Top layer quality problems

[Viceman]

Ok, Im a newbie here, and have some issues with printing this logo plate. Total width of the part is 60mm, so you get scale right. I have a Leapfrog Creatr XL in my use with dualhead extruder. But as you can see, its not a perfect print. But here's two things that concerns me.

1. The black ABS around the fixation holes is 'messy'
2. The blue ABS could be filled better.
3. Sometimes the material from other extruder messes with the other.

So any suqqestion for my settings to improve this print?

Some settings I used:

Nozzle diam = 0,35mm
Extrusion widh = 0,4mm
Retraction dist = 1mm
Layer height 0,25mm
Top solid layers = 5
Bottom solid layers =3
Outline/Perimeter shells = 4
Outline direction = inside-out
Infill = 20%
Outline Overlap = 15%
Both extruder temp = 235c
Cooling = 0
Default speed = 30mm/s

Ask if I missed something...

[JoeJ]

It looks like the blue is under-extruding a bit. For the black, it just looks massively undercooled. Does your printer have a cooling fan? If not, you should get one. It makes a huge difference for printing and cooling a lot of common plastics. I'm kind of surprised to see any printers these days that don't include an active cooling fan...

[Viceman]

Thanks for the tips. I will try to increase extrude for the blue ABS, and enable fan. I printed it without cooling, so I will enable it for next run. It's just that theres lots of information about printing ABS which says that you shouldn't use cooling. Oh, and what is the setting in Simplify3D to move Z-axis after print. As you can see there, there's a dot in lower right corner. Because when my print was finished, it just stopped there. So I need to put +z-axis about 100mm.

[JoeJ]

I like to just put a "G28 X0" in my ending script to home the X-axis when print completes

[pbmax]

I agree that blue looks under-extruded, but black looks over-extruded to me. It's worth taking the time to calibrate your extruders; this guide is a good place to start:

http://reprap.org/wiki/Triffid_Hunter's ... tion_Guide

[Viceman]

Ok, I have been super busy and mostly out of the office lately. But now I checked my print settings and noticed that in my processes "Extrusion multiplier" was 1,00 in my extruder 0 (right), which is the black ABS. And the extruder 1 (left) blue ABS had 0,9. So I guess when I get back to home I set both of them into 0,95 and test that.


Couple common questions:

1. So I am getting to know this dual extrusion printing. And now that I have two processes which the printer reads. So they are ran side by side all the time. How for example the cooling works? If I set cooling in process 1 to 100% and then in process 2 50% which one the printer follows? What I mean, how the processes ran as they both gives straight commands into printer at the same time?

2. Where do I find out my Z-axis movement speed when printing? Should I lower it since my printer makes quite loud noise when it drops the Z-axis between layers?

As I said earlier, I am new in 3D printing, but I have graduation in CNC-machining in woodworks. So I need to "explain" to myself how the printer actually works.