Noob with Print Quality Issues
Hi all, I've had my printer for less than a week and am still sorting through some growing pains.
MK3 kit. The wizard, self test and calibration all cheek out. I checked the extrusion multiplier and it was nearly perfect, assuming I did it properly. Was getting slight banding on the x axis and I thought the belt was a touch lose so I tightened it up a little.
I printed this cube and it's all messed up. It's dimensionally close to accurate, but it's skewed along the x axis a little bit and still with the banding. Looks like my z is a little too negative still. Hatchbox PLA 210 first layer 205 for the rest bed at 60. I'm running the latest firmware.
What can I do here to get better results?
Re: Noob with Print Quality Issues
Other sides
Re: Noob with Print Quality Issues
What can I do here to get better results?
what slicer are you using? assuming you haven't tried any of these yet, I would suggest:
-lower print speed, 100mms or less
-lower perimeter speed, inside-out 50-60%
-lower acceleration and jerk (if you're on latest firmware, I think the defaults are 1000 for accel which is fine. not sure about jerk, I use 10)
-double check live Z, those ripples on the bottom mean you're too low
-get rid of as many retracts as you can. disable forced retract on layer change if it isn't already
and once you've done those, there's nothing wrong with lowering extrusion a few percent with PLA, helps with print quality sometimes
also: https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/
Re: Noob with Print Quality Issues
Some of the things I would most likely do in your case is check the belts and see if they are tight. Check your firmware and maybe reflash to the newest 3.1.2 as well as install the newest driver package 2.1.4. Try reslicing the cube in the newer slic3r and see if you notice any improvements. I had a issue that was coming out as a cooling problem I thought and did some of those things and seemed like there was a overall improvement with a few minor flaws still but that's something I am working on now.
Re: Noob with Print Quality Issues
I am currently using Slic3r PE, but have had similar results with Prusa Control.
I flashed the newest firmware this morning and tried again, same results with the slight banding I'm seeing. Also on the newest drivers.
I did fix the skewing on the X-axis though, found out I had the grub screw not fully tight on the flat part, fixed that and no more skew.
I've slowed it down, and might have a slight improvement on the cube, but nothing on my other prints. Where can I find the jerk setting in Slic3r? Not seeing those anywhere, unless it's called something else?
Thanks for taking the time to help me sort this out!
Re: Noob with Print Quality Issues
Here is a better example of the banding I'm seeing.
Re: Noob with Print Quality Issues
that looks somewhat periodic, maybe it could actually be z wobble? it looks like it's worse on the X face, so possibly a Y belt issue.
add this to your start script to change accel and jerk. (you can also bake it into the firmware)
M201 X1000 Y1000 ; acceleration, I think the default in newer firmware is 1000 already
M205 X8 Y8 ; jerk XY , not sure what the default is, I use anywhere from 8-10
Re: Noob with Print Quality Issues
Here is a better example of the banding I'm seeing.
Did you solve the problem? ,..... that happens to me too
Re: Noob with Print Quality Issues
Maybe, but not really. I haven't tried printing this model again yet. I started using S3D to do my slicing and adjusted the speed, acceleration, and jerk settings and it got better but not perfect. I think this is a bearing issue on my y-axis at this point. Over the last few days of printing it started making louder and louder rasping sounds. Took the bed off today and the bearings definitely have some rough spots and catch a little at some points especially with slow back and forth movements like I have at the end of the nose. So for now I'm thinking its bad bearings.
Re: Noob with Print Quality Issues
The issues on the Z side surface might be slic3r/firmware related. I was seeing similar issues. The retract/wipe smudges in the corners were very noticeable. There were areas where it looked like too much filament was extruded, leaving blobs on the surface. Areas of the surface also had a rough/dull appearance. I shared example images of this with Prusa support and they recommended I upgrade to the new firmware and slic3r software that was just released. I'm now using firmware 3.1.3 and slic3r 1.39.1-PE, and I see much better horizontal surfaces on my prints.
I unfortunately or fortunately spent a lot of time troubleshooting this. Nothing I tried made things better (until the 3.1.3 firmware update), but I have been learning a lot about 3D printing and troubleshooting. One of the things I learned was that by default the slic3r software creates gcode commands to perform a retract/wipe every time it finishes filling an area. The retract pulls back the filament slightly before performing a move to a new area or doing a layer change. This prevents filament leaking and creating strings/blobs on the print. The wipe causes the print head to wiggle slightly before it lifts to dislodge any excess filament that has been extruded, but is still attached to the tip of the nozzle. This wiping motion creates the little defects at the end of filling an area.
Hope this helps,
Jeff