Taz 6 - Cura and Simplify 3D - Not getting great results

General Software
1

Hello All,

We have a brand new Taz 6 printer we’re using and we’re not getting great results from it, especially from Simplify 3D. Cura results are pretty good, but I think this printer is capable of even better results.

I’ve taken some pictures and posted below. Two benchies are printed in Simplify 3D, one in Cura, and one on another machine. Any insight you can give me to improve these prints would be greatly appreciated as right now I’m pretty discouraged with the results…

I’m using verbatim silver ABS for these prints. I think our PLA prints are better, but still not great.



I’m using the default profiles for ABS on both Cura and Simplify 3D. We’ve done quite a few tests and tweaks, nothing that has really been an improvement. So we went back to the default profiles and these were the results.

benchy.jpg
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As you can see the far left benchy had massive extrusion problems, trouble defining the door, part of the smoke stack missing, and significant problems laying the deck and railing of the boat.

Benchy 2 also had errors and artifacting in the boat body, and the top layer didn’t lay down well. In addition the layers are very noticable when compared to benchy4

Benchy 3 (Cura) is mostly ok. Has some artifacting, and the top has too many lines in the deck of the boat. Ultimately the layer height seems too thick (visible) for a layer height of .2 (considering benchy 4 is a layer height of .19 they are much more noticable for a difference of .01).

In addition I’ve attached an image of a lightsaber part I printed in Simplify 3D. Both Cura and Simplyfi3d struggled with this file, and I think to a large extent that might have been having no enclosure (in fact, neither print completed successfully… the printer ended massively extruding towards the end of the print and eventually knocked it over. Both prints broke before finishing). But as you can see, there is a large amount of material being extruded in the area where it should be no filament at all.

ls.jpg
ls.jpg912×1600 277 KB

Any recommendations on print setting refinements would be greatly appreciated! I’ve read time and again how simplify 3d was substantially improving print results over Cura, and yet I haven’t seen that. I’m sure it’s a setting issue, but I don’t know what else to tweak!

Thanks!

2

Looks like some overextrusion. Try setting the extrusion multiplier in S3D to 95-97%. Setting coast to .2mm also helps in general.

Not sure what’s going on with the light saber. The opening looks like it required supports. In S3D make sure the supports are .3 away from the object. So .3 for the horizontal separation, and 1 (possibly 2 layers @ .2 layer height) for easy removal. I like using a few dense layers (3)@ 70% with less overall support percentage (15%).