Wow. That was the best sponsor segue I’ve ever seen. Linus eat your heart out.

0:40 Now *that* is how you transition into a sponsor spot. Holy cow.

That Mosquito transition was legendary, really made me chuckle too. Oh yeah, the advice was fantastic too lol.

To the average viewer I would strongly recommend using glue stick, hair spray or Dimafix spray (I love this product!) over higher bed temp to avoid PETG, ASA or ABS ruining/breaking the glass bed or the top coat of flex plates too easily. Even if you don't have adhesion or releasing issues, I would still recommend it as a protection for your bed surface. You also don't want hard to remove chunks of glass sticking to an otherwise perfect part (don't ask how I know!).

Flow through top layers - Hell Yes! I've been doing this for over a year with great success. I use a square of 4x4cm, 2mm tall. No bottom layers, so it starts with infill at first to mitigate influence of potential bed squish. Prints very quickly and lets you evaluate the flow needed easily.

Hi Tom, You commented on my twitter post about the strange patterns in my top layer and said I had backlash. It was also many other issues related to this video. My ender had a dip in the middle of the metal bed so when I removed my glass bed to use a flexi metal pei sheet it was dipping in the middle. I also had to work out the amount of filament extruded because it was a bit too much plus the fan on the ender was running very slow. So all these problems caused my rough top layer. I switched back to a glass bed, re-calibrated the extruder and the diameter of the filament fixed the slow spinning fan and I had much better results. Also adjusted the belts, replaced the nozzle and made sure it was straight.

@1:43 pro tip, preheat your oven first and then put the filament in. This will ensure that the temp isn't fluctuating and your filament won't be damaged

And I love the progress bar that you embedded in the Add, really nice

"@Thomas Sanladerer" 0:38 Best product reveal/intro sequence, EVER! queue the mosquito buzzing sound, camera down to where a slap goes, slap sound can be heard, buzzing stops, close up shot of the product... brilliant!

I would love to see an update of this tutorial - I know the physics have not changed but slicers has improved a lot the last years. Suggestion: orca slicer and on an any non bambu, not prusa, non K1 printer. Thanks!

Honestly, this is the FIRST time in *decades* that a video had an "ad" for a product that was actually relevant to me. Something that Google has *never* managed ever.

Bold of you to assume that my rolls are consistent, I don't pay that much and that mosquito segue was amazing

Something I have found to work exceptionally well for bed adhesion is as follows: 1) heat the bed to 60c. 2) Mix one part PVA glue to one part IPA. 3) take a clean cloth and soak it with the mixture then lightly wipe down the heat-bed. This creates an extremely tough, thin layer of PVA that lasts many prints and is easily removable.

How I do it: 1 - Run it through Marlin linear advance test print to know K. 2 - Print 20x20x20 cube to know flow % and temp. 3 - Try to pull cube apart; if it splits, temp is too low because layers aren't fused enough so raise temp. 4 - Print flow rate, temp and K on a table so next time I use the same filament I don't have to repeat this. 5 - Enjoy printing with that filament. Been doing this for a long time and always get great results. Using mostly Sunlu and Tianse brands.

Thanks Tom! Your videos are always super high quality and the information is so concise and easy to understand, well done!

one added thing I do recently is this.... I extrude 100mm or filament. if it curls then I increase temp by 5 degrees until I see a nice straight fairly thick bead of filament. I could go up another 5 degrees from there but that makes a good starting point. I have been have a ton of under extrusion with my REVO hotend until I started printing 10-15 degrees hotter that normal for said filament.

Hey Thomas, awesome video, great content as usual. Thanks for sharing.

I can't confirm "no fan" for ABS. I run my fan at medium setting and get much nicer results and don't have any layer adhesion problems. If I turn off the fan, there would be a lot of curling or sagging, and no I'm not prinitng too hot. I used the lowest temperature that was possible with that particular ABS filament (228°C)

Thanks for validating my current process ;) The best advise that I can give is to: sit next to your printer and watch it print for hours on end to see what happens and change according to what you see. Visual feedback is the most important part of print tuning! You can also stand next to your printer for hours and train your glute, back and neck muscles.

@Tom I get beautiful ABS prints in an enclosed chamber (heated just by the bed at 110C) but only with fan on 50-100%. So one more exception to the rule

Another thing I found to help with stringing is faster non print moves. (130mms for me) Has anyone else noticed that the cheap filament (E-Bay) has all gone bad because of COVID 19? Great video. Keep up the good work.

I literally just came from a video where everyone was complaining about the ad segment, then straight onto this masterpiece lol!

wooooww That's massively intimidating if you're like me on the edge to buy a 3D print. I expected few tries, but here I see millions of ways how it can go wrong. Thank you

Before tuning in flow rate and retract I like to tune E-steps and linear advance set the values in the filament specific start G-CODE in prusa slicer. Those value can vary greatly between different types of plastic.

I’m it sure I will ever use my textured or smooth PEI sheets with my new Prusa Mini, I’ve fallen in love with the ease of use of the satin sheet!

This is the kind of information-dense topic that could greatly benefit from a separate guide PDF or wiki, or even just sharing the script. There are lots of filament tuning guides out there, but I really prefer Tom's approach and organization. Let me welcome you to my own dark corner of the filament world: I like to use super-inexpensive (

I was hoping you were going to suggest printing temperature towers to help determine the best temp, as well as demonstrating how to dial in the extrusion multiplier (or Flow Rate, which seems challenging for most)

The Mosquito thing? Best.Sponsor. Segue. Ever.

Vielen lieben Dank! Been trying to work out an order of operations for new/wierd filaments I've been trying out.. thanks for the great checklist to work through 🙂👍

When you're dual extruder printing with a single nozzle that adds another variable to the mix. You need to make sure your extruding enough material to prime the nozzle, but different materials and colours have different priming requirements. For example, I can get away with only a little bit of priming for a support material like PolySupport for most prints, while PLA might need four times as much priming to avoid the support material showing through. Darker (or similar) colours usually prime quicker than lighter (or different) colours as well. But you also need to take into account the different temperature requirements for different materials. Depending on the printer, the temperature may fluctuate wildly while it's switching material, so programming in a hold after a material switch may be beneficial.

Do you plan to compare the The Mosquito™ Hotend to some of the chinese "copies" like the Dragon at some point? I would love to see that.

Great video and very good production quality, as always! Keep it up! New video idea: What to look for when buying used printers (yellow and red flags, as well as things to consider).

Thanks for this video Tom. It takes me forever to get a filament dialed in so this was super helpful!

I always thought curling was excess bed temperature but I recently found that to be the opposite & increasing the bed temperature helped reduce curling. For PLA at least. I don’t know how other filaments would behave

On my K1max i was surprised that the fan was set to 70% for abs. Printed great, when tinkering with the profile, i put my fan speed down and then off. Drove myself crazy for a bit trying to adjust other values as this began a nightmare of trying to compensate. I print so rather large prints and nothing i would do would fix either very poor layer adhesion and cooling separation. I finally reliqued back to the defaults with 70% and boom. all works well again with stunning parts in abs. I guess with a enclosed case, the cooling fan is needed at least one the k1.

You do a great job with organizing the information! Thank you

Bed adhesion - with printing PLA on the spring steel PEI covered sheet for my Prusa i3 Mk3 I can't praise those 'magic sponges' (melamine foam) enough, they clean the surface so well that PLA always sticks, but TPU & sometimes PETG sticks too well because there's a couple of chunks ripped out of the PEI from TPU prints sticking like superglue so for those filaments I use a Kores gluestick. Yes melamine foam is abrasive, but it's one of the least abrasive 'scrubbers' you can use, I'm not worried about it wearing out the PEI sheet at all, it removes the grease of fingerprints extremely well.

the progress bar for the sponsor.. incredible production value.. lol

What is this "ETC" - filament. Must be something special...

Now this is the kind of info I’m looking for. Too many 3D print channels are just; “Hey, let’s print this toy! Wow, cool, huh?”

@LinusTechTips can definetely learn from this sponsor segway

Must see video. Have to recommend this!

awesome video alot of info packed into a short simple video and the sponsor segue masterfully done.

I’m binging your content while I wait for my Prusa, it’s really good and I enjoy it a lot! Hopefully I won’t need this video in particular (with Prusa’s available presets), but I will watch anyway

Thank you for a great introduction to tuning filament!

I don't understand why stringing and blobs would be two opposite phenomenon. Blobs usually comes, similar like stringing from too little or slow retraction, due to too high pressure in extrusion zone of the nozzle, causing liquid thermoplaste flowing out during (stringing) or after (blob) travel movements. Stringing is also more a function of cooling and temperature, while blobs are primarily caused by too slow / little retraction . Too high / fast extrusion often shows in underextruding / missing the first ~1 millimeter of each layer (=> "seamcrack") - in addition to the by you mentioned scratching of the nozzle into the lässt layer.

Would have loved to see a reference to what Teaching Tech did for printer calibration. Even better would be a collaboration with you, Makers Muse and Teaching tech you guys are fantastic teachers.

Tom, Your videos have been invaluable for the last few years I've been 3d printing. A friend of mine recently got an SLA printer, which I'm not familiar with the technology as I am with FDM. I'd like to help him start off on the right foot...in addition to your channel, can you recommend any makers who specialize in SLA printing?

Thomas, can I share a tip to make things better than glue stick? Take a spray bottle, fill it with IPA and add 10% by volume of white glue. Agitate to mix and spray onto the bed. You can use this method to apply a very thin and uniform layer of glue to a bed--which will make your bed side of the print look much better.

I am using black PLA and layers separate. I increased extruder temp from 200 to 210 and still have layer separation. I might reduce outside layer speed or dispose this old spool. Thanks!

regarding bed adhesion: I'm using cheap brush cleaner and it sticks perfectly when hot. (on creality cr10 v2 with original bed). Maybe you can try too?

No fan control on noob friendly printers like the Flashforge Finder. Learned that today.

I leave my PLA spools mounted on the printer. Interestingly, after not printing anything for a months I need to raise the temperature by 5C to get the same quality as previously when I was doing a lot of printing. I think it may be due to moisture absorbed by the outer layers of the spool since the last use and after expending those layers I can lower the temperature by 5C.

I'd be interested in a part 2 with more in-depth settings.

You out Linus'd Linus with that product segue lol.

In prusaslicer profile for PLA, they recommend to not use the fan for the 4 first layer. You said 2 first layer. What is the best. Great video.

Mosquito slap! I laughed way too hard at that! Good stuff Tom!

Glue works. Amen

Hey Thomas, have you looked into 3DOptimizer or happen to know any other software/service based attempt at tuning in g-code settings in a more 'scientific' approach?

That transition

I really like when these big 3d printer channels explain some of these things like “i like to choose the temp that makes strong parts” lol you dont say

Nearly the same process for me. New spools always gain a free drying session prior to any use.

Hi Tom, I was surprised to see the patented Mosquito hotends ad spot, considering your stance on IP licensing, and open source in 3D printing (like issue with MPCNC). Curious to hear your take on this, and whether you support Slice patenting them. Personally I am supportive of patents, but I think they should have much shorter durations, but also be easier to apply for.

Can you make a video on how to improve tolerances?

Great advice, thank a lot for making this video!

I saw what you did there with the travel speed at 9:40

I think you could have added a bit more detail and i even found it quite strange that you did'nt mention any Temp Towers or Retraction Test, which are still the best way to tune in the Fillament, especially the all in one Temp Tower with the Overhang, Bridging and Retraction Test is pretty nice, to at least find the sweet spot over the Temperature, but i'm still not quite sure if that is even the right way for that solution. But it's the fastest way i could find, to test Filament Samples. Also.. You calibrate the flow rate through eye? I'm not really sure if the print are accurate with that methode and still prefere the old way to dial it in with a dual walled cube at 100% flow and measure the sizes afterwards to get my flowrate for that filament, and it's also the easiest and most accurate solution to tune that it. Anyway.. I hope you make another Video about that Topic.

thank you. Very well thought out and clear information.

I was surprised that you don't use a single or double wall hollow cube to calibrate your extrusion multiplier. I would love to see a video on bridging calibration.

Thank you 👍😎, all information very welcome.

any comment on the changes to the personal license to fusion360 from autodesk?

i had the qidi x maxx.... i lov it never a failed print.... just amazing.... i only had the prusa mini.. which ehhhhh hate it.... hows the mk3?

can you do a video on linear advance on reprap :)

Never heard of ETC filament!

Curling does not always mean to go lower in temperature. Especially when working with exotics, it can mean that your bed temp is much much too low.

Can you use a toaster over to dry out filament? I have a toaster oven for sublimation, so I could use it to dry out filament technically too? Is it safe in your oven to cook after drying out your filament?

Thanks for another great Video. Could you maybe link to the testprints you showed? I have most cases covered by now, but theres always room for improvement. And it would be of great help for Beginners There are so many to choose frommand not all wirk really in the way they were intended

Fantastic mosquito transition 😃

Thanks Thomas, great info 👍

hi thomas... while i had bunch of low end printers.. creality ..longer.. other and other brands......what would u recomend. the newest prusa or qidi x maxx??? plze let me know... ty

Great video, this is exactly what I've been in need of. Quick question; do you keep your filaments stored in dry locations even if you dehydrate before use? I've been contemplating making a dry enclosure for filament storage.

I don't understand lowering temp of the bed for curling, isn't the curling due to the edges cooling faster than the center say on bigger prints on a bed? I would imagine you would want to keep the bed warmer so the filament stays softer

Loved the add

@5:00, I followed the instructions but all the filaments aren't available for my printer. When I select the Prusa printer, they're all there, but when I select my Ender 3, there are only a few to choose from. I've repeated the steps 4 times now and it still won't work. (Yes, I hit the 'detach' button)

I can't speak for other printers, but on my CaribouDuet LGX the opposite of what you say in regard to retraction is true. For example, i make a top infill which has writing inside of it as negative space (so the color of the letters is the color of the layer below). If I use 0.8mm and retraction length and 0.35 retraction speed, the product has a very rough surface (blobs?) when you feel it with the finger. However, increasing that to 1.2mm length and 0.4 speed, the surface around the letters becomes smoother. How can this be?

Thanks 🎉

You mind giving the comunity an update on the new licens restrictions on F360 some of them start taking pace 10 days

Nice video. Thank you. Where can I find your test printing models?

Question…When I calibrate my Ender3 Pro, do I have to put the new esteps in Prusa? If so, where do I find it? I know you change on the endear screen, but when I shut it off and turn it back on the number changes back to default so I am thinking I have to put it in Prusa somewhere …many thanks for any suggestions! :)

Just got some super cheap pla off of Amazon and the first two prints immediately failed and the extrusion was horribly inconsistent even tough the printer worked perfectly just minutes before. I hope this might help me to fix these issues

I want to know more about that "On Air" sign in the back ground! Are you a Ham Radio Operator? or is that just for your KZfaq 'TV?' I want to make one of those for Ham Radio.

I'm new to my i3 Mk3 - Recently purchased several task specific filaments from Vision Miners - None of these have filament profiles in Prusa Slicer - any suggestions on how to build profiles? HT-Nylon CF-Nylon FLEX-TPU PTCG

Ive never tried ETC filament

Very helpful! Thanks!

"Get rid of some of the furries" Uh-oh

Great info! Thank you so much!

Thanks, Watch a lot of your vids! I'm new to 3D printing and bought the CR-6 SE (Yes I know you in another Vid said to pass, but I got it, no turning back. I bought some PTEG for the added "heat" and other added strengths of this filament. BUT. I've since seen and read some horror stories of using PTEG. From delaminating/shirring off glass, and temps too high for a lot of printer nozzles. Any insight that can ally my fears of using this filament?

Why 50-60 degrees for PLA? Why not 0-60? I often print PLA at 0 with gluestick (S5) - although I've not had adhesion issues, I'm open to improving anything I'm doing incorrectly.

Hello Thomas, do e.g. PLA sheets exist to put on the bed and print upon? this instead of putting a big first layer and print the rest on top of it? If the sheet is transparent, it could be used to adhere it on a carrier and not having to print the 1st layer during an hour.

how do you feel about temperature towers for testing what temp to print a filament? I'm EXTREMELY new to the hobby and i've been looking at some tests people print on new printers and stumbled across these.