Field Notes
Diagnosing print failures other guides get wrong — pressure advance, heat creep, wet filament, and more.
Your Nozzle Is Wearing Out — And Your Tolerances Are Paying For It
Nozzle wear is a slow, silent process that shifts part dimensions long before anyone thinks to blame the nozzle. Carbon and glass fiber fila…
Aug 22, 2026 · 7 min read
PCTG-CF Outside: What It Handles, and Where ASA Takes Over
PCTG-CF gets called "UV-stable" a lot, including on DuffAM's own homepage — but that's not the same as sun-proof. Here's the honest range: w…
Aug 18, 2026 · 6 min read
The Default Settings Would Have Shipped This Looking Like a Woodcut
Before a custom photo lithophane ever went up for sale, it went through four real passes on the same print — default settings, machine calib…
Aug 16, 2026 · 6 min read
FDM vs. Resin vs. SLS: When Each One Actually Makes Sense
DuffAM prints FDM. That's the honest starting point for this guide — because sometimes FDM is exactly right, and sometimes it isn't, and you…
Aug 15, 2026 · 7 min read
Extruder Clicking Isn't One Problem — It's Five
Extruder clicking gets blamed on clogs by default, but it has at least five distinct causes — flow-rate mismatch, partial clogs, heat creep,…
Aug 15, 2026 · 6 min read
11 Materials, One Honest Guide: PLA to PPS-CF
Every filament spec sheet reads the same way: strong, durable, easy to print. Here's the honest version — eleven materials, what each is act…
Aug 14, 2026 · 12 min read
Z Banding Isn't a Belt Problem
Z banding gets blamed on belts and retensioning when the real cause is almost always the lead screw, coupler, or Z motor driver.
Aug 13, 2026
Your Bed Isn't Warped — It's Doming
Cold leveling and even early hot mesh probes miss the dome a thin spring-steel sheet takes once fully heat-soaked.
Aug 13, 2026
Why Tightening Your Belts Doesn't Fix Layer Shift
Layer shift shows up and the forums say check belt tension — often it's a slipping pulley, a heat-soaked stepper driver, a dry rail, or acce…
Aug 13, 2026
Your Printer Isn't Slow — Your Hotend Is Starving
Why high-speed printing looks worse after all your calibrations — and the one number you need to fix it. Learn how volumetric flow rate limi…
Aug 11, 2026 · 5 min read
Your Filament Is Wet — and You Don't Know It
Stringing, blobs, weak layers, popping sounds from the hotend — you've adjusted retraction, swapped the nozzle, and re-leveled the bed. The.
Aug 11, 2026 · 5 min read
Pressure Advance: The Setting Your Slicer Can't Set For You
Pressure Advance compensates for the physics of pressurized molten plastic in your hotend. Here's why it's per-filament, per-temperature, an…
Aug 11, 2026 · 5 min read
One of These Isn't Ringing
Ran input shaping and the wavy wall's still there? It might not be ringing. Here's how to tell ringing apart from VFA, Z-banding, and salmon…
Aug 11, 2026 · 4 min read
Heat Creep: the clog that's not a clog
Your extruder starts clicking four hours into a long print, the nozzle pulls clean, and you spend the next week drying filament that wasn't.
Aug 11, 2026 · 4 min read