<h1>It's not you - it's the printer!</h1>
<p>The M3D Micro is not a very sturdy setup. The X-axis is a single pair of thin rods, hung up on a pair of similarly thin rods in Y and mounted on 3 very thin pillars in Z. While the idea is good, the execution is not particularly well: The rods are too thin and the design is virtually unchanged since 2015 and thus <a href="https://www.tomsguide.com/us/m3d-micro-3d-printer,review-3327.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this review from 2016 still applies</a>. <a href="https://youtu.be/Q_6IURZ1esM" rel="nofollow noreferrer">As does this from 2018:</a></p>
<ul>
<li>The extruder having problems to extrude reliable and steadily was not fixed since <a href="https://uk.pcmag.com/3d-printers/74073/m3d-micro-3d-printer" rel="nofollow noreferrer">at least 2015.</a></li>
<li>The mounting of the motion system is not very sturdy and the system itself is under-designed. This means it is particularly vulnerable to oscillation - which your print shows.
<ul>
<li>The extruder is mounted flexibly on the motion system, which amplifies all those errors. But that is designed for bed leveling - so there is little you can do to gett the needed stiffness</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The motors are underpowered. This leads especially to trouble with movement accuracy unless you print super slow. And that print you showed shows that you print with more normal print settings for a 2021 machine. This also shows in your print.</li>
<li>If a professional in 2018 can spend 2 days calibrating and get no results with the owner's proprietary slicer, then that slicer is not worth the disk space it uses. If you need to hack Cura to get the proprietary g-code derivate <em>and</em> you need to do that to get even decent prints, it's a bad design.</li>
</ul>
<p>All in all, you might squeak out better prints with a lot of calibration work, but the printer suffers so heavy from the design flaws that it would be a labor of love.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-24T02:19:49.543Z
Thanks but are you sure there aren't any fixes? Like 3d printing some sort of carriage holder or wobble prevention?
Dcybroz
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-24T07:29:51.783Z
@Dcybroz You can make it *better*, but that's a labor of love. There might be fixes on the printer's facebook community, but that does not fix that a lot of the parts might need strengthening, the whole probing mechanism needs a different setup (e.g. a separate sensor from the whole printhead) and that the firmware is proprietary.
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-24T10:09:48.100Z
Good idea but I 3d printed a benchy and saw that my retraction settings were off and that temp was too low so the layers weren't adhering. Also of course I would give love to my printers. It took a lot of effort to get it here.
Dcybroz
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-24T12:25:41.587Z
@Dcybroz Please note that a Benchy print is not a dedicated calibration test, it is a means to see if after altering and testing/tuning the printer, the printer is able to get a decent print out. For temperature determination and retraction you need to do some dedicated printing tests first.
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-23T22:50:58.523Z
2021-03-23T23:20:37.323Z
2021-03-23T23:20:37.323Z
Trish
<p>So I recently got an M3D Micro+ and have had 2 years of experience in 3D printing. I've had some issues with the printer and the prints produced and would like to know how I can fix them.</p>
<p>The issues include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Thick layer lines</li>
<li>Bad first layers / adhesion</li>
<li>wobbly extruder head</li>
</ul>
<p>Here is a screenshot of one of the prints:
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/VPmui.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/VPmui.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>The tolerances are also pretty bad. I would like to know recommended settings and such to help me get to actually printing. As of yet, I have not yet gotten a successful print.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-23T20:58:33.410Z
If you have a wobbly extruder - all bets are off. Get that fixed first.
SiHa
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-23T22:51:17.923Z
@SiHa that's a flaw of the design.
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-24T07:19:39.147Z
@Trish - really? Wow.
SiHa
<troubleshooting><layer-shifting><m3d>
What am I doing wrong with my M3D Micro?
Dcybroz
# What am I doing wrong with my M3D Micro?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-03-23)

So I recently got an M3D Micro+ and have had 2 years of experience in 3D printing. I've had some issues with the printer and the prints produced and would like to know how I can fix them.

The issues include:

* Thick layer lines
* Bad first layers / adhesion
* wobbly extruder head

Here is a screenshot of one of the prints:
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/VPmui.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/VPmui.jpg)

The tolerances are also pretty bad. I would like to know recommended settings and such to help me get to actually printing. As of yet, I have not yet gotten a successful print.

**Tags:** troubleshooting, layer-shifting, m3d
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: If you have a wobbly extruder - all bets are off. Get that fixed first.  
> **username_2**: @SiHa that's a flaw of the design.  
> **username_1**: @Trish - really? Wow.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-03-23. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

# It's not you - it's the printer!

The M3D Micro is not a very sturdy setup. The X-axis is a single pair of thin rods, hung up on a pair of similarly thin rods in Y and mounted on 3 very thin pillars in Z. While the idea is good, the execution is not particularly well: The rods are too thin and the design is virtually unchanged since 2015 and thus [this review from 2016 still applies](https://www.tomsguide.com/us/m3d-micro-3d-printer,review-3327.html). [As does this from 2018:](https://youtu.be/Q_6IURZ1esM)

* The extruder having problems to extrude reliable and steadily was not fixed since [at least 2015.](https://uk.pcmag.com/3d-printers/74073/m3d-micro-3d-printer)
* The mounting of the motion system is not very sturdy and the system itself is under-designed. This means it is particularly vulnerable to oscillation - which your print shows.
  + The extruder is mounted flexibly on the motion system, which amplifies all those errors. But that is designed for bed leveling - so there is little you can do to gett the needed stiffness
* The motors are underpowered. This leads especially to trouble with movement accuracy unless you print super slow. And that print you showed shows that you print with more normal print settings for a 2021 machine. This also shows in your print.
* If a professional in 2018 can spend 2 days calibrating and get no results with the owner's proprietary slicer, then that slicer is not worth the disk space it uses. If you need to hack Cura to get the proprietary g-code derivate *and* you need to do that to get even decent prints, it's a bad design.

All in all, you might squeak out better prints with a lot of calibration work, but the printer suffers so heavy from the design flaws that it would be a labor of love.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks but are you sure there aren't any fixes? Like 3d printing some sort of carriage holder or wobble prevention?  
> **username_2**: @Dcybroz You can make it *better*, but that's a labor of love. There might be fixes on the printer's facebook community, but that does not fix that a lot of the parts might need strengthening, the whole probing mechanism needs a different setup (e.g. a separate sensor from the whole printhead) and that the firmware is proprietary.  
> **username_0**: Good idea but I 3d printed a benchy and saw that my retraction settings were off and that temp was too low so the layers weren't adhering. Also of course I would give love to my printers. It took a lot of effort to get it here.  
> **username_3**: @Dcybroz Please note that a Benchy print is not a dedicated calibration test, it is a means to see if after altering and testing/tuning the printer, the printer is able to get a decent print out. For temperature determination and retraction you need to do some dedicated printing tests first.  

---

