Not quite right, please help?

[danlad1631]

I'm really starting to enjoy S3D but I don't know how to improve the print quality in the attached images, I've also attached my factory file. I'd really appreciate some advice on improving it.

Printing on a Mendel90, win7 64bit and S3D 2.1.2.

The bottom of each layer on one corner is not great, what could be causing this?

The lid has not infilled on the thin walls, I've been reading this is a common problem but is it sortable?

The start and end points are not great, can that be improved?

[BaronWilliams]

That gap in the lid is caused by there not being enough space for infill. This happens on a lot of slicers.

Making your "Extrusion Width" either a bit smaller or a bit larger will fix this problem, but could cause the same type of problem elsewhere.

Another potential solution is to reduce your shells by 1 making more space for infill.

View it in the G-code viewer before printing it to be sure the gap is gone.

[danlad1631]

Ok, I'll give them settings a go and see what happens.

What could be causing the corners to look like they do?

Looking at the images it seems like there's quite a lot of banding, the finish doesn't look good. Is that down to settings or more hardware?

[Festus440]

You're probably going to have to play with the ooze control settings. It looks like the blobs are at the start of each loop so you may need to increase the retraction length as a starting place.
This is where printing calibration cubes are helpful. Adjust your settings until those come out nice.
You're running 0.3mm layers with a 0.4 nozzle. I would reduce the layer thickness a little. That may not solve any problems but it will look better

I struggle with banding issues myself. Could be temperature variation, inconsistent filament diameter, or mechanical issues.
Maybe one of the gurus can chime in.

[danlad1631]

Lowering my layer height to 2.5 helped with the banding, changing other settings didn't change the blobs. Can I get it to retract when it moves to outer wall, I know it retracts on every new layer but can it retract as it moves from the inside wall to the outside wall?

[BaronWilliams]

I looked at your factory file, and I don't see anything noticeably wrong.

Printing 2 objects doesn't save much time, and sometimes takes more time (because of all the moves between the objects) than printing them as separate jobs. It also reduces the quality of the start points for each object.

I would suggest printing the two parts as separate jobs altogether for best quality. Every time the nozzle has to move from one part to the next it has to retract, have idle time while it moves, and then start again. The constant stop, idle, start again motions the nozzle has to do through in the print job like that has the potential to introduce problems. It's always best not to allow the nozzle to idle for much time. It's best to keep the filament flowing.

[BaronWilliams]

I think the problem with the bottom layer is that it's under extruded. It should look totally flat. You shouldn't see any lines on it. But I see a bunch of lines.

To solve that, try extruding more for the first layer. You can set your Extrusion Multiplier to 1.10 instead of 1.00. You can have a separate process just for the 1st layer so that you have an Extrusion Multiplier of 1.10 for layer 1 and 1.00 for the rest of the layers.

[danlad1631]

I know it retracts when it starts each new layer, but can I set S3D to retract when it goes from the inside wall of one layer to the outside wall of the same layer?

I must of printed 30/40 surface calibration tests now and it's still not as good as Kisslicer or Skeinforge. These are FREE slicers that seem to do a much better job at dealing with this, why can't S3D?

Is anyone else that's responded having the same issue?

I'll implement some of the recommended changes and see if it improves. Thanks for all the help

[BaronWilliams]

No. Only the failed infill problem if there's not enough space for infill, which all slicers I've used have problems with sometimes. I don't have your other issues unless I'm using some unusual filament that needs special print settings like TPE.

I mostly use a FlashForge Dreamer 3D printer.