Today, I printed my part yet again but the results were the same as before. The upper layers (after the final pause) is not bonding properly to the lower parts of the print.
In total, I had three prints resulting in the same defect each time, despite changing the plate temperature and standby temperature and placing the wires immediately as the print stopped.
Although the printing cannot be completed according to my design, the final result is still presentable with some modifications, as the main idea of integrating wires into ABS was made and I have enough process to show.
Here are some predictions for why the printed object was consistently defective:
- Greater temperature difference between the layer where printing paused and the build plate
- Software errors causing the print head to move inconsistently compared to the sliced preview after pausing
- A lack of extrusion at the last pause point prior to printing (compared to the presence of extrusion when resuming from previous pauses).
- Geometrical differences at the layer of the last pause compared to the previous pauses
If I had more time, I would test the part without pauses, measure the thermal properties at each pause point, and investigate the g-code output by Cura to troubleshoot the problem. However, printing this part each time requires about two and a half hours.