this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2026
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28
Weird first layer issue. (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by PriorityMotif@lemmy.world to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
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I have an old Monoprice Select Mini Pro (v3) that has sat for years. I got it out today to see if it still works and it does. It printed fine the last time I used it but I've gotten bigger and better printers since then. However I lost the slicer profile I was using and decided to start from scratch with Orca. I just plugged in the dimensions and changed some start g code for the initial purge line as the default was going well off the bed. I also tried changing the retraction distance to 4.5 because this is a bowden tube which did not change this issue. The initial purge line and outer perimeter of the first layer stick really well but the middle infill is blobbing at one end and stringing through the middle and not sticking to the bed at all. I have been playing with the z height end stop (the level sensor is bad so I had printed an adjuster for the z end stop) to adjust the initial layer height and I'm pretty sure I went from too high to too low facing the same issue. I know it's not the filament because it's a new spool that I just printed on another printer with yesterday. I'm leaning towards it being a slicer setting of some kind having to do with the extrusion, I'm just not sure which setting it could be. Thanks for any help.

Edit: well the z axis motor just died because I lowered the z axis too far and it hit the bed and it was acting funny earlier so that's probably the issue.

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[–] sychthys@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Infill speed could be too high.

[–] JelleWho@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

Can here to say the speed is too high indeed.

The extruder can not keep up at the high speeds. It has acceleration on. And in the beginning it's slow enough, but at the middle/end it's under extruding. It goes sigzag so that's why the patter looks like this.

Reduce speed, or get an higher flow nozzle/gantry/extruder

[–] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Verify nozzle size is set right. Nozzle could be blown out if you ever printed exotic materials or just a long time.

[–] TDCN@feddit.dk 3 points 2 weeks ago

I've had something like this happen on my prusa. A bug maybe. Sliceing for 0.6mm but some somewhere somehow either in firmware or slicer it got set wong so it only extruded as 0.4 and it looked just like this. Opdated firmware and slicer profile and it worked fine again. But yeah it looks proportion wise like wrong nozzle size about the difference between 0.6 and 0.4.

[–] fhein@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Cheap nozzles from Amazon etc. can also have the wrong diameter, or just be generally poorly machined. Perhaps not relevant for OP's case, but could be useful to know when helping people debug printing issues.

[–] HorreC@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You seem to have some really moist filament, or are all those popped areas from something else?

[–] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's a brand new roll that printed fine on another printer yesterday. I think the issue is the z axis motor as now it's toast after I crashed it into the bed.

[–] HorreC@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

I read about the motor, I just wonder if the feed was doing something weird or there was a LOT of moisture in that roll (and I dont know if I ever saw it that bad. And I live in a place that seems to be soup in the summer time). It was just obvious popping, being that it was a new roll I still wonder wtf was going on that allowed the plastic to pop like that.

[–] Siff@mstdn.social 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

@PriorityMotif Seems that the hot end is too far from the plate.

[–] MrQuallzin@pie.eyeofthestorm.place 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Only on the infill. The walls are smushed so hard they're transparent

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

first layer does not have an "infill".

[–] MrQuallzin@pie.eyeofthestorm.place 1 points 2 weeks ago

From a layman perspective, it's infill. It's filling in the space between the walls. Saying it's the bottom shell layer with a monotonic pattern doesn't add anything to the situation

[–] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

The outer perimeter is sticking really well though. If you look you can see where the nozzle was dragging through the plastic on that part then when it goes to infill it does this guitar stringing thing.

[–] Siff@mstdn.social 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

@PriorityMotif You might have another (or an additional) thing to look at - there are little holes, which might be due to wet filament. This could also be the cause of the issue you are having - if the filament is too wet, it could cause partial blocking, which might create the thinning lines in the infill. This also would not be very visible in the perimeter.

If you hear pops during the print, then you have wet filament and, if that’s the case, I would suggest that you look into this first.

[–] couscous@mamot.fr 1 points 2 weeks ago

@Siff
yup, and I would also add that you can see the pressure is (consistantly) inconsistant, plastic is not flowing freely

@PriorityMotif

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago

because the extruder slows down around corners.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Download a profile from somewhere. No reason to start from scratch. There's a V2 profile on printable and they are functionally the same.

[–] x7HlPDq9dSNO6v3A9@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

My experience of this is that is because Cura over extrudes the walls deliberately to help adhesion and strength - I want to say the setting is called "overlap". It's the one where the infil runs into the walls a little bit to tie together the edges, but that's always going to result in a bit more plastic being laid down in those areas.

Normally it causes a bit of a brim to cut off, but in your case it might just be enough to let it stick round the brim but nowhere else.

[–] fhein@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Are you saying what we're seeing in the photo is supposed to be the same layer? Can you upload the exact gcode file you were using when printing, if you haven't solved it since posting this?

[–] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes this is the first layer. I can upload the gcode later if you're curious.

[–] fhein@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Do that, and I'll check it if I can find anything strange in it.