Surface finish and edges look mushy

[Lorcoft]

I recently bought my printer and upgraded from slic3r to S3D; I'm trying to get the hang of the software, but haven't been able to iron out this last little snag...

My printer is a MakerFarm 12". I'm printing with PLA, at 190deg and the bed is heated to 60deg.

Since there is no profile for the MakerFarm, I tried using both the default profile and the mendel prusa. I have it set for a .2 layer height.

I've tried adjusting the extrusion over ride, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

[tpete61]

You may want to increase the number of top layers, not sure how many you are printing but 3-5 is a good start. Typically the more top layers you print the better surface finish you will have.

[Lorcoft]

I have had it set to 4, but the pictures show the 2nd and 3rd layer; I stopped the print at that point... the 4th layer tends to look even worse.

[JoeJ]

Well first, make sure that the print isn't starting too close to the bed. If it starts too close, the first layers will be squished too much and they will look like exactly what your pictures looks like. A good way to know if this is the problem is to let the print continue printing for another 10-20 layers. Does it still look squished and over-extruded 20 layers in? If not, then the problem is likely with your first layer position. You can adjust that by clicking on the G-Code tab and changing the Z-axis gcode offset. For example, entering 0.1mm into that field will move the nozzle 0.1mm further away from the bed.

Another option is that you are just over-extruding in general. This would mean that every layer of your print would look like it was squished and over-extruded, not just the first layers. In that case, go to the Extruder tab and decrease the extrusion multiplier. 10% makes a big difference.