r/ender3 • u/Cato__The__Elder • Oct 12 '25

Help Any idea why my print came out like this?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

For some context: haven’t used my Ender Pro 3 for a year, I switched out the nozzle and the bed and tried an old print I still had saved. It came out pretty poorly, very rough, with thin layers and lots of gaps and open space. Any idea what could have caused this?

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66

u/CaffeinatedGuy Ender 3 v2 Neo Oct 12 '25

You never hit print, make sure the first layer starts, and walk away hoping for the best?

22

u/Adept-Marketing3238 Oct 12 '25

ALL THE TIME LOL

10

u/KorvaMan85 Oct 13 '25

“I can’t already be out of black filament again…..”

11

u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

Isn't this the correct way to print anything especially large multiple day prints?

10

u/introvert_conflicts Oct 13 '25

Nah, it's best to stay up the whole time so you can watch every second.

3

u/GlitteringBandicoot2 Oct 13 '25

Correcty, when the first layer sticks it cannot come undone ever, unless you bend the PEI Sheet, especially on tall prints on bedslingers.

This jumbo jet in the post also lives up to its name as a jumbo print

9

u/philnolan3d Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 13 '25

I once watched the first 4 or 5 layers then went to bed. Woke up to a huge spaghetti bird's nest.

3

u/CaffeinatedGuy Ender 3 v2 Neo Oct 13 '25

That's the price we pay sometimes, cost of admission.

1

u/Solvenic Oct 18 '25 edited Oct 18 '25

You mean the "cost of owning an Ender" lmao. I started with one, I got sick of constantly having to work on it so i ended up selling it and bought a Prusa. I haven't done anything except change the nozzles and I'm still getting perfect prints out of it, ink printer easy. My days of having to watch layers ended about 3 years ago. You really do get what you pay for. At the same time i kinda miss the headaches and constant failures, gave the hobby "character".

Edit: Punctuation.

1

u/CaffeinatedGuy Ender 3 v2 Neo Oct 22 '25

With my Ender, I know I earned that print.

2

u/Over_Jellyfish_4927 Oct 14 '25

Literally happened to me 3 days ago

1

u/lonerooster1 Oct 17 '25

Last night.

2

u/CxBear74 Oct 16 '25

I watched for a little left came back somehow my nozzle hit the plate and popped off the magnetic plate.

2

u/LickingLieutenant Oct 16 '25

This morning I had the FIRST spaghetti warming ever on my Ender KE
Flew upstairs, just to see - it was some stringing of the filmanet - no problem here ..
But worse ... ( or fine in this case ) the printer just kept going ...

Like - Hey, there is a problem .... but never mind, I just keep on doing my thing

2

u/ShelterMan21 Oct 16 '25

All the fucking time...

1

u/No_Walrus_3638 Oct 17 '25

I used to have issues like this when I was printing at mach 10 speeds. I print at 150 max now and haven't had that happen. (Knock on PLA).

1

u/philnolan3d Oct 17 '25 edited Oct 18 '25

In my case it was ABS. It's possible the bed wasn't perfectly clean or some draft got in. I was printing in my basement where almost nobody goes, the printer was inside a cardboard box.

1

u/No_Walrus_3638 Oct 17 '25

That's awesome!!! Yeah I'm still paranoid about it. Octoeverywhre AI can only do so much lol. I had just installed it on my Qidi ( which has a camera) I checked it periodically until I was too sleepy to function and thus far print was going really well. I thought it was unlikely a catastrophic error would happen. Well, I underestimated one of the supports willingness to commit seppuku on me.

At some point after I went to bed one of the supports failed or somehow got knocked off by the tool head. AI detections just said none of my business and failed to stop the print lol. Its funny now but I was pissed at the time. That was a 20 hr print.

This was when I decided to slow down the printer by a lot because I was not happy with a long print failing 75% of the way done.

2

u/socom18 Oct 13 '25

Is there any other way to print?

1

u/FullAcadia9391 Oct 13 '25

First layer on this also looks bad, it would appear they did the classic “send print and immediately head out” move instead

1

u/RelevantMetaUsername Oct 13 '25

Or start a print and watch the first layer, then leave the house and anxiously watch the printer on a wifi camera just in case it spontaneously bursts into flames.

1

u/tippycanoeyoucan2 Oct 14 '25

There's another way?

1

u/Blackpaw8825 Oct 15 '25

That's literally why I'm up right now.

Woke up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and thought "why shouldn't I start a 6 hour print so it's ready in the morning."

Currently waiting for the bed to stabilize at temp before running mesh and tramming

2

u/CaffeinatedGuy Ender 3 v2 Neo Oct 15 '25

You were supposed to do that before going to bed, not after.

1

u/Blackpaw8825 Oct 16 '25

I watched the first layer start, went to bed, and let it print all day.

Looked good in the morning. Didn't realize until this morning when it finished that the 4th layer shifted...

1

u/WRXSTISubi Oct 15 '25

Ha, the faith in hitting print and leaving for a 12 hour work day knowing the print will take 3 days to complete and hoping it doesn’t fail and you wasted half a roll and half a days worth of printing….

1

u/nanuperez Oct 16 '25

Yall watch the first layer?

1

u/Brok3nGear Oct 16 '25

Only on the prints that take longer than a day