Openai/695e85c1-4738-8011-afd9-1ebd1936975d

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gpt-5-2

User: What went wrong with this 3D print

What went wrong with this 3D print

Assistant: From the photo, a few classic FDM issues are happening at once—mostly heat, cooling, and retraction related, concentrat…

From the photo, a few classic FDM issues are happening at once—mostly heat, cooling, and retraction related, concentrated at the corner and around the hole.

What went wrong

1. Overheating + poor cooling at the corner - Corners slow the toolhead down → plastic stays hot longer. - The rough, “chewed” edge and blobs indicate the filament was too soft when the next layer arrived. - This is especially visible near the top edge and around the hole.
2. Retraction / pressure control issues - The little spikes and zits along the edge are typical of oozing during travel moves. - Around the hole, pressure changes rapidly and excess filament gets dumped.
3. Z-seam accumulation - The ugliness appears concentrated along one edge, which strongly suggests the Z-seam is parked there. - Each layer start/stop adds a tiny blob → stacked into that messy ridge.
4. Possible slight over-extrusion - The hole edge looks swollen and irregular, which happens when flow is just a bit high. - Over-extrusion makes all the above problems worse.

How to fix it (in order of impact)

1. Lower nozzle temperature - Drop 5–15 °C from your current temp. - If PLA: try ~195–205 °C.
2. Improve part cooling - Ensure fan is at 100% after the first few layers. - If already maxed, slow down outer walls slightly instead.
3. Tune retraction - Increase retraction distance slightly (e.g., +0.2–0.5 mm for direct drive, +0.5–1 mm for Bowden). - Increase retraction speed modestly. - Enable wipe or coast if your slicer supports it.
4. Move or hide the Z-seam - Set seam to: - “Back” - “Sharpest corner” - Or “Random” (if aesthetics > precision)
5. Check extrusion calibration - Verify E-steps and reduce flow by 2–5% if needed.

TL;DR

The print didn’t fail structurally—it melted too long at slow corners, oozed during starts/stops, and stacked blobs at the Z-seam. Lower temp, better cooling, tuned retraction, and a relocated seam will clean this up dramatically.

If you want, tell me:

• Filament type
• Nozzle temp
• Printer model
• Direct drive or Bowden

…and I’ll give you exact slicer values to try.