Hey everyone. I recently got an A1 and did some test prints from Makerworld - a poop basket and a keychain - both of which came out quite nicely!
I bought the A1 because I have some practical prints I need to do for my house and was having trouble with a second hand Ender. Since everything went smoothly with the test prints, I was feeling confident moving onto my own designs.
But for one of the pieces I’m printing - a small bracket with a screw hole, I’m seeing quite a bit of deformity around the screw hole and quite distinct layer lines above and below it which are in turn making the edges slightly wonky. I’ve been printing in eSun PLA+, where I used the default BS settings, and also tried generic PETG where the only setting I changed was the temp. The PETG part came out a little nicer around the screw hole but still has layer lines, and I don’t particularly like the colour or shininess.
Here’s a few images detailing the problem as well as a screenshot from BS and my 3mf file:
Am I expecting too much to have a cleaner print of this model? I’m still quite new to 3d printing, so I’m not sure which settings I should tinker with in BS to try to improve the results - any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks in advance
No, your not. Out of the box no calibration done what so ever and printer build by my 11 year old son printed way cleaner then this. Do you also have the same issue with other prints… becasue with my prints i have even a hard time seeing lines
Good to know, thanks. I managed to print some Markerworld models which came out quite well, and come to think of it, I did manage to print a couple of these brackets that aren’t as bad as the ones I showed in the photos above before they started getting worse, but all of the recent ones have come out like this. Completely forgot about those as they’re already in use and I’ve been trying to perfect another part in the meantime. Perhaps I’ll try printing these in isolation rather than as a set with other parts and see if that helps at all…
Which seam do you mean? I created the model by drawing it in 2d and then extruding to the height I needed, then adding the screw hole + another hole on top
I’ve tried quickly recreating the counterbore hole in Fusion and it still looks the same though it has somehow fixed the seams at the edge, so I’ll try printing this and see how it comes out
After doing some research on seems and understanding them more, I flipped my design so that the back is actually the back (previously the front was the “back” ) and put the seem there using the options you suggested… I think I’m making progress, it’s looking a little nicer? I guess I’ll keep tinkering with the design and options
If you want it as clean as possible I would suggest drying filament and then calibrating it (calibration tab in bambu studio or orca slicer, find some posts or articles about calibrating pressure advance and flow rate), especially since you aren’t using Bambu filament → Bambu presets.
Thank you, I’ll take a look at that. To be clear, the eSUN PLA+ is using a the standard Bambu preset for eSun but I’m sure there’s more I can do to get it cleaner
Hoping this isn’t too off topic - it’s not for me since it’s part of the same print - but for some reason it seems to be skipping a layer on one of my pieces? These two are exactly the same file, just mirrored. I tried mirroring in Studio and also in Fusion 360 and exporting a separate stl, but it always misses this layer despite looking fine in the slicer… any ideas?
Thank you @Lenyo and @jetpad - I did some research on those and tried both decreasing the layer height and altering the flow rate and printed one piece in isolation which is much higher quality. Hopefully it stays the same quality when printed in a batch.
I’m still going to play a little further with these settings - I think I need to just get a little bit more confident with tinkering and trial and error, but you’ve been a big help - thanks!
@MalcTheOracle Thanks a lot for the info, I’ve had a quick look at the scarf option but it seems like I need to do some further digging to find out exactly what it does and what the best settings would be for my print which I’ll have to do later. I’ll also have a go at rotating the model, didn’t even cross my mind that it’d then print the lines the opposite way, interesting. Thanks for the pointers!
To be honest, I don’t think any of your problems are related to your printer’s setup. They have everything to do with the part’s design and the settings you are using. I downloaded and looked at your 3mf file. You can see that the locations where you have a bad surface finish are tied to where the speed, flow, and layer time have significant changes (in the preview window, change the dropdown menu from “Line Type” to “Speed,” “Flow,” and “Layer Time.” This results in different cooling and shrinkage of the part. Also, the one picture looks like the part may have a bit of curling on the bottom, which would multiply the problems as your 3mf shows that you were doing a ton of perimeters and 100% infill. The plastic has to go somewhere, and since it cannot fit into the model, it pushes out and causes surface differences.
Are you using supports in the bolt hole, that might help with the top of the hole? Alternatively, can you print the clip lying flat on it’s back and use variable layer height to help with the tapered top surface smoothness?
though it has somehow fixed the seams at the edge, so I’ll try printing this and see how it comes out
) and put the seem there using the options you suggested… I think I’m making progress, it’s looking a little nicer? I guess I’ll keep tinkering with the design and options
