Poor print Quality

first of all excuse me for my bad English, I'm using prusa i3 with simplify3D. The prints coming out of the printer is of poor quality, i tried slicer, Cura, Kisslicer with RepetierHost but still no help. The above objects are made with PLA @ 195 c, also tried 200,190,185 still no help. Printer is calibrated, and extrudes exactly 100mm upon giving instruction to extrude 100mm. Have anyne faced similar issue or have any clue of what gone wrong???? Thanks in advance

Among other things, it looks like you may have a cooling problem. PLA cooling is helped by a fan pointed at the printed object. I have 2 mounted on my X carriage - one in the front, and one in the back. Their speed and on/off status is controlled by the slicer/G Code, and they made a tremendous difference in my print quality.

I use simplify3d too, please post you process settings.

Most likely you need to adjust:
Nozzle size
Extrusion multiplier
Retraction
Infill perimeter overlap.

But if you post the screen shots of your process I can help you further. Important: I need the size of the part you are printing.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2014 05:02PM by ggherbaz.

are your z steps in the firmware calibrated properly

@jbernardis: we have also a fan mounted on our X carriage for PLA cooling, when we were using repetier host fan used to work better.
@ggherbaz: I'm using E3DV5 all metal hotend with 0.4 Nozzle, i tried tweaking with flow rate. The part I was printing bottom Corner mount of tantilus, which of dimensions length: 42mm, Width:42mm, Height:30.44mm
@isonoob: I have calibrated Z axis teps and made sure that Z axis is moving Exactly 100mm upon giving instruction to move 100mm

This is what I would do:
extruder multiplier 100, retraction 1mm, untick wipe
cooling: 1-0% 2-100%
Temperature 205C(where is your heaed bed? why is your extruder T3?)
Layer height 0.2mm
If you have micrometer measure your filament precisely.

@svalsorim: Thank You I'm now printing with that settings I noticed that extruder identifier was wrong and corrected it today morning i think it was gone wrong when i was tweaking with settings. once the printing completed i will update

The first part was printed with 170c with no wipe,extrusion multiplier 1,fan speed as described
second one is printed at 175c with wipe,extrusion multiplier 1.1
190 above temperatures are bit high for this PLA filament

but as you can see print quality is still poor(but better than last day's print)

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2014 04:29AM by jhondon.

jhondon,

Advanced: unchecked all but force retraction between layers and heal.
Extruder: multiplier 1, increase retraction speed to at least 3000 if geared extruder and 4200 if direct.
Infill: here is where you have most of the problems. Overlap never go beyond 50% standard between 20 an 40% minimum infill make it 0.
Other: lower your speed, too fast for that kind of print go to 1800. Measure your filament and put the right number (big difference in quality)
Temperature: play between 190 and 210.
Layer: if you want it to be 1.5 be sure that your threaded rod can do it, I prefer even numbers 0.2. I have better results with random start rather than optimize.
Cooling: I doubt the fan will do anything at 10 and 25 percent. Eliminate some of them and go to 100% after the last solid bottom layer (in your case 3).

@ggherbaz

Thank You.I'm not getting proper results on temperatures above 190, I'm using a black PLA i think its colourent had made some difference to its property. and I'm using M5 threaded rod on Z axis. I changed fan speed as 0% on first layer and 100% from second layers as svalsorim suggested. Now I'm going to change settings as you prescribed and will update once the test object is printed

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2014 11:31AM by jhondon.

@ggherbaz

As you mentioned about speed how to determine speed depending on print models??? Any guides on that ???

From the poor prints, it seems to me you have a overflow extrusion problem.
But it is un-clear. It could be just calibration problems.

From what I see from your pictures.
I noticed:
- rough edges
- concave outside when it suppose to be straight
- uneven surface
- pointy tips

These are few signals that you have an overflow extrusion problem.


After you try re-calibrating your printer, if that does not work.
You can give this a try.
Give your filament some measures in diameter.
You would do at least 30 points of measures. Of course, the more points you did the more accurate.
But if the diameter is fluctuating in a wide range more than 0.05mm, you will still have a overflow / underflow problem.
After setting the average diameter of your filament, you should have a better prints.

I hope this help.

---

BotFeeder - Professional Manufactured 3D Filament

@botfeeder:

Thank You, That's a nice idea i will check that now. I recalibrated printer today and after some tweaking i found best extrusion multipier for this filament is 1. anyway i will check its diameter as you mentioned

There is 2 main factors that affect speed:
1 size
2 complexity

Size: simple parts without too much detail can be printed fast, the bigger the part, the more speed you can add because it will have enough time to cool the layer before you start the next one. So with big and less detailed parts you can crank temperature and print fast 50 to 60mm per second. Smaller parts you need to allow the previous layer to cool down before the next layer start, lots of people use fans for this purpose (I don't) I just simply print slowly, with smaller parts I reduce as much as I can the temperature and slow printing to 15~20mm per second some time even more.

Complexity: the more details you have in your part, the slower you need to print in order to get the details right and to prevent deformation, also temperature needs to go down, when printing small parts I also reduce my extrusion multiplier and extrusion width and increase the retraction from 2mm to some times 6mm, why? Because with thinner layers you get better resolution, because the nozzle at slow speeds will ooze more and because small parts don't handle to good high temperatures (tend to melt lower layers) .

So as guidelines: anything under 10mm no matter if simple or complex go really slow (800 to 1000mm per minute) . From 10 to 40mm simple or complex (1000 to 1200mm per minute) from 40 to 80mm simple (1800 to 2400mm per minute) complex (1000 to 1600mm per minute) over 80mm simple (2400 to 3200mm per minute) time to go up on temperature, complex (1600 to 2400) .
Note: the solid layers on big parts are some times a pain, if you have a fast speed but not high temperature most likely it will fail, so if you want to print at low temperatures, create 2 process one for the solid layers at slow speed and one for the rest at higher speed.

The most important thing for you to understand is that these are "MY" numbers, they work for me and the way I print, you may find them too slow for your taste or for what your printer might be capable off. They can serve you as starting point but at the end your own observations and results will establish your own numbers.

Here I put you two examples of my prints, both are decent size, both complex and you can see the difference between getting it right or wrong. Never try to print a complex part in a hurry, you will only waste your time and filament.

@ggherbaz,

Thank You for providing that values anyway its a good reference values I can start tweaking from that values. Now I'm calibrating for fine tunning untill now I have only done the axis calibration.

Thank you folks for your suggestions, it really helped now print quality is dramtically improved

Can we print at 100 micron resolution with M6 rods on Z axis and using A4988 Stepper Motor at 1/16 micro stepping?? I saw people printing at 50 micron on prusa