How to prevent the nozzle from dragging across your print on your Neptune 4 Series 3D printers.

[@zachfitzloff6767]

That combing setting fixed my year long issue thank you.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Great to hear! 🙏

[@matthebert007]

Thanks for the info- I got mine fixed by- 1 switching off Combing, 2 increase Z-hop to 0.4mm, 3 decreasing the flow. I found I had to decrease my flow by a whopping 25%. I set it to 75% flow and it is now flawless with no dragging.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

That's great to hear it's fixed! Thanks for sharing your solution. 👍

[@JosephV2028]

You were a big help😊

[@leeball4]

This is because you are using GRID infill, not because of Z offset. The nozzle has to pass over lines it already printed on that level thereby crashing into them as it prints the perpendicular lines. If it's hitting during travel movements then it's all the stuff you said. But if it happens while it's printing GRID infill, that's just how it works. Change to GYROID and the crashing will disappear.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Thank you for the feedback. Ironically I learned this shortly after posting this video. I am now printing with gyroid infill and was thinking about sharing my findings. I appreciate the help and feedback. 😉👍

[@user-lx9jm1wo3h]

LOL I was about to say the same thing.

[@heavyweather]

You can also disable z-hop. Will save time and won't have any negative effect.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

@@heavyweathernot from my experience. I’ve had enough prints knocked off the build plate to learn that it’s better to keep it on.

[@MrUniq]

You don't know how much time you have saved me...i wasn't aware of this

[@djjack6162]

I was having issues with my printer but changing the settings in cura like you said worked like a charm! I can finally use my printer I just bought

[@SI0ter]

thank you. i was searching for any help. that combinig option was my problem.

[@Syed_Ali0215]

Finally someone has addressed this. Where is the combing function in Orca slicer?

[@OuterRimArmorer]

I don’t believe Orca has the combing option. Probably for a good reason.

[@1fareast14]

Avoid crossing perimeters

[@NoelLlopis]

You can "fix" it doing that, but you'll have to do it every time, multiple times per print for a large model. In my case, I realized my flow was a bit too much. I changed it from 100 to 97% (after doing some tests) and now it works flawlessly (Neptune 4 Max).

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Awesome tip thanks!

[@MkmeOrg]

This ^ When you get impacts (and getting worse) too much material is getting put down. Knock that flow back a tab and/or run some cals.Can be the steps are off/firmware prob too in some cases

[@RaysOfPivot]

Mine isn't making that noise, but it looks like It's dragging through printed areas. Like if you push your finger through butter, how it all moves away, that's happening on my print. I wonder if it's the extrusion like you mentioned or z hop...

[@derekfarealz]

just found this comment and i think it fixed the issue for me after many long print failures! does this mean i need to permanently change the flow? 97% worked for me as well.

[@FreshOffTheBuildPlate]

Thank you so much!

[@kwamkama8768]

Thank you so much, it worked for me !

[@FX2LTD]

I wish I had seen this video earlier, before wasting 3 months and 3X3KG PLA+ spools... My Elegoo Neptune 4 Max has been giving me heavy frustrations for over 3 months now, without me being able to obtain consistency. What I do one day, without touching the printer or the slicer settings at all, the next day no longer works. I even got to the point of being scared of switching the printer off. I believe my bed is not evenly flat, maybe not the bed itself, but the frame between the printer and the bed. When I finally managed to get a decent bed layer, the printer started knocking the prints off because it has been hitting the models whilst printing, even though I managed to print one item without issues with the same settings... I had to manually adjust the z-axis whilst printing of 0.2-0.6mm, and still got the problem. Unacceptable. I checked carefully (I even bought some small bubble levels) the bed levelling and the z-axis going up, as per Elegoo instructions (untight the z-axis screws, level the nozzle bar, tighten the screws back), but I still had models knocked off by the nozzle. I lowered the printer speed, no luck. I am going to try all these tips from you and the other people who left comments, and see what happens... By the way, I was having some bad textures on print, I believe the 3KG PLA+ spool is not being fed correctly into the extruder because of the weight of the spool... Elegoo told me to turn a little screw on the right of the nozzle clockwise or counterclockwise, in order to tighen or loosen the grip. But the hole in the extruder's case is very small, that I cannot even see whether a screwdriver or an Allen key has to be used. By chance, has anyone removed the nozzle's case yet, so that they could see anything? Thank you in advance 21/04/2023 - Update. Thanks to these tips I have managed to finish a print job. the print speed was drastically reduced (98% flow), but I got the product in the end. The quality is not perfect yet, but at least I did not waste any filament. I will play with these settings a bit, to see what I can put back to the original settings and what I need to keep as advised. I will try not to enble z-hop, and I will keep the flow to 100%. Maybe just the combing mode was the culprit... Who knows...

[@artby3d]

Hey there, how did you manage to fix the problem of extruder knocking the prints? I tried lowering the flow rate to even 97% and it still breaks my supports (and even broke a horse leg which was completely solid filled) :/

[@lukasulrich2132]

thank you for that video!! that problem stressed me out for soo long

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Glad it helped! Check out my newest “shorts” video on the infill change that helped me after making this video.

[@JosephV2028]

You was a big help with this😊 🎉

[@WorkAccount-z7o]

Thanks a lot , the z hopping solved my issue

[@dilloncarhart2691]

I adjusted my z height during a print. It fixed it temporarily but unfortunately a couple hours later, it started up again. This is because the issue isn’t the z height. The real issue is over extrusion on the infill. Charge to Gyroid infill and it should fix the issue. As for the nozzle dragging on supports, you’ll probably have to adjust the extrusion settings

[@OuterRimArmorer]

I agree with you, over extrusion is the likely culprit and the gyroid infill is worth a shot!

[@EvanSTallas]

Good video. Thx. This helped me. I cringe every time it scrapes across the top of my prints.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Glad it helped!

[@Apollux]

Informative video! I agree the very first step should be to stop using grid infill. What's that unplugged white connector for we see on the printhead ribbon cable?

[@stevenbates1529]

I am guessing it is to the large fan. I don't see it on the gantry

[@arcort669]

Enable z hop when retracted? I also see z hop over printed parts

[@paulmurphy5496]

So I’m dealing with this on my Ender 3Max Neo. Im having to manually decrease the z offset as it prints several times during a print. Using prusa and am at a loss for what else to try other than leveling the bed a million times.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

I just posted a “shorts” video on the infill change that I did after making this video and it really helped me.

[@Collin-p9m]

Having the same issue with my ender s1 pro using prusa slicer with 100% aligned rectangular infill

[@damiencross7334]

So noticed you don't have that big loud fan on. Are you able to just take it off and not use it? It won't affect your print? I have that fan. My neptune 4 plus is in my living room. It is way to loud.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

At first I just left it off to see if it made any difference. After about a week I unplugged it and took it off. Hasn’t changed anything for me.

[@damiencross7334]

@Extreme4x4Dude thanks for the info. I'm definitely gonna give it a try. I have turned it down to like 30%. Which didn't seem to change anything. Would like to take it off altoghter. It is just bulky and in the way. I saw that orca has a 4 plus profile in the 1.9 update. I tried it out but it's giving me really long print times. Have you used it and if so has this happened to you?

[@OuterRimArmorer]

I have used Orca and still using it for my EN4M. I did beef up the speed a little since it seemed to me the speed settings were a little on the conservative side. I’ve been working on a video about Orca but it was long and I want to shorten it to something more reasonable to watch.

[@damiencross7334]

@Extreme4x4Dude i will try uping the speed. I feel like speed is definitely on the slower end. Do you have your speed settings in the video or do you know what settings you upped for speed? Im not as familer with orca as i am with cura. Just started using it a few weeks ago.

[@farshadsaffari]

Exactly what happened now to my Neptune 4! Thanks for the video!

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Glad I could help!

[@geomagicien9085]

that periodic z offset trick doesn't really make sense to me. If drag builds up, it's that you are overextruding

[@Eman300man]

That’s why you should do a flow test with orca

[@sebast1annn]

Would you be able to share your print settings for rapid PLA+?

[@OuterRimArmorer]

I haven’t actually used Rapid PLA yet. So far I’ve only used Silk PLA and just received a shipment of Meta PLA.

[@BenderTheOffender]

Enable Z hob might give you lots of stringing. Raising the nozzle might lead to prints coming lose during printing. If the nozzle drags about your infill, reduce your filament flow! Or better, use Orca slicer and calibrate your flow rate.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

I use orca slicer on my Elegoo printers and just tune it so it doesn’t have any stringing. I have five printers and z hop is enabled on all of them. Selecting the right infill helps with nozzle dragging across the print as well.

[@gardeningniceperson]

@@OuterRimArmorer Do you have any tips how to deal with stringing?

[@royk8721]

im having that problem with my pro and max. im printing with them right now and the pro started doing that. its also not completing the lines as it makes a pass causing the line to curl up at the end and then the nozzle smashes into the curled line. ive also noticed that on the walls and infill, the head extrudes little dots of filament and lifts up moves down the path about 10 mm goes down leaves another dot of filament and repeats the process. could that be fill gaps? but fill gaps is on on my neptune 2 and it doesnt do that. ive been searching for what the hell that setting is that does the dotting but cant find it anywhere. now the max is doing the scraping thing too as i type. i think amazon is getting 2 returns, this is ridiculous. also i turned combing mode off recently because i heard it knocks parts off the plate which is what my neptune 2 does with supports. but z hop was turned on by default on my 4's so im gonna turn that off to see if it stops the dotting. i have grid infill on the print on the pro and gyroid on the max print so the argument in the comments about gyroid vs grid is kind of funny to me, finding humor in this is maybe my copeing mechanism to avoid throwing both printers on the sidewalk and going back to my neptune 2. if anyone can tell me what that dotting setting is, i would greatly appreciate it. if its z offset causing the grinding of the nozzle then elegoo turned into a shit company real quick in my eyes for releasing these heaps of crap to the public without fixing them first, this is 3d printing , not videogames, fix your shit. and yes the firmwares are both up to date (which is probably the root cause of these problems, every update is actually a downdate in these times) i didnt have this problem with the pro out of the box before the update, and the max came with current firmware now that i think about it. then people look at me weird when i say i havent updated my iphone 5s since i got it with ios 8.2 ok and update, i figured the hopping was the printer printing the infill, the walls are print has a wall thats the awkward thickness where the printer is printing 2 walls with a tiny gap of infill. but why not just pass through and deposit the filament without raising the head? stupid cura 5, i should just go back to 4.8. cura is a shit compant too now because they wont allow cura 5 to run on windows 7, dinks. ive also noticed the layers are looking really rough, almost like fuzzy mode on the horizontal plane, thats whats causing the grinding as the nozzle passes by. the layers are just not going down smooth. has anyone here tuned their flow rates, ill admit i havent done it yet because i just was excited to print. and im realizing my comment is turning into a forum post and i dont like it because anyone reading might be wanting me to just fuck off, "this aint a forum, shut up already!" sorry. hopefully im wrong and youre actually on my side

[@OuterRimArmorer]

The dotting might be from filament oozing out when it preforms a retract or when it starts the next line. You might try running a retraction calibration. Maybe some temp calibrations as well. I would not turn off z hop. I always leave that enabled.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

As far as fixing the grinding sound, stop using grid or gyroid infill. They both suck for bed slingers. I use adaptive cubic infill.

[@royk8721]

@@OuterRimArmorer the dotting was the head moving down,placing a dot, raising, moving over and repeating. it was printing infill in a tiny gap between walls with z hop enabled

[@royk8721]

@@OuterRimArmorer grid and gyroid are the only ones i used on my neptune 2. im using zigzag on my 4's, so far su good. but fuck, these printers are forever knocking supports off and its really fucking pissing me off

[@sloddor7154]

Ive Got massive Problems with banding on my elegoo Neptune 4 max. Any Idea whats wrong? Extruder, nozzle and bed Temperatur are calibrated. Also flow Parameters. Love your Videos, keep Up the good Work

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Thank you. Sorry to hear about your troubles. Have you greased the z rods? What’s your layer width and wall/perimeter count?

[@sloddor7154]

@@OuterRimArmorer thank you for the fast Response. I own the printer since a week. Z rods are factory greased. Wall Count 3, 0.2 layer height, outer Wall 0,42, inner wall 0.45. using Orca.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

⁠@@sloddor7154you could try switching your line width to .4 to match your nozzle size. 🤷‍♂️ I had to do that on mine as well.

[@sloddor7154]

@@OuterRimArmorer pretty good Tip. Thank you. I will try that. I will let you know

[@BigSteelThrill]

@@OuterRimArmorer Hey there again Mr Armorer, you have a catch of your most common settings on the 4 Max? And... when you getting them sweet linear rails? I'm just about to grab some I think.

[@adrianbuitron852]

I have changed the z hop setting and the infill from grid to gyroid and still have that problem. Is there anything that may cause it? I use Orca slicer for my Neptune 4 Plus

[@OuterRimArmorer]

In Orca just past the “Support” section is the “Others” section. Towards the bottom of “Others” is G-Code output, I typically have to uncheck the spot that says “Reduce Infill Retract”. Also, I now mainly use Adaptive Cubic infill pattern.

[@gardeningniceperson]

@@OuterRimArmorer Would you still recommend the z hop settings?

[@purpurnikomarac235]

Same problem, i tryed all but only can help me little slow fans speed.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Changing the infill pattern from grid to adaptive cubic seems to have really helped me.

[@purpurnikomarac235]

@@OuterRimArmorer i tried with gyroid and nothing… I changed the rotation distance, but nothing happens…

[@OuterRimArmorer]

I hate the gyroid infill almost as much as grid. Gyroid shakes the crap out of my printers.

[@HolyBanana-141]

I don’t know what’s going on but whenever I print a big print it always just keeps scraping the inside in its poking up so you can hear it scraping against those and I don’t know how to fix it does anyone know how?

[@OuterRimArmorer]

It’s probably the most infill pattern you’re using but it could be another setting like combing mode depending on the slicer you’re using it might be called something different.

[@tommyritchie8687]

What slicer do you use for your kobra 2 max as i cant find any profile for cura

[@OuterRimArmorer]

I tried to use the Cura profile provided by Anycubic but it caused issues with my printer. It would randomly freeze mid print. So now I’m using the PrusaSlicer profile by Anycubic. Here’s a link to both of them. www.anycubic.com/pages/firmware-software?

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Here’s a walkthrough they made to help load it into PrusaSlicer. www.anycubic.com/blogs/3d-printing-guides/kobra-2-series-prusaslicer-profile

[@thomaspc2]

Z-Lift in prusa , .4 to .6 works for me

[@Defyant123]

What's the file your printing? Sorry if i missed you saying it.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

This the the base helmet portion of Saint 14 from Destiny the video game.

[@ric270]

Thank you, hopefully this fixed my issue

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Did it work?

[@ric270]

​@@OuterRimArmorer it worked better, but still failed when i was at work, im increasing the z hop and hoping that works

[@ric270]

So i increased z hop to 2mm and used a raft and things seem to be going much better

[@PeterAgostiniJdcap26]

Good video 👍🏻

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Thank you 👍

[@PeterAgostiniJdcap26]

@@OuterRimArmorer welcome 👍🏻

[@Quadtastrophe]

But this doesn't have a negative impact on the first layer?

[@OuterRimArmorer]

It definitely can. I need to take this video down and post a new one. I do things a little differently now.

[@Quadtastrophe]

@@OuterRimArmorer did you solve the "grinding Problem"?

[@mohammadlord5839]

i need help just got my Neptune 4 pro and actually the nozzle is hitting the in fill sometimes it scratches the walls i didn't know that elegoo have this problem also the nozzle highest sometimes is to high that the pla won't stick on the bed if i low it down it sticks but its too close to the bed and sometimes the filament won't flow down it stuck on the head without printing or coming out someone should help me or contact me to fix my issues thank you for the help

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Which slicer are you using? Make sure you’re not using Grid infill.

[@mohammadlord5839]

​the slicer is cura 5.6 and today i changed the infill to line and it worked but the model is not sticking to the bed after 5 min of work it get of the bed ​@@OuterRimArmorer

[@OuterRimArmorer]

If you’ve washed the flex plate with soap and water and releveled the bed then the next step would be to try and adjust the z height on the fly(while the first layer is printing).

[@DireWolfForge]

It frustrates me that such a good printer is useless without the right firmware out of the box. I have 2 of the Neptune 4 pro units and they both keep losing the z offset randomly, they both hit the infill even with combing off and zhop enabled. It’s suspicious to me that the preloaded models like Buddha never seem to have this happen. Sometimes I get amazing prints, then sometimes the machines are like “nah” I wanted to add a N4-Max to the shop during Black Friday sale, but I’m not buying another Elegoo until they fix their firmware issues.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

I agree it’s been frustrating. They really should have made firmware updates easier too.

[@MultiViper777]

It was such an issue for me that I had to send mine back. Sucks that I had to pay $160 for shipping for their faulty product.

[@bundles1978]

the Z-offset issue may be due to a lousy leadscrew/nut setup. mine has quite a bit of vertical play. I am replacing the screws and nuts with higher quality units. you may also want to check tension on your z-axis wheels. on mine only half were actually contacting the track.

[@damiencross7334]

​@@MultiViper777i got one on black friday but went through amazon. I ended up sending one back because of faulty heat sensor and luckly they don't make you pay for anything shipping related. I have two weeks till i can't send the 4 plus i have back and im considering it. Its been nothing but headaches and the new bambu A1 is looking really nice. I have a p1p and its easily my favorite printer outta the ones i own.

[@ZhakRyuu]

It would be nice if you show the settings in the video. A little effort goes a long way. Thanks for the tips.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

I started making a slicer settings video. It’s an hour long already. I honestly didn’t think anyone would want to watch a video on settings for an hour. 🤷‍♂️

[@Dlutheran]

​@@OuterRimArmorer I would be interested but you're right probably majority wouldn't want to watch the whole thing

[@EvanRKnipp]

@@OuterRimArmorerDon’t let some people’s short attention spans discourage you from doing that! If it’s informative and helpful, I’m sure plenty of people would watch. I definitely have with other print channels.

[@danielkim6426]

Elegoo neptune 4 series printer have that problem. It is not setting bit firmware issue. I returned mine.

[@primoxsilverfox2378]

So my question when I saw my printer does this was...How much is this wearing down the nozzle?

[@OuterRimArmorer]

It will definitely wear down the nozzle. I believe switching infill pattern would help with my dragging issue.

[@teammattchew4657]

zig zag infil is the best infil to avoid dragging ive found, combined with disabling combing and z hop enabled.350hrs in on my 4 plus.@@OuterRimArmorer

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Thank you. I knew the one I was using was part of the problem.

[@teammattchew4657]

@@OuterRimArmorer no problem! I found that the dragging was happening only at intersections during the same layer, which zig zag avoids entirely.

[@czr7s1]

May have missed in one of the comments but this can be tweaked with infill flow. If your infill flow settings are the same as your walls, come down a couple percent (just on infill flow) at a time on some quick test prints until it doesn’t drag. This video obviously shows a way to deal with it during a print but not a permanent fix.

[@GiorgioConte-lz6yb]

Once the problem didn't exist, because printers where slow. Now, printing @125, @250mm or more the nozzle hits very hard the infill. GYROID infill is a good solution, but print jobs take forever, just like you were printing @60mm/s. At this point... let's print @60mm/s and the problem is no more.

[@typowert504]

Доброго дня! Я подписался на ваш канал, у вас хорошее творчество.

[@OuterRimArmorer]

Thank you! 🙏

[@TDKin3D]

If you have to use Z hop, you haven’t calibrated your printer properly.

[@samuelsamin1643]

how do i calibrate my printer completely