Retraction is concerned with pulling the filament all the way back during its travel time. If done correctly, it will take all of the pressure from the nozzle of the printer. Virtually every 3D slicer engine available today has certain settings when it comes to getting rid of 3D printing stringing. They help ensure that you will be able to get into the sweet “no stringing” zone. This way you will be able to enjoy all of our prints with your Ender 3 machine.
Let us study Creality’s Ender 3 retraction settings with the help of the Cura slicer. It has all the relevant settings for stringing 3D printing as well as the recommended values for each filament type.
The recommended values are a good baseline and you can adjust up and down from there.
Best Retraction Settings for Ender 3
What is Retraction Travel Speed?
The retraction speed of your Ender 3 will determine precisely how fast the extruder will pull the filament out of the Bowden tube onwards through to the nozzle. This is typically in millimeters per second (mm/s). It is very simple really. The higher the overall setting, the faster will be the movement.
There is a tradeoff here though. And that is that you will need to get all of the filament strings out of the nozzle as quickly as possible. However the faster you do so, the greater will be the potential damage to the filament and ultimately your build.
How Do You Calculate Retraction Distance?
Retracting distance may be defined as the total amount of filament that the machine’s extruder will retract from its nozzle. Let us suppose the setting is set at 7 mm. Here, the extruder will be able to pull the requisite 7 mm of filament right out of the unit’s Bowden tube.
How Do You Stop The Stringing On Ender 3 Pro?
Once your Ender 3 is ready and able to push down more filaments into the nozzle, it will automatically move the same amount of filament (7mm) right back into the machine’s Bowden tube. This will lead to a momentary relief in pressure that can easily stop oozing and even prevent stringing.
Once the filament material is pushed back into the Bowden tube after its retraction, your printer will be prepared to print again. This whole exercise is also referred to as priming.
What Is A Good Retraction Distance?
As a general rule, it is a great idea to start off with low Cura settings such as 5 mm and only then proceed to adjust it either up or down by a maximum of 1 mm until you manage it just right. Your goal should always be to get it down to the lowest possible number even as you substantially reduce the stringing effect.
In this case, a reasonably good range would be 3 to 7 millimeters max. If the number is too low it won’t be able to have any reducing effect on stringing. Too high and it might damage your build and even increase your print time.
Extra Prime Amount
This setting will be of great help in compensating for any material that had been lost due to excessive oozing. Once your machine primes after retraction, it will automatically push the amount you have set beforehand
Maximum Retraction Count
This setting is used to adjust the total number of maximum retractions that may be possible in a specific area. Using this option will automatically protect your filament from damage by retracting and priming too many times. Since the extruder is using a gear with teeth that dig into the filament to push and pull it, the more your extruder retractions occur on one specific piece of filament, the more damage can occur.
Minimum Extrusion Distance Window
This window enables you to specify very precisely the length of filament on which you can enforce the ‘Maximum Retraction Count.’ For example, if you decide to set this count to a total of 5 while the Minimum Extrusion Distance Window (MEDW) is set to 10mm: In this case, the machine’s extruder will only allow a total of 5 retractions over a full 10mm piece of filament. In fact, all retraction commands will be ignored once the desired number has been reached.
Limit Support Retractions
This setting is available via a checkbox format. Once it is enabled, it will automatically stop all retractions whenever it is moving within its supports. It will still lead to a bit of stringing, but it will be restricted within the support structure only. You can verify it with a stringing test on various prints.
TPU Retraction Settings
- Temp: 225
- Print jerk: 10
- Temp bed: 60
- Retraction speed: 25m/s
- First layer: 0.2
- Retraction distance: 5mm
- Print Acceleration: 300
- Initial speed: 10m/s
- Wall Acceleration: 300
- Print speed: 25m/s
PLA Retraction Settings
- Initial Layer Speed: 20 mm/s
- Printing Temperature: 200 °C
- Speed: 50 mm/s
- Bed Temperature: 60 °C
- Retraction: 6 mm @ 25 mm/s
- Layer height: 0.12 mm
- Initial Fan Speed: 0%
- Infill: 20%
PETG Settings
- Overall speed: Between 30 and 50 mm/s
- Retraction Speed: At 40 mm/s or less
- Retraction distance: Around 6 mm
ABS Settings
- ABS: 6 mm retracting distance
- Retraction Rate: St 40 mm per second
Related
Conclusion
All of the above settings can be used on the Ender 3 Cura profile and they can be further customized and tweaked to give optimal results.
