Looking for useful Cura settings for making the TAZ WorkHorse print a better finished product.
When using PETG (and even PLA) I get tons of strings, pimples/zits, and generally messy prints that are somewhat embarrassing to give to other people.
We’ve changed the stainless steel nozzle out and installed a brass nozzle.
We fixed the issues with the bed leveling problems we originally had.
Now printing solely from an SD card.
We’ve spent hours fiddling with temperature, fan speed, extrusion multiplier, retraction, print speed, infill, layer height, and more.
So, if you can produce nicely finished parts on a WorkHorse, using Cura, and with PETG or even PLA please tell me your secrets.
Upload your profile.
Post your settings.
Tell me what you’ve magically done to not end up with post-processing clean up that takes large amounts of time and effort.
Perhaps one of the best “fixes” I’ve found so far for getting less strings and pimples is setting the first layers and top layers fill patterns to concentric.
Greetings!
I’ve been 3D printing with Lulzbot for 5 years now and the best discovery I’ve made is using eSun PLA PRO (aka PLA+) especially in cool white. While I have a plethora of other colors that work just fine in eSun PLA +, the Cool White is the most outstanding in quality and I’ve tried many brands. eSun PLA+ is much more flexible unlike regular PLA. You also print at a slightly higher temp. Once opened, place it in a 2 gallon zip-lock bag with the original desiccant, then back in to it’s box and it will stay fresh and last a long time. It’s available on Amazon.
The quality and freshness of your filament is the most important factor when printing.
Next is your settings based on the model and your layer height, increasing the temp as you increase the layer height. Adjusting the print speed can also make a difference in the quality. There is no one-fix for every print but rather an acquired knowledge over time and experimentation.
Make sure your filament is dry. From the description of your print quality, this sounds like the most likely cause of your print quality issues. Aside from that I just use the profiles provided by Lulzbot for whatever filament I
m using on my Taz 6. The only things I’ve tweaked at all are support settings. I’ve had my machine for nearly 3 years and print a good bit with it and its way easier to use than the 2 printers I had before this one.
The single thing that helped me more than anything as I was learning to print… was to learn how to make a temperature tower.
I should probably make a YouTube video with Cura LulzBot Edition and walk through how to build one of these. It really helped me find the ideal print temps.
There are lots of other things … for example, learning how to not let Cura perform an excessive number of retractions on a very tiny amount of filament.
I guess I was spoiled by the ease of use from my TAZ6. Needed second printer, man the Workhorse hasn’t been easy. sitting here messing with the temp, bed temp and the off set trying to figure why i’m getting a small brim on the base of the pieces just been driving me up a wall. I guess I’ll get it figured out one of these day.
Check out these surface finishes. Exact same settings - only difference is orientation on the build plate.
The two on the right had the long straight edge parallel with X-axis.
The two on the left had the long straight edge at about a 22 degree angle to the X-axis.
What does the slicer preview show? Is your line width the same as your nozzle? Or is it slightly larger or smaller? I have better results when I make the line width The same as my nozzle. Are you using any additional Top Surface Skin Layers? I think there’s a tip buried somewhere in Lulzbot site that talks about model orientation.
Tell the slicer software you want a LOT of walls (e.g. 10 walls). Normally you’ll get the default number of walls (e.g. 2) and then everything else will be infill, but it will zig-zag the infill. If you tell it you want a lot of walls, it will do the entire part with parallel lines that follow the part … rather than zig-zags. Also it makes for a stronger part.
There is no zig-zag in those parts. The top layers are concentric.
Basically my printer can pull a decent straight line along the X-axis, but with the same exact settings and everything can’t pull a straight line along a moderate diagonal.
I’m currently printing same part with longer edge parallel to Y-axis to see how that works out.
I struggle to see how the number of walls effects anything when the top layers are printing concentrically.