<p>Solved, the nozzle was set too low and was causing pressure buildup at certain points since the PEI plate wasn't perfectly flat.</p>
<p>After raising it and swapping for a glass bed I was able to stop this behavior.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> While this helped this issue a little bit, it was also making adhesion really poor on faster prints. A better fix I found was that I recently swapped filament spools, it looks like the average spool thickness was greater than the previous one, and after reducing the flow 5 %. I was able to eliminate this problem entirely, thanks to the question <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/q/5372/">What is causing &#39;droplets&#39; on first layer?</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-21T01:21:48.430Z
2022-11-07T02:01:42.807Z
2022-11-07T02:01:42.807Z
Cody Duong
<p>I was running my Ender 3 just fine with good first-layer adhesion/everything else but my setup changed after my Pi SD card got corrupted so I had to re-install and reconfigure my bed leveling via OctoPrint. After this my first layer started to look like this:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/apO4n.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="Image of 3D print first layer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/apO4n.jpg" alt="Image of 3D print first layer" title="Image of 3D print first layer" /></a>
* this is the bottom of the completed print</p>
<p>IIRC I changed the following (and have tried undoing it but to no avail):</p>
<ul>
<li>Increased extruder tension (since it was skipping while retracting)</li>
<li>Lowered z-probe offset (since re-calibrating it was too high)</li>
</ul>
<p>This is with PLA</p>
<p>Running a modified Ender3 w/</p>
<ul>
<li>BL Touch</li>
<li>Micro Swiss Direct Drive Extruder for Creality CR-10 / Ender 3 Printers</li>
<li>PEI Plate</li>
<li>BIGTREETECH SKR Mini E3 V1.2 Control Board w/ Marlin dev built 20210609</li>
</ul>
<p>Sliced on Cura 4.11.0</p>
<ul>
<li>Printing Temp: 210.0 °C</li>
<li>Bed Temp: 60 °C</li>
<li>First Layer printing speed: 20.0 mm/s</li>
<li>First layer acceleration: 500.0 mm/s^2</li>
<li>No first-layer fan (or any cooling at any point)</li>
</ul>
<p>I've tried:</p>
<ul>
<li>Increasing initial Z-offset; this doesn't work since it will affect my bed adhesion to the point the print will pop off</li>
<li>Adjusting extrusion gear tension; will start skipping on retraction/no-luck</li>
</ul>
<p>After the first couple of imperfect layers get ironed over, the upper layers will not have any extrusion problems, or whatever this is, and are basically fine.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-19T23:02:01.127Z
This has been asked before, but I can't find the question. I think the nozzle is too close to the bed. Will try to find it!
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-20T02:46:42.767Z
Yeah this is it, it's strange because I'd never seen an extrusion pattern like this. Anyways after opting for higher rather than lower and swapping to a glass bed so it would be flatter I was more easily able to get this tuned in. If you want to write/link to the other answer as an answer I would be willing to accept it as correct. Thanks.
Cody Duong
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-20T21:24:50.890Z
I can't find the other question, but know it exists. Please write your own answer and accept it after 48 hours. We can always mark it later as a duplicate when i have found the question. It is good to have duplicates because this issue is hard to capture in a question title and key words.
0scar
<creality-ender-3><marlin><ultimaker-cura><troubleshooting><bltouch>
Ender 3 first layer inconsistent layer lines
Cody Duong
# Ender 3 first layer inconsistent layer lines

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-10-19)

I was running my Ender 3 just fine with good first-layer adhesion/everything else but my setup changed after my Pi SD card got corrupted so I had to re-install and reconfigure my bed leveling via OctoPrint. After this my first layer started to look like this:

[![Image of 3D print first layer](https://i.sstatic.net/apO4n.jpg "Image of 3D print first layer")](https://i.sstatic.net/apO4n.jpg "Image of 3D print first layer")
\* this is the bottom of the completed print

IIRC I changed the following (and have tried undoing it but to no avail):

* Increased extruder tension (since it was skipping while retracting)
* Lowered z-probe offset (since re-calibrating it was too high)

This is with PLA

Running a modified Ender3 w/

* BL Touch
* Micro Swiss Direct Drive Extruder for Creality CR-10 / Ender 3 Printers
* PEI Plate
* BIGTREETECH SKR Mini E3 V1.2 Control Board w/ Marlin dev built 20210609

Sliced on Cura 4.11.0

* Printing Temp: 210.0 °C
* Bed Temp: 60 °C
* First Layer printing speed: 20.0 mm/s
* First layer acceleration: 500.0 mm/s^2
* No first-layer fan (or any cooling at any point)

I've tried:

* Increasing initial Z-offset; this doesn't work since it will affect my bed adhesion to the point the print will pop off
* Adjusting extrusion gear tension; will start skipping on retraction/no-luck

After the first couple of imperfect layers get ironed over, the upper layers will not have any extrusion problems, or whatever this is, and are basically fine.

**Tags:** creality-ender-3, marlin, ultimaker-cura, troubleshooting, bltouch

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This has been asked before, but I can't find the question. I think the nozzle is too close to the bed. Will try to find it!  
> **username_0**: Yeah this is it, it's strange because I'd never seen an extrusion pattern like this. Anyways after opting for higher rather than lower and swapping to a glass bed so it would be flatter I was more easily able to get this tuned in. If you want to write/link to the other answer as an answer I would be willing to accept it as correct. Thanks.  
> **username_1**: I can't find the other question, but know it exists. Please write your own answer and accept it after 48 hours. We can always mark it later as a duplicate when i have found the question. It is good to have duplicates because this issue is hard to capture in a question title and key words.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2022-10-21. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

Solved, the nozzle was set too low and was causing pressure buildup at certain points since the PEI plate wasn't perfectly flat.

After raising it and swapping for a glass bed I was able to stop this behavior.

**Note:** While this helped this issue a little bit, it was also making adhesion really poor on faster prints. A better fix I found was that I recently swapped filament spools, it looks like the average spool thickness was greater than the previous one, and after reducing the flow 5 %. I was able to eliminate this problem entirely, thanks to the question [What is causing 'droplets' on first layer?](https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/q/5372/)


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