Elegoo Centauri - Star Wars & an ABS Mess!

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

As you folks may remember from another thread - about a Star Wars item being printed - and it WAS on the Centauri - done by Sean.

So - I wanted to print the same item - but, I wanted to go BIGGER and Better. Better How? I wanted to Acetone Vapor smooth ALL the parts - thus - printing out of ABS. And, BIGGER? Yeah - Double the size of the whole thing.

Well - I started with the Biggest part:

And - I've been getting NOTHING but Failures! This was the 1st Fail:

Now - as many folks know - I have done a TON of ABS printing in the past. But, VERY Little so far with my Centauri. What I HAVE done when trying to print this - fully clean bed, wipe with IPA, pre-heat chamber - w/bed at 90 - and the big chamber fan running to swirl air around. But, still it fails. Yeah - I had a connected brim as you can see. 

Yesterday I was even looking for my Aquanet - but, I could NOT find it - I think I brought it to my Art studio space by mistake!

So - next, I figured I would the Discs type solution at the corners(and, yeah - brim gap at Zero):

Sadly - as it began to print - it was immediately showing problems like:

And:

All very telltale signs. But, I figured - let it go - maybe it will still turn out OK. However, as it continue to print - it was Obvious that it was failing:

So - I finally killed print job - this was after doing so - chamber and bed STILL Hot:

And - just to show you back corners - and this is outside of printer - and part no longer attached to build plate:

It's just SO FRUSTRATING! And - I believe SOMEONE in the forum has been printing a LOT of ABS with the Elegoo Centauri - if I am not mistaken. 

As such - Any tips would be greatly appreciated. 

-K

[Bryan Eckert]

Are you not using anything like Magigoo? 

PEI sucks for printing ABS on, which is why I only use the engineering plate in my H2C. PEI definitely needs a liquid glue with decent adhesion. Or run to the store and get your Aquanet :D

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[Kurt]

Yeah - I got NO AQ - but, I may do Exactly as you suggested - and simply Run to a store (like CVS) - and get me some AQ ASAP - so I can potentially try and test print tonight. 

I have to say - and I am NOT Stating this as a disagreement - but, I thought I printed some ABS on my PEI plate just recently - and it was Stuck to it SO Much that I had to use a Razor blade to pull the part off the build plate. 

So, yeah - I WILL try the AQ approach - thanks SO Much for your feedback Bryan - it is VERY Much Appreciated!!!

-K

[Sean]

I've not printed abs yet on the ECC. But, some tips that I've been seeing in the FB group are:

Be sure to disable the extraction fan and auxiliary cooling fan. I've seen posts where folks would even cover them to avoid hot air leaking. 

Use a hairdryer or heat gun to preheat the chamber. If you don't want to do that turn the hot bed on for 15-20 minutes before the print.

Add helper discs to the thin edges/corners or change the brim offset settings to 0, it is set to a default of .1 which really defeats the purpose if it's not actually connected to the print. In my experience helper discs are the better solution for truly problematic prints.

Also, I'd like to remind you that scaling up the model is also going to scale up the clearances in the slip joints. They will most likely not hold the model upright when it's assembled. Not a problem if you plan to glue it together. Or, if you want to keep the ability to pose the model,you can strategically scale interlocking mating parts slightly more to compensate.

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[Bryan Eckert]

I dislike powder coated PEI in general. ESPECIALLY the gold Bambu plates. I think the guys have talked about it on the podcast how these powder coated plates can be really inconsistent. Not unlike Joel when he tested the H2C and thought the bed heater was off - Bambu sent him a new plate and it worked great.

I really love the cold plate Bambu shipped with the X1C initially. I bought a bunch of those stickers and still have a bunch. People hated it though because it required liquid glue.  And the new Biqu plates are great, I'm sure all are some sort of PEI blend. People seem to think PEI is the end all, be all but personally I've always had the best results on Garolite, since it's an actual mechanical interface with the print due to the fibers.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/3d-printing-tips--tricks/0a9164a1-ddae-4b41-b9d3-8b2dfb2ffa4fn%40googlegroups.com.

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

Thank you AGAIN Bryan for the Suggestion - I got AQ after work - and BOOM - the print job completed!!!!!


-K

On Friday, March 6, 2026 at 9:27:01 AM UTC-5 Bryan Eckert wrote:

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

You know what I HATE to DO?

Look TOO Closely at a Print job! The pic I showed - when I Looked at the part in front of me - I was STOKED - and thought it looked GREAT!!!

But, then - I took more pics of it and looked Closely - and I see it's NO BUENO!!!

I really didn't notice the issue until I started printing MORE parts for this Star Wars piece. These new parts looked pretty good at first sight:

Then - I took a pic of this smaller piece - and the issues became more apparent (yes - it's a more zoomed in pic than the ones above):

So - I had another BETTER Pic of the initial Armor piece - and, upon zooming in and cropping that pic - OUCH - I could then see all the Zits:

Yup - it's Confirmed - I have a SERIOUS Moisture Issue!!!!!

And, yup - I recently bought a potential Solution - and now I MUST put that Solution into play!

-K

[markni...@gmail.com]

Kurt,

Got heat?

https://www.amazon.com/Creality-Printer-Heater-Chamber-400W/dp/B0FL7RX9CG?crid=2PM4J3S5USP9E&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.l_3Ntrjr0MyGM-hdslpMxAGaTVhmxmfMNdegHYXxoB7irB3atcOLMAvQIaP4rn9IDXYS90FiZP5Qp59zzirprnki9ky2vZ1dU9YVMrTn5Vq-eWi6UfbekydHsKehH3I9qIIoQwCIlV-UgPVRdcYbWjnc0csZ1R4LuyL4VlgHADEIEtNbFAIVueKQR-JxVJ4At-FJNFB3TxU_nH0IAOi-eRMnf8rb2I_3IxZALBwmz0I.SEOg9GE2e1r1QS1hKbGhWKp_FKudp-KJKr_YgT7SwAo&dib_tag=se&keywords=creality%2Bheater&qid=1772932467&sprefix=creality%2Bheater%2Caps%2C1398&sr=8-3&th=1

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

Mark - it's not a Heat problem. I am preheating my chamber - so, that's not the problem. It's Wet filament!

As I hinted at the solution before - I put it in place - now it's feeding from the Creality filament dryer directly into my printer - and it's been drying for the past 2 or 3 hours now - and it's going to be drying it thru the night - so, by morning - the filament should be Bone Dry!

Here's the pic:

And - for those that are Curious - it's printing the Stand for the Star Wars AT-ST right now!

-K

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

OK - after drying the filament yesterday for HOURS - then drying it like another hour or 2 this morning - BOOM - now the Zits are Mostly gone! Sadly - I messed up - and Forgot to apply AQ:

Just re-coated plate w/AQ & gonna do a re-print...

-K

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

So - I printed these 2 small parts yesterday - and they looked TERRIBLE!!!

But, After Drying the filament - AND - printing at a much smaller layer height - they look a LOT Better now:

-K