7 Common PLA Printing Mistakes Beginners Make

Every beginner makes these mistakes. The good news? They're all fixable. Here are the 7 most common PLA printing errors—and how to avoid them.

1. Not drying wet filament PLA absorbs moisture in days, not weeks. Wet filament pops, strings, and clogs. Always store spools sealed with desiccant. If it's been open for a week in humid weather, dry at 50 °C for 4 hours before printing.

2. Printing at the wrong temperature Newbies set 220 °C because a YouTube video said so. Or 180 °C because they're afraid. The sweet spot is 195–210 °C for most PLA. Print a temperature tower and find your exact setting.

3. Skipping bed leveling A wobbly first layer ruins everything. Level before every 10 prints. Use the paper test. Don't trust auto-leveling alone—check it manually.

4. Cranking the cooling fan too early 100% fan from layer 1 causes poor first-layer adhesion and weak bonds. Run fan at 0% for layers 1–3, then ramp to 100%. This fixes most weak-layer problems.

5. Not using a brim for large prints Big flat corners lift. Add a 5 mm brim for prints larger than 10 cm. It's a tiny amount of plastic compared to a failed 6-hour print.

6. Printing too fast Your printer can do 200 mm/s, but that doesn't mean you should. Start at 50–80 mm/s. Speed comes later, after you understand your machine's behavior.

7. Blaming the filament first When something goes wrong, check: Is the bed clean? Is filament dry? Are settings right? Is the nozzle clogged? Only after ruling out these should you suspect the spool. Quality filament helps—but settings matter more.

The pattern: beginners change 5 things at once and can't tell what fixed the problem. Change one setting, test, then change the next.

Arkforge PLA is designed to be forgiving—consistent diameter, low warp, predictable flow. But it can't fix bad settings. Start clean, go slow, and learn one thing at a time.

Avoid the mistakes. Print smarter with Arkforge PLA.

Happy printing!

– Arkforge Team