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Re: Surface problems - what to adjust?
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 7:28 pm
by jimc
hmmm noting funny really. all the settings work as they should and the same as other slicers. the values may not be interchangable from one slicer to another since the math is all calculated differently but the overall functions are the same. flow rate is filament dia and then the fine tune is the multiplier which will go up or down so your printer outputs the extrusion width you have set in the software. keep in mind that none of these can be set correctly off your first few layers since thats all affected by your bed gap.
Re: Surface problems - what to adjust?
Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 1:15 pm
by MikaMa
Well yes, I agree and I'm not giving up. I have been doing a lot of testing and the square calibration boxes are smooth and really nice. When I try to print anything bigger or anything that really has a shape, it fails.
I tried to print an egg cup first at 1:1 size but at the end the layers did not connect and it failed. The surface was ok..not good not bad. Then I printed the same cup downsized to approx 2cm height and here's the result and I've attached my .fff.
any ideas how to get rid of the problems. There are many layers that are very good. Then there are blobs and an odd surface problem in the front..I have had the printer for 5months and I wish I'd get this finally running..

Re: Surface problems - what to adjust?
Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 1:45 pm
by jimc
yes the blobs you see are at the start of a line. add a little neg restart distance. start with -.05. do the print. they should look better. if you need more then goto -.1. its funny you went from gaps to blobs so completely the other end of the spectrum. you can add a little coast to relieve some pressure as well.
Re: Surface problems - what to adjust?
Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 2:01 pm
by MikaMa
Check the file. I have restart dist. Coasting also which made things worse imo.
Re: Surface problems - what to adjust?
Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 11:19 pm
by jimc
turn your retraction speed up to 3000. bump the retraction up to 1.4, coast up to 1.0. do a test print. at that point see if you need to bump up coasting a little more. also try lowering your temp 5 deg. this model looks very small. are you printing this with anything else? you can print a tiny model like this by itself because it will get heat soaked and cause surface problems like i see in your pic. layers not lining up and weird rough areas. also blobbing can be worse as well. if you can print this with something else then add a 3 or 4 perimeter skirt and the layer amt to 9999. this will make a skirt the height of the model and will give more cooling time.
Re: Surface problems - what to adjust?
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 6:02 am
by MikaMa
Thanks for the tips.
I just did a test print with a full sized model.
I attached the .fff file and here's the result. There's definitely some improvement but the gabs are back again. the surface is pretty good and without the gaps it would be good. Also the top of the feet did not close fully.

Re: Surface problems - what to adjust?
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 7:22 am
by JoeJ
If you are getting gaps like that it means you either have too high of a coasting value or you need to increase your retraction extra restart distance (i.e. make it less negative)
Re: Surface problems - what to adjust?
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 8:10 am
by jimc
Yes blobs are gone now. Do a little less costing now until those gaps go away. The top if the foot issue has nothing to do with any of this. Thats just the way fff printing is when you get to a steep angle like that . The step that it needs to move over to make the shape is more than the width of the extrusion. Lowering your layer height helps with this.
Re: Surface problems - what to adjust?
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 12:00 pm
by MikaMa
Thanks to both. I dropped the coasting but no effect yet. The pronblem on the feet was holes not the roughness of layers. More prints tomorrow
Re: Surface problems - what to adjust?
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 7:45 am
by MikaMa
Hello again,
I did a test run with these settings changed
coasting distance 0,6 -> 0,2 (lower coasting gives smaller gaps as Joe said)
the results are here:
better but still not there. I get those ugly lines especially to the backside. More extra restart distance (now -0,05)? or retraction up (now 1,4)?