Weird Repeatable Ironing Behavior?
Sorry if this should be in the MK4 forum wasn't sure which was the best route.
I won't claim to be an expert, I may have messed something up. I'm using a factory assembled Mk4 with the out of the box nozzle, PrusaSlicer 2.9.3, and 99.9% default settings (only modified fill pattern to adaptive cubic, enabled ironing, and bottom layer to octogram spiral, sometimes on .20 quality profile, and sometimes on .20 quality). The model was created in Blender and has printed successfully with ironing on countless times, along with all of my other similar prints, none have ever given me issues with ironing. I'm using a single extruder and multiple manual color changes to make these prints.
...I tweaked ironing settings from defaults one time trying to speed up my prints due to an AI recommendation to use .15 for spacing on passes... I tried it, it got worse, so I switched back to the default .1 spacing and 15%. I also tested enabling automatic infill combination left on the default settings. Suddenly almost all of my prints are having these issues (image attached see the orange ironing layer) even after going back to defaults.Is my nozzle messed up? Did I unknowingly tweak something in a profile? Should I be using quality or speed exclusively with these settings? Do I need to change the top layer from the default monotonic lines? Do I need to clean my nozzle somehow? I know It's been cold and I have to open my enclosure a lot for color changes, but this one was done during the warm part of the day and in an enclosure. I'm at a loss. I keep seeing videos saying to tweak my ironing settings in various ways, but the default settings have always worked for me up until recently. What am I missing? Thanks a ton for any help you guys can give, I need it desperately to complete orders.
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Best Answer by coalesce714:
Good news to report, those changes appear to have fixed my issue! I've tested on several prints that were having the issue with varying PLA/PLA+ filaments, ironing is working great again! My solution in case anyone needs this:
Cleaned my nozzle/hot end
Infill switched from 15% > 25%
Disabled Automatic Infill Combination
Increased ironing flow rate from 15% > 30%
Ensured there are always 4+ color layers available for ironing
RE: Weird Repeatable Ironing Behavior?
I forgot to mention, all of my filament is PLA or PLA Meta. The one in the image is PLA, but I've seen this happen on both types. Thanks in advance!
RE: Weird Repeatable Ironing Behavior?
Oh, clarification since I can't edit my post, I put "sometimes .20 quality and sometimes .20 quality", I meant sometimes .20 quality and sometimes .20 speed.
Has anyone else seen anything like this before? I'm thinking it's the nozzle since that's the common denominator in all of these prints and it's definitely happening with the ironing (top layer) exclusively, but wanted to be sure it was the nozzle before I ordered a replacement. If I turn off ironing off everything works perfectly, but obviously less pretty. I still can't rule out temperature though, I do lots of manual color changes by an open window inside the enclosure, not always but sometimes late at night ~60 degree nights.
Here's a couple more examples (2 images attached):
RE: Weird Repeatable Ironing Behavior?
Cleaned my nozzle pretty well, issue persisted. I think I figured it out though, the layers were sagging so ironing wasn't making contact everywhere. Increased my adaptive cubic infill from 15% > 25%, disabled automatic infill combination, and increased the ironing flow rate from the default 15% > 30%. Those changes seems to have made a difference in my tests, but I'll report back when I get a chance to try it with a few different filaments and on a few different models.
RE: Weird Repeatable Ironing Behavior?
Good news to report, those changes appear to have fixed my issue! I've tested on several prints that were having the issue with varying PLA/PLA+ filaments, ironing is working great again! My solution in case anyone needs this:
Cleaned my nozzle/hot end
Infill switched from 15% > 25%
Disabled Automatic Infill Combination
Increased ironing flow rate from 15% > 30%
Ensured there are always 4+ color layers available for ironing