Can't find a solution for this ABS problem

I’m pretty new to 3D printing (as of January this year), and printing with ABS specifically. I’ve searched these forums extensively, and scoured a variety of other sites for help, but haven’t seen anything that looks like the problem I’m having. I’m including some pictures.

My setup:

Taz 6 w/Aerostuder in the nylon enclosure
Cura 2.6.69
Chroma Strand silver ABS (brand new roll, just unsealed)
High detail profile, default settings except Print cooling OFF

Primary problem: there is a groove running up the side of the object. It’s in roughly the same spot in every layer. It also appears to be happening on the inside perimeter, but since that’s hidden it doesn’t affect functionality. Pic #2 shows this clearly, and it’s visible in pic 3 as well.

Other issues:

  • I think I need to tweak the infill settings a bit more. I have experimented with the Z-offset and flow %, but haven’t noticed any improvement. Might need to play with extrusion temp as well? Pic #3


  • Some bridging trouble in the horizontal hole. Not overly worried about it as I can just clean it up with a drill bit.


  • There are a series of faint ridges running the length of the cylinders, evenly spaced. The least of my concerns, they’re barely noticeable and can be sanded out if I want. I tried to capture these in the first pic.

If someone can provide some insight on how to resolve that groove up the side, I’d really appreciate it! The other things I’ve seen reference to and should be able to resolve with some trial & error.



Try checking z seam settings if it is set to anything other than random try the print using the random setting for your z-seam. You can pull it up by using the search bar at the top of the settings section in Cura for easy access. It is also possible that some of that is the file itself, sometimes a file will have enough errors to print poorly but not enough errors to cause the print to actually fail. I would start by trying the z-seam setting before looking into the file itself.

Thanks, I’ll give that a try. The problem showed up when I printed a 3D Benchy as well, but not nearly as bad. So I suspect the file may also be part of the problem.

Well, changing the Z seam setting did have an effect. The “zipper” was gone, but the change simply scattered the flaw in each layer to different places on the cylinders.

I gave it a try in Simplify3D, no zipper. Ran into other issues, probably due to not having optimized settings in that app yet.

Oddly, my test prints (in Cura LE) using PLA from before came out great.

In S3D, try using the Coast setting on the “Extruder” tab. It sets a distance to stop extruding filament before the end of the layer. I use a .2mm for ABS.

Thanks for the suggestion. I’m actually not getting the zipper in S3D, only Cura LE. Aside from this zipper thing, the Cura LE output was perfect. The S3D version had other problems, likely due to the fact I hadn’t used it before and need to tweak it.

Cura LE does have an “experimental” coast setting. I gave that a go; still got a zipper, only now it’s an “outty” rather than an “inny”. At least I can just sand that down :slight_smile:

That’s overextrusion specially with bridging trouble as well. Have you calibrated your extruded yet? And got the filament well measured? Some filaments benefit from a little tweak in the extrusion multiplier too.

No to calibration or filament measurement. Guess I didn’t realize any calibration would be necessary; since getting the printer at the first of the year I’ve gone through a couple of rolls of PLA and have been pleased with the results. Ditto for the few prints I’ve done with Taulman Bridge and Ninjaflex Semiflex. Only the ABS is showing this problem.

I’ll check the filament and see what documentation I can find for calibrating the extruder. Certainly don’t recall anything about it in the manual.

Here are instructions for completing the calibration that “idiot” recommended
https://ohai.lulzbot.com/project/fine-tune-mini-extruder/calibration/

Thanks for the link! It was indeed over-extruding by 4mm. Going to try some test prints & see what happens now :slight_smile: