Not terrible, but certainly not as smooth as the ABS sample that came with the printer.
Used Jet - PLA (3mm, Orange) that I got from Amazon. So, given my newness - I was wondering if people had opinions on perhaps the quality (or lack of?) of the PLA i’m using - could that be the cause? Any recommendations on PLA brands to use - I’ll be sure to buy the Lulz PLA too.
Also wondered if someone had a great link to a resource for Pronterface which describes other potential settings worth trying - like speed of extrusion or xyz head speed?
I’m green here - but definitely did some searching and reading before posting here - just didn’t find great advice.
thanks!
Yes - it’s 3mm.
I say “gaps” - which might be a bit exaggerated - but in the pic, if you see on the legs, it almost looks like scales - as if the mesh of layers has a bit wider spacing between each than expected. I did a simpler print last night with no rounded tops in the model (like the octopus legs have here), and the print was pretty good (super simple model).
thanks for your reply!
When it’s labeled as 3mm, it’s really not (unless you found that as an average filament diameter). Most 3mm filaments are actually 2.85 - 2.89mm wide. Find the average filament diameter, enter it into the slicing engine and try it again. A better picture would help.
The profiles we include on the sd card are set for our filament (your JET (people have had issues with that) filament may like a different extrusion temperature) both temperature and filament diameter.
It does look like the JET PLA is actually 3mm… but the print I did probably used the 2.89 setting in the config provided by Lulzbot. I’ll definitely try this exact model again with a 3mm setting.
If you have other ideas on settings i should play with to make a smoother finish, that would be great.
thanks for the fast responses!
Just a quick followup for those who revisit this thread…
I’m still only on my 4th print (which is 4 separate objects - so, more like my 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th) - and getting really good results with the orange JET PLA.
First - after getting myself a proper measurement caliper - I see that the PLA average diameter is actually 2.75 - so i set that in my Slic3r profile.
Second - I heat the bed to 69 degrees for the first layer and keep it a bit squashed, and it adheres really nicely.
I have not yet done enough curved-top prints to know if that solves the “gaps” that i had in my first print, but initial impressions with this printer and PLA are really positive. I’ll get some Lulzbot PLA asap and try that too.
