last few days trying to figure out why, and I’m stumped.

I’ve tried printing slower and slower and adding more and more top layers (the bottom 2 bottle caps are completely solid with 100% infil), but it doesn’t seem to fix the issue.

Here’s what I’m working with:

  • Ender 3
    • Software 2.0.8.27
    • Hardware 4.2.2
  • CR Touch
  • PrusaSlicer 2.8.0
  • MakerBot PLA Filament
  • I’ve used various temperatures and speeds. All of them have generated the terrible text you see here

Thanks in advanced for the help!

Update: We seem to be getting somewhere!

The top 2 are the same ones featured in the post above. The bottom left was printed at 110% extrusion and normal speed. The bottom right was printed at 110% extrusion and a much slower speed for the text, and it looks much better! I’m printing another now with higher bridge flow rate (it was 70%, I set it to 85%), so I’ll update again in a few minutes when that finishes!

Thanks for the information about calibrating e steps from everyone! It’s getting late, so I don’t want to mess around with that tonight, but I’ll give it a shot tomorrow!

Update 2: welp.

That’s possibly the worst one yet. I’m reprinting the bigger insert piece seen in the original post to check if my printer simply can’t do that quality or if it’s the e steps. If it’s e steps, I’m going to bed…

Update 3:

Welp, seems like it’s the e-step. However, it’s too late for me to care about that right now, so I’m going to bed. Thanks for the help everyone! I’ll work on fixing the issue tomorrow

  • paf
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    5 months ago

    You definitely needs to calibrate your estep and flow rate as others mentioned. If numbers were correct then you might have a partial clog. If so, clean it and check Luke’s hotend fix on thingiverse/printable (really worth it). https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCxO17XZtw

    Under extrusion aside, you can get better text details by using a smaller nozzle as one issue for the text clarity is line width, while it isn’t ideal you can also try to set 0.30/0.35 line width with 0.4 nozzle.

    Also, if you do plug in usb from your computer to printer (to calibrate estep), make sure to cover the 5v pin on usb cable with electrical tape. Otherwise you might wreck your printer mainboard. https://community.octoprint.org/t/put-tape-on-the-5v-pin-why-and-how/13574