Hey guys I am very new to 3d printing (got my mini 3 days ago). I have tried printing a few things and I have been getting weird results.
If u look at the rocktapus you will see what I mean. It seems like the white one, which is mine, the plastic seems like it isn’t melting. The lines are very obvious. I also printed a phone case and notice how it looks and how one side is thin and the other side of the edge is way thicker.
I am using eSun Hips filimant, using the high detail on the case and first run profile for the rocktapus.
I am sure it’s me. Does anyone know why this is happening?
Edit:
Here is another example of a print I tried to do.
The image below I generated GCode in cura, and exported to OctoPi
Settings:
Layer Height: 0.18
InFill: 80%
Initial layer thickness: 0 (I think this is what made the small tips of the top, come off mid print.)
Everything else is the default Cura profile settings for, HIPS High detail.
For your iphone case, it looks like you are overextruding. Check your setting for filament diameter and flow rate. Back off on the flow rate by a few percent and try again.
For your octopus, reduce your layer thickness. It looks like your octopus was sliced at thicker layer settings than the one lulzbot sent in the box.
Just wanted to point out that if you are doing heavy infill, especially 100%, you can have serious problems with details (or even flat surfaces). I wish I knew where the article was I found about this.
But from personal experience, I was printing a disk at 100% infill, and man the surface was awful and super uneven. This article pointed out at 100% infill you lose detail. Granted that was an experiment, but other then that I think the highest I usually go is 40% (60% one or twice).
Also, despite the bed having auto-leveling, you should still make sure your printer is on an even surface, and make sure your models aren’t curling off the bed (this can cause issues with it looking thicker in some areas because of how the filament sits on the previous layers)
Yeah, one thing I’ve been discovering is that in many prints, more walls is worth it’s weight in gold. And more infill is trouble. I’ve been doing 0 infill and 4 walls for 2mm thickness in many of my prints lately with nice results. Of course, not every model is suited to that, especially small things. But in general, I’ve been keeping the infill low. For example, just printed http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:408000 today, 0 infill. It’s not needed, unless you’re really having problems with bridging - though that’s likely due to other settings that should be changed.
Another thing is to always look at the toolpaths/layers. Seeing what’s going on in the layers will help tell you if the print is going to come out okay. Look at how many retractions there are. Look at what is or is not there that you saw in the solid model. Scrutinize near the top, bottom, and any layer that has small detail or sudden shape changes.
And last - I’ve seen lots of folks recommend to lower flow. What I’ve discovered is that #1 be sure your e-steps are calibrated and #2 be sure you measure your filament on every spool and every once in a while on the same spool and update that in the slicer settings. Don’t use calipers, use a micrometer. Don’t measure in a way that provides incorrect size. Meaning, the filament curves…so don’t measure on the sides that curve. Since I started to do that, my flow is at 100 and I have not had to mess with it. So if you have to lower your flow, something is probably out of whack.
I measure with calipers myself, and they work rather fine. I just take about 3-5 measures around the filament. Few times I have done it the #s read out accurate to what I am expecting
