Help printing ttyt3D silk filament on MK3S+
I'm new to 3D printing and still learning, so please be gentle. 😊聽
I got my Prusa MK3S+ (pre-assembled) about a month ago, along with several rolls of Prusament. I've only been printing with Prusament and haven't really had struggles I couldn't troubleshoot. I decided to print something for my mother-in-law for Christmas and thought this ttyt3D Silk Turquoise filament would look great. I've tried watching dozens of videos, searched google, searched the forums, checked my filament diameter (way off), printed string tests, temp tower, swatches to test lettering, and a vase mode cube to calibrate the extruder multiplier. No matter what I have done or changed, I can not get the top of the print to be smooth, as you can tell from the swatches; it ends up being very textured, almost like little mountain ranges which I'm assuming means it's extruding too much filament but nothing I do seems to fix the issue so I'm at a loss. My printer is in an enclosure that is just ambient temp from the heat of the printer, usually around 78F.聽
Anyone who has had luck with this filament or similar, I'd love some pointers on how to fix this or pointed in a direction of what to investigate. Thanks in advance!聽
RE: Help printing ttyt3D silk filament on MK3S+
Have you tried printing a single layer test swatch, like the 75mm X 75mm Z calibration print by Jeff Jordan? What does that look like?
Cheers
RE: Help printing ttyt3D silk filament on MK3S+
Thanks for the reply and for pointing me back to that post. I did the Z calibration for all filaments I had when I first got the printer but it didn't cross my mind to do it for this filament. Is the Z calibration something you need to do for every filament?聽
My results are below. I did end up changing the Z value because the one I was using for my other PLA wasn't squishing down enough. The squares are in the orientation I printed them on the printer. I also printed a new test swatch and it's definitely closer to smooth but with some odd gaps now so I'm going to work thru some of the other tests and see what I come up with unless there is something else you would suggest. Thanks again!聽
RE: Help printing ttyt3D silk filament on MK3S+
Hello, it looks like you鈥檙e making some progress.
You shouldn鈥檛 have to do a live Z calibration for every filament but it鈥檚 one of the first things I look at when something doesn鈥檛 print as I expected.聽Having a proper Z height and a spanking clean print sheet will eliminate two of the most common causes of print failures.
I don鈥檛 claim to be a silk PLA expert so I may not be much help with next steps. There are forum members here who print lots of silk and can doubtless offer some pointers. If I recall correctly, printing at somewhat higher temps can help. Start with a 10* bump and see what you get. You may also need to experiment with cooling settings.
For your top layer issues, try different infill patterns to see if it smooths out. I typically use monotonic for top and bottom infill with good results. But you can get some really interesting finishes using something like Hilbert Curve, depending on your model and preferences.
You might benefit from an extrusion calibration for the material you鈥檙e printing. Take a look at the website forum member @bobstro has created for details and instructions. His site is a wealth of information and highly recommended reading.
https://projects.ttlexceeded.com/3dprinting_mk3_dialing_in.html
Hopefully this will give you some additional things to try to get this material dialed in. I鈥檓 sure others will pop in and share some silk PLA wisdom.
Cheers
RE: Help printing ttyt3D silk filament on MK3S+
Thanks again for the help and advice, it's greatly appreciated! I'll check out the site and see what else I can get dialed in. 👍聽