How to get a smooth surface?
I have been trying to print this character head and her body pieces with a smooth surface. I've tried printing her face in different positions; each of the prints below was printed with the face up, to the side, or facing the plate. Every time, it prints perfectly smooth until it gets to the last 3%. The red piece at the bottom of the image is the character's red staff and it is also printing chunky.
I'm printing with water soluble supports and the setting is at".20mm WATER SOLUBLE INTERFACE"
I've tried setting the print speeds to 25mm, increasing the fan speed to 10, adding a thicker shell, and ironing is turned on for all top layers.
The four colors are all PLA set to heat bed 50, filament to 205 degrees. Should it be hotter? The PLA temp suggests 190-220 for all of the PLA colors.
I'm sure I'm not doing something obvious, all help and guidance is appreciated!
RE: How to get a smooth surface?
The one thing you didn't mention is your layer height. I don't see anything unusual in the photo, sort of what you would expect from a round object. The white color makes the layer lines even more pronounced. You can try to go with a lower overall layer height such as 0.1mm, or try the variable layer height option in Prusaslicer. A smaller nozzle may also help but also significantly extend print time. Or use ASA and vapor smoothing but that may also affect some other details on your model.
Formerly known on this forum as @fuchsr -- until all hell broke loose with the forum software...
RE: How to get a smooth surface?
Thanks! It's hard to get a picture of it, but the layers change right around the 97% complete point, where her eye starts up to big jagged circles on her forehead. In person, it's a distinct change in the quality and skin texture.
The layer heights are both set to .2mm, but I'll try setting it to .1 right now and see if that helps!
It looks like a good print for the orientation. The trick is to decide where on the model the shallow sloped layers will be least intrusive and then rotate the model accordingly. In this case I would start by tilting it forward by 45° and accept that the underside will also be scarred where support will be necessary.
Cheerio,