3D Printing

Diagnose 3D print quality problems that trace back to material and thermal settings.

Process

1. Identify the symptom precisely — stringing, layer separation, warping, under-extrusion, elephant foot and poor overhangs each point at different settings.
2. Change one variable at a time. Print a calibration tower rather than adjusting four settings and printing one part.
3. Start with temperature. Run a temperature tower for the specific filament and spool; published ranges are a starting point, not a value.
4. Then flow and extrusion multiplier, measured against a single-wall cube's actual wall thickness.
5. Then retraction — distance and speed, tuned on a stringing test, and different for direct drive versus bowden.
6. Then cooling, which trades overhang quality against layer adhesion. PLA and ABS want opposite answers.
7. Record the working profile per filament and printer, including ambient conditions. Humidity in the filament explains a surprising share of unexplained failures.

Deliverables

• Symptom-to-cause diagnosis
• Calibration sequence with one variable per test
• Saved profile per material and printer with conditions noted

Verification & Quality Checklist

• Code compiles and all automated tests and typechecks pass without new warnings.
• Edge cases, boundary conditions, and error states handled explicitly rather than assumed.
• No hardcoded secrets, credentials, or insecure defaults introduced.
• Changes are covered by a test that fails without them.

Anti-Patterns & Constraints

• NEVER weaken or skip a failing test to make a change land.
• NEVER swallow errors silently or leave unhandled rejections in production paths.
• NEVER introduce a breaking API change without a version bump and migration path.