Some notes about my setup: Ender 3 v2 (textured glass bed), added a CR Touch, swapped out the bronze for a hardened steel nozzle, and installed Klipper firmware. I have PLA, PLA+, and PETG, I dried the PETG at I think 140F (convection oven) for 6ish hours, and then was finally able to print a Benchy boat if I set my first layer print speed to 5-10mm/s. I tried to print something that had small shapes on the first layer (small circles for a bolt to go into) with no luck. I was never able to get PLA or PLA+ to print, now even with the same gcode I can't get PETG to lay down properly. Eventually it just curls up towards the nozzle, then gets dragged and clogs. Can't even print a raft. The only adhesive I have tried so far is a mixture of wood glue and water. I've cleaned the bed with soap, acetone, alcohol, you name it.
I live in a very humid state, but I wouldn't expect my PETG to reabsorb moisture in the 2ish days after I dried it, can't print a Benchy or even just one of those single layer square tests you use for testing your leveling.
I just soaked basically my entire printhead/extruder/nozzle in acetone to clean it out, I tried doing cold pulls with all 3 materials, but the filament would just snap off instead of give me that clean nozzle shape you are supposed to get.
All that info. doesn't really inform my question for you, but I kind of wanted to rant a little bit :)
Is G10 better than say a textured PEI sheet for first layer adhesion? Ideally I would like to primarily print everything in PETG for its physical characteristics (heat, water, strength). Is it true that G10 can easily be gouged by the nozzle? I am a bit worried by that considering the cheapest I can find a G10 sheet for on amazon is $30.
There is a PTFE tube in there that's supposed to help guide the filament and it is damaged. If you can't do a cold pull nothing will work because the shape of the filament will change inside the feed path and it will bind up.
Some hot ends do not have the PTFE tube, but they have metal parts that must be mated together precisely in order for the polymer to flow through. If there are gaps the polymer flows into those forms little nuggets and it can't work.
If I were you I would replace your hot end, and make sure your feed path is factory spec all the way through and try again. Clean the feeder gears, make sure you got nice Boden tube on there, the whole thing.
Pet polymers take on water very slowly. And many plas will work whether they're wet or dry. I do not believe that's your problem. If you've got super aggressive Snap Crackle Pop when purging some material through maybe. But I would look elsewhere first.
If I were you, I would also get a known setup that just prints a 1-in cube. And work that until it's perfect.
The Telltale here is the curling up around the nozzle and the clogging. Your machine can't sustain a flow rate. Once the filament is moving it's okay but once it stops part of it is solidifying in there and preventing movement from then on.
Once you get it all working, if you have replaced your hot end, you can then compare that one to the one you have now and probably fix it.
The cold pull is with the PTFE tubing taken out but yeah, I didn't realize how cheap it was to replace/upgrade the hot end, I will just do that. Thanks for the tip!
Also, with those materials there's no need for the steel nozzle or the hardening. They will work fine with the brass nozzle, and I would use a new one.
I have used glass garolite pei and a number of other things.
The garolite and the Pei are similar. I prefer the G10 because it's stiffer and it doesn't wear away as easily and it seems to be a little more consistent in how it behaves. But either can work.
I live in a very humid state, but I wouldn't expect my PETG to reabsorb moisture in the 2ish days after I dried it, can't print a Benchy or even just one of those single layer square tests you use for testing your leveling.
I just soaked basically my entire printhead/extruder/nozzle in acetone to clean it out, I tried doing cold pulls with all 3 materials, but the filament would just snap off instead of give me that clean nozzle shape you are supposed to get.
All that info. doesn't really inform my question for you, but I kind of wanted to rant a little bit :)
Is G10 better than say a textured PEI sheet for first layer adhesion? Ideally I would like to primarily print everything in PETG for its physical characteristics (heat, water, strength). Is it true that G10 can easily be gouged by the nozzle? I am a bit worried by that considering the cheapest I can find a G10 sheet for on amazon is $30.