<p>I got my first printer, a <a href="https://www.amazon.de/dp/B075FQRNY3/ref=pe_3044161_189395811_TE_SCE_3p_dp_1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Geeetech Prusa i3</a>, and for the price I paid (160$) I am so blown away. As I saved so much money, I treated myself to a legit copy of Simplify3D, which I am happy with.</p>

<p>I'm using white PLA filament (supposedly 1.75&nbsp;mm) with a 0.3&nbsp;mm nozzle. The hotend temperature range is 215-240&nbsp;°C and the bed is usually at 90&nbsp;°C (with hairspray it gives a nice shiny solid bottom surface). My goal is to print with 0.3, or with 0.2 if 0.3 is to big for the nozzle (ideally a 0.3 nozzle can print 0.3 layer height).</p>

<p><strong>The problem:</strong></p>

<p>It seems that, especially on the first layer with bigger prints, or any layer that continuously pulls filament through the nozzle (outside lining of a layer), the amount of filament that gets "printed out" isn't enough compared to the amount of filament that is pushed in by the extruder gear. This, in my theory right now, causes the new filament to stay in place until the melted plastic in the nozzle is used, which then makes room again for more filament to be pushed through. Until this happens, the gear slips/clicks and can't pull anymore filament.</p>

<p>The mechanics seem to work well, and I don't think the nozzle is clogged. I would guess that some settings need to be manually adjusted to keep the amount of filament pushed through the nozzle equal or less than the amount the nozzle can actually push through, but what is weird to me is that this happens semi-randomly. I have searched online and the issue intermittently appears with other people, but I haven't found a solution yet.</p>

<p><em>What settings would I need to test?</em> </p>

<p>Here is a link to <a href="https://1drv.ms/f/s!AnDfnxILoXLp9TWV9u0Ue1OEW1cL" rel="nofollow noreferrer">some current successful prints and a layer mess up example(batman bust)</a>.</p>

<p>My biggest print so far (Batman Bust) is amazing, but even here you can see certain layers where the gear couldn't push filament through and the gear skipped a few clicks, causing it to print less when it was suppose to print on the following instructions. This happens a lot more, but when it happens during an infill you obviously can't see it from the outside. The individual layer-height seems maybe a bit too small (0.1 for batman), and the times where the extruder usually skips and clicks appear when I print bigger sizes (0.2 and 0.3). I want to start printing more complex and bigger things, so using 0.1 seems like an overkill in detail and takes way too long.</p>

<p>Edit:</p>

<p>My filament is the generic Geeetech white PLA that I ordered together with the printer.</p>

[{'answer_id': 7167, 'author': '0scar', 'author_id': 5740, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/5740', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>A nozzle with a nozzle <strong>width</strong> of 0.3 mm cannot print a 0.3 mm layer <strong>height</strong>. You <em>could</em> do that but you <em>should</em> not as you ultimately pay the price in the form of a less aesthetic finish. The general rule of thumb is to maximize the layer height at 75 % of the nozzle width, so a 0.3 mm nozzle would allow for a maximum of 0.225 mm. The rationale is that the filament leaves the nozzle as a tube and needs to be flattened to make it flat and adhere to the previous layer, too high layer heights increase the pressure in the nozzle (more filament is needed) causing a less than ideal extrusion and cause the extruder to skip; this is identified by observing a distinct <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/search?tab=newest&amp;q=extruder%20click">clicking</a> noise.</p>\n\n<p>Please lower your layer height (try 0.2 mm) and decrease the printing speed to see if this works better.</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, for PLA, temperatures for the hotend (unless you have some sort of a special PLA filament) and the bed temperature are too high. Please aim to print PLA at about 200 &deg;C with a bed temperature of 50 - 60 &deg;C.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 7176, 'author': 'PositriesElectron', 'author_id': 13185, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/13185', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>I fixed it!</p>\n\n<p>The problem wasn't the temperature, it was the spring that puts the pressure on the little wheel against the gear. That was too strong, so the entry of the extruder was to tight. The gear worked fine and the settings worked well, I just had to adjust the spring a bit to carefully lower the pressure. I just printed another Golden Key and it looks perfect!</p>\n\n<p>Thanks for all your tips on the other settings, I will experiment with tose to see if I can increase quality even more, but it seems to work perfectly now for a 160$ printer :) </p>\n"}]
['https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/7163', 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com', 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/13185/']