ASA print with partial surface imperfections
Hi guys,
I have the core one since some weeks now and I am quite happy with the overall print quality. Yesterday I tried to print the famous coffee clip with Formfutura ApolloX ASA. The part prints in place.
As you can see on the pictures the over all quality is not too bad - beside on the middle part on some area where the thread for the cap is located.
Any thoughts if it can be related to the PrusaSlicer Settings? The only thing which comes into my mind is if the middle part moves slightly during printing?
Thanks a lot!
Cheers,
Tom
RE: ASA print with partial surface imperfections
Does ASA get wet?
RE: ASA print with partial surface imperfections
Ok, it's hydroscopic... did you dry it before printing?
RE: ASA print with partial surface imperfections
New spool, printed out of the filament dryer. Shouldn't be a problem.
RE: ASA print with partial surface imperfections
If it is a moisture problem: Why would the problem just come up in the specific area and vanish afterwards again?
Dryer was running before and during the print.
RE: ASA print with partial surface imperfections
My first guess would be: warping.
ASA warps quite easily and I've read about the solution being to reduce the print fan speeds and also let the chamber climb a bit hotter.
If the part curls up even slightly, the nozzle will hit the already printed layer and cause exactly such visual issues.
RE: ASA print with partial surface imperfections
Sounds reasonable. Will print again with less fan speed and higher chamber temperature. I will come back with the results.
RE: ASA print with partial surface imperfections
Printed again twice. First with higher chamber temp and 20% max fan speed. Then again with 15% max fan speed and 5° less extruder temp.
On the pictures you see 3rd, 2nd and 1st print.
Looks quite good! Not sure if the infill pattern or the surface infill pattern can have another positive effect.
RE: ASA print with partial surface imperfections
That's looking a lot better. The higher chamber temperature is likely a huge help here in preventing the differential cooling/shrinkage that causes warping. You may be able to eke out a little more grip on the build plate, to prevent lifting. What build plate are you using? A really thin smear of glue stick, smooshed around with a wet paper towel to get a nice even thin layer, can help a lot. Other dedicated adhesives are available, but I've always had good results with a cheap glue stick.
RE: ASA print with partial surface imperfections
Looks a lot better, yep!
Since it's "only" a bit rough at the edges of the top infill, I would try reducing the extrusion multiplier a tiny bit (0.02 lower value), reducing the top infill extrusion width about 0.01 and also reducing the Infill/Perimeters overlap percentage about 5%.
Thede 3 things should really clean up the top surfaces. If you get "gaps" somewhere else, it was too much. But these 3 things are what I play around with, when my top surfaces either look like yours, or are flat but have some gaps at the edges.
RE: ASA print with partial surface imperfections
That's looking a lot better. The higher chamber temperature is likely a huge help here in preventing the differential cooling/shrinkage that causes warping. You may be able to eke out a little more grip on the build plate, to prevent lifting. What build plate are you using? A really thin smear of glue stick, smooshed around with a wet paper towel to get a nice even thin layer, can help a lot. Other dedicated adhesives are available, but I've always had good results with a cheap glue stick.
For ASA I use the satin sheet without any glue stick. I ordered one of the cheap glue sticks together with the print sheet from Prusa but didn't use it yet. After the last print I checked the adhesion of parts after the print - parts were not loose, also not the middle part which shows the problem. Not sure if the glue can support here.
Looks a lot better, yep!
Since it's "only" a bit rough at the edges of the top infill, I would try reducing the extrusion multiplier a tiny bit (0.02 lower value), reducing the top infill extrusion width about 0.01 and also reducing the Infill/Perimeters overlap percentage about 5%.
Thede 3 things should really clean up the top surfaces. If you get "gaps" somewhere else, it was too much. But these 3 things are what I play around with, when my top surfaces either look like yours, or are flat but have some gaps at the edges.
Theoretically we have enough coffee bag clamps but I guess we need one more for scientific reasons. 🙂 I will come back with the results...
Thanks a lot for your support.
Any tips to make the supports come off better and to have a smoother surface in the support area? Sorry, no picture taken here and already processed it with a blade. I used organic supports with Top contact Z dist of 0.1mm.
RE: ASA print with partial surface imperfections
Any tips to make the supports come off better and to have a smoother surface in the support area? Sorry, no picture taken here and already processed it with a blade. I used organic supports with Top contact Z dist of 0.1mm.
Sadly, not really.. The bigger the nozzle, the uglier it becomes. With my 0.25 mm nozzle and PLA, the supported surface of the part looks better, than a nice top surface with my 0.4 mm nozzle.
The issue is: increasing the gap makes it easier to remove supports, but the actual lines of the part will drop down further, making the surface smoother, but uglier/out of dimension.
Moving the support closer will make the surface more accurate, but it can get messy to get it off cleanly.
Lowering layer adhesion by dropping the nozzle temperature can help, but you can't really change it just for the moves over the supports. So you'll also sacrifice the layer adhesion of the part.
One cool way to get better results, for flat support surfaces, is to set a pause between the support top layer and the first part layer and then apply some "glue stick".
Not actual glue, but the stuff to lower the adhesion when printing PETG or TPU on the smooth plate.
A more accurate way without dropping the adhesion too far, is to draw onto the support's top layer with a sharpie. There's even a user mod prototype, which does it automated via a script.
But in conclusion: not really. The best way to make the supported surfaces prettier is to dial in the contact distance and/or either design the part to have less of these surfaces or print it in a different way, like diagonally on one tip with a support fin at a non-visible spot.