I seem to have some leveling issues which is showing up in my ironing. I have calibrated and bed leveled and also completed a flow calibration but the problem remains. Any ideas?
I’m seeing a number of issues with this print so let me ask some questions and offer a comment to aid in diagnostics.
- I’m seeing obvious flow control issues in the filament profile. You can read the hundreds of posts here but in a nutshell, have you calibrated your filament and performed a first layer test? These flow control issues need to be resolved before attempting ironing remedies.
- What was the transition line caused by? Can you share a screengrab of the model before and after slicing? This will help aid in understanding what the object looks like to the slicer.
- What settings did you use for ironing? I ask because I don’t see ironing in the top most surface.
- There is a strange dollop of filament on the top surface. What is causing that? Could it be related to flow control issue or did you perhaps stop the print before it was finished? This would also explain why there wasn’t any ironing on the top most surface if you stopped the print.
Thanks for your feedback. The transition line is actually where the nozzle has gouged the surface whilst in the process of ironing because i started pressing on the model to see if it was stuck to the print bed ( think it was). Im happy that that would not be there otherwise. Unfortunately the whole top surface has indeed been ironed but the layers underneath were severely crosshatched which has come through to the ironed surface. Here is another photo before the print had finished ironing the left side.
The ironed step surface below is perfect but the layers above are terrible.
Here are the requested screenshots…
Whenever I have the waves on the top surface of a part it’s almost always because that area has warped off the bed. It doesn’t take much warping to do this.
Thanks for the additional photo and explanation.
Now that I can see the image from the bed, it’s looking like you are experiencing multiple issues. First, have you tried to increase the number of top layers? This will thicken it up a bit making more material available to ironing but more importantly, any material underneath such as a grid pattern will be smoothed out.
The other suggestion I might make in order to save filament and allow for easier troubleshooting is to use the cut tool and cut out a segment of the model that appears to be most affected. Then attempt to print only that section to see if you can reproduce the error. If you can do that, you will now have much shorter turn around times to experiment with a lot less filament. Trust me, this will be better in the long run but it will take some trial and error.
After you’ve done this. Try these next two tests and do them separately. The order does not matter.
- using the Move tool, move the z axis of the model down below the plate so that only a small portion of the model 2-3mm is exposed above the plate. Not only will this limit the amount of filament you’re testing but it will also print quickly. The second thing we are trying to do is to see how much of an influence the material under the surface is creating on the ironing versus the plate being non-level. If the surface smooths out. Then it may not be a bet level issue.
- Rotate the model on the bed by some odd angle other than 5 degree increments. This will reveal whether or not there is bias on one of the belts.
What you’re trying to do is to isolate the affects of nozzle strokes versus filament contraction.
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