I’ve attached a photo displaying the less than desirable surface finish we’re getting on this small cylinder. The surface has “bulges” I believe where each new layer starts…
Any thoughts on improving quality?
I’m using a TAZ5 with Cura. Cura profile is attached. Ran temperatures at 210 nozzle, 110 bed temp. ABS material.
TurrentCap Modified Third Scale.ini (10.7 KB)
Firstly, read the post linked in my signature. The section at the very end of it has some simple objects you can use to test print and tune your printer without wasting a lot of time and filament.
This print has a very odd artifact - it looks like every 10 layers (guessing) is over extruded and is blobbing. And that seems very regular and there are multiple blobs on these layers so it is not a start/end path blob. I’d start with the single layer thing in my post and get that printing nicely. You may be over extruding a bit - have you calibrated your extruder? Have you measure the actual diameter of your filament and used that in the slicing parameters?
The ini file didn’t have anything jump out at me. Have all your prints been like this? How much have you printed? It could be a mechanical issue, perhaps something on the Z axis screw/s. There are some other odd artifacts - that depression in the lower right of the part that appears from the bottom to 1/2 way up.
The model seems to be sliced well. Your extrusion temp seem low for ABS (230-240C, bed 85-100C) and high for PLA (185-195C bed 60-70C). Double check what type of filament, on the label there should be a temp range.
From your print it looks like the the flow rate may be too high… Check the LCD screen and make sure you’re at 100%. You can also decrease through the flow rate multiplier. If you have vernier calipers, check the diameter of your filament… make sure it matches your slicing settings.
It could also be a clogged nozzle. A cold pull could help clear any debris or burned PLA from the nozzle. Heat the hotend to a temp that the plastic extrudes, turn off the hotend, let cool 10-15C and pull the filament out. If it “pops” out, you did it correctly… and hopefully any debris was trapped in the resolidified fila!ent. Discard the end of the filament, feed it back into the extruder, heat up the hot end and try to extrude. The plastic should extrude in a straight line, if not something is still clogging the nozzle… Remove and inspect the nozzle, a strand of wire fed through the nozzle might help.
Hope that helps.
I’ve measured the filament diameter to be 2.855mm, so I’m still running at the nominal 2.85mm–I figured that’s close enough. The material is ABS that we ordered from Aleph Industries with our TAZ5. We have run it anywhere from 210 to 240 degrees, but 210 seemed to work the best on another part we’re printing that has very intricate detail and 45 degree overhangs. I have not done an extruder calibration. I guess that’s my next step. The blobs are actually not happening every 10 layers, but in a helical pattern at a set distance from each other working their way up in a spiral. We haven’t done a check to make sure the nozzle is not clogged either… Guess we’ll do that as well. Thank you all for the insight.
I used to get this on my Replicator 2X and I found that printing at a higher temperature would help. 210 for ABS seems pretty low if you ask me. I print my ABS at 235 on my TAZ 4
Nothing helped fix this issue until I switched to Simplify3D software. Now the part looks perfect (Simplify3D part on right, Cura on left).
I see a broken band aid. The S3D part has perimeters that are not fused so the shell is weak. It has an obvious seam line down the back side. And most importantly, it exhibits a similar sort of vertical banding albeit much less pronounced (due to under extruding).
This tells me that the banding is a mechanical issue (although I haven’t eliminated that it might be an artifact in the model itself, can you post the STL?), you have some slop/backlash somewhere on your printer. Does this happen on other parts too?
It also validates that Cura is extruding too much material. There is no logical reason why you can’t produce a part with Cura that will not have the bumps and will look good and have tightly fused perimeters and no seam line.
To me it looks like you went from over extruding with Cura to under extruding with S3D and claimed victory. Spend time with one or the other and fix the root problems and you’ll be producing much better parts and build an understanding to help diagnose future issues.
regards,
Michael
Thanks for the input. I’ll investigate our mechanicals to make sure to minimize any backlash we’re having. Also I’ll investigate our flow to get overexturding/underextruding under control. The two shells not touching in the Simplify3D part is something I can change in the software settings, so I’m not worried about that part.
I’m attaching the .stl file
RFQ 759202 TurrentCap Modified.STL (170 KB)
The default profile for S3D had all layers using the same start point for faster printing. That is partially why there is a vertical band in the back. Other users have reported success using the coast feature to help combat bulging / stringing. As for the separate walls, check your extrusion width and be sure that the option for filling thin walls is enabled. Can’t remember what its called right off hand.
Coast works well… I use .2 - .5. The “Allow gap fill when necessary” radio button is on the “Advanced” tab in the Wall Behavior box.
If you want to go back to Cura, slowing down the print may help… S3D’s default profile for the TAZ is fairly conservative. Playing with the speeds and “Outline Underspeed” might come to a nice compromise on speed and detail…
