I have been using the engineering plate and my prints have a geometric print design on the surface thats touching the print plate. Is there a way to make it so they have a completely smooth polished finish with out any geometric marks?
Geometric print Design? Can you post a picture or something?
I use the engineering plate to print ABS all the time and it is smooth on the bottom. As requested, can you post pictures of the item and the plate?
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you can use, for example, texture plate, the finish look like this:
or if you need a smooth finish on top you can use in slicer the ironing function a see if this helps
The Wham Bam plate gives my prints a glass smooth ultra high gloss finish. So much so that I tossed the first print on it as it was the rear fenders for 3dsets Landy and it was WAY too shiny. There are very faint lines from the first layer but they are hard to see.
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What is the slicer ironing function?
Ironing is only for the top surface. It runs the nozzle slowly back over the final surface with about 10% extrusion of the plastic to smooth and fill in any lines.
It helps, but doesn’t give a smooth finish.
You can choose to smooth all top surfaces or only the most top one, and can fine tune it by adjusting the extrusion amount.
Wow. I knew it was smooth but not that smooth!
Too shiny that’s funny!! I bet you were like “Whhaaatt?!?”
I might have to get me one of those.
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$67 seems a bit steep, any other benefit other than super shiny prints?
It’s a no glue high hold option for those that don’t like the cool plate. Prints stick well while printing then just fall off when it’s cool. Much like many other PEI plates. So I can’t say you need one but it is an option. At the time I bought it, Bambu Lab had very few options available in the shop and I wanted something other than the cool plate.
You are supposed to scrub it with steel wool and acetone or IPA before use. I didn’t and that may contribute to the gloss.
It’s a 4-1/2 hour print so my first thought was “Oh man, how am I gonna tame this shine?” Thought sanding or hitting it with a matte clear for a few minutes then gave up and printed it on the textured plate, which also hides those first layer artifacts. It now looks very nice and not all that much different from the rest of the print.
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I never use cool plate only engineering and have to use glue for PC. I bought vision miner off amazon for use with engineering plate but it made prints super hard to come off now.
Thinking about the whambam because of your super shiny photo, just want something super easy to use and don’t feel like editing code on the bambu (whambam requires this).
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I didn’t edit code nor make any changes at all with the Wham Bam. Just selected 0.16 layer height, and hit print. Then after clearing the error that the installed build plate didn’t match the selected plate, I selected the high temp plate and hit print again. I don’t know if you absolutely have to edit the code. It’s my belief that by selecting the high temp plate, you are making the same changes regarding z offset. I have since printed a number of items on the Wham Bam using the high temp plate preset and had no issues. The headlights printed in clear look good. I did add the little barcode sticker that makes the printer think it’s a high temp plate.
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Also, if you want super shiny, try a test print without the steel wool. Mine worked fine but they are pretty much telling you that you must do it.
On a side note, if you aren’t paying attention, and you print PA but tell the slicer you are printing PC, it won’t stick as well as it could and you will damage the PEX sticker. And cause the adhesive to have tiny bubbles. Not that I just did this an hour ago or anything like that…